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The interior of the pub was old, with a bourbon-soaked oak bar and a very retro choice of music. Jacob made his way through the ruddy-painted panels until he came to the dainty-looking girl behind the bar, with a pale face and dark curls.
"Hey Branna," Jacob grinned his toothy grin at her, "How's business?"
"How's O'Toole? Does he know you're talking to me?" She raised an eyebrow at him. Jacob scoffed in response.
"Me and him are like brothers." Jacob winked. "Speaking of which," He looked around, tapping me on the chest with the back of his hand before gesturing to the barmaid, "Billy, this is Branna Donnelly. Branna, this is Billy Reilly."
"Hi." She gave a friendly smile, wiping her hands down with a rag before leaning her small body over the bar to shake my hand. I returned the smile before Jacob showed me through the rest of the pub, and towards a small room past the gents...
The back room of The Belly Vines was a dimly lit and cluttered lounge, with enough chairs stacked against the walls to make room for the poker table that sat in the centre of the darkened room, with a small hanging lamp swinging gently above, making it impossible for someone sitting next to you to see your cards. The music was muffled as soon as the door shut, and from what I could make out, the room was lined with tiles, telling me it used to be part of the kitchen, which was now through another door, shining in a small crack of light.
I walked in behind Jacob, and as soon as I came into view, all eyes were on me, glinting in the darkness.
"Yo, Finn." Jacob spoke to the man directly opposite us at the table.
A built man in a white t-shirt stood up from the table, placing his cards down on the table as he advanced towards me, roll-up hanging out of the corner of his mouth. He swept back his dirty-blonde hair and glared at me, thrusting a hand into my chest and shoving me backwards.
"Woah, where the fuck do you think you're going buddy?"
"Relax Lex, this is Billy Reilly! I told you about him - grew up with me and Finn - he was the one who knifed Darius in the neck, remember?"
"What chance do I have of keeping track of your fucking cairde-"
"He's family!"
"I don't give a shit - no outsiders!"
"He's not an outsider man - he's Boston-born - like me and Finn! I grew up with the guy - he's got Dublin blood for sure!"
"Boston-born?"
I looked towards the familiar face - a long and narrow one as pale as Jacob's. Finn's hair was cropped short, as his biceps were definitely what caught my attention, not to mention the lines of tattoos that spiralled around his arm. The most noticable tattoo was a celtic knot, tattooed on the left side of his neck - I recognized it as the celtic knot on the front of the pub - it must had been a logo for the Halsted Heavy. He examined me face for a moment, and Lex waited patiently for Finn to deliver his verdict.
"I don't know you." Finn shook his head. Before Jacob could talk, I took matters into my own hands, stepping forwards.
"I was a couple of years younger than you - my cousin Eughan was the guy who did your first tattoo. I was nine." I noticed Finn's eyes glimmer.
"No..." He smiled as he stood up. "Little Billy Reilly?" He grinned. I nodded, as Finn laughed, walking around the table to smack his hand around mine and pull me in for a hug. "Been a fucking age mo chara. Must've been... what, fourteen years? Where've you been?"
"Boston." I shrugged.
"Still in the family business?"
"That's why I'm here. Jacob said you're looking for people."
"Ah, Jacob said that?" Finn's eyes flickered over to him.
"No man, you should see Bill in action - he's the best fighter I've ever seen - practically dominated the fight club... after you left of course Finn."
"Of course." Finn nodded, humouring Jacob. "This true?"
"Get into your teens, got a lot of anger to vent." I shrugged. I glanced at a disbelieving Lex. "Seems to me that you could use a bit more capability around here..."
"What'd you say? What'd you say you? Little soith-" Finn gave a rasping chuckle at Lex's sudden outburst of anger towards me.
"It's all coming back to me - your uncles... the names carried a lot of... neart." Finn smiled. "Ethan, Cian... who was the other one?"
"Bobby."
"Ah, of course. He was tight with your dad... Seamus right? Now, he was one crazy fucker." Finn laughed. I grinned. "No offense."
"None taken." I held up a reassuring hand.
"What happened to him? Where is he now?"
"Died." I said simply, Finn's smile disappeared. "Eleven years ago." Finn's sudden melancholic expression drifted to the ground.
"Suaimhneas síoraí." He sighed. The rest of the room echoed his words. He then looked back up at me, clapping his hands together. "So, you're a good fighter?"
"Better than most, aye."
"You arrogant or a liar?"
"Just confident." Finn looked at me in the eye for a full minute-and-a-half before I saw the corners of his lips pull up into a smile. "Lex!" He barked at the man who was still muttering to himself darkly in the corner of the room. Lex's head snapped up to Finn. "Take Billy out and get him something to drink." Lex nodded with a smile that made me cautious. Lex then turned towards me.
"Follow." He said, leading me out of the back room, and into the back-alley of the pub. I glanced around to see if Jacob was following me, which he wasn't. As I turned back towards Lex, a fist flew into my face, and I felt a large gush of blood drench the left side of my lips. I spat out the blood and got to my feet, looking at Lex and the two men that were now getting off of a dumpster, stubbing out their cigarettes and cracking their knuckles.
"Why not?" I shrugged, stretching out my shoulders and cracking my knuckles.
I threw my fist into Lex's face again, feeling his jaw crack and as my knuckles connected with the now-fractured jaw. I grabbed the collar of his shirt and threw my fist into him again, let out a loud exhalation every time.
An engine growled, and headlights beamed up at me, and with another punch, I dropped Lex to the ground, standing up and watching the newcomers carefully, breathing deeply; A sleek orange muscle car with two black racing stripes parked in front of us, and three men stepped out, one of them sitting on the bonnet of his car.
I looked around to see the door slam open, and Finn storm out of the pub. He didn't look at me or at Lex, just the figure on the car, clad in a parsley jacket and a pair of rounded violet sun glasses.
"Come on Finn, it was just getting interesting." The figure from the car spoke. "Haven't seen fights like this since Boston." He grinned at me.
"What do you want Darius?" Finn spat the words out at him, standing in front of us all.
"Want? Wait, hold up mo chara," Darius jumped off the car and walked towards us with his two cronies, "I just wanted a chat with you - how's Branna doing, huh?" I noticed Jacob's jaw clench. "Look Finn, we shouldn't involve personal issues with business - we're both older now. We can share-" He eyes drifted over to me and he narrowed his eyes, trying to recognize me. I simply glared at him, recognizing the name. Henry Marshe had a nephew called Darius - one of the other Dublin-bloods I grew up with in Boston. "Hey, who's the outsider?"
"Billy." He said simply. "Remember Bobby Reilly? Worked with your dad a while back."
"Shit, yeah - the Bagman! Ended up in his own bags... that's ironic." He chuckled with his friends. "What about him?"
"This is his nephew." Darius' eyes widened slightly at the sight of me, covered in blood and fists clenched. Adrenaline still surged through my veins at I spoke.
"I'm also the guy who kicked your ass." I growled. "Remember me now?"
"Woah, woah, woah, hey mo chara, I'm sorry - didn't mean no disrespect." Darius held his hands up in defense. "Just stating facts. It is ironi-"
"Go fuck yourself Darius." Finn barked, shoving him backwards. "The Vines is mine, and the Docks are yours - that was the deal. So stay the fuck off my streets." Finn snarled.
"Tell Branna I said hi." He smirked at Finn before looking at me and walking backwards towards his car. "You should think before siding with the losers."
As they began to drive away, my body began to relax, and I looked towards Finn, who still stood with fists clenched and muscles almost bursting out from under his white vest.
"He's still an asshole." I muttered to Finn.
"He's also a ballbeg." Finn replied darkly to me. He looked around to Jacob. "I want you to take Bill here and show him around - take him to the shops and pick up the payments." Jacob nodded.
"I'm on it Finn."
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