Trapped in his End Game (Series)

The dark carpet pulses with a throaty beat, and I feel it crawl up my leg, right inside my chest to pound like a second heart beat. Except, mine’s going much faster. I wipe my hands on my jeans as Vince walks beside me, just as tense.

“What is this about?”

“I have no idea. He just said to get over here immediately.”

I feel like we keep having the same fucking conversation. I’m sure that whatever has Jack in such a panic has to do with Marisa, somehow. And it makes blood pound in my brain like a sledgehammer. Fucking hell, I’ve never felt like this before.

Don’t show weakness.

I walk around the cocktail waitresses and strippers in a haze, and I rip open the Employees Only door for Vince, who heads straight in. Inside the dark office, Jack and the other capos are already gathered. The scene looks tense.

Jack’s dark eyes immediately zero in on me and his teeth clench together, his hair shaking with rage. “That fucking bitch sold the company.”

“What?” It sounds like my voice, but it’s Vince’s.

The guys surrounding Jack shoot accusatory glares at me. I walk to the pool table where Jack stands and look into his furious face.

It’s just not possible.

“There’s no fucking way, Jack. I’ve been with her all this time. How the fuck could she do that?”

“You let her get under your skin, you fucking dumbass.” He grabs the collar of my shirt and shoves me hard. “How could you let this happen?”

Vince approaches the pool table, looking shocked as he grabs the newspaper sitting on the table, announcing the sale of Worlds Casino to Lences Holdings.

Holy shit.

“Jack, I told you. I haven’t let her out of my sight. Not even to take a goddamn piss. How the fuck could she have gotten away with it?”

He releases me, his rage dropping somewhat as he runs a hand through his gray hair. The boss of New York paces in front of me, thinking.

“She still has her phone, doesn’t she? She might’ve convened with her board while you were out-while Ben was watching her. Useless prick.”

That indeed must have been what happened. A hot rush of betrayal fills my cheeks as I look down at the newspaper, the angry bold letters proving that I was a moron to trust her. She did this behind my back-why?

Why would she do this?

Vince snatches it out of my hands and he hurls it back onto the table. “Fuck. We need to act fast. I want that Jamie cocksucker dead. I want his whole crew finished.” He slams his fists into the pool table. “We’re New York, for fuck’s sake! It’s time to put them back in their fucking place!”

“I don’t think it’ll be that easy. Jamie’s a slippery fuck. We don’t even know where they hang out.”Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

Jack moves closer to me. I’m still staring at the spot where the newspaper used to be. His oppressive presence fills me with dread; I don’t dare look at him because I’m afraid of what he’ll ask.

“I want that bitch gone, Joey. Do it tonight and get rid of her.”

The ground seems to fall beneath my feet. A swooping sense of horror vacuums the air from my lungs. My fingers dig into the felt. “No,” I say in a shaking voice. “No, I can’t do it.”

He seizes my arm, his nails digging into my flesh. I’m barely able to register any pain at all. “She needs to go.”

Suddenly, Vince is at my side. “Joe, let’s talk in the office.”

His low voice gives me a spark of hope. Maybe he’ll know a way out of this. He said he went through the same thing, didn’t he? Jack nods and I numbly follow Vince into the office. When the door closes behind me, I fall into the chair in front of Vince’s desk, but he doesn’t go behind it. He sits next to me.

“This is so fucking unfortunate,” he says, kicking the desk out of anger.

I can see him sitting on his chair, his elbows on his knees as he gauges my reaction.

“I’m so sorry, but I have to agree with Jack. She’s got to go.”

Vince’s face is full of regret, but his eyes are ruthless. There’s no way out of this. He knows it. I know it.

I want to scream. An image of myself taking the desk and throwing it against the wall burns in my mind. I’m bleeding to death. It’s like my sister all over again. The crushing weight of despair, of never-ending solitude, and fear squeezes my chest until I’m gasping for air. I bury my face in my hands and my eyes burn. My sister’s dead and now she’s dead, too.

She was the last hope I had for myself, and now that’s gone.

“I can’t do this, Vince. I fucking can’t.” Tears burn my eyes as I shake my head, my voice trembling. “Please, Vince. I can’t do it!”

I can’t look into her eyes and pull the trigger. To do so would be to kill the last human part of me. I’ll never escape my guilt, because I do feel something for her. It explodes out of me, just like Janice’s death. It’s strong and it hurts.

He wraps an arm around my shaking back and squeezes my shoulder. “All right. I understand. Someone else will do it.”

“No!” A raw, animalistic noise leaves my throat as I lift my head and look at Vince. His eyes crease with sympathy, but at the same time, he’s holding back.

“This has to be done, Joe,” he says in a hard voice.

Has to?

I sit up without caring that he can see tears swimming in my eyes. There won’t be a compromise from him. She’ll die, and they’ll do it their way.

She will suffer.

Breath catches in my throat. “I’ll do it.”

I don’t want anyone to hurt her. They won’t be gentle. They might drag it out. Oh, God. The idea of cleaning her up makes me sick.

The panicked voice inside my head booms in my ear. I can’t do this! I can’t fucking kill her!

“Think about everything you’ve worked for, Joe. You don’t want to throw all that away.”

Throw it away? But it’s okay for me to throw her away? I can’t just ignore the fact that having her around made me happier than I’ve been in months. Oh, God. What am I supposed to do? She’s the piece of my heart that screams right now. I just started fucking feeling normal again, and now-?

I have to make a choice and stick with it. Kill her or suffer the consequences. My head pounds as I try to think about the logistics of it all, what I’ll do with her body-and a wave of nausea hits me hard. It’ll be easier-it’ll be less painful to be killed than to do this to her. But the family is my life. My loyalty never wavered until now. Never have I felt so divided, so unsure.

My heart doesn’t feel divided. It knows what it wants: her. I can’t do this without losing a part of me forever.

“Joe?”

“You told me I had to make a choice. I’m making one now.”