Copyright 2013 - All Rights Reserved
Hustle By Claire Chilton
24
Showdown
Ellie watched Jacob driving the spade into the thick wooden beams. His shirt was transparent with sweat. His tawny muscled skin was visible through the deep V of his open collar.
He wiped his brow with the back of his hand and glanced up at her and Meyer with smudges of dirt on his face and clothes. His eyes were dark pools of anger, intensely set on Meyer in a scowl.
"Don't give me that look, boy. You're lucky you lived this long." Meyer's voice echoed behind her, his spindly fingers still gripping her throat.
Jacob narrowed his eyes. He straightened up, his muscles popping up in his arms and chest as he drove the spade through the first beam, cracking it in half with a roar.
Ellie heard Meyer chuckle behind her. "You're just like your father, all pride and honor. Not so honorable in the end though, I'll bet, just like your father."
Jacob pulled at broken splints of wood and threw them aside as he glanced up at the older man. "What's that supposed to mean? You know nothing about my father."
"Is that so?" There was a snide laugh in Meyer's voice. "I find it amusing that history is repeating itself: a Phillips and a Hawkins together again. Didn't work out too well for your fathers though, did it?"
Ellie clenched her hands into fists. He knew something about her father that she didn't. She remained silent since Meyer was so chatty about it. Jacob, however, appeared to be finding it difficult to control his emotions.
"You don't know anything about my father. You're just some low-life criminal!" He snarled at Meyer, his muscles bunching up in his shoulders.
"Is that what you think? You're above it all. How do you think your father got rich? Did you think the Hawk made his reputation from being nice and honest?" Meyer laughed. "Stupid boy, who do you think did all of his dirty work?"
The blood drained out of Jacob's face. "Y-you worked for him?"
"Idiot, he worked for me!"
Jacob widened his eyes, appearing horrified at the thought of it. "I don't believe you. You have no connection to him or his company."
"Well, you have Phillips to thank for that." His hand tightened around Ellie's throat, and she fought to remain calm.
Dad, what did he have to do with this?
"When your father met up with Stewart Phillips, he found a way out of my organization. I wasn't the big man I am now. I was just starting out, and Phillips wasn't someone I'd mess with back then. Phillips owned the streets. He was as sly as a fox. No one could beat him, no matter how much muscle they had. So, when he adopted the Hawk and took him under his wing, my hands were tied. You can imagine how much that pissed me off. Do you know who your father was, girl?" He shook her. "Quite the man, he was. You didn't follow in his footsteps, though, did you? I bet he'd be disappointed by the silly little girl he brought up. Sending you after his treasure was poetic, don't you think? It was the perfect revenge, setting you up to take the fall for the theft. I might not have destroyed one Phillips, but I got you, didn't I?"
He laughed in her ear. "Oh, did you think it was an accident that you were sent to steal from Hawkins Hall? It was a pleasure seeing you two at each other's throats. Your fathers were such good friends. What better revenge than to drive a wedge between their children?
"But now, history is repeating itself, and the time for fun and games is over." His voice was cold. "Time to do what I couldn't do when your father was alive. Keep digging!" He snapped at Jacob while pressing the knife against Ellie's throat.
Jacob shook his head and began digging through the broken beams, shifting soil and broken wood into a pile beside him. "You're crazy."
"Do you think I'm crazy, little girl?" Meyer's breath brushed against her cheek. He was short and wiry, but his grip on her was strong and deadly.
"I think you were scared of my father," she said, trying to emulate her father's voice. "I think you should be scared of me."
"Ha! You don't have it in you. Any threat your father posed died when he did."
"What did you do to Douglas Hawkins?" She wanted to know how the story ended. She knew her father worked with him. By the sounds of it, he was helping the Hawk escape Meyer's clutches, but how had Douglas died?
"Not much that he didn't do to himself. He got a bit too big for his boots. This was years after Phillips had secured his independence. They had a good run of it until then, making money, making their own names. But the Hawk wanted to cut old ties, so he decided to go after the Heart on his own. I guess he didn't think he needed Phillips's protection, but I was tracking him all that time, waiting for him to be stupid. And he was stupid."
Jacob stopped digging, and his knuckles whitened as he gripped the handle of the spade.
She caught his eye and gave a slight shake of her head. She wanted to know more. Now was not the time for him to lose his cool.
"So you killed Douglas?"
"I killed him while he was trying to steal the Heart of Fortune from under Phillips's nose. You know, I never did find out if he was going to share that bounty with your dad or not, but that didn't matter. It's all about reputation, girl. You need to have one to survive in this business. That's why you won't survive, but I will. Hell, I was going to go after Hawkins's family after I'd finished with him, but your dad stepped in again and put this little runt under his protection. Like I said earlier, there's no one protecting him now, and I'd like to have a matched set."
Ellie's blood ran cold. He was going to kill her and Jacob anyway. No matter what happened, it was all about his reputation. Killing Stewart Phillips's daughter would give him a reputation greater than her father's, and killing Jacob would provide him with revenge.
She stared at Jacob. He looked broken by the news of his father as he shoveled dirt out of the hole he had made in the soil.
The Heart has nothing to do with this. It's about control of the streets.
She knew that when her father had died, she had not maintained his reputation. She'd let it all go. Meyer had moved in on the territory and hurt so many people.
How many people did my father protect?
He didn't do it with muscle or moxie. He did it with intelligence and by walking in the shadows.
She was Ellie Phillips, not some two-bit criminal. He'd taught her everything he knew. A cold and calculating instinct had taken control of her body the second that Meyer had grabbed her. It wasn't coincidence or shock. It was training.
The spade loudly clunked onto something metal. She glanced at Jacob as he crouched down and began brushing dirt off an old chest.
Once Meyer has the Heart, he's going to bury us in that hole.
"Open it," Meyer commanded as he peered over her shoulder, the knife in his hand relaxing to his side.
She didn't wait to find out what was in the box. She gripped the pressure point at the base of his thumb on the hand that was wrapped around her throat. His grip loosened as she spun around, taking his arm with her and twisting it behind his back.
"You messed with the wrong family," she hissed in his ear before kneeing him in the back with as much force as she could muster and knocking him to the ground.
He fell to the floor, and the knife clattered on the ground beside him. She dived for the knife, gripping the handle of it.
He rolled over and punched her in the back of the head. She saw stars for a moment. Dizziness clouded her mind as he gripped her hair, and his weight landed on her.
The weight lifted as she fought to remain conscious, and the grip released her hair. Without thinking, she rolled over and thrust up the knife to defend herself. It sank into Meyer's chest, driving deep into his heart.
She glanced up in shock to see Jacob holding Meyer around the throat, lifting him off her. Their eyes connected in a moment of shock as Meyer groaned and slumped in Jacob's arms.
Jacob looked away from her as he lowered the dead mob-boss to the floor. Then he knelt beside her. "Are you okay?"
She didn't know if she was okay.
I just killed a man. Sure, he was a bad man, but what does that make me?
"You were just defending yourself," he said.
She nodded, unable to form words. She'd meant to knock him out in some clever way, but when he jumped on her back, the years of defensive training had kicked in. "I feel sick," she muttered.
"Let's get out of here." Jacob held out his hand.
She gripped it and let him pull her off the cavern floor. She glanced down at the open chest in the hole he had dug. It was empty. "Where's the treasure?"
"It was empty." He shook his head.
She glanced over at him, unsure if he was telling the truth, but there was no way he could hide a giant diamond in his clothing, and his bag was back at the entrance of the cave.
She nodded, resting against him. "Let's get out of here."