Hey all, finally another chapter :D Let me know what you think (if anyone is still reading, I know it's been a long time).
Don't own, make no money!
Chapter 35: Somebody Fucked Up
Craig held his breath. His brain was still trying to process what was happening, but it was also stuck in the past, bringing up pictures of his mother in that very house, laughing and sober and happy. The only time he could remember her totally and completely happy. It was funny how he'd never really remembered the days he and his mother had spent there. He could remember times when his mother would leave Adam and take him to someplace safe, but it was the last time they had made their escape that they had gone to that house. His mother had left Adam, and Craig had been able to be a little boy again, at least for a little mot He never really thought about the time they'd been at that house or what they had done or who they had been with; his mind always focused more on the terror of Adam showing up and taking them back to the life from before, to the drugs and the hell. He had always remembered the days without Adam, but the details had been blurred and fuzzy. It was odd how his mind picked now to bring back details that he'd long pushed back into the dark shadows, where they were safe from anyone else touching them. The good memories had to be hidden so that Adam couldn't take them away, that's what he'd always felt. He had always remembered the apple trees, and the white fence, but now he could remember playing out in the yard, his mother and Jesse sitting on the porch watching him and laughing while honey bees buzzed around the flowers planted next to the porch in the front and birds whistled a hundred different tunes in the afternoon sun. It was a good memory.
It was a memory that he couldn't let anyone destroy and that's exactly what Bobby was going to do. He could feel it. Bobby was going to shoot the only person he could remember that made his mother laugh; the only person besides his mother who had cared whether or not Adam hurt him.
He knew he was supposed to listen to Bobby, but he knew that his oldest brother was capable of pulling the trigger and ending the life of the only person he could remember who seemed to really love his mother. How could he let that happen? He wasn't catching everything that was being said, he seemed to be missing half of it as his brain replayed scenes of his mother dancing across the floor to a song on the radio, and Jesse clapped his hands to the beat, cheering her on; singing stupid songs while they ate their dinner.
His brain was so busy dwelling on the memories that he was having a problem keeping up with exactly what was happening. He knew he was standing next to Jesse, and he remembered yelling at Bobby because he was afraid the man was going to shoot the only connection he had to the good memories of his mother, the only person who could answer questions for him and explain to him how his mother could have been like two different people. How could she have cared about him and still gone back to Adam so many times? How could she have had enough sense to leave him when she was strung out on drugs and yet go back to that life after she was straight? It never made sense to him, he had never been able to connect the two different mothers into the one person that she was.
He knew what he was doing when he grabbed Bobby's arm, he only wanted his brother to stop aiming his gun at the only connection to his mother he would ever have; but it took a few seconds for him to understand that now he was standing next to Jesse, with something hard and cold jamming him in the side. A sick feeling grabbed hold of him when he realized what Jesse was doing. It didn't make sense to him, it didn't add up. Jesse wouldn't hurt him, he had never hurt him. He could remember more and more about him with each passing second and Jesse had never done anything mean or cruel to him or his mother.
Instinct made him look up at Bobby, who swung his gun back up to point at Jesse's head. "Let him go Winston." The man's words were quiet, but Craig recognized the deadly threat weaved through them.
A cold stone settled in Craig's gut. Winston, Jesse was Jessup Winston. Jessup Winston, the man who had worked with Adam, the man who had helped Adam blow up Jeremiah's building, the man who faked his own death and set up Jack. Jesse, Jessup, they were the same man. The man who had made his mother happy and made Craig feel safe for so long was now jamming a gun into his side. It didn't make sense; he couldn't wrap his tired brain around it enough to comprehend how it was possible. Too much had happened in too little time for him absorb it all. It had been less than twenty four hours since he'd been riding in the car with his brothers to the police station. In that time he'd seen Jack arrested, he'd been dragged off by Harris' men and scared shitless from that point on. He had felt as close to safe as he could after the past two months, and in what felt like a split second it had all been ripped away. He stared into the shadows and tried to make sense of what was happening now, tried to remember how he had ended up where he was now, in that moment.
He heard Bobby growling words, "I told you to get him out of here Jack." He was drawn back to the moment, to the reality of the situation as it was, at least for the time being.
Jack stepped closer to Bobby. "I'm sorry, I tried, but he moved too quick." He muttered.
"Not now Jack, you fucked up now we deal with it." Bobby shook his head, keeping his gaze fixed on Jesse. No, Winston.
Craig felt a chill run down his back as Jesse pushed the gun harder into his side.
"We can talk, and then I'll let him go and put down my gun." Jesse's tone matched Bobby's. Craig could hear the threat behind the words and he somehow knew that the cheerful, happy man his mind was so focused on no longer existed, this wasn't Jesse, this was Jessup Winston, the asshole who had made his brothers lives, his life hell in recent weeks.
The teen finally let his eyes drift down to the object Jesse was pressing into his side. "What are you doing?" He felt small asking the question, just as small as he'd been the last time he'd seen this man.
"I'm not going to hurt you." Jesse leaned towards him. "I never hurt you, we were friends, remember?" Still, he tightened the grip he had on him.
Craig swallowed hard and looked back up at Bobby. His brother's jaw twitched under the pressure he was applying. He felt tears sting at his eyes and he silently wished he could go back just a few seconds sooner and change everything that he had done. He was supposed to listen to his brother, do what he said, when he said without arguing, and he hadn't done that. He hadn't listened, he'd gotten in the way, and he'd screwed up, big time. Bobby was never going to forgive him for this. Yeah, he'd fucked up.
"Don't think I won't blow your brains out you fucker. You let go of him now or you're dead." Bobby used his thumb to cock the trigger of the gun. "I ain't fucking playing games here. I might have been ready to listen before, but not with you holding a gun on a fourteen year old kid."
"He's my blood. I don't want to hurt him, he's all I have left. But you need to listen to reason, and this is the only way to make you do that." Winston pushed the gun a little harder into Craig's side. "I never sent Harris after you. I didn't know what the hell was going on until you showed up at my suite tonight."
"Bullshit." Bobby shook his head and inched his feet a little closer. "You want to talk, you let go of the kid and let him go outside with Jack."
"I love my nephew, and I wouldn't hurt him. I wanted him to be in a home where he was safe. That's why I left him with your mother. I didn't know Adam had found out where he was until it was too late. I am sorry about that." Jesse stepped back from Bobby, pulling Craig with him. "But I wouldn't have let him get away with what he was trying to do. I would have stopped him before it went too far."
"Before it went too far?" It was Jack who spoke. "What the hell do you think it is too far? He nearly killed Craig. He nearly killed all of us."
"I knew the Mercers could deal with Adam Macks, and you proved me right." Jesse took another step back. "My father was a crazy son of a bitch. He had no soul, just like Adam. He did not love, and he did not give affection."
"I don't give a fuck about your father. I want you to let go of my brother you ass hole." Bobby took another step forward.
The gun pressing into Craig's side seemed to pull back slightly; it was still there, but the pressure lightened. Jesse sighed and hesitated for a moment. "My mother did all she could to keep me away from my father, and it worked for a long time. But after I grew up, and became my own man, there really was nothing she could do to keep me from forming a relationship with him. I didn't know what he was back then. I didn't understand it. I didn't even know I had a sister. He kept that from me. I found Lydia by accident, and once we found each other, I did all I could to try to help her, to get her away from Adam Macks and our father. They were killing her, slowly, with the drugs. My father was monster, don't you understand that? He sucked me into his world and wouldn't let me go. Lydia however, was not a son and he wanted nothing good for her. He messed her up, kept her doped up, and then he let Macks take over for him and keep her wasted out of her mind. He didn't care about her but he needed to control her. He never would have cared what she did if not for the fact that she had given him a grandson." He spoke the words quickly.
"I don't give a fuck." Bobby growled. "How can you stand there claiming you care about that kid, but you're holding a gun on him?"
"I have been trying to leave this life for years. I tried to get Lydia and Craig out too, but our father found us. He sent Macks after them, to bring them home. So I put my plan on hold until we could work out an alternative." Jesse Nicholas didn't seem to hear Bobby's words. "I'm sorry for all of the trouble your family has had the past few months, but I did not bring any of that on you. I had nothing to do with Harris' actions. He has been working to double cross me too. We have a common enemy here Mercer, let's work together to rid ourselves of him."
"I don't work with no one your son of a bitch. Especially when they are holding a gun on my baby brother," Bobby took several quick steps towards Winston, planting the gun directly into the center of the man's forehead, again. "Now let him go."
Winston closed his eyes and let go of Craig's arm. "I would never hurt him." His voice was quiet. "The guns not even loaded." He dropped the weapon to the floor and then held both of his arms out away from his body. "Go ahead and shoot me Mercer. I'm too tired of this shit. I'm tired of living a double life, of trying to break free. I've lost everything that ever mattered, and I don't mean the money. I've got all the money I need, right out there, in that orchard. I've got a future out there, one that's clean, with no strings attached. I just want out, one way or another."
Bobby reached out with his free hand and snagged Craig by his right wrist. He jerked him hard to get him in motion, and then shoved him into Jack. "You get his ass out of here Jack." He nearly yelled.
It had all happened so fast that Craig didn't have a chance to react. He felt Jack grab his arm, harder than he thought was possible from Jack, and then he was being pulled back through the house, towards the back door. He felt the tears falling now, hot against his cold cheeks. "I'm sorry." He managed to choke the words past the stiffness that had taken hold of his throat. He kept his eyes downward, watching his feet as they picked their way through the debris scattered under them.
Jack pulled him a little closer to him. "I know." He huffed in a short breath. "Just keep quiet and let's go." They reached the kitchen, and Jack stopped short, pulling Craig to a stop as well.
Craig was afraid to look up, to see why they had stopped, but his eyes squeezed out more tears and then shifted up against his will, to see Harris standing in the doorway, blocking their way out.
Jeremiah was seated in the back of Johnny's car, his mind unable to focus on what Angel and Johnny were saying from the front. Johnny was driving too fast, and normally Jeremiah would have been speaking up about that. He was trying to focus his mind on what they had to do, but instead he found his thoughts drifting to Camille. He'd walked out on her, again. He didn't have a choice, and at that moment the only thought on his mind was the look in her eyes when she had told him she loved him, and that she would be there when he came home.
"Jerry, did you hear me?" Angel was turned in the passenger seat, looking at him.
"What?" Jeremiah asked.
"I said when we get to this place we need to find Bobby and get the hell out of there quick. I got a bad feeling about this. We got what we need, and the cops will be here soon enough. The last thing we need is to be caught up in the middle of another case, and that's exactly what will happen if we're here when they show up. Got it? No screwing around." Angel was calm enough, despite the slight twitch at his temples.
Jeremiah nodded his head. "Yeah, I got it."
"We give everything we've got to Green and Johnson and they'll back us up when we walk into that courtroom. We'll get Jack out of this mess and everything will be fine." Angel flashed a smile. "And then we can let the cops take care of the rest."
Jeremiah couldn't fight down the scowl. "Unless we find Bobby and he's already done something stupid, right? You know how Bobby is, he's probably right back at Winston's hotel right now, holding a gun on him, ready to kill his ass." He let his thoughts escape out loud without meaning to.
"He would have called us if he was going back there." Angel shook his head. "What I'm worried about is Harris. Green hasn't been able to track him down. If he's put the pieces together and realizes how much we know, him and Winston could be doing just what we're doing, heading out here to stop Bobby. We gotta keep anything else from happening. We ain't got nothin' if either of them are dead, and you know Bobby."
"Yeah, knowing Bobby, he's probably already killed them both." Jeremiah muttered. His mind drifted back to Camille, sitting at home, worrying, and struggling with feeling abandoned, again. He should never have come. Bobby had told him earlier to go home and take care of his family, that's what he should have been doing. He was tired, he didn't feel well, and still, here he was riding with his brother, back in the fucked up game.
He felt guilty, but he would have felt guilty no matter what choice he made. He was so tired of having to choose. No one should have to make choices like this. Families shouldn't be divided, his wife, daughters and brothers were all his family, why did there have to be a separation of them? Why did he have to feel as if he had two separate families to defend and protect? That wasn't what family was supposed to be.
Evelyn Mercer had taught him what family was, and what he needed to do was fight for what she taught him; the people that he loved and loved him, they were his family; and that included his brothers, his wife, and his daughters.
"You ain't listenin' to a damn thing I'm saying, are you?" Angel spoke quietly. It was obvious he'd been talking while Jeremiah's mind had wondered again.
"Man, I got it, okay? I know what we're doing. We're finding Bobby and dragging his sorry ass back home so we can go to court. We need to find him before he buries us under more shit. I got it." Jeremiah sighed tiredly, "Now leave me the hell alone, before I tell you to turn this car around and take me home, because I'm tired of dragging Bobby's ass out of tight places right now okay?"
Angel looked at him for a long moment, "You ain't alright, are you?" He asked slowly. "You forget what we're fighting for here, brother?"
"I ain't forgot shit, we're fighting for family." Jeremiah sat up in the seat so he could get a better look at Angel, "Only, I've been fighting for a few more people than you and I feel like I'm losing that fight." He felt frustrated, and although he knew he was taking it out on Angel at that moment he couldn't help it.
Angel shook his head. "It will be over soon Jerry." He spoke quietly; a knowing look took over his expression. "Believe it or not, we're doing all of this for your wife and kids too. They are Mercers as much as we are. What do you think will happen to them if we don't settle this once and for all? You say you want a future for them, well it ain't gonna happen with our name and our past hanging over them like it is, now is it?"
"You just don't understand." Jeremiah dropped back into his seat and shifted his gaze to take in the morning light that was brightening up the snow and ice that stretched out in every direction around them, "Are we there yet?" He needed to change the subject.
Johnny groaned from behind the wheel, "You did not just ask that question." He slowed the car and made a turn into what should have been a gravel drive. Tire ruts leading up to a metal gate and the fact that the gate stood wide open told them they had not been the first car to make that same turn this morning.
"Footprints," Angel pointed out the tracks that accompanied the tire marks. "More than one car came through here." He observed out loud.
Johnny drove the car slowly up the ice and snow, staying in the previous tracks, unsure where the edges of the drive were hiding under ice crusted snow. Angel, you and Jeremiah go to the back, I'll go around and go in the front." He finally spoke as he stopped the car behind the piece of shit Sofi's brother had loaned the Mercers, and then opened the driver's door. "You've both got guns, right?"
"Right here," Angel pulled a pistol out of his coat pocket as he pushed his door opened, "Jeremiah?" He didn't wait for an answer as he climbed out of the car.
"I don't have no gun." Jeremiah pushed the seat up out of his way and followed his brother across the snow. He could see Johnny moving towards the front of the house, sliding in the crusty snow every few steps.
"You ain't got a gun?" Angel slowed down enough for Jeremiah to catch up to him. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I didn't want to make Camille worry more than she already was." Jeremiah whispered his words, though he wasn't sure why. He should have brought a gun.
"Well if anyone starts shooting at us, you duck." Angel reached the porch door before Jeremiah. "Yeah, that's gonna work out just fine." He didn't try to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
Jeremiah nodded his head, knowing he'd fucked up. He should have had a gun on him. Angle had his back to him now, leading him quietly onto the porch. It took a second to realize there was a voice speaking ahead of them. "Just back up boys, don't make any sudden moves." At first Jeremiah thought the warning was directed at him and Angel, but he managed to crane his neck around Angel to see Harris in what had once been a kitchen, pointing a gun in the direction of Jack and Craig. He gave Angel a pat on the arm, more to let him know that he could see what was happening.
At that moment Jack's eyes shifted slightly and he looked right at Angel and Jeremiah. The corners of his mouth curved up as he slowly raised his hands towards the ceiling. "What are you going to do Harris, shoot us?" He spoke the words slowly.
"I have plans for you Jack." Harris took a step towards the younger Mercers. "Hell, I have plans for Craig too. There's no need to shoot either of you. That nosey brother of yours though, that's different. He won't stop interfering."
Jack's eyebrows rose slightly, "Which brother exactly? You know, we have three more brothers, and none of them will step back from this Harris. We aren't afraid of you." He smiled wide. "Now, take Angel for example, he's pretty pissed about all of this, and I'm sure if he was here right now, he'd take that gun from you and shove it right down your throat."
Harris made a low noise that Jerry couldn't make out, but he was certain there were no actual words, though it wasn't really a grunt either.
"And then there's Jerry, you know he's a hell of a lot meaner than he looks. He's taken a good bite out of a few people, have you ever seen his teeth?" Jack allowed a quick flick of his eyes towards Jerry as he spoke, but kept his attention on Harris.
"I only need one Mercer to take the fall and one Mercer who will back up my story." Harris motioned towards Craig, who looked like he was about to piss his pants.
"And you really think Craig would back up anything for you?" Jack was starting to look anxious, obviously expecting Angel and Jerry to make a move. Jerry waited until Jack looked his way again, and used his hand to let him know they needed Harris to say more. The man felt too full of himself, and that was what always fucked someone over, too much confidence. If a person didn't compensate for flaws, or unexpected emergencies, they were bound to be burned, and Jerry wanted to hear a little more of what Harris was saying, let the man stroke his own ego for a minute. Apparently Angel felt the same, because he wasn't making a move on Harris either.
Harris shifted his stance and held his gun towards Craig. "I didn't say he would actually back me up, but who's going to believe him against me, especially when we search your house again and find the papers showing his adoption was illegal; not to mention the papers there that show Jeremiah used ill-gotten means to buy his warehouse?" Harris laughed.
Craig started to back up, apparently he couldn't see Angel or Jeremiah from the angle he was standing; Harris blocked his view.
"And just what makes you think we are gonna let any of that happen?" Angel finally spoke as he took quick steps forward, until the barrel of his gun was planted firmly in Harris' back. "Drop the damn gun, now, and you might live."
The gun in Harris' hand remained steady, still aimed at Craig. From behind, Jeremiah couldn't see the man's face and had no way of reading what he might do next.
"Angel Mercer." When Harris spoke he sounded almost cheerful. "If I know you boys as well as I think I do, Jeremiah must be with you." He turned his head slowly, only sifting his body slightly so that he could see behind him. A smile was plastered to his face. "You really don't want to pull that trigger Angel, what if this gun goes off and one of your brothers ends up dead?" A wicked texture weaved through the words as they spilled from that smile.
"Your finger won't have a chance to twitch, Harris." Angel's voice held no emotion. "Go ahead; give me a reason to split your spine in two with a bullet." He pressed the barrel of his gun deeper into the man's back. "Very slowly, lower your gun and give it to Jack, grip first."
Harris glanced back towards Jack and Craig. The gun lowered slowly, and he reached for it with his other hand, as if he were going to comply with Angel's demands. Just as he seemed to be shifting the gun so that he could stretch it out towards Jack, his elbow swung back and slammed Angel in the side, knocking him off balance. Angel's gun went off and Jeremiah used the confusion to slam himself into Harris. In that instant the sound of gunfire from the front of the house seemed to shake the walls.
Jeremiah felt Harris give way under his slam, crumbling under him in a limp heap. In the shadows of the morning light that was slowly filling the room he could make out a dark pool forming under the agent's limp body. "Damn." He muttered as he pulled away from him, scooting across the faded tile floor on his butt until he hit the remains of a kitchen table. He looked up to see Jack had pushed Craig into the wall on the opposite side of the room and was pressing up against him as if to shield him from any more bullets that may be flying.
Angel looked at Harris, and then scanned his brothers the same as Jeremiah had before he looked towards the doorway leading further into the house. "Bobby?" He called out and bolted out of view into the next room. "Ah, shit, I knew you'd fuck it up!"