Page 38 of Cold Hard Cash

“Shhhh, be quiet now,” Cold soothed, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbing Jimmy’s bleeding lip.

Jimmy was stunned. Cold had to have heard the Gentlemen’s accusations, but he didn’t appear to care. He only seemed concerned with Jimmy, scrutinizing the wound once more with a little frown.

“What the fuck, Cold!” Lorre shouted, furious that Cold was ignoring them and was so caught up in Jimmy. “I demand fuckin’ blood for my brother. Let me have the kid! Are you listening to anything I’m sayin’? He’s Detective Duplin’s son!”

Cold did not look impressed by Lorre’s outburst, glaring at him heatedly as he calmly said, “Yes... I know.”

Chapter Nine

No one was more shocked than Jimmy. He was frozen in place, gawking stupidly at Cold. He knew. The gangster knew Augustus was his adopted father. Why? How? Jimmy’s mind spun with questions, trying to stay grounded, but he was absolutely terrified.

Was this the part where Cold made him go sleep with the fishes? Cement shoes? Was this all some horrible trap?

“You brought that pig’s fuckin’ kid here? Why?” Lorre snarled.

“My intentions with Mr. Poe are none of your business,” Cold said coolly, “but I can assure you he’s no threat to any of you.”

“What about my brother?” Lorre demanded.

“You’ll get your blood debt some other way,” Cold snarled back, baring his teeth. “You will not get it tonight, and you will certainly not get it from Mr. Poe.”

Jimmy clung to Cold’s wrist, staring at Lorre to see what he was going to do.

Lorre backed off, clearly not pleased, but loyal enough to stand down. “Fine, Boss,” he said bitterly. “Whatever you say.”

Tamerlane lowered his gun, moving to Lorre’s side and resting his hand on his shoulder. They exchanged a brief glance, something tender and meaningful that was over all too fast when Corman snapped.

“I think not. I’ve got my own personal business with Detective Duplin.” Corman’s eyes zeroed in on Jimmy, adding nastily, “And I would love to tell Mr. Poe here all about it.”

“Yeah? And let you put your fucking hands on him again?” Rowena growled, grabbing her shoes up from the floor. “I don’t know what is going on here, but if you think you’re gonna hurt Jimmy? Ohhh, I will rock your fucking skull with six inches of steel—”

“Rowena,” Cold said, his voice quick and stern.

Rowena glared, but lowered the shoe.

The Gentlemen all watched silently, the air tense. There had been a serious violation of their decorum, and now it had to be corrected. They all seemed to know what was coming.

“Mr. Corman,” Cold said, his voice eerily calm. “I think you’re forgetting something very important here. We Gentlemen have rules.” Guiding Jimmy into Rowena’s arms, his eyes flickered to Jules in an unspoken command.

Jules grabbed Corman without question, roughly pinning his arms behind his back.

“Rule number one: I’m the boss.” Cold reared back and socked Corman right in his jaw with a deafening crack. He took a deep breath and hit him again, Corman’s nose crunching and starting to bleed.

“No! Wait!” Corman protested, struggling to free himself from Jules’ hold. “I meant no offense!”

“I’m the boss, and do you know what that means?” Cold calmly removed his jacket, offering it to Tamerlane for safekeeping. He stretched his neck and rolled his shoulders back as he took off his cufflinks. He put them in his pants pocket and began to roll up his sleeves. “It means you don’t touch what’smine.”

A thick gush of blood was pouring out of Corman’s busted face, and Jimmy felt strange. His body was light, light as a feather, and he was floating. He wasn’t inside the mansion now. He was back at home, his family’s old home. He could see the knife hitting his mother in the chest over and over, he could see the blood.

The room began to spin, and the Man in the White Coat was there with the knife in his hand, laughing as his mother screamed for mercy. He couldn’t stop watching, and the Man in White’s face was a blank void.

He didn’t have a face, why didn’t he have a face? The void was melting away as he cackled, and everything went black.

“Jimmy? Jimmy!” It was Rowena’s voice calling to him as she cradled his face sweetly.

Jimmy stirred, groaning. A sharp slap across his cheek made him yelp.

“Aw, there. See?” Rowena cooed. “He’s fine!”