***
Over the days after they first arrived in New Orleans, Simone continued to hear the rumors that surrounded her mother and herself. At first, she ignored it, but when some of the rumors started holding a ring of truth, she knew it was time to tell Jesse.
Everything.
That night after dinner, she sat Jesse down in her room and told him she had some things to tell him.
She told him about the abuse, the training she was put through and the punishments when she failed.
Jesse was for the most part stone-faced, but inwardly was ill at the worst child abuse he had ever heard. Simone fell silent after she finished talking, but Jesse couldn’t help but feel she had more to say. He reached out, taking her hand in his; she looked up with a surprised look. “There’s more, isn’t there?”
Simone couldn’t speak for the lump in her throat, but gave a shaky nod, “Yes,” she choked out in a quiet whisper.
She let out a shaky breath and started her tale.
“When I was eighteen, I enlisted in the Army and was sent to Fort Bragg for basic training. I was away and alone for the first time.”
A grimace graced her lips, “That was when I met Gabriel for the first time.”
She looked away, unable to keep eye contact with him.
“I fall in love with him and hard. I would have done anything for him, and I nearly did.”
And she would have, Gabriel was her first everything and had her so under his spell, she would have done anything he wanted. Including kill the man he asked her to assassinate. One night, he handed her a picture of a man coming out of a blue house and asked her to find him and kill him. For one terrifying moment, she nearly complied.
That had been her breaking point; she had left that awful part of her past to rest and would not revive it for no one. As she told Jesse all of this, she was brought back to those days, after the break-up.
“I was on leave, and I went home to Anderson, back to Mama.” She didn’t feel the tears on her face as she remembered one of the worst nights of her life.
“I had no idea Gabriel was on Ray’s orders to find and bring my mother and me back to New Orleans by any means necessary. I had no idea that I led him right to our front door.”
She wiped her eyes, “Aunt Jo, Rose and all of them were up in New York attending a funeral, so it was just Mama and me at the house. Ray broke in while I was riding around on my bike, trying to clear my head.”
She paused, taking a sip of water and really wishing it was whiskey. But she knew if she did, she would probably finish the bottle and she really needed a clear head for this. And she promised herself she would never drown her problems at the end of a liquor bottle like Ray did.
“When-when I came back in, I found him with my mother in the dining room.”
Her breathing hitched.
“He had her tied to a chair and was beating her. In between hits, he was asking for me.”
Tears were pouring down her cheeks now, her eyes filled with an agony that took his breath away. “I found out later, he-he raped her when he first broke in.”
He moved to sit by her but was stopped by her raised hand and shaking head. After a few minutes, she was composed enough to finish, “I still don’t know how I did it. One second I was in the hall hearing her scream, the next I’m tackling him to the ground as he goes to hit her again.”
“We wrestle on the ground, and he gets on top of me and hits me. I hit him back.” She gave a humorless laugh. “He looked so surprised when I fought back, that he fell off me and I just lost it. I start hitting him, and I didn’t stop till he grabbed a knife on the floor and stabbed me in the shoulder with it.”
She pulled her shirt away to show the long thin scar on her left shoulder. Jess had seen the scar, but it was from an old case, he never thought it could have come from her father.
Simone was lost in her memories, her voice taking on a monotone quality as she spoke.
“I scrambled back, and he came at me with the knife again. Just as he was about to bring it down, he stopped and went to his knees. Mom had a knife in her hand where she stabbed him in the back.”
Sim shivered, “She had this crazed look in her eyes and kept saying, ‘Never again. You are not going to hurt my baby again.’”
Just as she raised her knife again, so did he.”
The agony and anger in those green eyes were heart-wrenching. Because at that moment, the woman sitting in front of him wasn’t the tough and capable P.I. Simone. In front of him was a teenage Sabine that wasn’t able to protect her mother.
“I did the only thing, I could. I drew my firearm I kept on me; and fired. The bullet went into the back of his head, killing him instantly.”
She was quiet for a long time before she spoke again, “The rest of my family doesn’t know this, Jane I know suspects and if she knows for certain, she ain’t telling. But Ray wasn’t just a rich guy from New Orleans; he was one of the crime bosses in New Orleans, and a relatively high up one. We knew if they found him in the house, his ‘family’ would retaliate against us. All of us. Jane had just had Luke, and they would have gone after them too.”
She shook her head and stood up for the first time since she started talking. She walked over to the TV, staring at the blank screen.
“We couldn’t afford the police to bring this back to the New Orleans crew, so we packed him up and put him in the car he was in, and we called Harry.”
His gaze shot to hers. “Harry? As in your friend that’s been helping us, Harry?”
She nodded, “And my mom’s older brother. He and my other uncle were who helped us get out of New Orleans and have new identities. They also work for the F.B.I.” She told him about her uncle coming out to clean the scene and stage Ray’s death. She didn’t say his director had come with him at the time and was impressed with Simone’s handling the situation and it was her young age that kept him from recruiting her right there and then.
She looked back at him over her shoulder.
“Now you know. You know things my family doesn’t know. They think I caught Gabriel cheating on me and came home to lick my wounds.”
She knew this would change things. That this would probably kill whatever Jesse had for her. What she didn’t expect, was Jesse walking over to her, making a point to be in her line of sight and turned her to him, taking her into his arms, his hand gently rubbing her back. Nothing more. Simone lost the last grip she had on her emotions and broke down.
She held him to her as they sank to the floor and for the first time, she cried about that night. She cried for the man that had been her father before grief and alcohol twisted him into a monster.
She cried for her mother, who had been in a situation she couldn’t get out of no matter how many times Meredith had tried, they had always been brought back and thrown at Ray’s feet.
And she cried for herself and the little girl she had been.
***
The next two days, they spent combing the bars and looking for the source that brought them to New Orleans. Simone found him in an old man that had worked one of the Cafés her mother and her frequented as a child. If Claude DeBleu recognized her, he didn’t say, but he was able to confirm he had seen Jimmy and several local boys hanging about the streets, trying to hustle tourists.
They found one of the boys on Bourbon Street. Simone stopped not far from the corner and took the opportunity to tug her stretchy top down, making her cleavage much more apparent, then applied a shiny red lip balm, making her lips even more full and pouty, Jesse had to stop himself from kissing it right back off her.
He shook himself, missing the smirk on Sim’s face at his expression. They walked around the corner, Simone walking several steps ahead of him and sat down at the boy’s table. Leaning over it, her cleavage threatening to spill from the low-cut top. Once she saw his attention was on her, she slowly ran her hand up her arm and slowly dragged it across her chest, reaching for the edge of her top and palmed a bill, then
repeated the gesture before lightly slapping the bill down on the table.
“This is yours if you tell me all about that hustle gig you and your boys got going on.”
She repeated her earlier gesture and slapped another bill down, “And this is yours if you tell me what you know about anyone coming up missing in the last few months.”
He looked back between her chest and the money on the table before pocketing the cash and grinned at her, “Baby, I’ll tell you whatever you wanna know.”
Chapter Eight
He did indeed tell her all what she wanted to know. Some she didn’t want to know about, but she did learn he had heard from the streets that Jimmy had been seen snatched in an alley the night he stopped taking Gunn’s calls.
The boy, his name was Billy, said they occasionally dabbled in illegal items, but one night Jimmy came back pale and said no chance was he doing what ‘the Boss’ wanted him to do. A couple of nights later, Jimmy was in the wind. That had been weeks ago, and now knowing Jimmy could have been involved in something illegal had her wanting to find him all the more.
Starting that night, Jesse began hitting the local bars and seeing what he could find. The first night, he wasn’t so successful. However, the second and third night, bore fruit.
He had overheard a couple of regulars saying they saw a boy matching Jimmy’s description, being taken to an abandoned warehouse and supposedly, being held for ransom. When Simone heard this, she scouted out the area for any abandoned warehouse in the area. Not an easy task with so many buildings abandoned after the Katrina floods. After hours of research between them and a lot of coffee, they found something.
That afternoon, Sim drove them out to the area by following the directions given to her. What surprised Jesse, was how well she was taking the roads and backroads, for a woman that hadn’t stepped foot in New Orleans since she was fifteen. They found the locked, rusted gate that blocked them from pulling the jeep in any further, but they had found the right place if the rusted and half caved-in metal building was any indication.
Simone took several steps back from the gate, looking around as she did. She gestured to Jesse, “See if there are any cameras or traps around and on the fence.” They spread out, looking around the fence near the gates, before cautiously circling the rest of the fenced-in property. Simone pulled the binoculars out of her pack and looked at the building, zooming in to see what she could. She saw at least one guard at the entrance, and he appeared to be armed. She saw at least two cameras and possibly more that she was unable to see. She walked back to where Jesse was hidden in the tree line. “There’s at least one guard I could see, there might be more inside or not on shift yet.”
She shook her head, zipping the pack up. “I saw at least two cameras, there could be more inside.” What she wouldn’t give to have her old team here to lend her a hand. As they began walking back to the jeep, it clicked. She might not have her old team at her disposal, but she had the next best thing. The FBI’s top agents, two were related to her, and another owed her a big favor.
The next few days, they spent taking turns scouting the area surrounding the building. Simone had been unable to get ahold of any of her unit as she had hoped, but she did get ahold of the agent that owed her a favor, and he was willing to help. It didn’t hurt she had acquired some information on a case he would be very interested in while working this case. Not that Jesse was aware of that, only that she had gotten in touch with her uncles and had agreed to help scout the building.
It was the next day that, their patience was rewarded, they had a moonless night. She smiled at Jesse over the computer screen, “We go tonight. Be sure your gear is packed and get some rest. We leave at sunset.”
The next two hours, while they waited for the sun to set, were probably the longest Jesse could recall.
When he asked Sim where their back-up was, she told him they were on standby and waiting for her signal, should help be needed. While they waited for sunset, they went over the plan. Through their scouting one day, Simone was able to sneak into the building and get the layout and find where Jimmy was being held. Thinking about the boy and the state she found him in, stirred that icy rage that made her so dangerous…
Her baby brother was handcuffed to an old rusted, camp bed, shivering in the cool air. He was still wearing the ragged summer clothes he went missing in. One arm was at a painfully awkward angle, indicating that arm was broken. Cuts, bruises, and black circled eyes marred what would normally be a boyishly handsome face.
He opened his eyes briefly, squinting in the sunlight coming in through the window she had opened before his gaze found her. Tears were in his eyes as he spoke, his voice a rough rasp. “Mom, is that you?”
Simone, tough-as-nails PI, was nearly in tears at her brother’s words. Hesitantly, she reached a hand down, gently wiping the tears from his face.
“No, Jim. It’s me, Simone.”
He cried even harder at that, “I’d prayed you’d come for me, Simmi. Looks like my prayers have been answered for once.”
It gutted Sim to have to leave him here, but she couldn’t move him right now. If her calculations were correct, the guards would be going through a shift change in the next ten minutes. Judging by the shape her brother was in; she’d have to carry him to get him out of here. Jesse was not with her today, so there was no help there.
She petted his hair, “Jim, listen to me. The guards are changing in the next ten minutes; I won’t be able to get us out of here before they catch us.”
His tears were really going strong then; she leaned down and brushed a kiss across his temple as she leaned down to whisper in his ear, “I promise you little brother, I’m getting you out of here. Even if I have to burn down the damn bayou to do it. But I need to know more about what’s inside here. Who comes here regularly? How often do the guards come down here?”
He told her what little he knew. The guards came down once a day to feed him and sometimes they would take him to an actual bathroom as opposed to the bucket in the corner. As they talked, Sim was prepping him and injecting both a mix of antibiotic and pain killers. She could tell from his feverish stare and shivering he had an infection, most likely from the nasty gash on one arm. Then she injected a mix of vitamins, they wouldn’t be much but would help him get on his feet when they did make his escape...
It had taken all her willpower, not to go in there, guns blazing, and get Jimmy out from the bastards that were holding him. Only knowing that if she couldn’t, her uncle promised her he would, had kept her from acting on her impulse. But tonight, she was getting her brother out of there, and if she had to burn the building down to do it, she would.
***
Sunset came and went, and then besides a few stars twinkling in the night sky, it was darkness. They quietly got out of the jeep and began carefully crossing the land, checking for tripwires and booby traps as they went. There were no cameras in the tree line, but as she got closer, she knew there would be one along the building’s perimeter. Simone pulled a small remote out, pushing a button till it clicked; it would scramble the camera’s feed for the next fifteen minutes.
They avoided the guard that was patrolling and made their way to the back door. Once again, Sim took her kit out and picked the lock before opening it silently.
Once inside, she gave a mental thanks to Jesse for bringing a degreaser for the hinges the day before.
Simone glanced at her watch, they had at most thirty minutes to find Jimmy and be out of here and back on the road before the guards changed shift. After picking the locks on the second set of doors that led to a side door, they made their way down the hall to the room Jimmy was in being held in. After giving him a quick look over, Simone saw no added injuries and pulled her pack down and began pulling the vacuum sealed bag out. She pulled it out as Jesse roused the teen. “Jim. Heh, come on, man. Get up, we gotta move.”
Simone quickly pulled a pair of socks and sweatpants on over his ragged shorts and bare feet, before
slipping a pair of boots on him. Jesse tried again, “Come on, man,” as he finished picking the lock on the cuffs. Simone came up beside him, gently shaking him.
“Jimmy, come on little brother. It’s me, Sim.”
His eyes opened a crack, “Simmi,” he whispered hoarsely. She nodded, “Yeah, it's me Little Brother.”
She gingerly began pulling him up into an upright position, seeing him wince, she felt along his ribs. Other than him being sensitive to touch, she found no cracked or broken ribs. She pulled out a hooded sweatshirt, “I know you’re hurting, but as sick as you are, we can’t take no chances.” She gingerly pulled his injured arm through first, wincing when she saw him clenching his jaw to be quiet. They both had him dressed and on his feet between them. He was unsteady on his feet after weeks of being tied to a camp bed and metal chair. However, as they walked quickly across the open field, he got his feet under him and was able to move more under his own steam. They were able to run faster, not the speed Simone would have liked, but faster than when Jimmy first started walking.
They made it back to the Jeep in good time. Jesse opened the back door and helped Jimmy into the back seat. Simone moved in to sit next to him, quietly shutting the door, before Jesse jumped into the front seat, and started the engine. As he drove them out, Simone began administering first-aid to the teen. He had a spiked fever, and she thought was he hallucinating, till she actually heard him speak.
“I’m sorry, Sim. I’m so…sorry, Simmi.” She felt a cold chill go down her spine as Jesse cursed and swerved. One look out the backseat window showed they were surrounded on all sides.
Simone's Midnight Call (Mississippi Series Book 2) Page 6