Pacifier

\\ Van //

It was one of those dark early mornings, the sun barely breaking through the smog and the mist over Manchester. It was cold and my breath caught the little light as it rose slower than the smoke I exhaled with it.

I watched two shadows approaching, rising out of the fog by the waters edge.

I stood still and waited, raising my hand to greet them, mocking them as if to say look, no guns. I know i dont need them.

It was quiet, the canals edge well removed from the city streets which would still be sleeping anyway.
The two figures walked with their own hands shoved in their pockets, their shoulders hunched, they wore long coats and fancied themselves New York Gangsters but they weren't.

They were Reids, and they wore the scars left by the flames from the fire we'd set on them. I smirked as they stopped just two meters away, raising their heads slowly to look me up and down.

"So you come in pairs these days do you?" I cracked a grin, "What a treat,"

In truth though I had told Bondy and the lads not to deviate from the strategy this meeting was exactly that. A deviation.

"Does that bother you?" asked one of them, his smirk snarling, his eyes lit up for a moment with an arrogance which riled me. It was the same sort of arrogance which looked at my Isabelle and thought she belonged to them.

"Oh no, the more the merrier thats what I always say," i licked my lips, almost laughing at them, the way they stood so close together. The way they were trying to pretend they were stood on the strongest side.

"Doesn't it bother you that you're currently trespassing on our territory, alone and unarmed and now you're outnumbered too... That doesn't seem to me like your brightest move mccann..." said one, the other smirking almost proud.

But I could smirk too.

"Wheres Billy boys?" i asked, "Doesnt it bother you that I organised a meeting with Billy Reid, and your supposedly notorious gang leader has sent you two lads in his place... Seems a little, well..." i trailed off, "I'm here arent I, standing on Reid territory, unarmed and outnumbered, and Im not scared?"

"Aren't you?" asked Ruben, billys nephew. It was low that, as far as I was concerned. To send your nephew in your place.

"Alright alright," i shrugged breaking the space between us, stepping up close, taking his hands and pushing them to my face, "look at me a moment, look at me a moment treacle, just look at me yeah," I said voice smirking though my eyes were sharp and threatening. He tried to pull his hands away but I held him there, watched him squirm, watched him look over his shoulder at the other lad, a Lewis who was young and arrogant and who didn't seem scared enough. "No no, i didnt say look at him did i, i didnt say look at your friend our kid I told you to look at me..." i said, "so look at me then," i forced his eyes back to me, forced him to hold my stare, forced him to try and hold it, steely, tense jawed and unafraid but he couldn't hide the slight tremble in him. I could tell that he hated me for it, the malice in his eyes when he realised he couldn't hide from me. When he realised I wasn't going to let them go. "Now treacle are you lookin at me yeah, cause what i want you to do yeah, is i want you to look real close yeah, and see if, i dont know somewhere in the whites of me eyes, or i dont know, perhaps my lips are quivering, perhaps I'm not standing quite so tall, and what I want you to do, right cause I'll leave it up to you right, what i want you to do is decide whether I look scared to you?"

I felt him tighten his grip on my face, his fingers digging into my skin, every muscle in his face was tight and he was struggling to keep his composure. I could see it in his eyes, he wanted to kill me there and then but something was holding him back and I knew exactly what it was.