by AM Cosgrove
“Thank you, “ she mumbled, sinking into the thick pillows.
Jack sat there staring at her for a moment. “I’m sorry, Mirry.”
She smiled.
Jack looked perplexed. “Why are you smiling?”
“Because you’ve started calling me, Mirry. My grandmother called me that.” Her smile got even bigger. “Mom hated it, but I loved the way that it sounded.”
Jack laughed. “Is that all that it takes to make you smile then? Just calling you, Mirry?”
She nodded.
“If I had known that, I would have been doing it sooner and more often.”
She searched his face. She had no idea what had come over him or what had brought about the softness in him, but she wasn’t going to complain.
“I am truly sorry though, Mirabelle… Mirry, I should never have brought you into this life. You deserve so much better than the things that have happened to you in the last two days,” Jack started, looking down at his hands.
“Jack, it’s okay. I knew what I was getting into when I started spending time with you. I knew what your family was when you picked me up from the bar and I never looked back.”
“It’s not ok, Mirry, this is not how things are supposed to be. You are not supposed to be looking over your shoulder—not supposed to have to look in dark corners to see who is lurking. You are not supposed to be hurt in any way.”
She placed a hand on his arm. “I know that. This is not something that you or anyone could have expected.”
“No, it’s not.” He shook his head. “You know, it’s funny, I expected that a criminal would keep to the code.”
“It’s human nature to not always follow rules and the like.”
“You think that it is, huh? Well, no one’s family should be at risk. They didn’t always choose the lifestyle.”
Mirabelle smiled.
“What? You’re smiling again. What did I say this time?” The look of confusion was back again.
“You said, family.”
“Yes and?”
“That is the first time you have ever used that word with me. It’s usually reserved for others, like your brothers. Not for someone like me,” she said quietly, her eyes focused on the blanket covering her, studying the intricate pattern on it.
“It took me a while to figure it out, Mirabelle. And I’m so sorry that it did.” Jack sighed. “I’ve been so busy living the fast life that I never realized how much you mean to me.”
Mirabelle rubbed his arm.
“It wasn’t until I spent almost five years away from you, able to finally hold you in my arms again, and then to almost losing you for good, to make me realize how much I need you.”
Silence.
Mirabelle didn’t know what to say. How does one put into words all the years you had waited to hear those very words? How do you explain how much it hurt her to know that every night he was away and not in her bed, that he was out with another woman.?
“I love you,” the words slipped out before she could even think to stop them.
Jack looked up and their eyes locked. Love had never been something either of them talked about or thought of. But there they were, the world had exploded around them, and love was suddenly on the table.
Jack leaned across the bed, cupping his hands to her face, and kissed her. The roughness of his broken lips didn’t even matter, the heat from the kiss was more than any words could ever describe.
A gentle knock at the door broke them up and their eyes met. “Who is it?” Jack asked as he walked down the hallway.
Mirabelle could hear some muffled voices that got louder. She could make out Jack’s and somehow recognized the female’s voice, but it didn’t quite click in until Gloria, the nurse from the hospital, walked in with Jack following close behind. In her hands was a familiar Styrofoam container.
“I figured, after everything, you could use a wee bit of chicken noodle soup to set things right again.” She smiled and sat down next to her in the chair Jack had just vacated.
“Thank you.”
The older woman smiled at her. “Mr. Rann, do you think you could go and grab me a spoon?” Gloria shot a look at him, and Jack dutifully left the room.
Mirabelle had to laugh. Gloria had that no-nonsense way about her. You almost didn’t dare to argue.
“Well, Love, you alright?” she asked as soon as he was out of earshot.
Mirabelle nodded.
“Your boy caused quite a stir at the hospital, taking you out like that. No one has ever seen so much action in their whole lives,” she laughed. “Truth be told, I’m glad that he did. No way could they keep you safe there. There just ain’t enough coppers or security for someone who is determined enough.”
Gloria shook the container as if to mix it up. “Was quite romantic, really. If truth be told, it’s not something I would have expected from a member of the Rann family.”
“You know—” Mirabelle started before Gloria cut her off.
“Of course, I know, Dear. There aren’t many people who don’t know the Rann family and all their shenanigans over the years. Your boy seems to be a bit different from most of them. Seems to me, this little episode might have awoken a different sort of Rann.”
Jack walked back into the room then and Gloria winked at Mirabelle as if to say, we will continue this conversation later.
“Thank you, Mr. Rann,” she said, taking the spoon from Jack and opening the container.
“Gloria, I was wondering if—” Jack started.
“Yes. If you are asking if I would like to continue caring for your lovely leading lady here when I am not needed at the hospital, the answer is yes. Just go get yourself some big ole burly gents to watch the doors. She and I will be fine and dandy here.”
CHAPTER TEN
Jack
It didn’t take long for Jack to get the big burly types set into place. And when he had left Mirabelle and Gloria, they had been laughing about something or other over the last of the bowl of chicken soup.
He had been surprised when had answered the door and found the nurse from the hospital standing on his doorstep. He didn’t even question how she had found his place as he had no doubt it was listed as Mirabelle’s place of residence.
She didn’t seem even remotely upset at the day’s events or uncomfortable around him in the least bit. She had just gone right to work tending to Mirabelle. He had to give the older woman credit for a rock-solid constitution. Nothing it seemed would faze the woman. He on the other hand was about to set the city on fire to find the person responsible for hurting Mirabelle.
“John, it’s Jack. Give me a call back when you get this message,” he said when his brother’s cell phone went straight to voicemail. He got into his car and sat there a moment, trying to sort through his thoughts and find a suitable plan of attack.
As it would seem, the gentle inquisitive approach he had taken last night, had done nothing to further his cause, but rather served to give them time to continue the path that they were on. It was time to take a far less nice approach.
He pulled out of the garage and headed for the Iron Head. It was the home of the Adams family—one of the most powerful families in London. He had a sneaking suspicion that they were behind whatever mess this was. If they were, the real question he wanted answers for, was why? And questions he was going to ask. To whoever he found when he walked in the door. At worst his presence would get some attention—might be unwanted, but certainly something that would wake them up.
The pub was hopping when he walked in. A far cry from the places he had gone the night before, where most of the patrons were at the lowest level if they were on any level at all. The decor was considerably different from what he enjoyed. It had a post-modern flair to it, with a bit of the underground club scene. Bright lights flashed and danced on the open dan
ce floor in the center of the room. Tables and booths lined the area, and the bar was a giant square pinned to one side of the room.
“Can I help you?” The young beefy bartender squinted at him as if trying to figure out where he knew Jack from.
Jack smiled. “Double shot of Jack Daniels please.”
The bartender nodded and went to make the drink.
“I was wondering if Ethan was around?” he asked when he was handed his drink a moment later.
“No, Mr. Adams is not in this evening,” the bartender’s eyes showed a momentary hesitation before he answered.
Ethan was in fact in this evening.
Jack tossed back the alcohol. Good.
“Well can you pass on a message to him for me? Tell him, Jack Rann is interested in speaking with him.”
He said as he placed a few crumpled bills on the counter before getting up to leave.
“I will do that, Mr. Rann.” The bartender nodded pulling the bills to his side and counting them up.
As Jack walked back to the door of the bar, he looked up at the upper floor where Ethan’s office and the VIP area was. Standing at the railing was none other than Ethan Adams, glaring at him.
He had done what he had set out to do. He had gotten the attention he needed. It would be only a matter of time before they would reach out to him or to John, and then they would have some answers.
Jack’s cellphone rang the second he stepped out of the bar.
“Hey, John.”
“Where are you? And why did you order some of our security to your flat?”
“About that… I brought Mirabelle home from the hospital today. Some shit tried to attack her.”
“Interesting.” John’s voice was quiet.
“Yeah, I’ll say. Something about all of this is not quite adding up.”
“No, it’s adding up alright, but just not in your favor.”
“John, can we not start this shit again. You and I both know this isn’t about me at all.”
“No, Jack, you wish it wasn’t about you, but nothing about any of this, points in any other direction except directly towards you.”
“Well, I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” Jack snarled into the phone, clenching it tightly.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“I just left the Iron Head. Mr. Ethan Adams didn’t seem overly thrilled—”
“You did what?” John roared, forcing Jack to pull the phone away from his ear.
“I went to the Iron Head to have a talk with–”
“I don’t care what your fucking excuse is, Jack, you don’t fucking go waltzing into places like that for anything—”
“John, stop. Just shut the fucking hell up already. It’s clear that you don’t want to deal with any of this. I, on the other hand, do not want to keep having to look over my fucking shoulder, and I certainly do not want Mirabelle caught up in the middle of this shit.” Jack was almost screaming by the time he had to take a breath. “So, I am going to do whatever the fuck it takes to find an end to it all, so I can go about my fucking life. You don’t want any part of it, fine, I get it, but I can’t just let it go because it isn’t fixing the situation none.”
“Whatever, Jack, but if this blows back on me or your brother, it’s over for you.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“No, I am just doing what I have to do to make sure this family survives… unlike you.”
Jack roared out of the parking lot, nearly hitting a car in the road. The other driver honked his horn loudly and Jack flipped him the bird. He was furious. The more the hours ticked by, the more and more John seemed to want to try to distance himself from the situation. There was nothing that Jack could say or do that would sway his brother into believing that this had nothing to do with anything that Jack had done at all. He was going to have to prove to his brother what he knew in his heart to be true.
Jack mulled around town, making waves in every bar and pub connected with any of the families. Some people he met were sympathetic to his cause but didn’t want to get involved in his quest for fear of backlash from an unknown source.
Some, however, had offered up extra protection for Mirabelle while he was out running the roads.
He was just getting back into his car from one of those such meetings when he heard his name being called.
Jack turned around to find a group of men standing at the far end of the garage. He hadn’t noticed them when he had stepped outside.
“What can I do for you?” He stepped away from his car and out into the middle of the laneway.
“We all was wondering what you were doing out tonight?” the shortest one said, looking around at his friends.
Why was it always the shortest one, who had the biggest mouth?
“Having some discussions with some friends. What’s it to you?” Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone as if to glance at it nonchalantly.
He dialed Williams’s number and left it on speaker before dropping it back into his pocket. At the very least, if the next few minutes went sideways, William would know what had happened.
“Your conversations with your friends, as you call them, have upset friends of ours, and we would like to have a discussion about that with you.” The group started to make their way closer to Jack.
“Yeah, well, maybe I don’t want to talk to you, but maybe I need to talk to whoever your friends are,” Jack quickly counted seven in total. This was not going to be a fair fight.
“Maybe they don’t want to talk to you, Jacky boy. Maybe they just want you to shut up and stop asking questions where you don’t belong,” another piped up.
“Maybe, I don’t like being called Jacky Boy.”
“Maybe we don’t give a shit, what you want.”
The group had fanned out, blocking off any real chance of escape he had, inching closer with every step.
“Aren’t you the nice one of the bunch. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”
“Who said we were nice?” The first one lunged at him, the piece of pipe coming out of nowhere and narrowly missing him, as he danced out of the way.
The next one threw a fist in his direction and caught just the bottom edge of his jaw. Sending him spinning around. He saw stars even before the kick to his ribs came and knocked the breath out of him. He fell to his knees gasping, trying to shake the darkness from his head that threatened to drown him.
Boots flew in all directions, most of them finding their mark as he was kicked around in a circle before they suddenly stopped. Jack braced himself for the next blow to come, but instead of another blow, someone’s voice spoke up.
“That’s quite enough. I don’t think our friend here has any sort of fight left in him, despite what he thinks he has.” The circle parted and Jack found himself staring up into the face of Ethan Adams.
“Ethan, you prick,” he gasped trying to draw air into his lungs.
“Now, now, is that any way to speak to a friend of your family?”
Another kick came to his ribs, and he fell to the ground. “What do you want?” Jack groaned.
“Truthfully? Nothing from you, but see, your family… that’s another thing entirely.” Ethan smirked and walked around Jack who was struggling to get to his knees.
“What does my family have anything to do with this?”
“Oh, they have lots to do with everything, Jacky boy. See John has become far too ambitious with his goals and has been stepping on too many of my toes. It’s time that he understands how weak and vulnerable his family truly is.”
Jack said nothing but looked up into Ethan’s pair of cold grey eyes.
“You are just the first step. Once you are out of the picture, William won’t take long for me to finish off. and in reality, once John finds himself all alone, he won�
�t present much of a challenge for me.”
“You set me up.”
“You were the easiest one. The weak link. You made yourself the black sheep of the family all on your own. I didn’t have to do much but toss a beautiful woman and a dumbass boy in front of you, and you just took care of the rest. Worked out quite well actually, if truth be told. Now all I have to do is sit back and wait for your brother to kick you and your whore completely out of the fold, and there will be one less problem for me to worry about.”
“You’re insane,” he spat.
“No, you are, my dear Jacky boy. You and your whole family are for thinking that somehow you would be able to last in a world with the Adams family.”
“Our family has been around for over a hundred years and survived much better than you.” Jack tried to get to his feet, but his legs were kicked out of him.
“I am sorry to say your family’s time has come to an end. It was only a matter of time before it happened,” Ethan laughed. “You be a good boy now and stay away from my bar and my people. Do that, and I might just leave your whore alone and let you have her. Come near us again, and I will make sure that you pay the ultimate price.”
Jack was about to say something, but he didn’t get a chance before something hit him in the head and his world sank into darkness.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Jack
“Jack?” The voice echoed around his head. “Jack!” The darkness started to creep from his vision as he opened his eyes. He could barely make out a figure trying to sit him up.
“What the fuck happened to you?” his brother Will’s voice cut through the last of the fog.
“Ethan Adams,” Jack said, straightening himself up and rubbing the back of his head. His hand came away wet and sticky. He didn’t have to look to know it was covered in blood.
