Sweet Downfall (39 page)

Rad tipped his head a little. Jordan mumbled a low, “Good evening, Jaq.”

Good evening? It was strange coming from the man he’d engaged in a fist fight twice.

“What dragged your asses down here?” he said in a not so welcoming tone.

Ram cleared his throat. “We need to talk, man.”

“Yeah? About what? You must know by now I didn’t leak the damn video,” he said straight up, not wanting to prolong the conversation, whatever they came here for.

Ram nodded. “Yeah, we already know.”

“I’m just curious. Who did it?”

The twins looked at each other.

“It was Sherry,” Ram supplied.

“Your sister?!”

The twins nodded.

“Why the hell would she do such a thing?”

The twins were at a loss for words. Even Jordan was tight-lipped. It was obvious they were not going to elaborate on that mystery. “So, why are you here?”

“Because of Angie,” Rad said.

He raised his hand. “Look, I can assure you, we were finished eight years ago. I swear to you now, we are definitely finished.”

“We don’t think so,” Rad countered with a sneer.

Rad The Asshole was back so soon, he thought. “I can see your apologies meant nothing. I should have known better.”

“That was before we learned that Angie’s pregnant.”

Rad’s bald statement sucker-punched him. “Pregnant” reverberated in his head like a crack of a vicious thunder.

He looked at Jordan, and much as he had vowed to let bygones be bygones, jealousy swept through him with such violent force he wanted to tackle the man to the ground and beat the shit out of him again.It took all his willpower to remain where he stood and do nothing. “Congratulations,” he said coldly to Jordan.

“No. Congratulations.”

Now, what the hell did Jordan mean by that? He was congratulating him? Mocking him?

“I have a question and I want a straight answer, Jaq,” this, from Rad.

“Yeah, shoot.”

“Did you have sex with our sister recently?”

The fuck?! What kind of question was that? But one look at the Yulo twins told him they were seriously expecting an answer. “Yes, a few times recently,” he admitted grudgingly. He didn’t have to tell them how many times exactly, did he? “But so did he,” he gestured towards Jordan.

“I am definitely not the father,” Jordan shot back with absolute certainty in his voice.

The fuck is this?!
Were they playing a damn prank on him? They all looked ridiculously serious in dumping this recent ‘crime’ on him. “Now, wait a minute! I have decided to just let everything go. Whatever happened in the past, I’m okay with it now. Let’s all move on from that shit. Just don’t give me this new bullshit because I won’t take it like the damn fool I was before!”

“You will be a dead damn fool if you don’t own up to it!” Rad replied in the same intensity.

He laughed in their faces. He couldn’t believe their gall.

Fate had decided. Bygones won’t be bygones, after all. “Get outta here,” he said, waving them off.

“You will come with us. You will marry Angie,” Ram stated.

He took on a defensive stance, ready for battle.“I don’t think so.”

“You’re denying it’s you who knocked her up?” Rad demanded.

He barked a laugh. It was simply ludicrous. “You’re crazy for even thinking that! Why the hell me? She’s engaged to Jordan! Marry them off! That was the plan from the beginning, right? Stick to it!”

“We were never lovers.”

His head snapped towards Jordan. “What?!”

“You heard me.”

“Aw, come on! Are you shitting me?! How can you have a girlfriend like that and not nail her?!”

Rad took a step toward him and pushed him in the chest. “Don’t talk about our sister like that!”

He pushed the asshole back.

Before they could proceed to round one, Jordan came in between them.

“I swear, Jaq, I never touched her,” Jordan restated his claim, looking him straight in the eye.

He shook his head. “I don’t believe you! Angie told me herself that you two are sexually intimate!”

“She was lying,” Jordan said flatly.

“But why would she lie about that?!” This was just too bizarre to comprehend.

“Fuck if I know! You were the ones screwing behind my back! You tell me!”

Jordan got him there. Shame hit him but he refused to play their shitty games. “Look Jordan, this is a stupid argument. Why don’t you just ask her who the father is? I’m sure she knows.”

“She doesn’t know we’re here. She’s not talking about it and she doesn’t know we know about her condition. But you need to see her, Jaq. Talk to her. Make right by her.”

“I told you, we’re finished.”

“The doctor said she’s more or less eight weeks on the way. Do the math,” Jordan added.

Eight weeks. Jaq’s mind frantically counted backward. It stopped on the night they first saw each other again after eight long years. They had wild unprotected sex on his sofa. In fact, he had never used any protection in all the times they had been together. Sex was always spontaneous with Angie.

“If it’s my kid, Jaq, believe me, we won’t be here talking about it. I would be on her, dragging her to the nearest judge to marry us quick. I want kids of my own. My own flesh and blood. But Angie’s baby is not mine.”

Confusion really kicked in this time. “I need to think about this…”

“No. You come back with us to Manila. Now,” Rad said.

The underlying threat in Rad’s voice made his hackles rise. “Are you threatening me?”

“You bet we are,” Ram said calmly.

He snorted. “You talk too much.”

The trio simultaneously reached behind them. In a flash, three 9mm’s were pointing at him.

Not surprised anymore, he smirked at them. “Resorting to violence again? It’s getting old, boys.”

“Shut the fuck up. Get in the chopper,” Rad ordered him.

“This is fucking ridiculous! Seriously? You’re kidnapping me? To marry your sister? Are you all fucking nuts?!”

The trio remained serious.

“Okay. Shoot me then.”

“The fuck, Jaq! Just get in the fucking chopper!” Ram shouted.

“My father will be royally pissed if I end up dead. I’m his only son.”

“Yeah, Sonny Montero is dead. You’ll join him six feet under if you won’t come with us,” Rad said.

“But Sonny is not my real father.”

“Yeah? We don’t care who spawned you, Montero. The only guy who can make me shake a little in my boots is the Armed Forces chief of staff.”

He smiled confidently. For the first time in his life, he was grateful he was a bastard. “Yeah? What about the ex-Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces? Would that shake your boots a little, Rad?”

The twins exchanged puzzled looks.

“I’m telling you, you don’t wanna cross my old man. He’s one nasty son of a bitch. He’s more loaded than both your families combined. You don’t wanna know how he’s amassed his wealth but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t from being a nice, honorable gentleman.”

“You’re full of shit, Montero!” Rad replied. “Get in the fucking chopper!”

He shook his head slowly. “You gotta shoot me, man. But remember, the people here saw you and your chopper. Unless you wanna kill them, too? X won’t be pleased if you splatter his runway with my blood and gore. Imagine what you’ll have to deal with then aside from my big shot father?”

He turned around and walked away from them, heading back to the rest house.

“Fuck! Get back here, Montero!” Rad shouted.

He flipped them the bird.

Jaq had been pacing the vastness of the rest
house’s living area for two hours now, analyzing his recent conversation with the Yulo twins and Jordan. The three had left, no doubt plotting on how to get him next time. It was definitely an unfinished business, but one he did not intend to finish. Because he was scared shitless.

Angie was pregnant.

Was Jordan telling the truth? That he and Angie were not intimate?

He knew Jordan by reputation at Lothario. The man was definitely not a monk.
So, if Jordan wasn’t
the father, then who? Was there any other guy in the picture aside from the two of them?

Jaq immediately rejected that possibility. The thought of another guy simply didn’t add up. If Jordan wasn’t fucking her then nobody was.

Except HIM.

Was that why Angie bled that time they did it at his house? Because she was not sexually active for years? She had been so wet and he knew he’d made her come, and yet she’d bled.

And why would the Yulo twins want him to marry their sister if there was a possibility that Jordan was the father? The Yulos had been gunning for Jordan to be Angie’s husband since he can remember. Now, they were gunning for him, the guy they’d been spitting on for almost a decade! He would never have believed it had he not heard it straight from the twins earlier. They actually wanted him to be part of their family now? He wanted to laugh hard at the irony of it. It was the joke of the century.

The longer he thought about it, the possibility became more apparent. The baby could be his. The idea brought a mixture of feelings. Fear. Excitement. Joy. Hope…

Oh God.

Don’t give me false hopes.

Don’t make me hope and lose again.

Please, I beg you.

But he needed to know the truth. He had to hear it from her own lips and he won’t get the truth if he remained in this place pacing like a caged animal with a burr up his ass.

He went looking for the resort’s head of security. He saw Nel coming towards the rest house, too.

“Jaq, Boss X just radioed us. He said you need to go back to Manila ASAP.”

“Why? What happened, Nel?”

“You friend Kit met an accident. He’s in a very critical condition.”

His mind went blank in shock.

Two shocking news in one day was just too much, even for a tough ass like him.

Jaq was in Manila in less than an hour.
He got a call from Alexis minutes after the chopper landed. Kit had slipped into a coma.

He borrowed one of Alexis’ numerous cars and headed for the hospital where Kit was taken.

This day was actually special because it was their friend Nico’s wedding. Kit came from the wedding reception when he had the accident.

Upon reaching the hospital, Jaq went straight to the ICU. Alexis was there along with Rydon, Diegs, Tommy and Kit’s relatives.

It felt like a time warp back to the past. This same scenario happened eight years ago. Right after he was released from prison, Kit had OD’d on coke. Kit survived but he had to be taken into rehab. That lead to Oblivion disbanding. Having nothing else of value to do in this country, Jaq left with his mother for London.

“How is he?” he asked Alexis quietly.

Alexis shook his head, looking devastated. Kit was Alexis’ best friend and that friendship spanned nearly three decades. “Kit is always a pain, man. He always does this. Look at him.” He gestured to Kit’s prone body inside the ICU. “He went head on to a fucking cargo truck. Stupid fuck, I can’t believe he’d be so… I swear, Jaq, Kit’s gonna kill me with a fuckin’ heart attack.”

He patted Alexis’ back. “You’re a bad seed, bro. A heart attack is too boring a death for you,” he attempted at humor.

Alexis sighed deeply. They both fell quiet.

He knew, words were not enough to comfort Alexis or Kit’s family at this time. Kit was lying there, almost covered entirely in bandages. Several tubes were attached to his arms and chest. A ventilator was helping his unconscious body to breathe.

As he stood there looking at Kit’s almost lifeless body, thinking of the huge possibility that his friend could just quietly slip away so easily, he suddenly realized that all the painful things that happened in his life seemed insignificant compared to the loss that he might feel if Kit died.

Life was too fragile and short.

He thought of Angie…and their unborn baby…and just like that, his doubts melted like ice.

He was sure now, in his heart and soul, he was the father of her baby. And just the thought of losing either of them now was simply inconceivable. And he didn’t want them to lose him, either. He wanted to be alive for them. To celebrate life with them.

His tears fell.
Fight, Kit. Please, fight hard. So many people love you.
He glanced at Kit’s family huddled together in one corner, abject grief in their faces.
Your family loves you. You can’t leave us. You can’t, brother.

He wiped his eyes and walked over to Gustavo del Bianco, Michelle, his second wife and Bettina, Kit’s wife. Just months ago, Kit and Bettina were married and were so happy together, and now, this.

He expressed his moral support to them. They expressed their gratitude.

Afterward, there was only one thing left to do.