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He bounces on the balls of his feet as though he’s getting ready to run. Jessie is under strict instructions to stay in the car and not even show her face in case this is some kind of trap and anyone is watching. I know she must be itching to roll that goddamn window down and talk to him.
“You’re getting in that car one way or another, kid,” Mikey says. “So why not just walk in like a man before my brother and I make you cry in front of your whole neighborhood?”
Hayden’s Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows.
“Get in the fucking car, kid,” I snarl and he nods before he takes a few tentative steps toward it. When I open the door, Jessie’s smiling face is right there and it seems to ease his nerves a little. I mean how could it not? She’s like a ball of fucking sunshine.
“Hi Hayden. Get in,” she says and he climbs into the car as she scoots back along the seat. I close the door behind him before Mikey and I climb in.
“I’m sorry we had to surprise you like that,” Jessie says as he sits in the back seat staring at her, still unsure what the hell we want with him.
He doesn’t speak so she goes on talking. “I’m Jessie. And these are my husbands, Conor and Mikey. Well, two of them anyway, but you met the other two in the club a few days ago.”
“You have four husbands?” he asks. “Is that like even legal?”
Mikey turns in his seat while I keep my eyes on the road. “We don’t really care much for the law,” he says with a smile but there is an edge to his voice. Hayden must pick up on it too because he says no more on the matter. I mean, I can’t blame the kid for asking. Having four husbands isn’t exactly the norm.
“I know it’s kind of unusual but it works for us,” Jessie says.
“Sure does, Angel,” I agree with her, looking in the rearview mirror and giving her a cheeky wink that makes her cheeks flush pink.
Chapter 20
Jessie
“Jessie?” Hayden says, clearing his throat. “Are you Jessica?”
“I knew her. A long time ago.”
He frowns at me and I’m not sure he understands. I mean, he’s a smart kid from what I found about him, but I suppose book-smart and regular-smart aren’t always entirely compatible.
“You can relax, Hayden. I just want to talk to you,” I say with a reassuring smile.
“Okay,” he eventually replies and settles back against the seat. “What was she like?”
“Do you know anything at all about her?”
“Only that her family were murdered when she was young and then she went missing after.”
“But you thought she was still alive? Why is that?”
He clears his throat. “Well, she was never found, so I thought maybe she had survived, but it wasn’t until I started looking for my father that I found out she had.”
Conor fidgets in the front seat as he drives, his knuckles turning white on the steering wheel and the tension in the car suddenly grows thicker.
“Who told you that?”
“Like I said the other day, some guy in a bar.”
“A guy in a bar?” I arch an eyebrow at him but I keep my voice calm and steady, trying to put him at ease and to prevent either Mikey or Conor reaching back and throttling the truth from him. “I’m going to need a little more than that from you.”
His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows. “I don’t have any more. I was asking around about Alexei and, well,” he pulls at the collar of his t-shirt, “as you can imagine people weren’t too happy about me doing that. I was about to get thrown out when this huge guy came over to me and stopped them. I thought he was going to fucking kill me. Then he told me that Alexei was dead but that his daughter was still alive. He said her name was Jessica and I’d find her at Emerald Shamrock. When I found out it was a nightclub, I thought maybe she worked there. That’s all I know.”
“What was the name of the bar?” Conor barks.
“The Black Bear. Like I said,” he says.
I stare at him. A bead of sweat runs down his brow and he wipes it away.
