Devlin wrinkled his nose at the putrid smell of the cell he was in. He was at his other safe house and was doing what he and Cody had planned: get Bull's hideout, and the only way they could do this was to torture Bruce, the guy they had captured.

He never did his dirty work himself, but it was high time he did because it seemed his boys were using a soft hand as Bruce refused to break.

"I don't know the safe house." The battered Bruce who was chained to the ceiling said for the umpty-umpth time. Devlin grimaced. He was getting tired of that line.

He backhanded him across the face with such force that Bruce's already bleeding nose started to bleed the more.

"I must give it to you, Bruce. You're very good at keeping secrets, and you're loyal to your boss. But trust me, YOU WILL BREAK."

Bruce chuckled, a dry throaty sound that could pass off as a hiss. "You will have to kill me first."

Devlin balled his fists. "Aren't you feeling bad? You have hurt a lot of people because of your silence. You –" He squeezed his eyes shut. "Please, Bruce. I'll let you go. Just tell me where Bull is hiding, or can we start with, who is Bull? What's his real name?"

Bruce chuckled. "Death or nothing, sucker."

"You bastard!" Devlin yelled, angrily running his fists into Bruce's guts. The latter howled in pain.

"That's enough, old man." Devlin heard Peter say from behind him. "It seems your –" He waved his hands in a way that showed he was looking for the right word.  "– tactics are not working." Peter laughed.

Devlin balled his fists. "It seems the bloody ass hole is neutral to pain."

He moved away from where Bruce hanged, taking Peter's hand with him. Devlin was grateful for the fresh air as he opened the door to the cell and stepped outside. He shut his eyes momentarily, sucking in air, letting it fill his senses.

"Okay, show's over," Peter said, sounding impatient and irritated.

Devlin glared at him. "Sometimes we have to be grateful for the little things we have."

"Like the air."

"Like the air," Devlin said closing his eyes again.

"And life."

"And life." He took a deep breath.

"And love."

"And lo–"Devlin looked at him sharply. "What the hell?"

Peter patted Devlin on the back. "I know what happened."

"Who told you?" Devlin asked frowning then groaned. "That idiot."

"Don't blame Cody, he's only being a good boy."

"I'm so going skin him alive –"

"And hang his hide on your porch, same old lines, old man, you just never change."

Devlin chuckled. "I was going to say I would feed his skin to my dogs."

Peter made a face. "Eww gross. That's disgusting."

Devlin ignored him. "Talking about my dogs, I'm really glad you took them with you before the incident. And Mia too, even though you hate her."

Peter grimaced. "Hate her? I detest her very existence. She peed all over my closet and on my shoes. When I tried to get her to leave my friggin' closet, she almost clawed my eyes out! She's a nightmare – Stop. Don't."

Devlin was laughing.

"I said stop laughing!" Peter whined.

Devlin couldn't stop. "I'm sorry I just.... can't help it." Devlin laughed harder.

Peter smiled at him. "I'm glad I made you laugh, brother."

Devlin sobered and smiled back. Peter always knew how to make him feel better whenever he was in a gloomy mood. He was grateful for that.

"I don't know what to do," Devlin said, looking at the long iron window of his cell. "For the first time, I'm feeling so.... lost."

"I understand." Peter placed a hand on Devlin's back. In the few moments they stood there, Devlin felt grateful to have someone in his life that he could talk to. He felt connected to his friend slash brother slash cousin now more than ever. He remembered the matching bracelets they had and he raised his hand, looking at them. The initials were D&P. Devlin smiled. He looked at Peter and Peter smiled back. He was thinking about the bracelets too.

"Wait a minute, what are we smiling about here? Love or war?"

Devlin groaned. "It is so like you to ruin intimate moments."

"I'm sorry, I was just wondering."

"Speaking about love, how is Alex?"

"Don't even get me started about her."

"Trouble in paradise?"

"More like 'animals in paradise' "

Devlin chuckled. "What?"

"She was the reason I 'borrowed' your pets. I don't know why she woke up one morning and insisted I bring animals to our house, which was why I borrowed yours."

"Our house?"

Peter grinned. "We moved in together."

"Wow, so fast. So you, what, decided not to keep me in the loop? It's my money you're spending, you know?" Devlin teased.

"Thank you, sir. You know what? To earn my pay, why don't I help you interrogate Bruce. Let's see if I'll be able to get something out of him."

"You? Okay, fine let's see."

"Okay." Peter started to go in but Devlin held him back.

"Woah, Woah, hold on. I was kidding."

"I'm not. Come on, let's go in."

Still unsure, Devlin followed him. It took a while for his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room, and when it did, Peter was already crouching beside Bruce who had been let down from the ceiling.

Bruce was laughing. "I can't believe you chickened out and you had to bring your dog to do your dirty work for you."

Devlin marched towards him with anger. "You say one more word against him and I'll –"

"Dev." Peter held him back. "I got this."

Devlin stood back, still looking at Bruce like he longed to snap his head off.

"Let's make this real quick, shall we? Where is Bull?"

"Let's make my execution real quick shall we? I'm not saying a word."

Peter laughed mirthlessly and stood. "You know, Bruce, you have a problem." He paced the cell calmly like he had no worries. That was the calmest Devlin had seen him be.

"Do I now?" Bruce asked sarcastically.

"Yeah. Your problem is that you think you're invisible to the outside world, and, well, you might be. You might be invisible – but your family isn't."

For the first time since Devlin started to break Bruce, Bruce showed signs of fear, but only for a millisecond, if Devlin's quick eyes hadn't been watching with painstaking concentration, he would have missed it, but he did catch it, and so did Peter.

"You always told your 16-year-old – Emily is it? – never to post on social media platforms like Facebook, hell, you forbade her from even owning a cell phone, not to talk of having a Facebook profile. But she does own a phone, a Facebook profile, and voila! Here we are." He grinned.

"Here we are what?"

"I was able to trace her last post to the location from where it was posted." Peter cracked his knuckles. "There is a sniper in front of your house. All he needs is one phone call and.... boom!"

Devlin was startled and almost jumped. The boom had been really loud and sudden. He looked at Peter and smiled, it was as if they had reversed positions.

"You can say goodbye to sweet Em," Peter concluded with a grin.

Bruce's face turned cold. "You're bluffing."

"Am I? You know I'm not. You see, I never wanted to resort to using your loved ones to blackmail you but you must understand I have no choice."

Bruce waited a while and then burst into laughter. "How did she get a cell phone? I forbade her mom from giving her a phone, and she certainly can't get one on her own."

Peter sighed dramatically. "Well, sorry to break your heart but you know teenagers, at this stage of their lives they usually feel...trapped at home, with the rules and unnecessary curfews and all, so it was not hard to get a phone across to her. Are you interested in knowing how we did it? We distributed brand new cell phones to all teens from the ages 15 to 18 in your minute town and your little Em jumped at the idea of having a cell phone. The rest you know about."

"And where did you get all that money? You think I'm a fool?"

"Oh yes, oh hell yes, I think you're a fool because if you weren't you would realize that this is the 21st century and anything is possible."

Bruce still looked stubborn and unyielding. Devlin sighed in resignation. At least Peter did something.

But Peter was not done yet. Instead of giving up, he brought out his phone and started to dial. "Your choice, Bruce." He said, his voice blending with the tune of his phone's keypad. "Your family, or some rusty old maniac who doesn't give a shit about you, or anyone for that matter."

"Stop! I'll – I'll talk."

Devlin couldn't believe his ears. Peter moved away from Bruce and patted Devlin on the back. Devlin took his hand and squeezed it in appreciation. He was so grateful to the extent that his veins were literarily overflowing with love for his friend slash brother slash cousin. He wanted to say this to Peter but decided that it could wait. He needed to get this Bull's business out of the way.

Devlin marched up to Bruce with determination. "Now tell me you schmuck, WHERE IS BULL?"

~

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