Page 24 of Phoenix

When the last few customers walk out of the bar, leaving me, Javier, and Jake, all alone, I brace myself for the ensuing confrontation between me and my cousin. As soon I lock the door, I turn on Jake, more than ready to interrogate and do God knows what else to him. He’s cleaning up some glasses and doing a general turn-down ready for the next day; the idiot hasn’t even noticed that Javier and I are both staring at him. Not even when I walk up to the other side of where he’s standing. Javier, much like before, remains inside the booth we were sitting at, obviously choosing to remain impartial. I have a feeling he knows more than he’s letting on, which only tells me that whatever the reason for Jake’s weird behavior, it isn’t going to make me feel good.

“Woah!” he gasps when he finally looks up to see me glaring at him with a clenched jaw and a murderous set of eyes. “Can I help you, Cuz?”

“Yeah, you could say that, Jake,” I snap, “you can tell me why the hell you hired me to kill your ‘sister’ back there? Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the personal request and all, but I’m not sure Jess is going to feel the same way!”

“Argh, Christ!” He huffs out a long breath while putting his hands on his hips and staring point-blank at Javier. My nonchalant friend merely smirks and waves his hands in the air, very much enjoying the show. “Thanks, Javier, I thought you were on my side here.”

“Hey, ese, I am, but I couldn’t resist seeing this bastard’s reaction when you told him,” he says with a chuckle, “being cagey about this girl as he was.”

“Will someone start talking before I lose my shit?!” I shout before remembering Jess is out back and could well be listening in right now.

“Look, it isn’t what you think!” Jake rushes out as he marches around the bar to get to me, which could be an epically bad idea considering I’m seconds away from ripping his head off.

“What’s that, Jake? That you hired me to kill an innocent girl whom you claim to be your sister?” I frown at him, genuinely curious as to what this crazy reason is for this messed up situation. “Cos I know you haven’t had a real sibling before, but I gotta tell you, that’s not what you do as their big brother!”

“Lou and I got together one night, and I started telling her about Jess, minus a few details of course-”

“Lou?! As in my sister, Lou?” I spit as I step toward him, now feeling even angrier. “You better not be planning to hire someone to bump her off too, Jake. Christ, what is wrong with you?!”

“Shit, will you just listen, Phoenix?! Come on, you know me; I would never want someone like Jess to get hurt. God, if you knew what we went through together, you wouldn’t-”

“I’m trying real hard to understand, Jake, but all I see is your mouth moving without a lick of sense coming out of it,” I snap through my teeth just as Javier begins laughing in the background. “And you! I would shut your hole up too!”

The asshole laughs even harder and in such a way I want to march over and shut it for him, but right now, I’m slightly more interested in Jake and what his excuse is.

“Look, Jess and I didn’t see each other again after we managed to escape. We talked frequently on the phone, but she couldn’t face seeing me, and for a few years, I respected that decision. But every time I spoke to her, she sounded more and more lost, just stuck inside her parents’ house, because she’s too frightened to go outside, but also too angry to build any kind of relationship with them. She was a complete recluse!”

“So, you thought you’d end her life for her?! Fuck, Jake, that’s not your call to make-”

“No! I wanted you to save her!” he yells, and I’m so confused, I turn to Javier with a furrowed brow, hoping he might shed some light on what the hell he’s talking about. But all the bastard does is throw his hands in the air while turning his head to the side, thus conceding over how nuts this sounds.

“Me? You wanted me to save her? ME?!” I laugh because I’m the last person someone would think of to be all warm and fuzzy and heroic.

“Believe me, Phoenix, you weren’t my first thought, but then Lou began telling me how worried she was about you and how she thought you needed saving too. I guess we kind of came to the same conclusion and put two and two together to make-”

“A billion?!” I scoff. “Even if I can make some sort of peace with your insane matchmaking scheme, why the hell would you hire me to kill her?”

“Christ, Phoenix, I know you well enough to know you wouldn’t harm a hair on her head; you’re like a brother to me!”

“You think you know me? Jesus, Jake, you don’t even know half of what I’m capable of.”

“I know one hundred percent you research your targets and Jessie’s story would have hit you hard. Put that together with how she is, her anxiety when you would have met her, there’s no way you would have done anything to harm her. I also knew that you would have brought her back here if you thought for one minute someone was after her. It was the only way I could think of to make you go to her!”

“So, let me get this straight, you and Lou thought Jess and I needed ‘saving’ and decided to set us up under the guise of being her hired killer?”

I glare at him like he’s gone absolutely insane; he at least has the decency to look a little sheepish about it.

“Si!” Javier laughs while clapping his hands behind me. “Well done, mi amigo.”

“What the hell were you two thinking, Jake?!” I yell. “Do you know how stupidly dangerous that was? Not to mention you had no right to lie to me like that…to set the both of us up like that?!”

“It was a little out there, granted, but-”

“But nothing, Jake!” I snap right in front of his face, now feeling beyond angry and frustrated. “Don’t you ever get up in my business again! Tell me, Jake, do you think Jess will understand when you tell her what you did? Do you think she’ll still rely on you? Still trust you?”

“Probably not,” he admits, looking down at his hands as he clasps them in front of him.

“And just so you know, you are not my brother, but even if you were, I’d still want to kick your ass right now!”

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