“He’s been watching you?”
“Yeah…”
He nodded at that, a newfound resolve sweeping over him and then he looked at me, his expression frighteningly blank.
“If he does contact you, you tell him…you’re ready to leave with him. Tonight, come get your stuff from the house. If he’s watching, he’ll see it. Tell him…that you’ll meet him, by the pier. You tell him…I hate you and I’m never gonna forgive you, and…there’s nothing here for you now. You need to do this for me, Jewls.”
And just like that, my world came crashing down around my ears.
“Okay…” I heard myself say.
He nodded and backed away, eventually turning away from me completely and getting in the car. They drove away without even looking once at me.
I stood there for a moment in dumbfounded shock at his incredible cruelty.
I was so caught up in what had sure felt like a pretty damn genuine dumping to wonder at all why he was telling me to meet Andrew at the pier, it never occurred to me at all. It was old and rickety and there was nothing on it. Once upon a time it had housed an amusement arcade, lights, music, the lot. Now it was home to a lot of dry rot and hundreds of seagulls. But when the time came, I just did it, without thinking.
All the hope, all the belief he had seemingly worked so hard to instil in me, that true, real, passionate romantic love was real, and he felt it for me…he destroyed in the space of two minutes. And what he left behind was a crumpled wreck of no hope, a broken heart and a shattered future.
~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~
Micah
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Nic asked me, as he continued to pack Jewls’ things into a suitcase.
“I’m sure.” I said flatly.
“But does it have to be like this? You realise you’re breaking her heart.”
“I’ll square it after. For now she doesn’t need to know. If he is watching – and the fucking bastard is, I can feel it – he needs to see this happen. He needs to see me throwing her out to believe it. Then we can get to him and make him pay.”
“Yeah but Micah, I really-”
He was interrupted by the doorbell, and I walked past him and down the stairs to find Mari had let Jewls in and they were both standing in the living room. Jewls it seemed could barely look at me, and I felt a twinge of guilt. The old me would have felt more than a twinge. Because here was the girl I loved – and yes, I still loved her with all my heart – standing here looking like she hadn’t slept in a hundred years and had run out of tears to cry. And it was my fault.
But the new me, or at least the version of me in that moment, had changed. I was consumed with a need to avenge Marco’s death. I had failed at saving him; I wasn’t going to let him down again.
Mari frowned when she saw Nic behind me with the suitcase. “What’s going on? Micah?”
I didn’t answer her, and she turned to Jewls. “Jewls? What’s with the case?”
“I’m sorry…” Jewls whispered. She walked to Nic and took the handle of the case, wheeling it to the door, hesitating and looking back at us all. “I’m so sorry to all of you. Had I ever thought he was capable of this…I would never” she shook her head. “Goodbye…”
“Wait, no!” Mari said, her voice rising. “Micah, tell her she doesn’t have to do this. You love each other. Tell her this wasn’t her fault, and we don’t blame her.”
I opened my mouth and very nearly said exactly that. Jewls looked at me hopefully, giving me one last opportunity to take it back. I closed my mouth and looked away.
“Fucking tell her!” Mari screamed. “Jewls, please don’t go!”
I heard the door slam and looked up to find the love of my life had gone. Mari whirled on me, her eyes filled with fury.
“Alright, I wanna know what the fuck is going on!”
“Mari, leave him…” Nic started.
“No!” she yelled, surprising us both. She had never, ever yelled at me before and I never thought she would, especially as lately she had been wrapping me up in cotton wool. I guess I wasn’t the only one on the verge of a breakdown. Seemed like we were all pretty much in sync as usual, the emotion of the funeral overwhelming us all. “You know what; I am pretty fucking tired of being the only one who is always left out of the loop! I know I’m the baby of the family, but I’m not a fucking baby! I’m a grown woman and I would appreciate it if just for once you would take me seriously. Micah, you cannot let her walk away. We all know this isn’t her fault! She’s the love of your life; you can’t just…just dump her!”
“I’m not!” I yelled. “He just needs to think I am, okay?!”
She frowned, taken aback by that. “Huh? Who?”
“Dempsey!” I blurted. So much for keeping Mari out of it.
“What about him!”
“He’s been waiting in the wings for Jewls to lose it all. Now she has…he’ll come crawling out of the woodwork. Which is exactly what we need to happen.”
She looked at us both closely and then pulled up a chair at the table. “Sit boys. I want to know exactly what’s going on.”
~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~
Jewls
I made it two streets dragging that damn suitcase along before the tears began to fall and I let them out, all of them. I marched along sobbing my heart out just wanting to get back to my flat as quickly as possible.
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I contemplated leaving it, but instinct told me to look. A text message from an unknown number.
Boo. I was told the ice cream here is delicious. I was not misinformed ;)
I looked up and to my left and sure enough, there was Andrew, standing outside Maricello’s, an ice cream parlour popular with the tourists. He was eating a 99, and he smiled and waved like he was greeting an old friend.
I just stood there, holding on to my suitcase, breathing heavily, my face soaked with tears as he made his way over to him.
“How’s it going, honey?” he looked at my case and frowned. “Oh, this doesn’t look good…all not okay with gypsy boy, huh?”
“You got what you wanted if that’s what you mean.” I hissed, just about holding in my anger. I had never despised someone more in my life.
“Oh…so, you’re back on the market?”
“No,” I heard myself say, “I’m married, aren’t I?”
A proper smile spread across his face at that. “So you mean…?”
I sighed. “I’ll leave with you. You win. There’s nothing left for me here.”
He grinned and nodded. “Okay…so my car is just around the corner. Shall we…?”
“I need to go get the rest of my stuff from the flat. Meet me at the pier at say…eleven tonight?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Why don’t I just come with you?”
“I need some time to prepare. Freshen up. Plus, I don’t want anyone to see me leave.”
“Who’s gonna be around to see you leave? And why would you care?”
“Micah’s sister, Mari. She’s about the only one doesn’t hate me. If she knows I’m leaving she’ll try to stop me. And if she comes here and sees you, she’ll call the police. It’s best we meet somewhere else.”
He considered that, licking his ice cream, and then nodded. “Okay…” he pointed the ice cream at me, wielding it like it was a knife, “but I warn you, any tricks, any games…I will go back and I will kill him. I. Will. Kill. Him. Understand?”
“If you know me as well as you think you do…you’ll know I would never risk that.”
He smirked. “Awe. Still holding a torch for him, huh. Cute. Okay, eleven it is. See you then, Jewls.”
And with that, he was gone.
Back in the flat, I set about sorting through my stuff, and it quickly occurred to me that I didn’t want any of it. It was just stuff. I hadn’t exactly built up a lot of possessions, and anything that did matter to me was connected to Micah and I knew if Andrew ever got his hands on it, he would destroy it.
I f
lopped on the sofa, flicking through my phone, looking at the hundreds and hundreds of photos. We sure did look every inch the happy couple.
How had we got to this? How could something so wonderful go so wrong, so quickly? I scoffed to myself. Who had I been kidding? To seriously think I could ever have had a future, a life, with a man like Micah.
I came across a picture of me with the whole Machvaya family, taken by Jenna at my birthday meal, all sitting around the table. Micah had his arms around me, holding me close to him, and Marco was leaning back on his chair behind us, eyes wide, tongue sticking out, two fingers held up at the back of Micah’s head.
I burst into tears again. I couldn’t believe he was gone. He had done nothing wrong, nothing to deserve to have his life cut so cruelly short.
And the man who had murdered him was getting away with it. The man who had destroyed that beautiful family was going to walk away from it completely unscathed and I was going to have to go with him, or risk the life of the man I loved.
I came out of the photos, unable to keep looking at them and looked up Micah’s number. With shaking hands, I wrote out a message.
I wanted u to no I’m leaving, 2nite at 11. I’m not tellin u in the hope that ul cum after me. I no that’s not going 2 happen. Wen Andrew killed Marco he killed us 2 I understand that. I wanted u 2 no that even tho I no it does no gud, I am so sorry. As of 2nite both me and Andrew will b out of ur life 4eva. I hope in time ur heart heals 2 a point where u r able 2 give it 2 someone new and maybe find a way 2 b happy again. Thank u 4 everything. J xx
Before I could lose my nerve I hit send. I packed the last of my clothes into the suitcase and zipped it up. This was it, nothing left to do or say.
My phone rang and I glanced at it, seeing Mari’s name flashing on the screen. I hit ignore, and moments later she rang again. Again, I cut it off. Again she rang.
“Christ Mari, let it go…” I muttered to myself, hitting ignore again.
A couple of minutes, and it rang again. I sighed and answered it. “Mari…”
“Jewls, don’t go tonight. Please.”
“Mari, I have to. I’m sorry, I have to go now. I need to get there for eleven, time is ticking.”
“You can’t go to the pier tonight. Please, call him or whatever and tell him you ain't doing it.”
“That’s not an option, Mari.”
“No Jewls, you spending the rest of your life with a murdering psychopath is not an option. No one wants that for you. No one wants you to leave.”
“Micah does. He told me, Mari. He said…next time Andrew gets in touch tell him it’s finished for you here. Tell him Micah can’t forgive you and it’s over. Micah said that, not me.”
“No, Jewls! He didn’t say it because he meant it! He said it because he needed to…”
“Needed me to what?”
“To help set up Andrew. When he gets there to pick you up…they’re gonna be waiting for him.”
“Who?”
“‘Micah, Nic…Elijah…all of them. And what they plan to do…will get them all in a world of trouble.”
I gave myself a moment to let that settle in. A set up. Andrew was being set up. How did I feel about that? Afraid. Not for him, for Micah and the others. I – correctly of course – presumed the idea had come from Eli. Grief alone would be spurring Micah on, and Nic…most likely he had simply been outnumbered and outvoted.
But Andrew had already proven he was capable of murder, and made threats against Micah. And as much as he had torn my heart up into little pieces and stamped on them, I loved Micah with all my heart and didn’t want anything to happen to him.
“I need to go and meet him…”
“No, Jewls…you’re best off…”
“If I don’t go…he’ll sense something is off. And he’ll take off and he’ll never pay. And I’ll never be free, neither.”
“You’re gonna be right in the middle of something very serious and very dangerous and that worries me, so much.”
I shrugged sadly. “It didn’t worry Micah.”
“Jewls…hang on a sec…” she went quiet, and then she was back. “Sorry, just checking they weren’t listening in. Okay so…go, but…we need to intervene here. I don’t want to lose another brother, any of them. I don’t want another one to end up dead, or…or in prison. This family has been through enough.”
I, of course, fully agreed with her on that one. I nodded to myself. “So…what do you suggest?”
Hesitation, and then. “I’m gonna tip the police off.”
“But that’ll get the boys in trouble.”
“Not if they get there before they can do anything to him. I need you to stall things, Jewls. Don’t let them do anything that could incriminate them. And Jewls?”
“Uh huh…” I managed to say, in a daze.
“For God’s sake, be careful.”
“Yeah. I’ll call you, as soon as I can, okay?”
“Okay…”
She hung up, and for a moment I just stood there. I glanced at the clock – ten-thirty – and sighed.
It was time to go.
~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~
Micah
We took Eli’s car, because it was dark and faster. Eli drove with Nic beside him in the passenger seat. I sat in the back with Luca and Kris. I don’t remember feeling any fear or any nerves at all. I just wanted to get there, and confront him, and make him pay by any means necessary for what he had done to my brother. That was all I could focus on.
When we arrived, Eli pulled up across the road and Kris and Luca immediately jumped out, running over to the pier and disappearing through the gates, as we had planned. Eli, Nic and I simply waited and watched.
Minutes later, Jewls arrived, looking around her nervously, but not seeing us from our slightly hidden position. Looking at her I had my first pang of regret. Getting her involved in this was quite possibly the dumbest thing I could have done. She looked broken, emotionally spent. She stood by the gates looking so lost and so alone, it hurt like hell to see her like this. I had often sworn to her I would always look after her. This wasn’t looking after her.
I groaned and Nic looked at me suddenly. He was clearly agitated, clearly wishing he could be anywhere else in the world.
“What, what is it?”
“Hold on a sec.” I took out my phone and wrote out a quick text. I knew it wasn’t part of the plan, but I was going on instinct.
Jewls. Go inside the gates. Ur not alone in there, it’s ok.
I sent it and moments later she checked her phone, looking around her suddenly, her eyes settling on us in the car.
“Damn it, Micah, that wasn’t the plan! If she gives away our position, he’ll realise something’s up and that’s that!” Eli snapped.
“He also has to go in there, Eli! And if she isn’t in there, he won’t will he? We need him cornered.”
“Yeah, but-!”
“Shush!” Nic interrupted, “Look!”
I looked to where he was pointing; a white car had pulled up. Seconds later a man climbed out and I got my first look at Andrew Dempsey. The man who had murdered my brother.
Rage filled me from deep within and I made to get out the car again, struggling with the handle with my stupid bandaged hands.
“Wait, Micah!” Eli hissed. “What until he’s in there. Better yet, why don’t you wait in the car? Let us handle it.”
“Fuck no…” I said, my voice filled with venom.
We watched as Dempsey looked around him, not seeing us, and then walked towards the gate to the pier. The minute he stepped inside, Nic nodded.
“Okay, let’s go.”
We got out of the car and marched across the road, side by side. I hoped and prayed that Luca and Kris were in a good position and that between us we could corner him and make this short and sweet.
As we walked through I became aware of something I hadn’t really considered before in this plan – there really wasn’t a lot of light, just moonlight really a
nd a vague reflection of the streetlights out by the road. It worked both for us and against us. He didn’t see us coming, but at the same time, we couldn’t see perfectly what we were doing.
“Jewls what’s your game? Time to go, wifey.” He said, and I heard Jewls say,
“I just wanted a last look at the sea.”
“Thought I’d come down and say goodbye.” I said, loud and confident.
Dempsey whirled around to the sound of my voice, looking me up and down and then Nic and Eli. He smirked at me and it made me want to throw up.
“Didn’t I murder you? Oh…no, no…my mistake.” Incredibly, he winked as though finding that deeply amusing. I lunged at him, only vaguely feeling Nic holding me back.
Dempsey took a step back, holding both hands up defensively.
“Whoa, steady there Micah. What exactly do you think you’re gonna achieve with those poorly hands of yours huh. You didn’t want her, she’s coming with me. So say your goodbyes and then walk away.”
I shook my head. “I’m not here to say goodbye to Jewls. I’m here to say goodbye to you. Because if you seriously think you’re leaving this pier alive? You are even more delusional than I thought you were.”
He scoffed at that, still completely unfazed by us being there. “Well…I’m not sure you can match your mouth with very much, with those…terrible injuries. So…two on one, you know what? I will take those odds.”
“Think you’ll find there’s five of us.” Kris said, and he and Luca stepped out from the shadows behind Andrew and Jewls.
Andrew turned in a full circle, observing us all as we began to close in on him, and smirked again. He glanced at Jewls, who was shuffling from foot to foot nervously, not looking anyone in the eye.
“You set me up, huh? You thought this would work.” He scoffed again and shook his head. “You stupid bitch.”
“Hey!” I snapped. “You don’t get to speak to her like that! Jewls…go to our car and wait there.”
She moved to do just that, when, incredibly, he grabbed her ponytail, pulling her back to him. She let out a yelp of obvious surprise and pain that made my chest constrict with anguish. “I will speak to her however I like. She’s my wife. Why do you care, you didn’t want her either. I’m taking my wife home, which is wherever I am. And you boys need to run along home. Because it would be awful if that went up in flames too.”
Gypsy Kiss: Book 1: Micah (The Gypsy Kiss Series) Page 38
