Archive of Our Own ^beta

Blair was pissed off. He had been for a while. Not only had he been ratted out, but he was doing 15 years for it. 15 years that he could've been using to go on vacation or, hell, rob more banks! But no. Instead, because of that damn kid he knew was too risky to put on the team, he was stuck looking like an orange highlighter and eating slop instead of gourmet steak.

The bed – if you could even call it that – left his back tight. Every morning he was spending a good 5 minutes massaging out the kinks in both his shoulders. The guards wouldn't even let him have his damn earrings! Or his makeup! How the fuck is he supposed to look hot without hoop earrings and smudged eyeliner?

Quite frankly, it was bullshit. And he had no problem making snarky remarks to remind the officers of it. He would've bailed himself out. God knows he had more than enough money after that last heist. But Jax spilled enough tea that the judge gave him no chance for bail. Or parole.

So he was stuck. Wake up, eat, shower, sleep, re-fucking-peat. He didn't smoke when he first got in there. But it passed the time. And all people really dealt with around here were cigarettes and food scraps.

He supposed he should rewind a bit.

A few weeks ago, Jax was running his first solo job. A quick and easy bank robbery. He and a few other guys went but he was supposed to be the main guy. Mister Macho man who would go in guns blazing, mask on, and terrify everyone. He'd call the shots and order people around instead of being one of the lackeys that poked their guns at people out of boredom.

He was doing some stupid monologue, at least that's what Blair heard. He was going on and on and on about how he was this big scary guy and how he's done this all a hundred times before and how he wasn't afraid to shoot anyone. But Jax, god does he have an ego. And boy does he just love to gloat.

He started on about the last heist he did. The big heist. Clean, perfect, entirely under wraps. No one even knew that their group pulled off the heist. No one even knew there was a heist since the casino owner was so desperate to keep it under wraps.

At first, he kept it vague. Minor events, set up details, all that jazz.

But then he started dropping names. That is the one thing you don't do. The whole point of keeping things secret is that they stay secret. But Jax clearly didn't get that. He kept going on and on and on.

And then the cops showed up. Being the amateur that he is, Jax didn't grab a hostage before leaving. He just walked on out the front thinking that one gun would stop at least 8 armed police officers from taking him in.

The part that really gets under Blair's skin? The police cut him a deal. They'd let Jax go but only if he told the police everything. Not just first names. They wanted full names, appearance descriptions, where they lived (assuming Jax knew, he did not).

And the kid bought it. One handshake and a surefire promise and he was off. He was terrified of going to jail. The kid's ego was so big he hadn't even thought jail was possible! And by some miracle he avoided it.

Blair made sure Jax knew he was pissed the fuck off when Jax testified against him and the others in court. Sure, Blair had to be dragged out of the room so he couldn't add first degree murder to his list of charges, but it would've been worth it.

And to think… all because of a fucking deal.