Fool Me Once

Warnings for the whole book: Swearing throughout and occasional scenes of violence and bullying.

OCG= Organised Crime Group

Day 0 | 11:35pm

“What about him?” Aaron grumbled, running his finger down a class list he had stolen from the East Road Academy front office last week before pausing at a name that perked his interest.

“Him? Leo... Saunders?” Jack replied sternly. “Do you even know who he is?”

Aaron and Jack sat in a darkened room above a quiet off-license, illuminated solely by a flickering light bulb. Thick black curtains draped over the windows blocking any light from coming in and making the room totally invisible to people on the street. It was secluded and secretive, just the way it had to be. The room, which once served as a living and kitchen area for a flat was in disrepair. Cracks had formed in all four corners of the room and paint was beginning to chip off the walls.

Against two of the walls sat two long sofas that were in no state for people to use persistently. A small, run down coffee table separated the couches from a reasonably modern T.V, which looked out of place in the squalid conditions. Next to the T.V was a desk that Aaron and Jack found themselves at. The desk was littered with dozens of pieces of paper spread messily against its glass surface, including the class list that they were looking over. Two large filing cabinets were positioned either side of the cluttered desk; the bottom drawer of one of them locked shut and stuffed with banknotes.

“Yes,” Aaron growled back. “He’s this crazy smart kid in the year below me, knows literally everything apparently.”

There weren’t many people out there who were as imposing as Aaron Crawford. Certainly not at his age. He was immensely tall, easily over six foot although he looked bigger due to his insanely broad shoulders. He had the build of a track athlete. His deep, husky voice would echo around rooms and reverberate inside the heads of even the most confident people. He had a face that would command attention and dark brown eyes that made you feel like he was staring into your soul.

His brown hair was seemingly always perfectly faded into his faint beard which he had slowly started to grow out. He was one of the few people who looked both dashing and also rough. His face had one or two small scars and his knuckles were near constantly cut. Everyone at school knew he was up to no good but could never categorically prove his involvement in organised crime and to confront Aaron was a near guaranteed hospital pass.

Aaron and his best mates Josh and Brandon were easily the most feared students at East Road. Their presence in the corridors, classrooms and playing fields was unsettling for everyone, including staff. They had a reputation for the use of unjustified violence. Rumours would be spread about Aaron putting younger students in the hospital for simply looking at him the wrong way, though these were usually false. In fact, Aaron exercised most of his violent bidding outside of school, usually as part of the OCG’s work.

When Aaron got angry though, it certainly was not pretty, especially if you were on the receiving end. Three months on, the school still vividly remembered Aaron and his crew escorting Felix Moore out of the canteen at lunch and handing him a busted eye and three broken ribs. Of course that wasn’t the official, recorded version of events. Under fear of retribution Felix admitted to being jumped by a group of men who were stumbling out of a pub.

“Why do you think this kid would be any good? You say he’s bright but what can he actually do? We can’t mess this up, Aaron,” Jack responded sharply, studying the list of names intently.

“Chill, mate. I think he speaks some German. Would be useful for the Hamburg operation. He’s a total nerd so he’s probably good at some computer shit as well.”

“Right, so your big solution to this problem is to pick on a geeky lad who probably spends his entire time in his room on the fucking PlayStation?”

“Have you got any better ideas?” Aaron snapped harshly. “Listen, it’s about time we actually had some brains on this crew. I know he’s a completely different type of person than we usually go for, but all the other local gangs have nerdy little shits on their team. He’d be able to translate for us, do a bit of hacking. It’s a no brainer.”

Jack sighed unconvincingly. “I suppose. How do you plan on going after him then? Because we really this need Aaron. We can’t fuck this up. Just beating the shit out of him until he says he’ll join won’t work because we need to trust that he’ll do what we say properly.”

“Why I am doing all the thinking here? You’re the boss.”

Jack glanced at Aaron threateningly. If there was one person that Aaron was apprehensive of, it was Jack. Jack was one, maybe two inches shorter than Aaron despite being four years his senior but his ruthless approach to dealing with traitors or ‘rats’ made him infamous amongst the gang community. He had a similarly muscular frame as Aaron and was just as much not to be messed with as his younger counterpart. His nose was slightly crooked having had it broken during a fight one time at school in which his opponent inevitably came off far worse.

Catching sight of Jack’s vicious scowl, Aaron issued a quick, if insincere apology. “I’ll probably just try scaring him. Intimidate him. We’ve got a bit of time anyway so I can gradually crank it up if he resists.”

“You sure that will work mate?”

“Of course. He’s a small, scrawny, shy little pussy. He’ll cave eventually. Just to leave it to me bro. I’ll start tomorrow,” Aaron asserted.

“Well, ok good. But whatever you do you can’t mention Hamburg. He’ll never join otherwise but more importantly he’ll rat us out to someone.”

Aaron looked at Jack with a smirk before noticing that his bosses’ facial expression hasn’t changed.

“Oh you’re being serious? Do you think I’m a fucking retard? Of course I wouldn’t mention it.”

“Just checking.”

Aaron rolled his eyes and threw his bag over his shoulder before screeching the chair backwards. “Whatever, man. Catch you later.”

Aaron pulled the stiff door shut behind him and stepped out into the autumnal air. The off license was only a short walk from his home so there was no need to drive. The town centre was sleepy at this very late hour. Aaron was virtually alone in the dark night and began to conjure up thoughts as to how to coerce Leo to join the OCG for the Hamburg operation.

The plan to get Leo involved had to be watertight and had to reveal as minimal amount of information as possible. Aaron knew that Leo would be easy to pressurize but also knew that his target was smart and was likely to see through any mistakes or unusual behaviour. Whilst kicking a stone along the ground out of sheer boredom, Aaron decided to undertake some basic research before jumping to any conclusions.

Upon reaching his bedroom, Aaron removed his phone from his pocket and logged onto his social media with the aim of finding out as much information about Leo as possible. Being in the year group above and in a totally different position in the school food chain, Aaron knew next to nothing about the kid other than his name and what he looked like. There was no real excuse for this other than that he simply didn’t care. The sixth form at East Road wasn’t massively big either with around 75 students in both year groups, so without even really realising they were in each other's company quite often.

Nevertheless, Aaron logged into Instagram to try and find Leo’s account which didn’t take long after going through mutual friends’ accounts. He half expected that as a shy kid his account would be set to private and sure enough his prediction was confirmed seconds later. Choosing not to send a follow request in fear of blowing his cover before it had even began, he swapped over onto Facebook. He could see from Leo’s Facebook feed that he was an extremely private person, similar to Aaron in a sense but for reasons so completely different. Such was the lack of material on his feed, it took Aaron just a few minutes to scroll all the way down, finding absolutely nothing of interest on the way.

“What a fucking weirdo,” Aaron meant to mumble under his breath but it instead came out louder than intended.

Agitated and audibly groaning, Aaron moved his search to Leo’s friend list. Again, this was fairly small and private with just a few dozen people listed. Aaron vaguely recognised a few names and briefly scanned their pages for a nugget of information about Leo but predictably there was nothing. He really wanted something, just something that would really get under his target’s skin. Something that would help to put him on edge and ultimately enable Leo to cave under constant intimidation. Something that Leo would get irritated by if someone outside his close group of friends knew this about him.

In truth, Aaron could see this potentially being a challenge, and he hated being challenged. It was, of course, far easier for him to beat somebody into submission and leave them bloodied and bruised. Whilst that was typically Aaron’s primary tactic to get what he wanted, it would have to be the final trick in the book used in these circumstances. The OCG needed Leo in order to make the Hamburg operation easier and cheaper. Leo wouldn’t be rewarded or paid for his services. He would be used and then sworn to silence about the whole thing or face the consequences. That was the plan. Aaron smirked to himself as these cold, psychopathic thoughts ran wild through his head.

The minutes ticked by and a quick glance at the top of his phone screen told Aaron it had now gone one in the morning. He decided to have one final look at Leo’s parents’ pages. Except from what he could see there was no sign of Leo’s father on his Facebook. This raised a few questions in Aaron’s mind. Did Leo not have a relationship with his dad? Was he brought up by a single parent?

None of these could possibly be answered but Aaron was starting to gather some ammunition. He didn’t feel like he was intruding on Leo’s personal life. He had a job to do and he would do it well. A job that, up to now, he was admittedly doing hopelessly. Hopelessly until he came across a post from Leo’s mother several years ago. It wasn’t earth-shattering but he figured it would rile Leo up. Aaron raised from his laying position on his bed, smiled, and took a screenshot.

“Bingo.”