Page 2 of Save Us
“Well, could this be another reason your father is deeply angered by you, Roman?” I ask with a smug smile on my lips.
“Watch your fucking mouth!” he growls at me through clenched teeth and with angry slits for eyes. I tut at him for revealing his emotions so readily, which only triggers him to clench his fists up more tightly.
“It’s none of my business, neither do I really care,” I reply, glancing out the window to where Jack is still perched, ready to intervene if Roman truly loses his temper. “All I need to know is if your ‘Acid Brothers’ are willing to cause a few headaches for the men we both despise. Then, eventually, we can do what we really want to do.”
“Which is?” Roman asks with a bored sounding sigh, though at least he is no longer blanching his knuckles white.
“Wipe them out!” I positively growl with aggression I didn’t even realize I was harboring until the words spilled from my lips.
His eyes remain angry before turning suspicious, obviously not quite knowing whether to trust me or not. It’s more than understandable, for I trust him even less, especially seeing as he’s related to Carl Steele. However, he knows that with an insider like me, we can achieve what I’m suggesting, and without the need to upset his boyfriend. It’s more than obvious K would prefer to leave Angela Steele out everything.
“Fine,” he relents, to which I lift one corner of my mouth in a self-satisfied smirk, “on one condition.”
He leans forward when I offer him a simple nod, giving him the go-ahead to name it.
“If something happens to me, say I’m taken out for whatever reason, K will become my successor. You are to have the same deal with him that you do with me. I mean it, Fox, no screwing him over or throwing him under the bus,” he says accusingly, “you promise to protect him as much as possible, and no one is to know about us, especially the rest of the Brothers!”
I’ll do what I can, but I suggest you harden him up a little,” I reply as I look briefly over at the slumped figure who is currently ordering coffees at the counter. “He wears his emotions much too readily for others to see.”
“Don’t worry about K,” he says with determination, “he’ll know what to do if I go. I’d do anything for him!”
“I don’t doubt it, Roman,” I reply sadly, for I can’t see them having a happy ever after out of all this. Not with his father and the rest of his gang at their heels. I hand him my business card, then make to stand, just as K arrives at the table with the two fresh coffees.
“Enjoy the rest of your day, gentlemen. I’ll be in contact soon.”
“Whatever, Mayfield!” Roman scoffs as he leans back to drink from his pretentious-looking cup of java. It betrays his privileged background, even if he is sporting tattoos, ripped jeans, and an intimidating scowl. However, I keep that observation to myself, being ninety percent relieved he chose not to pull a gun to my head.
__________________________________________
One year later
Jonah
“Thank you, Vi,” I murmur when she brings over my coffee. A feeling of déjà vu invades my senses when a familiar-looking man, dressed all in black, saunters in through the front door. This time, however, I don’t have Jack outside watching, neither do I pretend to read the paper, nor smirk smugly in this man’s presence. I’ve come to respect the man before me. Besides, even I’m not that much of a bastard to poke at him after what happened. The wound must still be fresh.
“K,” I call out, disturbing the air between us, “thank you for agreeing to see me under such…sad circumstances. How are you?”
He simply laughs without humor, angrily one might say, before shaking his head toward the ground. His hair is even longer than before, his glasses wonky and his facial hair thicker than his usual stubble. It’s easy to see he’s not looking after himself these days.
“Tell me what you want, K” I say bluntly, cutting to the chase because I’m not the touchy-feely type. We both know I would rather stick pins under my fingernails than try to engage in a heart-to-heart conversation.
“I want blood and I want it now!” he growls through his teeth when he finally looks up at me with such venom in his eyes, I can see for certain he is now a changed man.
“You know Roman wanted us to stick together, to keep to the plan should anything happen to him.” I lean in closer because his wired emotions could fuck everything up if he doesn’t pull it together. Not to mention, put him in danger if Acid Brothers suspect their previous leader had been in a relationship with their new one.
“Roman’s not fucking here anymore!” he snaps, slamming his fist onto the table with such a thud, it causes a few of the diners to look over with curiosity.
Out of the two, K had always been the more reasonable, the sensible, think-things-through, kind of person. However, now he seems to have inherited Roman’s heavy-handed approach, something I need to squash.
“No, and neither will you be if you don’t pull it together K!” I reply, sounding just as frustrated. “Stick to the plan and I promise we will get what you so desperately want and without either of us going down for it. Lose your brain and I won’t be able to protect you, to do what Roman insisted upon when we first joined forces.”
“Someone needs to pay for this, Fox!” he says before swallowing hard, trying not to whimper. The sound he makes is the first hint of the man he used to be since arriving here today.
“Lawrence, Steele, even the pretty wife I’ve heard so much about.”
“Leave the wife out of this, K. Remember why you didn’t want to touch her in the first place,” I remind him, trying to appeal to his more sensitive side, which is more intelligent than this emotional one.
“That was before he was taken from me!” he scowls, slumping his body back like a petulant child.