The Formidable

19

"What do you mean Ramon's dead?" Sam asked. Jase was taking his blazer off. He laid it over the back of the kitchen chair and sat down, pushing his sleeves up.

"What I say. He was found dead in his apartment in Mallorca this morning," he said. Sam shook his head, unable to process the information. 

Ramon fled to Mallorca shortly after Madison left when Jase confronted him about telling Sam to shoot him. Ramon had all but cried at the threat to his life, handing Jase the deeds to the house, which he passed onto Sam and Janine, and giving him the keys to the club. He said with everything that had been going on he was looking for an excuse to get out already. Jase let him go, after his downward spiral, he didn't want any more blood on his hands, and the club would keep his mind occupied.

"You think this has something to do with Casper?" Sam asked. Jase let out a puff of air and shrugged. He didn't want to think it did. 

"I fucking hope not because if it does, he's got reach. We don't." He looked around the kitchen, then back to Sam, "where's Madison?"

"Giving Mia a bath." Jase nodded. "What if Casper is going after everyone involved in the house? Or has something to do with Mitch?" Jase didn't want to think of all the possibilities right now. If Sam was right, they were pretty screwed. He only had his fingers in so many pies.

"If they're targeting Madison as well they'd have done it years ago, when everything was up in the air." He meant when he spent his days high as a kite, when it would have been easy to infiltrate them, but neither of them iterated this. "It's another thing we can't rule out though. And if that's the case, we need to keep people coming in and out at a minimum. Cut all the girls off, no runners are to set foot in this house. That includes Chris and Paul." Sam nodded, taking his phone out to send the message. 

"It would make sense that she was brought here if they are going after everyone involved in the house, you know, get everyone together," Sam said. "And if that is what they're doing, it means we can narrow down who it might be." Jase grunted, narrowing it down didn't do much in terms of their suspect pool, for them it was like going from one thousand to one hundred.

Madison walked in with Mia in her pyjamas, her wet curls picked and de-matted from her nap earlier.

"What are you two talking about?" she asked. Mia reached out to Jase who took her without much hesitation.

"Someone we know was killed this morning," Sam answered. Madison's eyes widened at the seriousness, panic rising in her features.

"In Mallorca," Jase added, reading her expression. Madison took the milk from the fridge, filling Mia's bottle, forcing her shoulders to relax.

"Who?" she asked.

"The guy that used to run all this. Our boss," Jase said. 

"Should we be worried?" She handed Mia the drink and Mia rested her damp ringlets on Jase's chest as she chugged, pausing every few seconds to catch her breath.

"Well it could have been anyone..." Sam said, though the implications were heavy. The death could be a coincidence, but it was a luxury for them to think that. Madison was watching Mia, tranquillity flushed her system when she looked into her daughters big green eyes, it only struck her now that it was the same as looking into Jase's.

"But it could have been Casper," she finished for him. The men looked at each other and Madison sighed. "If it is, we'll hear about it. Something like that is a flex of power and control, if Casper did it, we'll be informed one way or another." 

"I guess we wait then," Jase said.

"How did you find out?" Sam asked him.

"Sasha told me. She said she got a phone call from his housekeeper telling her he'd been found on his balcony at half nine this morning with a bullet hole in the back of his head," Jase replied.

"Sniper?" Sam questioned in disbelief. Jase shrugged and Madison considered the idea. If it was a sniper then something told her it wasn't Casper that had called the shot. If he had access to snipers, they'd all be dead already. She kept the thought to herself because if it wasn't a sniper, they still had to worry about it. And if it was then it gave them more questions than answers.

"Maybe. The housekeeper didn't give Sasha any more details," Jase said. Mia shuffled on his lap, picking his phone up and pressing the numbers on the screen.

"Are you okay with her for a little while so I can have a bath?" Madison asked. 

Jase looked at Mia. "Yeah, she's fine."

"Thanks, I won't be long," she said, already leaving. Both Sam and Jase watched Mia for a moment before Sam spoke again.

"She's cute man," Sam said and Jase nodded in agreement, looking down at Mia who smiled back up at him around the bottle, her eyes growing heavy.

"She is," he mumbled. 

Sam chuckled. "I never thought I'd see you as a dad." The word still didn't feel right to Jase's ears, like an echo he caught the tail end of. It still made his stomach lurch and filled him with fear. Then, as soon as he looked at Mia again, the feelings were soothed. Not diminished, but quieter.

Mia popped the bottle from her lips and placed it on the table, settling back in Jase's lap. She'd been playing with Janine all day and her energy levels had depleted.

"I'm gonna take her up," Jase said, carefully getting to his feet and adjusting Mia so she was resting on his chest and shoulder.

They laid on the bed, Mia's small body enveloped in Jase's huge arms, his hand covering the entirety of the back of her head against his shoulder. The room filled with soft suckling sounds from Mia's dummy, a heavy sigh breaking the rhythm every few minutes. In that moment, Jase understood, for the first time in his life, why people had children - to create a purpose, to shield and protect something that in reality, was a total liability. 

He couldn't describe the feeling he was experiencing because he'd never felt it before, he just knew it was stronger than him. He knew he would feed her before feeding himself, cloth her before clothing himself, ensure her safety before ensuring his own. This miniature human made everything else he'd ever done in his life seem so meaningless.

Madison came in shortly after and froze in her towel at the sight of them. A small smile crossed her face as she turned her back to him and unravelled the towel from her head, squeezing her hair with it. 

"I'm surprised she went down so quick," she said. Jase didn't dare move.

"She didn't finish her bottle," he replied, the voice gravelly from trying to be quiet with Mia's ear so close to his lips. Madison took out one of Jase's t-shirts from the wardrobe and a pair of his boxers from the drawer, pretending not to notice the few items of clothing hidden amongst them that she'd worn in the house. Jase looked away as she dressed.

"When all of this is done," Madison said, brushing her hair at the bottom of the bed, feeling his eyes on her back, "you're welcome to be in her life. If you want." The silence that followed was deafening. She risked a look over her shoulder but Jase was no longer watching her, all his attention was on Mia as he tenderly removed a curl from her face.

"Let's just get through this first. But thank you."