The Cunning

105

The picture Mitch had given Adam was on the table. Jase stared at it wondering how the hell Madison had ended up so unlucky in life. He'd slept on the sofa, or at least tried to. The night had dragged on with him tossing and turning every five minutes, unable to get comfortable without the warmth of her by his side. The lack of sleep presented itself in the form of grey bags and bloodshot eyes.

"Stop torturing yourself," Sam said as he placed a coffee down in front of him. "Look on the bright side, as soon as she's gone, Mitch backs off, business picks up, people stop questioning shit. You'll bounce back in no time once everything is back to normal." Jase twitched a brow but didn't have the energy to muster any sort of response. Sam was trying his best, grasping at all the silver linings he could come up with. For Jase, there were none.

For the first time what constituted normal in different people's lives struck him as bizarre. Whilst guns, drugs, and sex were their normality, to anyone outside of the house, it was foreign and frowned upon. He couldn't help but think about what life would be like if he had a different type of normality. A safer, stable normality with a normal childhood and a normal job. His mind crept into the dangerous territory of what would happen had he met Madison under different circumstances and he quickly shook the thought. It wasn't worth dwelling on fantasies.

Sam sighed, deflated in the presence of Jase's stagnation. He'd never seen him like this and he didn't know what to do.

"I have tried to think of another way around this but I've hit dead ends everywhere. Giving Madison to Mitch is a last resort, but it's the only solution I've got," he swore. Jase, again, said nothing.

He missed being numb before experiencing feelings for someone, when it had endorsed his God complex and encouraged his cruelty in exchange for an ego boost. The numbness he felt now was icy and bitter, leaving a sour taste in his mouth and his skin too tight. He missed when the girls were nameless faces passing through and there was an element of respect from more or less everyone that crossed his path.

However, in summary, everything Sam stated was true. With Mitch making a racket, Ramon would eventually pull out of business with the house and that would be the girls done, their drug supply would dry up and the legal appearance of their earnings would be removed with it all. Ramon was the boss of bosses and if Madison were to keep making dents, they would get fired, which in their world often meant a bullet between the eyes to eliminate the risk of becoming an informant. It didn't matter what decision Jase made, one way or another, Madison ended up dead. It was the brutal reality of the game they played.

"It's fine," Jase finally replied. "I'm coming to terms with it. Madison was fun, now we have a job to do." He got up, leaving the coffee untouched and going for a drive.

Madison had clouded his thoughts since the moment he'd seen her on the sofa with her hands bound, before that if he was honest. Since the alleyway, he'd thought about her at least once a day.

*

"What's going to happen to Madison?" Janine asked once Sam finished lamenting about how down Jase was. He puffed his cheeks, pushing his hair back.

"If we go through with my plan, Jase turns her over to Mitch."

"Why does he have to do it? That's not fair, he's clearly already upset about things," she replied, surprised by the empathy she felt for the man that had spent years treating her like she wasn't worth the air she breathed.

Sam shook his head,

"He can't be on the back burner. Everyone is pretty much of the opinion that she's got him wrapped around her little finger. If he isn't the one to sell her down the river then none of this actually stops, they want to see Jase correct his mistakes-"