Closer Than Your Shadow

Trapped Bird

November 23rd 2:03 a.m.
Gotham
Brixman Family Jewelers

I watched the lamppost across the street flicker while I shoved bracelets in my bag. I knew no one was out there, but I still couldn't shake the feeling we were being watched.

Danny told me I was the lookout, and my mind raced with everything that could go wrong. Someone ratting, or a cop. Or Gotham's reigning prick.

We'd been here two minutes and every second was torture. It was my worst fear, an anxiety inducing situation with no escape. It didn't make me feel any better that I didn't know anyone here besides Danny. He was the only other 'real' Maroni.

He was middle aged and slightly overweight but I couldn't blame him. His wife made pastas and pastries for him everyday. We only talked when I came to Dom's for family dinners, but I knew he was one of the nicer guys, high in the family.

He was still brutal and killed people for money, but he had a wife and kids. He wasn't as reckless or an ass, not like Jacob and Tony. Also not a Maroni by blood, but he was married to Dom's cousin.

Danny whispered something to the guy behind me. With the rustle of the bags and the chatter amongst the others, I couldn't make out what Danny had said to him.

It made me sick putting all my trust into a group of random strangers, but I didn't have a choice. They were all looking for quick cash or a way to clear their debts with Dom and nowadays he was desperate for more bodies to force on jobs.

The Maroni's were being targeted. No matter what, almost every single job Dom Maroni sent his guys to do, it got busted. Anything related to the Maroni's name seemed to go bad.

And we knew why.

People could slip through the cops' hands if they were smart enough, it wasn't hard to get away with murder in Gotham. But you had to be fucking good to get past Batman once he set his eyes on you.

He was more of a monster than a hero. My parents told me when I was little, he'd arrest me if I didn't eat my broccoli or go to bed on time. He used to be an exaggerated threat to get me to behave. 15 years later and I still couldn't shake my warped view of the man who 'protected' Gotham. He was supposed to be a story.

Now he was real.

It started 2 months ago when 2 of Dom's guys went missing moving guns into the city.

Early the next morning the cops found their van a few streets away from the city's border. It was flipped upside down. The drivers still buckled in but bloody from the beating they took.

The guns were in the back, so the only person to blame was him. Who else would leave 30,000 dollars' worth of guns and ammunition to the cops?

The drivers were eventually taken back to the GCPD after they got released from the hospital. They could've been out on bail that night but instead, they confessed. It was all over the news and we knew it was going to come back to someone in the family.

Surprisingly, nothing happened. No cops came around. No one asked any questions about it, the two guys just got taken to county, then moved to Belle Isle, but Dom lost it.

He was getting paranoid and fucking erratic.

It scared everyone.

Even if they didn't admit it, it was obvious by the nervous glances being thrown around while we robbed the jewelry store.

They knew how risky this was.

Honestly, I'd never done anything like this. Danny was used to this type of thing because he'd been an errand boy for Dom since he was my age, but I sold weed and that was pretty much the extent of my mobster activity. That was the difference between me and the boys, they did the dirty work.