Jonathan had allowed the rumors of a weak vampire to influence his actions. As he was running with Gerry, he realized there were a lot of Weres who had expected as much.
He was surprised how collected she looked with the spec-ops team. This lady had been there, done that and didn’t give a shit what you thought. She only cared if you could walk the talk and the men around her had obviously been able to do that. They seemed like a well-oiled team. But Nathan had told him that she had arrived in the States just a few days before.
How she got this team was a mystery to Gerry.
As they ran, he saw the flash-bang fly ahead of them. They heard the other teams go off and closed their eyes and everyone stopped running, and bowed their heads and covered their ears. A second later their flash-bang went off.
They finished the run to the tunnel entrance and he heard the two humans come up the tunnel. Eight of the ten Weres were on the ground trying to get over the pain of the flash-bang.
The two still standing had their heads in their hands, cussing.
The three formed up, with Gerry in the lead. He had to wait a little while as they got over the pain.
Gerry started yelling at them. “What are you idiots doing here? You were not invited by the Council to be a part of this conclave!”
The two guys that had stayed standing puffed their chests out in belligerence. The one on the left started first by pointing back into the tunnel. “We aren’t just going to let some vampire command us anymore!” His ‘more’ was punctuated by a shot coming down the tunnel and someone from Bethany Anne’s team telling another someone to not be a fucktard.
Gerry didn’t look behind him. “And how exactly are you going to stop her?”
Both of them pulled pistols out of their jackets. The one on the right yelled, “By shooting the bitch, right boys!” He turned to look at the other eight. They were all looking right at him as Scott shot him through the head. He fell down like a puppet whose strings were just cut.
At the same time, Darrell shot his partner in the stomach. It would hurt, but he would come out of it OK. The first one? Probably not.
Gerry just shook his head and reached down to kick the pistols behind him.
The eight standing realized they weren’t only facing Nathan Lowell— everyone knew him—but the Council lead, another alpha and at least two shooters in the darkened tunnels.
They were officially screwed and they knew it.
Their emotions told them to rip and tear and scream their rage, but under the hard gaze of alphas their desire was to submit.
They had conflicting feelings roiling around the bodies and their minds when they heard Paul Gleason crying and yelling and screaming in fear. He was getting closer.
All of them started looking into the tunnel. Even Gerry, Nathan and Jonathan looked over their shoulders. They could see Bethany Anne’s outline coming closer and then they saw the red eyes staring at them as she dragged Paul Gleason behind her as if he was a small sack of flour she was pulling with a cord.
The closer she got the more his sobs of pain turned to cries of fear as his knee slowly healed. They could tell his right knee had been messed up pretty well.
She dragged him over towards the two Council members and Nathan. Her voice dripped with malevolence, “You have a pack member that requires punishment. You can do it, or…” At this, she looked at all of the eight standing on this side of the tunnel. “…I will take my punishment out on everyone I feel has broken faith with me today.” She looked back at Gerry. “What is your decision?”
Gerry felt all eight of the standing pack guys pleading with their eyes to make a decision. The gut-shot guy on the ground looked up at him, his fear overcoming his pain, shaking his head back and forth as he held his arms over his stomach.
Gerry looked over at Jonathan who nodded yes. Gerry then looked over at Nathan and nodded. Nathan was the one Gerry relied on to keep his pack in line. No one liked it if Nathan Lowell came to town.
Nathan went over to Paul Gleason and told him to stand up. Paul got his legs, even the mostly healed right one, under him and stood up and turned towards the alphas.
Now that the vampire wasn’t dragging him away, he was trying to figure out how to get out of this situation.
He wasn’t happy, but he was in a tight corner. It was obvious that the group of guys that all wanted to ‘slay the vampire, let werewolves be free’ were cowed at the moment and wouldn’t do him any good. Gerry never liked him and Jonathan obviously licked Gerry’s ass. Paul was quickly forgetting his earlier fear and started to get a belligerent look on his face. Everyone was looking at him.
“What? You want me to apologize? Want me to say I’m sorry for what all of us want, Gerry? We just want to be free. Free like we should be. Should I apologize for that?”
He started to believe he could turn this around. He played to his audience again. He had worked them into a frenzy on the way over here, worked them like a comedian works a room at Caesar’s Palace. He started his rhetoric again, willing the guys to start getting mad again.
“No little fucking cunt…” That’s all he said when his head suddenly exploded, splattering half of the belligerent group with his brain matter. Two had their mouths open at the time.
All of them looked at Bethany Anne who hadn’t moved. Damn! They knew vampires were fast but… She just looked upwards in exasperation and pointed towards the tunnel.
All of their eyes and heads followed her finger to the tunnel entrance where Darrell and Scott stood. They both lowered their weapons. Darrell told them all, eyeing each one and making sure to include Gerry, Jonathan and Nathan. “You will respect the Queen Bitch.”
Scott added his own comment, “Or we will kill you. Do you have any questions?”
Even Nathan was shaking his head left and right. These humans were some scary fuckers.
Bethany Anne walked back into the tunnel. “Let’s get this show on the road. With all of this blood everywhere, I’m getting hungry.”
Two of the Weres involuntarily shuddered. She winked at Darrell and Scott as she passed them and her eyes turned normal again and her teeth retracted.
She didn’t kill Paul, so how upset could John be this time?
21
New York City, NY, USA
The actual conversations after the fight were a little subdued. No one felt like pissing off the vampire, or her guards, and they needed to get out of there. Gerry had already detailed a team to handle the bodies. He had been prepared with four windowless vans. He only needed one.
John and his team had cleaned up all of the bullet casings while Bethany Anne heard the stories from those who had legitimate grievances with the strictures as they were now.
She admitted that she didn’t know where Michael was, and would probably pardon some of the harsher sentences and take the punishment for doing so should he show up.
Everything would go through the Council and if anyone got ahead of her and took advantage of her ‘good nature,’ she or her team would implement the harsher sentences for breaking faith with her. If they had any questions, they could ask their alpha and their alpha the Council. The Council could contact her through Ecaterina.
Someone asked how they could get hold of Ecaterina, that rumors were she was a really pretty woman. Nathan stood up and eyed the guy and just said, “Through me.”
That took the tone down a notch until Bethany Anne slapped his arm. “Don’t forget, she’s still listening. Did you want to make sure that works for her?”
Everyone laughed when they realized that Nathan’s face had lost a little color. Shit, shit, shit! “Of course, I merely meant as a preliminary process to be clarified later.”
Sniggers were heard in the back of the group. No one wanted to really piss off Nathan Lowell to his face. Except, apparently, the vampire.
The human John Grimes was next to her, but the other three were facing outward, looking for additional danger.
Finally, they wrapped up eve
rything and needed to go. They would make another meeting happen in the near future without so much drama attached to it.
The twenty uninvited that were not dead or in a coma received a personal visit from Bethany Anne. With red eyes and fangs glistening, she asked each one if they would abide by the Council’s commands. It wasn’t going to be her problem unless they acted up again. She let each one know that they had just received their one warning.
Her team walked back to the Chevy SUV, got in and Carl took them back to the airport.
The plane wasn’t the most cozy to sleep in, but it was safer than a hotel and they didn’t have to deal with questions about the explosives and guns they had with them.
The next day, Bethany Anne wore a dark red dress and matching Blahniks to meet Nathan at the bank. Ecaterina went with her and Bethany Anne opened two new accounts. One that she shared with Nathan he could use for withdrawals, and the same for Ecaterina. Ecaterina opened a personal account as well.
Bethany Anne wasn’t sure what to do about a salary for Ecaterina. It wasn’t fair to just keep her without her own means of support. She deposited $20k into Ecaterina's personal account and told her they would work out her salary in the near future.
She then deposited one million into the shared account with Ecaterina to start getting the house in Miami ready. She placed fifteen million in the account she shared with Nathan. The house would need ten million and she needed some money to start the process of purchasing Bobcat’s business. Once they had all of the details on the loan for the Black Hawk, they would pay that off directly.
She let the two of them enjoy a lunch together while she went shopping for a pair of Christian Louboutins. She found a style at Neiman Marcus that almost matched a pair she used to wear to work all of the time. It was amazing how much personal service you could get at that store.
She had them Fed-Ex one of the pair in a box with no return address to an austere looking office building in Washington D.C., and one to a military base in Denver, Colorado. The saleslady never even blinked at the request.
Finished with sending her private packages she caught up with Ecaterina and Nathan.
They actually kissed each other goodbye in front of her. Wow, her two little lovebirds were finally admitting to the world they were an item. Ach, she could gag herself, but she was happy for them.
Nathan was going to follow them the following day. He had a couple of things he had to do in Boston in the morning before he flew down to Florida. Jonathan, however, had asked if he could save a seat on the plane. They talked and she agreed, it wasn’t like she didn’t have space either on the airplane or at the house. After a quick phone call to John, he agreed to the request as well.
Carl finally dropped the two of them back at the airport and they said their goodbyes. Bethany Anne and Ecaterina had eight shopping bags of stuff on the ground. She noticed a sullen young man next to Jonathan. Guessing this to be the recalcitrant Pete, she walked over and offered her hand to Jonathan. John Grimes was there with him.
“Good afternoon, Jonathan, how are you?”
“Doing fine, Bethany Anne. I would like to introduce you to my son, Peter. Peter, this is Bethany Anne.”
She looked over at Pete who just raised his head in a gesture of ‘I see you.’ Jonathan frowned.
OK, time to set up an object lesson.
Bethany Anne said, “Pete, can you see those shopping bags back there?”
Pete snapped, “Of course. I’m not blind.”
“Good. Then you won’t have any problem finding them, will you?”
“I’m not going to be looking for them, so I won’t have to find them.” Pete’s smirk was growing.
Jonathan was starting to get the idea of what was going on. He almost said something but caught the barely perceptible head shake Bethany Anne gave him.
Bethany Anne closed the lesson. “And why would you think you aren’t going to go get them?”
“Cause I’m not your slave, you cunt.” The next thing Pete knew, he was hit so hard in the jaw his arms were flung to the side and his whole body went down. He hadn’t hurt this bad in forever. When he started to focus again, it was the face of John Grimes in front of him.
“Listen, you little spunk rag. The last person who was disrespectful to Bethany Anne had his head shot off by my men. Be thankful it was only my fist that hit you. Unless you want an ass-whipping right in front of the girls, you will get up off your useless ass and gently get those packages on the plane. Then you will find a seat and be the nicest gentleman you can possibly be. Do you feel me, Pete?”
Pete looked up into the eyes of the human and understood this man wasn’t his father. He would absolutely kick his ass if he didn’t get into action. He tried to see his father, why wasn’t he protecting him? Where was he?
He felt a tap on his shoulder and he tried to roll his head the other way. Finally, his father would fix this asshole!
Pete’s father’s face finally came into focus, “Pete, you better listen up. I watched Paul Gleason get his head shot off for calling Bethany Anne names. She didn’t kill Paul, her protection team did. You have to grow a pair and stop being a jackass. Bethany Anne is going to solve the problem with the two women back in Colorado, but you have to stay for three months with her team. I’ve not been promised you will come back alive, you understand me? Don’t fuck this up, son.” His dad stood up, and he and Bethany Anne started walking towards the car that brought them here. Pete watched him reach the car where Bethany Anne spoke to him for a moment. Pete’s father got in the car and left the airport.
Oh, his life was so screwed up now. Oh my god, he was with the Queen Bitch herself.
Grimes grabbed him by the jacket and pulled him up. “Get your punk ass over to those packages and don’t scratch any of them.”
Pete was about to mouth off again, but his jaw hurt too much to talk right then. Good thing.
He sullenly started walking over to the packages.
“Walk straighter. You’re not a weakling, are you, Peter? Are you so frail you can’t stand straight up?”
Peter straightened his back. Frail? Who the hell did this guy think he was? Peter would show him.
John Grimes watched Pete take the packages in two trips. Back straight and arms out showing him he could hold the weight of the packages easily.
John smiled a little to himself. Maybe the boy has potential, he thought.
In Colorado, two women were each mailed envelopes with scandalous information that they didn’t think anyone knew about them. If they ever tried to say anything about Pete, the information would be released.
The girls discussed their situation and decided that they weren’t sure what they saw happen with that guy and the wolf. But they sure as hell didn’t want that other information going out on their social accounts. They both decided to delete the video and never talk about it again.
Miami, FL, USA
The team made it back to Florida just fine. Most of them went off to deal with the new digs and Bobcat went over to his hangar.
His friend, Billy “William” Stevenson, was tightening up a cover on his baby when he got back. They slapped hands and punched each other.
“How’s it going with my baby, here?” Bobcat went into his office and grabbed two beers, offering one to William.
“Oh, you mean Shelly?” William smiled at Bobcat’s grimace. “She’s good, you’ve done all right by the old lady. How did your trip go?”
“About as smooth as we could have hoped, not too much breakage.”
William raised an eye. “Was that the glass type, or the sandpit type?”
“Sandpit.”
“No shit?”
“Not a bit.”
Now William was interested. He had wanted to be with an outfit, but the only chance to be with a group that was making things and breaking things was over in the sandpit. If there was an option closer to home, he wanted to know more.
“Is that why you have me getting Shelly dr
essed in the nicest clothes I can find?”
“Could be. But the answers you want are on a need to know basis, my friend. Not to be an ass, but unless you’re interested in sticking around you don’t need to know.”
William thought about it. He heard the stories over the last week how a Black Hawk was seen above the Southeastern Financial Center during the terrorist attack. Then it was seen again landing in a park and a deserted field and finally over in the ritzy Smugglers Cove area. He had started putting two and two together when he cleaned out some long grass from the landing gear. The kind of grass you might find in the area by Key Biscayne.
He had seen the hard cases coming off the G550 when they landed. He had a really good idea that the black nylon ballistic bags weren’t for golf clubs. He watched a sullen teenager carrying shopping bags from expensive stores as well. His face broke out in a smile as he realized it fit with the stories from earlier in the week. The Black Hawk was rumored to be above the building of the terrorist attack and then only a couple of hours later it was rumored that an eccentric woman was playing Rambo over in Smugglers Cove. She had landed her helicopter and bought a home right on the spot. A really, really expensive home.
William’s eyes looked around Bobcat’s office. “Did you say you’re selling your business?” William took a swig from his bottle.
Bobcat just smiled and took a swig of his. “Um hmm.”
“So, your new boss. Is she new in town?”
“You might say that, why?”
“Just curious. If you had to drive over to where she lives, might you take the 913?”
“I probably would, if I wasn’t flying Shelly over there.”
That was about as close to the truth that William was going to get out of Bobcat. Sum’bitch. This was the team that took out the terrorists and bought a nine million dollar home right afterwards.
“It doesn’t look like these two helicopters would need me full-time after the retrofit. If all you’re doing is flying around the Keys.”
Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Set One: Books 1-7, Death Becomes Her, Queen Bitch, Love Lost, Bite This, Never Forsaken, Under My Heel, Kneel or Die (Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Sets) Page 41