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Chapter 5
Constantine
As I left Robyn’s apartment my head was spinning. I had no idea what I was going to do now and I honestly didn’t think I’d ever been so confused in my lifetime. One thing I did know was that there was no way I could fulfill the contract now. Kill the mother of my child, nope, never going to happen. My past, present and future feelings for my child’s mother aside, she was his mother and he needed her. No one was going to hurt her. I’d kill Gabriel and everyone under his employ first. Sadly, that just might be what it would come down to. Was there any other way?
I stopped at the top of the subway station and stared off into thin air. I was going to be a father. Wait, scratch that, I was a father. Me being a father wasn’t something I’d expected to ever be. It’s not like I’d ruled out the idea, but it just hadn’t been on my radar – I took lives, not made them. I suppose it could be argued that somewhere along the line I’d subconsciously dismissed the idea of marriage and children.
That being said, it had been a consideration – once upon a time.
How would this affect my life from here on in? I continued on my way down the stairs to the subway station. Swiping my metro pass through the reader, I pushed my way through and to the proper car. What I needed was a drink and maybe someone to talk to. Try to get my head sorted out.
There was only one place I could go and only one person in my life I could discuss something like this with. Entering the train, I held onto the overhead handrail as the train jolted forward. Fifteen minutes later, I was exiting the train and surfacing in front of O’Leary’s Tavern. Entering the tavern, I made my way to the end of the bar – my usual spot. It was slow tonight.
It took a moment, but eventually the bartender got to me. “Hey, Constantine. What can I get for you?”
“Rum and coke, and tell Vince I need to talk to him.” Vince O’Leary was the owner of the bar. He was also the man who attempted to raise me after I jumped from one foster home to another. I wasn’t exactly the poster child for good behavior – the exact opposite. But Vince had never given up on me. He was the closest thing to a father and family that I had.
“You got it.” Tony turned from me and prepared my drink. Before he delivered it, he picked up the phone behind the bar, which was a direct line to Vince’s office, and spoke to the person on the other end. After a moment he nodded and hung up the phone. Turning back to me he delivered me my drink. “Go on back. It’s been a fairly quiet night and he doesn’t have any appointments tonight.”
“Thanks, man.” Accepting the drink, I flashed him a smile of appreciation and stood. “Appreciate it.”
“Anytime.”
Walking across the bar, I looked around. At one point in time this was a happening place; now it had died off considerably. Too much competition, unfortunately, and Vince refused to change with the times despite my advice that he needed to do a serious update. He kept stating it would be unfair to his regulars who had been frequenting the place for over two decades and there was no changing his mind on that regardless of how many times I’d offered him money to make it happen.
I knocked on the door marked Manager, waited for Vince to call out “come in” and entered.
“Constantine.” He looked up from the pile of paperwork he was going through and graced me with a smile. “It’s been a while.”
“Yes.” It had been too long and I felt guilty. I’d been a little hell raiser back then, but he stood by me. Though most would argue that I was hardly on the road to redemption now – if anything the exact opposite – but that’s another story.
Vince stared hard at me, his eyes narrowing. “Okay, what’s going on?”
I pasted a fake smile onto my lips as I entered the office, closing the door behind me and taking a seat across from him at his desk. “What do you mean?”
“As much as you try to deny it, I know you better than you know yourself. And what I do know is when you’ve got something on your mind. Or are you in trouble again?”
You don’t know everything, I silently mused. He didn’t know I killed people for a living. But then again, he never asked. Maybe subconsciously he knew and just didn’t want to stir the pot. No one got the kind of money I did and not have an unscrupulous way of getting it. But Vince never asked and neither did his wife and I certainly didn’t volunteer the information.
“Yes, well…” I heaved a heavy sigh, deciding to just get it out in the open; beating around the bush wasn’t my style. “I just found out I’m a father.”
The smile faded from Vince’s lips and he stared blankly at me, the room becoming deathly silent. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. So we sat staring at each other for what felt like an eternity.
“Are you going to keep it?”
My brow creased as I stared at him. “What are you talking about?”
“This girl you got knocked up… Is she keeping it? Not to be negative here, but you’re not exactly father material.”
I couldn’t help but laugh although I suppose I should have felt insulted. “No, no. I don’t mean that I have a girl carrying my child. I mean, I just found out I already have a child. He’s five.”
Vince leaned back in his chair and sighed. “Oh… I see.”
“Yeah.” I wasn’t sure what to expect from Vince, but his expression was dire. “So what’s this child’s name? Who’s the mother? Why now? Is she coming after you for money… or…?”
“His name is Austin. His mother is Robyn Vaughn.”
“Robyn Vaughn.” Vince smiled briefly. He and Tonya had really liked her – at least until she took off on me. “I never saw that one coming. I guess we now know why she left without a word. How do you feel about that?”
