12
Three Days Later
Jack had his hand firmly planted on the steering wheel, his eyes set on the road, and in the back, he had a fully loaded gang consisting of Shaundi, Viola, and Oleg in the flat bed.
To his right, was Pierce, his hand over his gun and a smile on his face.
"Man, does it feel good to be back in action."
"Angel's meeting up with us at the gym, right Kinzie?" Jack asked for quick clarification to ensure he wasn't making a wrong turn when he get off the highway.
"Three Count, yeah." She answered back over the blue tooth in the car.
"Right then, thanks."
'Call ended.' The system announced as he pressed the end button on the wheel.
Making his way down the road, he watched carefully as he passed each pedestrian.
"I can't believe Killbane would be ballsy enough to show his face around here again."Viola sighed, apparently unnerved by it all, but internally, every piece of her wanted to watch Killbane suffer. She wanted to be the one to make him suffer.
"He figures a new mask is enough to fool us." Jack said back monotonously, not giving much to the conversation, even though he wanted to. He wanted the form of distraction, but every day, it was getting harder.
It was like everyone else let it roll off their backs, probably because they'd tried so hard to forget, but no matter how hard he tried, nothing could bring him out of the memories. From seeing flashes of terrorists rising above him like phantoms in the night when he was trying to sleep, from hearing words belonging to a dead man whispered in his ears.
"Not much has changed, I guess." Shaundi replied flippantly, "He still thinks he can escape us, and we're still in the loop."
"Like a dog running from the catcher." Pierce smirked.
"Angel's gonna want to be the one to kill him…" Viola murmured, and if you listened hard enough, there was just the slightest bit of dejection in that smokey eyed look.
"That bother you? I know that Killbane was the one who-…." Pierce trailed off into a steady silence and Viola looked at the headrest.
"As long as he suffers, I don't care."
"Cold, girl." Pierce answered with a smile, Viola didn't answer.
Jack was unconsciously driving, his mind drifting back to a month ago when Jane Valder-whatever had asked him something that he'd never been able to get out of his head- did the US military ever even look for them? Ever even try?
If they'd proposed they'd go themselves, he wouldn't of been surprised if they happened to be kidnapped and the military smiled and sat back, clinking glasses with the rest of the big wigs, enjoying the unforeseen luck. But when they had pushed them, the saints, to go. Had urged them. Had waved freedom in their faces for every crime they'd ever been confirmed of committing, and then they just-so-happened to be kidnapped-…didn't it bother anyone else?
Didn't anyone else see the possibilities there were?
He tried to push the thoughts away. They were safe now, who cared? But damn it, he cared. Someone fucked with his team, with his family, with him.
And thought they could get away with it as easy as that.
And who says they won't try again, but in the middle of the night with guns to their heads?
The thought of Shaundi or Pierce, Viola or Kinzie, Oleg or anyone wearing purple being shot in the head, made his breathing jump just a little faster.
"Boss, watch out!"
Two hands clung to the steering wheel, swerving it to the right, and Jack's eyes widened in shock as he looked over to Pierce who was now staring back at him. When he looked out the windshield, he saw they were now parked, one tire on the sidewalk and civilians screaming or staring in fear.
Jack turned back to Pierce, his mouth open, but no words coming out. He turned away, looking back at the steering wheel, putting two fingers to the bridge of his nose.
"What the hell, man? Trying to get us killed or what?"
Jack shook his head, "Fuck, you drive then."
"Man, you started driving in the wrong lane."
"I do that all the time."
"Yeah. When there isn't head-on traffic coming at us!"
Jack looked back up, his eyes shard as razor blades cutting into Pierce's concerned but forceful glare.
"I was gonna swerve!"
"Says the headlights staring into my eyes."
Jack, defeated let out few grumbled and angry words, before pulling the keys out of the ignition.
The car begun to tremor and Pierce turned around to see Oleg staring in through the back glass curiously.
Shaundi looked back to Oleg at the same time and her eyes met his, and he turned to look at Jack again.
The conversation they'd had all together as a group a week ago, excluding Jack, begun to float back into her mind, haunting her memories and her heart dropped into her stomach.
One Week Ago
"What's this about, Oleg, I have a board meeting to attend to about canceling the Saints Flow line."
"What?" Pierce yelled, "You kidding me? When was I gonna find out about this?"
"After I cancelled the line."
"Saints Flow is our number one product!"
"It's the worst selling product. Did you read the graphs wrong…again?"
"It's picked up since last month."
"It's gone down since last month."
Pierce reduced himself to a silent lump on the couch, folding his arms and glaring across the living room in no particular direction, "Then what hell am I gonna be the face of if we don't got Saints Flow?"
"You'll figure it out." Oleg interjected, "This is important, friends."
Kinzie typed away on her keyboard hurriedly, any interaction with Oleg was still somewhat awkward after the moment they'd shared in the desert, her feelings towards him were hazy and confused. Many nights she'd think of him or dream about him, but the thoughts and dreams varied between good endings and bad endings.
In some, she found herself married to him or making love, and other times, she found herself beneath his fist or crushed in a palm, sometimes the product of tragic scientific experiment.
She looked up over her glasses and then back down to her screen.
At least there were others.
"This was the only time I could find that our boss was not going to be home."
"Oh, yeah…where'd he go, anyway?" Pierce asked, looking around just to make sure he wasn't lurking behind any corner, "You're sure he's gone if we gonna be talking about him?"
"I am sure. He is currently busy with trying to find nonexistent morning star ravaging one of his stores." Oleg smiled, somewhat deviously, and brought his mouth back to a flat line.
"This is serious then." Shaundi murmured, "I think I know…what you're wanting to say…"
"Then it is not only me who has noticed the change."
"Change? Change in what?"
"Since we came back, Pierce. When was the last time you saw him smile at a threat? Or…or look anything but pale and fucked up?" Shaundi shot back quickly, offended that he hadn't noticed the changes in not only their boss, but their best friend.
"You haven't missed anything." Oleg nodded, "I believe…he may be taking, if not absuing, illegally bought drugs. Xanax maybe."
"Oh…" Pierce shook his head with a smile, "You guys are serious?" He gave out a laugh, "C'mon, our boss, our boy, Jack, man, he's too strong for that shit. So a couple terrorists knocked him around the block? He's got his shit under control."
"You can't just live in denial." Shaundi shot back, "Pierce, if Jack…if he's having a problem…"
"Keep in mind that he did not ever tell us what happened in Afghanistan. He changes the subject every time I've tried to provoke it from him."
"So, what, you think that it's time for intervention?" Kinzie asked now, "I don't think the boss will take to that. I mean, c'mon, he's just gonna yell about how he's fine and to, 'mind yer' own bloody business!' Then he'll go on a sociopathic rage on the morningstar."
"Girls right." Pierce nodded quickly, "Look, thing is, the boss wouldn't appreciate any sympathy or help or any shit like that and you know it. He's a loner when it comes to shit like that. I mean, how long did it take to learn he was from Australia? Really? We all could hear the accent, but he wouldn't even own up to it for a year! Then his name, holy shit, you'd think he was in the witness protection program or some shit!"
"But it's our job, no matter how hard it is, to protect the boss. Right? If we have to protect him from himself then that's what we have to do." Viola reasoned, crossing her legs.
"Remember Johnny, Pierce…? I don't want Jack to…." Shaundi whispered, her voice cracking towards the end as she shook her head.
Pierce's eyes softened, looking down to the floor, his voice dropping considerably lower, "If we notice anything…anything weird from here on out…we'll ask him about Afghanistan."
Viola looked to Shaundi.
Shaundi looked to Pierce.
Pierce looked to Jack who was holding the keys in a tight grip. Pierce looked at his eyes, the red rims almost engulfed by the black encircling them just before piercing blue eyes met his brown ones.
"What?" Jack snapped.
"What happened, Jack?"
"I don't fucking know. You drive on the wrong side of the road any way. Notice how America's practically the only place where you drive on the right? Fuck this place."
"No, I meant in Afghanistan"
The word brought needles to Jack's spine and he stiffened, his hand tightening around his grip on the keys, the silence encased all of them, waiting for Jack to say something. Anything.
He didn't.
"We're worried about you man."
"Nothing happened."
"Nothing? Nothing, when you were thrown into our cell bleeding everywhere and half alive." Shaundi interjected quickly, sitting up a little straighter.
"They got a few punches in. But they tied me up to a chair. What do you expect?"
"How about the burns and cuts around your wrists? Those were from tying you to a chair? You expect us to believe that?" Viola butt in quickly, providing the reasonable and researched side of the argument.
"Yeah, I do, when you're tied up and feeling pretty hopeless, you tend to try and fucking escape."
"No, man…" Pierce whispered, shaking his head, "Listen, when you were thrown in our cell, you were barely there. You didn't know what was going on. You didn't have a plan. You were ready to just give up. The Jack I know…knew wouldn't give up…So I'm gonna ask you again, what they did to you."
"Nothing."
"Boss…." Shaundi started, "No one's trying to attack you or anything. We just…" She blinked, and expected Jack to yell something in the pause, but he didn't. "…we just care, Boss. Maybe you've never had someone care before, but we do. I know when I first joined, when we all first joined, I don't think we had many experiences of people actually caring but, we do. I was too late to save Johnny, but I'm not too late to save you."
"That's what you think you need to do? Save me?"
Jack scoffed, shaking his head, "Fuck off, all of you." Shaundi's eyes widened, "Nothing happened. I got punched, I got kicked, I got threatened, I was blindfolded. Pretty stereotypical terrorist kidnapping experience. Nothing special. Maybe the shitty water got to my head, but other than that? Nothing happened."
There was a stretching silence that seemed to go on forever, and Jack gave a shaky breath, "Maybe I…"
They waited with bated breath.
"…maybe I haven't completely gotten over it." Jack offered softly, hoping that if he offered this much of an excuse, they'd forget about ever asking him about it again, "It was the first time I ever felt…uh…" He stuttered awkwardly at the thought of sharing emotions, "….helpless, I guess. I just don't ever want to…"
There was quiet again and Jack just wished someone would say something, "…I don't want to feel like I can't defend myself. I've always been able to defend myself, I mean even when I-…." He stopped himself, clearing his throat, shaking his head.
Had he really been about to so easily expel his childhood memories?
Had he really just about to relent a piece of his past, something he'd kept so well-protected?
"That's what's getting to me. I guess, I mean." Jack finished, pushing the keys back into the ignition and starting the car up again.
They offered a few words, each of them, about how that wouldn't ever happen again. He was always prepared. They were always prepared, ready to defend him.
But they'd thought that before too.
And no one knew, that as they drove down the street towards the Friendly Fire, he wasn't scared about feeling helpless. That was only a part of the equation. What really drove him off onto the edge, was that in every face, he could see Jayif, staring back at him with a crooked smile and ropes.
'I like you best.'
There was a moment of hopelessness in Jack's heart that he quickly flicked away with manipulated emotions of indifference. He wondered, who had raised this false alarm?
"Who the fuck lied?" Pierce asked flatly with unamused eyes watching Jack as he reached for his phone.
"I dunno, but I'm gonna find out." He replied, his voice gravel at this point as he slapped Kinzie's face on the screen of his contacts list.
She came on with shaky breath, "I don't understand. This was supposed to be a reliable source, Boss."
"Well, he's not here. So what am I supposed to make of that, Kinzie?"
"Uh….that someone is seriously hacking our database?"
"Hacking our…since when has anyone been able to hack our fucking databases?"
"Well." She sighed out, "If you want me to actually answer that questions, assuming it's not rhetorical, the last time someone hacked into our system was just after Mat Miller and his amateur hour, which makes it STAG. Typical U.S Government playing God."
"Governm-" Jack's breath escaped his lungs before he could end the sentence, and Jane Valderamma's question floated around in his head again from the moment he'd landed all those many days ago. Did they ever even look for them?
"Yeah, Government. I doubt that they'd have any benefit this time though, so we-"
Jack pulled the phone from his ear, eyes wide as he looked out the door and towards the car parked up beside the curb. He threw a hand towards it and yelled, "Go! Everyone, in the car, now!"
"Wh-?"
"It's a trap! Car! Now!"
Pierce slid into passenger seat, and everyone followed. Piling into the car in a quick jolt of confusion. Jack, with the butt of the pistol in hand, smashed the top glass of the gun case, grabbing the biggest, shiniest, SMG out of the many selections. His method never failed him before, it was customary that men's play things were bigger and shinier, if better.
He then dashed out the door, into the afternoon light that was beginning to grey behind dark storm clouds, and pushed himself behind the wheel once more, throwing the SMG into Pierce's lap who quickly took it and aimed it out the window in precaution.
"Whose trying to fuck with us now, Boss? Morningstar rising up again? Got a new leader? We'll take that bi-"
"Government."
"Government…? What the hell do they want? We bagged their terrorists!"
"Don't you fucking get it, Pierce?" Jack screamed, slamming his foot onto the gas as the tires squealed in response, the car going into full force as everyone's heads slammed against the headrests behind them.
The car went silent, shocked and in surprise as Jack's breath turned heavy and labored as he made a sharp U-turn and returned down the road he'd come from. When his voice came back, it came back in tremors.
"Those terrorists didn't kidnap us because of coincidence. They didn't just so happen to know we were coming for them! Why do you think they slapped a rank on me like Captain and throw me and my people into that mission without any of their own soldiers too? Why was it so top secret, hush hush? Why? Because the government was in bed with them, Pierce, God damn it, and even Fahla didn't know! The love of christ…"
After a minute of silence, Jack shook his head, "Fahla's brother was kidnapped by the US for answers and Fahla was searching for a Captain to kidnap for answers to his brother's location. Only Captain's were told where Fahla's brother was being kept and Fahla knew that. Prolly from kidnapping a couple dozen everyday soldiers before us. So the US plants me there with my best, my lieutenants, knowing we don't know the answers. Knowing we would die there!"
"No way…" Pierce whispered, shaking his head, eyes in pain and mouth pulling down into a frown.
"It doesn't seem far-fetched to me…" Angel commented dryly, "…a sworn enemy will do anything for vengeance…"
Gun shots rang through the silence and Pierce looked up into the rear-view mirror to see black cars with a impenetrable tint-jobs on their tail.
"Believe me now, mate? They hacked our system. Gave us false intel about Killbane."
"Those assholes." Angel shook his head, listening to the rhythm of Oleg's shot gun shooting in four second intervals, listening to Pierce's SMG firing at a rapid and steady purr, and his eyes turned to the headrest of the leader of the saints.
He wondered if it'd be too much to ask him to go hunting for Killbane with him many a nights, before the kidnapping incident, he'd been about to ask him. He should've asked him.
Now, he'd feel guilty if he took that step. It'd been so long, it felt like, since that ordeal had happened, but there were two things keeping him back. For one, he remembered when he'd felt that horrifying cowardice the moment Killbane de-masked him. Five years seemed like a week ago every time he stepped outside the rust of his gym. The humiliation creeped back and turned his body back around into the gym. He'd call someone to pick up groceries from him, just like every week. He couldn't face it…not yet.
Second, Angel wasn't convinced he was recovering. At least in the weeks following his humiliating defeat, he trained relentlessly, attempting to fill the hole in his heart and worked toward a goal. It seemed, to him, Jack wasn't really working towards anything. He was emotionless in the few encounters he'd had since the incident, every time he saw him the dark bags beneath his eyes were becoming darker, re-rings were forming just above the black and his pupils dilated randomly.
His mouth was always a flat-line, and he begun to wonder if it represented his heart rate. He used to be smiling devilishly, going on about his next big plan for the saints, laughing maniacally everytime he came face to face with a bigger, better gun.
Pierce noticed this same transition, weeks ago, and fear crept in his heart when he realized these were the same changes he'd seen in Shaundi when…
Angel couldn't make the same link and dropped the subject from his mind at the moment, it wasn't really his business anyway. Jack Taylor was a business connection and a reliable man, but not exactly a friend. Even though, if Jack Taylor wasn't so reclusive in his personal life and raw emotion, he would've at least asked how he was holding up.
But no, Jack Taylor would probably just shake his hand at him and frown at such a question. Tell him he was fine and to bug off.
So for now, Angel De La Muerte watched as Jack checked again into the rear-view mirror, and seeing only one car had successfully been blown up, snatched the SMG from Pierce's hands and pulled his arm towards the steering wheel with a heated look.
"Well…fuck I'm sorry!" Pierce yelled, taking the wheel with one hand, leaning over and putting his other hand on Jack's lower back to steady him.
Pierce instantly realized that for one, he'd never touched his boss in such a way. Like a real brother, that knew he had good intentions. Jack flinched slightly, but didn't protest against the help. The car was shaking and he knew that if Pierce wasn't there to steady him, he probably would've fallen backwards.
In fact, he would've thanked him if not for the situation and if not for the voices screaming in his head, 'I like you best…I like you best…I like you best…'
Something internally wanted to smack Pierce's hand away and cry, something internally wanted to strangle him. Another part of him was attempting to calm his other half, remind him this was Pierce not Jayif. This was Pierce who was his brother, not some sick whack-job. This was Pierce the best friend he'd entrust his life to. He wasn't touching him like….that…He was just preventing him from falling out of the damn car.
What the fuck was wrong with him?
Jack brought his upper-half out of the car, Pierce's hand grabbed his belt instinctively as they rounded a corner, holding onto him tight, anchoring him to the car.
Jack positioned the SMG, squinted one eye, and in two seconds flat, there was a bullet in the head of the leading car's driver.
If there was one thing for certain, Angel had taken note that no matter the state Jack was in, he was still, and always would be, at the top of his game.
Rounding another tight corner, Jack felt a second of pulsating fear rise into his temples as he was pushed against the side of the car, and used one hand to grab at Pierce's hand as he turned around to face him.
Pierce looked at him, mouth straight and eyes staring dead into his,
"I've got ya', Boss."
And with that, he turned back to the road, Jack turned back to the last black car, and released a breath. He imagined the driver as Jayif, smiling and laughing, coming up on them to capture him….and when he did get him, he'd-…
He shot him dead in the center, right between the eyes.
Oleg turned around to look at him from his position in the back of the truck, his eyes wide,
"Good shot, friend."
