Chapter Thirty-Seven
~Jessie~
“Shit, where’s Big Bobby?” Jessie hissed under his breath as he searched the floorboards for the gnome he left in the truck.
When they rolled up, they came screaming into the parking lot.
Isabella was wailing about wanting to see Katarina, a mutual feeling between him and Bug.
However, they were in a bit of a clusterfuck.
People were gathering at the front door gawking, Isabella was demanding to see her mother, and Nik was trying to spot a familiar car in the parking lot. Where is it? Where did he put it?
Only for the entire thing to blow up in Bjorn’s face, literally. Jessie watched in real time as some sort of magical pulse went off and the councilman was thrown backward into the fountain’s marble statue. The pulse didn’t come from a car, but from the slender device in his hand.
They’d thankfully gotten back to the truck without much interrogation thanks to Isabella’s quick thinking. He wasn’t even truly sure she understood how much she’d saved his hide. Maybe one day when she was older, he’d tell her the truth.
However, that still didn’t tell him where the fuck Big Bobby went. I locked him in here! But he was nowhere to be found.
“I handed him over to Frankie a few minutes ago. Mr. Zrazduel will be happy to hear this was all wrapped up nicely with a bow.”
“Pops?” Jessie blurted out, finding Titan Bonesaw sauntering up from behind his truck. Titan waggled a set of extra keys he’d kept, just in case, in front of him before tossing them to Jessie. He couldn’t help but blurt out as he caught them. “I thought you were helping Elliot?”
“I was. I did. Now I’m helping you,” Titan smirked with a shrug.
Jessie tossed a set of keys inside for Nik to turn on the AC while he shut the driver’s side door.
Walking down the length of his truck, he glanced into the bed like it might spill his father’s secrets.
When it told him nothing, he glanced back up to his father.
“Pops, what? How?” Jessie laughed, throwing his hands out to the side.
“I told you, people still talk to me.” Titan leaned cooly against the glossy metal.
“Rex told you, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, your baby brother ratted you out to me last night,” Titan snorted.
“I’ll wring his neck,” Jessie hissed.
Titan shook his head, still smiling broadly. “No, you won’t.”
“No…I won’t.” Jessie chuckled, glancing around the parking lot. “How’d you figure out which one it was?”
“Well, The Executive wanted to make you the scapegoat, right? I just figured, if he’s using a car to power his device, then he’d make it the exact same car as the person he’s going to blame.
” Titan jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the only other jacked up truck in the parking lot.
A massive, dark steel colored truck. It was missing the cuts and bruises Jessie’s truck sustained from being the main vehicle of a mechanic, but to the undiscerning eye, it looked like his truck.
“Plus, you know, I found Bobby in your floorboard and he was so rattled, he was willing to help me out with it. Little shit didn’t suspect Frankie followed you here and was just going to ask for him when you were done. ”
Jeez…well…
“Thanks, Pops,” Jessie confessed, licking his lips nervously as he ducked his head.
“Look, Jessie, you’re king of the castle now.
But you can still count on your old man if you need me.
” Titan punched him in the arm. “Especially for shit like this. Just cause I’m out of the game doesn’t mean I’m not truly retired, you of all people know that’s not how this works.
Besides, Elliot needed me to help move his weightlifting equipment out of the townhouse.
We absolutely could have waited to move it till later. This? This is more important.”
“Well, when you put it that way, a little but…” Jessie exhaled heavy. He peeked up at Titan, feeling like a kid again. Just a teenager having gotten into a scrape again, having his father patch up his busted knee. “I wanted to just need you for grandpa things.”
Titan snickered, nodding with a wicked grin. “Your Ma’s real happy about that, too, ya know. And I’m here for all the grandpa things. But I know you were trying to do this on your own cause everyone still thinks of you as the kid.”
“Not for long,” Jessie shrugged playfully.
“Not if they know what’s good for ‘em.” Titan slugged him in the arm again. “Love you, Jessie.”
“Love you too, Pops. Now scooch, I promised the tiny terror baked goods and if I don’t follow through, she might bite me.”
Titan threw his head back, chortling the whole way back to his car as Jessie climbed into his truck. Throwing himself behind the wheel, he peeked into the rearview mirror to see Isabella beaming up at him. “You ready for a bake sale, Bug?”
“Bake! Sale!” she cheered.
“Bake sale!” Katarina cheered alongside her.
“Bake sale!” Jessie winked at Nik stared blearily out the window with an exhausted huff. “Don’t worry, Fluffy, we’ll get you something to lift your spirits.”
Nik grumbled the whole way to the bake sale.
Jessie tucked Isabella into the bed, Barnibus squeezed in tight.
After an hour-long detour—post council building—at the bake sale, they now owned half the pies in King’s Fall, a stack of assorted focaccia bread, the longest baguette known to mankind, and cinnamon buns.
Isabella ate two buns, ran around the backyard a lot, then dropped like a sack of potatoes.
Apparently she was up late baking, so she didn’t have the best sleep.
Nik was unconscious next to her on the bed, having let Katarina poke him with her paralytic venom to soften his crunchy muscles. He too dropped instantly.
Which left Jessie tiptoeing downstairs to the kitchen where Katarina sat with a mug of coffee in her hands. He slid into the seat next to hers, cocking his head slightly to catch her gaze. It was so far gone it took him cupping her chin and bringing her back to him. “Hey, baby girl, what’s wrong.”
“I made him do it,” she breathed.
“What? Who?” Jessie tried his best not to laugh, but he was so whiplashed from the morning, he couldn’t help it.
“Bjorn. I used my venom on him, and tried to get the device out of him, but he wouldn’t tell me where it was.
He just kept saying how he’d made it better, how he wanted them to know how smart he was.
So I pushed him to show them. I thought he might just confess to them, then you walked in.
” Her face fell into a pale, pained expression with her eyebrows furrowed.
“Hey,” he breathed, stroking her cheek. “You did what you thought was right in the moment. It would have worked if I hadn’t gotten my hooves in a twist over you being in the building with him. I just thought maybe he’d set it off with you in there.”
“He wanted to wait till Nik got there. I’m not sure why.” She shook her head, dropping her gaze once more to the coffee mug.
“Because he wanted Nik and I to be his scapegoats. He wanted us to take the fall for the attack. That’s all.” Jessie dropped his hand onto her shoulder. Brushing the pad of his thumb against her collar, he waited for her to finally take a breath.
“I just keep…thinking…” she trailed off with a sharp inward suck of air. “I just keep thinking that I’m so powerful, that I made him crawl on his belly for me. I beat up Pierre and his boy. I feel so powerful now. Where was this?”
“When you were with Gill?” Jessie finished.
“I know I can be a force to be reckoned with, so why is he the only person to make me…weak?”
“Baby girl,” Jessie sighed, squeezing her shoulder. “You keep forgetting that you had that little girl in your arms.”
“What about before Isabella?” she added.
“Well, I imagine before that, you still loved him?” Jessie arched a brow.
“I just feel so stupid,” she confessed in a single breath.
“It’s not stupid to have a weak spot,” Jessie murmured, dragging her out of her seat into his.
Forsaking her coffee mug, he threw his arms around her and hugged her tight.
“You weren’t stupid for falling for the wrong man.
And you weren’t stupid for trying to stick it out.
Alright? I don’t want to hear my girl talk about herself that way anymore, you got it? ”
Katarina let out a weak, wet laugh as she nodded against his shoulder. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she sank into his lap firmly. “I love you so much, you know that?”
“Yeah, I’d hope so,” he snorted. “I bought like 5 types of pizza bread today. That’s got to have earned me some loving.”
Katarina cackled into his shirt as he squeezed her.
I love you too, baby girl. And he was going to spend the rest of their lives making her believe it.
Making her see herself the way he did. She wasn’t fixed, because that’s something she had to do on her own.
Katarina Witchbane would have to continue to pick herself off the concrete and put up her fists against the world.
But he had every confidence his girl was more than up for the challenge.
He’d gotten himself a scrappy succubus and a grumpy bugbear, nothing more a Minotaur kingpin could ask for… well…maybe minus a small favor.
One he would ask of the Devil of King’s Fall.
~Roughly 4 months later~
“Why do I gotta go with you?” Rex huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Because I fucking asked you to and because you ratted me out to Pops!” Jessie spat.
“You woulda died if I didn’t!” Rex tossed his arms out. “And that was months ago, get over it! Yeeeeesh! You’re such a virgo.”
Elliot rolled his eyes, “Ironically, I’m a Taurus, you dickhead. And yeah, you still snitched. Snitches get stitches.”
“Fine, next time I’ll let the fucker blow up the city! See if I care!” Rex huffed so hard his nose ring flopped in front of his nose. Jessie kept his eyes on the roads but spared a glance at the minotaur in his passenger seat. Damnit, Rex, when did you grow up?
He chuckled as he punched his brother in the shoulder. “And I’m dropping you off at the University for a tour afterwards.”
“What!” Rex shrieked, twisting in his seat.
“Yeah, confirmed it with Ark-U. You start in the fall, so you’re taking the tour today. Make sure you get all the information packets you need, because I might have paid your tuition and stuff, but I’m not your keeper. I don’t know shit about university. You gotta do this and do it for real.”
“Oh! I am! Oh, holy fuck, Jessie! You actually paid for fall semester?”
For the last two months, Rex was worried about having enough coin to make it in.
While university wasn’t ridiculously expensive in King’s Fall, especially for a commerce major like Magical Engineering, it wasn’t cheap.
So, Jessie let his little brother sweat it out, picking up extra shifts and even taking commission repairs to scrounge up enough change for a semester.
Just so when you get to school you’ve got pocket change.
What Rex didn’t know was one of the people at the registrar office came in about ten months ago for some intense repairs.
While, at the time, Jessie didn’t know he’d actually be able to cash in that favor he was owed, he was proud of it.
Got Rex’s first two years at a steal. Plus, it didn’t hurt that as soon as Jessie told him the plan, that Elliot dropped some serious coin.
Their older brother even offered to speak to a buddy he knew about making sure Rex got a scholarship if it was needed.
It's the least we can do for you, kid.
“Yeah, you’re all paid up. So, you better make a budget for your coin and live in the dorms.”
Rex grinned from ear to ear, humming in his seat he was so eager. Only to stop and glance at Jessie with a horrified face. “What about the shop?”
“Let me worry about the shop. I can actually hire more techs, bump Nik up to manager, and Kat’s taken over the admin duties. Don’t you worry about us. You go to school, Rex. All I want to hear is you bitch and moan about how much homework you have and how bad the coffee is, alright?”
Rex laughed, “You got it.”
Jessie reached across the cab and ruffled his brother’s hair. “Good.” I love you.
Rex swatted his hands away. “And you’re still going to go make me talk to the Devil?”
“Yeah, well, Nik and Katarina are holding down the fort. Plus, and you’re sworn to secrecy on this one or so help me, Rex, they can’t know what we discuss with him.
” Jessie took a deep breath in through his nose as they crept up to the front gate of Knox Zrazduel’s home in the depths of the woods.
Nik might try to stop me. And I don’t want to put this pressure on Katarina.
But I swore I was going to take care of them both.
Since the night at the Casino, Gillian Hurley was a personal gnat.
He showed up at the shop all the time despite everything.
He picked fights with Nik, all his buddies nearby as if they’d catch Nik punching Gill’s lights out.
Nik, to his credit, was cool as a cucumber.
Especially knowing that Katarina won full custody of Isabella.
None of the Hurley family was allowed to see Bella without Katarina present or prior court approval.
And, apparently, the Lord Commander still held a soft spot for Katarina.
He’d strong armed the council and blocked every single appeal Gill tried.
Turns out when a mad-man tries to blow up the city, The Lich in the woods is none too pleased and the council is more afraid of him than of appeasing old debts to Bjorn.
If it wasn’t Blightwood thwarting Gill, it was Sera.
She’d left the firm to work for Jessie directly as his legal council.
Gill couldn’t touch Katarina, and it drove him mad.
Jessie didn’t like the ticking timebomb he’d become, and he had his fill of those for one lifetime. It was time to take care of the pest once and for all.
Nik would say, ‘I can take an annoying pest yelling at me. He makes all the other customers feel bad for me and they are ten times nicer because of it’.
And Katarina would ask him not to do anything dangerous that could get him in trouble.
Which is exactly why Jessie wasn’t leaving it up to himself.
When it came to things like this, it was best to put a guy like Knox Zrazduel on it.
That’s what makes a good boss, knowing the right employee for the job.
Jessie was about to ask the Devil of King’s Fall to kill his girl’s ex-husband.
Then he was going to take his baby brother to take a tour of the university.
Then, fuck it, I might go grab some pizza with Elliot!
Maybe he’ll bring Cassie with us, and she can write an expose on Bjorn!
He’d even give her the inside scoop, as much as he could—and maybe skip the parts where he was in heat during the middle of all that. But, man, was it one hell of a story!