As I Collide, I See I Am a Paradox // White Collar

FORTY-NINE

how is it possible for you
to destroy me and protect me all
at the same time?

I guess the answer lies behind your
complicated love.

~

"Why? What did you do to him? How do you know him?" Those were the only questions she could think about asking right now. She needed information and from there she could formulate a plan.

"I joined Wilkes' crew about a year and a half ago. I met him by accident, at one of his underground casinos. He roughed me up and then offered me a job on his crew." He spoke vaguely about his brief and busy time with Wilkes: The ID forgeries, the counterfeit money, the laundering scheme, the increase in violent coercion, and the escalation into armed robbery. Neal sped up towards the end, then he took a breath and ventured a glance at her, "There was a job he wanted to do." He said. "Was going to be dangerous for bystanders, so I...made it not happen. He held a grudge." Kira didn't look much happier at the explanation. "They were dangerous guys, Kira; they would have hurt someone. So I gathered information — times, dates, contacts — and I made an anonymous call to the FBI. I didn't give them enough to nail Wilkes, but it wrecked his plans."

"I don't imagine Wilkes liked that much." She whispered out and nodded.

Neal laughed, but it felt like plastic on his face: clearly fake and overly shiny. "No, he didn't." He paused. "He worked me over pretty thoroughly then had his guys take me to the river..."

"...And?"

He shrugged. "I talked my way out. It's what I do." He added, as if it were nothing.

"That's it?"

Neal needed weeks to recover from Wilkes' beating. It was longer before he could hear a closing door without hearing the gunshot that missed his head to strike the wall of the warehouse behind him. He could still clearly picture the chuckle of Wilkes' thug who then holstered his weapon with a smug grin on his face. His man loomed over him to fill his entire field of vision and while Neal could hear the gentle lapping of the waves against the dock, he didn't look away from his intended executioner. A pebble on the uneven wet concrete bit into his knee and the breeze off the water carried with it the acrid stench of exhaust from one of the passing tugboats.

"Okay," The man had said, calmly watching Neal, who couldn't seem to stop shaking. "I accept your offer."

The money from the artwork that Neal stole from Wilkes' intended targets — barely an hour before Wilkes and his crew arrived and were met by police — comfortably covered the payout.

Kira still watched him, waiting for an answer. "I gained intel," He said slowly, nodding his head as he spoke, "then sold him out for...500,000 dollars." Her stare turns condescending. He knew this. He knew Wilkes would come after him and she's just now hearing about it. She seems to recall something similar happening with Matthew Keller and look how that turned out. "I already know what you're gonna say, but I was young. I wasn't thinking."

"That's right. You weren't thinking. If you knew Wilkes was after you, why are you just telling us this now? Especially after everything that's happened with Keller." From her tone, anyone could tell she was just a little pissed. Pissed because she was interrupted from her much needed sleep for an emergency, frustrated because Neal was not telling her things whereas she has been nothing but honest with him. Well...a little honest with him... Nobody knows about Scott Towner except her so maybe she could be accused of the same thing? But Towner wasn't out to kill her or anyone, unlike Wilkes and previously Keller.