Emma arrived back at the penthouse alone, after Mickey, Stacie and Albert had, as intended, been invited back to Richard Mayfair's flat for drinks. Ash had stayed behind at the restaurant to pay the extras and clean up, though politely declined Emma's offer to help, and Danny, after playing another interest in the restaurant had left earlier as part of the plan.

When Emma got to the penthouse, it was empty. She immediately went to the next most obvious place: Eddie's Bar. She walked there in ten minutes. Eddie's Bar was alive with scents and smells and colours – a relief from the bland emptiness of London's narrower streets. At ten pm, it was at it's busiest with around ten customers in total. Eddie nodded in Emma's direction as she entered.

"They're over there."

Emma followed his eye line to a table in the far corner, where Danny and Sean were sat, laughing over two drinks and a confused layout of cards. They didn't seem to notice her and continued their game of cards. Emma let out a tiny cough. They glanced upwards, slightly.

"Oh, hi," Sean said, face still flustered from laughter and drink. "How did it go?" he asked, perhaps in an attempt to sound more serious.

Emma nodded slowly. "Good, I think."

"Want to join us?" Danny asked, smiling widely and gesturing towards the cards on the table.

"No, thanks," Emma replied, gingerly. "I'll be over there."

She gestured towards the bar and went over there to join Eddie, ordering a drink without much thought. She looked warily over at Danny and Sean, who'd gone back to their cards and drinking. Emma looked suspiciously at the empty shot glasses spread across the table, wandering if Danny could for any reason taking advantage of her brother's drunkenness, he was, after all, a con artist, but he didn't seem particularly sober himself.

Emma took a sip of her drink, feeling slightly tempted to join them, mainly just to show off to Danny her alcohol tolerance.

But in a way, she felt slightly betrayed by Sean and Danny's sudden friendship.

How could Sean so easily get along with Danny if she and Stacie couldn't Danny neither, actually? Not that she'd made much effort.

It had always been her that was the more confident. When they were younger, Sean was there because she Emma was and he followed her, not necessarily because he always wanted what she did. He always had the choice to leave but never did, and Emma knew he wouldn't. It was selfish, she knew, but she also knew that Sean wouldn't know what do if he was without her. She could never tell him that she wouldn't, either. He believed in her too much.

But after joining Mickey's crew, her brother had grown up in a way. And it was scary.

The doors swung open and Mickey, Stacie, Ash and Albert entered Eddie's Bar. Emma was expecting them to be laughing, talking about how successful the night had been, asking Eddie to open the champagne but they weren't. She immediately noticed their stony faces, their silence.

Something was wrong.

"What's happened?" Emma inquired, sitting up in her seat slightly.

Mickey sighed. "Ash?"

Ash bit his lip, attempting to bring up an explanation. "There's another team of grifters with our mark."

Emma took in the news, staying calm and searching the others' faces for anything else. Other con artists wasn't something they had come across much before, especially not ones that it seemed they would be competing for their mark, at least, not since Mickey and Ash had crossed paths with her and Sean.

"Look, it's not a big thing…" Ash started to say.

"No, it isn't. We just have to do what we always do – we have to stay one step ahead of them." Mickey seemed to be speaking more to himself than to anyone else.

He was pacing.

"So we keep going?" Stacie asked, seeming to have Mickey's pacing, which was sort of as close as he came to panicking.

Picking up on the atmosphere, Eddie loyally hurried to pour four drinks.

"I don't know," Mickey said, seeming in doubt. "What are they like?"

"Like us," Stacie explained. "They're selling him a restaurant, we think; we're assuming they're the competition he told Albert about."

"Are they… good?" Mickey asked worriedly, eyes flicking between Ash and Stacie's faces.

Ash shrugged carefully. "We don't know. We'll have to stay three steps ahead."

"I have a bad feeling about this," Mickey thought out loud, slowing his pacing and sitting down between Ash and Stacie. "What do we do, Albert?" he asked quietly.

Albert looked at Mickey, questioningly. "You should know by now to go by your experience, Michael. Do you trust you're instinct or take the risk?"

Mickey considered it. "We keep going, I think," he said. "But we're going to need to improve our plan. Where are Danny and Sean?" he asked Emma.

She gestured to the corner of the bar where they were still sat, slightly embarrassed.

Mickey raised an eyebrow. He glanced around his crew, at Danny and Sean's drunkenness, Emma's confusion and Ash and Stacie's stifled yawns.

"Okay, we'll work on what we're going to do later," he said. "We all need some rest."

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Thanks for reading, I'll try to update soon. Please leave a review =)

MM