Shark of Spades

Un-Fold

I just blinked, my finger on the trigger but not ready to pull it back just yet. "Why would they be shooting at you?"

He sighed, looking tired. Since after the game today, I'd seen so many different sides of him that I hadn't noticed existed. He'd been concerned, angry, and now tired...Was he dropping all of his defenses  around me? Why? Wouldn't that make it seem as though we were closer than  just business associates? Because that's what we are, right?

No. That's what we were.

"In short, it has something to do with your brother," he eventually answered, meeting my eyes with absolute sincerity.

"There you go again, mentioning my brother. Why is he so important?" I asked, my hand gripping the gun less tightly as I found myself drawn in to whatever Jack was saying.

"Your brother..." He paused and corrected himself. "Evan...he was working on something big."

"Can you be any more vague?" I asked, my face blank but my mind panicking.  "Why do you keep bringing my broth- Evan up? How did you even know him?"

Jack's face closed, hiding all of his thoughts, and he grinned, his cover back up as he leaned over to whisper, "The train we're on is public  transportation run by the government. Don't doubt that they've got bugs and cameras. We need to talk somewhere else."

"Fine," I replied, "But the second I start thinking that you're leading me into a trap is the second that you die."

He grinned again, nodding and leaning back before looking out the window as though this were just a normal train ride.

I nodded, and we sat in silence until the train slowed at the next station. He got up, with me following suit with my briefcase in one hand, and got off the train, walking south. I followed him at a distance  of ten feet, far enough back that I could draw my weapon if I doubted anything about my environment.

We walked past an old factory with  thick glass windows overlooking an equally old and equally dilapidated  iron bridge spanning the adjacent river. He walked down to the river's  edge and picked up a stone, throwing it in as I came up next to him,  still keeping a few feet between us.

"I knew your brother," he began, pausing as he tossed another rock. Plunk. "for  about half a year. You know as well as anyone that you need an personal invite to get in to the underworld just like you'd need an appointment to get into an important building. Well, I was your brother's ticket in."

"Why'd he get you?" I asked, picking up a rock myself but not throwing it, just rubbing the smooth surface with my thumb, tracing circles over and over again.

"I wasn't sure at first. I asked myself the same question, once."

"What changed?"

He sighed again. Another plunk. "It took me a while to connect the dots, you know? Why a clean guy like him wanted into the underworld, why he'd chosen me...It didn't make sense  at first. Eventually, though, I figured it out." Plunk. "Let me ask you a question. How well did you know your brother?"

The  question threw me for a loop. I momentarily stopped tracing circles,  but then resumed. "I want to say that I knew him really well, but I only  knew him for-" I stopped, looking over at him. If I say that I only knew him for eight years, he'll know my secret. "We weren't that close for a while, but then I ended up needing his help."

"Why'd you go to him?"

"Because I trusted him. I had no one else, after all. But I trusted him," I reiterated, finally throwing the stone in.

"That's what I asked you to do for me."

"You're  different," I answered, staring at the ripples I'd created before answering the original question. "I'm not going to lie and say that I knew everything about him, but I knew the important things, the things that mattered."

"You didn't know all of them," Jack said almost sadly, as though he didn't want to break my shallow grasp of my  brother's character. He looked over at me. "I know this might hurt because I'm practically a stranger to both your brother and you, but I know things about him that you don't. I'll tell them to you if you want  to know." When he saw my expression, he added, "Don't worry. None of what I'm going to tell you will make your brother look bad or change  your view of him. You'll just understand him better. So...do you want to hear what I have to say?"

I shrugged, sitting down on the bank of the river. "Do I have a choice?"