Bittersweet Irish Cream Ch. 06

"What did Danny do?" June asked.

Drew gave her a sad look. "Oh sweet Junie, of course you wouldn't remember, you were just a babe yourself."

June asked, "What...wouldn't I remember?"

Drew looked at Jack instead. "He raped your mum. Caught her on her way back from picking up Junie. Pushed her down in her car, took her in fronta your sister, in broad daylight. Then sent her home to Jamie."

June's hand went to her mouth and her eyes filled with tears. Jack looked away, spat on the ground. He felt sick. He reached over and hugged June while she cried on his shoulder.

"Keep talking," said Henrietta. "What happened next?"

"Jamie was furious, obviously. Red Jamie came to the main house that night, gun in tow. He wanted to kill Danny but Ruben told him no, he would handle it. Jamie went to Nate and he was furious as well. Nate found where Danny was hiding and beat the bloody shit out of him, broke a bottle over his head, and Danny still has the scar today. Nate wanted Ruben to take something from Danny, like a limb. That's something Rab would have done. He took something from Jamie emotionally, so he should lose a finger, a toe, a whole foot or hand. But Ruben wouldn't do that, he just sent Danny away to London and cut his money down.

"Jamie stopped doing all work for the Family and made Nate choose between his best friend and his brothers. He choose us and cut ties with Jamie. It broke Jamie's heart to lose Nate and he obsessed with destroying Danny. He found out that Danny was running guns from Belfast to London outside of the Family business to make more money. So he went to Mi6 with the numbers, showed them all the finances, routes, everything. He pledged to testify against Danny but not the Family. Danny nearly got caught, but he escaped London, came back to Dublin and told Ruben that Jamie was trying to bring down the family."

"How did he find out it was my dad?" Jack asked.

"No clue. We think he had a friend on the inside of Mi6."

"So Ruben ordered the hit on my family because of what Danny told him?"

Drew shook his head. "No. Ruben called the four of us in for a sit down. Jamie refused to come, said he wasn't part of the family anymore. But Ruben told the rest of us that Jamie is family, and we had to bring him back to our side. And since Danny fucked it up, he needed to be the one to make it right.

"He ordered Danny to apologize, beg forgiveness and bring him back into the Family. Danny at first railed against it, the mere thought of begging forgiveness from his sworn enemy enraged him. But then he said, OK, he'd do it that night. Ruben sent me to go with him, make sure he didn't fuck it up more. But Danny had no intention of making it right. He called Barney and plotted to provoke Jamie into a fight, then say they killed him on self defense. I sat in the backseat, heard it all on our way to the house."

"And you didn't stop them?" June asked accusingly. "Why didn't you tell Ruben or Nate? Or my dad!"

"I told you, I was a kid myself," Drew said. 'What the fuck was I supposed to do? He's my brother. Family over everything. That's the Riley way."

"But I thought Jamie was your brother too?" June said hotly. Drew didn't answer, he looked away.

"So what exactly happened that night?" Henrietta asked.

"Jamie took one look at Danny on his porch and went for his gun. But it was three on one so he didn't get to it in time. Jamie then said, 'you're supposed to apologize to me you son of a bitch,' all smugly. Nate must have called Jamie and told him. Danny lost it, started wailing on him, beating him with the pipe he brought along. I think Jamie knew he wouldn't apologize and he would find a reason to kill him. Jamie was smart that way. But I don't think he was prepared for how much Danny wanted to hurt him.

"We heard Betsy running around upstairs and he sent us to find her and you two. She was trying to make your beds up like you were never there. Barney dragged her downstairs and I pretended to search for you. By the time I came down it was crazy. Jamie was tied with an extension cord. Betsy was screaming and clawing at Danny every chance she could get; she's a fighter that one. Danny was talking about finding you two and cutting you up into little pieces and feeding you to them, sick shit.

"I told Danny, Ruben and Nate are going to be mad, we have to stop this shit. But who the fuck was I? They ignored me. At some point Betsy ran back upstairs and Danny followed her. We heard him start raping her, and Barney dragged Jamie upstairs to watch." Drew breathed out. "It just got ugly from there."

Jack said, "And you helped." He let go of June and walked closer to Drew. "I know what happened next because I was there. He raped her. Then called you and Barney upstairs, and you all took turns raping my mother, beating my father with the pipe until Barney slit her throat and you shot him."

Drew was shaking his head vigorously. "No I barely touched your mum. And I never beat your dad. I...tied him to the bed, yes. And I held her down. Because Danny told me to. What the fuck was I supposed to do!?"

"You also sodomized my dad. You're not fucking innocent here." Jack said angrily.

"I just did what they told me to do," Drew said pleadingly. "I thought, the quicker they get their rocks off, the quicker we could go home. But I realized soon enough they had no intention of letting them live. Either of them. No, I wasn't innocent. Maybe I should have done more. The only thing I could think at the time was protect the wee ones. You and Junie."

He took a deep breath. "Are you gonna torture me and kill me now?"

Jack didn't answer, instead asked, "Why did you shoot my dad? You pulled the trigger. I saw that."

"Mercy," Drew said. "Danny intended to keep the torture going. After Betsy died right in fronta us, in fronta Jamie, her blood on him, he...he lost it. Screaming like I've never heard a man scream before. How he was going to kill us all. Danny shot him in the stomach and he just kept on screaming. I couldn't take it. I knew you could hear it and I had to stop it. So I shot him in the head to make it stop. Then I made everyone get the fuck out and left you there.

"I didn't get back in the car with them, I walked on, called Nate and told him what happened. It killed him inside to know Jamie was gone. And it was war after that. Neither would listen to reason. Nate would keep coming for Danny, shot his men, and blew up his businesses. Danny blew up his home, almost killed his son. Nate blew up Danny's car thinking he would be in it. He wanted to kill him but instead Danny's first wife was in it and got killed.

"Their war split the Family. Ruben sat us all down again, said it's over. We got one for one, Maribel for Jamie, no more bloodshed, he said. Told them they need to start acting like brothers again or leave the family. Nate said right away, 'I'm leaving the Family.' That he should have left when Jamie asked him to, that it was the biggest regret of his life and he'll never forgive himself for what happened to him. He walked out and never came back.

He moved to Belfast with his wife and three kids and still lives there now. Runs a small grocery shop. Won't talk to any of us, although I try to call at least once a year. Even though I apologized every year for my part of it all. He told me one year, we took away his real brother, he has no brothers anymore."              

Jack's heart was pounding with all he heard. He said, "Give me his address."

"If I give you his address, will you let me go?" Drew asked, hopefully.

"I will give you the same courtesy you gave us," Jack said plainly. Drew gave it to him. Henrietta and Jack lowered the rope so Drew could be seated in the chair.

"You'll untie me then?" Drew asked.

Jack said, "Thank you for protecting us then. Than you for telling us the truth now. We were going to torture and kill you, yes. I was going to ram this pipe up your ass as far as it would go, as you hung by your toes. I was going to shoot you in the stomach watch you bleed out a bit, then shoot you in the head. But I'm not going to do any of that. Because you showed my father mercy. And for that, I will show you the same mercy you showed him."

He pulled out his gun and shot Drew in the head before Drew understood what Jack had just said. Jack spat on the floor and turned his back on Drew's lifeless body, leaving the women to dispose of it.

~~~~~

Ethan woke up at 4am. He had been doing that lately. Interestingly when Jack would wake up at 4am for his run, it never woke Ethan up. And now Ethan woke up every morning at 4am and remembered Jack. Remembered Jack's face, his eyes, his smile, his laughter. Today he remembered how Jack would moan when they make love.

He thought about the first time he entered Jack and how he seemed to just melt into his body and Jack's body molded around him. Ethan absentmindedly grabbed his penis and started slowly stroking himself. He remembered Jack coming to him the next day wanting him, needing him. Ethan held a firm grip on the base of his penis with one hand, and started stroking up twisting it ever so slightly in his other hand. He remembered Jack riding him that night at his parents in front of the pool, how he moved and twisted his body. Ethan stroked faster. He was so close.

He remembered the first time he let Jack inside of him. The way Jack held him, kissed him, stroked him, penetrated him, made him cum, then told him he was falling in love with him. Ethan moved faster as the tears started falling.

He remembered Jack on New Years Eve after the ball dropped and they kissed, telling him how he needs to love him. If I couldn't love you, he said, I'd just be dead inside. Ethan felt dead inside. The only part of him that was still alive was his member that was now pulsating in his hands. He remembered how Jack dominated him on the hotel bathroom sink. He knew he was squeezing himself too tight, jerking himself too hard but it was the only way he felt alive now, when his orgasm seized his insides.

He held onto the feeling as long as he could until he cried out loud and came all over himself. His heart was beating fast like he just ran a 5k himself. Ethan opened his eyes and he knew he was alone, but it still broke his heart all over again.

~~~~~~

Jack woke up early with the sun. He dreamed he was laying in bed holding hands with Ethan telling him everything that Drew told him and Ethan told him what to do next. He followed Dream Ethan's advice. He drove the car from Dublin to Belfast, without telling anyone where he was going. Jack thought about all the things Drew said, knowing every word of it was the truth. Memories started flooding him from last night and continued to this morning. It was like Drew unlocked a part of his brain that has been closed and hidden behind all the grief, stored memories from the time before.

Like playing hide and seek with a teenage boy, "Always in the cubby closet Jack!" He remembered sitting at the dinner table on someone's lap- his Uncle Nate. Why didn't he remember his Uncle Nate until just now? Uncle Nate was always around. Jack's middle name is Nathan, clearly he was named for someone...his Uncle Nate obviously. How could he forget that?

He remembered playing under his dad's desk with his toys while his dad talked with an older man for hours. He asked, "Is Grandpa Rab my real grandpa?"

And his father said, "He's as good as. Family is more than blood, Jack. It's who you trust, who you allow in your circle and in your heart. And once they become family, it's your job to protect them. Family comes first. Family over everything else, always remember that."

Other memories kept flooding his mind: Bath time with bubbles, his mother washing his hair; playing soccer in the backyard with his dad; his earliest memory, he couldn't have been than four, June was in his mother's lap and she was breastfeeding. He tried to sit her lap as well, but his dad picked him up with an "oh no you don't" and sat down next to her, putting Jack in his lap. His parents kissed. Jack said, "I don't like the baby. Take her back."

His dad said, "You don't have to like her all the time, but you will love and protect her. That's your number one job, to protect your Junie, always. She's part of your family now. Family over everything." Memory after memory unlocked while he drove to Belfast, all the good ones he had kept hidden, making him whole again.

His GPS took him to a two story cottage type home, and he knocked on the door. An older woman answered with blonde curly hair. "Hallo?"

Jack put on his accent, "Hallo. Is Nate Riley here?"

The woman asked, "Who should I say is calling?"

Jack hesitated. "Jamier Edmin. And old friend."

She looked skeptical. "You're a little young to be an old friend."

Jack smiled his sideways smile. "I just want to talk to him."

She looked at him intently for a long moment. Then said, "Come in dear."

They walked through the quaint and charming home through the kitchen to the backyard. Nate was in a patio chair playing with his three year old grandson. The woman said, "Nate, someone is here to see you."

Nate started rising and turned around, then he froze mid lift. He slowly stood to a stand without taking his eyes off Jack. The woman came over to Nate's side and squeezed his hand, kissed his cheek. She picked up the boy and said, "Come now little Jamie, your granddad needs to talk to an old friend." She smiled at Jack as she took the boy inside.

Nate walked over to Jack. "Christ almighty. You look just like him. Like time just went back to the day I met Jamie in the dorms." He wrapped his arms around Jack's neck and Jack hugged him back. "Welcome home, Jack," Nate said. Jack still didn't speak, but he sat down when Nate motioned for him to sit. "I know why you're here but I can't help you. I can't give you answers or the closure you seek."

Jack said, dropping the accent, "I have the answers I need and I will soon have my closure. I just wanted to see you, Uncle Nate."

Nate asked, "You're OK then?" Jack nodded. Nate nodded as well.

He said, "Galis said he was getting you and Junie out of the country. I knew Betsy had a brother in the States, so we gave him your uncle's number. But I never asked again about it. You're aunt Lizzy who you just met, she asked me to let it go, to walk away, and never concerned myself with the dealings of the Family again. I made it even for Jamie the best way I knew how, with violence. And then I walked away from it all." He looked at him a bit longer. "You sure you're OK, lad?"

"I'm OK. Uncle Henry has always treated me like I was his own son. I couldn't have asked for a better father after I lost my first one," Jack said.

"Aye." Nate said. "Your father was a great man. Saved my life, you know. I barely knew him, he was just one of the boys in the dorm. But one night I almost died of a drug overdose. Your father barely knew my name, but he drove me to the hospital and stayed with me until my dad arrived, when all my other friends abandoned me. He became closer to me then all my actual brothers after that. Kept me in school and out of trouble. Showed me that the Family way was not the only way to live, and he was right. He was always right."

They sat in silence for a moment, Nate seemed like he was thinking about the past. "I'm going to kill them all," Jack said.

Nate didn't react to Jack's statement. Instead said, "Are you in school? Or done with it all, you gotta be what, 24, 25 now?"

"Did you hear what I said?" Jack asked.

"I heard you. Now are you gonna answer my question? Because something tells me you got brains like your dad."

Jack rolled his eyes. "I'm 24. And I didn't go to college. There was no need to because I knew at some point I was going to end up here."

Nate nodded. "Are you in love?" he asked him. "Did you at least experience that before you hopped on a plane to go on a killing spree?" Jack smiled. Nate laughed. "Ah! Is she a bonnie lass?"

"He," Jack said. "And he's the most beautiful, amazing man I've ever met. And he has a son, who I love as well."

Nate's eyes went wide for a moment, then went back to normal. He nodded. "Jamie would have been OK with it. He was open and liberal that way. Betsy too. Do you know I introduced them? I was already dating Lizzy, and we would hang out, then Lizzy's favorite little cousin started hanging out with us. Girls of the same name, Jamie and I had."

Jack mouth opened slightly and pointed toward the house. Nate said, "Yes, my wife and your mother were first cousins. So technically, I am your Uncle Nate."

Jack smiled, and said, "Even if you weren't, you would have been my Uncle Nate. Family over everything." Nate smiled, patted him on the leg.

"Still," Nate said, "Best day in the world when my best friend became my actual brother. I think we enjoyed the wedding more than he did with his wife, we were shitty drunk. I'm pretty sure he didn't get it up for his honeymoon." He laughed and Jack found himself laughing as well. They sat in silence both lost in thoughts, Nate in the past, Jack in the future.              

Jack said, "If I survive this, I'm never coming back here. So this is hello. And goodbye."

Again Nate ignored him. "You haven't mentioned Junie. Is she OK too?"

"She's great. She's in school getting her degree. And she fell in love with my best friend so...still wrapping my head around that, almost a year later."

Nate laughed. "Can't help who you love, can you?"

Jack said softly, "No you can't," thinking of Ethan again.

"So your best friend becomes your brother. Cherish it. I know I think about mine every day," Nate said. "They called him Red Jamie sometimes because he had a bad temper, you know. He was the most easy going person you'd ever met, but don't cross him. Because when Jamie saw red, nothing could get in his way. But Betsy, she cooled all that right out of him. That's what the love of a good woman can do, change you for the better. Or in your case, a good man." They sat in silence again.

Then Nate said, "If you can, spare Ruben. He never wanted this. He wanted to run the Family the way our father Rab did. Family over everything, the Riley way. And Jamie was family, through and through. A couple of years after the war ended, Ruben and Danny got into a huge fight, said Danny ruined the Family with his antics over Betsy and Jamie. Said no one trusted us to protect our own anymore. He stepped down, gave the crown to Danny. They haven't spoken since, at least that's what Drew said. He's still a part of the Family but Ruben runs things out of London, Danny here." He was quiet for a moment then said, "I suspect I won't be getting a call from Drew this Christmas."

"Ruben wasn't on my list. He wasn't there that night. And I know now that he didn't order the hit," Jack said, and Nate nodded. His grandson came running back outside and jumped in his lap. He reminded Jack of a blond EJ and his heart ached again.

"Well, not that you need it," Nate said, "but you have my blessing. My brother died 18 years ago on May 2nd. The rest are no kin of mine." He stood up. Jack stood up as well. "Best get on with it. Then get out as quick as you can, get back to that life and that lad of yours."

Jack pulled Nate into a hug and held him a bit longer than the first one. Lizzy came outside and handed Jack a picture. It was of the four of them, Nate and Jamie his dad in the middle, arms around each other, Betsy and Lizzy on each side. Everyone was smiling. It could have been him in that picture.

Lizzy said, "This was taken the year before you were born. They were so in love and happy." Jack looked at Lizzy and smiled. She did resemble his mother a bit, they had the same curly blond hair, and green eyes that Jack had. He reached for her and hugged her tight as well. When he pulled back tears were falling from her eyes.