Playette

by T. L Smith

Jasper wipes at his lips. “I’ll have to kill him now. You’ve brought this on yourself.”

  “No, you won’t. And if you do, Jasper... I will kill you.”

  “You wouldn’t.”

  I stand in front of my uncle as he stands. “I would with no hesitation. Make no mistake, I will be saving the last standing member of my family, if I have to.”

  “Who do you think took your parents in the first place?” Jasper asks, his head dropping to the side.

  “You and your people.”

  Jasper chuckles. “You really did brainwash her, didn’t you? Does it make you happy to make her your little combat toy?” Jasper questions, looking behind me. I’m confused by his words and what they mean.

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” my uncle says from behind me.

  “Oh, but I do. I remember it all, Max.”

  I turn to my uncle.

  How could Jasper know his name?

  “What’s he talking about?”

  “Nothing. Remember, they’re all liars. You know better than to trust them.”

  “I don’t,” I say.

  “You shouldn’t trust him either, Isadora.”

  I turn back to Jasper, who pulls out a photograph and turns it around to show me. Stepping one step closer, but not close enough to touch it, but close enough so I can see the picture, I gasp.

  That’s my uncle.

  And that’s his mother.

  Jasper’s mother.

  Turning around, my uncle looks angry. Extremely angry. “How dare you.”

  “Was she a whore for you, too?” Jasper teases.

  “You don’t get to speak of her, you evil spawn,” my uncle yells.

  “But I do. Just because you were fucking her, don’t think you were the only man who was at the time.”

  “You know nothing.”

  “She was still fucking my father up until I killed her.”

  I gasp at his words, shocked by all of it. This can’t be real. None of what he’s saying is true. It can’t be. But Jasper doesn’t tell lies either, he’s a straight talker. And my uncle? I turn to face him. “This isn’t true, right?” I say looking directly at my uncle.

  Carter walks in, his leg bandaged, as Ace follows behind with his hand covered in a bandage as well.

  “She wasn’t.” My uncle sneers looking at Jasper and ignoring what I’ve just asked him.

  “Oh, but she was.” He laughs.

  “How does it feel knowing I also fuck your niece? I bet that burns a little bit, right? Knowing the woman you loved used you,” Jasper says making me wonder what the hell is going on.

  “Shut the fuck up,” my uncle screams, then turns to me with a crazy look in his eyes. “We need to leave. Kill them,” he orders me as if I wasn’t just standing here listening to all of this.

  I shake my head. “Is what he’s saying true? You were with her?” I ask my uncle not sure who to believe right at this moment though the photo is more than enough evidence.

  “Of course I was, she was it for me.”

  Oh fucking hell! I gasp at his words. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “She was sick, so fucking sick,” Jasper says, shaking his head. “She should’ve been locked up.”

  “No, you tried that. I got her out,” Uncle Max says as if he’s proud of himself.

  “I wonder what else she’s made you do.” Jasper thinks, but it’s out loud.

  “None of your fucking business.” He turns to me. “Isadora, we’re leaving. Now.” He attempts to reach for my hand, but I pull it back.

  Jasper’s standing closest to me, and looks at me with clear intent written in his eyes. “Don’t leave with him.”

  “You’ll just kill me when you’re sick of me,” I say, shaking my head.

  “No, I won’t, Isadora. And you know that.”

  “No. No, I don’t,” I say, turning to look at my uncle. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You didn’t need to know that fact. I had to keep you on the straight and narrow. You had one task, and one task only… to get rid of them all.”

  “She did need to know it,” Jasper replies.

  Ace and Carter stay back, just right of the door, not moving, simply watching.

  “There’s a lot you’ve kept from her. Don’t you think it’s time you told her?”

  “Shoot him, Isadora.”

  “No,” I say, stepping back away from my uncle with scrunched hands and my eyebrows so pulled together I’m sure it’s now formed one brow.

  “Isadora…” I turn to face Jasper, his lips are in a thin line as he stares at me. “You can stay. Please stay.”

  I want to, but another part of me doesn’t.

  Everything’s a lie.

  How much more is a lie.

  Did they even kill my parents? Or was I made to believe that by Uncle Max as well?

  “No, she will not. You can’t have her.”

  I feel it then, the gun that’s tucked into my skirt is now in the hands of my uncle. And it’s raised high to meet Jasper’s head who’s standing directly in front of me. “Your mother should have done this a long time ago, you evil piece of shit.”

  It all happens so fast.

  The gun clicks.

  Jasper flies backward.

  I see the impact and I’m hopeless to stop it.

  Jasper falls to the floor.

  My whole body starts shaking and my eyes form tears I didn’t know were there as I drop to the floor next to him. “Jasper.” I touch his face, but I’m pulled backward.

  Hands grab my shoulders and when I pull back something sharp hits the back of my head, and soon, I succumb to the blackness.

  23

  Isadora

  I wake to hear screaming as I’m carried out.

  “Fix your boss and fucking move,” my uncle seethes.

  Fuck, my head hurts and it’s even more painful to open my eyes.

  “Leave her.”

  “No can do. She isn’t yours and you won’t get her. I’ll kill her before I let you mongrels have her.” My uncle begins walking me out of the house, my hands push against his back and he puts me down to the ground. “Get in, Isadora, I’ll explain later.”

  My head starts shaking, but he doesn’t wait for me to speak as he pushes me in roughly. I look for Jasper. My heart is on the ground, shattered, but filled with mixed emotions, ones I can’t begin to understand. Carter’s on the ground next to him, but I don’t have a clear view. Ace is standing out front watching with his gun raised as my uncle climbs in and starts the engine. It’s one of Jasper’s cars, so I know it will be tracked which I don’t tell my uncle.

  I’m not really sure what’s going on anymore, so best to keep that little fact a secret right now.

  “Did you use me?” I ask while rubbing my head. “Did you even love me as your niece?” I need to know, was all this a lie to him? I love him. I will always love him. It hurts to know he might not feel the same. He is my only family.

  “I did use you. They took everything I loved.”

  “What about me?” I cry while my hands pull through my hair in frustration.

  The fucker bangs his hands on the wheel. “What about you, Issy? Not everything is about you. I spent a good portion of my life training you to be the woman you are today, and yet you still fell for him? Why? Why would you do that? How could you do that? After all that training, after all that deceit, you still fell for a man that you thought killed your family.”

  “Who said I’ve fallen for him?”

  He scoffs. “Please. I know the look of love, I’ve had it. It makes you do crazy shit. This is why you must leave him.”

  “Or what?”

  He turns to look at me. “You don’t want the answer to that question, Issy. Trust me.”

  “But I do. What would you do if I said I wanted to go back to him?” Because I do. I really do. I know I want Jasper.

  “I will kill you,” he says so easily.

  “You would?” I ask
him.

  “Yes, Issy, I would. They’re vile, imbecilic bastards.”

  “From what I heard, his mother was worse.”

  When he turns to look at me, anyone would think I’ve just killed his dog. “No, she was not,” he says with a voice full of anger.

  “She tortured Jasper,” I scream.

  “He deserved it,” he replies, driving back to the garage.

  I balk at his words. For fuck’s sake. He can’t mean that, right?

  “How could a ten-year-old boy possibly deserve to be tortured that way? Have you seen his back?”

  “Because he was his child.”

  “No. No way. That’s not fair to a child.” I shake my head.

  “It is. He is evil spawn, and all who come from that man should and will die.”

  “I don’t hate him.”

  He coughs. “No, you silly girl. You fucking love him. But I’ll change that. He won’t get you like he got her.”

  “Why did she leave?” I ask, trying to work this all out.

  “He killed her.”

  “I know that, but why was she with him? She had to have left you, right? I mean to be back there?”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” He comes to a stop out the front of his garage and gets out walking to my door. “Move it. They know about this place, so we don’t have long.” He carries the gun in his hand as he steps inside. “Grab the rifle, and go up to the roof.”

  He hands me the gun, but I just look at it, confused. “No,” I say, shaking my head.

  “Issy, now is not the time to have a change of heart. They’re coming here to kill us both.”

  “Not me,” I say, holding the rifle firmly in my grasp.

  “Yes, maybe not you, but definitely me. Do you want them to kill the only family you have left?”

  A loud crashing noise vibrates through me, and the car we stole smashes through the front of the garage.

  “What are you doing? Run.”

  I drop the rifle to the floor as they walk in. I look around for Jasper but don’t see any sign of him. My heart deflates at that thought, because that means something, right? Maybe what my uncle said is true. Maybe I do love him. Maybe.

  Ace steps over to me, wraps his hand around my upper arm and starts pulling me away. “Where is he?”

  I look around to see if I can see my uncle but he’s nowhere. Guess, he’s in hiding right about now, but even after everything I still don’t want them to kill him. I don’t know everything about what’s going on in my messed up life, but I do know that.

  “You’re coming with us.” Ace pulls on my arm and yanks me out to the car. I see Jasper lying on the back seat with his eyes shut.

  “He’s all right, right?”

  “I don’t know. We’re taking him to our doctor.” His breathing is heavy and slow and it’s more than a little concerning. I climb in the back with him and move his head, so it’s lying on my lap. When I look up, Carter and Ace are staring at us.

  “You really fucked him up, didn’t you?” Carter asks but it’s more of a statement. Carter shakes his head and then looks back to Ace as he climbs in the passenger seat.

  “I didn’t know.”

  “There’s a lot you don’t know. Maybe next time you should ask,” Ace grumbles as Carter starts driving erratically fast. I don’t look back as we leave the garage, but I know my uncle will know I’ve left with them. And I’m afraid of what he might do.

  “He’s bleeding… a lot.”

  “Put pressure on it,” Carter says as I touch Jasper’s chest.

  Blood starts to pool through the cloth and over my hand.

  “You better fucking hope he doesn’t die. He’s your pass to staying alive.”

  “Fuck you.” I lean down to Jasper’s face, touch my lips to his forehead as we come to a stop.

  What have I done?

  A man and a woman step out from an old house with latticework that’s falling off and simply dangling there. The place is on acres of land all by itself, there’s no other houses or anyone in sight. Quickly opening the back door, the man looks at me then to Jasper. Pulling him free from the car, he carries him inside the house.

  “Whose place is this?” I ask.

  “The doc’s.” The answer is simple, but I get the meaning.

  We follow behind and Ace pushes his hand out, stopping me as we arrive at the open door. “Maybe you should stay outside.”

  I shake my head.

  He shrugs, so I follow him into the room.

  A scream rips through the room and I run in after it. Jasper’s awake, his shirt’s been torn off as the doctor works on his wound. Carter’s holding him in place so he can’t move.

  “Why aren’t you numbing him? Give him anesthetic?” I ask.

  Jasper looks to me. “I don’t want it.” Then he passes out anyway.

  Carter removes his hands from Jasper and the doctor continues his work.

  It’s quiet, the only sound in the room is the instruments being picked up and placed in a steel kidney dish, and of course, people breathing.

  My hand squeezes hard while I watch and I lose all my breath. What have I done?

  There’s blood everywhere and Jasper’s completely out of it.

  24

  Jasper

  She’s standing next to me when I wake, her hand is on my arm holding me in place as her head lays on the bed. I move my fingers and touch her hair which causes her to stir then she sits up fast, almost falling from her chair. I look around and see that I’m back in my room, my shoulder’s fucking aching, and Carter’s sitting near the door with a gun in one hand and his phone in the other.

  “You’re awake.” She startles. “You’ve woken up before, but you keep passing out,” she says nervously.

  “I see you’re still alive,” I say attempting to sit up, so she moves a pillow behind me so I can, and breathes heavily as she waits.

  “I…” she steps back, fear is evident in her eyes, and her hands are shaking.

  “If I wanted you dead, Isadora, you’d be dead.”

  She nods her head. “I didn’t know… about your mother, I mean.”

  “I figured,” I say as she passes me a glass of water. I attempt to drink it before she takes it back.

  “How did you know?”

  “I remember you.” She looks at me with her eyebrows drawn which forms a small line across her forehead. “When you were fourteen. I remember you from that day in the shop.”

  Her eyes go wide. “You were there?”

  I nod, it’s not a day I want to remember. That was the day I finally knew my father had to be killed. I had become an adult and was now in his world, it was when I grew up. But that day? Yeah, that day was different. He wasn’t killing for reason anymore he was killing because he enjoyed it. That was not a man who should be running an empire.

  “Why?”

  “Your uncle’s a liar.”

  “I don’t understand.” She shakes her head back and forth while running her hand through her long hair, tears are leaking from her beautiful eyes and it takes everything in me to not touch her. Despite everything, I want her with a force so fierce I can’t even contend with it.

  “My mother didn’t love your uncle, she used him. It’s what she did. Used people and discarded them, and she was good at it. It’s part of the reason I can smile at you even when I want to kill you.”

  Carter stands, walks over and hands me some pain medication as Isadora gives me the glass of water.

  “You can go.”

  Carter looks to her then back to me.

  “She would have spiked the water if she wanted me dead. Wouldn’t you, Isadora?” She doesn’t look up, instead she looks down at the floor as Carter nods and walks away.

  “Your family’s business was profitable. Your uncle was a jealous son of a bitch. They had what he wanted. So for him to get ahold of everything, he asked my mother to have them killed. She persuaded my father to do it. That was easy for her, becaus
e at the end he’d do anything for her. He started to live for the highs. This world is dangerous and he had no one to tell him what he was doing was wrong and my mother sure as shit didn’t care.”

  Tears fall from her eyes.

  “They died because he was jealous.” She whispers, the truth in her words finally working out the real reason why they died. Even if my father was the one to pull the trigger, it was her uncle who loaded that gun. “Do you?”

  “Do I what?” She looks up and wipes the tears.

  “Do you have someone to tell you when you’re doing wrong?”

  “I do. Carter and Ace are my men. They keep me on the straight and narrow. Gabe was, too—”

  She hiccups loudly at the mention of his name, interrupting me. “I was angry. I wanted you all dead. It was what I was told and I’m sorry.”

  “Death is what I’m used to, Isadora. The only issue I’ve had with death is you.” Her hands fall into her lap as I continue, “Your parents business was to be split once your uncle got it between him and my mother.”

  “What did your mother say to make them do it?”

  “You didn’t have to tell my father much by then, he would have killed the doorman and laughed as he did it. He had no care factor at all.”

  “So, she took advantage of that fact.”

  “It’s what she did.”

  “And then?”

  “I remember walking in, your father saying you were closing, and then my father pulling out a gun. You gasped, I grabbed hold and pulled you back and told you to run.”

  “What would have happened if I’d stayed?”

  “You were also marked to be killed, Isadora. Your uncle wanted you dead, too.”

  “He didn’t.” She sighs as the realization hits her regarding the truth of it all.

  “Everything was left to you. You know this.”

  I do. I ended up with the money when I turned legal age. “He could have killed me. He knew how. It doesn’t make sense.”

  “It wasn’t long after that I took my mother’s life,” I tell her the truth.

  “So, he used me as retaliation,” she finally says. “I was his weapon for you taking his love away.”

  “She didn’t love him though, she stopped seeing him, and then I took her.”