15. Cole

Chapter 15

Cole

The weather didn't look like it was going to improve any time soon. Cole might have been used to torrential rain and all kinds of gale force winds back in Ridgeback Falls, but somehow it hit different in the city. Suddenly, the city was a darker place. Each and every street was filled with menace and intrigue. Those who were braving the streets were hidden under long raincoats and made their way around with their heads down and their hands firmly tucked inside their pockets.

Driving was far harder too. And judging by the amount of car horns that were going off, it was a field day for car thieves too. After all, when the wind was setting off so many stationary cars, who would ever realize that a thief was breaking and entering into one themselves?

Cole loved being in nature, no matter its form.

But city life was different, and not the kind of different that Cole wanted to be a part of for any longer than he had to.

Cole parked the truck and turned the engine off. Just like it was during his hockey career, timing was everything – and him and Joaquin had arrived at the location just in time to see Katsen enter the building alongside a very serious looking man indeed…

‘Who as that ?' Joaquin asked, slouching down low in the passenger seat to avoid detection from any passing thugs.

‘Not sure,' Cole replied. ‘But I got a photo of him and sent it to Vince and Roddy. One of them might know or know someone who does. Either way, we need to know who we're dealing with. The guy looked like a pretty legit mobster.'

‘Yup,' Joaquin replied, a little nervous sounding but with a look of calm on his face.

Cole had been pleased to hear that everything had gone well between Joaquin and Jenna. It was reassuring to know that Joaquin had been honest with her and laid his cards on the table. Cole had experienced guys in the past who want to fool around but when it came down to it went back to their old lives. But everything about Joaquin said that he was going to be sticking around for the long haul.

‘We might be here for a while,' Cole said, opening a bottle of water and taking a sip. ‘Here, drink some of this.'

Joaquin took the water and duly sipped on it for a moment.

‘This feels right,' Joaquin said.

‘Katsen has to go down,' Cole replied. ‘There's no other way.'

‘Yeah, but I'm talking about us, together ,' Joaquin countered.

‘Yeah, that too,' Cole said, glancing at his phone as a reply came in from Roddy. ‘but right now we need to focus on the matter at hand. And I think Roddy might be able to give us some intel…'

With that, Cole clicked open his message.

RODDY: I don't know for sure who it is. But I can tell you one thing… he's mafia. Call it instinct or call it experience, but I know a family boss when I see one. I'll keep on trying to find out who he is, but whatever you do in the meantime… stay safe. Mafia men ain't nothing to mess with.

Cole felt his heart beat a little quicker. He suspected that the man was mafia, but hearing it confirmed by Roddy made it all the more real. As the sky outside darkened and the car stereo's low hum battled to be audible over the hard rain, the atmosphere suddenly turned a lot more serious.

‘This isn't a game,' Cole said, almost talking out loud to himself. ‘I want you to know that you don't have to go through with this, boy. You got that?'

Cole paused and allowed Joaquin enough time to respond.

The last thing that Cole wanted was for Joaquin to think that he had to act tough and go through with this mission simply to please him or try to prove himself. If Joaquin had changed his mind, Cole was more than happy to accommodate that.

‘No, I have to do this,' Joaquin replied. ‘I escaped Katsen's men before they did anything truly sick to me, but that doesn't make it any better. They still humiliated me, degraded me, and made me feel worthless. And they did it all on Katsen's instructions. If I could, I'd blow that whole fucking building up.'

Cole could see that Joaquin was getting very emotional, and he didn't blame him either. After what the boy had been through, it was understandable that he wanted the bloodiest revenge possible. And Cole would help him do it too.

‘Come closer, let me give you a hug,' Cole said, wanting nothing more than to comfort his young man. ‘We'll do what we need to do. Don't you worry about that. It might not be today, it might not be tomorrow, but we'll bring Katsen to his knees. You've got my word on that.'

Joaquin nodded and shifted over toward Cole and buried his face into Cole's body.

Cole had been through plenty of crap in his own life to know how important this was for Joaquin. There was no other option but to pursue the bloodiest revenge. Calling the police was totally out of the question, and neither he nor Joaquin had the kind of money required to hire a reliable and trustworthy assassin either.

We'll do this together.

Me and the boy.

It's the only way…

Cole and Joaquin waited outside the building for a couple of hours until they saw Katsen leaving, swiftly followed by the suspected mafia men. The pair of them left in separate directions and Cole decided that enough was enough for the day.

After stopping off at a cozy little Italian place for dinner, Cole and Joaquin headed back to the hotel suite for the night. In any other circumstances it might have been fun to head out and hit the town. But this was about as far from a city break holiday as you could possibly get. This was work. Serious work at that.

Katsen had been accompanied by two thugs, one either side of him. Cole could see that it was going to be difficult to get him alone. The only time that Katsen had probably been one on one had been when he was in the meeting with the mafia man.

‘Fuck, if only Roddy had known who the mobster was,' Cole said, sitting in the hotel suite's decadently comfortable couch. ‘Something is telling me that he might just be the key to this whole thing.'

‘How do you mean?' Joaquin asked, putting his cell phone down on the bed and walking over to sit alongside Cole. ‘You mean like we should make contact with the mafia man? But what if him and Katsen are allies?'

‘That's the risk we might have to take,' Cole said, his mind focusing and trying to map out precisely how it could happen. ‘There's bad mafia, good mafia, and pretty much everything in between too. But if we could somehow work out who this guy is, then we might be able to roll the dice.'

Joaquin nodded and then flopped himself down across Cole's lap.

‘You're tired, huh?' Cole said. ‘Me too. How about we hit the sack and then wake up nice and early tomorrow. We could go out for breakfast. I know a few great local places.'

‘I think you're forgetting that I'm the one who's actually from the city?' Joaquin sassed. ‘But, sure, we'll go to your place…'

‘Hey, you're lucky I'm so beat,' Cole chuckled. ‘Otherwise you'd be skating on very thin ice with me right now. Come on, let's get our asses into bed. Something tells me that tomorrow is going to be another big day for us.'

With that, Cole rose from the couch and carried Joaquin in his arms over toward the bed. And as much as he wanted to project a calm and stoic outlook, Cole couldn't help but think that tomorrow was truly going to be the day that this whole mission reached its climax.

And whether it would prove a positive climax or not, Cole simply had no idea. All Cole wanted was to make his love feel safe and secure in the world. And in attempting to do that for Joaquin, Cole was willing to put his own life on the line.

I can't deny it.

I love him.

And if I have to die to prove it, that's what I'll do…