by Suzanne Hart
“We have to go, sweetie,” Giles whispered after a time. I nodded slowly, taking some of the tissues he had offered me from the box. “Oh, and just so you know,” Giles continued softly, “it was a setup; he didn’t kill Bernardi. The forensics were close, but not good enough to convince us. He’s innocent. Unwell, but innocent.” I felt the weight of that burden lift off me in an instant.
I knew it. Just hang on, Mikey, we’ll get you better again.
The walk back to the chopper was a blur. I saw Jack; his face had gone from gleeful delight, talking with his huge hands in gestures to the pilot, to total helplessness at seeing me so cut up. I could see he wanted to come to me, to hold me. It wasn’t the company that stopped him though, it was something else.
It registered, but I was too destroyed from seeing Mikey like that to really be bothered with how Jack felt right at that moment. All that money, all that power we were supposed to have, as Leone’s. And for what? I wanted to see Lucias Leone’s head next to Carlo Bernardi’s. The Leone’s were out of the drug business, I didn’t care how much it would cost, or how much trouble it would cause. I wouldn’t have my name being on any part of it.
The trip back to the keys was silent. Jack had set his face to stone, staring out at a horizon we could barely see through the tinted windows.
Giles was tapping something out on a laptop, fielding a call from his headset as he typed. I just looked at my hands most of the way, seeing Mikey’s in them. Feeling his coldness and vowing to return the heat, the sun back into his life, no matter how much it took, or cost.
The whole helicopter shook in mid-air and there was a metallic cracking sound, a rush of sonic air as two white streaks shot past the windows. I jumped, with Jack and Giles sitting bolt upright, at full attention.
A voice came through our headsets, vaguely familiar to me. It was Admiral William Steele, and we did the gowns for his wife. We did his daughter’s wedding party wardrobe too.
No need to worry folks, just a friendly escort, making sure the skies are clear for you. Mia, so sorry to hear about your father. I’ll be parked off the coast for a bit, maybe we can catch up, Gina and I? She’d like that.
I smiled as I heard a friendly voice, a reminder of my life outside of the current problems. “Thanks Bill, I’ll take you up on that, once things settle down and get back to normal.”
We all looked out the darkened windows of the helicopter and could see four jets passing alongside us again, so close we could almost see the pilots.
Jack had nothing more than another set of raised brows as he gently shook his head. Giles smiled warmly over to me. “Like I said, Mia, you have some friends in high places.”
It was a nice touch from the Admiral, and it did mean a lot at that moment. Looking over at Jack, I could feel my own concern for him growing again. Concern for myself, really. I wanted him, sure I did. But I wanted him to want me now. I needed him to want me.
Looking at him again, I got the soldier’s face, mixed with a little bit of jealous hurt because he wasn’t the entire military, or a secret organization. In fact, he was just Jack Slade. But that’s exactly why I wanted him, and it’s why I needed him.
Giles’ voice broke my concentration. “Mia, I’d like for you to arrange a press conference for tomorrow morning.” I heard Jack make a slight groaning sound. I looked over; noticing Giles had shot him a look as well.
“If that’s alright with you, Jack?” Giles asked, giving a tiny wink. “Just to show the world that we’re fine, despite everything that’s going on, all that’s happened. Well, and that Mia Bella and the Leone’s are very much open for business,” he said, broadening his smile in time with his hands, as they appeared to be making some magic which none of us could see.
Jack looked out the window. I looked at Jack. Giles looked at me. This was a sour trip back to the keys.
A large helipad had been put together near the house, and I could see some navy ships not too far off the coast. There were some other helicopters buzzing around, and some more jets screamed overhead.
“Pretty discreet,” Jack observed, very sarcastically to Giles.
“The Admiral has decided to have some advanced drills off the coast for the next week, with some operations on shore, basic stuff, y’know, surveillance and recon. Boring stuff.” Another little wink.
Not being inside the helicopter anymore, Jack was free to storm off. He got three steps into his retreat, then he turned abruptly, looking to me for the next move. Was I coming with him, or was I staying with Giles?
“It’s alright, sweetie,” called Giles over a jet as it passed over us. “You go on up to the house, we can catch up later. You do have privacy up there, believe it or not!” He laughed to himself as I turned away, busy with all the arrangements of the downgrading of his security surrounding Mia Leone.
I wanted to call out to Jack, to run to catch up, but I didn’t want to seem too enthusiastic. Too needy. I looked around as I slowly walked up across the beach to the dry sand of the dunes, slipping off my heels. Another jet screamed past, a thundering rumble shook my insides as it was already past the horizon line. It gave me a thrill to see it, to feel its power moving through me. It made my heart skip a beat as I thought of Jack and me, alone in the beach house.
Alone? With the U.S.S. Everyone parked out front?
Well, maybe we weren’t completely alone, but I certainly felt safe and definitely ready for Jack to be inside me again. I just hoped he felt the same way as I did.
Thirty-Seven
Jack
Having gone ahead from Mia at the landing pad, I took the chance to scout around the beach house quickly. I told myself I hadn’t stormed off, I wasn’t jealous of Mia and her attentions from Giles, or from goddamned Navy Admirals. I was doing my job. I was checking that the place was secure. I was so busy securing the place that I’d left my mark behind.
Uh, Jack. There’s half the Navy out front; and Giles and his team have this whole key stitched up, and have done for days now.
Who was I trying to kid? I was jealous, maybe just a little. I wanted Mia all to myself. I wanted her to see just me. Not all that other stuff. I was supposed to be rescuing her. I was the hero. At least, I realized that’s what I wanted to be to her. It’s what I’d wanted to be my whole life. I couldn’t save my parents, so I’d spent the rest of my life trying to save myself, usually by killing other people. It was messed up. I hated thinking. I hated feeling.
Where are you Mia?
I could see her walking up the dunes as I scanned the rooms. It was a simple enough place. I liked it.
I could get used to… oh no you don’t! Don’t start with that again. I’ll have to tell her. I’ll have to set her straight. I slept with her, but I can’t… I just…
Ah shit, I dunno.
I looked out the window at her again. She was beautiful. I hadn’t even said that to myself, let alone her. I’d let my dick do all the feeling so far. I reasoned it would never work; she was into me physically, sure. Who wouldn’t be? But she was a high-class woman. And she could have, or rather, buy anything that she wanted. She didn’t need me. I sighed loudly, vowing to clear these weak and petty thoughts before she came into the house.
Maybe you should put on a frilly apron, Slade. Start baking some cookies and arrange some flowers. Why don’t you just get down on your knees and kiss her ass!
“Shut up, SHUT UP!” I growled, and my jaw clenched tightly.
“Jack?” It was Mia, she’d come in behind me quietly, she was looking at me like I was lining up for the headline act in the Looney tune parade. I stifled a weak smile, trying to act natural.
“I said, ah, it’s not as high up. Not like the penthouse. It’ll take some getting used to.” I cringed at my own reasoning, her eyes were concerned, holding back a wall of emotions I’d spent all of our time together pretending didn’t exist.
“Look, Jack… I…”
“Well! I’d better get to the rest of the...”
Her
lips were on mine. Soft and warm. A firm pressure that was at once, sweet, and a little salty. I heard a low moan, then realized it was mine. I pulled Mia’s hair back with both hands and cradled her as our mouths locked and swirled. Asking and telling, it was all each of us needed to say.
“Ooh! Sorry to interrupt!” I looked up suddenly.
Rich Little. Son of a bitch.
Before I could make two fists, he’d put both his hands up in defense, smiling his snarly grin, like a used car salesman who’d been caught out after selling a lemon.
“Now, Jack. Give me just one minute and I’ll guarantee you’ll want to sit down and talk to me.”
Mia was shocked, embarrassed. She’d smoothed her skirt out with her palms and moved to the other side of the room, putting as much distance as she could between us... which I felt. It stung a little, but I was in shock myself at seeing Rich there. He was the last person I expected in the room.
“One minute,” I snarled.
“Great!” Rich smiled, motioning both Mia and me to the small dining table. “Let’s all have a seat.” We sat, I snarled some more, but had to admire Rich’s pluck.
How the fuck did he get in here, the whole defense force is all over this place…?
Rich shot me a sly wink, reading my mind. I returned his smugness with a look of hurry up.
“Okay. Contract out on every Leone, no secret. But! I have a meeting set up, to deliver the very head of Mia Leone to the man offering so much money. A cool ten million dollars, isn’t it?” I found myself standing up; ready to throw him out, but Mia put her hand on my forearm. It felt so good just to have her touch me, I would’ve done anything she wanted right then.
“Go on,” Mia said, showing me how grown-ups do business.
“Alright,” Rich continued. “You have access to a certain… facility… whereby the genetic material of one person can be… introduced to host tissue… kinda like grow your own person, but it’s an exact copy of the original person, right?” It was Mia’s turn to look like she’d already heard enough, but I’d joined the dots and could see where Rich was going. Mia had stood up, paced a little, then went to stand by the window again.
“Go on,” I urged Rich. I had almost already forgiven him for everything. If he was planning what I thought he was, we stood a better chance than ever at catching whoever had set everybody up and taken all of Bernardi’s money.
“It’s simple. I just need a genetically passable copy of Mia’s head by four o’clock.” I felt my shoulders drop, nearly groaning again. It was impossible. It had taken months to get the Don Leone double ready, and what Rich was suggesting would take weeks at best; not hours.
“Just the head?” I heard Mia chime in, a little more interest in her voice.
“Sure,” said Rich. “If it could look a little severed, y’know, hacked off… all the better.” He winked at me again. He looked ten years younger when he was hustling to save his ass.
I turned in my chair to see Mia’s face. A slight, cheeky smile had started to play on one side of her mouth. A naughty look that I liked, a lot.
“Let me make a call, be right back.” Mia disappeared into another room, leaving Rich and I in an awkward silence. He opened his mouth to say something, but my own cell pulsed and I had to get it, because it was Greene at the Leone estate.
“I have to get this,” I said to Rich.
I stayed sitting down, looking over at Rich as I spoke on the phone. “Yeah? What!? When? Who knows? Good! Put him in the fridge, I’ll have someone there in an hour.”
Rich had raised an eyebrow. “Problem?”
“No. At least, I don’t think so.” I had started to smile a little smugly myself, and by the time Mia came back into the room, we were all grinning; each mind ticking over a part of a plan we’d have to share if it was going to work.
“You first,” I urged Mia.
“I can get the head, two hours.” Rich and I must’ve looked stunned, giving the how? look.
“When my mother died, my father swore nothing would ever happen to any of us, unless we died of old age. Once the institute was set up, he’d seen to it that all of us, Mikey, himself and me... all had multiple organs and tissue, muscles, bones, anything. In case we ever needed a transplant or surgery.
“Sure!” I exclaimed. “But, a whole head!?” Mia had paused, acknowledging my outburst, then continued, as she would any other presentation.
“I just spoke to the institute. They have several heads, of each of us. For eyes, brains, the works. Not functional as organs with neurological systems, but a dead ringer for my own good self, pardon the pun.”
I lay back in the wooden chair, spreading my palms out in front of me. I’d never heard of anything like it, but at the same time, I wasn’t surprised. When you have billions of dollars, you can do an awful lot with it.
“It’ll need some hair, but they’re working on that now, if you wanted it a little beat up, perfect. It will be. Any mastermind worth his salt will demand a DNA analysis, but we only need to get in front of him with the head, don’t we?”
Rich nodded in agreement. “Uhuh. I show two or three gatekeepers, then they set up a meeting with the man himself, that’s the arrangement. Payment is in escrow until the tests are complete; you’re right on that one. I have no idea how he got some of your DNA though.”
“Done easily enough. I leave a trail of hair wherever I go, most women do,” Mia said, matter of factly, looking at me with a sparkling excitement in her eyes that made me feel ten feet tall.
What a woman! I think she might be the one, Jackie boy!
I felt my dick twitching just thinking about it. I wanted to take her right there and then, but Rich was with us. Plus, I had to nut out the second idea I’d just had while she was out of the room on the phone.
“Mia, I have some bad news, I’m afraid. But I also have a question.” She looked puzzled, and a little annoyed at having her rush of creativity interrupted.
“What is it, give me the question first? I’ve had all the bad news I can take this week.”
“Does your uncle Lucias have spare parts? Like the rest of the family?” I asked, almost sheepishly, feeling bad for asking, considering what I had to tell her next.
“No, just us three. Why?” Mia’s brow knotted, then her face fell some, as she pre-empted more bad news. “What is it, Jack? Tell me!”
“It’s your uncle Lucias. He had a heart attack. He died just now.”
Mia looked like she breathed a sigh of relief. Catching herself, she shot a glance to Rich and then myself. “I see,” she said gravely. “Two deaths in one week, this family must be cursed.” There was no emotion in her face though. I knew Lucias wasn’t the favorite uncle, he wasn’t the favorite anything. “Why do you ask about spare parts? We can’t bring back the dead.”
A smile had started to play on my own lips. I was feeling a little like Doctor Frankenstein in his lab, playing with body parts, making new life from death. A positive from a negative.
“Or can we?” I grinned. I got up and whispered something into her ear. We’d have to bring Rich in on her father’s situation if he was going to be of any help to us. She nodded feverishly in agreement.
Now it was my turn to submit my own presentation. It ran something like:
“Lucias is on ice right now. We can take his face, his prints… but not his DNA, and transplant those onto your father, Don Leone, who, by all accounts is dead already.”
Mia squirmed a little. I knew getting Don Leone to agree to all this, without him even knowing his brother was dead yet, was probably a bit of a stretch, but it was a plan that would work if he did.
We needed Don Leone back running the family. What better way to do that than have him assume the visage of his brother, Lucias, who many believed would inherit his brother’s share of the estate and company anyway.
Rich was nodding slowly. Mia was buying it, but again, there was the question of whether her father would go for it. It was a big ask.
&nb
sp; “What else is he going to do? Sit in your apartment for the rest of his life? No! This is the perfect opportunity for him to resurrect himself, and start to manage the family so they can take over Bernardi’s share of things. Once we get… what’s this guy’s name anyway, Rich? The guy with the head. I met him once, but didn’t see his face.”
“You met him?” Rich gasped, wide-eyed.
“It doesn’t matter now, I didn’t see him. What we need to do is get that head, set up your meeting with Mr. X., whoever the fuck he is, and get Lucias over to the institute so they can start working on him, prepping him for the future Don of the Leone family… Lucias 2.0.”
Thirty-Eight
Mia
I think it was safe to say that both Jack and I had forgiven Rich, pretty much instantly once we grasped the concepts of his plan. It would, in one fell swoop, clear up all the problems plaguing us. Admittedly, I wasn’t keen on using millions of dollars’ worth of research and lifesaving body parts, but this was an emergency. My biggest fear was convincing Papa it was the right thing to do, about Lucias. God, I couldn’t even remember if he liked his brother or not. If he did, we’d probably have to re-think that part of the plan.
I rang back the institute; the technicians there were so excited to have a real challenge on their hands. Years’ worth of work was paying off. Maybe not in the way they’d hoped, but it was about as exciting as things got down there. They would have everything ready, and they had already sent out a van to collect poor Uncle Lucias.
“We’ll have to bring in Giles and his team on this; it’s too big for just three of us.” I said, looking at Rich, earnestly.
“Are you fucking kidding!?” he exclaimed, “I’m counting on them being involved! When we have to collect Mr. X. and knock out his army, I expect world war three to back us up and to kick his ass!”