Jack and Angie

Chapter 12


The house was dark when he got there and he wondered where Angie and Sebastian were. Deciding to wait for them, he plunked down in the swing on the porch and lit a cigarette. Going over what he wanted to say in his mind while he waited, he would get up every once and a while to stomp his feet to keep from getting hypothermia. Even then, he was still freezing his ass off. He had not had time to become re-accustomed to the frigid temperatures of a Detroit winter.

Deciding to take a walk around the block to warm himself up, he was on his second circuit when he came around the corner and spotted an unfamiliar Ford Taurus pull up in Angie’s driveway. He stood there, two houses down as he watched Angie and some guy get out of the car and walk toward her front door.

He watched with his heart thundering and his blood pounded in his ears as the fuckhead leaned over and kissed Angie and that was when he lost it.

Angie refrained of giving a huge sigh of relief as her house came into view. Her date was a nice guy. He had been someone she had met during one of her shifts at the bar. He had asked her out right after she had gone back to work after Jack got out of the hospital and she had turned him down without even thinking about it. He had asked her if she had a boyfriend and Johnny had given her a sharp look when she said that no, she didn’t. He had smiled at her and declared that he would keep coming back every night until she said yes.

Finally, after two weeks of his asking her out every night, she had said yes. The date had been nice enough, but she knew that her heart was not in it. She had initially accepted because her head told her that she had to get over Jack Mercer sometime and here was a perfectly nice guy that could help her do that.

He was everything that Jack Mercer was not. He dressed in perfectly pressed designer clothes, he drove a nice car, he had a steady job, owned his own house, liked classical music, went to college, preferred wine to beer and had not one tattoo.

His smell did not make her feel safe and content, the look in his eyes did not make her feel like the most beautiful girl on the planet, his smile did not make her heart pound, his voice did not memorize her and his every touch did not make her sing with desire.

He did none of the things for her that Jack did.

He was safe, dependable and boring. And Angie Montgomery did not feel the slightest bit of attraction for him. So when he leaned down to kiss her goodnight, she turned her head slightly so that his lips would land on her cheek. Her eyes widened and she squeaked when she saw Jack sprinting across the yard with a bloodthirsty look on his face. She jerked back just in time to avoid being knocked down by her dates body when Jack’s fist landed dead in his face.

She heard the crack of a broken bone and she yelled, “Jack! No!” as she grabbed his arm as he swung it back, preparing to let it fly again. He shook her off like a housefly and jumped on top of the prone figure before him, landing punch after punch as he screamed, “THAT IS MY FUCKING GIRL ASSHOLE!! YOU DON’T FUCKING TOUCH HER!!”, while she kept screaming at him to stop and the one who was getting his ass kicked yelled in pain.

She tried, unsuccessfully, to drag Jack off of his opponent, only to get clipped in the chin when the guy tried to hit Jack back. Hearing her yell and knowing that the guy had hit her, even accidentally, renewed Jack’s rage. Blows rained down on the guy like crazy until suddenly, Jack was yanked off of him like a rag doll.

Bobby had Jack in a half nelson as Jerry stood between Jack and the bloody mess on the ground, talking to Jack like one would an enraged animal. Angel bent over the groaning man, trying to get him up off the ground, which he was hugging like his new best friend. Sofie and Camille ran over to Angie who was sitting on the ground looking dazed and holding her chin.

Angie’s dazed state didn’t last long and she felt all the anger she had been holding back since Jack had thrown her out of his bed and out of his life boiled over, “JACK MERCER!!! WHAT THE FUCKING HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!!”

Everyone flinched as a group and Angel muttered, “Boom!” indicating to the others that the bomb had gone off. Looking down at Angie’s date, or what was left of him, he said impatiently, “Get up boy! Act like you ain’t never gotten an ass beatin’ before.” Angel yanked him to his feet.

The guy looked at Angie with wide eyes, “Your ex-boyfriend is a Mercer? And he is your son’s father?” when Angie just nodded, the guy got even whiter than he already was as he stammered, “Yeah, okay…um I’ll—I’ll just be going now. Thanks for a nice night.” He started towards his car at an almost run.

“I am SO sorry Ryan!” Angie called after him as Bobby, Sofie, Angel, Jerry and Camille tried to hide their snickers. Jack merely gave the guy a look that made him run faster.

Angel lost it and started to guffaw as he pointed at Bobby, “That’s because of you.”

“Yeah, like y’all didn’t have nothin’ to do with it” Jerry told Angel.

Bobby defended himself, “You helped you know, it wasn’t just all me.”

“Don’t worry about it Angie.” Ryan waved it off without stopping.

Bobby let Jack go just as Ryan’s car peeled out of the driveway. Jack straightened his clothes and inspected his knuckles as he breathed heavily. As soon as Ryan’s car disappeared from sight, Angie wheeled around and stalked off.

Jack gave Bobby and the rest a baffled look as he started to follow, wondering where she was going. He vaguely heard Jerry say, “I told y’all that she was gonna crack. Didn’t I?”

“Yes you did baby.” Camille crooned as she agreed with her husband.

Jack gave a little sigh of relief when Angel stomped up the porch of the Mercer house and flung the door open. She stood to the side and tapped her foot impatiently as the rest of the group caught up. She jerked her head towards the door with a murderous look and they filed into the house with hanging heads.

They all took a seat on the couch and tried to look innocent.

Angie let the tension build by her silence before she said, “Alright. Which one of you told him?”

Jack looked confused while the rest looked really uncomfortable. Camille finally spoke up and said, “None of us told Jack about your date tonight Angie, I swear.” Well it was the truth. They hadn’t let Jack overhear the conversation about the date she went on tonight, just the one she was going on tommorow.

“Did I not ask all of you to not interfere?” Angie said, not believing Camille for a minute.

“We didn’t!” Bobby stated emphatically with a very, very quietly muttered, “Much.”

Angie whirled and stomped up the stairs without a word, Jack following her to see where she was going. After giving each other a relieved look, Bobby told Camille, “I love you.”

“Hey!” Jerry yelled, “She’s your brother’s wife ya bastard!”

Bobby told him with sincerity, “She just saved my balls as well as yours. I can love her if I want.”

“Well alright then.” Jerry said satisfied with that answer.

Upstairs, Angie made immediately for her old room and quietly opened the door. She stuck her head in and Jack saw that Sebastian was sleeping in the bed. Jack felt himself relax slightly as he saw that his son was home and safe. He had been blown away about how much he loved his son and how it had happened even before he knew that Sebastian was his. He knew he would literally kill or die for Sebastian without even thinking about it and the thought of that beautiful little boy being subjected to half the abuse that Jack had gone through before Evelyn Mercer saved him made him weak at the knees. Which was a why that he had a fit when Angie had once suggested hiring a babysitter.

Oh, hell no.

As far as Jack was concerned, Sebastian’s safety was strictly a Mercer family duty. If it wasn’t one of the family, it was no one…period.

Jack was brought out of his musings when Angie abruptly turned back and headed downstairs and straight out the front door onto the enclosed porch without a word.

“Here! Now!” she hissed at him with a deadly glare.

Suppressing the sudden desire to tell Bobby to come here and then use him as a human shield, Jack obeyed.

Once he joined her, she closed the door after him and put her hands on her hips, “What the fuck Jack?!” she yelled, “What gives you the right to show up at MY house and beat the shit out of a perfectly nice guy, huh?”

“He tried to kiss you.” Jack muttered sulking.

Her eyes narrowed and she seemed to get even madder. They both knew that every single person inside the house was listening intensely to their loud conversation, but neither could take the time to actually care.

“Let’s get something straight Jack!” she yelled as she poked him in the chest with one finger, “What—‘poke’—I—‘poke’—do—‘poke’—is none—‘poke, poke’—of—‘poke’—YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS!!” poke, poke, poke.

“Like hell it’s not Angie!” Jack yelled back.

She continued to stab at his chest with her finger hard enough to make him back up a step with every word, “YOU were the one that said that there was NOTHING between us Jack! YOU were the one that told me to move my stuff out of your room!”

“I WAS FUCKING ANGRY OKAY?!!” Jack screamed, “I WAS ANGRY AND I DIDN’T THINK ABOUT WHAT I WAS DOING! BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN I AM GONNA STAND THERE WHILE YOU MAKE OUT WITH GUYS IN FRONT OF ME!!”

“YOU DON’T OWN ME JACK MERCER!!” She screamed back.

“YES I DO ANGIE!” he grabbed her by the arms and slammed his mouth over hers in a passionate kiss. Licking her bottom lip, he groaned when she gave him entry to slide his tongue into her mouth and met it with hers. Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her closer, as if trying to melt inside of her. When her arms flitted up to link around his neck, his slid down to cup her ass and lift her, locking her legs around his waist as he maneuvered her so that her back was against the brick wall of the house.

He continued exploring her mouth as he sucked on her tongue and thrust his hips against her pelvis, eliciting a long moan from her before tearing his mouth away to whisper as he brushed the sides of her face with his fingers, “I own you and you own me. It’s been that way since we were kids Angie and nothing is ever gonna change that.”

At the sound of his husky voice, Angie snapped back to her senses and stiffened like a board as she pushed him away from her. Raising a trembling hand to her mouth, she stepped away from him and peered out into the night. When she turned back, he was looking at her with such pain and confusion; it made her instantly angry again.

“Don’t Jack.” She snapped, “Don’t look at me like that. You kick me out of your hospital room after almost dying, refuse to see me or talk to me and then, what was it you told me…ah, yes…’there was nothing between us but Sebastian’.”

Jack took an involuntary step back from her as he winced.

“Now you have the fucking nerve to stand here and kiss me and tell me that you made a mistake?” she glared venomously at him, “So now what Jack, hmm? Let me guess, I’m supposed to welcome you back with open arms and open legs and that will be the end of it?” She spat out, “That’s very fucking convenient. I make a mistake, one I am terrible, horribly, truly sorry about, and I get kicked to the fucking curb, but you make one and all is supposed to be forgiven and forgotten, hmm? Well TOO FUCKING BAD JACK!” she screamed, “You had your chance and now it’s gone. I am getting on with my life. Like you said Jack…there is only Sebastian between us. Stay away from me.”

“Angie, wait—please…don’t do this.” Jack called, going after her as she whirled around and flung open the outer door, then slammed it behind her.

She turned to face him as he stood in the open doorway and said with finality, “NO! You had your chances to forgive me Jack…now it’s just too late.”

He watched her jog back to her house, uncertain what to do to fix the mess he had made. He sagged down onto the porch with his head in his hands until Angel came up and clapped a hand to his shoulder. It wasn’t until then that Jack realized that he had been crying.


A/N: Surprised? Heck, me too. I was going to have a happy ending here, but then I was just busy typing away, and this came out. I was like, Whoa! Back up that there horse…What? The plot bunnies have taken over.

I know that the chapters are now numbered wrong, but I am just to darn lazy to fix it at this point. Besides, I am (admittedly) a tinsy bit technology challenged, and I’m afraid that if I do anything about it, I will mess it up.

I would like to thank all my reviewers and those that added me to their story alerts and favorites without the reviews. You guys inspire me.