| |
––––––––
WHEN JACK REACHED THE sanctuary of the basement, he went straight to the bar in the games room and poured himself a large scotch. He tilted his head back and poured half the spirit down his neck, seemingly without swallowing.
‘Everything okay, bro?’ Harry watched his friend curiously, sensing all was not well.
‘If you discount the fact I’m a fuckwit dumbass, everything’s peachy,’ Jack growled.
‘What were you thinking?’ Keith spoke up from his place at the end of the couch. ‘You know better than to go wandering around the house when his lordship is here.’
‘I was testing a hypothesis,’ Jack grumbled. ‘I had this idea that maybe the relationship wasn’t kosher, and I was searching for evidence to substantiate my theory.’
‘Did you find it?’ Keith enquired mockingly. ‘Or did you find DG schmoozing the boss?’
‘I found him wrapped around her like ivy around an oak tree,’ Jack snarled. ‘I’ve got a .45 ACP shell with that guy’s name on it.’
Harry immediately perked up and opened his mouth to make enquiries about the ammunition in question, but Keith got their first with, ‘I know it’s tempting, Dog, but I don’t want you to kill DG. He’s too hot a target, and the whole thing could easily backfire on us. Besides, the boss will know it’s you and might not be best pleased.’
‘She won’t know for sure it was me,’ Jack muttered sullenly.
‘Are you willing to take the chance?’ Keith eyeballed him. ‘If I were you, bud, I’d think long and hard before taking such a drastic step.’
Harry had been listening to this exchange with avid interest and now added his nickel’s worth to the conversation.
‘Keith has a point, bro,’ he said sympathetically. ‘Taking out a civilian who employs hundreds of thousands of staff and has six motherless children to boot, might not be the smartest move you ever made. Purely out of professional interest, how did you come by the ACP shells?’
‘I took a Colt from one of the guys who came after Thorns last week,’ Jack sounded distracted, as he pondered his friends’ opinions of his proposed cold-blooded murder of Dorian Ganley, and acknowledged they might have a point.
‘Those chicks upstairs sure are magnets for trouble,’ Harry cast a sideways glance at Keith as he took a sip of his beer.
‘I guess you heard what happened earlier this evening,’ Keith stared at the floor and his eyes clouded over.
‘It’s all over Facebook,’ Jack told him. ‘What did you think was going to be the consequences of proposing to her in front of twenty homos, dude? You may as well have shouted it from the top of the Spire.’
‘It’s all over Twitter as well,’ Harry added his contribution. ‘I’m reliably informed Amelia Fox has been tweeting about it for hours.’
‘Who’s Amelia Fox?’ Keith looked blank.
‘Jimmy’s ex-girlfriend,’ Jack replied curtly. ‘She has a bigger following that most movie stars. Don’t ask me why.’
‘She has an amazing rack,’ Harry’s voice deepened a couple of octaves. ‘Our eldest is besotted by her, and I don’t blame the kid. I can’t believe Jimmy let a top-grade piece of ass like that slip through his royal fingers.’
‘She wanted him to have a vasectomy,’ Jack said sourly. ‘That’s like against his religion or something.’
‘Bitches be crazy,’ Harry leaned back with his beer bottle pressed to his lips, once again checking out Keith using his peripheral vision.
‘She hates me,’ Keith had zoned out and was regarding the floor as if it was his only means of solace. ‘She’ll be gone in a month, and I’ll never see her again. Where did I go wrong?’
‘Gráinne didn’t say yes until the third time I proposed,’ Harry did his best to sound encouraging, even though he secretly believed Keith’s suit was doomed to failure. ‘I seem to recall she had reservations about marrying an American. Especially one with a failed marriage in his rear-view mirror.’
‘Is Gráinne not divorced as well?’ despite his troubles, Keith looked interested.
‘She was a widow when we met,’ Harry told him. ‘Her first husband was killed during a mugging gone wrong. The guy stepped in to save a young tourist from being assaulted, and ended up getting murdered for his trouble. Three years later, Gráinne arranged a house swap with an American family. She packed up her kids and brought them to the States on an extended vacation. When we first met, she was happy enough to have a fling, although she didn’t take me seriously. It took a while to bring her around to my way of thinking, especially as I had Orenthal to consider. She assumed I’d never leave the U.S. to be with her fulltime.’
‘Who’s Orenthal?’ Keith stared at the other man.
‘My son from my first marriage.’
‘Wow,’ Keith looked impressed. ‘That’s complicated.’
‘You have no idea,’ Harry replied in a voice as dry as a bone. ‘When you’re feeling less sore about things, I’ll tell you all about the hostilities between me and my ex, and how she did her level best to drive a wedge between me and my boy. All I’m trying to say, bud, is things aren’t always as dark as they might appear. You have to have faith.’
‘And a big sparkler,’ Jack added seriously. ‘Like the movie stars.’
Keith regarded the other man curiously. ‘You think Rosie turned me down because I didn’t offer her a ring?’
‘Who can say, bud?’ Jack shrugged. ‘All I know is, it’s best not to take a chance like that with a woman. If you’d spoken to me before you went upstairs, I’d have advised you not to pop the question without a ring in your pocket. How’s a chick to know a guy’s serious about marrying her if he doesn’t even bother to spring for the sparkler? They’re not like us, dude. They take that sort of shit very seriously.’
For the first time since exiting the top floor with his pride in tatters and his heart bleeding tears of sorrow, Keith experienced a moment of normality. He glanced at Harry and saw the other man’s eyes were riveted to Jack’s face.
‘Eh, Dog,’ Keith spoke hesitantly. ‘Are you saying you keep a ring in your pocket? In case the opportunity for a proposal should happen along?’
Jack looked surprised by the question. ‘You bet your Paddy ass I do,’ he said firmly. ‘You can’t propose to a chick without a ring, dude. It’s in the rulebook.’
‘Would there be any chance of a sneaky peek at the sparkler?’ Harry’s voice was calm enough, although Keith could tell by the other man’s body language that he was as horrified by this revelation as he was enthralled.
‘I guess so,’ Jack rumbled and promptly stood up. He shoved his right hand deep into the pocket of his combats and when it emerged he was clutching a neat, rather unprepossessing box covered in navy blue velvet. He extended his arm towards his friends and with a casual flick of his thumb, opened the hinged lid.
‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph,’ Keith was the first to react.
‘How much did that that rock set you back, bro?’ It took Harry a good thirty seconds to get the words out, and even then, he wheezed slightly as he uttered them.
‘Best part of a million bucks,’ Jack shrugged, as if such a sum was of no consequence. ‘It’s called the Bluebell Diamond. It has some sort of history associated with it, which is why it was so expensive. It’s the one she wants, so I figured I’d buy it for her while I had the opportunity.’
‘That’s a very snazzy ring, bro,’ Harry maintained his best poker face. ‘Are you optimistic the lady will say yes?’
Jack took hold of the box and waved the giant diamond under his friend’s nose. ‘Only if she gets a load of the ring first,’ he said firmly. ‘That’s what I’m trying to tell you guys, but you’re not listening. You can’t be too careful when it comes to women and their geegaws. The K-Man needs to get his ass in gear and go buy the necessary bling for that high maintenance bitch of his.’
‘If you call her that again, I’m going to shove that vulgar monstrosity down your throat,’ Keith snarled at Jack, as he gestured towards the diamond.
Jack unexpectedly chuckled. ‘It sure is vulgar,’ he laughed. ‘And it’s gonna swamp her ittty bitty hand, but I know she’s gonna love all twelve carats of it.’
‘In all fairness,’ Keith addressed the floor again, ‘my Rosie can be high maintenance when the mood takes her, but at least she doesn’t have conversations with beings who aren’t actually there, and then behave as if we’re the oddballs because we can’t see them too.’
Harry watched for Jack’s reaction to this, but his pal only laughed. ‘She sure is one crazy little broad,’ he grinned happily. His smile faded and he grew serious again. ‘I’ve discussed strategy with the Bug, and I’m gonna shift things up a gear this month.’
‘Don’t scare her,’ the words were out before Keith could engage his brain.
‘Why would I scare her?’ Jack demanded impatiently. ‘You guys think I know nothing about women. Why don’t you focus on untangling the cluster fuck that has become your life, and leave me to deal with my own issues, bro? Fuck knows you’re not exactly a role model for the romantically inclined right now. Even I wouldn’t be stupid enough to propose to one broad while I was involved with another.’
Instead of reacting to this criticism, Keith’s face clouded over and he returned to floor gazing in silence. Harry abruptly stood up and almost ran to the bar. He set about fixing three large whiskies in clean glasses, methodically dropping in the ice with a white plastic tongs like a man with a clear mission.
His rugged face was set in worried creases, although he did not express any of his concerns as he prepared the beverages. As soon as he was done, he picked up two of the glasses and handed them over. Keith stood up as he accepted his, sensing Harry had poured the whiskey for a reason. Jack closed the ring box with a snap and returned it to his pocket before taking his. Harry fetched his own glass and drew closer to the other two.
‘Fellas, I wish you the best of luck in your respective missions,’ he said solemnly. ‘I’ve never been so grateful to be a happily married man as I am right now. Raise your glasses and let’s drink a toast to women and their geegaws.’
‘Women and their geegaws,’ they spoke simultaneously. The three men clinked their glasses together and then poured half the contents down their throats.
