#ur magic

If rumor was to be believed, Geoff had been the first to detach from the original crew and push for growth. With the support of the Cockbites, he birthed his Let’s Play Family. They were all Geoff’s, in a sense; sure, the other Cockbites were on his level in terms of who they answered to if things went south but Geoff was the one they all knew, the one who came to James’ mind when he thought of who had his loyalty. As far as James knew, Geoff had collected seven crews, not counting the Fake AH, and a handful of mercs who floated around where he wanted them. There was the Hub in Colorado; Fakehaus, Fake Chop, and the Fake Pine out in Cali; Kinda Fake in San Fan; the Fake Attacks’ in Austin with the rest of Cockbite; and then J456, Lazer, Criken and JT, none of whom James had ever met but who he’d seen around last time Geoff had called them all for the annual meeting.

Geoff had a way of finding them when they were still coal and polishing and applying pressure until they were hard as diamonds; he’d done it with his personal crew and he did it with every crew he adopted into his family. Some, like the Hub, crumbled. But others, like Fakehaus and Fake Chop, bloomed under the attention.

The first time James had met Geoff, he’d been intimidated. James didn’t get intimidated often, he’d have to care enough to know who someone was in the first place and then have to work up the energy to be scared, but this was the Kingpin. They’d whispered about him, his reputation and his crew, when James was still in with Felix as a hitman. So when Dan had ended a call he’d taken in the middle of a meeting and said that the Kingpin and Mogar were coming down to meet the crew and check on things - yes, James had been nervous.

They’d shown up two days later and James had been the one to show them in. Geoff had slouched, even in his expensive tux, his mustache messy and ungroomed and his eyes bloodshot like he’d been drinking starting at the crack of dawn - and he smelled it too - but James could have spotted the danger from a mile away. Michael “Mogar” Jones had stood next to Geoff, totally at ease, like his boss being sloshed hadn’t even phased him, and he’d cracked a joke and been as loud as James usually was and James had been intimidated because they held themselves so casually, with such little worry for their surroundings that he’d almost been envious of it. He and Aleks, they’d already been making plans to leave the Hub, had meetings with the people they were taking and with the people they were bringing in and had even already told Jordan and Dan that they weren’t going to come back after the next heist. They’d been set to go out on their own, show the Hub how it was meant to be; James was going to show Jordan that he and Aleks weren’t dangerous for each other, no matter what he thought. They’d be more successful than anything Jordan had ever seen - even if they had a rocky start.