River of sin

33. been played from the start

The Gemini club was a bloodbath. Bodies strewn everywhere, those still alive being questioned heavy handedly to try and get Information out of them. It was complete chaos.
"SULLIVAN!" Jacob screeched loudly, firing his gun in the air "I KNOW YOU'RE HERE YOU FUCKING COWARD!"
"Jacob! It's Howard!" Harrison ran over "I found him out back. Quick!"
"Howard? Betty!" Jacob ran falling to his knees, holding Betty tightly "thank you, thank you, oh thank the lord. You alright my little sunshine?" He pulled away to inspect her "they touch you? Betty? Those men touch you? Did they hurt you?"
The petrified girl shook her head
"It's not her blood, Jake" Harrison whispered "it's Howard's. He crawled his way here by the looks of it."
"Go to Danny. Good girl. It's alright. Good girl. You were very brave. Danny! take her." He called him over prying Betty off of him.

"Howard?" Jacob stepped behind a desk "what happened? Where are they? Howard?" He knelt down
"Promise me you'll get her out" Howard wheezed out "don't leave her behind."
"I promise. What happened? Where did he take them?"
"Maggie" he grimaced, shakily pointing across the room to a door
"Go check it out" Jacob ordered Harrison
"Your sister" Howard coughed, blood splattering from his mouth
"Howard, no don't close your eyes, tell me!" Jacob slapped his face to keep him conscious
"He offered to release her" Howard struggled for air "for one fuck. Like the whore offered you"
"Fuck." Jacob cursed

"One fuck and he'd let her go. She's pregnant." Howard struggled to get his words out.
"She told us not to tell you yet, Jacob. She's only just starting to show, she can still cover it. She didn't want to rub salt into an open wound while Maggie was missing." Lenard whispered in his brothers ear
"He gave her a choice. Her unborn child....or the two little ones." Howard took a large wheezy breath. "Betty was listening. She heard it all."
"Tell me she ruddy didn't agree!" Jacob growled
"She did. He went back on his word after he'd fucked her. Evie tried to get her out. Tried to distract him. She warned her he wouldn't stick to the deal. She tried to run when he turned on her. He killed her, your sister."

"FUCK!" Lenard got up sharply, holding his head
"He cut the child from her belly while she was still alive. Evie...." he struggled for air "Evie, I couldn't get her out Jacob" he sobbed "She was locked in. Shackled. She told me to leave her behind, to run with the girls. To find you. Did we make it?"
"Yeah, yeah you made it. You did good solider" Jacob nodded "where.....Howard? Howard! No no no no" he shook the man in his arms, Lenard checking his pulse
"He's gone. There's not a mark on Betty. She said they shot at them. Looks like he shielded her."

"Harry! Keep looking! Maggie's here somewhere!" Jacob ran to the room next door
"I cant see nought, Jacob!"
"Betty!" Jacob ran back in a frantic panic "Betty I know you're scared but where is the baby? Did Howard bring the baby in here? Betty? The baby's mine. Understand. Baby Maggie is my baby. Mine and Evie's. We need to find her. Where's the baby?"
"Howard said we have to hide. The door was locked to get outside, the bad men were chasing us, so he said we had to hide until you found us. Evie said that yous were coming. He hide the baby in there but I no fit I too big so we hide under the desk together. He said he wouldn't leave me on my own. The baby was sleeping. We didn't have time to get her back out."
"Good girl. You were so brave. Come show me where you hid the baby. It's alright, you're not in trouble."

Jacob led Betty by the hand into the room, she stood looking around "think Betty, where was it?"
"I don't know" she sniffled "I was crying Jakey, I had my eyes shut. Evie did tell me to shut my eyes and not to look. To cover my ears. So I dids."
"Shush it's alright, it's alright.....shushhhhhh" he stood up holding his finger to his lip wafting his hand at his brothers "Maggie?" He asked "Danny! Get Betty out, now! Don't wait for us. Maggie!" He followed the sound of a crying baby out of the room, Harrison and Barney following him. "MAGGIE!" He called louder.
"The sounds moving, Jacob, listen. Shit! They must have found her and missed Howard and Betty!"
Jacob cocked his gun, running towards the sound.

"SULLIVAN!" he screeched, aiming his gun
"How ya feeling there, Jacob? Hmmm?" Sullivan asked calmly, bouncing a crying Maggie in his arms "shush shush it'll be over soon."
"Put her down and back away"
"I can't do that. See this here is my Marcus' niece. She's mine. She belongs with me."
"She's my daughter! I swear you harm a hair on her head and...."
Sullivan laughed loudly, holding his chest "oh my word you are gullible, Jacob" he steadied his sarcastic laughter "you think she's yours? Really?"
"Shut.your.mouth"
"You actually fell for a Barnes didn't you, you fool, you actually love her!" Sullivan shook his head tutting him "what she tell you huh? That you'd been the only man she'd given it up to? Huh? And you believed every word out of that little wicked mouth of hers. didn't you"

"I don't got a clear shot, Jake, the baby is moving too much" Harrison whispered across at his brother "don't listen to him, he's clearly gone mad"
"You see, Jacob." Sullivan kissed Maggie's head "the problem is, I always get what I want."
"Not this time"
"Really? Because I wanted Evie." He goaded Jacob "and I had her. Oh boy did I have her. Over. And over. And over. That's the thing with twins. Why have one when you can have both. I told you before I got a thing for twins."
"You're lying!" Jacob yelled
"Am I? You sure? You don't seem too sure. Maybe we should ask her? Shall we ask her?" He asked in a creepy deranged tone.

"Oh Evie darling!" He called "come here. Come tell Jacob exactly who you've been fucking for the past two years. Who this adorable little cherub belongs to."
Jacob watched Yvonne walk calmly out in a beaded gown. Her demeanour one he hadn't seen on her before. Almost arrogant. Reminding him of the Barnes women he knew before her. He watched wide eyed as she initiated a steamy exchange between herself and Joesph.
"Time to end this. For Marcus" Joseph handed her a gun

"Evie?" Jacob asked still aiming his gun as she walked calmly and coolly towards him, her gun by her side "Evie stop!"
"Tell him, Evie. Tell him how he's been played from the start my evil little Vixen. Tell them how you set him up to kill Gabriel. How you and your brother planned to take over the Barnes empire, for revenge. About time he learnt he was nothing but a pawn."
"Hello Jacob" Yvonne greeted eerily, tutting him sarcastically "you really think I'd fall in love with popinjay lowlife Evans." She cackled along with Joseph. "Poor poor Jacob" she shook her head "this war started with a lie you tart of grandmother told your grandfather. The difference between you and me, Jacob, is that I can play the long game. I planted my teeny tiny little seed when I was sixteen, watered it a little through naive and easily manipulated Maggie Evans, then waited, shame she died, I had plans for her."

"Evie, stop this. I know you. This isn't you."
"You know poor weak innocent little Evie." She mocked in a whiney voice "Well guess what, Jacob. I can play games just as well as you and my father. Now I've gotten rid of all the sinful Barnes bastards, I guess that just leaves the Evans riff-raff. I already killed your sister. She begged me, on her knees. I spat at her and watched him do his best work. Stupid bitch thought she held all the cards, could out smart me, who do you think sent that particular whore her way to get you feeling sooo guilty and obligated towards me, that you'd do anything to get me back. I had you looking left instead of right. You even fell for the sob story of my mother! Do you know who that woman really is, Jacob?" She chuckled with Sullivan "your grandmothers Barnes bastard, that's right, your aunt."
"I know he's making you say all this, Evie."
"I'm a fully fledged fucking Barnes and now the Barnes empire is all mine, soon the Evans empire will be too. little Betty got away. That's a shame. We had many plans for her. She'd do anything I told her to do."
"Evie! Look at me, look me in the damn eyes, Evie! What's he done to you!"
"Time to go my little vixen, finish him."

Yvonne walked closer, Jacob still not believing his own eyes and ears, telling his brothers to stand down. "I guess this is goodbye, Jacob. It's been a pleasure but now it's time to reunite the Evans twins." She said sarcastically, cocking her gun, leaning into him. "He has a grenade in his hand under Maggie's dress with the pin pulled. The back doors are boobytrapped. Place is set to blow. You got less than five minutes. Remember what I said, don't believe anything you see or hear is real. Go down. Get Betty the hell out of here. I'll stall for time. Find us..... I love you." She placed a subtle kiss on his cheek, mouthing go down to the two brothers standing behind him, shooting at the floor behind Jacob and the walls by his brothers, the three men falling to the ground playing dead.