34. Jake
My phone rings and I blink away sleep as I grab it to stop it from waking Cherry. The hospital lights are dim, but my brain clears quickly as I head for the hallway to take the call from an unknown number.
“Mr. Marshall, this is Nico Mancini.”
My spine straightens at the sound of his voice. Nico is the oldest son of the head of the Neapolitan Camorra, Enzo Mancini. Feared and revered in equal measure, he’s known for slicing a man’s throat for spitting his gum out in front of him and has allegedly killed his best friend’s entire family. Although that’s never been proven.
“What can I do for you, Mr. Mancini?”
“It’s what I can do for you, Mr. Marshall. I have left a gift for you at the following address.”
He rattles off an address in the meatpacking area of the city that has long been forgotten by industry. “This gift, is it a mutual acquaintance?”
“Indeed.”
“Why are you helping me? ”
“Because, Mr. Marshall, I do not believe in bringing women into a war between men.”
The line goes dead and I look at my phone in shock, and with a hefty dose of apprehension. The Camorra doesn’t get involved without a reason and, while I want to take his reason at face value, I have to weigh up whether this gift will cost me a favor in the future.
It takes me about half a second to decide that whatever he wanted, I’d pay to avenge the woman I love.
Deciding to drive instead of taking my bike, I leave Cherry knowing that the men I’d hired to protect her at the hospital would get the job done. I’d been lucky that Eidolon, the team who’d helped Hunter get Lexi and Theo back, were currently in the States and were willing to do me a solid.
Reid and Alex are mean-looking bastards who’d never let anyone get past them and hurt her and it’s the only reason I feel happy leaving her. I text Alex and let him know I’m leaving, and he texts me back saying she’ll be safe until my return. I don’t doubt it, and only wish I could hire them full-time, but they work for someone even more powerful than even the McKenzies and are loyal as hell to her.
I arrive at the abandoned industrial estate and find the disused factory Nico had indicated. Stepping out, I hear the crunch of gravel and spin to see Eddie Crowe stepping out of the shadows.
My lips curl at his presence and the bastard has the nerve to grin as he puts his hands up.
“I come in peace. I hear you have some trash to take care of and I want in on it.”
“Why?”
Cherry had told me that she and Eddie were just friends and her flirting with him had all been to get under my skin. Still, the thought that he’d had his hands anywhere near my girl makes me want to rip his arms off and beat him with them.
“We both love Cherry.”
I bristle and step forward, ready to make good on my violent thoughts but he steps back .
“Not like that. Cherry is like a sister to me and that fucker almost killed her.”
“This seems like a dark path for a country music star.”
He shrugs, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking as relaxed as a pig at a vegetarian conference.
“I wasn’t always a rock star, just like you weren’t always a billionaire lawyer. People change, but for this, I’m happy to crack some skulls.” He rocks his neck and crunches his knuckles and I can see that I’ve wildly misjudged this man.
“You have my back and you get one punch, so make it a good one. Then he’s mine.”
“Fair enough.”
I lead the way toward the side fire exit door and enter the room. It smells like piss and rotting meat and my stomach rebels. Stepping over the used needles, and fast-food wrappers, I head into the center of the room, past the conveyor belt and toward the sounds of rattling.
In the middle, is a line of meat hooks for hanging the meat to age, and hanging from his shoulders on two rusty hooks, is Nicholas Kendrick. His shirt is missing and his feet are bloody and bare but other than the blood dripping from the two wounds in his shoulders, he’s unharmed.
Glass crunches under my shoe and Kendrick looks up, fear and pain in his eyes, the glassy look of infection already setting in through his body.
“Jake.” His voice holds misguided hope and I shake my head as I walk closer. “You need to help me, they’re gonna kill me.”
I stop in front of him as sweat and the stench of his piss hits my nose. “Help you! I’m the one here to kill you, Nick.”
Snot bubbles from his nose as he begins to cry, his expression that of a man who has no idea of the repercussions of his actions. Too many years of having his family’s money bail him out have left him with an entitlement that has made him weak.
“No, we’re friends.”
I snort, and kick out at his legs, making him swing on the bloody hooks. A scream of pain spills from his lips, but nobody can hear but me and Eddie, and neither of us are gonna save him.
“Friends don’t blackmail each other. Friends don’t try and ruin each other’s lives and hurt the person they love.”
“Jake, it was just a bit of fun. A prank that went too far.”
Rage rushes through my veins, hatred for this person almost clouding my vision. I clench my fists and spin on my heel, moving two steps back to remove my jacket, casting a glance at Eddie who, in this setting, looks like a different man, a lethal killer who grins wide at the thought of hurting the man swinging from two hooks.
“Take your shot because I’m done listening to his bullshit.”
Eddie walks slowly over to Kendrick, his smile holding nothing but malice. “You know who I am?”
Kendrick nods, snot dripping off his chin and I curl my lip in disgust. “You’re the singer, Eddie Crowe.”
Eddie rubs his chin and looks away with a laugh. “Yeah, but you know what else I am?”
I’m intrigued as Eddie works this man’s fear like a fucking pro. I’m no hardened killer but I’ve done things I needed to, to protect the company but this man, he’s a maestro.
“No.”
“Your worst nightmare. You see I’m friends with Cherry Baker. She’s like a sister to me and I’m gonna watch while her man dishes out the vengeance she deserves, and then clean up the mess, but first….”
Eddie hauls back and punches Kendrick in the balls so hard that his howl of animalistic pain makes even me inwardly wince. A punch to the balls is brutal and Kendrick pukes all over himself as piss darkens the area around his groin.
Eddie steps back and holds out his hand for me to go forward. I step closer and Kendrick is openly weeping.
“Please, Jake. It was a joke.”
“A joke? You made her lose her place at Harvard. You lost me the love of my life, and made me believe I’d killed her father. ”
“I’m sorry. I have money. I can pay you.”
I look at Eddie and he smirks before I grip Kendrick’s jaw in a brutal hold that has him fighting to pull away. “Do we look like men who need your money, Kendrick?”
“Nooo.”
“No, we do not. So tell me, why would I spare you your sorry life when all you’ve done is cause misery and pain to everyone who knows you?”
“Lorelei. You can take her as payment. She’s a good lay and doesn’t mind being passed around.”
How has this man been allowed to live and breathe the same air as normal people? “You really are a disgusting excuse for a human being, aren’t you, Kendrick? Willing to do anything to save your own skin now that the game’s not so fun.”
“Please, Jake, we were friends. I love you and you left me for Hunter, and then that pink-haired slut.”
A growl rips from my throat as I punch him in the face. “Don’t you fucking dare. I’ll slit your throat and let you bleed out like the animal you are.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Save it. There’s nothing you can do to stop me from ending you. I would’ve walked away and left you alive after Harvard but you went after her mom, and then you went after my girl. The woman I love, and that means you get to die.”
Kendrick is a weak man. He’s always hidden behind his family and his money but he’s pathetic and it shames me that I ever spent any time with him at all.
“You’re a stain on society, Kendrick, and the world will be better off with you not in it.”
I produce a small pocket knife from my pocket which Hank gave me for my nineteenth birthday, when he took me and Hunter camping.
“Lorelei is pregnant. I’m gonna be a father, Jake.”
I cock my head, wanting to understand how he could think it’s okay to offer Lorelei up to me as a way to keep him alive and then a second later tell me she’s having his baby. Both are abhorrent to me, but then I’ll never understand a man like him because he isn’t really a man, he’s a leech on humanity.
“Then I’m doing that kid the biggest favor of its life by ending you.”
Done talking and wanting nothing more than to get back to my girl, I lift my arm and stab him in the heart, twisting the knife as he cries out in pain and making sure I’m the last thing he sees as the life drains from his eyes.
I yank the knife from his chest and Eddie hands me a clean rag. I wipe the blade and let the relief wash over me knowing that Kendrick is gone, and my Cherry Blossom is safe.
“Strip and put your clothes in the dumpster over there. The rag, too. I’ll torch the lot and make sure there’s no evidence we were ever here.”
I follow Eddie’s directions, trusting him despite knowing even less than I thought I did. He does the same with his own clothes and then throws gasoline over the top before he throws a match on the lot. Chucking a bundle of clothes at me, he starts to dress in sweats and a grey hoodie and I do the same, wondering again how he’s really involved and why. He might love Cherry like he says, but this is a whole other level of protection.
“Who the fuck are you?”
Eddie chuckles. “Now, wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Yes, I fucking would. Which is why I asked.”
“Let’s just say I wasn’t always Eddie Crowe, and leave it that, hey, amico. ”
A dawning realization that perhaps Eddie has closer ties to the Mancini family than I could fathom hits me, and I decide I don’t want any more answers.
“Fair enough.” I hold out my hand and Eddie takes it. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Just take care of her. She’s a good girl. ”
Still holding his hand, I pull him closer. “I will, and for the record, I don’t care who you are, who you have ties with, if you ever put your hands on her again, I’ll cut them off with a rusty blade.”
Eddie chuckles and squeezes my hand to the point of pain before he lets go and I turn and leave. It’s time to get back to my girl and start the rest of my life.