The room was quiet when Lucien Vanserra and Feyre Archeron walked in. Mor, Cassian, and a woman Lucien had never seen before were playing poker at a table. Azriel sat next to them, watching the game boredly. If Lucien remembered correctly, Azriel didn't gamble, not even amongst friends. Rhysand was pacing in the back of the stockroom, talking on the phone.
Feyre sat down in one of the open chairs (between Mor and the nameless girl), and rested her head on her hands. She watched the game, eyes flicking back and forth as the bet went around. Lucien crossed his arms and didn't sit. He hung back by Feyre awkwardly.
Rhysand finished the call and stuck his phone in his pocket. He sat down and watched as the unknown woman won the bet, and with a smirk took the pot.
"Are we finished?" Rhys asked with a raised eyebrow.
Mor nodded, throwing down her cards.
The woman grinned, "For now."
Cassian sighed, "I'm almost out of chips anyway."
"Lucien, stay a while?" Mor invited.
The invitation shocked Lucien—which it shouldn't have, a tiny voice in his head told him. But he was anyway. Why did they keep treating him… nicely? They hated him! He knew that! They'd even said those words on occasion to his face. And he hated them. He'd always had Tamlin there… Tamlin to take care of him…
Azriel pushed out the final empty chair with his foot.
Lucien sat.
"What happens in this room, stays in this room." Rhysand said, his eyes boring into Lucien's. Lucien hated when he did that, it was like he was reading Lucien's mind. Everyone nodded.
"Let's start with the basics, Azriel, what did you dig up?"
Azriel glanced at Lucien. "How do we know he won't go running back to the bastard?"
Lucien scowled, tightening his hands into fists. "I won't tell. Besides if I try to contact Tam he'll track me down, and if I ever show Tam my face again, he'll probably-" Lucien closed his mouth abruptly. Feyre flushed, twiddling her thumbs. No one said a word. "I'm his friend, but that doesn't mean I'm… blind to the consequences of any further contact with him. I won't tell."
Mor wanted to comment on the fact that his statement in and of itself should have been a clue that Lucien was in an unhealthy relationship, but with a look from Rhysand she bit her tongue. Now wasn't the time for that.
"Azriel." Rhysand prompted. Az shot Lucien a distrusting look but tapped the black table at which they all sat, and that was when Lucien realized that the table was in fact more than that—it was a giant touchscreen.
Azriel brought up records—records there were no computerized copies of, Lucien knew first hand, records that shouldn't have existed, and ones he shouldn't have had access to.
"Where did you get these-How did you get these?" Lucien cried, standing.
Cassian tensed, ready to defend. Lucien could see it out of the corner of his eye, and he sat back down. Lucien watched as Cassian relaxed, eyes back on the table.
Azriel opened his mouth to respond and Lucien rolled his eyes. "Never mind. You stole it. How else would you get it?" Lucien sighed. "Millions on counter-security—wasted."
"Should have hired us." Cassian said.
"Yeah, 'cuz that was going to happen." Lucien scoffed.
"I'm been looking through Tamlin's financials, and… well, I'm still looking. Basically all of it is squeaky clean."
"Of course it is." Lucien said, rolling his eyes again.
Everyone stared at him.
"I handled all of it."
"You-You did?"
"Yes! It was my job!" Lucien said. Everyone stared at him blankly. "Feyre, you know that!"
"I-You worked on his financials?"
"Feyre, what have you thought my job was for so long?"
Feyre shrugged. "I dunno, I thought you were like… a special level of assistant or something."
Lucien stared at all of them incredulously. "Look, if you want to know Tam's weakness you're not going to find it there. Spring Court Consolidated is by the book. I made sure of that."
"Okay, Big Shot, then where will we find it?" Cassian asked, he leaned back and put his feet up on the screen. Mor hit his ankles gently, and Cassian put them back down with a face.
Lucien frowned as he thought. He'd never thought about making trouble for Tamlin. "What-exactly are we looking for?" Lucien asked.
Mor glanced at Rhysand. "Are-are you saying we're handing Lucien the reins and he doesn't even know how to run a con?"
"I know how you run a con! You just cheat someone of something they rightfully deserve!" Lucien snarled.
"That's not even remotely accurate." Mor said rolling her eyes.
Rhysand sighed. "The con only works when someone is breaking the rules. The rule is you can't con an honest man, because the mark has to think he's getting something for nothing, and an honest man will never go for that."
"What about people who set up fake charities?"
The nameless woman smirked in a terrifying way. "We don't roll like that. And those who do don't run in Subburg, not with us around."
"Right," Feyre said with a frown, "Lucien said something about you guys being the nastiest crew on this side of the Atlantic, is-is that what you mean?"
"Aw, you think we're nasty!" The woman said with a flattered smile.
Mor rolled her eyes. "Stop creeping him out, Amren."
The woman—Amren—sat back in her chair with a pout. "Sure, take the fun out of it."
Lucien frowned. Amren, he knew that name… the heads of security Hart and Bron… they had mentioned something about a woman a few years back… She'd been on the watch-list of the local police department… she had gone by the name Amren but no one had ever gotten a picture of her…
She'd killed people. Blown up things. They'd joked that if you were abusive to your workers you'd have her on your hands. The Angel of Death for corporations.
"You… aren't the Amren, are you?" Lucien asked.
Amren shrugged noncommittally. "Depends. What're you accusing me of?"
"The Steppes arsons?"
Amren smirked, her eyes glazed slightly as if she was remembering something.
"Fun times." Cassian said appreciatively. "I remember that. We had workers in here for days while they found new jobs. Poor people, they deserved better. Great for us though. And them, they all moved on to better jobs and got good severance."
"Yeah." Amren agreed. "It was, wasn't it." But she didn't answer Lucien's questions. She didn't have to.
"Anyway-" Rhysand interrupted. "-all we need is something we can bait him with-something not kosher in Tam's financials, in his habits, anything really. Anything we can use. Since assault and abuse will only put him away for a little while and get you both restraining orders, at best," he grimaced, "love our judicial system-" he said sarcastically, "-our best bet is financial crimes. Because, while I hate Tam as much as the next guy I don't think we can get him for life on multiple murder accounts or treason. He's too smart to let himself get caught on most things, as much as I hate to say it."
Lucien frowned. "Financial crimes, huh? Tam is brazen but he isn't stupid. I taught him well. He won't risk his business not-" Then something occurred to him. "Wait-Pull up his recent finances?"
Azriel frowned, but did as he was told. Lucien, read through them, searching until…
"Feyre."
"What?" Feyre asked.
"No-Feyre. Feyre was in charge of his business deals, and me. Both of us were."
Rhysand raised an eyebrow. "So?"
"No one knows the business, excuse my pride, like we do. No one."
"So?" Rhysand prompted yet again.
"So… Tamlin has this… friend, that he goes to when things go wrong-"
"And who might that be?" Rhysand asked.
"Hybern Holdings… I've always told him they're sketchy but he barely ever listened to me, without my advice that's the only place he'll be able to go to balance his work. Maybe… Maybe there's an 'in' there?"
Azriel frowned. "Hybern Holdings… huh?"
"Yeah, why?"
Az sat up, typing them into Google, clearly looking for something. "That sounds familiar..." He muttered. The screen shifted and he began typing in code that Lucien couldn't understand. Finally he brought something up, from ten years ago—a scandal involving a court case that had been thrown out because no evidence had been recovered.
Azriel glanced up at Rhysand, whose eyebrows raised significantly. "We're going to need more data but… Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"What?" Feyre asked, confused. "What're you thinking?"
"'Al Capone Does My Shirts.'" Rhysand said, a grin coloring his face.
Azriel nodded, the others around the room leaned in, smiles that terrified Lucien on their faces. "Hell yeah." Mor agreed.
"Lucien, your help was invaluable. We've got a game plan." Rhysand said as Azriel dove across the table, typing things into the computer.
"What is 'Al Capone Does My Shirts'?" Cried Feyre.
At this moment, the room split. Mor, Cass, Amren, and Az began planning the con while Rhysand explained it to Lucien and Feyre. "The con is simple. How did they catch Al Capone?" Rhysand asked.
"Tax evasion." Lucien said. "Everyone knows that. But like I said, Tamlin isn't stupid-"
"You're right. He's not, but there's more than one way to evade taxes." Rhysand said. "We're going to set up a RICO case against Tamlin."
"How? He isn't a gangster."
"We'll use Hybern. If he has business dealings with Hybern they are technically profiting from him. The CEO of Hybern was already indicted for embezzlement, and only got off on a technicality. Which is good, because as much as Tamlin is a shit, he's still pretty honest. Like I said before, you can't con an honest man. To con one you have to get him to think he's getting something for nothing in an illegal, otherwise it doesn't work—they would go to the police and you don't want that. Honest men don't fall for that shit. But someone who already was indicted for embezzlement and got off? He think he's invincible, that we can use."
"Oh, okay." Feyre said, following the explanation.
"But what if he doesn't go for it?" Lucien asked.
"He will."
"How do you know that? You can't just make people do whatever you want!"
A silence fell over the room as the Inner Circle stared at Lucien puzzled.
Cassian snorted and his laughter snowballed. He wasn't the only person—the entire Inner Circle burst out into giggles. "Dude," Cassian said wiping his eyes. "That's what we do."
"Aw, you're adorable." Mor said between laughs.
Lucien flushed.
"After that we tip the cops and maybe help them along the way a little, and the rest is history." Rhysand finished.
"So basically, you're going to frame both Tamlin and Hybern, and then get them on… Gangster charges."
"Yep! That's the lovely thing about the Government, they try so hard to put people in jail they make laws that make it easy for us to entrap people. Hence, 'Al Capone Does My Shirts.'" Lucien was about to ask another question when Rhysand turned his attention to the rest of the Inner Circle and so Lucien shut his mouth and watched them work.
"-Anyway," Azriel continued, "we need a cop."
"Honest man or dirty?" Mor asked. "Because I've got..." She counted on her fingers, "seven that fit the bill of the latter."
"Honest man. We want someone Hybern can't flip."
Mor chewed on her lip. "Then I got nothing."
"An honest man will never work with us." Amren said. "They all hate us."
"So then they won't work with us." Rhysand said. A smile climbed on his lip and he turned to Lucien and Feyre. "They'll work with someone else..."
"No! No, no, no no no no! No!" Lucien said, jumping out of his seat. "I am not lying to the police! I will not be an accomplice in this!"
"You gave us the in, Lucien." Cassian said. "You already are."