Chapter Twenty-Seven

Jax

J CP Corporation, Upper West Side, Manhattan...

"So, it's finally over?" Dexter said as he sipped his latte.

"Yes," Jax confirmed as he leaned over and picked a chocolate croissant from the plate of pastries on the coffee table. "I had a long discussion with Lombardo yesterday. The program Rex designed worked like a bomb. Carlisi was still unaware of us having extracted Ciska or that his entire warehouse had been blown up by the time the FBI broke down his penthouse door and arrested him." Jax rubbed his forehead.

"The only concern I have is that Ciska said Theo mentioned there were five people who knew about the program she was working on ten years ago. She knows who four of them were. We have no idea who the fifth one is."

"And you're worried this person will come back and hold that over her to force her into something criminal again?" Max queried.

"Ciska disclosed every aspect of her association with the Sandolens to the FBI and the CIA. She did her time, and they have no interest in charging her for any additional crimes, so she's in the clear. I'm hoping whoever the bastard is, he knows about it, too, and leaves her be."

"In the meantime, I suggest you appoint a covert bodyguard to keep an eye on her," Axel suggested.

"Already done. I'm not taking any chances with her life."

"Do you think Lombardo is going to keep to his word?" Axel asked with a concerned glimmer in his eyes. He had more knowledge of the backhanded manner of criminals and the mafia to believe someone as powerful as Lombardo didn't have ulterior motives that one day would come back and bite them in the ass.

"Strangely, we do," Max interjected. "Lombardo might be a mobster, but somehow, there is a speckle of integrity within him. We saved him and his position as the top dog. It's something a man like him appreciates."

"Max is right," Jax said. "I believe he'll keep his promise and let us all be."

"Let's fucking hope so," Rex grunted as he finished his latte. "I'm not geared up for flying fucking blades and bullets."

"As if you didn't do your fair share during the fight," Dexter retorted.

"Doesn't mean I wanna do it again. Nope. This man still wants what these two friends of ours managed to find... true love. Somehow, that doesn't marry well with dodging bullets and shit."

"Well said, Rex," Axel agreed. "So, is Ciska happy to now be a New Yorker?"

"She is, and she's in seventh heaven that Willow trusted her enough to offer her the New York office to manage with full ownership shares." Jax smiled broadly. "Best of all... she said yes."

"To what? Don't tell me you popped the question without telling us," Dexter bleated.

"I'm telling you now. Besides, it was a time-sensitive matter. I wasn't going to allow her the opportunity to come up with a plethora of reasons not to marry me."

"Well, I'm glad for you, Jax. The two of you fit together like yin and yang."

"Indeed, we do."

A fter having lunch with his friends, Jax returned to his office to find Angelo Grecco waiting for him.

"I sincerely hope you're not here to renege on the agreement Lombardo made with us," Jax said in a deathly hollow tone.

"Relax, Crowthorne. Lombardo sent me here to do you a favor. He believes in returning good deeds." He grunted at Jax's expression. "Yeah, go figure. The man has a heart."

"So? What favor am I being honored with?"

"You have a traitor in your midst."

Jax shook his head. "So, now that you have no more use for George, you throw him to the wolves."

"So, you know already." Angelo stared at him questioningly. "Why is it then, I wonder, that he's still working for you?"

"Because I'm trying to understand what was driving him. He's been a friend and a shareholder in this company for over fifteen years."

"Men are driven by two things, Crowthorne. Money and power, but there is one thing none of us can truly escape... the power of love."

"So, it is because of Mindy Salinger," Jax said dejectedly. "It's been years. Why all of a sudden this urge to go to such an extreme because of a woman who, in the end, betrayed both of us?"

"At a guess, I'd say you don't know the whole story." Iceman walked to the bar and poured two shots of whiskey. He handed one to Jax and sat down. "I suggest you join me. Your friend is anything but the innocent you seem to believe he is."

Jax sipped the drink as he sat down opposite Iceman. "I'm listening."

"However you ended up with the woman instead of Larson, is beside the point. What is of importance is what happened after you broke up with her."

"I walked away from her the day I caught her fucking another man while in an exclusive relationship with me. I haven't seen or heard from her since."

"Nor would you have," Iceman said cryptically.

"Meaning?"

"She died a week after you broke up."

"She what?" Jax straightened as he stared at his nemesis in shock.

"Murdered, to be exact." Iceman sipped his drink. "See, Larson thought that she would give him another chance once you were out of the picture. She wasn't interested, and he was furious. He might be good at his job, but that man can't handle rejection, and to be belittled twice by the same woman... I guess he just snapped."

"Are you saying George killed her?" Jax chucked down his drink. "I don't believe that. He's not a violent man."

"Oh, believe me, I've seen a side to him that would shock you out of your socks." Reaching into his pocket, Iceman retrieved a flash drive, which he placed on the coffee table between them. "Video footage of the deed. George managed to obtain the feed and destroyed it on the system it was stored in. For some reason, he kept a copy on his personal cloud server." Iceman shrugged. "We do our homework before we bring in outside informants. This was the only reason we used him, knowing what he's capable of. You do what you want with it. Have him arrested and pay for his crime, or let it go. It's your choice, but be warned, Larson has killed more than once... violently so. It's not the kind of mind shift any man could ever come back from."

"I don't understand why he's holding me responsible."

"That is something only Larson can answer." Iceman got up and walked toward the door. "My work is done. Oh, and congratulations on your engagement, Crowthorne. You seem to have bagged a diamond in the rough."

"I did indeed." Jax picked up the flash drive as his mind struggled to compute everything Iceman had said. "Oh, Angelo... tell Lombardo I said thanks."

Iceman waved as he walked out. As soon as the door closed, Jax inserted the flash drive into his laptop. With his heart thumping, he opened the video clip. As the footage began to play, his eyes were fixed on the screen before him. The familiar facade of George's favorite Manhattan restaurant came into view, but what unfolded next was far from a typical dinner scene.

George and Mindy stood facing each other with their bodies tense and voices raised in a heated argument. It was evidently a camera the restaurant had installed over the doorway. Jax leaned closer, straining to hear their words over the bustling city background. Suddenly, without warning, the scene exploded into violence.

In a blur of motion so swift that Jax had to replay it multiple times in slow motion, George's hands shot out to grip Mindy's slight frame. With terrifying strength, he lifted her as if she weighed nothing more than a child's doll.

"Holy fuck." Jax's breath caught in his throat, watching George's face contorted with rage as his muscles flexed when he hurled Mindy's helpless body directly into the path of an oncoming bus.

"Who the fuck are you?" he whispered. The driver's panicked face was visible for a split-second as he slammed on the brakes, but it was far too late. The sickening thud of impact seemed to reverberate through Jax's entire body. He watched in horror as Mindy's form was launched through the air. Her limbs flailed lifelessly before crashing to the pavement yards away.

Bile rose in his throat as the camera panned over her broken body that was twisted at impossible angles as a pool of crimson bloomed slowly beneath her. Her eyes, which were once so full of life and ambition, stared vacantly at the sky. The abrupt violence of her demise was almost too much to process.

As pedestrians rushed to the scene, Jax observed George's calculated movements. With chilling precision, he adjusted his stance and facial expression, transforming from aggressor to distraught bystander in an instant. To any onlooker, it would appear he had tried desperately to save her rather than orchestrate her demise.

The video concluded with a final, damning piece of evidence: Mindy Salinger's death certificate. Jax's eyes locked onto the cause of death— suicide.

"What a crock of shit," he sneered as the blatant lie of it all hit him like a physical blow. The magnitude of George's violent deed and the horror of what he'd just witnessed threatened to overwhelm him.

"Fuck me," Jax whispered, shocked to the core. Iceman was right. He didn't know this man... especially not the one who, in the end, stood looking down at the woman he had just killed with a shadow of a smile on his face.

Jax didn't need to break his head over the decision of what to do. He picked up his cell phone and dialed the number of the Chief of Police, Stefan Roland, who was also a long-time friend. With a voice devoid of emotion, he relayed the story and emailed him the video clip.

"Is he at the office at the moment?" Stefan asked once he studied the footage and had his team confirm it was authentic.

"Yes, he's here."

"This is murder, Jax. Even though it happened ten years ago, with this as evidence, we have to arrest him, you know that, right?"

"Yes, I do. Mindy might have screwed me over, Stefan, but she didn't deserve to die such a gruesome death." Jax hesitated. "What I don't understand is why no one ever looked at the CCTV footage at the time of her death."

"According to the incident report, everyone who witnessed the scene reported the same... that she had jumped in front of the bus. There was no reason to investigate further. Either way, I'm not prepared to let this go. I'll be there with a police officer in ten minutes."

"I'll be waiting."