Tear It Down

Chapter Nine

"Why the hell do you want some random shit off the street when we have a bigger problem?" John demanded as he sat at the table, Polly across from him.

"My reason is my own John. But when you see that man you bring him to me. Or is that to complicated?" Tommy snapped.

"We have some bastard fucking up our business Tommy, we don't have time to deal with anything else."

"Oh, so now that's your main concern, is it Arthur? And here I was thinking it was no longer a problem to you." Tommy snapped.

"It was always my main concern Tommy." Arthur growled. "But we've been vigilant, we-"

"Yes, and you saw how that worked out last time. Tell me, that guard that was oh so vigilant, how has he been recovering?"

"That was a simple slip up. We now-"

"Will you two stop?" Polly demanded, shaking her head as her cigarette burned between her fingers. "Turning on each other will not stop this problem we have."

"Aunt Pol is right," John spoke up. "We need to focus oh the bastard fucking up the business. We can't keep losing money."

"Trust me, as long as there are bets to be placed, we won't lose much money." Tommy grumbled as he ran his hand through his hair.

"Maybe not now, but eventually we will Tommy." John said as he chewed on the toothpick in his mouth.

"Once we get them they will be delt with, but I don't want the one bastard ruining the races to he killed." Tommy was silent as John and Arthur surged to their feet, shouting in outrage. Tommy sighed, Arthur and John only falling silent when Aunt Pol finally shouted for them to shut up.

"Let's hear him out first you two. See if he has a reason for being so damn foolish." She said as she took a drag of her cigarette, looking to Tommy to go on.

"They can lead us to whoever is out to get us. We use that to get to them and then get rid of whoever it is fucking with us."

"I see, but you also want us to take time from that to find some trash from the street for no other reason than you have your own reason?" John snapped. "We can't waste our time with that when we're losing money everytime that bastard strikes."

"We'll get to him John, we-"

John jumped to his feet, his chair toppling from how fast he did so, shouting, "Get it through your damn thick skull that I have people who depend on me! My children need a father who can provide for them and that motherfucker is putting that on the line. I will not waste my time running after some random piece of shit just because you want me to." John slammed his hand on the table, breathing hard.

"I'm sorry, I hadn't thought about them." Tommy said, a sudden feeling of guilt welling inside of him.

"Of course you hadn't. You're not their father, so why would you care about them?" And John turned on his heel, storming away.