CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE JESS #2
“It’s not my fault that everything was fucked.
Bobby fucked up too. Your kid never took the ‘Mom is alive’ bait.
That whole idea was for nothing. Now this tonight?
You made a move tonight, and nothing happened.
Killing Jess makes no sense. Yeah. Okay.
I’ll do it. I know! I know. I’ll do it, but I gotta figure something out to say to her mom.
The job was never for me to kill them both—because I already killed the dad! He was my best friend.”
I was wheeling.
Leo was the mole.
He—I gripped my gun tighter, making sure I wouldn’t drop it.
“Okay. Okay! I’ll take care of it. I’ll take care of it. Say I got word and need to show her something. She’ll go with me. She trusts me, always has. Yeah, yeah. We’ll deal with her mom later on. Fine.” He began cursing to himself, moving around the garage. A door opened, shut, but it wasn’t his.
I eased back, waiting, but—I had a different idea.
Fuck this. I was done.
Done.
I opened the door, stepped inside.
He froze, then started to bring his gun back up.
I shot at it. Not him. His hand. He dropped his gun but started to fumble around. He had a carton of milk in his other hand but threw it at me as he swooped down, grabbing for the gun with that hand.
I stepped aside, dodged the milk, and as soon as he touched the gun, I shot at that one too.
“ Aaghh! Why are you doing this? Stop, Jess!”
He was bleeding from both hands. He had no other options, except—he considered barging at me. I raised my gun. “Don’t do it.” I said it softly, calm. I was locked down. My heart was pumping. I could hear it going fast, but it was like it was outside of my body. “I’ll put you down.”
I would. He knew it, looking at me. I knew that he knew it.
I raised the gun to his forehead. “Sit. Down.”
He looked around, groaning as he kept bleeding out, but he moved to the red couch behind him. It was a piece-of-shit couch, moved out here for when he liked to have beers with his buds. I thought the color of it fit the theme perfectly tonight.
I’d never liked it before. I loved it now.
He lowered himself, grimacing from the pain. “Jess. I’m going to bleed out. Call an ambulance.”
“You suspended me. Right?” I was taunting him.
“Oh, come on. Jess! Please!” He tried to raise his hands up.
“I’m sure that’ll help with the bleeding.”
“Come on. I’m going to die if you don’t call for help.” He was panting now. Sweat broke out over his face. He’d be woozy soon.
“Who’s your boss?”
He frowned at me. “Huh?”
“I heard your call. Who is your boss? Who made the move tonight?”
“Oh, God. Jess. Seriously. Call 911. You don’t want to kill me.
I know you don’t. You already killed Bear.
That’ll be two of us. They’re going to ask questions, but I can .
..” He had to stop, catch his bearings.
The room should be spinning for him now.
“I can cover for you. I will. I promise. I’ll say whatever you want, but call 911. I’ll tell you everything.”
“You’ll tell me everything now.”
“Jess! Come on!”
“Now, Leo. Before you bleed out.”
“Jess! Now!”
I waited. I was finding that I wasn’t having a moral dilemma here. Not one bit.
“Agh! Come on! Are you serious?! Fine! Fine! I work for Dominic West. Always have. I went in undercover when I was a cop. It’s how I met your dad. How we got close. He was my target, but things got complicated.” He choked off, breathing hard. Harder. He began slumping down. “I ... I ...”
“Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“Dominic was behind the hits tonight, wasn’t he? The ones against Trace and Ashton?”
He moaned. “Jess, I don’t have long.”
“Then tell me everything. Now!”
He raised his head, squinting at me a little before sighing.
His head fell back down. “Yes. It was Dominic and Nicolai Worthing. Nicolai’s been trying to push in.
He gave your uncle a proposition, but Stephano didn’t bite.
But Dominic, he did. He made the call tonight that everyone was going to go.
Everyone. He’d take over the family business, and he’d work with Worthing, let them in on their deals. ”
Right. Okay. That was a lot to process, but I’d deal with all of that bullshit later. “Did you kill my dad?”
He nodded, frowning, eyes fluttering like he couldn’t see straight anymore. “Yeah. That was a long time ago. Stephano ordered it, but Dominic’s been holding it over my head the whole time. Said he has evidence on me. Forcing me to keep working for him, giving him information.”
“How?” That word ripped from me.
He drew in a deep breath, then began coughing. Blood was coming up. “D-d-doped up your brother, made him think he killed him. He was all broken up about it, why he didn’t fight the conviction. Said he had to go in, pay penance for you and your mom.”
“Why did he want me dead? Why tonight?”
“His kid wasn’t killed tonight. Couldn’t find him, so he gave me this order to hurt him.
Trace is in love with you, but Jess, I didn’t want to do it.
I wasn’t going to. I was going to figure something else out.
I swear.” Other liquids were seeping down his pants, and he groaned. “Jess, I don’t have long here.”
“Then hurry the fuck up.” Cold. Ruthless. I was out of my body, not recognizing who I was, but she wasn’t fucking around.
“Aghofhygod. Please, Jess! Please.”
“Talk!”
His eyes rolled up, then around. “Oh my god. I’m dying. Everything is going black. Jess. Come on. Please ...” He was whimpering. The life was draining out of him before my eyes.
“What was the plan?”
“Dominic was the one giving information to Worthing, who’s got cops on his payroll. Said he had to make it look like they tried for him, too, had them shoot his own house when he wasn’t there.”
“What does this have to do with Bear? Why was Bear there tonight?”
“I don’t know. I think he was there for me, knew I was coming to kill you tonight. Only thing that makes sense. He knew Dominic West too. Fact, I always thought he was being paid to keep tabs on your mom. Like I was paid to keep tabs on you. It’s why I recruited you to be a PO for me.”
I was sick, all over again.
He’d set me up. Everything.
Everything he was showing, panting, chest heaving, liquids coming out of him, was what I was feeling inside. The difference was that it wasn’t my body dying. It was my soul.
“Why were you supposed to keep tabs on me? Why was Bear supposed to watch my mom?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t.” He couldn’t lift his head up, so he rolled it to the side to see me. “Oh, God. Jess. I’m dying. Please call for help. I swear. I swear ...”
He didn’t finish, and I didn’t care.
Maybe I would. One day.
Not today.
I turned to go and braked.
My mom was at the door, and she had her phone in hand. “Yes.” She spoke, giving them Leo’s address. “We need an ambulance to the garage. There was a shooting.” I could hear them asking more questions, but she pulled the phone back and hit the button. She ended the call.
I didn’t blink an eye. “How much did you hear?”
“Enough. Too much. You shot Bear in self-defense, but I won’t let this piece of shit’s death be on your conscience.”
I had to blink twice to make sure this was my mother in front of me. She was standing, looking calm, speaking clear. There were no hysterics like before. “Why are you suddenly so calm? You were pissing your pants ten minutes ago.”
She studied me a moment. “I think I’m in shock. Again.”