Chapter 64 - The Rendezvous (1/2)
The meeting place was an unassuming bar downtown, the kind frequented by the down and out. Yet, Jake Magno has set the ”date” here; if anything happens, no one would be suspicious. Brawls erupt spontaneously here; women pass out and shoved into waiting car trunks, and nobody bats an eye; all the more perfect for Jake.
Claire has no idea what she's walking into. She's never been to this part of town, and she merely found it because of her chauffeur's expertise. Her heart pounds in her ċhėst. ”What exactly do you intend to do, Claire?” the voice in her head says. ”You could be walking into the lion's den.”
The viper's pit, more like.
It's not hard to spot Jake, even when he's sitting at a table half-hidden in the shadows. Claire would recognize that profile anywhere. Jake sees him and he raises his glass. Claire nods, like some gunslinger come to the town's saloon, ready for a duel.
”You look amazing, Bella,” Jake says, standing to greet her with a hug, as though everything is normal and he never tried to **** and probably murder her a few nights ago. But Claire recoils, so Jake stops and looks at her. ”You smell heavenly, too,” he snickers. ”Sit down. Let's have that chat you were talking about.”
Claire quietly takes the seat opposite him. ”I'd like a double shot of whisky, please. On the rocks.”
Jake grins as he signals to the waiter. ”That's good. You're coming on strong and hot.”
The waiter only takes a second to arrive. Claire doesn't take her eyes off the whisky; she remembers very well what Jake did the last time. Her nerves are frayed and she's trembling underneath this façade of coolness. She takes a swig of the whisky, pours it directly down her throat so that she won't taste the bulk of it, and her mind almost whites out. Holy fuċk! That was nasty! She has never had hard liquor before, but she had asked Mary at the office what could be the easiest drink to calm the nerves, and Mary said whisky, on the rocks, make it double. She had no idea what those words meant. Now she knows; gawd, that shit tasted awful.
But she keeps a straight face, and pretends she's made of steel.
Jake Magno watches her quietly, like a predator watching prey. He's curious, above all. Why would Claire ask for this meeting? What is she really thinking? He presumes, and correctly at that, that Claire already knows what he did to her that night. And probably Gabriel painted himself as her knight in shining armor, maybe making shit up too so he would come off as superbly heroic. That buffoon! That privileged idiot! He wouldn't be the boss if his mother didn't own the company. All that wealth was merely served to Gabriel on a silver platter, and he didn't have to work hard for it, unlike what Jake did. Every cent in Jake's bank account was thanks to his sharp talent—he could sell the Eiffel Tower to a common Parisian, if shit came to that. That's how good he is at his craft. He knows why people buy things, and he knows which buŧŧons to push. And Gabriel? All he does is reap what others have sown.
And it hurts Jake's pride that he wasn't able to consummate his raging dėsɨrė for Bella Xavier. There's something about this woman that drives him crazy. She's incredibly attractive, but not in a sŀutty, college-girl-whore kind of way, but in that rare, special sense that makes a man marry a woman. He had recognized that early on, how Bella is the type of girl you bring home to Mama. But Jake's jaded and no longer entertained that naïve fantasy of finding ”The One”—he knew he'd never have her, so he tried to take only what he could get—a night in bed with her.
”Who did that to your face?” Claire says, seeing him up-close for the first time since that night.
And only then does Jake becomes self-conscious; he realizes how he must look to her. All the more reason to hate Gabriel Tan, because he's the one who did this to him—he has stitches above an eye, on his cheekbone, and his left earlobe had to be re-attached with a special medical-grade glue. All this damage from that night, and meeting Gabriel the following morning without a scratch on him only added to the aggravation. How could that pussƴ beat him to a close-quarter fight? Even now it boggles Jake's mind.
Of course, he doesn't know that for Gabriel Tan that night, he was fighting not only for his life, but for the woman he has learned to truly care about. That was why all his rage is unleashed, like a cornered lion, serving Jake Magno an all- or-nothing fight for Claire.
”You'd have to thank your awesome boss, Gabriel Tan, for this,” he mutters. ”Tell him I haven't forgotten.”
Claire smiles patiently, fighting the urge to scratch his face. ”Surely, you did something that made Gabriel do that, right?”