Claiming Slice

by Eden Rose

  I need to believe that she’s okay. That she’s not been hurt and she’s still in one piece.

  I can see the door to her apartment that is cracked open. My feet immediately go to carry me towards the door but that was when I heard a gunshot and a feminine scream.

  “Fuck!” I yell and run towards the door.

  Mack Truck grabs my shoulder and pulls me back towards him. “Don’t you fucking go in there yet.”

  “That’s my girl!” My heart is racing so fast in my chest that it feels as if it’s going to beat out of my ribs. “Brother, get off me!”

  “No. You can’t go in there like you’re some knight and shining armor because you’re going to get her killed. You need to calm the fuck down.”

  “Stop!” Some female yells from the apartment.

  Breathing heavily, I push my friend aside and come running into what is only to be described as the seventh level of hell.

  “No!” I yell before racing over to Jen’s body that’s on the ground. Her pants are stuck at her ankles with her underwear attached to them. There’s blood smeared in between her thighs that are causing the once milky skin to stick together. I’m not sure where I could touch her but I don’t have the time to do anything yet. I need to make sure she’s breathing.

  I look over to the left of me where Mack Truck ran off to. In a position like Jen, Chantal is hunched around herself as if she’s shielding her body from those around her. She’s trying to protect herself from everyone else.

  “Is she okay?” I ask out of actual concern. I sure as fuck didn’t want to be the one that told The Bear that his girlfriend is hurt.

  “She’s breathing but… Fuck! She’s been shot.”

  “Call it in,” I advise. I shake Jen’s shoulders a little to try and get her to wake up to tell me what happened, but she’s not waking up. She’s dead asleep. At least I’m hoping she’s asleep. “Please, baby. Please open your beautiful eyes and tell me you’re okay. Please, fucking hell!”

  Jen doesn’t make any noise or anything. Neither does Chantal.

  Fuck!

  I’m cradling Jen’s head on my lap when The Bear comes charging through the apartment until he stops in front of Chantal. He drops to his knees when he reaches her with his anguish evident. After all the years with knowing him, I have never seen him look so defeated before.

  “What happened?” He barks out and grabs her from Mack Truck’s hands. “My little kitten. Who the fuck did this to my girl?” He cradles her to his chest and rocks back and forth. “They’re dead! Fuckin’ dead. I’ll kill them all.”

  “Prez, we have no idea! This is what we walked into when we got here,” Mack Truck tells him.

  I’m shaking on the floor trying to figure out how to save Jen. The more minutes that tick by, the further she slips from me. I already feel it happening and it kills me more than anything. I wipe the blue hair that’s stuck to her face away and then slowly pull up her pants.

  She’s killing me right now and I feel every ounce of pain that she had felt because I was too stubborn to stay with her. Fuck me!

  *

  As the minutes tick on, both The Bear and I are feeling desperate. I’ve never felt like this before; so useless and out of control. There’s nothing that I can do to make any of this go away and I’m running out of ideas. Her pants are covering her back up but it does little to stop the visions of her pants and underwear around her ankles from my mind. I see it all.

  I think the worst part about waiting for the ambulance to come is not knowing. We both have an idea what happened to our girls but neither of us will say the words out loud. If we say them out loud, then that means it’s true.

  “Fuck!” I yell out loud. “God damn it, prez. All this shit is my fault. I’m so selfish.”

  “I don’t have time for your shit, brother.”

  “Please, Jen… Please. Wake up. Let me see those beautiful eyes and tell me that you’re okay. Fuck!”

  Just when I’m about to resort to begging, I hear the sounds of the sirens blazing through the small neighborhood. “Finally!” It’s been too long and the girls are slipping away from us.

  Heavy footsteps are pounding on the stairs and down the hallway until they run into the apartment. “EMT!” A man shouts.

  “In here!” The Bear hollers back. “Hurry. My girl, fuck. She’s unconscious.”

  I rock back and forth with Jen holding her close to me while the EMTs look around at the carnage of the apartment. “Don’t ask. We don’t know anything besides our ladies being hurt.”

  Damn it. I can already hear what they are thinking right now. These fuckers think that we did this and we didn’t do shit. Well, I did when I turned my back on Jen. It’s all my fault. I should have been there for her instead of letting my pride get away from me.

  “Police!”

  Five cops run into the apartment with their guns drawn looking at that the scene. “What happened?” One of them asks me while glaring at my tattoos.

  “I don’t know what the fuck happened. Are you gonna take care of the girls or are you gonna play fifty questions with us?” I bark out my patience running thin.

  The fuzz nods at the EMTs to get to work but I about scream out when they take Jen from me. I can’t stand having her taken from me even though I know they have a job to do.

  “What are their names?” One of the female EMTs asks with a pad of paper in her hands.

  We both rattle off their names and watch them as each ol’ lady is carried to an awaiting stretcher. The girls are taken from the apartment and immediately placed in the back of the ambulance with care. I’m watching as they slam the door shut and are carried away from me.

  “We have some questions,” the fucking fat cop says and crosses his arms around his beer gut. “Who would do this?” He asks The Bear.

  The Bear’s eyes are blazing with rage and despair. We’re both feeling like we’re criminals even though we didn’t do anything wrong at all. We walked in and found them tortured.

  “We don’t know shit, cop. We don’t know anything more than you. What I do know is, my girl’s in that ambulance and I’m gonna be there when she wakes up,” I bite out.

  “You got that right. Are we done talkin’ about shit that doesn’t matter right now? I want my girl,” my prez says.

  “We’ll follow you to the hospital,” beer gut says.

  I shrug him off and jog towards my bike. I don’t give a fuck what they do, I want my girl.

  Waiting is probably one of the hardest things that happen in the hospital. Well, at least I used to think that until the police decided that it was time to grill Joe and I for shit that we didn’t do.

  “What do you mean you have no idea what happened?” The cop asks us in a separate room of the hospital. “There’s evidence of a struggle.”

  My mouth opens before I mean it to. “Why the fuck would I want to hurt the woman that I’m in love with?” The second that the word fell out of my mouth, I started to get itchy. I just admitted that I’m in love with Jen to a police officer that thinks I did this to her.

  He shrugs and scratches his balding head. “There’s many reasons why someone would want to hurt their girlfriends. Jealousy, betrayal… You know? Crimes of passion.”

  With my temper flying through the roof, I’m trying to stay grounded. It’s not a good idea to lose my cool in front of the cop who thinks that I would hurt Jen. So, I don’t say anything.

  Neither does Joe.

  “Does any of that ring a bell?” He asks us both. “Well, maybe I should let you know that we already know that Jennifer McSimmons is married. Did you find that out and decide that you wanted to punish her? Maybe teach her a lesson?”

  “Cop,” The Bear states, “we have answered your questions and now we want to see our girls. Are we done?”

  “For now. Don’t leave town.”

  The prez and I both get out of our seats and walk back to the waiting room to see if there’s any news. Each of our brothers are waiting
for us with a look of concern on their faces. Once they see us, they get up and give each of us a hug by pounding us on our backs.

  “Fuck, what happened?” Rabies asks while rubbing his chin.

  “No idea. The fuckin’ cops think we did it,” Joe blurts out with venom.

  Not interested in small talk, I walk over to the nurses’ station to gather any information that they might have. There has to be something new. Anything.

  “Any news on Jennifer McSimmons or Chantal Phillips?” I bark at the nurse.

  She jerks back her pretty face before glaring at the computer. “Nothing. We called the parents for both patients and the husband for McSimmons.”

  My world spins quickly around me like I’m on a carousel. “What the fuck you mean you called her husband?” I bark out. She called the one man that is more than likely responsible for hurting the girls to let him know that they are in here.

  Flip places his hand on my shoulder to calm me down but nothing can right now. There’s no calming me down right now. “Don’t lose your cool, man.”

  “Easy for you to say,” I spit under my breath. I turn back to the nurse. “Has there been anything? Like anything?”

  “No. Like I told you.”

  I turn away from the nurse, walking back to the waiting room where everyone is at. They all have the same look on their faces of questioning what is going on but I have nothing to say.

  Flip’s back in the corner with his computer out and a determined look on his face. I’m about to ask what the hell he’s doing but the look on his face tells me everything that I need to know. He’s looking to see if there’s anything reported.

  I pull out my phone to look around on the internet and try to figure out a way to pass the time while we wait. I’m not going to be any good to Jen if I’m arrested for killing a nurse.

  What’s the easiest way to get to divorced? I type into the search bar. Article after article floods my phone with lawyers faces and how to do it. Many ask me questions about how long I’ve been married and all of that but that has nothing to do with me. I need to get Jen divorced ASAP so I can lock her down.

  I’m done playing games. She’s mine and it’s about time she realized that. I will kill her husband and anyone else that gets in my way.

  JEN

  “What’s going on, dad?” I question him and look around the room to see that Sal is sitting by himself at the far corner. I plead with my eyes for him to give me any indication of what is about to happen. He doesn’t give me anything. It’s funny that after these years, I still try to get him to be on my side. I should know better by now.

  He doesn’t move without my father’s permission.

  My dad takes a drink and sets the glass on the coffee table. He stretches out a little and places his right leg over his left leg so his ankle is resting on his knee cap. “Jenny, this isn’t easy to say but I need you to do something for me and that’s why they are here. Sal fucked up by beating up Jimmy and now we’ve got ourselves a little bit of a problem. I need your help.”

  “Sure, dad. Whatever you need,” I answer without hesitation.

  I sneak a peek and look over at Jimmy who looks like he’s about to throw up and it makes my stomach churn. What is going on here?

  “Well, there’s no easy way to say this so I’m going to spit it the fuck out. I’ve lived a colorful life, Jenny. I’ve never hid that from you or your mother. What I did hide from you is the fact that I’ve pissed off a lot of people because of this. Do you get what I’m saying?”

  “What?” I tilt my head to the side and scrunch my eyebrows up. What the fuck is he talking about. “Dad, it’s late and I have school in the morning. Stop talking in riddles and spit it the fuck out!” I blurt out and then immediately clamp my lips closed. To this day, I have never back talked my father nor have I cursed in front of him. This is bad.

  Jimmy snickers and tilts his head up to the sky before looking at his own dad that’s next to him. “I agree with the hitman’s daughter over here. Dad, why are we fucking here?”

  His father glares over at Sal and then reaches into the waistband of his pants to pull out a gun. I take a deep breath as he cocks it and aims it at Sal.

  I don’t give my body and mind a chance to agree on what I’m about to do because I want to save my bodyguard. “No!” I shout out loud and jump off my seat to run towards my bodyguard.

  There’s a hand that grabs my shoulder and yanks me back towards my chair with force. “Sit here, Jen,” Jimmy says to me lightly. I look into his eyes and see that he’s just as confused as I am and maybe he’s just as scared as me.

  “Dad! You have to stop him!” I yell looking at my father in hopes that he will spare the life of his trusted employee.

  Instead of helping me, he shakes his head and takes out his own gun from his coat jacket. “I’m sorry, sweetie. It’s business and it’s nothing personal. The quicker you learn to not get attached to people, the better you’re going to be in this world. People will fuck you over, but money won’t. Remember that.”

  Tears spring to my eyes as I watch Jimmy’s father pump two bullets into the man that I’ve known forever. Sal’s body slumps forward out of the chair and the bloodstain is splattered on the back of the chair.

  “Why? Why would you do this?” I demand through my tears and anger. “What was the purpose of this?”

  My fifteen-year-old heart doesn’t know how to take this or begin to rationalize Sal dying.

  “What I was going to say, fuck. How am I supposed to say this to my daughter?” My dad asks Jimmy’s father.

  “Tell her the truth or I will.”

  I take a deep breath to stop the deep sobbing that is wreaking havoc on my body. My stomach hurts and so does my back from the intense sobbing. I’ve never seen anyone die before. Sure, I’ve been to funerals for my dad’s friends and family members, but I have never witnessed how they got to that place.

  “Sweetie, you’re going to marry Jimmy.”

  “What!” Both Jimmy and I scream at the same time and jump out of our chairs before looking at the other.

  His dad nods his head and sits back more in the captain styled chair. I can see the family resemblance, but I’m not interested in making the connection between the father and the boy who bullies me at school. “It’s called a union and it’s needed to establish a truce between myself and your father, Jennifer. It’s nothing too serious.”

  My head swirls and I feel like I’m about to faint. It’s nothing serious? He just told me that I’m getting married! That sounds pretty fucking serious to me. “No.”

  “What the fuck do you mean?” My dad growls at me and stands out of his chair to stalk over to me.

  I’ve never noticed that my father’s age is catching up to him and he’s looking older and older. His normally black hair is now streaked with gray and he has wrinkles by his eyes and around his mouth. The one thing that surprises me the most, is the strong scent of his cologne after he came in from being gone all day. Did he just spray his cologne?

  He places his two hands on my shoulders and leads me out of the room with his front facing me. “I can’t tell you the specifics, but I can tell you that we need you to do this. This truce is serious and is needed to be set in motion before it’s too late. Jimmy’s father, Paul, is the only one that can make sure that nothing is going to get fucked up. I’m not asking you to do this. I’m telling you that you’re going to do this.”

  Jimmy sputters and then looks over from my dad to his before looking over to me. “Jen, I know you don’t like me very much and I haven’t been too nice to you, but… We have to do this. Sal beating me up rocked the boat between our families.”

  I see his mouth moving but I don’t fully grasp what the hell it is he’s talking about. All I hear is blah blah blah.

  “So, I’m fifteen and I’m marrying a guy that doesn’t even like me… People are going to think I’m pregnant! Have you thought about that?”

  All the men shrug and act as if i
t’s no big deal. An Italian woman pregnant in school. Much more than that, an Italian and Catholic woman pregnant in high school. I’m going to be the laughing stock.

  My father places his hand on the back of my neck. “I’m sorry, Jenny. It’s just the way this world of mine works and you were born into it. You’re getting married next week and then you and Jimmy are going to be emancipated so you can live together.”

  “What about school?” Jimmy asks everyone.

  “You twos are going to do online school,” his father says.

  Jimmy struts over to me and I see the look of determination in his eyes and it almost makes me swoon. Almost. If I weren’t so confused about my appending nuptials, I might have. “Let’s just try to make the best of it. You know?”

  SLICE

  I’ve already sent out two emails to two different lawyers trying to get an idea on how to go through with a divorce. There’s not much more I can do but wait for Jen to wake up and convince her to take me back. It’s going to be hard, especially after everything I’ve done to her, but I’ve got to try.

  A doctor pushes through the hospital doors with a clipboard in his hand. He’s about my age with a graying head but he seems nice enough. Honestly, I don’t give a shit what he looks like as long as he has some good fucking news for me.

  “Noah?” He asks.

  I shoot out of my chair knocking my phone onto the ground. “That’s me.”

  “Jennifer McSimmons is asking for you. However, before we go back, I need to prepare you for something.”

  My heart catches in my throat. “What?” I choke out. Oh fuck. Oh fuck.

  My president and brothers, rally around me to calm me down. “Don’t freak out until you know what’s going on,” Bic says to me and squeezes my shoulder.

  “Is there a Joe Montague out here?” The doctor asks.

  Joe’s already standing up next to me with a look of death on his face. “How’s my girl, Chantal? Is she okay?” He’s acting calmer than normal which is scarier than shit.

  The calm before the storm.

  “I need to prepare you guys for what you’re about to see. They have gone through a lot in a short amount of time but I can assure you that they will live.”