Ten(29)

“You think she’ll squeal for me like she does for Dalton?” Tim asks Keith, laughing. He unbuckles his trousers and reality that I’m going to be raped to death sets in. All I can think is, ‘Don’t let Dalton find my body and please never let DJ know how I died.’

He climbs up on the table and over me. Bile burns up my throat and I have to turn my head to be sick so I don’t choke and die, although that might be a better way to go. Tim’s tongue comes out and licks at the tears rolling down my cheeks. “You look pretty when you cry, Alex.”

“Fuck you”

“Oh, you’re about to.”

Another shot rings out into the room and my eyes dart to Jonah, with fear that Keith has killed him, but they’re both staring at someone behind me. The sound of something hitting the floor draws my eyes and I see the other man that was with Keith and Tim lying on the floor with a bullet hole in his head. A couple more shots ring out and Keith goes down. Tim is panicking to get off me as feet approach the table. Six comes into view and I sob with relief and complete mortification that he’s seeing me like this.

“Like to rape women, do you?” He drags Tim backwards from on top of me and then Tim’s head hits the table between my legs. “Let’s see how you like it.”

Six grabs the pool cue next to me and snaps it over his knee. Tim starts struggling but Six quickly restrains him by grabbing him by the neck and shoving his face into the table. I hear a crack and know it’s more than likely Tim’s cheekbone. Six goes behind Tim and I see him ram the broken cue into Tim, who’s still exposed from trying to rape me. The scream from him is like nothing I’ve ever heard before. Six doesn’t stop. He rams the cue in and out and more sick spurts out of my mouth. Six releases Tim and he falls to the floor. Taking the bloodied cue, Six raises it up and then brings it down. I can’t see them but I hear the squelch as it impacts a part of Tim’s body.

“Watch out!” Jonah shouts, but it’s not quick enough. Keith gets off a shot from the floor, wounding Six and sending him stumbling back until he falls to the floor.

The door crashes open and Dalton comes rushing in holding a gun.





I came in to the bar this morning to find Jude waiting for me. I questioned where the hell he’d been all this time and he just shrugged at me and told me my Dad wanted to see me. When I questioned how the fuck he would know that he informed me that he works for my Dad and is there watching over me for him. I laughed, thinking he was joking, but his face didn’t flinch; he was serious. Jude was there to look out for me? No, he was there to report back to my Dad like a little snake. I should have known something wasn’t right when he started creeping around the place and asking for work. He’d never really been interested in the family thing, he was one to stay in the background and observe!

Damn it, how could I miss that? He had been away travelling and shit when I was finishing up my final year of school. I didn’t even think he knew much about my father.

I’d had decorators and furnishers in and out of Alex’s old place the last few days, making it livable for her and my son. I didn’t want her to have any reason to go back with Leon. He had been a good sport this week but I could tell he hated being around me with a passion, and I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t like being around him either, but at least I got to have Alex when all was said and done. He’s friend-zoned and can only watch her from the outskirts of her life. I can’t be around her all the time if I can’t be with her. It would slowly kill me, and it will kill him too if he doesn’t find a way to move on. He’s great with DJ though, and DJ appears to love him a lot, so for them I will tolerate him hovering. I don’t really have the right to be all caveman on the guy, but it comes without permission, and fuck it, I’m a man and we can be possessive bastards.

Before she arrived from the hospital I had DJ make her a sign while I spoke with Six. He was strung real tight these last couple of days. I think a man like him senses something in the air when shit’s about to go down.

“I need to go see my Dad. I need to discuss my uncle with him and let him know I’m out of all of it.”

“He won’t let you go easily.” He clicks his neck and folds his arms over his chest. He is menacing as fuck and I’m grateful to have him more than he knows. I plan to sign the bar over to him so he can have his shop still when all this is done. I have enough money in the offshore accounts to last me and Alex a lifetime, and I see it as payment for ‘time spent’.

“I’ll watch over them. I won’t let harm come to them.”

“Thank you, brother.” I grasp his bicep and he mimics my actions.




My knee bounced as I waited for my Father, the drive here was an anxious one and all I wanted to do was turn around and go back to Alex and DJ. It made me all kinds of uncomfortable being here in the waiting/visiting area of the prison. I felt like they were going to lock the doors and laugh at me, telling me getting out was just a joke and that I’m not really free. The smell and sight literally made my gut ache. I hated that I was there and not at home where I was needed.

But I had to know what he wanted; I needed to know that he knew from my own mouth that I’m done.

He walked towards me and I noticed the creases in his skin making him look older than his years. He was still a handsome man, but the inside has taken its toll on him, he walks with a hunch to his shoulders and there’s that dead look in his eye that tells me there’s a soul missing inside him.

“Your uncle has to go,” were the first words out of his mouth. “He put a hit on me.”

“How do you know that?”

“Don’t question me, boy, or how I know. I know who and I’m going to kill him but you need to end Keith. Either you will or Jude will.”

I couldn’t tell him about the case Jimmy has against my uncle. More than anything my Dad hates the law, and if I spilled what I know, he could do a one-eighty and inform Keith about what’s happening. “It’s not just me, kid.”

“What’s not just you?”

“He wants you gone too.”

I always knew he didn’t want me around. It wasn’t a surprise and hopefully it wouldn’t be a problem soon.

“I’ve told Jude to take care of him but it would be in better standing if you did it.”

“Jude?” I ask. Jude is not capable of murder. He is a lackey, a bar runner, not a fucking murderer.

“Jude will get it done. He’s promised me he will if you can’t.”

Oh that’s comforting. “

“In the meantime you need to let her go, son.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The fucking girl! She’s not right for you, she holds too much power over you. She’ll be your downfall.”

“I’m out, Dad. This life was never meant for me. My name was my downfall, not a woman. Mom wasn’t yours either. You were hers. You infect everyone around you and I don’t want to be that. I don’t want that legacy for my kid.”

“Your kid?”

“I’m done. Bye, Dad.”

“Ten! Ten! Dalton, come back here. Dalton!”

I gasped at the clean air when I made it beyond those walls, and jumped in the car. I wasn’t going to stay, I was going to drive back, collect Alex and DJ, and get the hell out of dodge until Jimmy executed his plan and got my uncle put away.

My father wouldn’t take what happened in there lying down, but if he sent Jude after me I was sure I could handle it. Fucking Jude.

The journey was spent breaking the speed limit, but the roads were quiet and everyone drives at their own speed anyway. The cop cars only go up to a certain speed and if they think they can’t catch you, they don’t even try. My pulse began to pound when I got to Alex’s street and saw the flashing lights. I was shaking when I stepped out of the car and saw my old house lined with policemen who were stretching tape around the perimeter. The front door was open and the light shining from inside highlighted blood spatter up the walls. All the heat drained from my body as ice washed through me. It was like slow motion. I could hear and see everyone but I wasn’t really registering them. There was a blanket placed over a figure on the grass. I rushed towards it but was held back by officers. I struggled to break free but when my eyes slid to the other side of the road I saw police in Alex’s house. I ripped myself from the officer’s hold and sprinted across the street. They tried to hold me back but Jimmy was there and he gestured for them to let me through. I rushed up the stairs and saw the house was a mess.

“Is she in there?” I managed to choke out, grabbing onto the door frame to stop myself from collapsing. I shouldn’t have left her.

“There’s been a struggle and we have found blood but no-one is here.”

Blood.

Fear planted itself inside my chest and weaved through my being, polluting my insides.

“DJ,” I whispered.

“We’ve had a report that a man fitting the description of Taylor Jake entered the Mayflower Hotel with a boy who my officer on the scene has confirmed as a Dalton Junior Moore. Apparently he took him there to his grandmother and was gone before my officer got there.”