Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10
Dinner at Jordi’s was definitely going to be difficult. As Jake walked to the house, he heard the familiar, rough and rude sound of a rap song. Totally amused, he figured Chris was trying to get “cool”. As his sharp rapping on the door was completely ignored, he figured he would let himself in. As he opened the door, Hootch came bounding at him, tongue wagging followed by an extremely excited Jaimie.
She was tiny next to the goliath of a dog. A smiles and giggles, looking every bit the four year-old she was. She seemed to have fallen in love with Hootch and could not wait to get out of her uncle’s arms to continue dancing to the awful music and pet the dog.Determined not to be jealous of the mongrel, he strode towards the kitchen, following the scent of good food and the blaring sound of vulgar words being spewed out at high speed.
“Listen, Uncle Jake! I can sing like them!” Jaimie chirped as she dragged the poor dog along. “I-don-care-a-fuck-coz-I’m-just-drinking-smoking-straight-West-coasting!”
Horrified by what had just come out of her mouth, and angry that she had even managed to remember the words, he picked her up by the back of her t-shirt. As she floated a foot above the floor, she laughed and cheered, saying she was flying. She did not sense his anger. He hauled his little niece into the kitchen and was stopped short by the sight of her – Jo was in Jordi’s kitchen. Cooking. Moving. Doing some kind of bump-and-grind move while whisking eggs. She looked ridiculous. He was angry and he did not care how cute she looked.
Anger growing like a tumour; he placed Jaimie back on her feet and strode to the radio, promptly turning off the music. Jo was frozen in her ridiculous stance for a few seconds before realising that the CD had not skipped but in fact the radio had been turned off.
“Heya, Jakie-poo! We were just hangin’ out, chillin’ out and straight West Coasting! If ya know what I mean, homey,” she smiled at him, arms waving, pretending she really was a “homey”. What a lousy accent.
“Jaimie, would you mind singing for Dr. Lester, what you sang for me just now?” Jake turned and asked the little girl gently.
“Sure!” she said, thrilled to bits thinking that Uncle Jake was proud of her. As she sang, perfectly, without skipping a beat, Jake watched Jo’s face. He watched the dawning realisation of how wrong the whole situation was and the guilt washing over her face.
“Well, uh, Jaimie. All I can say is that Dr Dre would be proud. Bad intentions never felt so good, hah? Too funny,” Jo said, as she moved towards Jaimie in apology. Braving a glance at Jake, “Now, Jaimie. While we enjoyed our sing-along time, we can’t ever use that kind of language, okay? Promise me you’ll never, ever, ever, ever say those bad words you heard, or do bad things like smoking ‘n’ drinking.”
“What’s drinking? Like water?” Jaimie asked, now looking more confused than anything else.
Scrubbing his hands across his face, “That’s enough, Jo. You’ve done enough damage. Let’s not turn my niece into a street-walker just yet, shall we?”
“Oh my god! That was actually funny, Grizzles!” Jordi came from behind. “Now leave Jo alone. She’s cooking for me. I was painting my nails. Dinner going to be ready anytime soon, Jo? Really, thank you so much for helping.”
“Be ready in ten! And it’s really no problem at all. I was touched that Jake invited me into your home, allowing me to be part of this, even if for the time-span of a meal,” Jo replied, looking straight at Jake, daring him to correct her.
Feeling like a petulant child, Jake turned around and walked out of the kitchen. Now would be a good time to play that ridiculous alien-bashing game that usually held Jaimie’s attention. Only now, Jaimie was beaming up at Jo with such worship in her eyes that he could not spoil their fun, even if he was in a mood to spit. Not inviting Jaimie to join him at the game console would mean he had some time to gather his thoughts. He idly started up the system and began playing mindlessly.
He had told her not to come, but here she was, bringing her loud, unconsciously beautiful self into his sister’s home. Chris walked into the living room minutes later, sighing heavily and looking tired. The two men acknowledged each other with manly nods, silently. Chris head straight to the kitchen to say ‘hello’ to his wife. Jake smiled to himself, knowing Chris was in for a surprise.
Bounding out of the kitchen, Chris stopped in front of the television. “Have you seen what’s in the kitchen? Good Lord, they don’t make them like that anymore. She was bending over just now. I can’t take it. She’s beyond hot. Congratulations, Jake. Holy shit. I heard she was a sight, but the mere sight of her upturned bottom nearly gave me an aneurysm!”
“Yes. I see you’ve met Jo. Despite the good looks and the bubbles, she’s as mad as a rabid dog. Not my type at all. Now get out of my way. I’m just about to make it to level 2,” Jake bit out. Totally surprised at the fact that he did not appreciate anyone even daring to look at Jo. In all his thirty-two years, he had never felt jealous or even remotely possessive. Chris grunted in response, too tired to pick a fight with Jake. James was already in the kitchen, and it was time for dinner.
***
“So, Jo, tell us, how did you and Jake meet?” Chris asked politely, knowing it would irritate Jake.
“Well, he bashed into me at The Coffee Grounds and the rest is history,” she smiled, looking directly at Jake, batting her eyelids dramatically.
“Oh. Interesting. Jake, how could you knock into her? You could’ve hurt her!” Jordi said, in an attempt to reprimand Jake.
“Trust me. You don’t need to worry about her. She could’ve hurt me, but no one seems to care, right?” Jake replied while patting Jaimie’s back as she choked on her water. James looked extremely amused by the whole situation. Jake wanted to “bash” into James’ face right now.
“Hey guys... I was reading something in the paper today. Thought I’d share it with you,” Chris said, as though he needed say something to ease the tension. “You know that larger-than-life company, Dynaco? Yeah, seems they are going to tank. Something about a lack of tenders and funds. Can you believe it? I mean...” Chris continued.
Jake felt the energy in the room change. He looked around and saw James squirm. Jo had a standard “oh really? I-so-don’t-know-what-you’re-talking-about” face. Suddenly realising that Dynaco definitely had something to do with what they were building, Jake nodded in interest at Chris.
“Really? A land developer, out of money? America’s huge. There’s land all over the place! I can’t believe a good, all-American company like that is going to go bankrupt. Any ideas, guys? What happened? I’m shocked, really,” Chris could not stop talking.
“Well, uh, you see, companies like Dynaco really should not tank, seeing as they mostly get government tenders to develop land and housing,” Jo said, passing James the salad. Jake noticed that James had not asked for the salad, but let it slide.
“I heard that Dynaco is tanking because the government had decided ‘to go in another direction’. Tenders for land development in Iowa have all been outsourced to non-American companies. The Otway Dam project went to a Hong-Kong Based company. Crazy stuff right, Jaimie?” James said, scooping salad into her plate while she faked gagging at the sight of vegetables.
“Oh? An American company in Hong Kong? Or a bonafide Hong Kong company?” Chris asked, loving the whole mystery behind Dynaco’s bankruptcy.
“A true,blue Hong Kong- owned company. It’s all a big conspiracy, if you ask me. I think your nails are pretty, Jordi! Is the chicken okay?” Jo interjected.
“Totally random, but thank you, Jo! At least someone noticed my nails,” Jordi said, lancing a glare at Chris who was still caught up in the whole conspiracy theory. “The food is perfect, Jo! The chicken is so good! The salsa is epic!”
“It’s really easy to make. You don’t need a PhD in particle physics to know how to do it!” Jo said, thrilled, earning herself dirty looks from both Jake and James. If she kept talking she would blow everything.
“Wait, I don’t get it. Why is this all a big conspiracy? What’s so important with land-developing tenders anyways?” Chris said, not fazed by the distraction.
“I guess we’ll never know, Chris ‘ol buddy. I also guess not everything is as transparent as they claim it to be,” Jake said bitterly.
Tomorrow he would find out what Dynaco had to do with the weapons-delivery system. As they finished up dinner and Jo played the alien-bashing game with Jaimie before bed-time, Jake thought about which of the three geniuses he was going to interrogate and how he was going to do it.
After thinking about it, he had decided. Fallon was going to end up a “victim” if Jake did not get answer. There was no way they could hide it from him anymore. Dynaco was going down, and if he did not get answers, so was Fallon. Steeling himself, he went home to read about Dynaco and all the other current news.
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