The Wicked End

Gerard pushed Mikey’s head away from the crook of his neck and wondered how he could move without waking either of the naked men who seemed to still be fighting for possession of his body. It hadn’t exactly been lovemaking but he had come to the conclusion that it was as good as. Any guilt about sleeping with his own brother had evaporated a long time before. Mikey was rough on a scale that Frank usually held back from and the extreme submissive part of Gerard loved it and all the associated depravity that both his lovers could conjure up.
It had relieved some of the frustrations and allowed Mikey to release some of the emotion that he had been storing up since losing James. Gerard had long accepted that his brother had been born a psychopath and had no outlet other than violence, the boy had helped divert that into something approaching a loving relationship and without that Mikey could only lash out with his fists. The growing purple haze of bruises forming under his ribs attested to that. He fingered the puffiness along his bottom lip and half smiled.
Frank grunted but didn’t move as Gee managed to squirm out from the foot of the bed, the cold of the room causing him to grab his jeans before heading out of the master bedroom and down the stairs to find his shirt and phone. There was still work to be done, the captains would be reporting in and he had stockbrokers and foreign customers to sort. His pace quickened as he realised his phone was on the breakfast bar in the kitchen and it was actually ringing.
“Yeah ?”
“Gee ? Gee, please tell me its you and Frankie is there ?”
Gerard instantly turned and began running towards the stairs, he knew this was going to be bad. He had come to develop a second instinct to bad news and the First Lady on a protected line in floods of tears qualified as bad fucking news.
“Sharon, calm down and tell me what’s wrong. Where’s Ray ?”
“H-he….he shot himself, he’s dead !”
Gerard reeled, his bare shoulder connecting painfully with the wall as a single word roared from his lips. This was crazy, he had spoken to his friend the day before, it just couldn’t be.
“FRANK !!!”
Sharon continued to sob, haltingly explaining that she had gone down to find Ray after realising it was nearly three and he wasn’t in bed. Three secret service men had barred the way, the whole lower floor going frantic and refusing to tell her anything until she barged straight past them. They had been having problems and she knew he was being pulled in every direction but this ?
Frank appeared in the doorway, sleep forgotten as he saw the pale and pained face that had seemingly aged Gee by twenty years. He barely uttered the whisper of Ray and dead before the phone was pulled from his grasp.
“Sharon, did somebody get in there ?”
“No, they’re saying suicide.”
Her voice dropped and Frank fought against a silent scream as he watched Gerard pull Mikey from the bed and slap him awake. Already he could see three emails, all encrypted and from Ray’s direct account to his hidden address. The time was three hours before, sometime just after midnight and Frank already knew that this was no suicide.
“Not buying it. He was speaking about the Geneva trip a few hours ago and he was fine if a little stressed.”
“Your name is coming up Frank, they are talking about you. They will be coming at you very soon and I think you need to run. There are whispers of murder charges. I have to go, they’re looking for me.”
The phone cut off and Frank resisted the temptation to throw it at the wall. Somehow Angel had done this, it was all connected back. She wanted to destroy him in every way and poor Ray had somehow provided the means to do it. A silent rage that felt like a cold boulder had placed itself in his stomach and Frank was ready to wage open war. The wolf was wounded and cornered and had never been more dangerous. He stared at the only two men left in the world that he could trust.
“We need to disappear. Feds are going to try and pin this on us and we have little time. Ray sent us something we need to look at but for now send everyone home and tell them to lie low until they here from us. Gee, transfer all funds to offshore accounts and post a temporary close on all the production and shipments. Mikes, organise an escape route down to the house on the river.”
Neither questioned, the assignments completed within a ten minute window as Frank threw clothes into bags for all of them, emptied his safe of nearly twenty thousand dollars and filled the trunk of the four by four with weapons. The escape plan had been used once before, the old house on the shores of an actual lake had never been in his name and the location had been known to five people. Two of whom were now dead.
Mikey was silent, he too had gone into fight mode and concentrated on settling his men and arming up to finish this war once and for all. He too had no doubt that Angel had managed to find a way to take down the President and equally no doubt that there was probably most of the US intelligence services on its way to hunt them down. He kept the police scanner and his guards walkie talkie in the back pockets of his jeans until they were ready to go.
“Everyone’s gone and all the captains have pulled the men out. We can lock the door and go.”
“Gee ?”
Gerard nodded, pushing the laptop bag down beside him and the pistol into his jacket pocket. This was new but the blood lust that governed the less sane parts of his brain was now focussed on keeping his brother and lover safe. The rest of it he would leave to Frank.
Frank smiled, a part of him was glad to drop the façade of his business life, the whole two faced lie of being a pillar of society when he spat on them all and would kill whoever now got in his way. His entire world had narrowed down to finding Angel and his wife. He would face up to whatever else was on its way after. All that mattered now was putting an end to this once and for all. She had taken two of his family and it was enough.
“We got Feds coming in from the north and local police. Take the back route.”
Gerard caught the two radios as Mikey swung into the jeep and gunned the engine. Frank settled himself in the back and fired up the laptop. He concentrated on selecting the correct encryption codes to the files that Ray had sent and let the programme work its way into making them into legible words. It was the highest level code and it would need to run while they powered down back roads and out into open countryside.
“She did this.”
Gerard’s words were dripping with bitterness that Mikey found caused an ache in his groin. He much preferred the damaged side of his older brother. The calm and professional side was amusing to watch but his brother gutting a screaming victim with nothing bigger than a butcher knife was something that Mikey found rather beautiful. He would unleash this demon on whoever got between him and Angel.
“Yes. She did. Ray was fucked up but he wouldn’t have killed himself. Somehow she got to him and these files will show us how. Anyone on our tail ?”
“No, surrounding the house right now though and your phone is going crazy.”
Mikey leant over and pulled Frank’s phone from his brothers hand. He smashed it on the dash and did the same to Gerard’s. He had never got around to pulling his from his jacket pocket but he would destroy that later too. All they would communicate with was the guards untraceable phone that resided in Frank’s laptop bag.
Frank nodded and leant back, resting his eyes as the car continued on. The first blush of dawn was breaking the horizon when the laptop lit up to announce the programme was finished. Eagerly Frank clicked on the first email and read down the message it contained.

Frank
If you’re reading this then I’m dead. This email is linked to a code for the FBI that signifies I died under mysterious or unexplained circumstances and will go only to you. All trace has been wiped from any other network.
First, I’m sorry. I never meant to lie to you or to let things go this far. Angel was always my weak spot and I have allowed it to cloud my judgement for far too long. I believed that we could get away, have a proper life together that didn’t involve anyone else and to that end I set her up with Matt in California and was going to steal enough to join her there. Guess she played me for the fucking idiot I am.
Tell Mikey and Gee I am sorry. I never meant to get James killed or for any harm to come to Claire but it spiralled out of my control and there is nothing I can do to stop it. They watch me all the time, they have a man on my security detail and nothing I say will stop her from this insanity so I am including with this details of her location, the names and last known addresses of all her associates and their families and every recorded conversation I could get my hands on.
None of this makes up for what I have done. I know they will try and pull you down but there is nothing concrete to link back to you. Whatever charges they manage could be easily pulled down by your lawyers if that’s what they try. If they try and kill you, well I know you will deal with that.
Nothing left for me to say but again I am sorry my brother.
Love you all, never forget that.
Ray

Frank opened the other emails, hot tears running down his cheeks. The betrayal burned but this was enough for him to find her. To bring a rain of destruction down on Angel and everyone who stood with her and against him and his brothers. Ray had been weak, in that way only, but in the end his loyalty to Frank had been the one thing to see him through. There was nothing left now but to kill every last one of them until only Frank remained.
Until he stood at the top of the empire of ashes with the Way brothers beside him.

Notes