Trigger warning: It gets intense as there is talk of rape and sodomy, and murder in the next two chapters. I PROMISE it ends in a happy ending for these two, they just have to get there. Thank you for those who are hanging in there so far, showing them love through your votes and comments. If you are starting here in Chapter 6 you missed their whole love story so please go back and start from the beginning. Also, you have my permission to skip this chapter if you don’t want to know what happens in Ireland with Jack and how Ethan is coping; and jump to their reunion in Chapter 7.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As Jack turned the corner into terminal 5, gate 28, he saw them: June, Henrietta and Mina. Henrietta saw him first and stood up and they followed her. Jack walked over and shook his head. “No.”
Henrietta said, “Too late. We’re all on the same flight. The Fraziers are going for a business meeting in Dublin. My schedule is jam packed for the next couple of weeks. That’s our alibi. What’s yours?” She raised her eyebrow.
Jack said, “I don’t need one. I don’t exist.” He showed Henrietta the passport under the name Jamier Edmin.
“That’s the stupidest name I’ve ever heard of,” Mina said.
Jack said, “Exactly. Common names actually stand out, like John Smith. No one will think twice about a weird name because so many people in the world have weird names.” He turned to June, “And you can’t travel under your name, it’s a dead giveaway.”
June rolled her eyes, “I’m not a complete idiot you know. I got my passport ages ago.” She showed her passport under her adopted name, Elizabeth June Frazier.
Jack shook his head again. “You can’t stop me.”
“We don’t want to stop you,” Henrietta said. “We want to help you.”
“So you don’t die,” Mina whispered and smiled.
“Your plan is substantial but poorly executed if it ends in your demise, with no more of a 15% probability of survival,” Henrietta said. “My plan is better.”
“Our plan she means,” Mina said. “Our plan ends with minimal bloodshed, none of which is yours.”
“It’s too late Jack. We’re all in this together,” June said. “And either we come back together or we don’t. I told you, you can’t protect me anymore, I’m not a child. But as adults, we can protect each other.” She reached out for a hug and he hugged her back.
“OK Etta, I’ll bite.” He said. “What’s this plan of yours?”
“Not here genius,” Henrietta said. “Dad has an old commercial property in Dublin that he’s been trying to sell for decades, it’s abandoned. We’ll set up shop there and use it as headquarters. Then we’ll talk.”
~~~~~
Ethan woke up the following Friday morning feeling numb. He was tired of all the mixed feelings he was feeling. And his apartment looked like shit. He had kept EJ home with him all week and been hibernating in for the last couple of days. He made the mistake of venturing out to Mass last Sunday morning and everyone was looking at him, pretending that they weren’t. But he tried to focus on what he was doing there, to say a prayer for Jack and his sister and cousins, and to keep EJ’s routine consistent.
And EJ was almost four years old so he knew there was an absence in his life. He asked this morning as he’s done every morning since last Friday, “Where’s Jack?”
Ethan simply said, “Jack went on a trip.” And he changed the subject as he has done before.
As soon as Mass was over on Sunday, he picked up a sleeping EJ and headed home. He heard his name called behind him, “Ethan! Ethan!” He turned to see Marie running toward him. She gave him a hug and he hugged her back with the one arm he had available. She held him by his waist and said, “Don’t give up on him, OK? I know he’s coming home, they all will. We just have to keep praying for them. You hear me, son? Don’t give up on him.”
She had tears running down her face and he had to wipe his own tears forming. He could barely talk, but he nodded and hugged her back, and walked quickly back to his basement apartment to be alone. This was why he avoided contact with people; he couldn’t control his emotions, especially the waterworks. Ethan is not a crier so every time they fall without warning it saddened him. And his poor family had no idea he planned on not coming back at all. What an asshole, he thought.
It had been a full week since Jack left him standing in front of the Inn and he was back to being angry. Not just angry at Jack but angry at this whole ordeal. It was drama. Drama that he didn’t need in his life and just didn’t want anymore. He needed a sense of normalcy in his life again, and it starts today. He got up, dropped EJ off at school, and came back to the Inn. He didn’t speak to Stacy when he left but as he came back in she called him.
“Ethan.” He turned to look at her. She said, “Just…don’t worry about things up here, I got this. Take care….take care of yourself. We’re all worried…so I just don’t want you to worry about what’s happening up here. OK?”
He smiled at her. “Is this your way of asking for a raise?”
She smiled widely. “Well…now that you mentioned it….”
“Thanks Stacy. I couldn’t do any of this without you. The Inn is just as much yours as it is mine,” he told her. She came around the counter and ran up to hug him, which he allowed.
Then she asked him, “Are you OK? Because Liam is not OK. Not at all. I’m so worried about my brother, and you.” She had so much concern in her voice that he had to tell her the truth.
“No, I’m not. So thank you for taking care of things that I just can’t right now. I really appreciate you.”
She nodded. “Ok. My two favorite men are hurting right now and I just wish I could help you both, or at least take your pain away.” She had tears in her eyes. He was so sick of people crying around him, that was not helping him get over Jack at all. He looked over her head when he spoke.
“You’re doing great, Stace. I promise. Thank you.” He hugged her again.
He went downstairs and looked at his dishes piled up in the sink, laundry piling up in the hallway, bathroom unclean, and his room that had Jack’s stuff still all in it. He was proud of himself for not drinking, but this depression shit is for the birds. He was officially over being sad. He put on No More Drama by Mary J. Blige on repeat, started in the kitchen and worked his way down.
Broken heart again/Another lesson learned/Better know your friends/Or else you will get burnt/Gotta count on me/Cause I can guarantee that I’ll be fine….
He filled the dishwasher, and scrubbed the sink, bleached down the counter tops and sink, swept and mopped the floor and pulled the garbage from the bins to put by the doorway. He put Jack’s mug on the counter along with his water bottles and bottles he uses for his morning shakes. Dining room next.
No more pain/No more pain/No drama/no more drama in my life/No one’s gonna make me hurt again
He packed all the mail into a pile to go through later and wiped the table down. He swept the dining room all the way into the living room, then started packing EJ’s toys into the toybox. He took off the slip covers from the couch cushions to add to the growing pile of laundry in the hallway, then took the vacuum out of the front closet to vacuum the sectional rug. Then he wiped down the TV and TV stand, taking a thick layer or dust off the top.
Why’d I play the fool/Go through ups and downs/Knowing all the time/You wouldn’t be around/Or maybe I like the stress/Cause I was young and restless…
Ethan swept the hallway and made three piles of dirty clothes: whites, brights and darks, just like his mother taught him. His mother had been calling him every day for the last week and he has been avoiding her calls, and texting back only: I’m fine, mom, do not come here. Her and Marie have gotten really close in the last year so he knew they had been talking and she knows he is not fine. But what could he really say to her? He started the laundry with colors so he could put the cushion covers back on first.
No more tears/ I’m tired of crying every night/No more fears/I really don’t wanna cry/No drama, no more in my life….
Ethan went into the bathroom and scrubbed the tub first, then the tile walls. He wiped down the sink and wiped the mirror clean, then scrubbed the toilet. He took out Jack’s razor, toothbrush and other items and moved them to the bedroom. Then he came back and took out the overflowing garbage to the front door, and swept and mopped the floor. It was Jack’s turn to clean the bathroom but he’s not here now, so Ethan has to do it all alone.
No more drama in my life/I don’t ever wanna hurt again/Wanna speak my mind/wanna speak my mind…
He saved his room for last, for a reason. He emptied out a bin of books he had and started pulling Jack’s clothes from his drawer. He packed Jack’s clothes, sneakers, toiletries, books, CD’s and other miscellaneous items neatly in the bin, went to the kitchen to grab Jack’s mug and bottles to add it to the bin and closed it. Then he stripped his sheets and added it to the piles of laundry. He moved Jack’s bin to the front near the garbage he had pilling up.
Ooh it feels so good/When you let go of all the drama in your life/Now you’re free from all the pain/Free from all the game/Free from all the stress/to find your happiness…
Ethan swept his room clean, organized the items he had in his headboard bookshelf and put fresh sheets on the bed. He hadn’t changed the sheets since before Jack left because it smelled like him. He switched the clothes from the washer to the dryer, added another load, then started taking the trash out one bag at a time. He tried to ignore the fact that Jack’s truck should be here any moment now to take away the trash, but Jack won’t be working on it.
He went back inside and saw that Jack’s bin was last. He picked it up. Then he put it back down. He leaned against the wall outside of the kitchen and closed his eyes.
I don’t know/Only God knows where the story ends for me/But I know where the story begins/It’s up to us to choose/Whether we win or lose/And I choose to win….
Ethan opened his eyes, took Jack’s bin and put it in the front closet.
~~~~~
Henrietta had been following the car for about 45 minutes waiting for a moment to strike when Paul “Barney” Barnes turned down a tree lined street he typically takes to see his mistress, and when he did that’s when she knew it was time. She accelerated and ran her car into the back of his, hard. She sat in the car and waited. Barney jumped out, slammed his car door and went to look at the damage, then looked at Henrietta still sitting in her car holding onto the steering wheel, white gloves on her hands.
He was furious. She tried to look at scared as possible. Her heart was beating fast in anticipation. Barney started yelling at her in a heavy Irish accent, “You stupid cunt! Get out of the fucking car!”
She slowly pulled down her window halfway. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize you slowed down.”
Barney said, “I didn’t slow down, you brainless cunt, you sped up.” Another car came behind Henrietta’s as Barney continued to berate her. “Fucking stupid American cunt. None of you can drive!”
Jamison got out of the car and walked over and spoke in a Galway accent, “Is there a problem?”
Barney spoke back in Galway accent, “Fucking stupid American cunt just rammed my car.”
“Wow, that’s no way to treat a lady. Where you raised in barn, Barney?” Jamison asked.
Barney was about to respond, but then realized he said his name. “How the fuck do you know who I am?” He started walking towards him. Henrietta slowly opened up her car door as Jamison aka Jack got his attention.
Jack said, still in character, “Oh I know a lot of things about you, Paul. I know your legal wife stays on Wellington, while you’re currently driving to your other wife, Lisa. I know her son hates you, told me so himself in the chats. But he doesn’t say anything out of fear you’ll hurt him or his mum. But I told him, he won’t have anything to fear anymore real soon. He’s not going to be afraid much longer.”
Barney was almost in front of Jack. He said, “Yea boy? Why is that?”
Henrietta stabbed Barney in the back of his neck with a syringe filled with ketamine and chloroform. Barney hollered, swung backwards hitting Henrietta in the face and she fell down. He started walking towards her but the effects of the drug started kicking in. He stumbled a bit, then dropped to his knees, clutching the back of his neck. His vision blurred.
Jack walked up to him and bent down and said, “Sean won’t be afraid of you anymore, because I’m going to take care of his problem and make you disappear.” Jack stood up and kicked him over. Mina and June jumped out of the backseat of the car Jack was driving, also wearing white gloves. The four of them dragged Barney into Jack’s trunk, then Henrietta and Mina got into Barney’s car and drove it closer to Kilnamanaugh, where Barney was headed.
June moved the car Henrietta was driving into the wooded area as far as it could go, then wiped everything down with bleach and ammonia, even though they all wore gloves, and left it there. Since Jack paid for the used car in cash, it couldn’t be traced to anyone. June got back in the car with Jack and they drove to the warehouse next to the river in Terenure.
The drove around to the docks ramps, entered the back way and locked the gate behind them. They sat in the car and looked at each other. He said, “You OK so far?”
“Yea,” June said. “It was scary, but I’m OK.”
“You can go back to the hotel. You don’t have to do this part with me.”
“No, I want to stay,” June said. “I know you are going to ask him questions and I want to know the answers too.”
Jack said, “Okay.” He pulled a gun from the glove compartment. “Keep this on you at all times. Just in case.”
June was not afraid of guns, Uncle Henry taught them both to shoot, but she hesitated. “I’m not going to take a life Jack.”
“I would never ask or want you to do that. I’m saying, if something goes wrong, you have the means to protect yourself.”
“Okay,” June said, and took the gun from him. It was heavy and loaded. She leaned back on her seat and sighed, stared straight ahead into the empty room. It used to have wood paneling but someone stripped it and it was broken pieces of wood everywhere. This is where they would find their answers.
Jack looked at her and again asked, “You sure you are OK?”
June said, “Yea. Just…thinking about Liam.”
Jack grew stiff, shifted in his seat and faced forward. “You better not have called him!”
“No! Of course not!” They were silent for a moment. The last thing Jack needed right now was to be reminded of home. Of him.
June started gently, “Jack-”
But Jack knew where she was going with this conversation and yelled, “NO!” He jumped out the car, slamming the door before she could say his name and try to talk to Jack about the one thing he refused to talk about. It was bad enough Ethan was his last thought every night before going to sleep, he and EJ both his first thought waking up every morning.
Interestingly the nightmares he was having while laying beside Ethan have stopped, replaced by dreams of he and Ethan together. He had been in Dublin about a week and a half and every night he saw Ethan’s face. Sometimes reliving moments they have had together; the first kiss and how they laid together holding hands; the first time Ethan made him holler incoherently in bed; Ethan showing Jack how to make pancakes from scratch; the first time they made love without protection; the first I love yous; the last I love yous.
Other times it was dreams of a life they could have had together: A house full of kids living in Greenwich in a mansion by the water; three little girls running around a restaurant as an older Ethan and Jack talked to a younger couple they called “baby gays” about their experiences; making love at sunrise on someone’s beach somewhere. It was almost like a different kind of nightmare, these dreams, and he woke up every morning in tears, his entire chest in so much pain every day.
Then he would go for a run and push those feelings and thoughts all the way down, and focus on what he needed to do. Right now Ethan’s face came to his mind and he needed it to stop. He closed his eyes and stretched, took some deep breaths and slowly exhaled to calm down. Jack was not someone who allowed his emotions to control him in intense situations, and he wasn’t going to start now. He needed to be focused on the task at hand.
He heard the side door open and that got his attention. Mina and Henrietta came through, locking the door behind them. Jack said, “Lets do this.” It was time to begin.
The four of them dragged a heavy Barney out of the trunk, who was still knocked out. They raised him into a chair, tied his feet to the bottom and hands behind his back with wire. Jack said, “Wake him up.”
Mina pulled out another syringe, this one filled with adrenaline. “Who knew this nursing degree I’m getting would come in handy?” She joked.
She popped up a vein and shot him with the needle. Barney yelled awake. He looked around at the four faces in front of him, and tried to move around but realized he was bounded. He yelled, “What the fuck do yer think yer doing!? Do yer know who the fuck I am!?”
Jack said calmly and in his Irish accent, “Yes. You’re the man who raped and killed my mother.”
Barney eyes narrowed and he said coldly, “I’ve raped and killed a lot of cunts, lad. You’re gonna hafta narrow it down.”
Jack nodded, giving him a small smile. “Betsy Redmond. Jamie Redmond’s wife.”
Barney’s mouth opened in shock, then he started laughing. “You’re Red Jamie’s son! Ha! I knew it! I told Danny. I told’em, yer were alive, to keep looking, but he said to let it go. You and yer sister. Which one of the lovely ladies behind yer is it? The cunt who rammed me, innit?”
“No, you piece of shit,” Henrietta said nastily.
Barney laughed. “Doesn’t matter which one, yer all gonna be dead cunts soon enough.”
“Well see about that,” Jack said. “In the meantime, it’s story hour. Why’d you do it? Why did Danny order the hit? Why did they have to die?”
Barney laughed again. “Yer got balls on you son. Just like Jamie. Yer look like him you know? A real black Irish if there ever was one. Yer should know I hated him. He always thought he was better than everyone, the smartest one in the room. Just like you right now. Thinking yer gonna get away with this. But yer won’t. Just like Jamie, yer aren’t a killer. But yer probably a rat and a sneak. Yer probably wearing a wire right now, trying to get me to confess. Well fuck off little Jamie.” He spat at him.
Jack took off his shirt and tank top, revealing his bare chest. He got closer to Barney and said quietly, “I’m not wearing a wire.” He pulled his gun out from the back of his pants, holding it down to his side, finger on the trigger. “And I’m not Jamie. I’m Jack. You’ll do well to remember that.”
Barney smiled. “Looks like Danny should have kept yer around, raised yer as his own.” He laughed but it was cut short as Jack raised his gun, turned it around and hit Barney across the face three times with the butt of it. June covered her mouth and turned to Henrietta’s chest who hugged her. Mina watched in fascination.
Jack said in a calm voice, “I asked you, why did Danny order the hit? What happened?”
Danny coughed and spit out blood and a tooth. “Fuck, yer aren’t Jamie.” He laughed and smiled a bloody smile at Jack. “Yer know nothing. Spent the last twenty years crying about yer traitorous father and slut mother. They got themselves killed!”
“How? How did they get themselves killed?” Henrietta asked, still holding June.
“By being traitorous, yer stupid cunt!” Barney spatted. “Did yer not just hear me? He betrayed the Family. The Family that he was a part of. He was one of us, and he betrayed us.” Jack didn’t react to that knowledge but it surprised him.
Henrietta said what he was thinking. “Bullshit. I knew Uncle Jamie and there was no way he worked for the Riley crime family.”
“Yah I know for sure yer aren’t kin to Jamie, yer dumb as rocks. Everyone worked for the Rab Riley back then, in some way. That’s how we kept everyone in line.”
“Who the fuck is Rab Riley?” Henrietta asked, confused.
Jack answered, “Danny’s father. Robert Riley. The head of the Riley family until he died the year before Danny had my father killed. Ruben Riley, the oldest then took over.”
Barney nodded his head toward him since he had no hands and said, “This one did his homework.” He smiled a bloody smile again.
“But what does one have to do with the other?” Jack asked. “They didn’t know each other personally.”
“I take it back. Seems there are some major gaps in yer history book,” Barney scoffed at him.
“Then fill in the gaps,” Jack said.
“Maybe I would have if yer woudda asked nicely. But seeing how I’m all tied up like a pig in a slaughterhouse, I’d rather keep it to myself,” he said smugly.
Mina said, “Pretty please? We promise we won’t kill you if you do.” She smiled sweetly as Jack turned around to glare at her.
“Ah yer must be the little sister! A fine piece of ass you are,” Barney smiled a bloody smile.
Jack turned back around to glare at Barney. “Watch your mouth.”
Barney shrugged as much as he could with his hands tied behind his back. “I just wanted to know if she is a whoring slut like her dear dead mum.”
Jack raised his gun again, put it to Barney’s temple, cocked it and said calmly, “Call my mother a whore, or a slut or a cunt again. Go on. I dare you.”
He stared him in the eye and Barney stared back with his bloodshot eyes. He did not smile or laugh. He said, “Yer kill me, and you’ve signed yer own death warrant. But alive or dead, I’m not going to give yer the answers yer want. So. Fuck. Off.”
Jack breathed out air roughly through his nose, lowered the gun and walked away, going toward the side door. He needed some air and this was going to take a while. Barney turned to the women in front of him. “Any of yer cunts want to release me? The first one that does gets ta walk away alive.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Mina said annoyed with him now.
“Sweet ass and a filthy mouth. Just like yer cunty mother,” Barney said. Jack heard it and started walking back angrily, gun raised.
But the women were faster, June in particular, who screamed a blood curdling scream, turned around and started hitting Barney with the gun she Jack gave her. She swung high and brought it down on him repeatedly, screaming and crying. Mina and Henrietta joined in with their hands, punching, scratching and kicking Barney.
He tried to yell, “gerroff me, gerroff me yer stupid cu-” but was cut short by another blow to the face by Mina’s gun. By the time Jack made it back over there, all three were beating Barney to a bloody mess. Jack stood back, lowered his gun and watched.
June had dropped the gun moments before and was also using her hands. At some point, she reached down and picked up a piece of wood paneling that had a sharp edge, straddled him, reached her hand up far and jammed it into his neck, shredding an artery. Blood spluttered out everywhere; Henrietta and Mina jumped back shrieking. Barney looked at her in surprise as she held onto the piece of wood still in his neck.
“I am June Elizabeth Redmond you fucking murderous piece of shit. And you will die the same way my mother did — slit throat and feeling fucked.” She held onto the wood until the life drained from his eyes. No one spoke.
Jack came over and put his hand over hers and slowly pulled out the wood panel from his neck, then he took it out of her hands. He used his other hand to wrap around his little sister’s waist and pull her to a standing position. She turned around and looked at him, and they stared at each other. Then she walked away. Mina picked up Jack’s shirt and draped it over her, following her out the side door.
Henrietta and Jack did not speak as they left. They worked together to untie Barney, wrap him in plastic and cement blocks, and put him back in the trunk. Since night had already fallen, they drove further down to the bay, then rolled Barney’s body off the dock. They went back to the warehouse and worked together to clean up, still not speaking, hosing the room down to get ready for the next one.
~~~~~
Ethan heard a knock on the door, and had no idea who would be knocking on his door the next Friday at 6pm. For a moment he thought it might be Jack and his heart started pounding. But Jack would just enter with his key, right?
He called out, “Who’s there?”
“Brayden,” the voice said.
Ethan sighed, hoping that Brayden wasn’t here to talk about Jack or Henrietta. He got tired of people trying to console him over Jack’s absence and became a hermit, except to go to Mass, which he did the first two weekends and will do again this weekend. It had been two weeks since Jack left.
He opened the door and said, “Hey man.”
“Hey!” said Brayden cheerily. A little too cheerily. He held up both hands full of packages. “I got beer, Chinese food and my Playstation. And I know you ain’t got shit else to do so…” He smiled.
Ethan smiled back at him and opened the door and took one bag from him. “C’mon.”
EJ was in the living room playing with his trucks and yelled, “Uncle Brayden!” Ethan took the other bag from him so Brayden could pick EJ up and spin him around. “Hey, your dad and I are going to play video games, you want to play with us?”
“Yaaaaay!!!” EJ said excitedly.
Ethan got plates ready while Brayden set up the game console and took out two games, Major League Baseball 2K7 and 2K8. They played teams and even let EJ play. Ethan let EJ stay up until 8:30pm and then gave him his bath and put him to bed. He came out and Brayden was still playing.
He said without looking at Ethan, “Your kid is awesome. I can’t wait to have kids. Brayden Junior. Or Brienna. Actually we thought about Hayden instead of Brayden. For a boy or girl. Guess we’ll see.”
Ethan heard the pain in his voice and wondered if that’s how he sounded when people asked him. Brayden had not come here to talk about it but he couldn’t help but ask him. “Are you doing OK man?”
Brayden shrugged. “Everybody keeps asking me that and I don’t know what the fuck to tell them. That’s why I’m avoiding my parents and hers. Because I’m sick of everyone treating me like I lost my puppy or some shit. Just leave me the fuck alone.”
Ethan nodded. He was about to apologize for asking when Bradyen continued. “They aren’t dead. But something happened to make them all jet like that. I just can’t think of what but I think it has something to do with Jack. Liam knows though and he’s not talking. And that’s pissing me off. But short of beating it out of him, there’s nothing I can do but just wait until I hear from her.”
Ethan nodded again. Brayden asked him, “You doing alright?”
Ethan gave him an honest answer, “I don’t know. Some moments I’m pissed. Some moments I’m sad. Some moments I’m lonely. And all of that could happen within the same hour.” Brayden nodded and he knew he understood. “Today…today I miss him a whole lot.”
Brayden nodded again. “Keeping busy helps. I’m working long hours.”
“I started repainting the kitchen,” Ethan said.
Brayden laughed. “We are fucking miserable.” Ethan found himself laughing as well. It felt good to have someone to commiserate with.
~~~~~
June stayed in bed for three days while Mina held her. On day two, Jack said to Henrietta, “Maybe you should take her home. It’s too much.”
“I tried. I told her that,” Henrietta said. “She refused. She said wasn’t going home without you. She made promises to people.” Jack sighed, knowing the two people she made promises too.
On day three, Jack tried to talk to her. “I really think you should go home. Start your life with Liam. He needs you.”
Her eyes narrowed at him. “And I need you. So we leave together or we don’t leave at all.” She sat up in the bed, looked around at all of them. “I’m OK. Just give me a day. One more day.”
Mina said, “Let’s go for a walk today.”
They stayed out all day, returned with food from the nearby pizzeria and they ate together in Mina’s room. There they discussed the next task. It was supposed to be June taking the lead but Mina said, “No. I’ll do it. June needs a break. Don’t worry, I got this.” She smiled slyly.
~~~~~
Andrew Riley was at his regular table in Ballyboden near the bar with two friends. Katie walked in wearing a short white dress and blond hair in ponytail. Drew had never seen her before and he always noticed beautiful women. It was kind of a weakness for him, beautiful blue eyed blondes. She hadn’t noticed him yet, she kept looking down at her phone so he left his friends and sat at the bar next to her.
She looked over and smiled. “If you were supposed to be on a date with me, would you stand me up?”
Drew loved the sound of her voice and accent. “Pretty American like you? Never!” He reached out his hand for her to shake. “I’m Drew.”
She shook his hand. “I’m Katie. I’m supposed to be on a blind date but I guess he isn’t coming. Unless it’s you?” She laughed flirty.
Drew smiled. “It’s not but I can be now. What are you drinking?”
“Vodka and cranberry. But here’s the thing, and I really hope I’m not being too forward. It wasn’t a date date. It was more like a hook up. See I’m on vacation and I just wanted to experience something. Taste some Irish cream if you know what I mean.” She batted her eyelashes at him slowly.
Drew couldn’t believe his luck. “Yea, I’m down for that if you are.”
Katie sat back and sighed. “No, this is crazy. I don’t even know you. You could be a killer.”
Drew said, “I could be. But I could also be a fantastic lover. Which I am. Lover, not killer.”
She laughed. “Okay I have a room in hotel in Terenure. Separate cars. Meet me in room 4.” She gave him the address, then slowly reached down and touched his groin, not breaking eye contact. Drew instantly got hard. She got up and left. Drew paid her tab, then followed her in his car.
They got to the hotel together and walked in. When they got to her room door, Drew turned her around and kissed her. He put his hands under her short dress intending to move her underwear aside but he felt nothing but her hairless wet vagina. He moaned, “Holy Mother of Christ!”
Katie smiled and they kissed while he fingered her in the hallway. She opened the door backwards and they fell in laughing. He closed the door. Katie stood on the bed and said, “Are you sure you’re not a killer?”
Drew walked over and lifted up her dress, exposing her midsection, kissed it and said, “I’m about to murder this pussy right now if that’s what you mean.” He lifted one leg on his shoulder and proceed to lick her clit.
~~~~~~
Jack had his back turned to the camera. He said from over his shoulder, “How long is she going to let this go on?”
Henrietta was watching her sister get eaten out by Drew shaking her head. “You know Mina. Go big or go home.” She rolled her eyes.
June was also watching. “She is totally going to fuck him.”
“She won’t,” Henrietta said. June raised her eyebrows and gave her a look. “She might…” They both looked at the camera that was hidden in Mina’s room. Henrietta exclaimed, “She is! Fuck, Mina!”
~~~~~~
Drew’s pants were down and he had Katie, aka Mina with her dress up above her breasts at the edge of the bed, thrusting in and out of her wet vagina. It was so wet the condom seemed like it wanted to slip off every time he moved out so he kept thrusting back in harder and faster.
Mina waited until she had her first orgasm, then said, “Wait! I want us to lay like lovers.” She pushed him off her, then took off her dress completely. She scooted to the top of the bed, both hands under the pillows, spread legs wide open. “Can you hold me like you care about me? Let me hold you?”
“Um sure. I can do that,” Drew said, as long as I keep beating this good pussy, he thought. He just might try to keep her around. He took off all of his clothes and crawled up the bed on top of her, entering her again. She pulled him down for a kiss with her one hand, then moaned in his ear. It was all too much. Drew felt his orgasm coming on and said, “I’m going to cum, OK?”
She whispered in his ear, “No thanks.” She pulled her other hand from underneath the pillow and stabbed him in the neck with the syringe. Drew who was mid ejaculation shuddered and looked at her with a dazed surprised, touching his neck, before he fell over on top of her. She called out, “Help. please.”
Henrietta and June looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Jack left the room without a glance at the laptop screen and said, “I’ll get the car.”
The ladies followed Jack out but went into the room two doors down and looked at Mina. “Seriously Mina?” Henrietta said, as they rolled him off of her.
She shrugged. “He ate it well. I wanted to see what else he was working with.”
She put on her nurse’s scrubs and a black haired wig as the other two got Drew dressed. They put him in the wheelchair, and Mina rolled him out, taking him in the elevator while the others took the stairs. They all met at the side entrance where Jack was waiting in the car. He couldn’t look Mina in the eye, she was just as much as a sister to him as June was. They put Drew in the trunk and drove to the warehouse.
In the room they bounded his feet together then his hands, then put a noose around his neck before waking him up. When the adrenaline hit, Drew opened his eyes wide, dazed and confused. He looked up and didn’t recognize any faces at first, but then saw Mina who smiled and said, “Hi baby.”
He started squirming in his restraints screaming, “You crazy bitch! Do you know who I am!?”
“Why does everyone keep saying that to us?” Mina shrugged and walked away as Jack and Henrietta lifted Drew into a standing position.
They threw the end of the rope over the pipe above them with Drew screaming at them the whole time. “Who are you fucking cunts!? When my brother finds out what you’ve done, he’s going to murder you nice and slow. You don’t know who you’re dealing with!”
Jack said in his accent, “Sure I do. You’re Drew Riley, the youngest brother of Danny Riley, and the man who killed my father.”
Drew still yelling, “What the fuck are you on? I’ve never killed anyone in my life!”
“You’re lying,” Jack said. He motioned to Henrietta and the two of them started hoisting Drew up with the rope, lifting him off his feet while Mina and June watched. Drew started choking until Mina and June pushed the chair underneath him.
Drew started screaming and crying. “What the fuck! I’m not lying. I’m not a killer! Please! I don’t want to die!”
“Then tell the truth,” Jack said. “Admit you murdered our father and tell us why.”
Drew started sputtering, “I don’t know I don’t know I don’t know…” He was crying and wailing openly.
Jack was losing his patience. He came around to face Drew. “I know you’re lying because I saw you! I saw you shoot my father from the closet. Admit that you killed him.”
Drew stopped sputtering and looked at Jack, shocked. “Christ! You’re Jamie’s son aren’t you. Christ! You look just like him!”
“So if you know who I am, you know what you did,” Jack said.
Drew was still shocked. “I…I saved your life isall. Yours and June’s. I kept them away from the cubby closet.” He looked at the women searching their faces, then used his chin to motion toward June.
“You! You look like your mum, even the curly hair. Except she was a blonde, and yours is black, like Jamie’s. Christ! You survived! Barney always said you were alive but I convinced Danny not to go after you two, that you were young and innocent, that you wouldn’t understand.”
Something in Jack’s memory clicked. He asked, “How did you know we were in the cubby closet? How did you know it called a cubby closet to begin with?”
Drew almost laughed. “I was 11 when your dad bought it from my dad, a month after your parents married, two years before you were born. Spent many days there myself with my own dad. I knew every nook and cranny of that house. In fact, I’m the one that named it the cubby closet, the little closet inside of the big closet. I told it to you but you were a wee one yourself, 3 or 4.” Jack’s head was spinning. Drew continued.
“When we were sent to find you in the house, I knew there was only one place you could have been hiding. I pretended to search the closet, then moved shoe boxes in fronta it, right up against the door, and told you to stay quiet no matter what you hear or see. I knew there was a slit on the wall that you can see out into the bedroom. And when we were in the room I stood in fronta it for most of the night, trying to block your view. I wouldn’ta let Danny hurt Jamie’s kids. Shit I was a kid myself, barely 19.”
Jack was stunned into silence. He remembered it now, something he didn’t remember before. Boxes shuffling, a low voice saying, “Shhhh now wee ones. No crying, it’s all just a game and it will be over soon. Hide and seek, let’s see if you can win OK? Stay quiet now.”
June noticed Jack had froze and she walked over to stand by him. She asked Drew,”Why did Danny come for our parents?”
“Do you want the real version or the version we tell people?” Drew asked.
She snapped, “Just tell us what happened! Was our dad really part of the Family or not?”
Drew said, “Well yes, but no. He did work for our father from time to time but only the legal work. Your dad met ours when he was no bigger than yourselves, he went to school with our other brother. He helped our dad out of a bind once, don’t know all the circumstances of that, but ever since Jamie was like a fifth son to him. He paid he way through university and hoped Jamie would come aboard but Jamie wanted his own way. He started doing the personal accounts and financial planning for our straight businesses and for others as well. No dirty money, nothing he had to clean. And our dad respected your dad’s ethics. They were alright with each other.”
“If our father was so well respected by your family, then why did your brother want him dead?” June asked.
Drew blew out some air. “Betsy.”
Jack and June both exclaimed, “WHAT!?”
Drew said, “Listen, I had no problem with Jamie, he was like an older brother and was the only one that treated me with respect. Nathaniel and Jamie were best mates, they graduated together and were as close as brothers. Ruben our oldest brother didn’t care or not care for Jamie, but had no issues. But Danny. Danny wanted Betsy, Betsy choose Jamie and it all went to shit after they got married and had you.” He motioned to Jack with his chin.
“It’s like he still thought he had a chance with her until she popped you out looking like a little Jamie.” He laughed. “It all seems so stupid now. No, it seemed stupid back then too.”
Jack was furious but tried to keep his voice even. “So that’s why he killed my father? Because he wanted my mother? But then had her killed too? I don’t get it.”
Drew said, “That’s an oversimplified way of putting it. He hated Jamie even before Betsy. He hated the way our father loved him. Hated how much everyone adored him, men and women. Hated how easy things came for him, love, respect, admiration. He wanted the respect that Jamie had. He wanted his life, his woman, even his kids. But he couldn’t touch him, not with Rab Riley still around. My father would have killed Danny for Jamie. That’s how close they were. But when Rab died, I think Danny started plotting from then to destroy Jamie.”
“So our father wasn’t a traitor,” Jack said.
“Again, oversimplified,” Drew said. “Jamie did go to Mi6 to rat out Danny, but Danny and Danny alone is who he wanted to get caught. He wasn’t trying to bring down the Family. But that was after what Danny did…what he did and Ruben wouldn’t admonish him the way Rab would have, he had to find another way to get to him.”
“What did Danny do?” June asked.
Drew gave her a sad look. “Oh sweet Junie, of course you wouldn’t remember, you were just a babe yourself.”
June asked, “What…wouldn’t I remember?”
Drew looked at Jack instead. “He raped your mum. Caught her on her way back from picking up Junie. Pushed her down in her car, took her in fronta your sister, in broad daylight. Then sent her home to Jamie.” June’s hand went to her mouth and her eyes filled with tears. Jack looked away, spat on the ground. He felt sick. He reached over and hugged June while she cried on his shoulder.
“Keep talking,” Henrietta said. “What happened next?”
“Jamie was furious, obviously. Red Jamie came to the main house that night, gun in tow. He wanted to kill Danny but Ruben told him no, he would handle it. Jamie went to Nate and he was furious as well. Nate found where Danny was hiding and beat the bloody shit out of him, broke a bottle over his head, and Danny still has the scar today. Nate wanted Ruben to take something from Danny, like a limb. That’s something Rab would have done. He took something from Jamie emotionally, so he should lose a finger, a toe, a whole foot or hand. But Ruben wouldn’t do that, he just sent Danny away to London and cut his money down.
“Jamie stopped doing all work for the Family and made Nate choose between his best friend and his brothers. He choose us and cut ties with Jamie. It broke Jamie’s heart to lose Nate and he obsessed with destroying Danny. He found out that Danny was running guns from Belfast to London outside of the Family business to make more money. So he went to Mi6 with the numbers, showed them all the finances, routes, everything. He pledged to testify against Danny but not the Family. Danny nearly got caught, but he escaped London, came back to Dublin and told Ruben that Jamie was trying to bring down the family.”
“How did he find out it was my dad?” Jack asked.
“No clue. We think he had a friend on the inside of Mi6.”
“So Ruben ordered the hit on my family because of what Danny told him?”
Drew shook his head. “No. Ruben called the four of us in for a sit down. Jamie refused to come, said he wasn’t part of the family anymore. But Ruben told the rest of us that Jamie is family, and we had to bring him back to our side. And since Danny fucked it up, he needed to be the one to make it right.
“He ordered Danny to apologize, beg forgiveness and bring him back into the Family. Danny at first railed against it, the mere thought of begging forgiveness from his sworn enemy enraged him. But then he said, OK, he’d do it that night. Ruben sent me to go with him, make sure he didn’t fuck it up more. But Danny had no intention of making it right. He called Barney and plotted to provoke Jamie into a fight, then say they killed him on self defense. I sat in the backseat, heard it all on our way to the house.”
“And you didn’t stop them?” June asked accusingly. “Why didn’t you tell Ruben or Nate? Or my dad!”
“I told you, I was a kid myself,” Drew said. ‘What the fuck was I supposed to do? He’s my brother. Family over everything. That’s the Riley way.”
“But I thought Jamie was your brother too?” June said hotly. Drew didn’t answer, he looked away.
“So what exactly happened that night?” Henrietta asked.
“Jamie took one look at Danny on his porch and went for his gun. But it was three on one so he didn’t get to it in time. Jamie then said, ‘you’re supposed to apologize to me you son of a bitch,’ all smugly. Nate must have called Jamie and told him. Danny lost it, started wailing on him, beating him with the pipe he brought along. I think Jamie knew he wouldn’t apologize and he would find a reason to kill him. Jamie was smart that way. But I don’t think he was prepared for how much Danny wanted to hurt him.
“We heard Betsy running around upstairs and he sent us to find her and you two. She was trying to make your beds up like you were never there. Barney dragged her downstairs and I pretended to search for you. By the time I came down it was crazy. Jamie was tied with an extension cord. Betsy was screaming and clawing at Danny every chance she could get; she’s a fighter that one. Danny was talking about finding you two and cutting you up into little pieces and feeding you to them, sick shit.
“I told Danny, Ruben and Nate are going to be mad, we have to stop this shit. But who the fuck was I? They ignored me. At some point Betsy ran back upstairs and Danny followed her. We heard him start raping her, and Barney dragged Jamie upstairs to watch.” Drew breathed out. “It just got ugly from there.”
Jack said, “And you helped.” He let go of June and walked closer to Drew. “I know what happened next because I was there. He raped her. Then called you and Barney upstairs, and you all took turns raping my mother, beating my father with the pipe until Barney slit her throat and you shot him.”
Drew was shaking his head vigorously. “No I barely touched your mum. And I never beat your dad. I…tied him to the bed, yes. And I held her down. Because Danny told me to. What the fuck was I supposed to do!?”
“You also sodomized my dad. You’re not fucking innocent here.” Jack said angrily.
“I just did what they told me to do,” Drew said pleadingly. “I thought, the quicker they get their rocks off, the quicker we could go home. But I realized soon enough they had no intention of letting them live. Either of them. No, I wasn’t innocent. Maybe I should have done more. The only thing I could think at the time was protect the wee ones. You and June.”
He took a deep breath. “Are you gonna torture me and kill me now?”
Jack didn’t answer, instead asked, “Why did you shoot my dad? You pulled the trigger. I saw that.”
“Mercy,” Drew said. “Danny intended to keep the torture going. After Betsy died right in fronta us, in fronta Jamie, her blood on him, he…he lost it. Screaming like I’ve never heard a man scream before. How he was going to kill us all. Danny shot him in the stomach and he just kept on screaming. I couldn’t take it. I knew you could hear it and I had to stop it. So I shot him in the head to make it stop. Then I made everyone get the fuck out and left you there.
“I didn’t get back in the car with them, I walked on, called Nate and told him what happened. It killed him inside to know Jamie was gone. And it was war after that. Neither would listen to reason. Nate would keep coming for Danny, shot his men, and blew up his businesses. Danny blew up his home, almost killed his son. Nate blew up Danny’s car thinking he would be in it. He wanted to kill him but instead Danny’s first wife was in it and got killed.
“Their war split the Family. Ruben sat us all down again, said it’s over. We got one for one, Maribel for Jamie, no more bloodshed, he said. Told them they need to start acting like brothers again or leave the family. Nate said right away, ‘I’m leaving the Family.’ That he should have left when Jamie asked him to, that it was the biggest regret of his life and he’ll never forgive himself for what happened to him. He walked out and never came back.
He moved to Belfast with his wife and three kids and still lives there now. Runs a small grocery shop. Won’t talk to any of us, although I try to call at least once a year. Even though I apologized every year for my part of it all. He told me one year, we took away his real brother, he has no brothers anymore.”
Jack’s heart was pounding with all he heard. He said, “Give me his address.”
“If I give you his address, will you let me go?” Drew asked, hopefully.
“I will give you the same courtesy you gave us,” Jack said plainly. Drew gave it to him. Henrietta and Jack lowered the rope so Drew could be seated in the chair.
“You’ll untie me then?” Drew asked.
Jack said, “Thank you for protecting us then. Than you for telling us the truth now. We were going to torture and kill you, yes. I was going to ram this pipe up your ass as far as it would go, as you hung by your toes. I was going to shoot you in the stomach watch you bleed out a bit, then shoot you in the head. But I’m not going to do any of that. Because you showed my father mercy. And for that, I will show you the same mercy you showed him.”
He pulled out his gun and shot Drew in the head before Drew understood what Jack had just said. Jack spat on the floor and turned his back on Drew’s lifeless body, leaving the women to dispose of it.
~~~~~
Ethan woke up at 4am. He had been doing that lately. Interestingly when Jack would wake up at 4am for his run, it never woke Ethan up. And now Ethan woke up every morning at 4am and remembered Jack. Remembered Jack’s face, his eyes, his smile, his laughter. Today he remembered how Jack would moan when they make love.
He thought about the first time he entered Jack and how he seemed to just melt into his body and Jack’s body molded around him. Ethan absentmindedly grabbed his penis and started slowly stroking himself. He remembered Jack coming to him the next day wanting him, needing him. Ethan held a firm grip on the base of his penis with one hand, and started stroking up twisting it ever so slightly in his other hand. He remembered Jack riding him that night at his parents in front of the pool, how he moved and twisted his body. Ethan stroked faster. He was so close.
He remembered the first time he let Jack inside of him. The way Jack held him, kissed him, stroked him, penetrated him, made him cum, then told him he was falling in love with him. Ethan moved faster as the tears started falling.
He remembered Jack on New Years Eve after the ball dropped and they kissed, telling him how he needs to love him. If I couldn’t love you, he said, I’d just be dead inside. Ethan felt dead inside. The only part of him that was still alive was his member that was now pulsating in his hands. He remembered how Jack dominated him on the hotel bathroom sink. He knew he was squeezing himself too tight, jerking himself too hard but it was the only way he felt alive now, when his orgasm seized his insides.
He held onto the feeling as long as he could until he cried out loud and came all over himself. His heart was beating fast like he just ran a 5k himself. Ethan opened his eyes and he knew he was alone, but it still broke his heart all over again.
~~~~~~
Jack woke up early with the sun. He dreamed he was laying in bed holding hands with Ethan telling him everything that Drew told him and Ethan told him what to do next. He followed Dream Ethan’s advice. He drove the car from Dublin to Belfast, without telling anyone where he was going. Jack thought about all the things Drew said, knowing every word of it was the truth. Memories started flooding him from last night and continued to this morning. It was like Drew unlocked a part of his brain that has been closed and hidden behind all the grief, stored memories from the time before.
Like playing hide and seek with a teenage boy, “Always in the cubby closet Jack!” He remembered sitting at the dinner table on someone’s lap- his Uncle Nate. Why didn’t he remember his Uncle Nate until just now? Uncle Nate was always around. Jack’s middle name is Nathan, clearly he was named for someone…his Uncle Nate obviously. How could he forget that?
He remembered playing under his dad’s desk with his toys while his dad talked with an older man for hours. He asked, “Is Grandpa Rab my real grandpa?”
And his father said, “He’s as good as. Family is more than blood, Jack. It’s who you trust, who you allow in your circle and in your heart. And once they become family, it’s your job to protect them. Family comes first. Family over everything else, always remember that.”
Other memories kept flooding his mind: Bath time with bubbles, his mother washing his hair; playing soccer in the backyard with his dad; his earliest memory, he couldn’t have been than four, June was in his mother’s lap and she was breastfeeding. He tried to sit her lap as well, but his dad picked him up with an “oh no you don’t” and sat down next to her, putting Jack in his lap. His parents kissed. Jack said, “I don’t like the baby. Take her back.”
His dad said, “You don’t have to like her all the time, but you will love and protect her. That’s your number one job, to protect your Junie, always. She’s part of your family now. Family over everything.” Memory after memory unlocked while he drove to Belfast, all the good ones he had kept hidden, making him whole again.
His GPS took him to a two story cottage type home, and he knocked on the door. An older woman answered with blonde curly hair. “Hello?”
Jack put on his accent, “Hello. Is Nate Riley here?”
The woman asked, “Who should I say is calling?”
Jack hesitated. “Jamier Edmin. And old friend.”
She looked skeptical. “You’re a little young to be an old friend.”
Jack smiled his sideways smile. “I just want to talk to him.”
She looked at him intently for a long moment. Then said, “Come in dear.” They walked through the quaint and charming home through the kitchen to the backyard. Nate was in a patio chair playing with his three year old grandson. The woman said, “Nate, someone is here to see you.”
Nate started rising and turned around, then he froze mid lift. He slowly stood to a stand without taking his eyes off Jack. The woman came over to Nate’s side and squeezed his hand, kissed his cheek. She picked up the boy and said, “Come now little Jamie, your granddad needs to talk to an old friend.” She smiled at Jack as she took the boy inside.
Nate walked over to Jack. “Christ almighty. You look just like him. Like time just went back to the day I met Jamie in the dorms.” He wrapped his arms around Jack’s neck and Jack hugged him back. “Welcome home, Jack,” Nate said. Jack still didn’t speak, but he sat down when Nate motioned for him to sit. “I know why you’re here but I can’t help you. I can’t give you answers or the closure you seek.”
Jack said, dropping the accent, “I have the answers I need and I will soon have my closure. I just wanted to see you, Uncle Nate.”
Nate asked, “You’re OK then?” Jack nodded. Nate nodded as well.
He said, “Galis said he was getting you and Junie out of the country. I knew Betsy had a brother in the States, so we gave him your uncle’s number. But I never asked again about it. You’re aunt Lizzy who you just met, she asked me to let it go, to walk away, and never concerned myself with the dealings of the Family again. I made it even for Jamie the best way I knew how, with violence. And then I walked away from it all.” He looked at him a bit longer. “You sure you’re OK, lad?”
“I’m OK. Uncle Henry has always treated me like I was his own son. I couldn’t have asked for a better father after I lost my first one,” Jack said.
“Aye.” Nate said. “Your father was a great man. Saved my life, you know. I barely knew him, he was just one of the boys in the dorm. But one night I almost died of a drug overdose. Your father barely knew my name, but he drove me to the hospital and stayed with me until my dad arrived, when all my other friends abandoned me. He became closer to me then all my actual brothers after that. Kept me in school and out of trouble. Showed me that the Family way was not the only way to live, and he was right. He was always right.”
They sat in silence for a moment, Nate seemed like he was thinking about the past. “I’m going to kill them all,” Jack said.
Nate didn’t react to Jack’s statement. Instead said, “Are you in school? Or done with it all, you gotta be what, 24, 25 now?”
“Did you hear what I said?” Jack asked.
“I heard you. Now are you gonna answer my question? Because something tells me you got brains like your dad.”
Jack rolled his eyes. “I’m 24. And I didn’t go to college. There was no need to because I knew at some point I was going to end up here.”
Nate nodded. “Are you in love?” he asked him. “Did you at least experience that before you hopped on a plane to go on a killing spree?” Jack smiled. Nate laughed. “Ah! Is she a bonnie lass?”
“He,” Jack said. “And he’s the most beautiful, amazing man I’ve ever met. And he has a son, who I love as well.”
Nate’s eyes went wide for a moment, then went back to normal. He nodded. “Jamie would have been OK with it. He was open and liberal that way. Betsy too. Do you know I introduced them? I was already dating Lizzy, and we would hang out, then Lizzy’s favorite little cousin started hanging out with us. Girls of the same name, Jamie and I had.”
Jack mouth opened slightly and pointed toward the house. Nate said, “Yes, my wife and your mother were first cousins. So technically, I am your Uncle Nate.”
Jack smiled, and said, “Even if you weren’t, you would have been my Uncle Nate. Family over everything.” Nate smiled, patted him on the leg.
“Still,” Nate said, “Best day in the world when my best friend became my actual brother. I think we enjoyed the wedding more than he did with his wife, we were shitty drunk. I’m pretty sure he didn’t get it up for his honeymoon.” He laughed and Jack found himself laughing as well. They sat in silence both lost in thoughts, Nate in the past, Jack in the future.
Jack said, “If I survive this, I’m never coming back here. So this is hello. And goodbye.”
Again Nate ignored him. “You haven’t mentioned June. Is she OK too?”
“She’s great. She’s in school getting her degree. And she fell in love with my best friend so…still wrapping my head around that, almost a year later.”
Nate laughed. “Can’t help who you love, can you?”
Jack said softly, “No you can’t,” thinking of Ethan again.
“So your best friend becomes your brother. Cherish it. I know I think about mine every day,” Nate said. “They called him Red Jamie sometimes because he had a bad temper, you know. He was the most easy going person you’d ever met, but don’t cross him. Because when Jamie saw red, nothing could get in his way. But Betsy, she cooled all that right out of him. That’s what the love of a good woman can do, change you for the better. Or in your case, a good man.” They sat in silence again.
Then Nate said, “If you can, spare Ruben. He never wanted this. He wanted to run the Family the way our father Rab did. Family over everything, the Riley way. And Jamie was family, through and through. A couple of years after the war ended, Ruben and Danny got into a huge fight, said Danny ruined the Family with his antics over Betsy and Jamie. Said no one trusted us to protect our own anymore. He stepped down, gave the crown to Danny. They haven’t spoken since, at least that’s what Drew said. He’s still a part of the Family but Ruben runs things out of London, Danny here.” He was quiet for a moment then said, “I suspect I won’t be getting a call from Drew this Christmas.”
“Ruben wasn’t on my list. He wasn’t there that night. And I know now that he didn’t order the hit,” Jack said, and Nate nodded. His grandson came running back outside and jumped in his lap. He reminded Jack of a blond EJ and his heart ached again.
“Well, not that you need it,” Nate said, “but you have my blessing. My brother died 18 years ago on May 2nd. The rest are no kin of mine.” He stood up. Jack stood up as well. “Best get on with it. Then get out as quick as you can, get back to that life and that lad of yours.”
Jack pulled Nate into a hug and held him a bit longer than the first one. Lizzy came outside and handed Jack a picture. It was of the four of them, Nate and Jamie his dad in the middle, arms around each other, Betsy and Lizzy on each side. Everyone was smiling. It could have been him in that picture.
Lizzy said, “This was taken the year before you were born. They were so in love and happy.” Jack looked at Lizzy and smiled. She did resemble his mother a bit, they had the same curly blond hair, and green eyes that Jack has. He reached for her and hugged her tight as well. When he pulled back tears were falling from her eyes.
“Take care of yourself,” she kind of whispered. “Hug Sweet June for me too.” Jack looked at Nate and nodded, who nodded back. Jack left and drove back to Terenure to finish what he started, so he could get back to his family.