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Jack worked for a villain. He knew this. He had been forced into it by his parents' debt and the betrayal of a trusted phi. But just because the person he worked for was evil didn't mean that Jack had to be.
He found loopholes, skirted the edges, played up brutality like a stage play. People were afraid of him because he worked for Boss, because despite his kindness, he got results. But he never hurt someone more than he absolutely had to, and he shared his own money to ease the burden of their debt.
Jack didn't like violence. Not like Hope, who regularly beat debtors so badly that they couldn't work for a week. And how would that bring Boss money, Jack wanted to ask. Drawing blood and breaking bones didn't help them earn money to pay back a debt. But Hope enjoyed the pain he brought to others.
Despite disagreeing with Hope's methods, Jack had never wished harm on Hope. He understood why the other man's brain worked the way it did, why he became like that under Boss's control. He was a villain broken and molded by another villain.
Until Hope touched Joke.
"See? Your friend spoke up. But when I asked you—" Hope punched Joke in the face. "You didn't." Another punch. "Made me ask forever." A third.
It shouldn't matter, seeing Joke captured, bound and bloody, on the phone screen. Joke had tricked him five years ago, was at least partly the cause of Jack's indentured servitude to Boss. Joke was a criminal, a thief. Jack had only just begun to consider forgiving him.
Every punch sent Joke falling sideways before being pulled upright for another blow. Blood dripped from his mouth and the side of his head. They had already beaten him enough that he couldn't fight back.
"I'll confess to Boss myself," Jack said, unable to keep the worry out of his voice. "Just let him go."
Hope made shushing noises with his finger against his lips. Then, in a patronizing voice, "You don't need to tell Boss about this. What you and your trashy friends needs to do is get that necklace back for Aran."
Jack didn't know who his supposed 'friends' were. He had no idea where the necklace was. All he knew was the vivid blood oozing down Joke's pale face, the cuts on his cheek, his busted lip, the bruises, his unfocused eyes. As Joke listed sideways, Hope turned the camera back toward himself.
"How the hell am I supposed to know where the necklace is?" Jack asked, voice edging toward desperate, knowing that the question could be taken as a refusal and earn Joke more pain.
Hope gave him an unimpressed look, then turned the camera so that Jack could watch as he ripped Joke upright by his hair again, making Joke give a pathetic moan of pain. "Ask him."
Even as Joke shakily explained what he knew about the necklace's possible location, something in Jack's stomach writhed.
He wanted Hope to hurt.
He wanted to make a matching mark on Hope for every single one he'd left on Joke. Wanted Hope to lose every drop of blood that Joke had lost in the attack. Wanted Hope to be wounded the way Joke was wounded.
"Well, now you know what to do, right?" Hope said, as if speaking to a child. Then he waved and hung up, leaving Jack calling for Joke to a black screen.
Jack had rejected Joke, had refused his apologies, had rebuffed his attempts to make things right. But the truth was that Joke had apologized—multiple times. He had cooked Jack food, written him a letter, and promised to stop stealing. He had cleaned the house, fixed the chair and desk and photos. Grandma said Joke was remorseful and that Jack should forgive him. Like she had said, a part of Jack already had.
That part was a lot bigger than Jack had realized, and seeing Joke hurt felt like a chasm opening in his chest.
That part made a decision even as Jack began collecting medicine to treat Joke's wounds once he arrived at the address Hope had shared with him. He was going to make Hope pay for hurting Joke, but he was also going to do what he needed to in order to make things right with Joke. To get his phi out of this mess, and out of Boss's clutches.
If he got the chance to deck Hope in the face along the way? All the better.
…
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fin