sympathy for the devil.

elias: are you okay?

“I would agree if you weren’t also fucking ridiculous when you weren’t bleeding.” Casey felt some ease in her stress as Elias cracked jokes, because it was at least a relief he felt okay enough to be doing that. Still you could hear the pain in his voice as he obviously grit his teeth to try and handle himself. Rolling her eyes gently at the mention of a nurses outfit she looked up at him from where she was kneeled on the floor. “Well, you didn’t provide me with a nurses costume for tonight, that’s just bad forward planning if you ask me.” Her voice was soft though, gently teasing him back, but knowing this was causing him a lot of terrible pain. She wished she could take it away honestly. 

Going silent as she worked at the gunshot wound as best she could in a passive manner so she didn’t burst into tears from second hand pain for her fiancee, her hand reached up to caress his cheek as he bit down on his fist. God she hated making things worse. “It’s okay honey, nearly done, deep breaths. Now you know what childbirth is like.” The brunette tried to lighten the mood as she finished up what she was doing, finally able to deflate once it was done, knowing she had done all she could for him. Resting her head against her forearm careful not to put any pressure on his freshly wrapped wound, letting out a heavy sigh. “No you don’t need to apologise, this was what I signed up for. As long as I can do something to help you when this happens then it’s better than nothing.” Standing up on shaking legs she bent over to press a kiss to the man’s cheek, then another, then another, just so relieved that he was in front of her, in somewhat one piece. And breathing. Honestly Casey had been so scared waiting for him to come back, dreading the idea that she might get a phone call instead with the worst possible news. “I’m no angel, I’m just so fucking relieved you came back to us. I told the babies they’d see you in the morning, I didn’t want you to make their mother into a liar.” Saying nothing about the fact he was washing down painkillers with whisky the woman just let her love get on with what he needed to do to get through his situation. “Lucky for you it’s not the first time I’ve hard to clean up a bloody thigh.” A small smile on her pale pinched face as she put her hands on her hips. “You want help to bed? You need rest. So you can work up he energy to tell me what the hell happened to you.”

 “It’s why you’re marrying me, isn’t it?” he asks, because it’s easier to try to make her laugh than it is to focus on the pain in his leg, plus he’d do anything to hear her laughter, right now and always. She rolls her eyes at him, playfully and like she normally does and while this isn’t exactly their normal, she’s never had to care for him like this, it feels good that she’s giving him that. “Silly me, I should’ve predicted getting shot and had one on hand, I’ll remedy that immediately,” he promises and well, he is a man of his word and he really will take her on a bit of a shopping trip, if not for the fun of it all. But this was helping, joking with her while she applied water and peroxide and gauze and tape. She’s so gentle it’s amazing, not that she’s never been before. But his strong, hard as nails lawyer of a fiancée is being so gentle, caressing his cheek while she pours peroxide over his open wound, cleans him up and makes sure the gauze and tape are properly done. All things he didn’t have to walk her through. “sorry, I’ll get snipped as soon as I can,” he jokes about the childbirth thing, because honestly he can’t quite know how much pain she was in, and even more honestly, they never talked about more kids, so it’s probably something he should consider more now, so she won’t need to do it again.

 Once she’s done, resting her head on her forearm, he strokes his own hand across her cheek, into her hair, “you signed up for it? Casey, this isn’t something you signed up for, you shouldn’t have to do this,” he tells her because he feels so bad, so bad for making her patch him up like this, when he could’ve just called a friend and woke them up to do this, but he needed to be home, he wanted to be with her, near her. She’s pressing kisses to his cheek and he sighs softly, closing his eyes as she does “always, I’ll always come home,” he promises again because he needs to believe it too, despite how dangerous his job is, and that it’s something he’ll never be able to fully promise her. But he’ll try.  Now that he has something to live for.

Once he’s swallowed his pills, he places the flask on the piano bench and gives her a look at her comment, in pain for an entirely different reason. He lets out a shaky sigh and reaches for her hips, replacing her hands with his own. “Oh, my love,” he breathes softly “I hate that you’ve ever felt the need,” he whispers, tugging her forward, leaning forward to place an innocent kiss over her covered thigh, resting his forehead there after. “no, no bed, stay with me here for a moment.”

a closed starter for: @kngofhell​

The Morgan leadership agreed to meet at the docks, the western part– secluded but strategically positioned to overlook the port. Veronica approached Elias, looking killer in her outfit as always. And truly, the woman was ready for yet another win. Dark orbs were glued to the port, hoping to detect movement. Her fingers ready to draw a weapon if anything should go wrong. “Good evening, my darling. Hope you haven’t been waiting long,” the woman chirped, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek– if nothing to make up for being fashionably late. “My team is in position, both are. Team A will throw the Wilkes’ soldiers a warm welcome. On our mark, team B will seize the merchandise. The transport is ready as well– I’ve just got off the phone with the truckers, they tell me the air is clear. Team B is instructed not to leave a trace behind,” a corner of her lips lifted into a smirk. The last part was a code only Elias could decipher. “Why not give Theo something to think about. After all I haven’t given her a Christmas present, yet.” 

He should be pissed off, angry as all hell that Veronica is late. But he’s not, because he trusts her. When she says she’s going to show up, he knows she’s going to show up. Just like she does know, dressed like she’s about to walk down a runway rather than commandeer a huge drop. Typical, really. She presses a kiss to his cheek and he knows she’s sucking up to him for showing up late, and he allows it with a roll of a his eyes “If you were anyone else…” he says, trailing off because she gets it.  He stops, and gives her a once over “Also if you didn’t look so good, if we have nothing at least we’re pretty,” he comments with a laugh in his voice before he listens to her tell him that everything is in order, as it always is, with the two of them working together. He really shouldn’t have been worried. “I’m trying to leave this thing unscathed, let’s try to keep our guns lowered until absolutely necessary, hm?” something he’s been trying lately, was trying not to murder someone on sight right away. Although a twisted arm and a gun to the back did work in his favor more often than not, maybe just refraining from the pulling the trigger bit. “Well, you know me, I am a giver,” he says, eyebrows raised. “there’s just one thing, the ships haven’t docked yet.”

“Don’t be fucking ridiculous I’m not just going to pour it across you Elias.” Casey muttered as she picked up the bottle to unscrew quickly, using some of the gauze as a makeshift sponge so she could drench it in the liquid. “Can you take your pants off? I need to be able to see it properly, here I’ll help you.” The lawyer was getting the hang of things now, the initial shock having worn off she had gone into crisis mode. Her breathing had regulated and although her hands were still shaking she was able to conduct herself with more of a calming air. That was what the man needed right now, not someone flapping around him like a headless chicken. “Sorry, wish I was asking you to do that under different circumstances.” She tried to lighten the mood with a small smile, hands gently helping him remove the garment without agitating the wound which was easier said than done.

Once she had a clear sight … well as clear as it could be with blood spilling out she set to work gently dabbing around the obvious cut, building up to actually touching it with the peroxide which she knew from experience growing up, would hurt like a bitch. “You can swear at me if you like.” Was all she said before biting the bullet, pun intended, and cleaning the actual wound itself. Doing anything like this for Elias was horrible because she hated to see the man she loved in pain, but she would hate more to see him get an infection, that much was certain. “Don’t say sorry, really, it’s okay. Don’t say sorry.” She reached up once she had discarded the bloody gauze on the floor next to her. “Exactly, you came home, and that’s all I care about. Anything else we deal with.” Grabbing the clean gauze she looked up at him apologetically. “I’m going to do this tight, it’s going to hurt.” Before pressing it onto the still oozing wound, biting the inside of her cheek to force herself to remain calm. The pain she was feeling nothing on his. “Put your hand there.” Guiding his hand to hold the dressing she could use both hers to tape it down securely, finally allowing herself to breath out once it was done. “Worst is over now. Here, painkillers.” The next important thing on the agenda.

“I have every right to be fucking ridiculous when I’m bleeding, darling,” he says through gritted teeth because yes, he has been shot before but this one in particular really fucking hurts. Maybe it’s all the leg work he did, trying to get home, the extra pressure. When she asks if he can take his pants off, a dirty joke is at the tip of his tongue but she cuts it off with an apology, knowing his thoughts before he can even really think them. “Don’t worry, love, I’ll remember this when you’re wearing a nurses costume for me,” he promises with a strained laugh before helping her help him out of his pants so she can patch him up.

  She seems to have much more of a handle on this than he originally thought, and is in a lot more control of her emotions than he originally thought she would be too, so he’s silent, mostly, while she dabs at the blood, lets his eyes close for a moment until she’s talking about…? And then, oh. He doesn’t swear at her as much he does bite into his fist to keep from doing so, not wanting to wake the twins and have to give his fiancée more work while she’s doing this for him. “I need to apologize,” he says because he does, he shouldn’t be putting her through any of this, but she knows, she knows, she knows what she got herself into when she said yes to marrying him, when she said yes to being with him, not that that’s an excuse at all.  “I’ll always come home to you, I swear it,” he makes a promise he can’t exactly keep but he’ll say it because she needs to hear it, he knows that much. He does as she says, puts his hand over where she put the gauze on his leg, holding it steady so she can tape him up, and when she does, and she’s handing him pain killers he gives her a look, a small smile “you’re an angel,” he says, and if he takes them with the whiskey from his flask, he knows she won’t say anything about it. “thank you, for everything.”

As she inspected the workers loading the trucks, Theodora could feel the telltale pulsation of a headache forming. It could, efficiently, be blamed on the battle she had just walked out of; a bulk of a man — standing tall as a pilar and upon his notable pride despite the filth he had been hiding in — who put up a delightful fight when corned by her and her men. They had been on his tail for weeks now, since the "business" man set off with her diamonds and a bag full of money, her money. She would have labeled him an associate previously, but betrayals were dealt swiftly in the Wilkes family, no pity given to those who shared no blood ties to the aristocratic family — pity was hardly extended to those in the family, Theodora knew, aware of the responsibility she carries on her shoulders. Blood without loyalty is of little importance to us, Theodora, never forget that, her grandfather used to tell her during their long chess matches in summer afternoons, family can be a pack of famished hyenas wishing to feast on our bones, Theodora. Wilkes blood you should avoid waste, but the empire comes first. No hesitance was held when dealing with family members that posed a threat, it could only be imaged how the Wilkes dealt with mongrels outside of it. The man didn’t stand a chance. 

So yes, her forming headache could’ve been blamed on the successful elimination and the healing of the bruises, but no… no. It was just in that spot between her eyes, which made her pinch the bridge of her nose as her brows furrowed, body buzzing with power still. She could not blame it on him, as much as she wished, not when the sensation was so familiar and distinct, with a known common cause for it.

“Elias,” she muttered to her bodyguard, barking orders to her soldiers as she leaned over to whisper in the man’s ear, “radio the ship. Tell them to stop. Tell them to turn back and wait for new orders. Call my cousins and let them know.”

Clenching her jaw, she strode to where the man’s car had parked, touching the pistol she kept hid on her back as she stood with one arm on her back, and a strained smirk on her face.

“Elias Morgan,” she greeted, tone dripping of venom, “came for a swim? It’s such a lovely night for that, no? Or did you just terribly missed me, and couldn’t wait to be in my joyful presence once more?” The facade fell, her temper flaring quicker than it usually did, and Theodora growled lowly. “What are you doing here, Elias? Who tipped you off?”

@kngofhell​

 Elias’ day is filled with planning. He likes to go into things with one fully formed plan, always Plan A, get in and out with little damage, and as minimal bloodshed as possible. Not that he doesn’t love a little bit of bloodshed from time to time, but tonight isn’t about that. It’s a bit about territory, a lot about money and even more so about showing off. He knows they can easily take things on and from, the Wilkes, it’s not the first time they’ve done something like this and he’s sure it won’t be the last, but still, a plan is important. Sure, the people who work for him aren’t his blood family, but they are his family, and he’s as loyal to them as they are to him and he’d like to come out of it without an unnecessary death, and the Wilkes? They’re ruthless, they don’t care who they need to step on, or kill, in order to get what they want.  Elias worked a bit differently, was ruthless when he needed to be. Had tortured and killed and shed blood when the time came, but he actively tried to avoid it if he could, tried his best not to add another tally to his soul.

He knows something is off the minute he touches ground with his feet. The ship isn’t docked yet, and from Ayla, and his own source, it should have been, which absolutely means something is amiss. Elias can deal with amiss, he’s planned for amiss.  He pats the side of his suit jacket, and finally she comes into view, and he smirks. Ah. That’s why.

“Theodora Wilkes,” he responds with a smirk on his voice, tongue in cheek, he shrugs a single shoulder “Is this not the perfect weather to take a stroll?” a beat, and he gives himself a single moment to glance around, count her team, take it all in. “Well, you know me, I can’t keep myself away from you,” the banter, filled with anger behind it, keeps going. “The same reason you’re here, and you know I can’t reveal my sources, then they wouldn’t be my sources any longer.”

Hearing his words Ayla lets out a chuckle, nodding as she replies. “Yeah, she’s quite the badass…but I’m sure you already know that.” She smirks, the mention of the caporegime causing her to think of what she’d do in this situation. Veronica was easily someone Ayla strove to be like, hoping she’d live that long…because as most knew, this line of work didn’t exactly guarantee a long lifespan. “Smoothly as possible’s usually Plan A, right? But if it turns into a bloodbath, we just make sure we turn the tides in our favor.” She recites, as if she’d read it in some criminal handbook. “We’re certainly not nothing…unfortunately for them.” She chuckles softly. Ayla follows his lead, holding back or moving when he moves. She knows her appearance isn’t what anyone will expect to show up at a drop like this, disarming is a trait she strives for on a daily basis where this area is concerned. Her gaze examines the docks as well, mentally tallying the number of men the Wilkes had brought with. Its always good to know how many you need to take out before you’re safe, right? “I aim to please.” Ayla nods. “I’m behind you boss.” She can see the irritated way the Wilkes respond to Elias’ greeting, the woman keeping her eye on two of the men speaking in hushed tones. “The ship should be in port by now” She mumbles under her breath, just loud enough for Elias to articulate if he wants to, but soft enough to keep her lips from moving too much. She has no doubt that at least one of the Wilkes would be able to quite literally read her lips. This didn’t sit well with her, the ship should be docked by now.

“Oh I know quite well how badass Veronica is,” and his voice is filled with admiration for the other woman. Veronica is smart, she’s skilled and she’s as Ayla put, an absolute badass.  “It’s always Plan A, and we don’t usually get to Plan B,” because they don’t. Elias, admittedly at this point, does love a bit of fun, wielding a gun, fighting a bit can be exciting, but he does like to get in and out of things with the least amount of damage if he can. Tonight however, does not look like they’ll be sticking to Plan A, because Elias, ever observant, notices that the ship isn’t docked yet, and if his, and Ayla’s informant was right, it would’ve been already and this would’ve been smooth. “Not nothing at all,” he agrees and when Ayla points out that the ship is indeed not docked, Elias nods, almost unnoticeable, letting her know he sees the error and it’s noted already.  “Don’t let them know you know anything is amiss,” he says under his breath because you have to put on a face for this kind of thing, annoyingly charming and confident is the best way to go, and he’s damn good at that.  “But be vigilant, if the ships not here, they’ll do whatever to keep us from being here when it docks,” he’s explaining to her and there’s moments before Theodora comes into view, and oh, that’s why, because she saw them arrive and she was smart, always smart, it’s why he respected her. He’s talking to her when it happens, the lights at the docks going out and the gun shot sounding through the air and it’s close, so fucking close but it’s not coming from the Wilkes in front of them, so he turns and that’s when he sees it, someone else, someone he doesn’t recognize, gun in hand, aiming for him and missing.  

Casey was panicking, sure had been in Elias’ life long enough to see him walk out of those elevator doors more than once covered in blood, but until it was cleaned away and he was pain free enough to tell her exactly what happened the lawyer wouldn’t know what exactly she was dealing with. He might tell her there was no need to worry but the way her had gone a nasty pale green colour and his face was covered in beads of sweat she begged to differ. “Right, the’ll arrest you, you walk me through it and…we’ve got this.” The brunette nodded as she reached him, using the scarf to try and wipe away some of the excess blood as carefully as possible so as not to cause extra pain. This suit was going to be thrown out that was for sure. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure she couldn’t hear anything coming from the twins’ room the lawyer made a quick mental list of the various things her boyfriend listed off. Peroxide, gauze, tape…peroxide, gauze, tape…she kept repeating over and over under her breath. They had all those things in the medicine cabinet thank god, for just this occasion, but that didn’t stop Casey from wishing someone like Veronica was already there to help her. “I will be right back.” She reassured him with wide eyes, pressing a soft kiss to him temple before disappearing to the bathroom in a streak of stressed laser focus. If she saw this as a job she might be able to deal with it better.

“Peroxide, gauze, tape…” She whispered as she gathered the various things that had been requested. Her hands were shaking nastily as she grappled with the combination on the safe, trying to keep her breathing calm, because if Elias died on her watch there was no question that she would be unable to go on. The whole family would be destroyed. Flashing visions of the worst case scenario came into her mind but she pushed them out forcefully, squeezing her eyes closed until she had regained composure. Everything in hand she swept back down the hall again, also holding onto cotton pads, a pair of the man’s sweatpants and t-shirt, and a half drunk bottle of water she’d snatched from her beside table to wash down the painkillers. ”Here, got it all. Elias, tell me what to do next.” She asked seriously as she placed it all down next to the piano, crouching by him as well.

 There are many things he didn’t want to put Casey through and tending to one of his wounds is one of them, but there are so many people down from the docks, he’s the least important to be tended to and so he headed home. He knows enough to get himself patched up for the night, and there’s nothing a couple of pills won’t help.  “We’ve got this,” he agrees, because they have no choice but to have this because if they don’t, it gets infected and he could very well die and he doubts they want to that to happen. He doesn’t tell her that though, but she’s smart so she has to know too.  She presses a kiss to his temple before she runs off to get supplies, and he takes the moment to close his eyes and breath through the pain.

He only opens his eyes when he hears Casey’s voice in front of him again, and she’s got everything he’s asked for “we need to clean the wound, just fucking pour some peroxide on and,” he nods towards the water on the bar top “that too, water and peroxide. Then we’re going to wrap it, okay? We have to wrap it with the gauze and tape,” he explains and he feels like maybe he’s slurring his words but he can’t be sure. “I’m sorry for making you do this,” he finally says, voice soft “I’ll have a friend come look at it in the morning, I’m sorry for worrying you tonight,” he keeps apologizing “but I came home to you, I made sure to do that.”

Casey, once she had finally gotten out of the lift with both the twins hours after they had gotten stuck, was worried sick about Elias. Trying to go about her normal evening for the sake of the girls the last thing she wanted to do was somehow make them anxious because of the atmosphere she was giving off, but it was hard to feign that everything was okay. Bathing the two of them, feeding them mashed banana which mostly went all over her and the room instead of in their mouths, the two of them had finally drifted off to sleep after many stories, kisses, hugs from their mother. It was like they knew something was wrong. They could sense it, and that just made the lawyer feel incredibly guilty she was inflicting this on her precious babies.

Even once they had fallen asleep she didn’t want to leave the nursery so she’d curled up on the padded rocking chair with a case file she needed to work on, every tiny sound in the apartment making her ears prick up incase it was her fiancee coming home. At the sound of the lift doors opening she had left up to race to the entrance hall, but before she could get there he was already calling her name. There was an urgency to his voice that made her pic up her pace, bile rising in her throat as she saw the state of him. “Fuck, Jesus fucking christ Elias what happened…” Immediately she was running across the room, grabbing a scarf that was hanging nearby from when she’d gotten home and using it to attempt to stem the blood from his leg. “We should be calling a doctor, this is bad, this is really bad.” Her panic came bubbling to the surface as she tried with all her might to remain calm for the sake of the man.

All he wants to see is his family, to check over them and make sure they’re all all right. He wants to kiss his fiancée, too, he really wants to kiss her and apologize for scaring her like he did.  But first he needs to take care of his leg.  “You don’t want to know,” he tells her, and she will, eventually, she will press and ask how he ended up in this state, but for now he doesn’t want to answer questions he just wants to get fixed.  He’s on the piano bench now, and he takes another swig of the whiskey in his flask while she rushes in his direction, worried “no need to panic, love, it is but a flesh wound,” he tells her and he knows that’s easy coming from him, someone who doesn’t have to look at the love of their life bleeding from the leg and a lovely color of puce green in the face from how much pain they’re in. “I can’t go to a hospital because they’ll arrest me,” he explains  “so you’ll have to be my nurse, it’s nothing I haven’t done before, I’ll walk you through it and tomorrow I’ll call a doctor friend to stitch it up, okay?”

He doesn’t wait for her confirmation, just blinks for a moment before settling his brain “we need peroxide, gauze, tape lots of it all. I need you to compose yourself because I need you to clean the wound, can you do that, Casey? I need you right now.” And he knows he shouldn’t be asking her to do this, but he needs her help, usually this would be Mazie, maybe Veronica or Leo, but none of them are here and she’s his best bet on feeling marginally better “and I have pain killers, in the safe, I’m gonna need those when you’re done.”

Loyalty had been instilled in Ayla when she was a kid. The crime involved side of her family had taught her the importance of staying loyal to those you cared about, and the same thing had been taught by her non-crime side of her family as well. They of course having to deal with the other side if they loved them enough. It was why Ayla had seeked out the Berk-Morgans when she finally got her footing in her criminal skills, she’d wanted to be involved with a crew, even if it was just an association like it was now. And if they’ll continue to have her, Ayla will happily continue working for them. After losing her parents before the age of 18, she found that she needs that sense of family, even if she’s not really family. Her eyes scan the docks as they drive up, green hues taking in every detail. These sort of things always cause her to be on high alert, especially when they were inevitably going to cross paths with the Wilkes. Unbuckling her seatbelt, she leans forward to pull her concealed pistol from her boot, cocking that one too. Always good to be prepared, right? She slips it back into the concealed holster, a chuckle falling from her lips at Elias’ words. “I don’t blame you, as much as I enjoy a bloodbath from time to time, this leather jacket of mine is one hell of a pricey dry cleaning bill.” She jokes lightly, pushing the corvette’s passenger door open to follow him. Ayla follows behind him, hands at her sides as she walks, she knows coat pockets slow her gun pull reaction time. “Always,” Ayla replies simply–confidently.

Two guns. If he hadn’t been about to walk into something that potentially could be a little dangerous (and really, wasn’t all of their work?) he’d mention how proud he was of how fucking dedicated to this she was, and how good at it she was already. He remembers his early days of trailing behind and with Raphael and learning the ropes, all so he could become this, where he is now, leading them into literal battle. He knows that he puts these peoples lives in danger, his own too, but they all signed on for this and well, that’s what you get when you sign your life away to the devil. “Have you spent much time with Veronica? You two would get along well, I think,” he says off handedly with a small smirk on his face. “Oh we love a good blood bath when it’s warranted but I hope tonight goes as smoothly as possible, but with Theodora has trained her team to stop at nothing and well, we’re not nothing.”  It takes him a moment, he adjusts his cuff links, lets his eyes roam over the docks, eyes focusing in on the cars, and men, ahead of him and he smirks “Exactly what I like to hear. Remember, behind me,” he says as he begins to stalk forward “Hello,” he begins, greeting Theo’s team saccharinely “fancy meeting you lot here tonight.”

Amidst the gunfire and commotion, Lita feels her body move instinctively. And she lets it, sure that she ought to be fearing for her life. Instead a fire burns inside her, engulfing her. These fuckings Berk-Morgans. This time they don’t get to win. They don’t get to walk out victorious without losses. She’ll make sure of it. Upon seeing Luka fall though, getting a shout from one of the members with a code word to let her know the boss is injured, her anger tenfolds. The world around her blurs further as she moves, shooting at anything in her sights, cursing and ducking to avoid bullets finding their way into her flesh. Its all very disorienting, until her gaze locks on their prime target. The one she’s been playing unawares with for months. Elias Morgan. Lita plants her feet, aims, ready to fire. She’s just about to press the trigger when someone shouts her name, making her loose focus to step out of the path of that bullet that nearly missed her. All the while she pulls her own trigger, its more of a reflex than anything. But in that split second he’s managed to move, and so has she. The only difference being that her bullet found flesh, and his did not. Her eyes doesn’t leave him as she steps closer, noticing how he’s holding his injured leg. “How does it feel?” she asks, both hands on her gun, still aiming at him. “Had it just been you and me here, that would have been your head. Next time, it might be your lovely wife or those cute twins. Thats what you and your filth deserves, to feel the loss of your loved ones. To despair at how unfair their death was.” The fury in her voice is palpable, matching the scorch her eyes is sending out. Hate is petty, for teenagers and the weak. But revenge, an eye for an eye, that is the closest thing to justice Lita figures she’ll ever get. 

He’s been shot before, injured before and this, he knows is just a gunshot wound to the thigh, it’s not going to kill him. He can see the anger in her eyes before she even speaks to him, gun still aimed at him and instead of crying over a bleeding thigh, he stiffens his jaw and he smirks. Because sure, Angelita Jansen had him fooled, but she won’t get the best of him, especially not here. “Is that what this is about? A revenge plot gone wrong?” he begins, smile falling into something dangerous as his gaze darkens, “because if so you can do much better than this,” he continues as if she doesn’t have her gun aimed at him and enough anger in her to shoot him “Go ahead, kill me,” he tells her, taunts even “Kill me because i promise you if you let me walk out of here I will find  you and destroy you, do you understand that? Do you think I’ve not had guns pointed at me? Do you think I’m afraid of you?” he asks, and his voice is menacing and cocky and if she shoots him down right now at least he’d go down knowing he told his family he loved them. “I promise you if you let me walk away from this I wiill have your head for even thinking about my family and I am a devil of my word. So do it, shoot me.”

The bell dings and he’s home, he’s home and he’s limping forward, out of the lift, stopping at the piano bench because that’s about as far as he can go, he leans against the piano and pulls his flask out of his inside suit jacket, which somehow survived, and drinks whatever whisky is lieft inside of there. He blinks a couple of times, tries to clear his vision and he calls out, desprete to see his family “Casey?!” it’s loud and maybe the twins are asleep but he wants to hold them, anyway. “Case?! Where are you?!” @lawlikecaseywells​

Casey: I know...I know just...

Casey: I will, i'll give them your love.

Casey: I love you.

Elias: I'll stop scaring you now.

Elias: are you physically okay?

Casey: Elias, stop it, stop talking like this I hate it. It's scaring me.

Casey: I think they are confused, Lizzie mostly, Phi is calmer.

Casey: I just wish i'd got them to the house before this happened

Elias: Casey you *have* to hear this. We both know what I do..it's dangerous.

Elias: I love you, I love the three of you so much.

Elias: I'll do my very best to come home to you.

Casey: I'm not going to get the chance to remarry because nothing is going to happen.

Casey: So stop talking like that, and come home, and i'll look after the girls until then.

Casey: We *will* see you later.

Elias: didn't even get the chance to marry *me* but just so you know, everything that's mine is already yours.

Elias: how are they doing? are they okay?

Ayla isn’t sure why, but this drop feels a bit like a test to her. Not the drop itself, mind you, especially since the information she’d gotten from her contacts was as legitimate as most info was about shady drops. No, she feels like Elias has brought her along to see what she’s made of, especially if things go south. Which in all honesty Ayla doesn’t mind one bit. If she needs to prove herself as an associate, she’ll do it to the best of her abilities. She enjoys working for the Morgans, and she’ll do what it takes to prove her skills (and loyalty) to them. She cocks her 9mm when she sees the docks coming into view, the young woman leaning forward a little in her seat in order to slip the weapon into her back holster. Knowing how drops can go, she liked to be prepared, especially with the feeling that Elias’ testing her a bit. “Of course, boss, whatever you need. I’m guessing I’m going to hear the classic order ‘no firing unless fired upon’ in a second?” If the Wilkes were trigger happy, they’d met their match in Ayla.

She was loyal, Elias gave her that, did exactly as he asked from the get-go and, everything seemed completely legitimate as well. He wasn’t looking to retire anytime soon, he wasn’t even forty years old yet, but Elias liked to work in advance, liked to make sure that eventually, things would be left in good hands, for those that chose to stay on after he stepped down.  Ayla seemed like a good fit, to go forward, although he did worry about her, as he did all of his team.  But the end of the day this is the life they chose, and with that, came things like tonight, something as simple as a shipment coming in at the docks could easily be turned around, especially when he’s intercepting it from the Wilkes, ruthless as all hell, even more so than him.  He watches her out of the side of his eye as she cocks her gun and slips it into her holster, thinks of his own, sitting in the holster that’s wrapped around his shoulders, underneath his suit jacket. She knows her stuff, and he adds another thing to the list. He should probably get her to talk to Veronica, more. “I prefer to keep this from becoming a bloodbath, as much fun as those can be, this is a new suit” he tells her as he steps out of the car and oh, wonderful, Theodora is back, he smirks to himself as he steps forward, far too much of a saunter imbedded into his walk for what’s about to go down. “You ready?” he asks her, looking straight ahead as he does.