Chapter Text
“Side kick!?” Ray exclaimed, almost falling off his seat. He hung onto the bar for dear life and scrambled to sit up straight with the poster in hand.
“What the fuck are you so loud for Toro?” Frank would turn his head, groaning, mentioning his name at no louder than a whisper.
“They put: ‘Ray Toro — wanted as well (side kick).” Ray reworded his complaint, with a visible frown in his face. Ray had been Frank’s companion for years, his loyalty earning him a bounty, yet not even a full one of his own.
“Give me that, Toro.” Frank narrowed his eyes as he took the poster from Ray. It sure did say what Ray had said it had in it. Frank just laughed.
“Did you just laugh? Seriously dude? This is not a laughing matter!” Toro protested and took the poster back from Frank’s hand. He held the poster up for Frank to see.
“This. This is clear disrespect!” Ray hissed. He seemed offended about such a simple thing. Frank just shook his head.
“That just means that if they catch us, they probably won’t hang ya.” Frank shot Ray a smile, and Ray snorted what seemed to be a laugh, even though he didn’t want Frank to hear it, and by default would never admit it.
“We’re here to save this town and this is how they repay me..” Ray would mutter under his breath and put down his glass of whiskey after drinking the whole shot.
“C’mon, Toro. We’ve got places to go.” Frank would get up and off his seat. The boys knew they had to make some noise, make sure the town knew that they were back for sure.
Ray got off his seat, following Frank. They’d done this many times before, not always successful, but hey, never hanged, so that was good. In Las Cruces there were two banks: Santa Ana Bank, the bank for the lower class, law abiding citizens, where they were most likely to be robbed of all their worth, but the easiest to access nonetheless, and The Las Cruces Bank, the bank where the most filthy rich stored 60% of what they owned. The pair was hitting The Las Cruces Bank.
————-
Of course this bank was the toughest to steal from, with people hired to stand with guns outside surrounding the perimeter, inside and outside, but it wasn’t like Frank and Ray didn’t have connections. You see, they had many, Ashlee provided them with horses, Bob provided them with viable escape routes, they had bribed several officers, and suddenly it seemed like no big deal.
Frank walked calmly towards the bank without a care in the world, he turned his head to look at Ray’s once they saw the four guards at the front, this would be easy, just in and out, and then he gave Ray a nod, that set the whole thing into motion.
The duo reached for their guns at the same time, and without hesitation started shooting at the guards, the first two were already down, and the shots from the other two in the front could be heard. Frank would run at one of them as the revolver loaded, tackling the guy. He’d then hold his head down and grab his gun, pointing it at his head and blowing his fucking brains out.
Ray took cover as he reloaded his gun, behind one of the bank's pillars, and shot two guys in the chest, without missing a single shot. Frank ran towards Ray and shot another guard that came from behind. Then Ray walked towards the front of the bank and ran in.
A second later, Frank didn’t feel Ray with him, causing him to panic and turn around.
“Toro, what are you doing!?” Iero frantically asked as he held his gun over a man with brown hair, and a beard, seeming like he was in his mid 20s. Frank knew him as none other than Spencer Smith, a friend of a friend, of course.
“Sorry Spencer, ya’know how this goes, bud.” Frank would direct at him, holding a gun to his head as he looked towards Ray. Spencer did know how it went, directing as much money as he could towards Frank, and into the bag that Frank happened to have near him with a sigh. Spencer knew he shouldn’t have taken the job.
“I’m going to say hi to the Deputy Sheriff, haven’t seen him in forever!” Ray replied playfully, his voice fading as he ran away from the bank, followed by a shriek and a gunshot. Ray and the Deputy Sheriff had a..history you could say. They were close friends in their teenage years, but Ray wouldn’t tell Frank more than that.
Frank could hear a giggle in the background along with some yelling that could only belong to Deputy Sheriff Micheal Way. Frank learned to tolerate Mikey, because he was very close friends with the Sheriff in his early adulthood, but that’s not something Frank would dive into either.
By the time Spencer was done filling the bag Frank brought with money, Frank threw it against his back, and walked backwards, his eyes on Spencer, making sure he didn’t make any wild moves.
“Thanks for the great time, Spencer, we should do this again!” Frank smiled as he made his way out of the bank eyeing where the Deputy Sheriff shot towards Toro, and Toro shot back. Though they both knew they didn’t aim to hurt each other, just making it look like they’re both playing their parts.
Frank hopped onto his horse and whistled at Toro, and started heading to the gun store south of the bank. Ray would know to lose the deputy before he followed Iero. —- As Frank passed Brian Schechter’s saloon, he threw the bag with the money at him, his horse slowing down to make sure the bag landed safely.
“Make sure to give half of that to Bryar, I suppose we’re staying in your basement tonight, right?” Iero would shoot his question, stopping his horse.
“Yeah. This’ll do.” Brian replied, counting through the money. Both of them knew Bob was getting a third of that at most. Frank fidgeted with his hands for a second before starting again.
“So.. did you arrange the meeting?” Frank asked lightly, trying to not piss Brian off, because he tended to be kind, but not if you pissed him off too much. Additionally, talking about the Sheriff, or anything relating to him was..hard for Iero, but he’d have to snap out of that if he wanted his plan to work.
“Yes, Frank. He knows.” Brian replied dryly, he knew something happened between them, something he didn’t want to get involved in, so he didn’t ask, and that was better for Frank too. A topic too emotionally charged for today.
Frank was about to start saying something when he was interrupted by some laughing and incredibly loud talking. He knew who it was. Frank groaned, and Brian noticed he was irritated so he turned around to scold the two men.
“Patrick! Pete! Could you tone it down before Iero walks over there and blows your brains out!?” Brian got straight to the point, Frank wasn’t that evil of course, he didn’t just kill without reason, though he did kill, that was his life, just people who actually deserved it. He liked to partake in playing God a bit.
Brian turned back to Frank.
“He’s changed, Iero. Don’t piss him off. Remember that all our lives are at stake here.” Brian finished as he lit a cigar, and inhaled a puff of smoke.
“Right...just how much has he changed?” Frank asked worriedly. He wasn’t scared of Gerard. He wasn’t scared of anyone. Yet the ominous comments started getting to him.
“A lot.”