The Enforcer or The Mafia Prince

Chapter 24

Tristan sat in his condo alone, staring at the blank TV screen. He'd heard Jessica on the phone that morning. Her back had been to a portion of the wall next to Tristan's head as he tried to sleep. From what he heard, Tristan understood that Jessica liked both him and Declan. The news hit him hard. It was all Tristan could do not to storm out onto the balcony or into Declan's room.

"Had anything happened between them," he wondered. Tristan was analyzing every interaction between the two. He almost punched a wall when he remembered that Jessica had accidentally seen Declan naked. He didn't know how to handle any competition between him and another man, but it was so much worse knowing it was Declan. Women always flocked to him. Tristan had never needed to try for someone before. If it came down to him or Declan, he wasn't sure who would suit Jess better.

The worst part was that Jessica was the first woman he'd ever wanted to pursue. Yes, she was beautiful. However, Tristan didn't think she was appealing at first. The more he got to know her, the more Tristan became attracted to her. Tristan worried about how he would feel a week, a month, or a year from now. What if he woke up one morning to realize he was in love with her?

Tristan let out a pained groan before deciding that he needed to stop thinking about her and get to work. He climbed off the sofa and went to his office. Since the security breach, Tristan had been running diagnostics on his machine. With Jessica's help, he'd locked down his computer before any harm was done. Unsure of how or who, someone had gotten far enough into his computer to trip the orange warnings that Jess had seen. Tristan realized that he still hadn't explained that to her. They'd gotten so caught up in the potential video leak that Tristan never got the chance.

Realizing he was still thinking about her, Tristan wanted to bang his head against the wall. She'd gotten under his skin. No one understood who Tristan really was. Declan was the closest to understanding Tristan, but even he didn't know everything. For instance, no one knew that Tristan was an excellent software developer and hacker. He'd studied business as Ciaran had instructed. That didn't stop him from learning to code on his own time. When his mother died, everyone thought that Tristan had gotten into gaming. The truth was his well-guarded secret. Not even his father's technical team knew about what Tristan could do.

Tristan was a playboy; that was true. He liked women and their limited company. Not getting close to someone made it easier to make his father think he wasn't worth paying much attention to. Tristan was also a selfish jerk. Before Jessica, he looked at all the women he spent his time with as belonging to him and hated sharing. That side of him was still there, only now it was drowning in jealousy.

Crunch!

"f**k!"

Tristan had banged his fist onto his keyboard and had to undo several lines of gibberish. Whenever he had time, Tristan would come home and work on his "project," as he thought of it. Every single line of code was thoughtfully constructed and reviewed before deployment. If Tristan made one wrong move, his father would catch on. He didn't think that Ciaran was above murdering his own son.

Tristan took a pill he'd been prescribed by Dr. Malone and put on his headphones. Since spending so much time with Jess, Tristan's project had taken a backseat to her. He needed to focus. Hopefully, Jessica would take several hours to pack up her dorm and visit her parents. That would give him enough time to automate some new security measures he wanted to implement.

On the way to campus, Jimmy had the idea of stopping by the box store. Jessica said she didn't have much in her dorm since her roommate was a b***h. She kept only the basic necessities there in case she worked late in the library. Jess took a deep breath before using her key to unlock the door and prayed that her roommate wasn't home. Jess hoped she wasn't naked with a guy in the common area if she were. Again.

Jess rapt on the door twice before going in for courtesy's sake. It looked like Maria was either passed out in her room or out. Jess hoped she was gone. The group made quick work of packing up the few things Jessica had. Still, she was glad Jimmy had suggested they pick up a few boxes. There was more in her dorm than she realized. Maria was a terrible person. Fortunately, it looked like she drew the line at going through Jessica's things. Nothing was missing.

After cleaning out her dorm, the part of the day Jessica most looked forward to was finally there. She was going to see her parents after a week and a half. That was too long for the small family. Heather welcomed everyone inside and insisted the boys eat lunch before helping Jessica. The plan was to unpack the things from her dorm, then use those same boxes to pack up the things Jessica had left behind in her haste last week. She had left most of her regular clothes and makeup behind to look frumpy in front of Tristan and Declan. Now, Jess wanted to feel like herself again.

"Mom, your cooking is so good. I can't believe I've gone so long without it," Jessica spoke with her mouth full, not caring what Declan or Jimmy thought. She was home. She was eating her mom's food. f**k them.

"Sweetheart, slow down. There's plenty. If you miss it that much, I'll send some back with you." Heather had made Jessica's favorite mushroom fajitas with pineapple salsa. Being a typical Midwesterner, Heather preferred salads that involved pasta or potatoes more than vegetables. However, Heather had learned a thing or two since her daughter had changed to a vegan diet. The O'Sullivan's chef was Michelin-rated, but nothing beat food from home.

"How are you doing, Mom? How's treatment going?"

"It's going well. The doctors said they were seeing slight improvement." Jessica thought Heather looked much better than the last time they'd seen each other. She had some color in her cheeks and moved around more easily than before.

"That's good. I've been so worried about you. Oh! Andrea said to tell you hi. She was discharged from the hospital yesterday."

"Good, she's such a sweet girl."

"Yeah, sweet until you piss her off. She saw the posts about Tristan and me last night and lost her mind. Spent the better part of the morning lecturing me."

"You should listen to her," Heather said, winking at Jess. Declan and Jimmy looked at one another and shrugged. They had no idea what the mother-daughter pair were talking about. "Speaking of the posts about you and Tristan, I saw them. Were you wearing underwear last night?"

"Mom!" The boys were suddenly incredibly interested in the mushrooms that Mrs. Hernandez had used.

"Well, honey. I had to ask. You looked lovely but also half naked."

"I was wearing nude shapewear," Jessica muttered over her food so the boys wouldn't overhear her. They did; Jimmy's ears turned red.

Manuel came home in time to see his daughter looking embarrassed.

"Mija." He opened his arms for Jess to give him a hug. All the anger she'd been feeling left in an instant. Jessica jumped out of her chair and hugged her dad tight.

"All right, all right. Let me take a look at you." Manuel held his daughter by the shoulders and gave her a once-over. "You look healthy and okay. Good. I've been worried about you, Mija."

"I'm sorry I didn't call, Dad. I was upset about everything." Manuel rubbed his daughter's head. He was glad to see her.

"That's okay. I know I did the wrong thing by not telling you. ¿Te están tratando bien?" Manuel wanted the truth from Jessica but worried she wouldn't be able to speak openly in front of O'Sullivan's men.

"Sí, papá. Lo prometo."

"Okay, okay. Go sit down and finish eating. I'm going to change; been moving displays around all morning."

After lunch, Manuel returned to the store. The rest went to Jessica's room. Heather sat on the bed and watched as everyone worked around her. It irked her not to help, but she had to admit that Ciaran O'Sullivan had a point. Not having to worry about Jessica and her finances, Heather's treatment and rest were doing her good. Maybe she'd beat it and be able to open her office again. After packing things up, Declan and Jimmy left to cart Jess's stuff to her room at the condo. This gave Heather and Jessica some quality time together.

"Are you really doing okay, sweetheart?" Jessica and Heather were curled against the armrests of the couch placed against the living room window. This way, they could face each other while sipping their mint tea, Heather's preferred drink since starting chemo.

"I am, Mom. The O'Sullivans are taking good care of me. I love my room at the condo. I get along with Ciaran. No one has done anything to make me feel uncomfortable. I've even started to make friends there."

"Yeah? Like who?"

"There's Emma. She's Jimmy's wife. She works at a bank but is on maternity leave since she just had a baby. Emma grew up in the O'Sullivans. She told me a lot about how everything operates. You'd be surprised to learn how well Ciaran treats everyone. They're a close community."

"I didn't think that Mr. O'Sullivan was like that. After tying us up in the middle of the night, they left a bad taste in my mouth."

"I know, right? I've given them a lot of crap about that, especially since they knew about you. I've gotten a lot of stories as to why, but they're all stupid. I think Tristan wanted to assert his dominance but came off looking like an ass." Heather laughed at Jessica's assertion; she was likely correct.

"Who else have you made friends with?"

"There's a girl my age named Gia. She's one of the trainers for the security team. I like her. Ciaran put her through college under the condition that she work for him afterward. She also volunteers her time to the families and creates fitness courses."

"I'm glad to see you so happy. I hope we were wrong, and this is good for you."

"I think it might. I'm going to start seeing a therapist on Monday, by the way."

"That's good news. You sounded so upset the other night. It's not like you to call that late."

"I'm sorry for worrying you." Jessica rubbed her hand along the brown leather couch and looked out the window.

"How are things with the boys?"

"As good as they could be, I guess," Jessica sighed. "I took your advice and am trying to focus on myself while getting to know them better. Tristan keeps asking me out. This morning he asked me to go on a real date with him, and "Not because Ciaran wants me to." He wants me to like him, I think."

"Oh? Do you?"

"Yeah, I do. I keep telling Tristan no because I know he likes me more than I like him. I don't think it would be fair for me to go out with him when I'm on the fence. Does that make sense?"

"I think that's a mature decision. What about Declan? A fool can see his feelings about you by watching him."

"What do you mean? Today Andrea said that she thinks Tristan likes me more than Declan."

"It's the little things. For one, Declan has hearts for eyes every time he looks at you." Heather giggled. It was cute watching him with Jessica. He constantly checked that she had enough to eat or drink during lunch. He wouldn't let her lift anything heavy in her room and blushed when he accidentally saw her unmentionables.

"I don't see that from him at all," Jessica huffed.

"Why did Andrea say that Tristan likes you more?"

"Tristan listens to me and is trying to change for the better. He offered to help her with Greg just to make me happy."

"He did that? It does sound like he cares about you. How is he going to help Andrea?"

"Tristan has a good legal team and private investigators working to find proof that Greg attacked her. Did I tell you that he sent her funeral flowers when Drea found out she was getting discharged from the hospital? We don't know how he even found out."

"That's horrible!"

"Right! I wish I'd never met him. Last night, a friend of his came up to Tristan and me to tell us that Greg would somehow find a way to retaliate against me. He has Tristan's number in case he finds anything out."

"I hope it doesn't come to that."

"Me too, Mom." Jessica yawned. It'd been a late night, an early morning, and a busy day. Being at home with her mom made Jess feel at ease and restful. "What time is it?"

Heather looked at her watch, "It's almost five. Declan and Jimmy should be back soon, I think. When are you going to visit again?"

"In two weeks. I might get time to see you later in the week because it's semester break before the spring quarter."

"I hope so but call before coming over. I don't want to miss you because I'm not home."

"I will." The women sat on the couch and enjoyed each other's company. Neither felt the need to say or do anything. Jessica wished it could have been longer when a familiar car pulled up in front of the house. She hugged her mom goodbye and promised to call more.