Southern Bouquet

Revenge

The following morning Jake woke up to Wade's voice drifting up the stairs. He shuffled out of bed and into his bathroom to get cleaned up. As he was making his way down the stairs, he noticed his living room floor scattered with papers, files, and post-it notes. Wade was pacing back and forth as he spoke to someone on the phone. Turning around, Wade noticed Jake and held up a finger.

"Hey, Mike, he's awake. Let me call you back." he said and ended the call, sliding his phone into his back pocket.

"What's all of this?" Jake asked, motioning towards the floor.

"I couldn't sleep last night. I need to work. Keep my mind off of things. And then it hit me, Anthony had at least one guy working for him. The one that broke into May's apartment and planted the bugs and surveillance cameras. So, I started digging into Anthony's employees. Everyone checks out but one." he stepped over a few papers and plucked a post-it off of the coffee table.

"Derek Green. Spent four years in Iraq serving in the Marines. Was dishonorably discharged due to negligence, fighting, and spying on unknowing civilians." he read off of the tiny yellow paper.

Jake stood there waiting for him to continue. When he didn't respond with anything Wade continued.

"He has no other work history after coming back to the States. It's as if he dropped off of the map."

"Ok. So, you think this is the guy that Anthony had following May around?" Jake asked.

"I'd bet my life on it." Wade answered.

"What other information do you have on him?"

Wade's phone rang and he motioned for Jake to wait, pulling the phone from his back pocket, it was Mike.

"Hey, Mike. Find anything?" he asked.

He grabbed a pen off of the coffee table and jotted something down on the post-it he already had in his hand.

"That's all I need. Thanks, man." Once his call ended, he looked at Jake with eagerness in his eyes and said,

"I have Derek's address."

Jake rushed to the front door, grabbed his keys off of the hook, and looked back to Wade.

"Let's go. What are you waiting on?" he asked.

"Jake, we need to go in with a plan. What are we going to do? Knock on his door and introduce ourselves with, 'Hi, we're Jake and Wade, you helped murder our friends.'"

"No. I plan on kicking his door in and then kicking his face in. No need for conversation."

"Or how about we create a plan in case he's expecting us." Wade countered.

"There is a plan. Kill him."

"We are not killing someone in cold blood, Jake."

"What? He helped a psychopath find our friends, Wade. I'm betting that if he hadn't been there that night setting up the surveillance, May would still be with us and Daisy wouldn't be dead!" Jake argued getting angry.

Wade shifted weight from side to side, jittery. He sighed, slouched his shoulders in defeat, and said,

"Fine. Let me grab my handgun. But, Jake, you're not killing the man. Make him wish he was dead, fine. But I cannot stand by and let you murder someone. I work in law." he said heading towards the stairs.

"Yeah. Ok. I'll grab mine and my extra clip." Ignoring what Wade said and following him up the stairs.

"Jake, this isn't Anthony. You won't need to empty a clip." Wade said turning back towards him.