Chapter 5: The Sit Down
It had been about 3 months since these guys had met. Brendan and Ste had quickly learned that they worked the best together. Brendan would help him steal from people's houses. Today they went for a drive trying to spot a good house to go for and ended up in a gated community. Ste pointed at one particular house. Of course he would pick the house that had the highest gates imaginable. Brendan parked the car at a corner, he had a luxury style car so it blended in quite nice with the surrounding. They unfortunately did not blend into the surrounding. Ste was wearing his blue Adidas track suit while Brendan went casual as well wearing a black shirt and jeans. No suit today. They stood from a distance as they both took in the house.
"You really expect us to make it over that gate Steven?"
"Yeah sure why not?"
"It's twice the height of any other gate we ever come across."
"I'm sure we'll be fine. Probably just I don't know get a running head start and jump for it."
Brendan gave him a glance as to say 'that's a stupid idea' but throughout their 3 months of being "business associates" he learned that Stevens mind worked a little different than most. There were many times were the word stupid came out of Brendan's mouth, but Ste would shrug it off. One day Brendan called him an 'idiotic moron whose brain is the size of a peanut' when Ste messed up his drug inventory causing Brendan to lose a couple thousand dollars. Ste had had enough and walked out of Brendan's shop. He doesn't know what possessed him to run after the boy but he did. Ste pushed him back every time he tried grabbing him. He shouted that he knew he was stupid, that his stepfather beat him every day for being a stupid worthless piece of trash that would amount to nothing in life. At the moment Brendan felt something for the boy. He knew what it was like to have a father regret you and wish you weren't even alive. Brendan reached out and grabbed him by force and held him. Ste struggled at first but eased into the hug. He wrapped his hands around Brendan's waist and let every tear he had being holding for years out. Brendan never loosened the hold and just swayed them back and forth. He wiped his tears away from him looked him straight in the eyes and said "I'm sorry Steven. You're not stupid, you're the smartest person I ever met. Don't you ever let anyone tell you otherwise." Ste closed his eyes and said thank you. After that things were on the up and up for them. Countless little robberies here and there and now they were going for an even bigger prize. Which lead them here, outside what could only be described as a mansion.
"Ok Steven. Go ahead and do your running head start. I'll wait for you here and watch you run your face straight into those wires." Brendan said it as sarcastically as he could but apparently it wasn't enough. He saw the determination in Stes eyes as he took off running. Brendan just threw up his arms in the air and waited for the inevitable.
"Ah fuck!" Ste jumped and hit the fence straight on making him tumble onto the ground. He started crawling back to Brendan across the street before anyone noticed and called the cops saying there is a complete idiot jumping into fences. He was expecting an 'I Told You So' as soon as he got there. Brendan clapped his hands and gave him a thumbs up.
"Made my day that. Recorded it and everything."
"Fuck you! Help me up." Brendan lifted him up and Ste dusted himself off. "So now what? You wanna try? You are taller."
"No Steven. Just no." Brendan's phone went off at the moment. "Text from Warren. Wants to meet up in 30. Let's just come back here tomorrow when we are prepared better."
"I got it! We can use a ladder!"
"Steven..."
"Get in the car right? Got it got it."
Brendan followed him as they made their way back to the village. They were driving back when Ste mentions the drug shipment. "You know if Warren picked it up already."
"Yeah got it in the morning. I think him and Walker went. No problems."
"That's a first. Bren.."
"Yep?"
"You trust Walker? I may not be the quickest person out there but I don't know something weird about him."
"No I don't trust him but whenever I give him a job he does it decently well, but I'll keep an eye out. And what did I tell you about putting yourself down?"
"Sorry. It's a habit."
"You're perfect ok."
"I'm not you know I'm slow and..."
"Steven stop. You're not any of those things. You're special...to me at least." Brendan puts on the radio so that they could end this conversation. They sit in a peaceful silence for the rest of the drive.
Brendan opens the warehouse door and walks in with Ste following right behind. "Foxy?"
"In the living room!"
Ste practically attaches himself to Brendan's back and rests his head on there. "Look look Bren were like a piece of Velcro or something. I'm stuck to you."
"You're just weird Steven. Get off me."
Ste moves away but sticks close to his side as the walk into the room. Warren is seated on a sofa while Walker is on the floor. Brendan sits on the sofa opposite Warren and Ste jumps next to him.
"Alright Foxy what you want? Why the meeting of sorts."
"Do you know of a place called Securitas Depot?"
"Umm rings a bell. Isn't it in Tonbridge?"
"That's the one."
"Yeah ok so?"
"Well how much money do we all make in a week? When we split it?"
"I don't know."
"We all take about 5 grand home a week." Walker chimes in as if he had being waiting the whole time just to say his line.
"What I don't take that much home a week?"
"Yes you do Steven."
"Naw. It's like half that."
Warren smirks and looks at Ste. "Believe me Ste if there is anyone in this group who takes home the whole amount it's you. Brendan makes sure of it."
"Alright can we get on with this? Will one of you two just tell me why you are even bringing this up?"
"Well Brady how would you like to take home over 50 million dollars in 2 days?"
"Bloody hell what?" Ste spits out the wine he was just drinking all over himself and the carpet. "50 million? Get the fuck out of here. That's a lot innt. Like that's more than thousands."
Brendan's attention is on his carpet now. What takes out red wine? And where the hell did he get wine from, he sure as hell didn't buy any.
"Brady. Brady. You listening?"
"My carpet. It was new. Why did I even buy a white carpet? What gets that kind of stain out? Bleach right?"
"Can you forget about your carpet! You can buy tons of new carpets after this."
"After what Foxy?"
"After we rob the Securitas Depot. It'll be the biggest heist in UK history. You in?"
Brendan finally snaps out of it and hears what was just said. He lied. He knows very well what Securitas Depot is. They handle used money for the Bank of England. In their location everyday there is millions upon millions of dollars there.
"Are you insane? I don't even know how you expect us to even steal from a place of that magnitude."
Walker gets up and sits next to Warren. "It's not going to be easy obviously but I don't think it's impossible. Look there's 4 of us we all know what we're doing and had done jobs by ourselves and came out with thousands of dollars. This time we just have to work together and walk out with millions."
"It's not that easy Walker. Have you thought of the security that's gonna be guarding the place? How about how do you intend we get in there? Do we bust through the door guns blazing. It's ridiculous." Brendan moves to leave this conversation but stops when Ste speaks.
"Hold on Brendan. Give em a chance. That's a lot of money. If we get this we wouldn't have to keep doing these small jobs every week. We are basically avoiding jail every day. We get this and we all make a run for it. Leave. Never come back here again."
Warren and Walker nod in agreement. "Look Brady it's not like we are going tomorrow. It's gonna take planning. More than we ever done in the past. But Stes right, how many times have we had to run for our lives because a cop was after us. Just last week me and you had to drive off like lunatics and stay out of the village for a week till it calmed down. Walker was interrogated a couple days ago. Ste was brought into for questioning yesterday. This is our way out. We get this and that's it. We go our separate ways and never look back. I'm in. Who else is in?"
"In." Walker doesn't even hesitate for a second.
"I'm in." Ste says quietly and looks up at Brendan waiting for his answer.
Brendan thinks about everything that has happened recently and he knows they are just buying time till one of them ends up in jail or dead. He doesn't have a good feeling about this but he wants to be able to get out of here and not worry about picking up where he left off at another place. He looks at Steven whose eyes are shining, almost like he's pleading with him. Like he needs him there by his side.
"Fine I'm in. But if this blows up in our faces Foxy you're a dead man."
"Don't worry. Besides if we fail we will probably all end up getting killed there anyway."
"Oh that's lovely. I'll look forward to that."