Chapter 39 Jasper
THIRTY-NINE
JASPER
Today marks the beginning of an ending, the plan we’ve set in motion finally coming to a head, and my first stop is the Masseria home.
After a whirlwind weekend in Manhattan, it was time to come back to Emory to clear down, tie up loose ends, and make our escape.
The idiot who worked for Corazza gave us a warning, a three day grace period to get our shit together, and I’m not wasting a second.
This war is coming straight to our door, but we’re going to be long gone by then, letting the rival families take their shots, and hoping they land where it’ll hurt the most.
That leads to why I’m here, alone, in the middle of the day.
My mother tends to stay out of the family business, opting to keep my sisters sheltered from the violence, even if my father didn’t allow her to meddle in those ways when it came to me, and I couldn’t possibly ever hold that against her.
If a battle is coming to this front door, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t at least warn her, and attempt to convince her to go somewhere safe.
Before I even knock on the door, she comes barreling down the brick stairs, her wild hair blowing in the wind as she comes straight for me.
“My baby! Junior, what in the world did I do for such a wonderful surprise?” She cheers, pulling me in for a bear hug, the strong scent of Chanel perfume invading my senses.
“Can’t a man come and visit his mother?” I ask, taking her hand in mine as we walk back up the steps, holding the door open as we cross the threshold into the house.
These walls hold memories, raised voices, and constant disappointment, but I’ve never felt less haunted as I walk through the hallway, this place not able to break me down any longer as I plan my final escape from the hell where I spent my childhood.
“A man, yes. You? No. Spill it, Junior. Did you get that pretty little girlfriend pregnant? Am I finally going to be a grandmother?” My mother rambles excitedly, pouring coffee into two mugs and sliding one across the countertop for me.
“No, Mom, Carter is not pregnant,” I laugh, nearly choking on my drink, watching as she deflates ever so slightly.
“Then what is it? Your father isn’t here,” she warns, as if that’s not the exact reason why I chose this time of day to show up unannounced.
“Mom, you need to leave. Take the girls, go on a trip and visit your sisters down south,” I start, and the smile on her face drops, the panic slowly settling in its place.
The last thing I want to do is scare her, but I couldn’t live with myself if something were to happen to my angel of a mother, the one person on this Earth that is too pure for this life, and deserves everything good this world has to offer.
“You’re freaking me out, is there something going on? Your father has been stressed, but if there is real danger I trust him to navigate it,” she says slowly, her eyes never leaving mine, but I don’t plan to sugarcoat this, laying it all out in the open.
“He’s lying to you, Mom. There is a real threat, but Tyson and I aren’t sticking around to count the bodies.”
“What are you talking about?” She switches from concerned, to pissed off, her death stare piercing holes through my body, but I can’t let her change my mind, I won’t.
“We’re getting out of this shit. I can’t live like this, and we sure as hell aren’t risking Carter’s life for some fucked up sense of family loyalty that only exists to serve its leader,” I say honestly, and her expression changes again, this time the look of confusion painted across her features.
Naturally, she’s beautiful, a full-blooded Italian with the olive-tan skin and dark hair to match.
Even with the makeup and expensive jewelry, my mother is still beautiful to her core, and I know that I’m hurting her, but hoping that deep down, she will understand one day.
“We? You mean Tyson cares so much about your girlfriend that he’d abandon his family, his father?” She attaches a hand to her hip, seeing right through my blunder, but now is as good as ever to reveal the full truth.
“She’s our girlfriend.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, Junior! What kind of twisted shit is going on here? You can’t just blow through the door and drop all this into my lap, you’re gonna give me a freakin’ heart attack!
” She yells, her voice echoing off the walls, all the way up to the ceiling, raining down on me while I listen to her express frustration.
“Mom, please. Just pack a bag, and don’t tell Dad, okay? For me?” I ask, pleading with her to be reasonable, and after a few moments long standoff, she finally nods, listening to my words for what they’re worth.
It’s rare for me to show up here, to specifically speak with her alone, and slowly, she’s coming to that realization, accepting that all of this is for her – even with the information bomb I dropped.
“Does she make you happy? Are you going to spend your life with that girl?” She asks, ever so motherly, and I can’t help but smile, wrapping my arm around her shoulder.
“Yes, Mom. One day, there will be grandchildren, I promise.” I kiss her forehead, ending our conversation there, and the smile on her face couldn’t be any bigger, warming my heart as I accomplished what I came here for.
Now that the hard part is over, I make a quick pit stop in her room, slipping a tiny tracker into her purse, mixing it with the change she keeps in a separate wallet.
I can’t rely on only my words, it being very likely that my father gets to her or one of my sisters before they can escape, but if miracles are real, and they make it out, I want to be able to find them.
Next, I head directly across the hall to my old bedroom, ignoring all the awards, accolades and photos from high school as I make a beeline for the safe under the bed.
Quickly, I punch in the combination, reaching for stacks of cash, weapons, and keys to a storage unit that my father doesn’t know exists.
Everything I’m taking is only going to benefit the three of us as we jumpstart our lives, and although I’m leaving something behind, I don’t feel an ounce of remorse, or worry about what I may be missing out on.
This is a fresh start, one that I’m more than eager to take, especially as everything I leave in my wake will be reduced to ashes.
The final phase of this plan is to clear out the secret storage unit, and after saying my final goodbyes to my mother, I head straight for Carter and Tyson.
Even he’s in the dark on what exactly I’ve stashed here the last few years, but I’ve always carved a way out for us, hoping that one day we’d be able to run away, achieving the dream we’ve shared since we were kids.
“Where exactly are we going, Jasper?” Carter asks, snuggling on my chest while Tyson drives, the control-freak in him forcing us to switch cars, even though I drove myself.
“To my insurance plan,” I say vaguely, pushing the stray curls from her face, while one hand mindlessly draws circles on her thigh.
“That doesn’t shed any light on this trip whatsoever,” she snarks, and I snatch her chin, tilting it upward until I bite her lower lip, drawing a small pool of blood, delivering a harsh punishment for her sass.
“You know I like that shit,” she smirks, licking every droplet until it stains her tongue, the little temptress always finding a way to one-up me.
“Yeah, Massi, what are we walking into here? You’ve always been so secretive about this place,” Ty chimes in, his curiosity finally coming to a head, as he’s never wondered over the years why I make frequent stops at a storage unit.
“It’s four-eleven. Two aisles down, on the left,” I inform, scanning my keycard that opens the gate, this being the first time I’ve allowed him beyond the iron metal with me.
Usually, I walk, not wanting him to know anything about this secret, giving him plausible deniability in case I ever got caught by our fathers.
No matter what I’ve done, the orders I’ve followed, or how many people I’ve killed, Tyson has been my brother through it all, and protecting him has always been my priority, which is why his eyes widen in shock when I open the overhead door.
There’s one table against the back wall, stacked with multiple boxes, all labeled with a sharpie and organized flawlessly.
“Jesus, Jasper. What is this?” Carter whispers, her fingers laced in mine, taking each step beside me as I invite them inside my ultimate secret.
First, I pull down the box labeled ‘watches’, dumping the contents onto the floor, flashes of gold and silver shining against the one dim light in the ceiling.
Following suit, I empty the ‘rings’, ‘bracelets’, and ‘miscellaneous’, labeled boxes, making a pile of jewelry that probably boasts value in the millions, maybe even more.
“Where did this come from? Did you rob a fucking jewlery store?” Carter breathes, rifling through the mix until her eyes land on a blood-covered ring, and she immediately searches for my gaze. “These are from the men you’ve killed.”
“I could’ve buried them with all this, but some of them are engraved, making it easier to be identified.
After a while, I realized that a box under my bed wasn’t safe, so I moved it all here.
Wasn’t really sure what else to do, but this is worth …
a lot.” I shrug, not exactly proud of this, it feels like a creepy, serial killer trophy collection, and I couldn’t be happier to finally offload it all.
“You saved this for what, a rainy day?” Tyson finally speaks up, his face green like he’s going to be sick.
“For the future. I have a guy who doesn’t ask questions, and he’s expecting us in a few hours, so let’s load this shit up,” I say, tossing a black duffel bag in the center of the room, one big enough to hold all this metal.
It’s another way of erasing my history, wiping the slate clean, and pledging to the fresh start the three of us have conjured.
With no more secrets, or bodies on my conscience, I’m completely devoted to my brother, and my girl, choosing whatever comes next with everything in my bones.
After this, we make a break for it, taking as much as we can carry on our backs, and heading straight for the fucking hills.