While there was plenty of excitement surrounding David Helms’s newest venture - the Living Dangerously dojo - it was fair to say that David’s little brush with Nathan Eacott and, more importantly, his hired goon Thaddeus had taken some of the shine off of things for the New Jersey native as he continued to make plans for how the project would move forward. True, he was nowhere near as worried as he had been before finding out that Eacott’s plan involved using a man that David had a personal history with. That had come as a hell of a relief to David, realising that Elias Crane was Eacott’s modus operandi for whatever misgivings the ‘businessman’ had in mind…

...but the gloss has definitely worn a little thinner, even if it hadn’t worn away completely. And it hadn’t. As disturbing as the altercation with Thaddeus and Eacott had been that day, David was still looking toward the future with a particular sense of optimism, regardless of the looming threat’s hanging over him that Eacott had alluded to. But David, in a sad yet true state of affairs, was almost used to that at this point in his life. Maybe it was par for the course in the world of professional wrestling or perhaps he had just seen some things during his near forty years on the planet, but threats were something he could handle, even if he wasn’t sure exactly what form those threats would eventually take. 

Of course, he was aware that things would definitely take a turn for the worse before this was eventually finished. Elias had taken great pains to point that one out, hadn’t he? That he would need to make it appear that he truly was going out of his way to make David’s life a living hell, even if he ultimately planned to try and help David in the end. Of course he was pissed that he was even in this situation, but knowing that Elias was working for him rather than against him at least helped settle Dave’s nerves somewhat, given what he knew that Brit was truly capable of when on a ‘job’. 

He was trying not to let everything get on top of him though. He wasn’t always the first person to shrug his problems off, even if he was better than some at dealing with them, but for the time being David was attempting to look at the positives rather than the negatives. He’d done that already, focused on the negatives. He’s spent a very troubled and entirely sleepless night worrying about everything following his ‘discussion’ with Eacott and his hairless gorilla Thaddeus, and in his opinion that was more time than it deserved already, without continuing down such a dark and fruitless path to mental collapse. If Elias was true to his word, and as sketchy as he was, David had no reason to believe he wasn’t… then Eacott would soon be just another black spot in the rearview, getting smaller and smaller as David continued along the road to getting Living Dangerously off the ground. 

There’d be a price, no doubt. Elias Crane didn’t do anything that didn’t have a price, but if he was being honest about wanting to go legit, then it was worth it for more reason than just getting Eacott off of his back. 

And it was undoubtedly his conversation with Crane that was the reason that David chose not to tell Regan about what had happened. Aside from the fact that he was still embarrassed and suffering from a serious case of bruised ego over how easily Thaddeus had manhandled him and left him feeling powerless, he also didn’t want to put Regan through any unnecessary stress if he could help it. He was more than aware of the fact that his decision made him a massive hypocrite - how many times had he lectured Regan over her actions when she had kept him out of the loop? - but under the circumstances, he was sure that the last thing Regan needed was more bad news adding to her already overloaded plate. With everything her mom was going through with her recovery, and everything in SCW, outside of it, all of it mixed up, Regan was already struggling, and he would not add to that if he could help it. 

If he absolutely had to talk to someone, he had Matty to confide in anyway… after all, he had practically saved his life when he stopped Thaddeus from damn near popping his head clean off his shoulders, hadn’t he? It wasn’t as if David could just wipe the whole thing from the Bostonian’s memory. He wasn’t sure enough liquor actually existed to achieve that one, and Matty could drink him under the table anyway! 

But David didn’t feel the need to talk about it, anyway. What good would it do? No more good than worrying about what was to come, as far as he was concerned. Whatever was going to happen over the coming weeks or however long it took Elias to do his thing was going to happen either way, and there was no amount of talking or fretting that could change that. Instead he was going to continue on as planned and only when the shit actually hit the fan would he worry about the cleanup process.

“We’re getting old brah,” Matty Stone said, hands clutching at his sides in discomfort as he almost doubled over, wheezing as he finally caught both David and Lucas up at the gates of David’s home on Mulholland Drive. Lucas and David, both, found it difficult to hide their grins as Stone’s hands went from his sides to his knees as he started coughing heavily, something which only served to be more thankful that Regan had convinced him to quit smoking several years earlier. “Or… I guess I’m just… stupidly unfit,” the Bostonian added as he straightened up, the coughing fit subsiding enough for him to realise that neither Dave nor Lucas appeared to be in the same state that he was. “Ah go fuck yourselves…”

“Hey, it’s not our fault you’ve stopped giving a crap about fitness in your retirement, bro…” Dave told his oldest friend with a smug grin on his face, genuinely trying to curtail the laughter and struggling with the ask. 

“I didn’t stop giving a crap,” Stone protested, trying to swallow air heavily still. “It just… gets harder, the more I realise how much I like beer, pizza and cigarettes, that’s all…”

“Little bit too much I reckon, bruv,” Lucas told him, reaching over to pat Stone on the belly, and only laughing more as he jumped back and adopted a crouching tiger pose right out of a terrible kung fu movie. 

“Hands off the merchandise, brah!” Stone said, cautiously lowering the leg that was raised up ready to strike in what would possibly have been the slowest, clumsiest manouveure known to man had he actually struck. “Speaking of though, a beer would be refreshing right about now, wouldn’t it?” he added, wiggling his eyebrows and simultaneously going from Daniel LaRusso to Groucho Marx in under a second.

“You’ll never change, bro…” David chuckled, shaking his head before turning to the gate, which swung open once he’d put a code in the keypad. The three men trudged up the driveway, gravel crunching underfoot as they headed for the front door, Lucas and David making a much easier job of it than their slightly older and much portlier friend Matty, but they made it their without incident and headed inside. “I’m gonna grab a towel. You guys know where the fridge is,” Helms told them as he jogged up the spiral staircase, deciding to grab a quick wash and change his clothes too, planning to take a shower once Lucas and Matty head left. Peeling his running jersey off, he casually tossed it into the clothes hamper before turning his attention to the sink, splashing cool water on his face first, before running wet hands through his hair. He was getting ready for a haircut, but he’d had other things on his mind lately and just hadn’t found the time. Towelling himself off a little, he draped the towel across his shoulders before taking in his reflection in the mirror. “When did you get these wrinkles, bro?” he asked himself, pulling at the skin by the corner of his eyes, half jokingly wondering if maybe he should think about botox before laughing. It was a serious question though; when had he collected the wrinkles that were slowly creeping over his face. It felt like only two minutes ago that he was a fresh faced wet behind the ears rookie making his debut on the night of his eighteenth birthday and now here he was, sweat-drenched and turning forty in a couple months time, and it was really starting to show. “Life moves pretty fast, Ferris…” he said to himself, sighing before turning and heading into the bedroom, shrugging off his sweatpants as he grabbed his folded t-shirt and jeans from the chair in the corner to quickly dress. 

“You know, there’s no fucking wonder we tossed all your tea in the harbour, brah!” he heard Matty say, laughing out loud. “There’s no way that cricket is more entertaining to watch than baseball and if you think that’s the case, you’re an idiot!” 

“I mean, it could be worse mate, it could be that abomination you call football, that’s true…” Lucas countered, and David could practically hear the smirk in his voice, though Dave wasn’t sure he disagreed with him either. He had no more love for the NFL than Lucas, but Matty was right to defend baseball! “But there’s nothing like a good solid cricket bat to wrap around the back of someone’s head when they’re being an annoying prick… at least that’s what the old me would have done anyway. Much better than those flimsy aluminium bats you lot hold in such regard.”

“Speaking as someone who’s been hit by you with one, I can attest to how much they fucking hurt,” Helms agreed as he entered the kitchen to find Matty and Lucas sat at the table with their beers already open.

Lucas pointed at David as he turned back to Matty. “See? Proof positive. Cricket is much better than baseball…”

“You’re talking out of your ass, brah…” Matty said, matter-of-factly, stubborn to an end. “When cricket gets someone as legendary as Babe Ruth or Joe Dimaggio, we’ll talk. Until then, accept our american superiority complex and move along,” he added, grinning. Lucas looked as if he was going to take the bait at first before chuckling and shrugging it off. “So what’s going on with the gym, brah?” he asked, as Dave walked to the table with his own beer to join them. 

“Jumping through hoops at the minute dude,” Helms replied, a hint of frustration in his voice as he sat down. 

“You don’t sound too thrilled about it mate,” Lucas pointed out, watching as Dave twisted the cap from the top of his beer. 

He shrugged. “It is what it is, bro…” the New Jerseyite said, solemnly. “Nothing much I can do about it anyway, so no point complaining. It’s not even a negative, really… just how things go, I guess. Architects plans, planning approval, work contracts with Lyndon’s company to be finalised which can’t happen until we’ve got the plans drawn up and approved… it’s just a slow process, is all.”

“Red tape, basically…” Matty chimed in. “Remember the hoops I had to jump through when we were trying to extend the back of the locker rooms at AnteUp when we wanted to upgrade the shower rooms. Talk about a headache…”

“Exactly,” David said, pointing a finger at Matty and nodding in agreement. “Red tape and hoop jumping for now… but it’s one of those things where it just needs one shoe to drop and then boom, everything happens all at once. We’re literally being held up my planning approval basically, and as soon as we get that things should start to fly.”

“Well, I’ll drink to that, Dave,” Lucas said, holding up his beer. “Here’s to Living Dangerously, and the success it’ll no doubt be.”

“To Living Dangerously,” Matty echoed, raising his own beer and Dave gave them both a salute with his own bottle before clinking it against theirs and they all drank. “What about that other issue?” Matty asked, when they’d lowered their bottles again. “Had any more trouble with that?”

“Other issue?” Lucas asked, and Dave inwardly sighed; he had been hoping that Matty wouldn’t mention it, so that he didn’t have to go through the process or explaining what had taken place and worse, admitting how weak and powerless he had been that day. “What issue’s that?”

“You mean you haven’t told him?” Matty asked, shooting David a look. 

David shook his head. “Haven’t told anyone bro, so thanks for that…” he said, genuinely annoyed by Matty’s loose tongue, but he did his best to laugh it off as being a joke. “Just a bit of trouble with some asshole who got salty about me buying the place,” David explained to Lucas, shrugging it off as a non-problem. “He was planning to buy the place when it went to auction and turn it into condo’s or something, and didn’t take too kindly to me convincing Lyndon Allen to remove it from the auction and sell privately. He found me at the building and tried convincing me to sell it to him, nothing to worry about…”

“Nothing to worry about?!” Matty asked, incredulous at how blase David was being about the situation he had been in that day. “Brah, I’m not being funny, but--”

“Just drop it Matty,” David said, giving his friend a rather pointed look that told him in no uncertain terms that he didn’t want to continue the discussion any further. To his credit, and in a somewhat unusual situation for the Bostonian, he actually took the hint and Lucas was left looking between the two, aware that something had happened that he wasn’t privy to and was being excluded from. “Either way, I’ll be glad when we can finally get the place open… I’m getting a bit tired paying you guys out of my own pocket until it is, and let’s face it bro, if that run was anything to go by, you need to get back in the gym more than we need new students…” he added with a wink, trying to turn the conversation around to something else. 

“No idea what you’re talking about,” the Bostonian said, smirking as he took a hearty gulp of his beer and let out a huge belch afterwards. “I’m the very definition of peak health and physical performance. Look at me, I’m a beast!”

“A wildebeest maybe! Or a warthog!” Lucas said and David nearly spat beer across the table as he laughed out loud. “Hakuna Matata mate,” the Brit added, grinning as Matty flipped him off. 

“Alright, I guess I have let myself go a little since leaving AnteUp,” Matty conceded, as the intercom buzzer went off, dragging their attention away for a second before Lucas turned back to Matty as he continued, while David got up to answer. “But by the time we’re ready to open, I’ll be back in ring-shape, ready to be Coach Matty again, just you watch!”

“Sure you will bro. Sure you will…” David said, chuckling as he reached the intercom and pushed a button. “Hello?”

“UPS. Got a package for a Mr. Helms?” a tinny voice said, coming from the speaker of the intercom, as Matty and Lucas continued their ‘discussion’ behind David. 

“Be right out,” David said before pushing another button to end the connection. “Back in a minute guys, got a delivery,” he informed his friends, neither of which were listening due to their bickering, and Helms laughed to himself as he headed for the door. The UPS van was pulled up at the curb just outside the gate as Helms stepped out onto the street and the driver was waiting next to it with a box under one arm. 

“Mr. Helms?” the driver asked and Dave nodded, pulling out his wallet to show his I.D as he reached the truck. “It’s signed,” the driver said, holding out a clipboard and Helms picked up the attached pen to scribble his name across the bottom. “And here you go. Have a nice day,” the driver said, taking back the clipboard and handing over the box. 

“Thanks. You too,” Dave replied as he took the package and the driver climbed back into the truck, leaving Dave to trudge back up to the house. The bickering was still ongoing as he made his way back into the kitchen, though Dave didn’t even know what they were bickering about anymore, as the topic of conversation seemed to have shifted in his absence, but he left them to it as he made his way over to the kitchen counter to grab a knife from the drawer. Slitting through the tape, he opened the box to find a bundle of shredded paper, which he removed to find a slightly smaller wooden box inside. “The fucks this?” David asked, looking puzzled before turning to Lucas. “They’re not doing a new variation of the rum or anything, right bro?” 

Lucas and Matty both looked over, pulled from their debate to look at what David was doing at last. “Not that I’m aware of. I haven’t had anything, anyway,” the Brit said as he and Matty got to their feet to walk over to where David was standing. “Looks like the right kind of box but a little bigger… you sure it’s anything to do with the rum?” 

“Only one way to find out,” Stone said, pushing past Dave to reach out and grab the box, pulling it from it’s bed of fancy shredded paper. He slid the front back to reveal not rum, but a bot of champagne. “Louis Roederer… never heard of it. Looks expensive though…” he said, turning the bottle around to look at the rear of the label. “Jesus, where the fuck do they come up with this shit? ‘A complex blend of chocolate, toasted almonds, praline, burnt toffee, mushroom and earth with a beautiful spiced cherry-biscuit edge’, who the fuck can taste that many fucking flavours in one drink?!” 

“And more importantly, who fucking wants to?” Lucas asked, taking the bottle from Matty. “Mushrooms and earth with chocolate and burnt toffee? Sounds more like my bad cooking than anything else…”

“There’s a note,” Matty pointed out, gesturing to the box with a finger and David reached in to lift up the envelope that had been placed beneath the box. 

He ripped it open and pulled out the letter inside, his eyes scanning down the letter until the bottom before his fist balled up, crumpling the letter in the process. “That son of a fucking bitch!” he exclaimed through gritted teeth, tossing the letter back down into the box and Lucas put the bottle of champagne down on the counter top. 

“What’s going on, mate?” he asked, as Matty reached for the letter. 

“It’s Eacott!” David said, but he said it to Matty instead of Lucas and Matty’s face twitched in understanding of just what that meant. “Listen to this,” he said, snatching the letter back from Stone before he’d even fully straightened it out again, and started to read out aloud now. “Dear David, I feel we may have got off on the wrong foot when we met last week at your newly acquired property downtown…”

“That’s a fucking understatement,” Matty scoffed, shaking his head. Lucas looked at the Bostonian and then back at David, confused as hell as to what on earth was going on, but David simply continued to read. 

“As a gesture to show my sincere apologies, please accept this little gift and allow me to say sorry once again for any understanding caused by my associates enthusiasm,” he went on, rolling his eyes but choosing to continue reading rather than explaining what it meant. “It is not much, but I’m sure you will find it most enjoyable, perhaps with fish? Just a suggestion. I’m aware your son is fond of fish, as he is regularly seen at the pier with your wife, I assume to do fishing of his own. I wish you nothing but good fortune with your new business venture and look forward to signing up for a membership once your fitness centre is fully operational…” 

“Like hell he will,” Stone said, through gritted teeth of his own at that part, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the edge of the counter top a little harder. 

Lucas looked at him confused. “Will somebody please tell me what the fuck is going on right now?!” he demanded, looking from Stone to David. “Who the fuck is this bloke and what’s he talking about?!”

“Get this bit,” David said, prodding the letter with an outstretched finger. “I recently had the pleasure of discovering your ex-wife’s boutique in Hollywood, and have to say what a wonderful little shop it is. My wife was particularly pleased with the basque I purchased for her, designed I believe by your ex-wife Kathryn? She has a wonderful eye and it is so good to see small independent shops thriving, especially in the current economic climate,” he went on before screwing up the letter a second time and tossing it on the floor. 

“Will someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?!” Lucas demanded again, leaning over to grab the letter, unfolding it to look at the rest. “Who the hell is this Nathan Eacott guy and why’s he sending you a bottle of bubbly?” 

Matty turned to look at David and Dave returned the glance before sighing. “Alright, I guess I can’t avoid it now,” he said with resignation, turning to head for the fridge which he grabbed three more beers from before making his way back to the table. Matty grabbed the champagne and followed suit, with Lucas carrying the letter back over and together they all took their seats. “Last week, I had a run in with the guy because I refused to sell the fitness centre to him.”

“The guy you and lugnuts here were talking about?” Lucas asked and David nodded his head. “Alright, so what’s all this bollocks about then?” he asks, gesturing with the letter. 

“When Dave says he had a run in with him,” Matty explained, taking one of the three beers that David brought over to the table to twist off the cap. “What he means is that he was blindsided by this guys hired thug and was nearly choked to death by him after refusing to sell the building to him…” he said and Lucas’ brew furrowed before he looked to Dave and when Dave didn’t say anything, his eyes widened in shock. “Yeah… I was there, it’s why I asked earlier if Dave had heard anything more. I went for a look around and when I came back down to the ground floor, I found Dave pressed against the wall with this big ugly fuck holding his windpipe in a fucking force choke, trying to kill him.”

“Jesus…” Lucas said, reaching out to grab a beer himself, screwing off the cap before sliding it over to Dave then repeating the process on the third bottle. “So what, he figured that you wouldn’t listen to ‘reason’ so he’d try brute force?” 

“Something like that,” Dave replied, taking a drink. “But there’s more that Matty doesn’t actually know about…”

“There is?!” Matty asked, his own eyes widening as his gaze shot towards Dave, who nodded. 

“The day after you saved my ass,” he said, taking a swig of his beer. “I had a visit. Here. A guy called Elias Crane...” 

“Wait, isn’t that--” Lucas started before David cut him off. 

“The guy I put you in touch with when you needed to track Kerry down, yeah…” David confirmed; when Lucas was still trying to get custody of his son Caleb from his ex-wife who had gone awol, David had given Lucas the phone number for Elias and put them in touch with each other. Elias was a problem solver, after all. And the problem was solved. He tracked Kerry down and Lucas got custody of their son. “He paid me a little unannounced visit, and told me that Eacott had hired him to solve his problem with me…”

“Oh shit,” Lucas said, understanding what that meant. Matty looked as confused as ever though. 

“Who the fuck is Elias Crane?” the Bostonian asked, feeling like he wasn’t part of the same conversation Lucas and David were having. 

“A problem solver…” David explained. “And not the kind that you turn to when you want everything done above board, legally speaking…”

“And how the fuck do you know this guy?!” Stone asked, blown away that someone like David would know such a person, let alone suggest someone get in touch with them too! 

“I hired him myself, a few years back…” David admitted, sighing. “Ravyn put me in touch with him, back when I was still with Zoe. Told me if I actually wanted to get custody of Jay from Kath, then this guy could help. She set up a meeting and I got custody. That’s why I knew he could help Lucas with his issues.”

“Jesus Christ, you think you know a guy…” Matty said, laughing nervously before sighing. “And this slimeball Eacott has hired him to do what, screw you over? Send a message you can’t ignore?”

“That’s the thing,” David said, sitting back in his chair and looking at Matty and Lucas in turn. “Elias came to see me as soon as Eacott hired him… because he wanted to warn me about what Eacott was planning. Not just that, but that he plans to help me instead.”

“So… this Elias guy, he’s not going to take the job?” Matty asked, and Lucas turned to David waiting for the answer. 

David brought a hand up and shook it side to side. “He kind of is… but I understand where he was coming from too. It’s complicated… but he basically told me that he wants to go legit, whatever that means to a guy like Elias anyway. He said this is his chance, to help a ‘mate’ out in the process as he gets out of the life or whatever… but that he needs to make it convincing enough to fool Eacott that he’s actually doing the job.”

“Why didn’t he just turn the job down?” Matty asked but it wasn’t Dave who replied, it was Lucas. 

The Brit laughed. “That one’s obvious mate,” he said, putting his beer down. “If he turned down the job, then Eacott would just go to the next in line and they wouldn’t show Dave the same courtesy. If Elias is sincere about wanting out and helping Dave in the process, he had to take the job or Dave would be screwed by the next bloke this Eacott hired…”

“That’s… surprisingly clever I guess?” Matty replied, now that the picture was a little clearer. “But how does this come into it?” he asked, gesturing to the bottle and the letter. “Why the hell is he sending you a gift to apologise for last week if you know he’s plotting against you?”

“Because he has no idea that I know!” David said, laughing. “Elias wasn’t exactly going to tell him, was he? He came to me in good faith, without Eacott knowing, so clearly he thinks that I’m going to get this and see it as a genuine olive branch…”

“Or grape vine?” Lucas said, grinning, and David actually laughed despite the poor joke. 

“Or grape vine, sure…” the New Jerseyite said, with a grin. “Eacott probably thinks I’ll be over the moon to get this, expecting the whole situation to be done and dusted… but knowing that he got Elias involved, the bottle doesn’t mean anything. It’s the letter!”

“The letter?” Matty asked, confused again. 

Once again, it was Lucas who cleared things up. “Look at the shit he mentions, mate…” Lucas pointed out, flattening the letter out on the table to reference. “For starters, he knows Dave’s address or the parcel wouldn’t have made it here… I assume Dave’s no different to me, so his address will be unlisted, so that shows Eacott managed to find out where he lives despite the fact…”

“And like Lucas said, look at what he mentions,” David said, turning the letter sideways so he could read it as well as Matty and Lucas. “He mentions how the champagne would be good with fish, assuming Jay goes to the pier with Regan because he likes to fish, rather than for the funnel cake, but the why isn’t important. It’s the fact that he knows where my wife and kid go regularly together. He’s holding it over my head!”

“And he mentions Kath’s shop too,” Lucas pointed out, prodding the letter with his right index finger. “Mentions going in there himself already, so he knows who Kath is, most likely. But it’s this bit… how he’s happy to see small independent shops thriving despite the economy being the way it is right now…”

“You think he’s threatening Kath’s business?” Matty asked, looking from the letter and up at David once he’d re-read the part Lucas was pointing out. 

David nodded. “I do,” he confirmed. “For his own amusement probably, as he doesn’t know I’m in on the joke… but this whole letter is full of threats if you look at it with all the info!”

“Fuck…” was all the Bostonian could manage as the three fell silent. Up until that point, Stone had assumed it was a one off altercation with the big gorilla and that when he asked if there’d been any further comeback on it, it was because he was curious and not because he’d expected there to be. David wasn’t sure how he should even feel; of course he was angry, that went without saying. Where did this guy get off threatening his family like that?! Over a fucking building?! Was it really worth going to such lengths just to earn a few more bucks on top of the massive pile he already had?! David wasn’t short of a few bucks, and he enjoyed actually having money opposed to being broke, but would he stop at nothing to increase his wealth, at the expense of others? No way! And the fact he threatened Jay like that in particular?! David had attempted to cave the skull in of the last person that did the same, and maybe that was years ago now in another lifetime, but maybe it was time to take some advice from Lucas and find a good cricket bat? No. No, he couldn’t stoop to those levels. He wouldn’t. Not when he had alternative options. “So what now? Do we find this asshole and have a little chat with him?” Matty asked, cracking his knuckles for a little added emphasis. 

If he was honest with himself, David would like nothing better than to corner this asshole alone, away from his hired thugs and bodyguards, in order to show him what happens when you mess with the wrong people. He could see it in his mind’s eye, beating the guy to a pulp for ever daring to threaten his family, his loved ones. For ever suggesting that half may come to his son! His anger flared so hot, it bubbled away under the surface so fervently, that he almost went full circle and felt calm again. Tranquil. And turning to Matty, he shook his head. “No…” he said, plainly. “No, nothing like that. If Eacott wants to play games like this, then let him. I’ve got other ideas. Eacott isn’t going to get away with this though, mark my words. I’ll handle it my way though… and not a word to anyone else, okay? I mean it, not a word to anyone. Especially Regan.! He said, pointing at Matty and Lucas in turn, and both men held up their hands defensively, more or less assuring him that he had their word. “Eacott can wait though. I think I do need to have a word with Elias...” he finished, turning the letter back towards himself to re-read it once again as Lucas and Matty both looked at one another. It was clear that both men were unsure that David was handling this the right way, but neither of them said a thing. If this was how David wanted to play it then so be it. But the look they shared said far more than that. It said that whatever David was planning, the two of them would have his back. And while David may have missed the unspoken exchange, he would have appreciated knowing they both had his back regardless. Nobody threatened his family. And if they did, they wouldn’t get away with it. Neither would Eacott. He would make sure of that.