Jack In The Box novel Chapter 40

Riley

“Where are we going?” I asked. I was hit with a feeling of nostalgia as I climbed into a black BMW. This wasn’t an old car, it appeared new and I wondered if it belonged to Jack or if he’d stolen it.

“Is this your car?”

Jack smiled as he slid behind the wheel. “You ask too many questions, Cotton-Candy.” He reached behind me, pulled the seat belt and secured it in place, his face coming close to mine. He pecked my lips and ran his forefinger over my lower lip lightly. “Your lips are swollen, I guess, I’m partly to blame for it.”

I blushed and looked out the window. “Are you going to tell me where we are going?”

“I have an apartment that was registered with an alias. You’ll stay there for as long as this matter settles once and for all.”

“No.” I said. “Take me home, to my apartment.”

“I wasn’t giving you a choice, Riley.”

“I know you weren’t, but I can’t always let you take decisions for me. This concerns my brother. If he is the killer, I will find a way to end this.”

Jack gave out a laugh, and then his features turned hard. “No amount of sweet-talking is going to stop your brother from doing what he is doing. If he thinks you’re in the way, he will not hesitate to kill you and if Ken lays a hand on you, if he tries to hurt you, then by god help him I won’t stop from putting a bullet in his head.”

I knew Jack wasn’t lying when he said that. I could tell from his expressions that he was dead serious.

“I know the risk of going home, Jack, but I have to. I don’t want to be scared anymore and I don’t want to hide. The killer wants us to do exactly that, and we are not going to give him the satisfaction.”

I think Jack was ready to argue back but closed his mouth and thought better of it, because he knew I was telling the truth. We weren’t going to run our entire lives.

“If Ken wanted to hurt me, he would’ve done it a long time back.”

“He framed you for the murders and put you in a mental facility, what else do you need?” Jack asked furiously.

It was my turn to shut up.

Thankfully, Jack’s phone started buzzing. I hated arguing with him. He looked at the phone and told me it was Ezra. “What’s going on?”

“We have a problem, Jack.” Ezra’s voice boomed from the car’s speakers, his voice was so much similar to Jack’s.

“I’m listening.”

There was silence in the car for second and then Ezra said, “Riley is missing. I received a call from the hospital. They said they found a male nurse lying there, barely breathing and Riley wasn’t in her room. Is she with you?”

I shook my head at Jack. If he told Ezra I was with him, then Ezra would ask me to go back to the hospital again. I wasn’t ready to cage myself back in that dreadful place again, not when there were chances of José coming back for a bit of revenge.

“She is.” Jack said. “That bastard tried to rape her. He deserved what he got and if it weren’t for Riley, I would have done worse. He’s lucky not to be dead.”

“You’re taking the law back in your hands, brother. She is still a suspect.”

“I can hear you.” I snapped at him.

“Yo quiero que la lleves a la estación de la policia.” I want you to take her to the police station. “They will keep an eye on her.” Ezra said the last part in English.

"Eso no va a suceder.” That’s not happening. Jack responded in Spanish.

I couldn’t understand what they were saying, momentarily taken aback by Jack speaking in Spanish. It was the first that I’d seen him talk in that language. All I had understood was the word ′Policia′ which meant police.

“Can you please speak in English so I can understand what you’re talking about?”

“Nosotros podemos protegerla y vamos a ver que podemos hacer sobre el enfermero.” We can protect her, and we will see what we can do about this male nurse.

“Yo creo que he puesto bastante confianza en la policia anteriormente como para saber mejor.” I think I have placed enough trust in the police before to know better. ”I know you can do your job, Ezra, I don’t doubt it but I’ll feel safe when she’s with me.” Jack concluded passing me a glance. “I trust Riley. You can talk in English.”

“Fine. One of the factories in the Wolfe Enterprise has burned down to the ground. It seems to be a short-circuit problem, but we are still investigating.”

“Which department?” Jack asked, his fingers tightening over the steering wheel.

“The clothing manufacturing department. It’s the factory. All the equipment’s and the fabrics are damaged.”

“Are the workers alright?”

“Most of them, yes. Only twenty are seriously injured.” Ezra said.

“Compensate them.”

“I’m not your fucking servant. I have too much on my hands already with the bureau chief literally hounding me every second. You do it.”

“It’s arson.” Jack said.

“What?!” Came Ezra’s shocked response.

“Exactly what you heard. I thought all the employees were happy doing their jobs. This is the first time I’ve heard of something like this in five years.” Jack said, his voice sounded strained.

“What do you know Jack? You’ve spent the better half of your life in an asylum and then running from the police.”

“Your point?” Jack asked, clearly pissed.

“My point being, brother, that this wouldn’t have even happened if you—”

“Do not even fucking go there, Ezra. I’m warning you.” Jack said in such a menacingly low tone, a chill ran down my spine. “Have you tried to talk with Tobias? Did you ask him the person responsible for making a contract for the factory safety measures?”

“We have a name. It’s a company called—”

“Fire him.” Jack said flatly.

“Seriously?”

“Fire the man who made a contract with the company. They obviously did a piss-poor job and we don’t need people like that working for us. I’ll get in touch with the construction company and see if we were really lacking for the building to have a sudden ‘short-circuit’ problem.”

In that moment, I knew that Jack was a perfect fit to be an heir to a multi-million dollar corporation. He knew what he was doing, and if I wasn’t aware before, I had no doubt in my mind how truly intelligent and smart Jack was.

“We lost a couple million dollars. If this continues, we are going to face a lot of problems, the bankers and the investors would come asking questions. The company needs you back on the board.” Ezra said.

“I’ll handle everything.” Jack said in a monotone. “When this is all over, I’ll do what’s needed.”

“Which is reclaiming your position as president of the Wolfe Enterprise, and with Brady dead, you don’t have a choice.”

Jack drove me to my apartment as I’d asked him to. Inside, everything was turned upside down. It didn’t look like a home that I had left just for a few days, more like an apartment that had narrowly survived a natural calamity. Jack and I spent the next hour trying to put things back in its original place while looking for some clues. I didn’t miss how he went through every single document or paper that he found lying around the room.

Ken’s room was messy; no doubt it was done by the FBI and the detectives who were here to investigate.

“Where is Ken’s laptop?” Jack asked.

I found the laptop stashed beneath the bed. I pulled it out and handed it over to Jack.

He opened it and the home-screen appeared. “It’s not password protected.”

“Ken never had much regard towards his own privacy. He left his bedroom unlocked whenever he was working at the hospital which is why I’m surprised he’s the killer. I still don’t believe that he is.” I said.