A Captive Situation (Kings of New York)

My parents met him that morning when I brought him back from the hospital. My mom already knew him, but there’d been no bonding moments. Her glimpses were of him shooting people and yelling at us to leave. Not a super great first impression.

They’d warm to him. I knew it.

The rest of the family came over that afternoon. Clara and Bess officially met him too. Of course they’d seen him longer, but their impression was the same as my mom’s. Just more. More shooting and more yelling. Clara asked if he knew any snipers and if she could get lessons. Bess was excited to parade him through Bear Creek, specifically in front of Beck’s chiropractor clinic.

I wasn’t sure what Jake thought of them, but he only told me later, “Some families are great and supportive. They circle the wagons for each other. Some don’t. You got one that circles. I’ll love ’em for that fact alone.”

We stayed in Bear Creek, figuring out my house. I’d been staying with my parents because the thought of being in there alone . . . Well. All the shooting had an effect.

I decided to put it on the market, and three weeks later, when we were in California, my Realtor called with an offer that was asking price. I accepted, getting off the phone to let Jake know the good news. We were at a house that he’d bought a block over from his ex. It was close enough for EJ to easily come and go as he liked, which was the new arrangement between Jake and his ex-wife. It’d been touch and go at first, especially with his ex and her husband. Both feared Jake, with good reason, but EJ was coming around every so often to see his dad. He had one more year in high school before college.

I knew Jake wanted to wait and see where EJ would go for college. After that, we’d make a final decision on where we would find a permanent home. In the meantime, we went back often to visit my family, but we kept returning to California.

I was good with that arrangement. It felt like the best of both worlds.

Also, Jake’s cousin hadn’t been lying. Jake’s family was wealthy, really wealthy. Which he explained was through a trust from the oil business family members. Neither of us needed to work again, but that wasn’t who Jake was, or me. While we were going back and forth between my family and EJ, Jake started buying real estate. That began his new career. In the future, he would flip houses, then move on to flipping mansions, but some of his buildings would have renters. As for myself, I was never going to work for someone unless it was something I truly enjoyed. I just didn’t know what I wanted to do.

So I was taking my time.

If that meant going back to college, then that’s what I would do. I wasn’t sure yet.

There was no rush.

But I also had a real-life bucket list to start crossing off.noveldrama

I was excited because Jake was all in. Turns out that he had another cousin in Hawaii, and we met them when we went for the Aloha Festival. I was also currently learning Spanish, but it was coming along slow. Very slow. Muy lentamente.

As for New York City, we’d be going back. I just hadn’t told Jake yet.

He told me about the deal he struck with his cousin, and I mentioned what I could to my aunts and mom.

A plan was forming.

My mom was in charge of that list.

Jake

I’d been putting this last call off for so long. Too long. It was time. In fact, it might’ve been too late, but I needed to call him. I’d finally told Sawyer what I bargained for our safety.

I stepped outside, breathed in the night air, and hit call on my phone.

The other line rang. A moment later, it was answered.

Ashton’s voice was abrupt. “It’s been a minute since we’ve had a call. I’ll admit, a part of me is excited while a part of me is disappointed. I thought we were done with this. I thought our last correspondence was our last correspondence.”

There’d been a time in my life when I considered him my only friend. It was when the world was dark, when no one helped and only my supposed enemy extended a helping hand. We had years together where I’d been an ally of sorts. I was a loyal man. I only betrayed those who betrayed me first.

That was the reason for this call. Because Ashton betrayed me.

I drew in a breath before saying, “I’m not calling to catch up.”

Ashton grew quiet on his end. “I wouldn’t think you would. What’s the reason for this call, Worthing? What did you do, Jake?”

I murmured, “It’s more what you did, Ashton. You fucked up.”

He was quiet again before saying, “I fucked up? Okay. Tell me how I fucked up. Tell me the reason you’re shifting blame for whatever the fuck you did. I’d love to hear this.”

It was so simple really. I didn’t understand how he couldn’t realize it. I told him, “I asked you for help with saving my woman’s life. You said no.” I cringed, hearing the laughter that came from him that day. “You laughed at me.”

“I did not,” he returned, so smoothly.

“You did.” It was the day I didn’t know if I could save Sawyer’s life. I would never forget that day. “You should’ve helped me that day.”

Ashton was quiet again before he exploded, “I already had! What are you talking about? I’d done too much. I couldn’t do any more without risking a full-blown war between us and your cousin.”

There it was. The truth.

I noted, softly, “There was already a war, remember? You’d already been waging it against my cousin, but you wouldn’t help me that day because I was your first wave. Wasn’t I?” I figured it out later. If Creighton had known, then there was no reason Ashton hadn’t also. “You knew what my family trained me to become, didn’t you?”

There was silence for a bit. And that was my answer.

“Jake,” he started. “You were a cop—”

“There’s a difference between what my family had me doing and what I did for the force. A major difference and you know it. That’s what you were banking on. You knew he had Sawyer. You knew the lengths I’d go to save her. I was the first wave. You were hoping I’d kill my cousin. And if I went with him, if that was the only way I could kill him, then that just meant I was collateral. Right? That was your plan?”

My chest filled with anger and bitterness. Ashton had power and control. I came from a position of no power.

“I asked for your help against Lane. You told me no.”

“You were asking for too much—”

“I wasn’t. He had my woman. He had my son.”

“I didn’t know.”

I didn’t believe him and it didn’t matter anymore. “You fucked up, Ashton. You lost sight of what was in front of you. You were my family’s enemy and I chose your side.”

“You used my side to keep yours in check. Do not change the script on what fucking happened in the past.”

It didn’t matter. Not anymore. “I struck a deal with my cousin. I’m calling to give you notice.”

“With Lane?”

Here was the kicker, the real part that Ashton never considered and what he should’ve.

I said into the phone, “You’re under the impression that my family’s operation is solely in Maine and that my cousin only tried to push his way into the city. You think we didn’t have any hold already in the city. You’re wrong to make that assumption.”

He was quiet again before asking, “What are you talking about?”

“We have assets set up throughout the entire city. Manhattan. Brooklyn. Tribeca. Soho. Red Hook. Queens. Harlem. The Bronx. We have a distribution pipeline that’s used for transport of all goods. We have trucks in the city. We have men in the city. We have nightclubs that we use as camouflage for our other operations. We have businesses that we use to clean money for clients. My family is a lot bigger, a lot more powerful, and a lot more dangerous than you think. When our families went to war, you did not wipe us out. You only made a dent.”

Ashton went quiet. “What the fuck did you do?”

“You knew my cousin would have too many men. You knew I wouldn’t be able to take all of them out, but I just needed the one shot. Right? Just the one.” If only he had helped . . . But he hadn’t.

“What. Did. You. Do?”

“The deal was for my life. My woman’s life. My son’s. Everyone that Sawyer loves and everyone my son loves. That’s what I bargained with Lane for our lives.”

He’d grown quiet. Waiting.

“I stepped aside, Ashton.”

“What?” he asked, curtly.

“This call was a courtesy. Through the years, your family’s name gave Justin the ability to be normal for a while. Because of that, I’m giving you a heads-up of what’s coming your way.”

“You still haven’t said what the fuck you did—”

“I gave him my family.”

Ashton stopped talking, abruptly.

This was it. This was what I did. “I stepped aside and I gave him the keys to my family’s business. He knows the locations. He knows the passcodes. I gave him every piece of information he would need to move in and seize control of my family. My uncles have already either been killed or they’ve been immobilized. I don’t care. He needed a stronghold in the city, and I’m the one that gave it to him.”

“You fucking piece of shit—” Ashton cut himself off, but I heard the swift curses falling from him. “And if I send men after you? You opened a goddamn back door to my city, you fuck. You’re my enemy now. I know your weaknesses because that’s the kind of enemy I am. I could send men to execute that pretty little delusional woman of yours.”

I waited for him to finish.

“One call and your son is dead. His entire family. His sisters. His mother. You’d have to walk through their blood as you’d be the one who would discover their bodies. You want me to do that? Because that’s who I am, Worthing. You are forgetting who I am in this world.”

“You won’t. Because when you calm down, you’ll remember that I know more about your business than you think I do. And I know your woman. I know West’s woman. I know about your new compound. I know your businesses, the ones you don’t want anyone to know. And I know that in the back of your mind, you’ll think about everything that I knew about my family that I never told you. You’ll start wondering what else I know about your businesses. So, Ashton. It’s your move. You send men after me and mine, I’ll come for you and yours.”

“I despise you.”

I shook my head, holding my phone so tightly, but I knew the truth. I heard through the anger from him, saying, “Maybe. But I also helped give you your sunshine and I know what that’s like now. The war’s at your doorstep. I just opened the door for him to come in.”

“Fuck you, Worthing.”

I ended the call.

Glancing over my shoulder to where Sawyer was laughing at the table with EJ, I was looking at my new life. I meant what I said. He stood by as my lifelines could’ve been taken from me. There was no forgiving that.

This new life was just beginning.

Seeing me through the door, Sawyer smiled and waved at me. “Are you coming? Your beer’s getting warm. What are you doing?”

I grinned at her, sliding my hand inside my front pocket.

EJ gave me a knowing look and stood up, coming my way. He stepped through the door and lowered his voice. “You ready for this, old man?”

He was teasing, already knowing what I had planned when I walked inside.

It’d been hard between us.

Hard for him to accept that his mom never mentioned me. Hard for him to accept the reasons why I stayed away. He learned everything. I was done with keeping secrets. When he found out about Justin, he cried in my arms. “I wish I’d known him.”

I hugged him and shed my own tears. My voice was thick as I rasped, “He would’ve adored you. He did adore you, what he remembered about you.”

“So he knew about me?”

I hesitated. “He forgot a lot from that night. I think it was on purpose, but he never brought you up again. I decided to let it rest. I’m sorry.”

He shook his head, pushing away and raking his hands through his hair. “I’m furious with Mom. Like, I’m so fucking furious, but when I was taken and when you walked into that warehouse, things began to make sense. Things clicked that never clicked before. You were my dad. I could see that right away. I don’t totally remember everything that happened in that warehouse, but I remember that you loved me. That you were going to fight for me. That you did fight for me. I knew that much. That’s what stayed with me until I woke up in the hospital. I looked over and you were in the chair next to me. Everything, just, felt—I don’t know. My chest felt easier. Like I could breathe better. I had this feeling things were going to get better now. Things would make sense.” He looked my way, my jawline, my nose, my face, my hair all looking back at me. He had Justin’s eyes. But he was my son. “You know what I mean?”

I had a hard time getting a word out. “I know what you mean.”

Goddamn. I loved my kid.

I always loved him, but now I got to love him, and that was for the rest of my life.

It’s the type of love that brings a man to his knees. My son brought me to my knees and I knew there’d be more moments in the future.

I couldn’t wait.

He nudged my hand now. “Do you have a plan on how to do this?” He grinned, teasing, “Need to make a fucking list? Like Sawyer’s obsessed with. That’s what you have to look forward to. Lists and then lists upon lists and even lists for those lists.”

“Shut up.” I was grinning.

He was funny and teasing me.

I was happy, and I knew in a moment, I’d be even happier.

“My plan is to go in there. You start recording and I’ll take a knee.”

“This should be good. I’m shocked her family’s not here for it.”

I held back my grimace because he didn’t know they were waiting not far from here. They’d taken it upon themselves to arrive early, and they went to Tab’s house to introduce themselves to EJ’s mom and two sisters. Tab didn’t know, but she’d never follow through with her threat against my sister. If she did, I was going to let loose Clara on her. Clara and Maude, because the two had bonded. Sawyer said there was retribution against a retired teacher. She wouldn’t tell me the details, just saying it was better if I didn’t know. I left it alone.

Feeling some nerves kick up inside of me, I opened the door and stepped through.

EJ moved around me, saying under his breath, “Lists, Dad. Lists.”

I suppressed my laugh until I met Sawyer’s eyes.

She was taking in EJ as he pulled out his phone and began recording, aiming at her.

She started to say, “What—”

I knelt before her, pulling out a small box in my hand.

Her eyes widened. She gasped, breathless, as I opened the box and held up my mother’s ring. If she didn’t like it, I’d get a different one. I didn’t care, but it felt right to do this with a part of my mom with me. With us.

I held it up. “Will you marry me?”