My Life for Yours

by Margaret McHeyzer

  “I know.”

  “I don’t think you do.”

  “I get it, Frankie, you’re dangerous and you can get to anyone.”

  “Anyone, Jeremy. You need to listen to that word and be comfortable with that. Anyone.” I repeat it slowly for the third time. “Anyone.”

  “Am I in danger from you?”

  “Not at this stage.”

  “Can I be?”

  “Depends.”

  “On?”

  “How much you piss me off.”

  “I don’t piss you off, I turn you on,” Jeremy has a mischievous little smile on his beaten up lips.

  “You pissed me off yesterday morning before I left your house.”

  “But you wouldn’t kill me.” I smirk at him and he sees my lips curve and instantly he breaks out in a smile.

  “If this is gonna happen, then you need to know a few things,” I gesture between the two of us. Jeremy tries to adjust his position on the bed a little so he can sit up.

  “Like what, Darling?”

  “Like from now on until I sort a few things out you have either a lot of security around and you can continue living in your house or you have a few security around you and you move into my house.”

  “Hmmm. Is that my only option?”

  “For now, but once everything’s back to normal you can go back to your own house with only two security guards watching you.”

  “Okay, well then I choose option B. I’ll move in with you.”

  “The next part’s going to be hard for you to hear and you’re certainly not going to like it.”

  “What is it?”

  “Your mother can no longer be in your life.”

  “Now that’s not going to happen. She’s my mother and she loves me and I love her so you’ll have to work out your issues with that.”

  I turn and walk over to the uncomfortable plastic hospital chair that’s in the corner.

  “What if I can prove it to you?”

  “Impossible,” he shakes his head, not believing my words.

  I interlock my fingers and bring them under my chin.

  “Whatever your hang up with my mother is, you need to put it aside, Frankie. She’s a good Mom and a good person.”

  “I wasn’t going to mention anything and I was going to leave it alone. But with everything that’s been happening, I need to do something and I need you to remain quiet while I talk. Can you do that?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You don’t have to yet, Jeremy. You just need to agree and I’ll do the rest.”

  “Okay,” Jeremy furrows his eyebrows together and sighs the word out in a long and worried breath. I get up, walk over to the door and open it. G turns and looks at me as he’s standing guard not allowing anyone inside. I stand to the side indicating to allow Betsy inside.

  “Miss DeLuca will see you now,” he says to Betsy in a patronising and degrading voice.

  I smile at G’s shit stirring ways.

  “I can’t believe that bitch is stopping me from seeing my son.” She shoulder barges G, and I can tell by the roll of his eyes and snigger that he finds her amusing. I allow her access to her son as she fake concerns over him.

  “My sweet sweet boy, are you okay? You weren’t hurt too badly were you?”

  “Mom I’m……”

  “I mean I know it’s because of her,” she snarls out ‘her’ as she throws a look of contempt over her shoulder to me. “We have lawyers, Honey, we can sue her for everything she has.”

  “Mom I’m…..”

  “Don’t worry, Honey, Mommy will look after everything,” she keeps cutting Jeremy off every time he attempts to say anything. I stand at the foot of the bed and let her keep digging a bigger hole for herself.

  “Mom I’m….” Jeremy tries for the third time but of course Betsy doesn’t let him finish.

  “I’ll move my things into your house today and I’ll call the Chief of Police and have her arrested for what she’s done to you, she needs to pay Jeremy, she needs to pay us big dollars for being involved.”

  It’s now that I need to show Jeremy the woman or should I say the rat his mother actually is.

  “How much?” I ask as I move around the bed to the other side of Jeremy. Both of them snap their heads up at me but two very different looks appear on their faces.

  “What?” Jeremy asks with shock.

  “A lot,” says Betsy with a grin knowing full well what I’m asking.

  “How much is a lot?” I take Jeremy’s good hand in mine and weave our fingers together.

  “Depends what you’re asking for.” She stands from her sitting position and now we’re two alphas in the jungle combating each other but for two very different reasons. She wants money and I want her gone.

  “Name your price to leave.”

  “What?!” Jeremy shrieks “She’s my mother, she can’t be bought off.”

  “Two million,” Betsy’s voice hardens as she doesn’t even acknowledge her son.

  “Mom!!” Jeremy pushes up from the bed to attempt to sit up more.

  “You’re never to have contact with him again. You’re never to breathe a word about him, and you’re never to be seen at any function with him.”

  “Three million,” Betsy ups her requirements and crosses her arms in front of her and gives me her ultimate diva look.

  “What the fuck’s going on?” Jeremy questions.

  My look doesn’t falter and I don’t move my eyes from her.

  “I’ll give five, if…”

  “Yes?” She eagerly asks as her greedy little eyes light up.

  “You repeat the words you told me at the benefit. He needs to hear them.”

  “What?” She whispers as she instantly loses the ferocious look she held seconds earlier. “I don’t want to.”

  “If I have to repeat my words, you’ll walk out of here with no money and no son because he already knows you’d sell him out for a mere few million.”

  Betsy looks at Jeremy then back to me; he’s silently pleading with her to not say the words. I think he knows what she’s going to say, I’ve already heard her words.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t love you, I’ve never loved you and I’ve never wanted you.” She doesn’t try to go to him, she doesn’t even look over to him, and she simply drops her eyes to the floor and shuffles on the spot. Jeremy’s fingers are squeezing mine as his eyes are filling with tears.

  “You’ve never wanted me?”

  Betsy shakes her head, no.

  “What was I?”

  “A huge mistake, Son.”

  “You’ve lost the right to call me that.”

  “I only had you because your father was going to leave me.”

  “Get out,” Jeremy chokes as the tears that were gathering in his eyes spill over freely. Betsy doesn’t move her feet, instead she stands on the same spot and looks up at me.

  “Are you happy, you destroyed the only family he had?”

  “I’ve never pretended to be someone other than who I am. And yes I’m deliriously happy; now get out, before my men assist you out.”

  “My money, I want my money.”

  “You’re a fucking idiot if you think I walk around with five million dollars. It’ll be delivered to you, now Betsy, fuck off.” I snarl the last two words at her.

  Betsy turns to walk away but before she reaches the door, I go and slam my arm up against it, essentially stopping her from leaving.

  “I will bring everything and everyone I have access to if I even think you’re sniffing around. I would strongly suggest you leave the country. I hear Albania’s lovely and don’t even think about returning. Are we clear?”

  “Yes,” she murmurs.

  “Loud enough for Jeremy to hear what his egg donor just said.”

  “Yes!” She shouts as she straightens her back and lifts her head in a full pride stance.

  “You have nothing to be proud of, Betsy.” I open the door and she pushes past me.


  G steps up to the door and looks in at Jeremy who’s crying on the bed then back at me.

  “Send Marko to get give her five million and have Jason and Lance babysit her to Albania, get her out within 24 hours.” G nods and closes the door leaving me to deal with an emotionally broken Jeremy.

  Chapter 17

  “Why would she do that? She just tossed me aside like I’ve never mattered to her.”

  “Maybe because you never did, Jeremy.”

  Jeremy’s head collapses into his hand and he continues to cry, the tears falling from his charcoal eyes are fat and plump and I can tell they’re coming from his soul. His head stays down as I sit in the uncomfortable chair and just wait for him to say something to me. I feel almost a sense of compassion and pity towards him; it’d be difficult to discover that your entire life’s based on a lie of who your role model was. I sit in silence and allow Jeremy to mourn the fissure that’s developed in his heart, until I’ve had enough.

  “You’re taking this like a girl,” I stand to my full height and attention as I walk over to his bed.

  “Jeez, Frankie,” Jeremy looks up at me and his eyes are red and puffy. Streaks of salt water cling to his cheeks and there’s no other way to describe him but completely devastated. “Can’t you for one minute just stop being a cruel bitch? I’ve had the most fucked up things happen to me and you’re calling me a girl. Well walk out if you can’t stand a little bit of emotion.”

  “A little bit? You’re crying like a hormonal pregnant teenager. Get the hell over it. She’s a terrible mother, fuck, I’ll even go as far as to say she’s a terrible person. But you’re crying over scum that hasn’t shed a tear for you and sold you out to me. She sold you out to someone that can happily and easily destroy you and she doesn’t care. And you’re lying there like a broken man crying tears over her. Those tears should be reserved for someone that cares for you not on a worthless piece of rubbish, like her.”

  Jeremy’s eyebrows frown together and I notice he takes deep breaths through his mouth. A few minutes pass and Jeremy closes his eyes and leans his head back into the pillow. Without opening his eyes or saying a word, he lifts his hand and opens his palm waiting for me to take it. I place my hand in his and his fingers tightly take hold of me. His thumb draws slow circles on the back of my hand and he continues breathing deeply, I suspect he’s just considering this entirely fucked up situation. My own heart’s thumping through to my ears and my adrenaline’s starting to cool down, as my touch seems to have the same calming effect on him as he has on me.

  “I know, Darling. It’s just, this really is bad. I never would’ve thought this was how my life would turn out.”

  “Just man up and piss her off. Let her go, Jeremy, you deserve better.”

  “I deserve you.” He opens his eyes and looks into mine. This time the hurt’s been replaced with an emotion I haven’t seen before, maybe the visit from his mother has sparked it. An emotion I’m not ready to handle yet, an emotion that I myself haven’t felt for anyone but family.

  “Don’t say it, Senator. Whatever you’re thinking, just hold it inside.”

  “One day soon.”

  “Let it go.” I break his touch and walk back over to the chair. Sitting down I compose myself before I start questioning him about his kidnapping.

  “Frankie.”

  “Don’t.” I cut him off by raising one hand.

  “Thank you.”

  I swallow back my own emotions and nod just once. A few more moments pass before I need to address the issue at hand.

  “So what happened when they took you?”

  “Nothing, they tied me up, beat me up,” he looks down at his battered and bruised body “and kept laying into me. But they didn’t ask me anything.”

  “How many were there?”

  “Two, but they were getting instructions from someone else.”

  “Where they getting phone calls?”

  “Yeah at the end they said that you wouldn’t pay the ransom because you were scared every other unsavoury person would want to destroy you.”

  Wait. What? They said that? How do they know I said that? They asked me for one hundred million and I said no, and then I hung up the phone.

  “What exactly did they say, Jeremy?”

  “They were laughing and carrying on, said I wasn’t anything to you. Said that you wouldn’t pay the money. I’m glad you didn’t, Frankie. Even if they killed me, I’m glad you didn’t give them a damn cent.”

  “Jeremy, listen to my words. What exactly did they say about me not paying them?”

  “They said you said you were going to stand your ground and not let them defeat you.”

  Well fuck me.

  Those words were said in my office.

  To G.

  And only G.

  No one else was in my office.

  Did G do this? Was G behind all the attacks against me?

  Could the man that’s been my family, also be the man that’s trying to destroy me?

  Chapter 18

  Eight days pass and Jeremy stays in hospital while I go back home and try to see if it’s G who’s behind this. Calling Bruno to do a sweep of my office, he finds several listening devices concealed all around my office, in the kitchen and my bedroom. There’re only a handful of people that have access to the areas, so they’re all on my shit list. Bruno also sweeps G’s room and finds them in there, too. I didn’t want to believe that the man who’s watched me grow from an awkward yet stubborn teenager to a lethal Mafiosa, who’s beaten up a few boys for me, killed a lot of men I’ve pointed to and even once been shot protecting my father, was the man behind these attack.

  Truthfully, I was happy I didn’t have to send him to his death, I was deliriously pleased that he remains my right hand man.

  But it still posed an issue that even though it had been quiet for the last eight days, there’s still someone, and that someone’s part of my people, who’s after me.

  Marko drives me to the hospital to collect a discharged Jeremy. The swelling on his face has almost completely subsided and the bruising’s now a dull yellow color blending into his natural skin tone; in a day or two it should be totally gone. The cast on his leg will be there for another couple of weeks and his arm has recovered quite well. All in all, he’s mending fairly rapidly.

  Betsy was seen off to Albania as Jason and Lance stayed close to her. As per G’s instructions they were to remain in constant contact with Marko, giving him a rundown of everything that was happening with Betsy.

  Walking into Jeremy’s room, he’s sitting on the bed just staring at the door.

  “Hey,” I walk over to him and his face lightens up the moment he sees me.

  “Darling,” He tilts his head up so I can kiss him. But this kiss isn’t like the others that he’s given me in the past. He grabs my body and crashes it to his, his mouth opens as his tongue sweeps over my bottom lip. Closing my teeth to bite over his top lip, I draw on it and bite with a little more pressure. My heart starts to beat rapidly as the blood being carried through my veins instantly starts to boil, moisture pools around my slit and as Jeremy’s attacking my mouth and neck, I’m fisting his hair pulling him closer to me. “We can’t do this here. God, how I want your mouth on me. Licking, sucking, kissing me,” he mutters against my lips.

  “I really need sex, Jeremy. Hurry up so we can get home.” But my hands haven’t left the back of his head, he groans into my mouth as my grip tightens. I rub myself up against him and he’s becoming almost violently forceful with the way he’s pulling at me. And man, do I like it.

  “Shit, Frankie,” he pushes me away just enough so that we can both let air back into our lungs. “Come on, let’s get us home.”

  When he says the word home, a shutter runs from the top of my spine all the way down to my toes. Home, is that where I’m taking him? Yep!

  Marko takes the couple of bags that he has here as Jeremy manoeuvres the crutches to hobble out to the limousine. We w
alk quietly to the car but I steal small looks and laugh as he struggles with the walking aids.

  “Stop laughing,” he growls out to me.

  “It’s okay, Jeremy, I’m laughing at you so it makes all the difference.”

  “Yep, there’s the Frankie that I know, back as the annoying bitch who can’t shut her damn mouth.” I smile at his words and walk away from him; I head straight to the limousine that Marko’s illegally parked outside the front doors. ‘Hop along’ finally joins us as I sit in the back and patiently wait for him. He clumsily gets in and lets out a huge huff. “That was fucking painful,” he brings his hand up to rub over his face as he looks out the window.

  “You’ve provided me with ample entertainment though.”

  “Darling, unless your mouth is sucking me off or kissing me, then please don’t use it for anything else.”

  I chuckle and turn away from him. Deviant.

  My hand’s on the seat between Jeremy and myself and Jeremy’s hand is close to mine. He shifts it so only the tip of our pinkie fingers are just touching, then he moves it back a little. The heat emanating from his touch starts to sing to my body. He leaves his pinkie so it’s not touching my hand but incredibly close. A few moments pass and in a slow and tedious manner he moves his hand up my arm with the lightest of touches. My breath hitches with a promise of another incredible night, I shift in my seat towards him and I try to rub my thighs together to gain a little friction. I discreetly rock a little forward and then rock back in my chair as Jeremy leans over and licks my shoulder. Fuck, right from the moment I saw him in the hospital room and we groped at each other’s bodies, my own form has been craving him and wanting him. Just sitting next to him I want to do very bad things to his very yummy body.