Franks laughed. “That’s one way of putting it.”
Jacobs gave him an eye but didn’t respond. And his face did hurt, but he wasn’t going to pull away from Tiffany touching it.
“Are you in pain?” Tiffany asked.
“Uh, it’s not too bad.”
Franks laughed again. “That’s like saying, is it worse getting hit with a hammer or getting run over by a tractor? I mean, pick your poison, right?”
Tiffany then glanced at Thrower, who wasn’t marked up like her boyfriend was. She took turns looking at the two men. “What are you two hiding? Something’s going on here. Only one of you looks beaten up, and neither of you are talking. Someone please tell me what’s going on.”
Jacobs walked over to the couch, Tiffany holding his arm, and sat down. She sat next to him. Gunner hopped on the couch next to them, too.
“I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that you didn’t just meet Mr. Andrew Berry, did you?” Franks asked.
“Well, we met him,” Jacobs said.
“And then some,” Thrower replied.
“Brett, please just tell me what happened,” Tiffany said.
Jacobs sighed, but he knew they had to come clean about what happened. “We got into his place, but we never got to talk to him. They must’ve figured we were coming or something, cause they were there waiting for us.”
“How could that be?” Franks asked. “Nobody but us knew you were going there.”
“The way I was inferring, I think they’d been waiting there for a few days, assuming I’d show up at some point.”
“Mallette did make a point about you visiting all his other lawyers,” Thrower said.
Franks rubbed his chin as he thought about it. “Yeah, I guess we have made that a habit, haven’t we?”
“Just a little,” Jacobs said.
“Maybe we should retire that number and think of something else.”
“I think we’ll have to.”
Jacobs then relayed the rest of the story, without interruption, not stopping until the part where he and Thrower reached their car. He was uncomfortable talking about most of it, especially the part where Mallette had them tied up in a room, a gun to their heads. He knew how close he’d come to death. At one point in his life, it wouldn’t have bothered him so much. But now, with Tiffany, he didn’t want it to be his time yet.
“Wow, that’s a crazy deal, man,” Franks said. “So you mean to tell me that the only reason you’re here right now is because of one of Ames’ men? Wow. That’s a crazy thought.”
“So you said,” Jacobs replied.
Tiffany immediately leaned over and hugged Jacobs tight. She knew how close she came to losing him.
“Can we please just go somewhere?” Tiffany asked. “Leave all this behind?”
Jacobs put his hand on her back. “You know we can’t. Mallette will try to find me wherever I go.”
“How can you be sure? Maybe if he knows you’ve left, he’ll just forget about you and move on.”
“If there’s one thing I can be sure of, it’s that he’s not forgetting about me. Ever.”
“I hate to agree with him, but I think he’s right on this one,” Franks said. “Neither of you will ever be safe until Mallette’s out of the picture permanently.”
It looked like Tiffany was about to cry. “I just want to be done with him.”
Jacobs pulled her closer to him. “We will be. Soon.”
“It’s just never going to end.”
“It is. I promise.”
“You also promised you’d always take Gunner with you.”
Jacobs hesitated, remembering telling her that. “Uh, yeah, but… this was more of a challenge to get him in.”
“Brett, you promised.”
“Well, Nate was there.”
Tiffany glanced at Thrower and while he was obviously capable, more than capable, there was just something comforting about having Gunner by Jacobs’ side. She had this belief that no matter what, however bad the situation was, Gunner would find a way to get his owner out of trouble. Maybe it was wishful—or foolish—thinking, but it was what she believed.
Tiffany looked back at Jacobs. “No matter what, please bring Gunner.”
It wasn’t a battle worth fighting in Jacobs’ mind. “OK. I will. No matter what. He’ll be there.”
Tiffany softly touched his face again, and he winced. Though Jacobs didn’t appear to be in much pain, it still looked like it hurt. “I’m gonna get some stuff to clean you up.”
“Oh, I dunno,” Franks said. “I think he’s looking better like that.” He laughed. He looked around at everyone who was looking back at him, though no one else was laughing. “Oh, c’mon, none of you are really gonna laugh at that? Come on, that was funny.”
Tiffany went to the bathroom to get what she needed. While she was gone, the others kept talking about the night’s events.
“Believe it or not, regardless of how hairy everything was, the night wasn’t a loss,” Thrower said.
“How say you goes it, man?” Franks asked.
“What? That wasn’t even English.”
“I mean, whatcha talking about?”
“Fact of the matter is that the end result is Mallette lost a few more guys. And he didn’t have a lot to begin with. We took out what, four or five more?”
“Well, we didn’t exactly take them all out,” Jacobs replied.
“Still, they’re guys Mallette no longer has at his disposal.”
“True.”
“I still can’t get over that one of Ames’ men helped you out there,” Franks said. “That’s just crazy to me.”
Jacobs shrugged. “I guess when Ames was killed, his loyalty went with him. He didn’t like Mallette or how he handled things, didn’t want to be tied with him, and took the first opportunity he saw to bolt. And helping us meant helping himself. That’s really the bottom line.”
“Too bad we couldn’t bring him into the fold too.”
“He was more interested in just being anywhere else.”
“And I’m not sure I would trust him anyway,” Thrower said.
“Why not?” Franks asked.
“When it all comes down to it, he was still one of Ames’ men. And he turned on Mallette. Who’s to say he wouldn’t eventually do it to us too?”
Jacobs nodded. “If Mallette came to him with a big enough
