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Under My Heel
The Kurtherian Gambit Book 6
1
Washington, D.C. USA
Mary Brennan was silently suffering. Her husband, Martin, had been killed some months before in the basement parking garage of his office building.
It had been a gruesome and painful death. Oh, Brandin, Martin’s second in command had tried to hide the truth from her in the beginning, to save her pain she was sure. But you don’t stay the spouse of a government intelligence group member without learning a few tricks of your own. She had the autopsy report, she knew her husband had died in pain. More pain than she would allow herself to consider.
Martin had been her rock. The man she was going to live the rest of her life with. They had plans to retire to a beach or at least to someplace warm. She loved the Atlantic City coast, but it was still too cold and miserable too much of the year for her. Martin had promised her… he had promised her. Now, he was dead and she had no way to track down who had killed him or why.
She finished putting on her makeup. Every Sunday, Tuesday and Friday she would get ready to visit Martin. She would take the single rose she had picked out the night before from the corner market and get into her eight-year-old Mercedes Benz.
She wiped a tear from her eye as she picked up the rose and left for her drive to the cemetery.
It took her twenty-two minutes exactly. She had timed every trip. She left at 8:15 AM every time and arrived at 8:37 AM. Occasionally she would be a couple of minutes late, if she got behind someone slow. But you could usually set your clock by her.
She parked in the same spot for every visit. If it had snowed, the helpful caretakers would have cleared the parking spot. Those same caretakers had noticed her arrival every week, month after month.
Reaching over to the passenger’s seat, she picked up this morning’s rose.
The morning was crisp and cool, all of the sounds muted on this side of the cemetery. She rarely met anyone as she walked along the path.
She came around the final turn, looked up the lonely little hill towards Martin’s gravestone, and stopped in her tracks. Martin wasn’t alone. There were a couple of men standing about fifty yards away. They were big guys, they looked professional, and they seemed to be watching over a woman.
Her eyes were drawn to the woman standing with her back to Mary. The lady was dressed in slacks, and a full-length black winter coat came down to her knees. She seemed to be wiping tears away from her face, her shoulders hitched a little. The lady was crying. If Mary was any judge, she had been crying for a while.
Mary started walking, a little faster this time. Who was this woman and why was she crying at Martin’s grave? She approached her, slowing down, coughing a little so as to not surprise her.
Mary watched as the woman put a tissue to her eye one more time and turned to face her. Mary’s eyes widened in shock.
A dead woman was crying for her husband.
Mary fainted. Bethany Anne deftly caught her, and the rose that had fallen from her hand, before either hit the ground.
Somewhere in France
David picked up the throw away phone. Until he knew where Michael was, he was going to be just as anal about security as Anton had been.
Not that it had helped him in the end. Perhaps, David thought, Anton shouldn’t have hosted lavish parties that put a big target on his back. For such a devious ass, Anton was blind at times to his own inadequacies. Anton frequently harassed him about his castle, only to die himself in one of his own homes.
David hadn’t gotten the full story, but he had been made aware that Anton was very, very dead.
Apparently this little female of Michael’s was still being a resolute pain in the ass.
David called one of his contacts in America. The voice on the other end of the line was abrupt, pushy. “Hello? Who is this?”
“It is David.”
The voice on the other end became less abrupt. “Oh, good to hear from you. I take it you know about Anton?”
“Yes. That is the reason for my call. We need to up the pressure on this annoying brat Bethany Anne. I want you to move forward with the plans to push for a no-support vote against Gerry. Can you swing that?”
“Possibly. He’s made it harder since the test with the troublemakers has been successful so far. I’ll start planting rumors. We should be able to at least cause the council to deadlock. Once we’re deadlocked, Gerry’s powers are minimized and I can move forward to get him tossed out. I’ll have a figurehead take control. No reason for my head to go on the chopping block if Michael comes back around.”
“If Michael comes back around, I imagine the safest place will be anywhere he is not. Don’t forget Valentine’s Day.”
“I won’t forget, that’s the reason I agreed to work with you in the first place. Don’t forget you needed me to take care of this for you, when it all finally works out.”
“Of course not, I remember my friends.”
“Good.” They said their good-byes.
David looked down at the pieces of the phone he had just crushed in his hand. “Of course, I would have to count you as a friend, first.”
He dropped the crushed remains into the trash basket next to his chair and wiped his hands together to get the dust off.
He picked up the next phone and looked up the number he needed.
Mary woke up slowly, cradled in a woman’s arms. Her memory a little foggy, she opened her eyes to look up… into the face of an angel, someone who shouldn’t be holding her right now. Who shouldn’t be here, period.
“Bethany Anne?” Mary reached up to touch Bethany Anne’s face, lit with a compassionate smile. Even with tear streaks running down her face, she still looked beautiful.
“Yes, it’s me. I’ve come to pay Martin the respect he was due. I didn’t want to speak to him until I had taken care of those responsible for his death.”
Mary looked around her; there were four new people on the other side of the grave. Two more men accompanied by two women. The two men that she had seen before were still scanning the area, definitely protection. The other men and the two women were looking at her.
“Can you stand?” Bethany Anne asked her.
She nodded. She felt a little woozy, but with Bethany Anne’s help she got her feet back under her again. Bethany Anne kept an arm around her shoulders.
Mary’s mind caught up to what Bethany Anne had said. “You took care of who? Who was responsible for Martin’s death?”
Bethany Anne’s smile turned sad. “It was a group that was looking for me. I had helped another government agency in the Everglades. The operation went bad, but I was able to help and turn things around. That led to another operation in Miami and that caused the other group to start investigating me. They tracked me to Martin and he was killed as a result.”
“I, I thought you were dead? I know Martin said that you were alive, that no one else would have sent him that shoe. But the doctors gave you no chance, and you’ve been gone... well, almost a year?”
“Pretty much. I was moved into a clandestine… group. This group had the medical capability, in Europe, to heal me. But it changed me.” Bethany Anne let go of Mary, watching her in case she needed support again. She started pacing in front of the gravesite. “It took six months to make me better. Since then, I’ve been involved in different things. My main goal for the last six months has been tracking down Martin’s killers, and their boss, and so on up the chain.” She stopped to look Mary in the eyes. “Mary, my team and I have killed every person related, or even tangentially connected, to wha
t happened to Martin. We have hunted down and killed the person who killed Martin here in D.C.. We tracked his boss in Costa Rica and then her boss in Argentina. I’m tracking another person over in Europe and I know who’s going to take care of him, too. Me and my team will not stop until every person in that group is under my heel, ground into the dust of the earth and washed into the oceans, never to be heard from again. That’s my promise.”
Mary heard the biggest guy there murmur, “Ad Aeternitatem.”
Bethany Anne looked over the grave at the man and nodded her head once, sharply.
Bethany Anne looked back at her. “I’m sorry Martin got entangled in this mess. I had no idea anyone was going to track me back to my old life.”
Mary looked down at her feet. “So, Martin was killed in the line of duty, then?” A tear had just started to form in Mary’s right eye.
“Yes. He was killed because I was involved in operations sanctioned by the U.S. Government.”
Mary continued to weep softly. “Why didn’t the government admit it? They claimed it was a random act.”
Bethany Anne held out a fresh tissue.
“You know that Martin’s group was almost black, right?” Mary nodded. “Well, next is black and then beyond black is the group I’m in now.” Bethany Anne stepped over to Mary and used a finger to gently tilt her head up, to look her in the eyes. “Mary, Martin might not have died if he had given the killer information about me. He died to protect me. He was so sure I was alive that he gave his life to protect me without any evidence but a shoe.”
Mary used the tissue to wipe her eyes. That was her husband. That was the man she loved and that was the man he was when he died. He was a protector. He protected those he loved even when she had thought he was grasping at ghosts.
The ghost, it seemed, was real. She smiled at Bethany Anne. “Then he didn’t die in vain, did he?”
“Boss?”
Mary watched Bethany Anne turn to the large man again and raise an eyebrow.
“I’d like to speak if I could?”
Bethany Anne stepped beside Mary, nodded, and wrapped an arm around her waist. The huge man came around and stood in front of Mary. “Ma’am. My name is John Grimes. I would have died in that Everglades operation if Bethany Anne hadn’t come onto the scene. In fact,” he turned around a little and waved at the people on the other side of the grave, “every man here would have died on that operation.” He turned back and faced Mary. “I owe my life, my future and my hope to Bethany Anne. By extension, I owe my life, my future and my hope to one of the men that made Bethany Anne the person she is today and that is your husband. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for his devotion to duty, devotion to life and devotion to those he loved. I am honored to say that I was there helping take down the killer. On behalf of me and my men, we will finish the job. Every person who belongs to this group of slime will be ground into dust.”
As John was finishing his statement, Ecaterina stepped up behind him. John shook Mary’s hand and Ecaterina then took his place.
“This woman,” she nodded at Bethany Anne, “Is responsible for too much good in my life for me to share right now. I was there when Martin’s killer was taken down. I am also one of the two who pulled the trigger to execute his ultimate leader. This is the least I can offer in appreciation for all your husband did to make her the woman she is today. Ad Aeternitatem.”
By now, Mary was openly weeping, tears that she couldn’t shed while she tried to understand Martin’s murder, finally fell. Martin’s life had not been useless. Rather, he had invested a part of his life in the woman standing with her, holding her, right now.
Next came Darryl, Scott and Eric. Finally, the woman named Gabrielle came and spoke with her.
Every person there was teary as Gabrielle finished her story. Mary hugged Gabrielle, then Ecaterina, Scott, Darryl, Eric and John. Finally, she turned to Bethany Anne. Pointing between herself and Bethany Anne she said, “I know we haven’t spoken much. But as often as Martin spoke of you, I feel like you are a lost daughter. One that has come home and given me help to understand why, and the gift of knowing that his murderers have gotten justice.” She moved over and hugged the younger, taller, woman. “I would wish I could see you more often, just to chat.” She pulled back and looked up at Bethany Anne who was trying to smile through her tears. “You come visit me any time. I might not be close to where you live, but you are always welcome in my home, do you understand?”
Bethany Anne hugged her back. “We might be closer than you think. Ok?”
Mary mumbled agreement, not really sure what she meant. Bethany Anne handed her the rose that she’d brought to the gravesite. She and Bethany Anne each laid a rose down. Then, to her surprise, each of the team members followed suit. That day, Martin’s grave had eight roses on it.
When Mary walked back to her car, the weight of the emotions lifted off of her shoulders for the first time since Martin had been killed. She pulled off her coat and opened her door. She noticed a legal sized envelope addressed to her in the driver’s seat. She grabbed the envelope, tossed in her coat and got in. She started the car and turned the heat on.
It took her a few minutes to figure out the contents.
She had been deeded a house in Key Biscayne, Florida.
A personal note inside said: Please accept this gift, it is the least I can do. Trust that I want you to know that Martin’s promises, the dreams he shared with me, that you and your husband spoke about were never in vain. This home is paid for, furnished, and all the taxes and fees paid for until you die or sell the house. I would be honored if you accept this and come live near me. All my love, Bethany Anne.
Tears fell one more time from Mary Brennan’s face, the ink on the personal note smearing just a little.
Key Biscayne, FL USA
Scott was walking along the edge of the water, thinking about the trip to Martin’s gravesite. He had been involved with the takedown of Adrian, the vampire responsible for killing Martin. He’d also been involved, at least in the action plan, with the effort to get Clarita. He would have been involved with the fight for the Polarus, but Jean Dukes and her team had made very short work of the boat attacking them that night.
He was standing, looking at the evening sunset over the water when Darryl caught up to him. Scott had heard him and waited until his partner stood beside him, sharing the view. He spoke, “Beautiful, isn’t it.”
Darryl nodded, it wasn’t so much a question between the two men who had fought together, bled together and made it out the other side together, as it was a simple ‘hello.’
They stood in companionable silence for a couple of minutes, Darryl letting his partner take his time.
Scott finally broke the silence. “Are we going to be enough, Darryl?”
“Enough for what?”
“Enough to see her to the other side of all this?” Scott threw his hand out to the horizon. “Enough to protect her from what’s coming?”
Darryl considered his response. Scott was the odd guy out in the Queen’s Guard. He came to them from the NYPD. He wasn’t ex-military like most of the others. Scott had been involved in a bad outcome with a Nosferatu in an apartment building and Dan had somehow pulled strings to let the man join their team. He had been a solid part of the four for a while now.
“Brother, what do you think is coming up?” To Darryl, every one of his team was his brother. Three guys, now four if you counted Gabrielle, who he knew would never leave him behind even if the brass had other ideas. Hell, his brass was Bethany Anne. That lady would risk dying in a foreign dimension to try to save one of her own.
“You know the score. We have to get this Forsaken bullshit behind us. Team BMW is going to get those rockets working. I don’t think it will take much time before they’re working in atmosphere and then working out of atmosphere. After that it won’t be too much longer before we really will be able to move into low earth orbit. That’s going to piss off some really powerful peo
ple.”
Darryl nodded his agreement. “Scott, we’re going to have to be enough. She’s a tough woman, don’t get me wrong, but she can’t be looking everywhere at the same time.”
Scott snorted. “Remember San Jose?”
Darryl grinned, remembering the fight in the park. “We got her through that.”
Scott turned his head to look up at his partner. “Who was trying to get whom through that? We were a unit. The absolute best I’ve ever been a part of and she left us in her dust. We have to up our game or we’re going to be holding her back.”
It was Darryl’s turn to be quiet and think about what Scott had just said. The guys had heard about the fight on the Ad Aeternitatem. Pete’s team paired with Todd’s Marines had a short and bloody fight of their own. But the big news was Pete himself turning into the first standing werewolf in centuries as he and his team had fought for Bethany Anne. Perhaps John could take Pete in a fight, but John had been maxed out by… “You want to go John’s route, don’t you?”
Like before, while phrased as a question, it was a statement from one person who knew the other all too well.
Scott nodded. “I’ve thought about it a lot since we helped the reporter in San Jose.” Scott scanned the horizon. “When those douchebags shot at us and Gabrielle, I stopped thinking in terms of us, them, nations whatever. It became my team, my team members, my mission. We have one goal. We have to save the world.” Scott looked back over at Darryl. “If I need to take a bullet to make sure Bethany Anne crosses the finish line? I won’t hesitate. But, if I could shrug it back off so I’m not out of the game? Well, bring it on motherfuckers, bring it on.” Scott turned back to viewing the horizon.
“That was a little plebian.” Darryl smirked.
Scott smiled at that. “Yeah, let’s just hope she isn’t listening or I’ll have to drop and give her fifty. Wait!” Scott turned back to Darryl, “No one has used just ‘motherfucker’ that I can remember in months. That should check out ok, I’m thinking.”
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 107