Chapter 13 #3
“You good?” Nix panted to Hudson, motioning to where the blood crusted his face.
“Yeah, man. It’s not mine.”
“You look like you’ve just blown a girl whilst she’s on the rag,” Nix chuckled.
In turn, Hudson and I glanced down to where the tip of Runt’s ear lay on the tarmac. It sat there like a huge, bloodied unspoken truth.
“Is that an ear?” Nix blurted, leaning over with a screwed-up face. Hud and I exchanged a glance as our brother, who hadn’t witnessed what had happened, made a fake gagging gesture. “Gross. You bit a dude’s ear off? That’s fucking gnarly, man, even for you.”
In his defense, Hudson pointed out. “What can I say, not all heroes wear capes. And it was just the tip.”
“I stand corrected,” Phoenix sniped sarcastically. “Anyway. Who were they?” This was directed at me. “Someone else you pissed off on the field?” Phoenix asked, changing the subject as we turned away from that pink piece of cartilage.
I rubbed my head, suddenly feeling shit as I withdrew another rollie. “Fuck knows. They were going for my dominant arm, trying to get me benched from the team.”
Hudson’s eyes narrowed as I lit the smoke and handed it to him. “You made many enemies in the NFL?”
Watching him inhale and blow smoke down his nose, I replied. “Not really. Just Kyle Anderson, but he wouldn’t pay someone to do his dirty work.”
“So, who then?” Nix asked, taking a hit.
Dashing a hand down my face, I replied. “I don’t know for sure, but it must be something to do with that dickwad, Jasper. They warned me to stay away from Storm.” It must have been something to do with that dick. Maybe he wasn’t as harmless as I’d first thought.
“What?” Nix belted out, staring down at me.
Leaning my head back, I closed my eyes for a minute. I needed to gather my thoughts. My head had started swimming. That was odd, as I stopped drinking half an hour ago.
“It must be something to do with him.” As I lowered my head, Nix had a strange expression on his face. “And why are you looking at me like that?”
“Just something I heard the other night, at the house,” he exclaimed with a deep frown.
Hudson was attempting to rub the blood off his top as he said. “What did you hear?”
“Theodore and Jasper were in Dominic’s office, talking about shares and takeovers.
I looked through the crack in the door, and there were some papers spread out on the desk.
Things got heated, and so I held back until your name was mentioned.
I then knocked once and got my ass in there. They both just looked odd.”
“In what way?”
“Guilty. I’ve never seen Theo move so fast. He swept the papers off the desk and pushed them into a manila folder. A green one.”
“That’s weird? There must have been something in there that they didn’t want you to see?”
Without answering, the big guy glanced towards the alleyway and then back at me with a puzzled look. “Did I see you kick one of them in the balls?” he scoffed, suddenly changing the discussion away from what was important.
I frowned, “Yeah, why?”
Dropping the tab end into the bucket by my feet, I scowled as Phoenix mocked me. “Bit of a girly move, wasn’t it?”
“Piss off, Nix. Now’s not the time to compare fighting strategies.” The two-hundred-and-fifty-pound ex-linebacker-come-firefighter had never taken any prisoner on the field or off it. “Go back to the beginning and tell us everything you heard at Storms.”
Phoenix then relayed to both Hudson and me what he heard, and it sounded as dodgy as fuck. Jasper and his father were up to something. I knew at that moment that I needed to speak to Mia.
It sounded like there was more to Jasper and Storm’s union than combining two successful families. And I was going to find out what that was, no matter the cost.
“Molly’s going to kill me,” Hud said, glancing down at his torn shirt. “Birthday gift,” he explained, nodding towards his top. “If my girl does murder me, I’m haunting both your sorry asses.”
“I imagine she’ll dump you when she finds out about the ear incident.”
Phoenix and I exchanged a look. It's not like we didn’t know Hudson was deranged, but that shit would stay with us both for a while.
As usual, Hudson’s expression looked like he was plotting someone’s murder. “She isn’t to know. Ever. Understood? You’re both to forget it ever happened.”
“Dude,” Nix puffed, his nose wrinkled in disgust. “Believe me, if there were something I could unsee, that would be it.”
Hudson then had to leave due to the state of his face and top, and Phoenix and I went back to our seats and started to hatch a plan. We needed to know what the fuck was in that green folder.
“We could do with checking Jasper’s office out,” I suggested.
“Where, the one at my dad’s place or the house?” Nix queried.
“Both.”
“OK, when?” Phoenix added with a hint of excitement.
“Well, you can check the house, and we could break into the other together?” I proposed. “After dark, maybe, when there’s no one about.”
I gnawed my lip, trying to draw some strength from my past badass as Phoenix stated.
“Well, it’s closed tomorrow. It may be better to drop by during the day.
I’ve been there a few times to meet my dad for lunch, and so if we do bump into anyone, most people know me.
If we get caught trying to get in there in the middle of the night, it looks much dodgier. ”
Dude had a point. I was due to meet Storm in the morning at the gym, so maybe we could go to his dad’s place afterwards. I arranged to pick Nix up around two outside the gates of the Summers estate.
We finalized the details over a couple more drinks.
When I got back to my hotel suite later that night. My head was as woolly as fuck, and I only just made it to my bed before I face planted. My entire body felt like I’d sunk an entire bottle of booze, which wasn’t the case. During my drunk-like state, I messaged Storm, not my finest moment.
I can still smell you on my sheets.
It was almost two in the morning, but before I could stop myself, I typed in another message. Does Jasper carry a file around with him?
I smiled when she replied. What type of file?
I don’t know. A file, file. I keyed in. What else would you call it? One with papers and shit in it?
No reply. Come on, baby. Humor me. I thought to myself as I waited for a message. A green one. I added.
Yes. He carries it to work with him every day. Why?
I’ll tell you in the morning. My vision started to swim.
What the hell is going on, Reed? She responded, I could almost see her face, arms crossed over her amazing tits.
Dream of me, baby x.
As I collapsed across my bed fully clothed, I then allowed the darkness to consume me.
When I opened my eyes after what felt like a few minutes, bright sunlight was shining into the room.
My face and body were on fire, and my head felt like someone had taken a jackhammer to it.
How the fuck did I have a hangover on such a small amount of alcohol?
I was becoming the lightweight that Phoenix had always accused me of being.
Rolling off the bed, I headed for the bathroom for some water. My mouth tasted like shit. And then it felt like my entire chest cavity closed in on itself as I caught the time on the TV.
It was almost noon. What the hell? I never slept in, even after an all-night bender.
Fuck! I had done that one thing that Storm hated most of all.
Stood her up.
I thumbed in a message to Phoenix. Change of plan. See you at yours in an hour.
His reply. Roger that.