"It's about time," grumbled Nate as he walked out of their mother's house towards Michael as he got out of Sam's car. "I swear Bly gets more annoying the more you see him."
"Bly is here?" asked Michael.
"No, I just thought I'd tell you what I thought of the guy."
Michael rolled his eyes at his brother's sarcasm. "Where is he?"
"I'm right here," said Bly coming out of the garage. "We need to talk."
Michael looked over to Fiona, nodding for her to go inside. She scowled, grabbing the camera from him before walking inside. Sam shrugged his shoulders before following her. Nate looked between Michael and Bly. When neither spoke he grumbled something that the other two couldn't hear before going back inside.
"What do you want?" asked Michael.
Bly ignored Michael's question and asked one of his own. "Are you going to be able to pull this off?"
Michael only sighed. He was wondering the same thing. The job was getting bigger and bigger. There were more variables, more things that could go wrong. That was never a good thing.
"Calitri's back there planning your brother's demise," said Bly as he leaned against Madeline's car.
"Figures," huffed Michae,l folding his arms. Would it be too much to ask for Calitri to hold up his end of the deal?
"I've been wondering if it was a good idea to come get you. Thrusting you back into this shit."
Michael ignored Bly's comment. He did not have time to stroke egos right now.
"Calitri wants to be seeing results."
"Tell Calitri to back off," snapped Michael. "We do this my way. You remember my way?"
"Yeah I remember, remember it like what I had for breakfast this morning," laughed Bly.
"My way works. Never been caught."
"Never had this big of a job before."
Michael knew this was true, but he wasn't about to admit that to Bly of all people. "Just keep Calitri off my back. I'll get the job done." He turned away from Bly to go inside.
"Yeah about that. Calitri's ordered me to watch your brother. He thinks Nate is going to skip town on him."
"Nate's not going anywhere. Not yet at least."
Bly arched an eyebrow up at Michael. "You're worried?"
"Only for Nate," sighed Michael.
"I've got something for you." He held out a folder to Michael.
"What?" Michael turned back to Bly; he was done with this conversation. Nothing ever went to plan when Bly was involved. The less he saw of him, the better.
"I've got the location and contents of a government weapons storage, off book of course." Bly smiled at Michael's look of surprise. "Don't worry, no spy is going to be needing that storage. He just happens to be dead."
Bly placed the folder on the car roof before he walked away calling over his shoulder, "I'll see you tomorrow Michael."
-BN—
Michael walked into the garage to see Sam and Nate were leaning over the bench. "Where's Fi?"
"Getting those pictures printed," answered Sam without looking up.
"What did Bly want?" asked Nate.
"Just telling us good news."
"Really?" asked Nate looking skeptical.
"No, Calitri wants us both dead."
"Jeeze Mike," said Sam looking at him now. "Why the heck are we doing this then? I say we just get out of town while we still can."
"No. We hold our end up. We finish this on our terms."
Sam didn't look convinced. "What you got there?" he said pointing to the folder Michael had in his hand.
"Bly gave it to me. Another location of weapons."
"You trust him?"
"No, I'm going to check it out now."
"I'm coming," said Nate.
"No, I want you here with Mom."
"Michael, I'm not staying with her. She's driving me crazy with her fussing."
"Didn't you hear? Calitri wants us dead."
"Yeh, I heard. All the more reason for me not to be here." Nate stared at his older brother, willing him to understand him. For once to see his side, to believe him.
Michael only stared back, taking in everything about his brother.
"I'll stay. Got to wait for Fi to come back anyway," offered Sam trying to diffuse the situation before one got started.
"Fine," said Michael breaking eye contact first. "I'm driving." He snatched up the keys to his mother's car and stormed out the garage.
-BN—
"So this is it?" asked Nate as he looked at the boathouse.
"Yeh," said Michael without looking at him.
"Doesn't look like much."
"What did you expect? A glowing sign that says come help yourself?"
Nate turned to look at his brother. For the first time since this whole mess had started he really looked at him. There was a tightness around his eyes. He looked paler than he used too. It didn't help that various shades of bruising were developing.
"When did you last sleep?"
"When you knocked me out," Michael answered still looking at the boathouse.
"Dude, wasn't it you that told me being unconscious wasn't the same as resting?"
"Only when I was referring to you."
Nate laughed slightly. Yeah, that sounded like his brother. One set of rules for him and another for everybody else.
Silence filled the car again. Both brothers were looking at the boathouse, which for all intent and purpose looked abandoned.
"You know it would have been nice if you'd said goodbye."
Michael turned to look at Nate. He'd spoken so quietly he was unsure that he heard right.
"Maybe even called." Nate looked at Michael now, searching for an answer. Anything that would explain to him why his brother had left. Left and then seemingly dropped out of existence, again.
Michael thought about his answer, there was no way he could explain the reasoning behind his leaving that would make sense to Nate. There was no way he could explain his reasoning without either insulting his brother or hurting him more than he already had.
He could lie, make something up. He was good at that. But the truth always had a way of coming back. If he did that, Nate would hate him more than ever. They might not be able to work it out.
"Nate, I..."
Gunfire sounded from the behind the rear of the car. Pop, pop, pop, pop.
Bullets pierced the body of the vehicle, holes appearing in the bodywork, glass shattering spraying the tarmac. Metal buckled in on itself as the car folded under the impact. The tires exploding as bullets sliced into them.
Gasoline snaked across the ground from the leaking tank. A stray bullet lighting the end. The trail of fire raced back towards the car, the flames engulfing the undercarriage sending the remnants of the car flying several feet into the air before crashing down, metal and glass and fire flying in every direction.
-BN—