Wow. This is really happening. My life just became some old cops and robbers movie.
I chuckle to myself.
My arms are tied behind my back. Ropes wrap around me like a snake, keeping me pinned to an old metal chair.
I am not alone in the gloom of the old warehouse. I can hear crying.
Once they pull the cloth sack from my head, I see a kid across the dingy floor from me. He has got to be eight or nine, maybe. There is no fooling me who he belongs to. Claire. He has her eyes.
My mind starts putting the pieces together. J'Nae is dating Claire's ex-husband. She must have been brought into this to keep his son safe.
He is tied up too. His face is dirty and wet from crying all night. I know once I make eye contact with him, I can get him to calm down.
"Hey, buddy. It's gonna be okay," I tell him.
He looks at my bindings then his and continues to cry.
"Hey. Hey. Hey. I'm Jack. I need your help. You gotta help me."
This gets his attention.
"I used to be a police officer, so I am very aware of what is going on. We need to make a plan, but you gotta settle down. Plans can't be made if we are crying."
With a final sigh, his crying stops, and the boy nods.
"What's your name?"
"Nicky," he responds.
"Okay, Nicky. These guys don't want to hurt you. They want to hurt me. That means you are the most powerful person here. This is what we are going to do..."
My discussion is cut short when the psychopath with the gun comes back in with a new henchman. Wonder where the guy I laid out earlier is?
"The boss wants to see you," the jackal says as his friend unties me and pulls me from my chair.
In a wasted away office, I get plopped down in front of J'Nae. My mind swirls. I can't figure out if my old friend is the mastermind here. One of Silkton's guys haphazardly guards us from the door.
"Jack, I know this is all so fucked up. He took Nicky. Charlie is losing his mind. I have a missing persons team out looking for him, though I know he is here in the other room. I am gonna lose my badge for this, but Silkton pulled me in. Said he'd kill Nicky if I didn't get you to come here..."
"And not show up for my trial tomorrow?"
Her silence answers my question.
"He needs me to take the fall for Claire's death," I guess.
She nods.
"Jack." J'Nae's voice catches. "I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to get you involved, but I know what Silkston is capable of. He can make people disappear."
If my hands weren't bound, I would reach for hers.
"Hey. You did the right thing. I wouldn't want that little dude to get hurt, and I sure as hell wouldn't want you to have it on your conscience."
"Thank you," she says almost knocking me over with a hug.
Without a word or any indication as to what she is doing, I feel a lightning-fast tug at the rope holding my hand together. If goes unnoticed by our overseer. J'Nae wasn't able to cut all the way through, but it would now be an easy tear for me when the time is right.
She lets out a long sigh.
"There's more..."
Before J'Nae can continue, the guard strolls into the room and walks between us to cause a separation. Another stranger appears in the doorway of the office. Though he is a mystery to most of the city, I know who he is. I have seen blurry pictures around, but it is now that he is in the same room as J'Nae that I do a double take. There is something about him that makes my neck hairs stand on end.
"Yes, tell him more," Silkston says. "But please start with the part where everyone forgot about me for twenty years, sister."
His final words echo in my head. I look to J'Nae, but she hides her face from us.
"Oh, don't mind her, Jack. She is just upset that she calls herself a police officer and she was unable to find her brother who was right in front of her for years," Silkston remarks.
I clear my throat.
"You must be Nash," is all I can come up with.
"Ding. Ding. Ding. Winner. Winner," he replies.
"I thought you were dead."
"Oh, Jack. Everyone knows that cops who can't do their job correctly just assume the missing people are dead when they are unsuccessful in finding them. It helps them sleep at night. But as you can see, I am very much alive."
"But I knew your father. He spent the rest of his life looking for you," I respond, trying to keep the anger I am feeling out of my voice.
"Funny thing happened the day J'Nae and I made a run for it. My captures knew they had to leave town, and, though my sister was out of their collection, I was not so lucky. By the next day, we had already made it to Memphis, and the day after we were in New Mexico."
"Nash, I am so–" I start.
"Don't finish that statement, Jack. I don't need your pity. I am a fucking survivor, and I will do what I need to make sure I am at the top of the food chain."
I look to J'Nae. She still won't meet my eyes.
"After about three months shoved in a closet in a bug-infested apartment in Albuquerque, I got my shot. During my once-a-day feeding, the closet door was left unlocked. Later that night, my kidnappers drank too much and both passed out watching some softcore porn. I crept out of the closet to the kitchen and retrieved a butcher knife. With zero apprehension, I slit both of those bastards' throats."
The room goes cold.
"From that point on, I put me as number one. Fuck my old family and everyone back home. They wouldn't know how to handle a killer anyways. And here we are, twenty-some years later. I am running this town."
Almost as if he planned it, Nash's final statement is capped with the sound of a gun firing. But the clear confusion on his face lets me know he did not know it was coming. Without a word, Nash directs his bodyguard to stay put while he goes to check it out.
"What the hell is going on?" I wonder aloud.
J'Nae, making eye contact with me for the first time, says, "I have no idea."
YOU ARE READING
His Woods (MxM)
Romance(Previously known as Breaking the Beast) Tyson knows he isn't perfect, but he doesn't think he deserves a summer stuck at the old holiday cabin with his dad's friend, Jack. After he gets kicked out of college and assigned probation, Tyson has to lea...
