The Cunning

73

"What the fuck are you going to do about it then, Jase?" Ramon asked. Jase and Sam were sitting in his home office on an expensive leather sofa not made to be comfortable. Across from them, behind the rosewood desk, was Ramon in a tailored grey suit. Jase always found it strange that Ramon wore suits constantly, even in his own home. He wondered if he slept in them.

"We'll kill him. I'm bored with it now," he sighed.

"And how are you going to do that?" Ramon sat back, intertwining his fingers and resting them on his lower stomach. He wasn't a small man, but he wasn't huge in any sense. The stomach was new, a side effect of getting older and his metabolism slowing down. He was also thinning at the crown.

"The less you know, the better. You've got fed all over you from the explosion. I'm not disclosing information that could cause you to be a suspect," Jase replied. Ramon looked at each of the men, shaking his head.

"Why didn't you kill him the second he said no?" he asked.

Jase smiled. "Firstly, where's the fun in that? Secondly, we were in public." Ramon slapped his hands on the desk, leaning forward.

"This isn't about fun." He pointed a sausage finger at Jase, who blinked at it, then looked to Ramon behind it. Ramon dropped it but managed to keep his composure. Jase may work for him but Ramon was no stranger to the things he was capable of. "You've made a balls up of this. Get it fucking sorted, pronto."

Jase refrained from rolling his eyes. "I've never let you down before, have I?" He raised his brows, and Ramon grumbled.

"I want it over by the end of the month, max." The men stood up.

"So, what's the plan?" Sam asked, getting into Jase's Mercedes. Jase lit a cigarette, winding the window down but not starting the engine.

"I'll get someone to find out what car Mitch drives, have Kieran hook a bomb up to his engine. The second the key turns in his ignition, he'll be history, and we'll all be home in time for dinner." But his heart wasn't in it. Since that morning, his mind wouldn't allow space for anything that didn't involve Madison. He couldn't shift the images of her dancing or lying on the bed, fiddling with her underwear or the morbidly curious look she gave him when she asked what it was like to kill someone. Jase's body count wasn't exactly small, but no one had the effect Madison had on him. That sickening uncertainty she drew out of him was thrilling, in a backwards need-a-therapist kind of way.

It was human nature to desire the unattainable. Everyone wants to press the big red button and in this case, Jase was no exception. She was getting to him, more so than before. He intended to make the rest of her life in the house a living hell but her quick switch stopped him in his tracks. Madison wore personalities like other people wore hats. Every time he thought he'd finished her book, another chapter appeared, luring him in.

They went back to the house. Jase didn't stay for long, he had shots to drop and a few ticks to pick up. Sam went upstairs to Janine's room.

"You hungry?" he asked. She looked over from the vanity where she was doing her make-up.

"Can I have some cereal please?" He returned minutes later with a bowl of cornflakes. "If Jase isn't in, am I okay to go sit with Madison?" Janine asked as Sam laid down on her bed. He looked at her with a sceptical frown. Usually, she'd be all over Sam in his free time, however, like Jase, her head was a swamp of Madison. She needed updates, the suspense was killing her.

"Why?" he asked. Janine shrugged, trying not to arouse too much curiosity.

"Not often I get to make some sort of friend in this place."

Sam grunted. "You should know better than making friends with the girls here." Janine looked down at her lap. He was talking about Rachel, a girl that was in the house when Janine first arrived. She was one of the girls Jase shot when drugs went missing. Janine had shared a room with her for a solid month. They'd gotten quite close and then she was... gone. No funeral. No one minute silence in her memory. Wiped off the face of the Earth as if she was never there.

"Well by the looks of things, Madison isn't going anywhere for a while and it would be nice to have someone that wasn't Lily to talk about periods and-" As planned, Sam grimaced, waving his hand.

"Fine, go. Just don't go picking up any of her habits. She's a bad influence." Janine grinned. He had no idea how right he was, but she wasn't about to take a page out of Madison's book. Janine was relatively comfortable with her life, there was nothing for her out in the real world. Her world was Sam. However, there was a growing part of her that wanted Madison to keep pushing, to do what no girl had done before. Picking her bowl up, she went and knocked on Jase's bedroom door.

"Come in," Madison called. Her brows knitted together when Janine walked in, closing the door behind her.

"How are we doing?" she asked, sitting cross-legged on the desk. Madison wasn't sure how much she wanted to disclose. She was conflicted about how she felt, mostly because she didn't understand it. Flirting and seduction were unchartered territories for Madison and she hadn't quite processed all the new feelings that accompanied it.

"In what sense?"

"With Jase. He was watching you dance last night, and I mean watching." Madison sucked her lips in, hiding the involuntary smile.

"You were right," she said. Janine's eyes widened.

"I knew it. Men are so predictable," she said matter-of-factly. Madison nodded. "Has he said anything?"

"Nothing substantial." She paused. "It's like he knows. I don't know how to explain it." Janine was spooning heaps of cornflakes into her mouth, listening intently. "I thought it would make me feel gross, this whole thing, but," she shook her head, "I don't know how to feel. It's like that feeling in your stomach when you go over a hill in a car."

"You should feel powerful," Janine offered, slurping milk off her spoon, "I know it's a bit warped, coming from me, but getting the undivided attention from a guy like Jase is a boss move. I didn't even know he had a type, but apparently, he does, and it's you."

Madison picked up the cigarettes that Jase had left. "But why? What the fuck did I do?"

Janine tilted her head. "Don't be dense, Mads. It's unbecoming of you. We know why." Janine waited for the pin to drop but it didn't. She rolled her eyes. "You challenge him. From the day you got here, you refused to do as you were told. I think he knows if he treats you like the others and starts whoring you out, he'll lose that, and he's not ready to give up his party game yet. He doesn't want to tarnish you, he just doesn't want other people knowing." It was Sam that had informed her of this, not knowing it would be useful for anyone.

Madison groaned, taking two cigarettes out and tossing one to Janine. "Well, am I playing the part of his plaything or not? If he likes being challenged, then eventually, he'll get bored of that too, surely? If I do everything he says?" Janine chewed her lip, placing her now empty bowl next to her and lighting her cigarette.

"Come on, work with me here. You're the one that wants to get out. I can't be the only one putting in brainpower," she said. They both sat, ruminating in silence.

"I have to push him, see how much I can get away with," Madison mumbled.

Janine nodded. "You need to find a balance, don't make his life too difficult, but don't make it too easy, either." All the scheming sent a steady buzz through her system, there was little that aroused excitement in the house and she had the urge to giggle like a naughty child. "Don't roll over to everything. Let him know that you're not easily tamed. What does Jase like more than anything else?"

"Cocaine," Madison replied, laughing. Janine joined in, letting herself forget for a moment that having this conversation could get her killed.

"Yes, but no. He loves having control. If he feels like he can have control over someone otherwise uncontrollable, it makes him look good. You have to match him. Turn into someone he considers worth his time and, more importantly, worth the trouble you're going to cause." Madison wrinkled her nose and brows.

"Trouble I'm going to cause?" she asked. Janine bit her grin, rubbing her hands together menacingly.