The Formidable

38

Jase froze. He wasn't entirely sure he'd heard her right.

"Your dad killed my dad?" he asked as calmly as possible. It clicked then and there what Greg had meant by this ordeal being bigger than Madison. He was talking about her dad. About the damage he'd done over however many years. "I was eighteen when my dad left-" he stopped. It made no difference what age he was. Madison wouldn't look at him. Instead, she cleared her throat and topped up their glasses.

"I didn't know while I was in the house. I didn't know until I got out and my dad figured out who you were." Jase still didn't move. Her words didn't sound real, there was an immense pressure in his head, thumping as she spoke. "I'm sorry." The apology came in like a voice travelling through a tunnel and Jase snapped back into the room.

"And Caspar knows. And you and your dad know he knows," he said. Madison nodded guiltily. "Which means you've also worked out that he likely pushed us together in the hopes that I would find out who your dad was. That's why you kept us separate." Jase said, thinking out loud more than searching for an answer. He knew he was right. He finally looked at Madison. She was staring at him. Tears tinted her eyes pink.

"I think his plan was to have one of you take the other out. To isolate me," she replied. Jase puffed his cheeks, let out a big sigh, and knocked back his brandy. "Jase, I'm sorry. I couldn't let you work with him, with everyone knowing what he did except you. It isn't fair."

She was sincere, but Jase was so numb with shock he was having a difficult time acknowledging it. There were a lot of conflicting feelings.

He tuned back into what Madison was saying. "-go after him Jase, he will kill you if he thinks you're some sort of threat, regardless of what I say-"

"I'm not going to go after your dad," he said suddenly. Madison jumped and Jase made an effort to relax his shoulders. "I don't care. I barely knew my dad and what I did know, I didn't like. Whether he's dead or just out there somewhere pretending I don't exist makes no odds to me."

Madison's mouth shut. She wiped her eyes quickly and Jase tossed her a packet of cigarettes, assuming she could use one.

"But... but you said at the house-" she stopped when Jase smirked sleepily.

"You're not the only one that can lie, Mads. Do you really think I'd be that vulnerable with a girl who's always scheming and giving me a headache? Don't you think that would fuck up the power dynamic a bit too much?"

Madison didn't know what to say as she took a cigarette from the pack. She was baffled.

"So all that stuff about your mum being a prostitute and your dad paying for your electricity was a lie?" she asked.

Jase grunted. "Half lies. You know as much as I do that lies are easier to keep track of if they're closer to the truth." She tossed the cigarettes back over, picking up the lighter. He stared at them for a moment before caving and taking one for himself. "My mum was a prostitute. And my dad did pay for our gas but only because he was my mum's pimp. He was never in a relationship with my mum. He'd been selling my mum all sorts of drugs since she was about fifteen, they slept together when she was sixteen and she fell pregnant. My Nan was super Catholic and kicked her out, she went and lived with my dad and he pimped her out. Turns out there's a big market for barely legal pregnant girls."

Madison's stomach swirled with bile and brandy. She had known Jase's dad solicited women but she didn't know Jase's mum was one of them. Jase carried on, totally detached from what he was describing.

"I was born, dad kept us around because of the government checks, still had my mum working corners. I was raised by random crackheads that shot up and fucked my mum on the sofa as I slept in my crib beside them. Growing up, Dad was there less and less, first, it was days, then it would be weeks and sometimes months before we saw him again. Mum was a washed-out mess with no desire to clean herself up and I was getting by doing what I could. One day, Dad stops coming back and I honestly never really thought much of it." He took a drag on his cigarette and poured another drink. When he put the bottle down, he paused. "I do have some questions though."