Chapter 100 - I'll Face The Night And I'll Pretend

"Hey man, how are you?"  Jon hears behind him in a voice that he recognizes to be his head security guard.  

With an eye roll to the Lt. Jon turns around and shakes Dave's hand when he gets closer.  Dave has 5 big men with him, all dressed in black and sunglasses.

"Hey, thanks for coming out so soon."  Jon smiles and nods at the additional staff that Dave brought with him, "I see you brought help.  Good."

Dave does the introductions, giving Jon 5 names that he won't remember for a while, "I came as soon as I could get them all out of the field.  You have me and 5 of my best men."

"That's what I pay for."

Dave looks to the Lt. and asks Jon, "Did anything happen overnight?"

"No, no"  Jon puts his hand on Dave's shoulder, guiding him toward the house, "Let's go inside and talk business.'

Over his shoulder, Dave looks at his guys and tells them, "Secure the perimeter and sweep all of the cars."

"Sweep the cars?" Jon stops dead in his tracks, "What do you mean sweep the cars?"

Dave stops and starts to explain to Jon as all of the hired guns start to walk away, "They will scan them to make sure that there aren't any tracking devices or listening devices on all of your cars."

"Is that necessary?" he asks, running is fingers through his hair, "How could they have bugged or tracked my cars already?"

"We don't know that they have, we are just giving you the gold treatment.  It's better to be safe than sorry, don't you think?"

"Yeah.  Sorry.  Seeing you and all of the bad asses that you brought kind of made it a little more real."  Jon admits, as both men walk into the house.

"I brought 5 guys, but I have a couple more really good ones if we need them.  I wasn't sure how many you needed."

Jon leads Dave into the kitchen and they are greeted by Pete and the twins.  Briana and Jon Spencer are sitting at the breakfast table having pancakes.  When they see their daddy, they both jumped down and ran to him.

"Daddy!"  Jon Spencer yells as he makes a beeline for his dad.  Brianna, wanting to get to daddy first, just so happened to run infront of Jon Spencer winning the race to Jon.  Jon kneels down and embraces both toddlers, kissing them on the top of the head.

"Hey, you two.  Good morning." he looks over at Pete, sitting at the table cupping a cup of coffee.

"Hi Jon.  Hi Dave, how are you?"  Pete starts to get up, "Do you guys want some coffee?"

"I'll get it." Jon tells her, motioning for her to sit back down.  "You two need to finish breakfast."  He nudges the twins to get back to breakfast.

Brianna and Jon Spencer take their place back at the table and get back to eating their breakfast, keeping an eye on their daddy.  Jon pours a himself and Dave a cup of coffee, "We can sit here with these guys or we can go into my office."

"I think in your office will be better."  Dave replies, sipping the hot coffee. 

"Are you okay Pete?" Jon looks at his trusted employee, "I'll just be in the office."

Pete smiles, "Yeah, we're good.  After breakfast I thought that I would take them to the P.A.R.K."

Jon shakes his head, "No P.A.R.K.  Not yet."

"Okay.  I can always play with them here, the weather is supposed to be nice."

"Well, I'll be in my office if you need me and if you can, please let Beth sleep."

"Sure thing."

Jon and Dave go into his office and get right to business.  Jon is nervous having strangers walk around his grounds, but he knows that they have to do it and that it has to be done.  "Where should we start?"

"How are you doing?  I hear you got married."  Dave smiles at Jon, "It's about time that she made an honest man out of you."  He laughs, knowing that Jon has had issues with commitment in the past, even when it came to Beth.  But Dave always knew that they would marry.  

"I did.  I did. And the day we married her dead ex-fiance showed up from the dead."

"THAT is true?  I though it was tabloid trash."

"No, it happened."

"No shit?"

Nodding his head, Jon tells Dave about his wedding day.  About the day that he married his best friend and she left with her dead ex-fiance.  Dave looks at him in disbelief, shaking his head.  

"And then what happened?"  Dave asked, with a stunned look on his face.

"I took the kids and went on my honeymoon."

"What did Beth do?" still in disbelief.

Jon laughs a little, "Well, she left our ceremony and went to the police station with him and when she was done dealing with that, she flew to Italy to be with us."

Dave stands and walks to the wall of windows.  He can see his guys doing a thourough walk through of the Bongiovi compound, each of them talking and reporting grid locations through a mouthpiece strapped around their wrists.  He has a group of great guys and was proud to see them treat this job like it was their own family that was being protected.  "Okay, so what do you need me to do?"  He turns to look at Jon.

Jon leans back in his chair and stretches out a little, "I need you to protect my family 24/7."

"I know that, but what am I protecting you from?  Your text was very vague."

"Well, I need you to protect them from Dorothea, Dalton, Melissa and Brian."

"Who are all of them again, except Dot, I know who she is.  Why do you need protection from her?"

"She's connect with the other three."

Dave stands there and looks at Jon a little puzzled for a moment, "Whoa, wait - is Dalton the one that raped and attacked Beth?"

Jon nods.

"Wasn't he incarcerated?"

"Him and Melissa both were incarcerated and now they are out, seeking revenge."

"For what?  I don't think I've ever heard the whole story on all of this."

After a long and cleansing breath, Jon starts to tell Dave the story.  The readers digest version, thinking that some of the information might aid them in their protection detail.  "In a nutshell, Beth dissed Dalton at a park, he was hooked up with Melissa, I slept with Melissa and she is now married to Brian."

"Brian and Melissa are married?"

Jon nods his head.

"The Melissa that killed your daughter?"

Jon nods his head again.

"And she is married to Brain, Beth's ex-fiance?"

Another nod.

"How in the hell do they all know each other?"

Jon shrugs his shoulder.

"So now they are all working with that crazy bitch ex-wife of yours?"

"I think she's a pawn and that they are using her for whatever they can."

"Like what?"

"Information and money, I'm guessing."

"Have you talked to her about it?" Dave asks Jon, half knowing the answer.

With a slight chuckle, "Have you ever tried to talk to her about anything serious?  She's a nightmare.  I don't think that she'd ever give me a straight answer because she's pissed that I left her and married Beth."

"Still?" Dave's voice shreaks a little bit, "You've been away from her for years now."

"Yeah, but she's still bitter."

"Enough to conspire with the woman that killed your baby?"

Again, Jon nods looking out the window.  "She's hell bent to get even."

Dave walks over and takes his seat back on the couch.  With his elbows on his knees, he leans forward and wonders, "How is Beth doing?"

"She's a mess, but you won't see it.  She's trying to be tough."

"I can imagine.  Have they threatened you?"

"The only thing that they have done is send that text that I forwarded you yesterday."

"Are all the kids here?"

"Yeah.  But Stephanie and Jesse go back to school soon so they are going to need someone with them."

"Upstate and Notre Dame?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I have a local guy in each location that can take care of them.  What about Jake and Romeo?"

"They go back to school too."

"Both at Ploy Prep?"

"Yes."

"Okay, what are Beth's plans?"  Brian starts with the more serious questions, "Is she going back to work?"  Starting a new business?  What is Beth going to do with all the kids back in school?"

Jon thinks for a minute, pondering what he thinks that Beth may do.  They haven't had any discussion about her doing any of the above, but he's learned to never put anything passed her.  She's most creative and most energetic when life is in total chaos.  "I think she'll stay home with the twins, but I really don't know.  Why?"

"I have one guy in mind for her and the twins, if she stays put here in Jersey.  But if she wants to go in and out of the city, I'll put a different guy on her and the twins."  Dave grabs his notepad and starts to write, "Does she go to the gym or anything?"

"No."

"Does she have anything that she does on a regular basis?"

"She goes to her vineyard from time to time, but nothing too regular."

"What about your parents?  Do you want one or two guys for them?" Dave looks up at Jon, without lifting his head, "What about Tony and Matt?"

"Honestly Dave, I want everyone to be protected."

"Okay, okay I can put a guy on Matt and one on Tony.  Do you want one or two guys on your mom and dad?"

"What ever you think will be best.  I want to leave nothing to chance, I don't want to wish that I had two after something happens."

So then by my count, I need to get 5 more guys here."

Jon looks at him with a wrinkled brow and a raised eye, "Five?"

Dave leans back, rests his left foot on his left knee cap and says, pointing to his fingers, "One for you, one for Beth, one for Pete, one for Stephy, one for Jesse, one for Romeo and Jake at school, one for Matt, one for Tony and two for your parents.  Is that right?"

Jon thinks about it, "Yeah, I guess so."

"You do want one for Pete, right?"

"Absolutely!"

"Even when she isn't taking care of the kids?"  Dave doesn't mean to sound heartless, but he doesn't want to assume.

"She needs to be protected as much as my own children do."

"Okay, so I need to get five more guys in place."

"Can you make that happen?"  Jon asks, in a way that really wasn't a question.  He was being nice, knowing that Dave would make it happen.

Dave reaches into his pocket , grabbing his phone - he starts to scroll through his contacts, "I can have five more here within the hour."

"Thanks."  Jon rests his head on his hand, his arm propped up on the desk.  He slowly looks over the madness that was on his desk.  He can see schedules that are current, that Dawn had just given him.  But when he looks at it, it's like he's looking at it for the first time.