Closer Than Your Shadow

Last Resort

December 1st 12:36 a.m.
Gotham
Docklands

"Your late," Robin complained as I came up the rotted staircase.

"I didn't expect you to call. Plus, there are like 30 other buildings on the wharf. Let alone grey ones," I muttered.

He was sitting next to the window on a barrel full of God knows what. It was black outside and the murky salt water filled my nose with an awful stink. The water lapping against the concrete of the building was calm compared to the thickness in the air.

"Are you not even going to talk to me?" I asked.

"You ruined our plan and someone died. What is there to talk about? It's already over." His words cut me.

"That wasn't supposed to happen. We were almost out."

"But you still ran away."

"I didn't have a-."

"What did Dom offer you? A nice pay out?" I felt all the anger and shame washing over me. I was trying to redirect it, but that was something I did too often. And in this case it just wouldn't be fair.

"If you would have gone in there, Dom would have done the exact same thing to you. I get why you hate them; they deserve it. I get it. But we can do it without fighting."

"You don't think I'm scared of Dom. It's you who's scared. That guy got shot and you ran because you didn't want to disappoint him. I have no faith in any plan that you're going to use to justify yourself with." He had me on the ropes now and one more punch was sure to do the job of breaking me.

"If you really felt like that, why'd you let us get away? You could have easily just gone along with whatever you wanted and carted me off to the cops upstairs. But you listened to me."

He stood up. "What makes you think once this is over, you're not going in a cell too?"

I swallowed. "I didn't want anyone to get hurt, you know that. You pretend you know everything but you have no fucking idea. We didn't do things your way, so what? Don't be a pussy about it." I spit out, and his hand flew up to my face. He squeezed my cheeks between his fingers. He pulled my chin out towards him.

"Don't make this about me. I'm not in the mood," he gritted through his teeth. His fingers didn't lift or move inch.

"Do it. Hurt me, again," my lips pursed together, and he hesitated. His fingertips relaxed and they grazed against my cheek so softly I was getting whiplash from his actions.

He retreated to his flipped barrel and watched out his window.

I didn't know why he wanted me here, especially after what happened at the gala, but still I came. Hoping that maybe I'd be able to explain myself but instead we just argued.

We always argued.

But he was pissed at me.

"They're here."

I heard a car door shut. It was Alex's now white SUV. Remi, Cano, and Jacob brought out a couple bags from the trunk, each probably filled to the brim with paintings.

"Are we going to go steal them back?" I asked while my hands rubbed my cheeks.

"I'm going to put a tracker on them and see where they take them. Then I should be able to figure out Tony's biggest buyers and run them off."

"Tony's? It's Dom's stuff."

"That's what I meant."

"Okay," I hesitated, "but how are you going to get past the three stooges down there."