Jack and Angie

Chapter 5


A couple of days later, she was tending the bar at Johnny’s when all four Mercers walked in. She groaned and rolled her eyes at Bobby as he smirked in her direction with a ‘What?’ gesture of his hands and his shoulders. Her gaze flicked behind him as Jack walked in, took one look at her and started to look as if he had been sucking on a lemon.

She didn’t have to put up with this shit. Taking off her small apron that she wore, she threw it on the bar and yelled for Johnny, “Hey Johnny! Some customers up front. I’m taking my break.” And walked into the back room as the owner came behind the bar to serve the boys.

The door had barely closed behind her before it flew back open and smacked her on the ass. “Angie, don’t be like this man.” Bobby tried to cajole her. “I didn’t know you would be working tonight and you know that we always come to see Johnny whenever any of us are in town.”

She spun at him and thumped him on the chest with a small fist, ignoring his indignant ‘Ow!’ as she spat, “So this has nothing to do with you wanting me to tell Jack as soon as possible?”

Straightening his expression, his eyes hardened warningly as he said, “I promised you that I would let you have the chance to tell him Pipsqueak, but I didn’t take you for a pussy.”

“What!” she almost screeched.

Bobby folded his muscled arms over his chest as he said, “You are procrastinating. You know you could have come over to the house and made it a good time to tell him everything, but instead, you are pussyfooting around. If you don’t hurry up and tell him sweetheart, he’s going to leave town and I for one, am not gonna let him go without knowing the truth!”

“Are you threatening to tell him Bobby?” Angie hissed dangerously.

Bobby shook his head and said, “I guess I am. He has to know and if you don’t have the balls to tell him, I will. So bring your pretty ass back out there and come have a drink with us. While you’re doing that, ask Jack to talk to you alone ‘cause you have something to tell him and then tell him!” With that, he walked back out of the room closing the door behind him to let her stew in private.

She paced around the tiny room as she wrung her hands. When Johnny came in the back, he noticed straight off that something was wrong, so he told her to go sit down and have a drink, that it wasn’t so busy that he needed both her and the new girl Naomi for the rest of the night.

She hurried through the door, not looking at the bar where Jack and his brothers sat as she went into the women’s bathroom. Nervously checking to make sure she looked alright, just because she was in no way vain, didn’t mean she wanted to look like a hag either, she soothed out the wrinkles in her black tank top and skinny jeans that she had paired with her favorite pair of knee-high black boots that day.

She finally left the bathroom and made her way through to reach behind the bar and grab her jacket. Bobby, Jerry and Angel she noticed, were watching her very closely as if daring her to make a run for the door. Knowing them, if she did, they would just throw her over their shoulder and drag her back anyway. She took one last deep breath as she told herself, ‘This is it. It’s now or never girl, so do what they all told you and put your big girl panties on and tell the love of your life that he is your baby’s daddy.’

With her nerves strangely calm, she walked over to stand beside the stool that Bobby sat on and said brightly, “Hi guys!”

She heard a snort come from Jack but ignored it as she asked Angel, “Where is Sofie?”

“La Vida Loca is at home.” Bobby answered for his brother. While Angel shook his head in exasperation as he said, “Come on man, drop the La Vida Loca shit already.”

As they bickered back and forth, she started making small talk with Jerry while being very conscious of Jack on the other side of her. After a few minutes, the group moved to a table at Johnny’s urging. Johnny came over to the table to offer his condolences, “Fucking gangs, worms. Somebody aught to step on them.” He said.

“Which gang Johnny G?” Bobby asked in a deceptively casual tone.

In a flash, she knew where the conversation was headed. She was just too stupid and too caught up in her own private drama to realize it. Angie should have known this was going to happen the minute Bobby and Angel hit town. The Mercer boys were out for blood, or at least three of them were, and somebody was going to end up floating in the river by the time it was all said and done. The thought that it could be Jack made her chest hurt as if someone just reached in and started squeezing her heart as hard as they could. Angie broke out in a cold sweat and the roaring in her ears drowned out the conversation going around at the table.

She felt sick. Suddenly lurching to her feet and ignoring the concerned questions around her, she made it to the bathroom just in time to lose the few mouthfuls of spaghetti she had made Sebastian that night before the babysitter showed up. She heard Jerry knock on the door as she was rinsing out her mouth and ask her if she was alright and she called back that she was fine, that she just ate something that didn’t agree with her. The silence on the other side of the closed bathroom door told her plainly that Jerry didn’t believe her, but he didn’t argue. He called back that he was heading home and he would see her later. She opened the door and gave him a hug before he left.

She went back to the table just in time to hear them planning to go talk to some gang members that were having a party at an abandoned warehouse. Overcome with the need to keep an eye on Jack, she insisted on going. Jack automatically broke out in a “HELL NO!” while Bobby gave her a telling look and walked out of the bar without a word.

She and Jack argued hotly all the way to her car, which was conveniently parked right next to Bobby’s before Angel grabbed Jack by the back of his jacket and stuffed him into the car. Bobby grabbed her by the arm as she went to climb into the backseat with Jack and pulled her away where they would not be overheard.

“Angie, you can’t get mixed up in this. You know why. You have your boy to think about now.” Bobby stated finally.

Angie ripped her arm out of his grip, but he only grabbed her again as she cried, “What if something happens to him Bobby? What will I do then?”

“Nothing is going to happen Ang, and would it matter to you if it did?” A deep voice asked softly behind her. Bobby and Angie both turned around to look and saw Jack standing there in the snow covered parking lot with his hands in the pocket of his leather jacket. His eyes were fixed on hers and for the first time since he came back, there was no anger or bitterness in his blue eyes. What she saw there was hope.

Bobby backed away to give them some privacy as she answered him just as softly, “It would kill me if something happened to you Jackie.” When she saw the tears well up in his eyes, she started crying harder. As she sobbed, something happened that she thought would ever happen again. Jack pulled her into his strong arms and held her tight, whispering soothing words in her ear as he stroked her hair with one hand.

After a long time, he pulled away from her long enough to wipe the tears off of her face with his thumbs as he said, “You can’t get involved Angie. I can’t have anything happen to you either and you have Sebastian to think about.” She opened her mouth to tell him. Tell him all about why she had hurt him and about their little boy that reminded her so much of him, but he silenced her with a finger over her mouth as he asked, “Where is Sebastian by the way?”

Thrown off track by his question, she answered, “At home with the babysitter, why?”

He hugged her again before pulling back from her once more, and grabbing her face between his hands, “We will drive you back to your house to get him and then we will take you to our place. Me, Bobby and Angel are going to go take care of this and then when I get home, you and I are going to have a very long talk.” There was a look in his eye that warned her that she dared not argue with him, so she nodded and meekly let him lead her to Bobby’s car. She got into the backseat as Jack explained to his older brothers where they were to take her.

The drive to her house was made in silence, Jack not letting go of her hand the whole way. Just as they pulled in front of her house, Bobby told her they would go get her car in the morning. Jack came in with her to send Kiesha, the girl from down the street she always hired to watch Sebastian, home. Jack stood in the doorway of Sebastian’s room, never taking his eyes off of her as she quietly gathered a change of clothes and a toothbrush for her son.

As she bent down to pick Sebastian up out from his bed where he was sound asleep, Jack hurried forward and whispered, “I’ll get him, you go get some stuff for you too.”

She nodded and went into her room to gather the extra large t-shirt she always wore to bed and a pair of boy shorts and a couple of extra pairs of shirts, jeans and socks. Grabbing her own toothbrush out of the bathroom, she met Jack at the top of the stairs where he waited holding a blanket wrapped Sebastian as if he was afraid he would drop him. Her heart melted a little at the sight of their son sleeping in his fathers arms for the first time.

They went back out to the car and Jack gently handed Sebastian to her after she got in so he could climb his thin tall body in after her. Within five minutes, they were back at the Mercer house and getting back out. They all piled into the quiet house and Angel made a comment that Sofie must be sleeping. Bobby whispered in Jack’s ear and he nodded before heading up the stairs while Bobby went into the living room.

She followed Jack up to Bobby’s old bedroom and watched him gently put Sebastian into bed, standing there for a few seconds brushing Sebastian’s cheek with one long finger before straightening up and grabbing her hand to pull her out of the room.

They went back downstairs without saying a word to see Bobby and Angel waiting for them by the front door with their coats still on. Jack felt it when her hand tightened around his and he pulled her into his arms once more as he shot a look at his brothers. They went out to the car as Jack stood there holding her. Eventually, he cleared his throat and said, “I gotta go Ang.”

“I know.” She whispered, her voice choked with emotion. “Be careful Jack, please.”

His arms tightened around her as he answered, “I will. Go wait in my room. This shouldn’t take too long.”

As they pulled away from each other, Jack leaned down and kissed her softly, chastely on the lips. Staring into her eyes one more time he said, “Wait up for me.”

“I will.” She promised.

He smiled that sweet smile that melted her at the knees every time she saw it and left. She took off her coat and hung it on the rack between the door and the stairs. Grabbing the small bag that she had forgotten to leave in Bobby’s room, she checked on Sebastian one last time before going into the bathroom and brushing her teeth. Once she was done, she decided to wait in Jack’s room like she promised, but then the door to Angel’s room flew open and both women gasped and jumped in surprise at the sight of the other.

Holding a hand to her heart, Angie gasped, “Good God Sofie! I thought you were sleeping. You almost gave me a freakin’ heart attack!”

Sofie, who was holding a hand over her own heart gasped something in Spanish that sounded like a prayer before switching to English, “Sorry Angie. I was sleeping, but Angel woke me up when he came in. I wanted to check on you.”

With a toothy grin, she pulled Angie into Jack’s room and pushed her excitedly down to sit on the bed as she asked with a big grin, “So, you told him?”

Angie smiled and shook her head, “No not yet. But he said we were going to talk tonight when he gets back.”

Sofie pouted a bit before saying sincerely, “I was hoping that you being here meant that you had told him everything and that you and him were back together. You know, with Sebastian…a real family.” Angie got all teary eyed again and Sofie told her, “Jack is still in love with you. We all know that. Anyone who sees the way he looks at you can tell, even if you can’t.”

Angie reached out and hugged the older girl as she sobbed, “You are the best Sofie, don’t let anyone ever tell you different…even Bobby.”

The two hugging girls drew apart as another voice intruded on their heart to heart, “Aww shit! Jack! You better get your skinny ass up here! La Vida Loca has her claws in Angie!” Bobby yelled.

Angie sprang up and threw an empty beer can at him, hitting him on the side of the head as she hissed, “Shh! Sebastian is sleeping Bobby! I swear to god, if you wake him up, YOU will be the one to sing him the ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’ song until he finally goes back to sleep our you stab yourself in the eardrums to get that fucking song out of your head!”

“Yeah Bobby!” Jack laughed as he elbowed a horrified looking Bobby out of the way.

The mood turned serious as Angie asked, “So what did you guys find out?”

Bobby and Jack shared an uneasy look as Bobby replied, “The witness was a set up.” He went on to explain to the two women as they grew more horrified all that the little gangster wanna-be had told them and how they had checked to make sure the lights on the courts went out a full hour before the shooting happened. He told them that it was what was called a questionable kill. How sometimes, hit-men covered their tracks by paying off a witness to lead the police in the wrong direction.

“Why would anyone want to kill the sweetest old lady in the goddamn world?” Angie asked mystified.

“I don’t know Angie, I don’t know” Bobby sighed.