Chapter 7
Head of the Irish Mob
"So let me get this all straight. You're hiding me from the cops, you love the person I am right now, and we are not having sex because you hate the person I can't remember I am. Is that about right?"
Seamus looked up from his book. Helen was standing in the doorway to the living room wearing the same clothes she had been wearing when he left her at 5 am in his room. He had decided to go through his exercise routine and after finishing his run he had come back to the house to continue his book. This peace and quiet had lasted till noon when Helen finally woke.
"Sure sounds about right." Seamus turned his attention back to his book with an exaggerated eye roll.
'Except for the part that I'm trying to decide wither or not to kill you…that was a very good summary of where we're at.'
"Oh," Helen flopped onto the couch across from him with a sigh, "And we're sure about the sex thing right?" Seamus gave her a dark look over the top of his book.
"Yes, very sure." Seamus returned to ignoring her hoping that she would get the hint and leave. Take a shower, make a sandwich, plan her escape to Mongolia he didn't really care as long as she left him be.
She instead turned the TV on at a nearly unbearable level of volume and started watching the game network.
He looked at the TV with seething hatred. It was the vintage game show portion of the channel which hosted the Newlywed Game, the Pyramid Game, and some other God forsaken game where stars wrote down answers to finish a phrase and the contestant had to match their answer to the most stars. He hated this network; it had been on all the time during his stint in the prison. He could hear it day in and day out from the guard station down the hall.
"Could you change the channel?" Helen looked over at him.
"Why? I like this." She went back to watching the show. Seamus tried to read his book and block it out. But unlike in the prison the volume was much higher here. He slapped the book down on his thigh and glared at her.
"Would you mind ever so much and turn it down?" Helen narrowed her eyes at him.
"If it bothers you so much leave." Seamus cracked his neck by rotating it from side to side trying to reign himself in before he lost his temper.
"I was here first." Helen sat up on the couch and was now glaring at him much as he was glaring at her.
"This is the only room with a TV. Books can go anywhere." Seamus lunged for the remote on the coffee table but Helen snapped it but first shielding it with her body. Seamus stood up with his hand extended out to her.
"Give me the remote." He demanded. She shook her head no. "Give me the damn remote Helen! I'm getting sick and tired of the shit!"
"Well so am I!" Helen was on her feet and less than a foot away from him anger pouring off of her like waves. "I'm tired of knowing that the man I love loves me and isn't going to do anything about it!"
"You think you know me Helen? You don't. I'm not the same and neither are you." Helen threw up her hands in exacerbation.
"I am the same! That's why this doesn't make sense!"
"One more day Helen! Your memories are one more day away from being the heartless BITCH that ruined my life!"His body was strung so tight it was all he could do not to kill her right then and here.
"Tell me what I did! Tell me what was so horrible that you can't forgive me after eight years!"
"YOU PUT ME IN PRISON HELEN!"All the anger seemed to run out of Helen all at once as she stared at him in confusion.
He suddenly realized how close they had been standing and took a few steps back till the armchair he had been sitting in stood between them. He wasn't looking at her anymore. He didn't want to see it again. The realization of what kind of man he was, the slow fade of any remaining love she had for him. It had taken him years to push past it and he couldn't bear to see it again.
"I…I killed a man. You watched me do it…but you never asked why I did it. And the next thing I know you're testifying against me in court. And then…and then I was in prison. For eight years that's where I was, and you were…everywhere else." He stopped talking and felt the silence grow thick around him. His heart was pounding about his breathing was slow and painful steady.
'What am I doing? I didn't want this. I wanted her to remember so I would NEVER have to see that look again. What do I do now? She's going to try to run, she's going to try to go to the cops. Do I kill her now? Or do I tie her up and wait for Dylan to surface? What the FUCK am I goin-'
"Was it Connor?"
Seamus snapped his head to the side to look over his shoulder. Helen was here, having moved more silently then he could have thought possible, at his side looking more concerned than he could remember ever seeing her.
"What?" He breathed. Not sure if he was hearing her anymore or just imaging all this. She rested her hand on his shoulder.
"If it was Connor, you can tell me." As he stared into her deep concerned eyes he was brought back, back to one week earlier when he had just gotten out of prison.
The car had just pulled up to his family house and he was staring at it through the window. It looked the same except for the color of the drapes in the windows and the growth of the landscaping had made during his eight year absence.
"He's in there." It wasn't really a question but his female companion seemed to take it that way.
"He's on the phone with one of my associates right now as a matter of fact. He still thinks he's in control of this bargain and is trying to renegotiate the terms. That's why I needed you. The only terms you have I am more than happy to oblige." There was that same faint smile again. Seamus didn't care for it. It hid what she was really thinking and it kind of made her look a little deranged now that he had spent so much time with her.
She picked up a box that had been sitting next to her throughout the drive. Seamus cocked his head to the side and watched her hold it out to him, the lid still closed.
"I thought a little poetic justice was in order." She opened the box to reveal a single heavy gauge hand gun with a slight nick in the handle. Seamus looked at her in surprise. She smiled once again. "I have an in with law enforcement."
He picked up the gun and he felt that righteous anger flow through him. It filled him up until he felt that the only things in this world were the gun and those who had wronged him. He looked at her with suspicion in his eyes.
"The records have been changed. No one will ever link that gun to you ever again." Seamus wasn't entirely sure he believed her but the thought of kill Him with this gun…it was too much to ignore.
Without another word he got out of the car tucking the gun in the back of his jeans as was his custom. The car pulled away from the drive but he was already up the stairs and was focused on his task. He was just about to try the door when it opened inwards on its own. Seamus stopped dead and tensed for his gun before he realized who it was.
Before him stood a very pretty and refined woman with very properly braided red hair. She wore large sunglasses and a casual tan suit which set off her red lipstick even more than it should have. She looked stunned. On either side of her stood two beautiful girls with matching black curly hair; probably six and four years old. The younger of the two had her hair cut short like a pixie while the other wore it long and wavy. Besides the hair color they looked just like their mother. Seamus smiled and bent low so that he was on eye level with the girls.
"Well now…what are your names then?" Both of the girls looked up at their mother. She nodded in answer but her eyes were locked on Seamus.
"Anne Marie and this is Charlotte. But everyone calls her Lottie." The tallest one spoke but the small one nodded enthusiastically. Seamus smiled bigger rising to his feet.
"Well isn't that a sight." He mused.
"What are you doing here Seamus? How did you get out?" His eyes rose to meet hers. Without saying a word he reached out and slowly pulled her sunglasses off. She ducked her head away but he waited. After a few minutes she took a deep breath through her nose and looked at him.
Her makeup was impeccable. Eye liner, mascara, foundation, eye shadow, and probably many other things Seamus hadn't even heard of came together in such a flawless arrangement even he could tell she had a practiced hand at it. If it hadn't been so perfect Seamus probably would have missed the swelling growing underneath her left cheekbone where the make-up had been removed by someone's fist.
"Sherry." He said softly. "I came here to keep a promise."
"We were just going out for ice cream." She suddenly said quiet cheerfully. She took her glasses back and slipped them back into place. Seamus looked at her calmly letting her do so.
"Be careful not to rush. I would hate for some traffic came to catch you talking to one of the family some miles from here." He stared very solemnly at her as he said so. She nodded.
"Come along children Daddy needs to meet with his old friend." Seamus grabbed her arm as she walked past.
"I'm so sorry I left." She looked at him with a grim set to her lips.
"It's was never your fault Seamus. I never blamed you for going away. I only ever blamed her." Seamus watched as she walked down the stairs toward her car which was parked slightly down the drive. She paused to look back at him and smiled before getting in. He didn't smile back.
He entered through the open door and closed it quietly behind him. The inside of the house was far different and he took the time to note every change he could see. This was no longer his home anymore and it was like air fueling the fire. His eyes drifted down the hall to the door of his father's den. If Seamus was a betting man, which he was, he'd bet his life that that was where He would put his office too.
Seamus kicked the door in.
Connor was standing by the far wall behind his desk with a phone pressed to his ear. He had apparently been looking at the door before Seamus kicked it in because it seemed rooted to the spot. His hair was still very short and he looked trim; fit even. The biggest change was the suit. It was an expensive three piece suit with tiny pin striping that Seamus had a hard time picking out. The tie was silk, cufflinks platinum, and every stitch of time was in its perfect place. He looked like a gentleman, until you looked into his eyes.
There was the thug. The smart, calculating, and brutal cousin that Seamus had once called his best mate. They had grown up together nearly all their lives and Seamus was a little surprised it took this long for things to go so bad.
"Seamus. You're out." Connor gave him a tentative smile. Seamus ignored him, his eyes gazing about the room. He decided it looked cheap. Like someone tried too hard to be both refined and intimidating at the same time. Seamus looked back to Connor and noticed that he had moved closer to the desk. "How did that happen?"
"I've been wondering that myself Connor." Seamus idly ran his fingers over the leather bound book decorating the built in shelves. All of their spines were intact, never cracked open. Seamus stopped when he was about five feet away from Connor.
"I've been wondering how it is I went to jail in the first place." For the first time he saw a flicker of fear pass through Connor's eyes. But then it was gone. Seamus continued. "I mean they couldn't have put me away on just the testimony of one person. Especially not if that person was my girlfriend."
Seamus was smiling now as if he was enjoying a long standing joke between them. He even laughed.
"I mean think about it. All we would have had to say was she found out I was cheating on her, knew about the bad blood between me and Jimmy DelAngo, and made up some story that I was the one that killed him. Simple. We could have even got me a fake alibi from some bird I was supposedly with. But you know why we couldn't do that?"
Connor shook his head.
"Because someone told them where to find the gun." Seamus pulled the gun out of his waist band and pointed it at Connor in one fluid motion. "THIS gun."
"Seamus what are you doing?" Connor held both his hands out away from his sides, the phone now forgotten on the floor. Seamus' brow furrowed as he pretended to think about what Connor had asked.
"Hhmm. What am I doing?"Seamus took a few steps closer to him while he 'thought' that over. "Well I could be killing the son of a bitch that put me in prison. Or one could say I'm 'rubbing out' the power hungry twit that stole my father's business." He paused. During his pause he backed Connor into the wall of untouched books. Much like a man before a firing squad.
"That's all you ever really were, isn't it? The second son of the second man in line to run this business. I always thought we were a family first. But that's not how you saw right? You were just waiting. Following my orders but all the same waiting. Waiting for your chance to take me down." Connor stared wordlessly at the gun.
"But that's not why I'm going to kill you Connor."Seamus placed the gun under Connor's chin but waited for him to look him in the eye.
"Why then?" He asked. Seamus leaned in close.
"Because I told you that if you ever touched Sherry again I'd kill you. And you didn't listen to me."
Seamus pulled the trigger and splattered the wall of books behind with blood and other squishy bits he couldn't easily identify. Connor, missing a large portion of the top of his head, dropped to the floor at Seamus' feet. Seamus could almost swear that he heard Connor's last breath leave his lungs, but he wasn't sure. To be safe he emptied the clip into cousin just to be sure.
Then he was back. Back in the room with Helen. The next person he was supposed to kill. But he hadn't and she was looking at him. And for the first time he realized that he had told her he had killed someone and she was still looking at him as if she still loved him.
"Yes," He said. "I killed Connor."
Helen wrapped her arms around him pulling him in close. He was so stunned he let her. His face was buried in her hair. He felt his eyes close as he took a deep breath. He could almost imagine this was how she reacted on the night he killed Jimmy. That the past eight years had never happened. That they had never been apart.
'What the bloody hell is happening right now? Why couldn't I just kill her? Why did all this touchy feely shit have to happen?'
He grabbed her shoulders to pull her off of him. She looked at him with such a sad expression on her face he almost pulled her back. She wiped something off his face which made him duck his head away from her touch. He touched his face only to find it wet. She must have whipped a tear off his face.
'What the fuck! What the fuck is going on with me?'
"I'm going into town for lunch. Did you want anything?" He walked was quickly as he could for the door.
"Um, a Philly Cheese Steak?" He could tell she was really confused. He stopped in the open doorway.
"Don't go anywhere ok?" Helen looked around her.
"Where the hell am I going to go? My murder ex-boyfriend has me isolated in the middle of nowhere."
"Right." He agreed. He picked up the phone from its cradle and put it in his pocket. "I'll just keep this till we can talk more."
(AN: Again I am very sorry for the long delays in my updating. But I have a new chapter for both stories! I'm trying!)
