"This could be a big break for us, Bel. I can feel it."  

Belenus sighed. It wasn't that he didn't think this was a good opportunity, because for all he knew, it might well be a fucking golden one; it was because he had heard this same proclamation from Paulie about pretty much every line of work they had tried in the past 6 months. Encouraging old man Presini to part with the money he was saving for his daughter's birthday to keep his envelope fat was almost certainly going to get them in with the company. Dropping Sergeant O'Hara a few more bills than they could really afford to part with to keep his officers happy was definitely going to make him put in a word for them. And securing that spot over on 15th so that Quick Will could run his three-card-monte bit and cut them in on the action was going to secure them an audience with one of the captains. Needless to say, nothing had worked. Their efforts to grease the wheels in Summerlin had, so far, just left them with sore palms. Still, that was better than what they had got back in Paradise...

"What? You don't believe me?" Paulie asked, thrusting the note towards Belenus. "Here you read it, tell me I'm wrong!"

Reluctantly, Belenus read the memo. It was a seemingly innocuous note about some developers looking to buy more real estate around Summerlin. It didn't mean anything to Belenus, just some dumb property shit that was over his head; another of Paulie's brainiac schemes. He was about to tell him as much and then he saw the name on the top of the paper. He started mouthing it to himself CA-LI-CO.

"See!" Paulie said with a shit-eating grin stapled across his face, holding his hand out for the paper. "They're looking to buyout local business owners, Bel. Company like this buying up dogshit around here, you know what that means, right?"

Belenus didn't have any idea, but he nodded along anyway, trying not to give the game away. He'd learned a long time ago that his mind wasn't his best weapon. His teachers had made it clear that academics wasn't for everyone and someone of his size would almost certainly be happier on the football field. Or playing baseball. Or doing anything else, really, so long as it wasn't stupiding up their classroom. Whilst it was a painful thing to discover, that you aren't all that smart, there are silver linings in everything. At over 6 and a half feet tall, Belenus was built big enough to make a brick shithouse blush and what he lacked in intellect he tried to make up for in other things more in his control. He'd never visited a library, but there wasn't many a situation he couldn't read. He couldn't tell you any of Einstein's theories, but he could show you the best place to punch a guy in the guts to make him keel over without doing any lasting damage. Shakespeare may as well be a brand of cereal for all Belenus knew about him, but one thing he knew for sure was when people were being honest or when they were trying to feed him an ass-sandwich.

These skills might not be everyone's cup of tea, but they made Belenus a perfect partner for a guy like Paulie. He was wiry, could think on his feet and smell a buck even if his head was in a sewer, or so he told Belenus. He didn't have the brawn, but he certainly had the smarts and he had grown up in Vegas, which meant he was a "face". The gangs knew him and hanging around with him had worked in both of their interests. Paulie had now got the muscle to back up his mouth and Belenus had got the nod from people who otherwise might have been looking to shove a knife in his thick back and someone to up-skill their endeavours from polite thuggery.

"It means" said Paulie, recognising Belenus' lack of comprehension without comment "that we need to lean on some of these guys so the can buy 'em up cheap. 'Company like Calico will definitely appreciate us knocking a couple of dabs off the asking price. And they'll have big plans for this dump if they get enough of them." 

Belenus frowned.

"I know, I know, we won't hurt anyone!" Paulie added quickly, holding his hands up to cut off the reproach from Belenus.

Belenus continued to frown without saying anything.

"How was I supposed to know they didn't want any arms broken? Any other gangsters would have thanked us for jacking that stash. It wasn't my fault he was protected." 

One of Paulie's early schemes had been to catch the eye by running off the local riff-raff. He'd heard about a small crew pushing powder from a two-up-two down near the park. It was a small time operation, just the stash man around the corner and the dealer peddling the wares. They were so fucking amateur it had almost seemed mean when Belenus had flattened the dealer with a right to the guts, folding him up like a deckchair, while Paulie had relieved his of all of his product with a crack across the back of the head.

The plan had been to sell the drugs to mob at a heavy discount and Paulie put the word out to bigger fish that they were looking to sell. A couple of hours later, 5 guys had kicked in the door of the hotel and beat the piss out of both of them as a warning. The job was easy because the Paradise mob, who Belenus and Paulie planned to sell to, had given the dealer a green light in the first place. Needless to say, that was the end of their exploits in Paradise and Belenus winced thinking about it.

Paulie charged on undeterred. "It won't be like that this time. We'll just pay these owners a quiet visit, explain to them how this is a buyer's market and cha-ching!" Paulie mimed hitting the jackpot on a one-armed-bandit. 

Belenus snorted and folded his arms.

"Jesus Christ. Fine." Paulie held out his hand. "I promise you won't have to hurt anyone who doesn't have it coming to them. Maybe just break a few windows and ruffle a few feathers. Happy?"

Belenus' mighty paw dwarfed Paulie's hand as he shook on it reluctantly, not altogether convinced any of that would be true. "Deal."

"Look at the fucking state of this place..." Paulie whistled as he took in the sights and sounds of 'J. M. Bainbridge Hardware'. 

Belenus couldn't help but agree. A tired timber door which looked like it had seen more summers without being painted than Belenus'd had hot dinners, clattered into a dull bell announcing their arrival. The wooden floor was near to bursting at the seams and the papered walls had empty racks nailed into them. Belenus guessed they should have contained products, but either this place had been cleared out by a very enthusiastic handyman, or, far more likely, the owner hadn't had enough demand to replace his stock. The ceiling was stained brown in one corner where a leak had never been properly repaired and a grey-haired stick of a man in a frayed leather apron stood beneath it, glaring at them.

"Good afternoon, friend," Paulie called as he headed towards the man, surreptitiously placing himself in between the proprietor and the only means of escape. "Are you Mr Bainbridge by any chance?"

The man patted his apron, glanced towards the counter over to his left before looking Paulie up and down. It wasn't a friendly shopkeeper's greeting either, more like a mangy old dog deciding whether he was annoyed enough to finally bite a hand that was petting him a little too roughly. "Who's askin'?"     

"The Calico Development Company," said Paulie with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes despite his best efforts to the contrary. 

"Funny name, that." Bainbridge said, his demeanor quickly slipping from unfriendly towards openly hostile.

"It is, it is. HA!" Paulie's ingratiating chuckle jarring against Belenus' ears, "and for some reason, HA! They are interested in buying this little shithole." He finished, spreading his arms out to encompass all of said shithole.

Belenus winced, sucked in a breath and before the now seething Mr Bainbridge could respond, he took a couple of steps forward. Whatever retort Bainbridge was thinking of making died in his throat at the sight of the giant. 

"Make this simple. Calico want to buy. You want to sell. Easy." Belenus said quickly, trying to put a smile on his face but probably managing to get somewhere between scowl and leer. Paulie just shook his head and audibly tutted.

"Oh yeah?" Bainbridge took a step towards the counter and away from both intruders. "Why would they be interested in...what did your friend say...'this shithole'?"

"That's their business" answered Paulie, further cutting off Bainbridge's retreat. "Maybe they really like hardware? Maybe they want to paint their asses blue and press them against the glass? Who knows? And more importantly, who cares? They've got cash and you've got no customers, what's not to like?"

Bainbridge flicked his eyes from Paulie to Belenus, the colour of his face and hair now in perfect harmony. "What's not to like? Well, for starters, maybe I don't like being strong armed by a couple of thugs! I've been here for 30 years! 30 fucking years!"

Paulie held up his arms, placating, the way he did, failing the way he did, "wow 30 years. You hear that, Bel? Look at this guy finally getting to retire after 30 years. How much do you want for the place?" Paulie moved in front of the counter, giving the heavily stained top a wrap with his knuckles as Bainbridge stopped trying to edge behind it. 

"I ain't sellin." Bainbridge huffed. "And you can tell your bosses that too." Belenus was impressed; there wasn't many old fuckers with balls this big. Most would have been shitting themselves by now and in normal circumstances, that might have been that, but one look at Paulie told Belenus this wasn't settled. The vain in his neck the way it did when he didn't get his own way and Belenus thought he didn't seem half so impressed with the old bastard as he was.

"Can't we keep this friendly, it doesn't have to be like this" Answered Paulie, the strain in his voice evident from trying hard to keep his temper in check.

"You ain't my fucking friends, you're trying to force me out!" Bainbridge shot back, folding his arms, "No fucking dice."  

Belenus sighed. He hoped some of the other owners would be easier to evict than this tough old boot with a heart of shit. He moved over to the wall and examined one of the racks. Paulie and Banbridge continued to bicker. The few items still on display looked cheap, and Belenus wrinkled his nose at the dust he unearthed running his finger along it.

"You sure you don't want to reconsider?"

He picked up a chisel and squinted to read the writing on it.

"Do I look like I want to fucking reconsider?"

He put it back on the rack and set his feet, he knew his part in this little charade.

"If it was me, I'd reconsider. Especially now it seems like you got a leak and a broken window?" He nodded to Belenus.

"What are you talking about I haven't go- HEY!" Bainbridge yelled as Belenus ripped the dusty the rack clean off the wall with a dirty great heave spraying plaster across the floor and levered it over his head, turning towards the main shop frontage. "STOP!"