It was a dive bar, a hole in the wall. The kind of place where no one asked why you were there, and no one really wanted to know. I loved that about McKenna’s. It meant that I could go there and sit for hours, and no one would bother me. No one would recognize me. Except Vick, the bartender, and a few of the long-time patrons, but they just knew me as “Grey” and nothing else.
“Hey man, been a while since you’ve been in here, what can I get for you?” Vick asked. He was already reaching for my favorite brand of bourbon.
“You know what I like,” I said, smiling as I eased down onto the stool. I gave him a wink, and he chuckled then slid the drink over to me. “Keep it coming, man. I’ve had one hell of a week.”
“Join the club, I’ve had f*ck
ing college kids in here all week,” he pointed over to the billiards room, and I heard it, the annoying noises of frat boys and asshats. Jesus, f*ck
they were loud.
“I can sympathize,” I said nodding to the man. “Get yourself something strong, on me.”
“So you are really going to go through with it?” Janson asked. He waved at Vick who handed him a beer.
“With what?” He was getting on my f*ck
ing nerves. I gripped the glass a little harder and took a swig of it. Alcohol. Sweet f*ck
ing alcohol. That was exactly what I needed.
“The marriage.” He acted like it was obvious, but I had no idea what he was talking about until he said it.
f*ck
. Joanna.
I clenched my jaw. The marriage. Joanna was going to be bound to me no matter if she wanted it or not, all because I wanted to show her ass off at some fancy party. I ruined her life.
She was never going to forgive me but f*ck
. I would at least make her want me.
“I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” I asked. “My father thinks it is the best course of action, her uncle is demanding it-” I shook my head. “She doesn’t f*ck
ing want it.”
“Is that the only thing you regret?” he asked.
“What?”
“Well, it sounds like you are more concerned with how she feels than how you feel.” Janson looked at me with knowing eyes. They were the same f*ck
ing ones my mom gave me when I presented Joanna to her.
Did they all f*ck
ing know my weakness?
I blinked. “I don’t like forcing women to do anything they don’t want to, period.”
“Right, but you sound like marrying her is a good thing.” Janson raised his eyebrow at me and took a swallow of his beer.
I thought about her, all of her. Her tight body. That smart mouth. It gave me the f*ck
ing tingles. What the hell was wrong with me?
“There could be worse things. I mean, I had to get married sometime-“my voice trailed off. My mother was right. I needed to settle down, and if I was going to do it, might as well have it be a woman like Joanna. A woman who made me hard just thinking about her.
“Seriously? And you aren’t itching to find another woman to dip your wick?” he asked, looking around the bar. There were some pretty woman there tonight. Trashy, but pretty. Normally I’d be all for it, but f*ck
, she was laying in my bed waiting for me.
And that was an offer I didn’t want to refuse.
“Wow, man. Wow.” Janson said then waved his hand for another beer. “Well, if that’s settled then we really need to talk what we came here to talk about.”
“David,” I said. Janson was pulling out all the f*ck
ing stops tonight. “What about him?”
“He’s been f*ck
ing sniffing around. Dipping his fingers into your shit.” Janson paused then looked me over. “You don’t even f*ck
ing know, do you?”
“Know what?” I asked. I may have been na?ve, but it was clear I needed an education.
“f*ck
, we got a lot of catching up to do.” Janson shook his head. “I saw him last night, with your father.”
“What?” he might have been a Fitzgerald bastard, but that didn’t mean daddy-dearest wanted anything to do with him. Sure, he gave him a job, set him up nice, but he didn’t openly admit who he was. Not that we didn’t all know. It just wasn’t done.
“He was beating the f*ck
out of the O’Malley boys with your dad last night. Turns out they owed a pretty big f*ck
ing debt. Something about heroin profits?”
I nodded. Part of my dad’s business was infecting the community with that poison, and those low-level shits were perfect distributors. Must’ve shortchanged him on the profits.
Sometimes my dad liked to collect the debts himself.
“And he brought the apple of his eye along?” I asked bitterness dripping in my voice.
My dad liked David. Thought he was a good business person. But he wasn’t ever seen with him, at least not in that capacity. “That bastard.”
It was usually me.
f*ck
.
He was stepping into my role. My dad had always planned for this. Always. Raise two rival sons, hone them off each other, and then whoever was the most powerful would come out on top. He expected the other one to sink to the bottom, of the Bay.
I could feel the tension rising in my arms. The anger spreading through my face. My father had made the first move. He’d put David in a position where I had to counter.
It was deliberate, and I knew it, but that didn’t mean I could resist the bait. f*ck
. I was too angry to think, I needed to bash some f*ck
ing heads.