“I tried to give Ado the benefit of the doubt,” I say. “When all that other shit went down with BFH. I never fully trusted him after that. That’s my fault. You’re either in or out in the crew. He’s never been fully in since that happened. I might as well have just taken the cash myself and given it to him.”
“Don’t say that, Mac,” Mama says. “We have to face the consequences of our decisions. We can’t wish to go back and fix things. There’s nothing to fix in the past. It’s just the present. And you know what the present is.”
“I know,” I say. “That’s why I’m telling you. The cash has been replenished. So nothing is short. Nothing is going to fall on your shoulders. Or mine.”
“That’s good,” she says. “That’s smart. Any sign of weakness and things can get pretty rough around here.”
“I know that too,” I say. “I’m bringing it to you, Mama I don’t want to handle it by myself. I don’t think I can. He fucking basically spit in my face. Stabbed me in the back. And truthfully, who knows what he’s been doing. I don’t want to speculate. But what I know is he took cash.”
“And Jolie caught him,” Mama says. “And she told you right away.”
“That’s right,” I say. “She was hurt about it. Knowing what it meant to me. And to you, Mama.”
“So what do you think we should do here, Mac?”
I put my head back and took a deep breath. “Give him up.”
“You want me to make the call.”
“I can make it if need be,” I say. “That’s up to you. But this needs to stop. I’ve messed this up, Mama. I let him slide more than I should have. So if anything comes back at you, steer it toward me.”
“That I would never do,” Mama says with a smile. “This is what we know… we have a member of the crew going rogue. We noticed issues with the cash flow. We stepped in and handled it. The cash flow is perfect. That’s the most important part of this. From there, it’s simply… here you go. Meaning we’re acting on good faith and in good terms to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Also, it’s a message to the others.”
“Not that anyone needs a message,” I say.
“Of course not, D, but the point is… we play it that way.”
“D?”
“What?”
“You just called me D…”
“No, I didn’t,” Mama says.
“You just-”
“If you’re sure about this, I’ll call right now,” Mama says. “Who knows what Ado will do next, right?”
I nod. “Exactly.”
Mama turns off the oven and the burners on the stove. She wipes her hands on her apron and slowly takes it off. Then she shuffles away.
Just like that, I’ve sealed Ado’s fate.
Although he sealed it himself by doing what he’s done.
I have to leave the house.
I step outside and take a deep breath.
I feel like my chest is about to fucking cave in.
Mama is sick and dying.
Ado is about to face the end of his road.
And Jolie isn’t with me at the moment.
I light a cigarette and think about Ado.
There was a time when the crew was bigger. There was a time when Barr from BFH was part of it all too. He and I can go punch for punch on who actually made BC what it is today. He got lost in a girl and lost the vision of the crew. On what I wanted to do. What I needed to do. There was no choice but to have him leave BC. Did I step in on his girl where he left off? Maybe. That’s a whole other story. You can figure that one out for yourself.
For me, I look at where things have gone.
Ado wasn’t completely useless. But he put himself in the position he’s in now.
And he knows it.
If he’s smart, he’s already gone.
Then again, he showed up to the table right after the Jolie incident happened.
I shake my head.
I feel for him a little. Fucking Jolie has taught me how to feel things. I can feel pain, hurt and regret for Ado, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to cut the guy a break. He’s going to go away. His mother is going to die from cancer. And that’s that.
That’s life.
That’s fate.
I finish my cigarette and go back inside.
Mama is at the stove.
She grabs for her gun and turns and points it at me.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“Don’t you knock?” she asks.
“Knock? I went outside for a cigarette.”
“What?”
“Did you call?”
“I called,” she says. “It’s taken care of. Don’t worry about it. Just stay away from it for a little bit. Let Mac come to you.”
She puts the gun down and faces the stove again.
“Mac…?” I ask.
“Yeah. He’s hurting over it. I feel for him. We just have to make sure everything else stays quiet around him.”
I swallow hard. “Mama… I’m…” I pause. “What are we keeping quiet?”
“Don’t play stupid, Declan,” she says.
Fuck. She thinks I’m Declan.
“I’m not playing stupid,” I say. “There’s a lot going on. I’ve been scrambling. Everything with Jolie…”
“Yeah, well, she’s one lucky girl,” Mama says. “You know my stance. I would have had her gone a long time ago. I’m not sure she or Mac will ever realize how close she was to…” Mama looks back at me. “You know.”
I nod. “Yeah. Right. Scary stuff.”
“Oh, stop it,” Mama says. She’s watching the stove again. “It was just a little scare, that’s all. If I wanted to really hurt her I could have called someone else. We both know you wouldn’t have done anything more than what you did.”
“More than what I did, huh?”
“You weren’t going to kill her,” Mama says. “Not that I wanted you to anyway. It was just to give her a good scare, which you did. I didn’t expect her to jump into the arms of Mac even more. A smart girl like Jolie… I thought she would have taken off. Ran away. Hidden. Anything. But it’s good for Mac though. He’s happy. I’ve never seen him as happy as he is right now. Just as long as we stay silent on everything, Declan.”
She thinks I’m Declan and she’s talking about Jolie.
“Yeah, we’ll stay silent on everything,” I say. “Can’t believe I broke into Jolie’s apartment.”
“Well, she did answer the door,” Mama says with a laugh. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore, Declan. I’m happy for Mac. And I do like Jolie. Maybe it all worked out for the better. I do feel bad for her father though. What a mess he’s in. I don’t think he’ll survive any of this.”
The words seep into me slowly.
I stand in the kitchen and take deep breaths.
It’s all swelling around me now.
I touch my pocket and take out my phone.
There’s a second where I look at the counter and see the gun.
I can never hurt Mama.
But she can hurt me.
And she doesn’t need a gun to hurt me.
Just the truth.
There’s silence for a minute or so.
Mama then looks back at me. “Why are you so quiet, Mac?”
I shake my head. “No reason. I have to go. I’m meeting up with Jolie.”
“Bring her over sometime soon,” Mama says.
“I will,” I say.
“Hey, Mac. Don’t worry about Ado. It’ll be taken care of.”
“Trust me, Ado is the last thing on my mind right now,” I say.
I force myself forward and make sure to kiss Mama on the cheek.
Her mind is slipping.
But the truth is coming out.
And I know everything is going to explode.
When I see Jolie standing by her car outside the warehouse, I hurry up to her.
There’s a lot of thoughts rushing through my head as I close in on her.
My hands touch her face and my lips touch her lips.
I shut my eyes and pretend the world doesn’t exist for a few seconds.
She gives me a sense of life.
But I know I give her a sense of death.
Near me, it’s only going to be that. Pain. Risk. Danger. Death.
My thumbs stroke her cheeks.
I can see it in her eyes that whatever happened with her mother wasn’t a good thing.
At the moment, I’m going to hijack all the emotion.
“Get into my car, sweetie,” I whisper. “We have to take a ride. We will talk about everything. But I need you to see something.”
“Okay,” Jolie says. “Are you okay?”
I shake my head.
I kiss her again.
I put my lips to her ear. “Just listen to me, Jolie. Go get into the car.”
She walks away and I face Taz.
“I kept her alive,” he says. “We went to see Violet. That crazy one was going to jump into the ocean and try to swim away. I have someone’s face I have to break too.”
“Hold off on that for a minute,” I say. “If shit ever went bad, you and Les would take the crew, right?”
“What?”
“I would have Les handle the brains. You be the muscle. Are you okay with that?”
“What the fuck are you talking about, Mac?”
“Call Les right now. Get everyone together, minus Ado. Stay some what visible. Okay? Visible, Taz. Be seen. Be heard. Be annoying. Whatever it takes.”
Taz looks at my car, then back to me. “What’s going on?”
“The Ado situation is being handled,” I say. “Everything with Jolie’s parents is handled too. Shit is clearing up finally.”
“Then why do you look ready to kill someone?”
“Don’t worry about that right now, Taz,” I say. “Just keep an eye on the crew. Be loud and visible.”
I start to turn and Taz grabs my shirt. “Mac…”
“Don’t fucking do this,” I say.
“I’m not,” he says. “I get it. I just want you to know, whatever happens, I think I love you, bro.”
“Yeah,” I say. “Same to you and the others. Just keep the crew close. No Ado. No matter what.”
Taz nods.
He lets my shirt go and I run to my car.
I get inside and start the car and take off.
Jolie lets out a little yell and grabs for the seat as I turn the car as hard as I can.
“Mac…?”
“It was a fucking set up, sweetie,” I say to her.
“What was?”
“It wasn’t your father or anyone he’s been involved with,” I say.
“What are you talking about?” Jolie asks.
I pick up more speed on the main road.
“It was Mama and Declan,” I say. “They’re the ones who planned it out. It was Declan inside your apartment.”
“What?”
“Yeah,” I say. “I just found out. This whole thing is messier than ever. And I’m fucking done with it all.”
“Wait a second, Mac,” Jolie says. “You’re telling me that Declan was the guy in my apartment?”
“That’s right.”
“How?”
“How? Mama told him to. She wanted to scare you away from me. Away from the life. But it didn’t work.”
“No… I mean how did…”
“She’s losing her fucking mind, remember?” I snap.
The inside of my car goes silent.
I stare forward and drive even faster.
You can’t yell at Jolie for it. For anything. It’s not her fault.
“I didn’t mean to snap,” I say.
“My father isn’t a good person though, Mac,” Jolie says.
I look at her for a second. “That’s what you have to say? You’re still in on all of this?”
Jolie nods. “My father is a bad person. He’s going to get what he deserves. The same with my mother. And if this is true about Mama and Declan…”
“It’s being handled,” I say to her. “Same with Ado. It’s all being handled.”
There’s silence again for a few seconds.
I cut the wheel to the right and the tires scream.
I slam on the gas pedal and the engine roars.
“Where are we going, Mac?” Jolie asks.
“You’re getting an apology, sweetie,” I say to her.
And then I’m going to kill Declan.
Declan lives on the ground floor in a shit-hole apartment building just outside of town. It’s the kind of place you’d never think a cop would live, but it’s the exact kind of place a dirty cop would live. Because Declan pisses all his money and time away on women, drugs, and fantasizing about being something he’s not.
There’s a million things that could have went wrong the night he barged into Jolie’s apartment. I guess in a way it’s a good thing he’s a complete idiot or else it could have been bad.
I park the car and look at Jolie.
“Wait here for a second, sweetie,” I say.
“Mac…”
“You know what? Fuck it. Come with me.”
“Mac, please…”
“No,” I say to her.
I get out of the car and wait.
Jolie gets out of the car and follows me.
I rip open the main door to the building and the first door on the left is Declan’s apartment.
As I pound on the door with a heavy fist, I can feel Jolie tensing up.
I grab her hand and squeeze it tight.
You’re not going to like this, sweetie, but it has to be done. You have to see and know that nobody is allowed to fuck with you.
The door finally fucking opens and Declan has a gun in his hand.
“Mac…”
“Mama sent me,” I say to him. “We have to talk.”
“Yeah, sure,” he says. He looks at Jolie. “I see you’ve been found.”
“Yeah,” Jolie says. “Magically.”
Declan laughs.
He opens the door and lets us in.
His apartment is a dump.
There’s pizza boxes on the coffee table. Beer bottles on the dining room table.
Everything is shit except for the couch, the TV and the sound system.
The place smells like old food and cologne.
Declan is in shorts and a t-shirt.
I carefully watch what he does with the gun.
“Didn’t know you were coming,” he says. “I would have cleaned up a little. Sorry, Jolie.”
“I don’t mind,” she says. “We’re not here to live.”
“True,” Declan says. He puts the gun down on the dining room table. “Want a drink? Water? Soda? Beer?”
“No,” I say. “No drinks. Just wanted to talk a little.”
“Sure,” Declan says.
I release my hold on Jolie’s hand.
I feel her grab for me.
I keep going.
Declan’s back is to me for a second and that’s my chance.
I lunge for him and hit my shoulder into Declan’s back.
He lets out a yell and reaches back for me.
I drive him forward and into a wall.
The thud echoes around and I step back.
Declan starts to turn and I throw a punch, hitting him in the side of the face.
He drops down.
“What the fuck, Mac?” he yells.
He tries to shield his face but I kick him in the jaw.
I’m not here to fight fair. I’m here to kill him.
I kick again and hit him in the chest.
He throws a punch and hits me in the stomach. Hard enough that I inch back and gasp for a breath.
When he looks at me, he knows.
He knows I know.
The corner of his eye is bleeding.
He looks around, looking for a way out.
The only way out is to take me out.
“Mac, just tell him everything and l
et’s go,” Jolie says.
“Listen to her,” Declan says.
“Fuck you,” I growl.
I dive at Declan and tackle him the rest of the way to the floor.
We throw punches back and forth. I give him a few seconds to try and defend himself. But all it takes is one good elbow to his jaw and he’s face down on the kitchen floor.
When he lifts his head, there’s blood dripping on the floor.
I reach behind me and take out my gun.
Declan looks at me. “Seriously?”
“You fucking went after her, bro,” I say.
“I was told to,” Declan says. He takes a deep breath. “I was told to scare her. That was it. I was never going to touch her. I was never going to hurt her.”
“Apologize to her,” I say.
“What?”
“Say you’re sorry for what you did,” I say.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
I swing my right foot and kick Declan in the ribs.
He falls to the floor and groans in pain.
I point the gun at him. “Sit up and look at Jolie and apologize.”
Declan shows his hands and sits up. “I’m sorry, Jolie.”
“Louder,” I say.
“I’m sorry for what I did to you, Jolie,” Declan says.
“Okay,” Jolie says. “Mac, let’s go. Right now.”
“No,” I say. “I’m not done.”
“What the fuck, Mac?” Declan asks. “What do you want from me?”
“Mama is sick and losing her mind,” I say to him.
He looks back at me. “What?”
“She thought I was you,” I say. “That’s how this happened. That’s how I know the truth. And now you’re going to face the truth.”
I put the gun to Declan’s head.
“Mac!” Jolie cried out.
“It has to be done, sweetie,” I say.
“Fuck,” Declan says as he shuts his eyes.
“You’re all I have left,” Jolie says.
I look at her. “What?”
“You’re all I have… left…,” she says. Her eyes fill with tears. “If you do this and I lose you… I have nothing. I have nobody.”
Jolie turns and runs toward the door.
She leaves the apartment and I’m standing there with a gun to Declan’s head.
This is the epitome of our lives.
“Are you going to fucking do it or what?” Declan asks. “It was her idea. She wanted to give Jolie a scare to get her away from you. She thought you were going to get weak and slip up. I’m just along for the ride, Mac. You know that.”
Mess Us Up (Brooks Crest Book 3) Page 17