CHAPTER
Axel
I turn to regard the housekeeper and see the pity in her eyes. Joyce has been gone for two days and by now most of my household staff knows my wife had left me. Mrs. Johnson is trying her best to cater to my whim, even staying beyond her regular shift to set my place at the table and share me a plate.
I wish she hadn’t. I would have been able to do it for myself but her doing it only serves to remind me that Joyce had really left me.
“No, thanks Mrs. Johnson, I’m fine,” I respond to her and she nods before leaving.
I proceed to eat my dinner of baked stuffed potatoes, steak and roasted garlic Caesar salad. Mrs. Johnson is an excellent cook so I’m sure the dinner is tasty but I can’t tell. I ignore the steak and I love steak and concentrate on finishing the bottle of Merlot I’d taken from my wine collection.
Had I pushed her? Or was it an accident? The questions have been plaguing my mind since I walked out on Joyce. As far as I can tell, she stumbled and fell but I was in such a rage that she wouldn’t leave well enough alone that I couldn’t rightly tell. For a minute she had looked at me like I’m a monster, making me feel as though I had pushed her for real.
“I’m off now Mr. Ash,” Mrs. Johnson announces, poking her head in the dining room. She looks from the mostly undisturbed plate of food before me and to my face. She regards me compassionately. “I hope you have a restful weekend.”
“Thank you,” I reply, trying to muster the corner of my lips to move upwards in the semblance of a smile. “You have yourself a great weekend too.”
She nods and leaves. I wait until I hear the front door close before leaving the dining room and going to the kitchen to throw out the dinner. If I had done it with her here, I would have hurt her feelings and it is bad enough I already have one woman mad at me.
I take the bottle of wine with me to my office where I try to do some work while drinking but I can’t concentrate. All sorts of thoughts are running through my mind. The most dominant one is of her on the floor and me walking away from her. I should have never left but I’d been so livid and thought we both needed some time to cool off before attempting a conversation about Jack again.
She was worried about me meeting Jack. I understood that although at the time it had been more a problem of ego and a challenge of my manhood. If I couldn’t keep my wife safe who the hell was going to do it? I do know how to take care of myself and wasn’t trying to act all smug when I told her that. I have a permit to carry and since Jack has been leveling his threats at her, I never go anywhere without it.
My hand itches to pick up the phone and call her but I don’t know what to say. Fuck it I should have called her from the very same day she had left. Instead I’d let her go and then put a bodyguard on her tail. I know where she is and would let her cool off for a bit. I’m glad too that she’s out of harm’s way so I can concentrate on meeting Jack.
It’s painful to see someone who you were close to at one point so fucked up in the head. I understand the drive to be successful and rich. After all I’d been intent on making my first millions outside of what I’d inherited from my father. But Jack is obsessed with power and control and won’t stop to have it.
At first I’d brushed off the little rumors about him intimidating someone until I’d seen it firsthand. At that time we’d wanted a particular building and everyone had been willing to sell out to us except one elderly man who insisted the space had been in his family for years and he wanted to pass it down to his grandson. He hadn’t known I was there and I’d heard him threatening the old man’s niece who was also in the shop with him. The girl couldn’t have been more than fifteen.
I’d intervened then and apologized profusely but the man had been scared enough to sign over the property there and then. That was the day I decided I no longer wanted to do business with him. As he’d stood there grinning from ear to ear and commenting “that’s how you do business, Axel boy,” I’d faced the reality that the Jack I’d met in high school and this man were two different people.
The hunger for money and power had corrupted him.
Since he’d started threatening Joyce, I’d bloodied his nose once and told him I’d end his miserable life if he so much as looks at my wife another time. He knows I am serious too but like a reckless man, living on the edge, he insists in testing my patience.
I could have taken care of him already but I think much of what he is saying is pure bullshit. That’s why I don’t fear meeting him but when he’s scaring the shit out of Joyce, it’s time to step in and let him know I wouldn’t tolerate it. If he has a bone to pick with me, then do it but leave my family out of it. Especially now with Joyce being pregnant with our first child, if he so much as hurts a hair on their heads, he would pay big time.
The buzzing of my cell on the desk pulls me out of my thoughts. At first, I think it’s Joyce and is severely disappointed when it isn’t. When I see the name flashing across the screen, I scowl blackly. He is the reason I will have to sleep in an empty bed for the second night in a row.
“What do you want, Jack?” I snap into the phone.
“Is that anyway to greet your dearest old friend, Axel?” he says from the other end.
“What do you want Jack?” I repeat.
“Can’t a friend be calling to check up on another friend.”
I hang up on him. I am not in the mood for his games tonight. The phone rings promptly a second time. I answer.
“Listen, Jack, I’m not in the mood for your bullshit tonight. If there’s something you have to say to me, then say it and get off my phone.”
“Such hostility but I’ll pardon it. After all your wife did leave you or so I’ve heard.”
“You have ten seconds to get it out Jack before I hang up the phone,” I tell him.
“Now we both know that’s not reasonable.”
“Nine,” I start to count down. “Eight. Seven.”
“I simply called because I believe you’ve suffered enough,” Jack explains. “I never really wanted your marriage to end, Axel. I know you don’t believe me, but I still care about you. You’re like a brother to me.”
“Don’t fuck with me, Jack. I’ve a brother and he would have never threatened my wife the way you did.”
“You’ve got to understand I was hurt after our business failed.”
“Your business, Jack.”
“It was out business, Axel and you bailed on me, taking all my clients.”
“I never took a single client except the ones I’d gotten myself,” I remind him. “You’re the one who mismanaged your resources. You never did know how to interact well with people.”
“Maybe but I’m trying to make up for it now.”
“Hmm.” I say noncommittally.
“I’ve a home in the Caribbean I bought,” he explains. “And I’ll be leaving here and all this bad business behind to start over. I want to make things right before I leave.”
“You’re moving to live in another country?” I ask, not sure if I believe him.
He chuckles. “Well, you don’t have to sound so happy that I’ll be gone.”
“What the hell do you think? You threatened my way Jack. That’s the woman I love and I’ve sworn to protect.”
“But where is she now? Look Axel I’m sorry about your wife. I will apologize to her too if you bring her to the office tomorrow. It’s moving day and I’d like you to get a look one last time at the place where our dreams started before I leave.”
Chances are that he’s bluffing and he has something else planned at his office. I know this is probably the case but there’s also the slight possibility that he really might have changed and want to apologize. If a chance exist that my friend is still inside this cold, calculated man, then I want to get him out.
But on my terms.
“We can meet at my office,” I tell him.
“Why not at my office?” he grumbles.
“Because I don’t trust you, Jack but you’d be a fool to try anything at my office.”
“You need to work on your trust issues, Axel, my boy,” he states. “Maybe that’s the reason your wife left you after all and it really has nothing to do with me.”
I scowl. “Don’t talk about my wife, Jack or this deal is off. Joyce is out of bounds to you. She’ll definitely not be at the office.”
“Too bad. I’d have liked to be officially introduced to her.”
“And not tomorrow,” I continue as if he hadn’t spoken. “The day after. Monday morning.”
“Okay, will see you then. Thanks again Axel. This means a lot to me to be able to apologize in person.”
He hands up and he’s just added another layer of confusion to what I’m already dealing with. He sounds sincere and if he was, that would be great. I wouldn’t be opposed to hiring him if he could show that he is changed from his power-hungry ways
I think of the way Joyce had freaked out at the idea of me meeting Jack. At least she wouldn’t know. And speaking of which, I need my wife home soon. Tomorrow I should do something really nice for her. To let her know although she is miles away, she isn’t far from my thoughts.
But what to do?