Express Delivery || Jacob

Uhhhhhhgh Delivery jobs are the worst. Why did they need two people to simply give a package to some asshole was completely beyond Jacob, and yet, here he was, slumped in the passenger’s seat of a car, looking boredly through the window. He had trained and refined his skills for ten years, killed hundreds of people and given himself a reputation for what? Just to hand some mysterious package, that was so important he wasn’t allowed to know its contents, just had to give to someone, don’t ask any questions, hadn’t the Bianchi ever heard of mail, that was a thing, very useful, didn’t waste a mercenary’s time.

Were they still pissed at him? Perhaps this was just a way to torture Jacob a little, make him do boring, mundane tasks disguised as jobs and see how long it took for him to shoot himself in boredom. He couldn’t even complain loudly and grump to his heart content, he didn’t have the privilege of being alone. That’s right, the Bianchi didn’t even trust him enough to hand him a package by himself, they had to send some guy along. He shot a look at his companion, his annoyed frown hidden away behind his mask, but the same couldn’t be said about the man beside him, the displeasure was clearly written on his face, at least Jacob wasn’t the only one who wasn’t happy with the situation.

He hadn’t worked with the man before, and quite frankly, hadn’t paid attention even if had seen him around. The face looked vaguely familiar, but Jacob didn’t care to meet him before. It could be said they had a connection now, nonetheless, both of them trapped inside a vehicle, waiting for some person to show up so they could give the oh so precious package, it was a wonderful bonding moment, a Christmas miracle, even.

Snapping out of his sullen thoughts by the man’s suddenly growling in frustration, Jacob allowed himself a sigh of annoyance. “I don’t know, maybe they fell down a hole and died.” At this point Jacob would only feel sorry he wasn’t there to witness that. He felt like melting into the seat, his body so far down he could barely see through the window, not that there was much to see, definitely there wasn’t a late asshole to be seen. “Do you think if we leave the package here and leave they would eventually get it?” He wondered distractedly, he was sure the Bianchi higher ups would disagree with the idea, but Jacob had accepted he was a terrible Bianchi for a while now.

Footsteps were heard approaching where they were parked, and Jacob straightened himself up quickly, eagerly looking outside, and sure enough, there were two figures approaching in a sedated pace, like they weren’t more than an hour late for the meeting. Jacob immediately disliked both of them. “Time to start the most exciting job you’ll ever have.” He told his companion, sarcasm in his words as a way to avoid his annoyance to lash out.

The other Bianchi was definitely as happy about the situation as Jacob, that is, not very much. Ah yes, it would be nice if they could just drop the package on their corpses, no one could complain they didn’t finish the mission. He nodded at that man’s suggestion, echoing the sentiment. Not only they had to wait like sitting ducks, but there was also the cold to make things worse, at this rate Jacob would feel compelled to kill them himself, after delivering the package, of course, the mission came first.

The man was right though, the package was mostly likely something illegal, maybe even sensitive information, it would only cause the family’s wrath, and although Jacob liked to grumble and complain, he didn’t want to actually get more on their bad side. He let out a sigh, glancing at his partner. “You’re right, they would make frowny faces at us, it’s not worth it. I can dream though.” It was all he could do at the moment, really, since he had to wait and wait, did people think they had nothing better to do, or was this just some sort of power play? Let’s get there late to prove we don’t need to obey rules. He’s heard that one before, in his opinion it just came across as rude.

But eventually the contacts arrived, his partner seemed to be the verge of sleep, and honestly, he would have done the same if he wasn’t so paranoid. He grabbed the heavy package on the backseat, eager to finish this and go home. Stepping out of the car there was a blast of cold wind that immediately made him want to hide back on the car, but knew that would be silly. He expected the other man to follow, and shortly Jacob was staring at the two people. There was a tense silence, and Jacob just lifted the package a bit, to show them he had whatever they wanted, hiding a very sarcastic smile behind his mask. The woman approached decisively, looking at the package and ignoring completely Jacob and his partner. She eyed carefully the lump, as if hesitant to touch it. “I take everything is order?” She asked suspiciously, and Jacob didn’t really know if it was or not, but nodded anyway.

To his surprise, his partner didn’t follow him out of the car, leaving Jacob to deal with the two contacts by himself. It didn’t matter one way or another, it wasn’t really necessary two people to deliver a single package. To be honest, he couldn’t imagine what could possibly be so important and valuable that it needed all this care. “I can assure you the package has not been trifled with, everything is exactly as previously stated.” He said neutrally, bullshitting his way through the negotiation, the woman’s suspicion growing tiresome after a few minutes. He could tell they were a jump away from either high tailing out of there or take out a gun and start shooting, Jacob on the other hand just wanted this to be all over.

There was a movement from the woman’s partner, his hand going to his pocket, Jacob narrowed his eyes, tensing up and ready to drop the package and take out his own gun. He wasn’t sure what triggered the sudden hostile action, but he the dislike for these two was growing more and more as time went by, it would be a pleasure to shoot each of them on the head. But before he could act, the sound of a car door closing echoed around them, Jacob’s partner finally deeming the situation serious enough to intervene. His posture was nonthreatening, his voice still calm as he tried to defuse the situation before it even started, it was more than Jacob would’ve tried, so perhaps it wasn’t so bad have this man on his side.

He held back the urge to snark back at the jumpy man, Jacob’s sharp tongue wouldn’t be welcomed in such a tense situation, but the “I never liked you guys’ sense of betrayal for no reason.” Was at the tip of his tongue. “He is right, we’re just the middle men here, if you have any complaints about the delivery, don’t hesitate to contact the Bianchi.” He would’ve given them his best customer smile if they could see his face, as it was, he would have to content himself with make his voice friendly and inviting. It was quite simple after that, the two finally accepted the delivery, the woman taking the package from Jacob’s hands “a bit heavier than expected.” She said to her partner, and Jacob officially considered the task done.

“Have a wonderful day.” He said to them before heading back to the car, rolling his eyes at how difficult some people made things. “that was exciting, can wait to do it again.” He muttered with an annoyed sigh to his partner unsure if the other even cared to listen. He entered the car once more, and just waited for the other man do the same so they could leave before the two contacts decided they wouldn't like to leave the two Bianchi men alive after all.

“It’s always sarcasm.” He said deadpan when the other man entered the vehicle. He waited for him to be settled, before turning on the engine and drove the car away, the two contacts were left behind shortly, still looking at the package suspiciously. Knowing the Bianchi, Jacob could understand the hesitance, the white family had a habit of turning against you at the oddest of moments without any sort of provocation. And who knew, maybe those two actually did something to warrant retaliation, and were just waiting for the other shoe to drop. It was none of Jacob’s business, in the end.

The drive back was expected to be quite boring, His partner didn’t seen the type for inane conversations, and Jacob wasn’t really in the mood to engage him anyway. He would drop the car at the mansion, since it wasn’t his, and be on his merry way, maybe he should go visit Max? That was always a fun way to spend the afternoon…

His distracted train of thought was interrupted by loud bang. The car wasn’t even ten meters away from the meeting point and things were already exploding. Jacob practically jumped on his seat, his foot going to the break to stop the car so he could look behind him. There was a cloud of smoke covering the scene, but it soon dissipated to reveal a gruesome sight. “What the actual fuck!” He exclaimed perplexed, the man and woman were made like pincushions by the explosion of a trap inside the box. The man was unmoving, seeming have died instantly, but the woman wasn’t so lucky, and was agonizing on the ground, moaning in pain. The man’s Italian accented voice snapped him out of the shock, and made Jacob realize they should be leaving as fast as possible, to avoid any problems. “Right, I’m going.” He pressed the accelerator with more force than necessary, and the car lurched in movement once again.

There was a tense silence, the idea that the Bianchi would let they carry such a dangerous bomb around like that without even telling them what it was didn’t sit right with him. Was that a test? To prove they were willing to do as they were told without any question? He wasn’t sure. Every so often, Jacob would shoot a glance at the man beside him, wondering if he had something to warrant such a trap. “So, am I the only one who thinks it’s fucked up they would give us a trap without telling how careful we should be with it?” He finally asked his voice sounding annoyed, a frown behind his mask. “Do the Bianchi dislike you as well?” Or maybe he was new to the family and they wanted to test his loyalty. At any case, he was probably considered disposable, not a fun thought for anyone.

The other man looked like he wasn’t taking this sudden turn of events all too well. His posture too tense, gripping onto the seat tightly, looking like a breath away from panicking. That wasn’t good, yeah, the situation wasn’t ideal, but they were fine, the package wasn’t on their hands anymore and thankfully it wasn’t an actual bomb that exploded, the car was close enough that they would have certainly got caught on the blast if that was the case. As it was, Jacob was more pissed at the family for not saying anything than truly scared.

When the other spoke to answer Jacob’s question, his voice still sounded quite shaken, it make Jacob think he didn’t have much experience in this business, so the theory that the family wanted to test them both was sounding more and more likely. But differently from Jacob, it sounded like the family wanted this man around, his ties coming from family and everything, would they really risk losing an allied family just to prove something? Now that he thought about, he realized that yes, they would. “Well, welcome to the Mafia, where you should second guess every intention and then second guess even more.” He hoped he wasn’t sounding too much like a liability who would start stabbing everyone on the back, but Jacob was frankly tired of these games.

“I was thinking about that, It would be very likely this is some kind of test, maybe they wanted to make sure we would do like we’re told and not let curiosity ruing any plans.” He shrugged, nothing to be done, they would just have to accept it now. “Even so, I don’t know about you, but it makes for poor motivation to put allies’ lives in danger like that, in my opinion, I found it it’s bad for business if you can’t trust people you’re supposed to work with.” He didn’t intend to make the man beside him doubt the family’s loyalties or to sway him away from anything, he was just mad at what they did, and in the end, he wouldn’t even be able to complain, just silently accept. So the next best thing was snark about the family and throw sarcasm around.

By now it should be fairly obvious Jacob didn’t have the highest opinion on the family he worked for, so the man’s question was not entirely surprising. Jacob caught how suspicious he seemed to be, but he wasn’t there to make friends, just to do his job, he didn’t need this guy’s approval. He shrugged in response. “We’ve had our disagreements, they did some things I was not happy with and I don’t believe they would shed any tears if I died.” He explained detachedly, being vague on purpose, he turned around the corner, no longer in a hurry to flee the murder scene, feeling unperturbed. “Don’t give me that look, I’m not going to start stabbing anyone and spilling out secrets, I’m a better professional than that. It just means any job I do will be fueled by spite and sarcasm.” But then again, most of the things he did were already like that.

Slowly, the man seemed to calm himself down, taking deep breaths and letting go of the vice like grip on the car. Jacob thought his companion should get used to these kind of excitements quickly, or he was bound to end up dead in an alley otherwise. Betrayals and surprises happen, and this time they even survived without a single scratch. One thing, was that the man seemed to take Jacob’s word seriously, he wasn’t expecting that, most people just ignored what he said, thinking his sarcasm wasn’t worth anything, but apparently this guy was trying to learn the ropes of the business and would take advice from where he could get. “How long have you been doing… this?” he asked curiously referring to the mafia business, figuring it shouldn’t be very long. “because you might want to get used to this type of thing fast.” And now he was just handing out advice, how odd.

The man was all polite too, apologizing and everything for his suspicion. It was like a little fish amidst all the sharks, Jacob didn’t mind, he meant no harm to anyone as long as they didn’t attack first, but others might see it as a weakness. There was still hope, however, he was already putting Jacob’s advice to use “You have point, good thing you’re learning, keep that up and you might become a decent mercenary yet.” It would be a shame if he was killed before he could really grow into the profession, a waste of potential. Perhaps Jacob could help with that? He didn’t usually go out of his way to help anyone, but it could be fun to teach someone to kill and survived in the middle of the sharks and tigers.

There was a lull in the conversation, the men growing silent while Jacob kept on driving. Until the other man hesitantly asked what were their next course of action. “Now we go home.” He answered simply. “Sorry if this was the most boring and simple job they could give us, but at least there was a bit of excitement, with that trap.” At least it went exactly as the family planned, even though he was still mad that he wasn’t informed what the plan was.

It wouldn’t take much longer for them to arrive at the manor, a few more minutes and it would be visible on the distance, and Jacob wished to leave the place as fast as possible when they got there. “If you want a bit more excitement, I can let you report that the mission is done and went without a hitch.” He wouldn’t even bother to ask for an explanation, but the other man might let curiosity out, thinking about that, It might be enough to convince Jacob to stick around a bit longer, just to see what would happen.

Was it better or worse to have your family caught up on this kind of life? On one hand you didn’t have to lie, and they knew what they were getting into enough to protect themselves and expect the worst, on the other hand it was dangerous and brought so many expectations. If he had to choose, Jacob would stay exactly as he was, the only one in the family who had any involvement in crime, while everyone else remained oblivious, and for that he went to great lengths to hide his identity. And then there was this man, whose family had connections with the Bianchi, but not enough to know details in how dangerous it could be, apparently. “Good thing you don’t want out even after this, because I’m pretty sure it’s already too late.” Now they knew stuff, the family wouldn’t be happy if stuff got told in case he wanted out. “It gets easier as you go… well, not really, but you get used to it.” And came to expect betrayals like that as well, if you’re Jacob and can’t stay loyal very long.

The man still seemed a bit skittish, it would take a few days for all this excitement to process so he could come in terms with it, but Jacob honestly thought the man would be fine. He nodded at what he said, a good start indeed, a scare to show things won’t be easy, without anyone being injured… well, anyone that mattered anyway. Jacob didn’t often deal with newbies in a job, it most due to the fact that he usually worked alone, but as time went by with the Bianchi, he got to know quite a few people, some of them more incompetent than others, and now someone who could possibly grow into a fine criminal. Jacob huffed a laugh at what the man said. “Eh, we’ll see if you really can do it, don’t start throwing threats just yet.” He said playfully, an amused smirk hidden behind his mask.

He hadn’t meant for the apology to be serious, but the man took it as that anyway. Jacob was well aware that he wasn’t the one calling the shots in the family, and frankly, he wouldn’t have any other way. Now if only they respected their employees more… “That’s usually how it goes, yeah. They tell you to do something, you do it” Jacob did what he was told, and so did most other Bianchi associates, it kinda worked most of the time, but this system had it flaws, situations like this one, where people could be caught in crossfire because they weren’t given enough information to go on, and then they get pissy.

It wasn’t the most difficult thing in the world to report, Jacob usually told how it went down and then threw some sarcasm around if he was feeling particularly snaky and the person he was talking to wasn’t one heads of the family (it rarely was), but it would be a good experience for the new guy, he supposed. “Sure, tell them how everything went down.” He scoffed when the man explained how they might react badly. “Just tell them we would have been more successful with that if we had known this was a trap beforehand, not in an accusing way, but in a false apologetic way, like ‘I’m saying sorry but we both know it’s not true and we will pretend everyone here is civilized’.” Or at least that was how Jacob did it, it worked, usually.

The Bianchi Manor soon was possible to be seen looming on the distance as the car approached more and more, it shouldn’t take them very long to arrive, and then his partner could do his first debriefing, with Jacob silently following curiously.