MESS US UP
a Brooks Crest novel
Jaxson Kidman
Contents
MESS US UP
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
Brooks Crest
More From Jaxson
MESS US UP
The bad boy criminal. The good girl law student.
THIS IS THE END.
(Mac)
The closer Jolie gets to me, the deeper see falls into the darkness that is my life. Trust me, I wish I could save her but it’s far too late.
Her past is now part of my future.
And I have to choose between life and love.
(Jolie)
I’m tired of hiding.
I know who I am and what I want.
I know the danger.
I know what this means for my life.
I’m in love with Mac.
Nothing else matters to me… until all the secrets are exposed.
Then I’m left asking one question…
What have I done?
1
MAC
Les stands next to me.
I lean against the open garage door.
The day is about to become night.
We have about an hour before the sun will start to set.
I have a lot to do before that time.
Then again, in my life, when the sun goes down, things get even busier.
“It’ll be okay, bro,” Les says to me.
I look at him.
I don’t say anything. I don’t nod.
I don’t agree. I don’t disagree.
In fact, I can’t stand the fact that Les even would say something like that to me.
Who the fuck needs to hear that?
Not with everything going on.
I take the last drag of my cigarette and flick it out of the garage.
I turn and walk through the warehouse toward the door where everyone is sitting at the table.
Waiting for me.
I still have to keep control of my crew.
There’s still life to live.
Business to handle.
No matter how fucked up things get, I can’t let this slip. Not for a second. Not one inch.
Trust me, you don’t want to know what the other side of it looks like.
I open the door and Taz is arm wrestling Aric.
They’re leaning over the table toward each other.
Their faces are bright red.
Their arms flexed tight.
“Give up, motherfucker,” Taz growls.
“Fuck yourself, Taz,” Aric says.
“Come on, bro,” Raf yells to Aric. “Here’s another fifty on it… let’s go.”
“Fuck that,” Ado said. “I’ll match it. And add another.”
Ado puts two fifty dollar bills on the table.
I look back at Les.
He shrugs his shoulders.
The match wears on.
The only way someone will win is when the other gets too tired.
But these guys are crazy.
They won’t stop.
I walk to the table as Ado is literally hooting.
Like a growling owl.
He starts jumping on his toes like he’s in some nightclub after a few drinks, thinking he can dance.
I grab Ado’s shirt and he stops.
He shows his hands.
I let him go.
Then I put my hand to Taz and Aric’s hands.
“How we doing here?” I ask.
“Waiting for this pussy to give up,” Taz says.
“Never,” Aric says. “You’re fucking afraid of me, Taz.”
“You have some good hand strength,” Taz says. “All those hours of jerking off are paying off.”
“Whatever it takes,” Aric says.
I look at Taz.
I look at Aric.
I look forward.
I pull at Taz’s hand and give him the win.
Raf slaps the table. “Fuck! I just lost two hundred fucking dollars.”
“He cheated!” Aric yells. “Fucking Mac helped!”
My right hand grabs Aric’s shirt.
I pull him nose to nose.
“Fuck,” he whispers. “Sorry, Mac. I got out of hand there.”
“You think?” I ask.
I let Aric go and I swipe my hand to the table and scoop up all the cash.
I look at Taz. “This is what you do?”
“Sorry,” Taz says. “We were just killing time. Waiting for you, bro. Aric was running his mouth.”
I put the cash into my pocket and walked to the head of the table.
“Everyone sit the fuck down,” I say.
They sit.
I don’t.
I don’t have time to sit.
My head is racing.
Maybe faster than it ever has in my life.
“We shift gears for the moment,” I say. “Got it? We have to take care of something before we get back to the other thing.”
The other thing…
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that means Jolie.
I swallow hard and feel a sting of pain in my heart.
I miss her.
I fucking miss her.
I can’t believe everything that’s happening right now.
I use my finger on the table to draw a map.
“We just have to be careful,” I say. “This isn’t some small time bullshit stuff. Okay? We have to drop off the car right here. There’s going to be a green SUV waiting. It has to be green. Anything else and we’re fucked.”
“Fucked?” Aric asks.
“Anything but green means the deal is off,” I say. “And it’s not the kind of off where you just drive away. It means things have blown the fuck up.”
“Whoa,” Ado says. “This is heavy shit, Mac.”
“Anyone who doesn’t want to do it, stand up and walk out right now. It’s your choice. But it’s also your final choice for everything else.”
“Nah, not me,” Taz says. “I’m in until the end. Don’t even say that shit, Mac. Nobody at this table is going to walk out on anything.”
I look around the table just to be sure of it.
Nobody moves.
“It’ll be me and Les in the car,” I say. “Okay? Taz will be driving my SUV. The rest of you will be in the SUV. You wait for Les and I. If shit goes bad, you leave us there. If shit does go bad, then you go straight to Mama’s. And you do what she says.”
“What is she going to say?” Taz asks.
“No idea,” I say. “I don’t think about that part of it. I just think about what I know is going to happen. We get in there and get out. In one piece. Got it?”
“Got it,” Taz says. He hits the table. “Let’s fucking roll.”
He stands up.
Les stands up. He motions for everyone else.
“Just be protected,” I say. “And, Taz, ride my ass like I’m some pretty one night stand.”
“Consider it done,” he says. He snaps his fingers. “I’ll just pretend it’s Violet’s ass.”
I feel Les seething.
I curl my lip at Taz.
He shows his hands. “Sorry. Shouldn�
�t have said that.”
“Hey, Mac,” Raf says. “Can I say something about…”
“No,” I say. “This isn’t going to turn into a pity party. One thing at a time. Keep it separated.”
Taz takes the lead leaving the room.
Les follows and they start talking.
As I start to leave the room, Ado is purposely hanging back to talk to me.
“What is it?” I ask him.
“I’m sorry about that arm wrestling thing,” he says. “That was my fault. I stirred the pot there.”
“It’s done and over with,” I say.
“It’s kind of not though, Mac,” Ado says. He runs his hand through his hair. “I needed that cash. I was banking on Taz to beat the fuck out of Aric there.”
“You threw down money,” I say.
“Yeah, I know. That was all the money I had. I’m kind of broke right now, bro. I really needed that…”
“So you tried to gamble to make money… using money you couldn’t afford to lose?”
“Yeah,” Ado says.
He offers a weak laugh.
I curl my lip. “With all of this shit going on? That’s what you want to say to me? Really? Learn a fucking lesson and then talk to me. If you can’t keep your head straight, then walk out of here right now.”
“So that’s it, Mac?”
“Get out of my face, Ado,” I say.
He lowers his gaze and walks out of the room.
I slam the door behind me.
I watch Ado walk away.
He’s becoming more of a problem with each passing day.
There’s a fence that’s partially open.
The factory is some kind of stone factory. It’s still open for business, but it’s on a one week shutdown. That means nobody is there. Security is supposed to be there but that’s been taken care of.
How?
I don’t know and I don’t care.
Everyone has a job to do. If you look at someone else’s job, you’ll fuck up your own.
I drive the shit box of a car through the open part of the fence.
I’m wearing black gloves.
So is Les.
We have to make sure there’s nothing that ties us to the car.
I check my mirror and watch Taz as he continues to follow.
I tape the brakes three times and that’s Taz’s signal to stop following.
The SUV crawls to a stop and I keep going.
I drive the car around the building.
“Where’s the SUV?” Les asks.
“It’ll be here, bro,” I say. “We might be early.”
“Early?” he asks. “These deals don’t work on early or late. They work on time and nothing else.”
“I fucking know that,” I snap. “Maybe Mama gave the wrong time.”
Les looks at me.
I bite my tongue.
Mama would never give the wrong time.
She has everything down to the second more than I do.
Unless…
I see a vehicle appear straight ahead.
The SUV is coming from the south entrance.
That’s where the big trucks come and go from the factory.
“Told you,” I whisper to Les. “It’s fine.”
“Let’s get out and get out of here,” he says.
“Just hold up,” I say. “We have to make sure…”
The SUV slowly turns.
“Fuck, Mac,” Les says. “That doesn’t look green, does it?”
I swallow hard. I blink my eyes.
I blink my eyes four times.
Begging to see green.
Because the SUV sitting there is blue.
The driver’s side door opens.
“We’re fucked,” Les yells. “Fuck this…”
He opens his door and gets out.
“Les!” I yell.
I have no choice but to get out of the car too.
I ran around the front of the car as Les takes out his gun and begins to lift it.
I know what he’s going to do.
Anything to survive…
Even if a deal goes bad and you know your ass is toast, you’re going to fight back. Any sliver of survival you’re going to grab. And if you’re going to go down, then you do it with a fight so you grab a little pride to take with you to the other side.
I look back as I keep running toward Les.
The man that steps out of the SUV looks our way and he shows his hands.
I grab Les’s arm and pull it down.
I throw my shoulder into his shoulder.
“That’s the guy,” I say to him. “Fuck, that’s the guy…” I gasp for a breath. “We’re good here, Les.”
“What?” Les asks.
I look over my shoulder again just to make sure.
I’m sure.
The guy standing outside the SUV is the guy who’s here for the car.
We’re good.
We’re solid.
Nothing bad is going to happen.
At long as Les doesn’t do anything stupid like shoot his gun…
I push at Les. “Go, bro. Go. Turn around go to the SUV.”
“You said it was going to be green,” Les says.
“I know what I fucking said,” I say.
We both start to move away from the car.
We pick up speed and run toward the SUV.
When Taz sees us running, I give him a thumbs up.
I get into the front passenger seat.
Les gets into the back passenger seat.
“Good?” Taz asks.
“Yeah,” I say.
“Why doesn’t it feel that way right now?” he asks.
“Just get us the fuck out of here,” I say. “Right now.”
Taz hits the gas pedal and the SUV flies backwards. He cuts the wheel and puts it into drive. The tires throw up dust and rocks and we’re out of there.
But we’re far from being in the clear.
The crew breaks up back at the warehouse.
Ado takes off without saying a word.
Fuck him.
Trust me, I’m sorry about his mother. I really am. She’s going to die. He can’t stop it. But it’s not my job to feed him cash whenever he wants some.
Aric and Raf leave to go collect on a few nighttime payments that are due.
That leaves me standing there with Les and Taz.
“You need to tell him,” Les says to me.
“Tell me what?” Taz asks.
I sigh. “The drop was a little tense. The SUV was a different color.”
“What the fuck?” Taz asks. “I thought that meant…”
“It was blue instead of green,” I say. “The guy that got out was the guy though. The deal went down fine. Everything’s good.”
“It’s not good,” Les says.
I turn and step toward him. “What are you getting at here, Les?”
“Whoa, whoa,” Taz says. He steps between us. “Everyone chill out.”
“I’m not going to chill out,” Les says. “Something went wrong today. I want to know what and why. So I can fix it for next time. Someone fucked up.”
“Nobody fucked up,” I say.
“The SUV was late and a different color,” Les says.
“Late?” I ask. “Come on, bro. It was thirty seconds.”
“Late,” Les says.
I throw a fist at his shoulder. “Watch where you’re going with this.”
Les tries to swing at me.
Taz turns and hugs Les to keep him away from me.
Taz walks and I follow.
“What are you thinking, Les? That Jolie’s got my mind fucked up? Huh?”
“Stop it,” Taz says.
“Yeah, that’s what I think,” Les calls out. “Maybe she’s fucking everything up for good now.”
“I’ll fucking kill you,” I say.
Taz throws his left hand behind him and hits my chest.
I knock his arm away.
“The
re’s no room for mistakes,” Les says.
I stop walking.
“Then it was Mama,” I say. “Okay? Then it was her. She fucked up.”
Taz let Les go and looks at me. “What?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “It wasn’t me. I know what she said. Maybe something got fucked up. It wasn’t on my end. And we survived.”
“Why would Mama not know the information?” Taz asks.
“I don’t know,” I say. “Just let it go. Let it go right now.”
“Mac, we have to talk about this,” Les says.
I point to Les. “No. We don’t. I’m out of here. I have somewhere to be.”
“Where is that?” Les asks.
“I’m going to find Jolie.”
2
JOLIE
I can’t breathe.
It’s too dark and I can’t breathe… because I can’t see.
For all I know I’m stuck in a box. A metal box, right?
I put my arms out and feel around.
There’s nothing in my way.
I kick my feet.
It’s the same.
I wiggle my toes.
I can move freely.
But I don’t dare to move.
Outside the metal walls I can hear banging.
I can’t tell if it’s footsteps or fists.
But that’s all I can hear.
It’s consuming me.
Just like the darkness has consumed me.
Once when I was a kid I went into the ocean and a wave grabbed me and took me under. I started spinning with the wave, unable to kick myself free.
I had no idea what to do to make it all stop.
Then out of nowhere my father had his hands on me.
He picked me up from the ocean water and carried me to the beach.
Mess Us Up (Brooks Crest Book 3) Page 1