by Neal, Xavier
I stop shooting to scroll through the photos I've taken when a maintenance man bumps into me.
“Sorry,” I quickly apologize. “I really am trying to stay out of the way.”
His dark eyes don't seem to match the rest of the features on his light body. The striking contrast is terrifying. “It's alright.” He tries to offer me a warm smile. “What is it you're photographing?”
“Oh just a couple of the skateboarders.”
“That's nice. Can I see?”
Cautiously I reply, “Sure.”
After I scroll through a few he compliments. “These are really great shots.”
“Thanks.”
I scroll through a few more, going back when he asks. Eventually the man looks up and states. “I should get back to work. Be careful. Have a nice day.”
With a sweet smile I reply, “You as well.”
Thankfully he strolls away taking the creepy vibes with him.
Tell me you don't have the chills right now?
A few minutes later I'm headed back towards my bag just as some of the heavy construction noises begin. Curious where Jamie ended up, I reach for my cell phone when a hand abruptly grabs me.
“What the hell?”
Destin who is out of breath for some reason says, “Thank God you're alive.”
“Okay you're taking this out of your sight thing a little too far.”
“Azura I-” is what comes from him before he yanks me out of the way, a bullet landing in the tree directly beside me. Had he not moved me, my brain would be pinned to that tree. The urge to scream comes flying out, which is when Destin covers my mouth. “Shhh. From that shot my guess is he's closer than you think.”
We crouch down together, Destin in front with a gun, me clutching his hand to follow.
Do I even wanna know where the gun came from?
He maneuvers us quickly around using the trees as our shield from the flying shots. Unsure of where the shooting is coming from, I do my best to keep my head down, relieved it's not up to me to get us out of this. Before I know it, we've made it to the other side of the park, closer to the parking lot, right beside the maintenance building.
With our backs up against the wall, Destin lets out a deep sigh. He rolls his head over to me. “Hi...”
“Hi...”
“I'm really glad you're okay.”
“Thank you for coming to save me.” Feeling like an idiot about the comment I made last night I confess, “I guess I am nothing but a damsel in distress.”
He winks. “Not exactly.”
I open my mouth to reply when there's a hard object placed against the back of my head.
Horror heaves itself into Destin's eyes as his grip on the gun tightens.
“Drop it,” the voice behind me says.
My boyfriend's hand twitches, but doesn't obey. “I don't think so.”
“Don't you want the girl to live?” he questions.
“Don't worry,” a third voice joins the conversation. I wanna look over my shoulder, but the fear of getting shot because of it keeps me still. “She will.”
Suddenly Destin pulls me to him by my hand, the disappearance from the pressure of the gun remarkable. When I'm finally at his side, my eyes fall onto the most unsuspecting face of my rescue.
The creepy maintenance man slowly grabs the gun from the shooter's clutch as he says, “McCoy, I hope you have a license to carry that.”
“Since I was eighteen, officer,” he answers tucking it away.
Really? Creepy man is a cop!
The maintenance man demands of the shooter, “Down on the ground. Nice and slow. Wrong move and I'll let McCoy shoot you in self-defense. No judge would question it.”
His tar colored face delivers one more dirty look before he does as the police man says. The officer begins to read him his rights during the process of cuffing him. Once it's done and the man is secured, the cop looks up. “I told you those were great shots.” Casually he adds, “His face is all over those photos. Perfect proof.”
A smile tries to crawl on my face.
“Get her out of here now. We'll send another unit to watch your place.”
“Yes sir,” Destin replies, tightening his grip on my hand. “And thank you officer....?”
“Brady,” he answers yanking the gunman to his feet. “Just doing my job.”
Destin's face turns to me with a smile. “Yeah. Me too...”
Should we write the Police Commissioner a thank you card? Send him a fruit basket? What the hell is the appropriate gift to thank a man for making sure there really is always a cop on me, even when I thought there wasn't? Is it cookies?
Destin
So there's pissed off Madden and then there's Mad Man Madden. Pissed off Madden dents car hood, breaks beer bottles, shatters glass with tools, basically any damage that can be counted in dollars. Mad Man Madden, well he does the kind of damage that haunts a person for a life time. If you're not terrified yet, you should be.
He paces the living room in front of the T.V. “You disobeyed me again.”
“Yeah.”
“Continued fucking with the one person I specifically told you to leave alone, so we wouldn't end up exactly where you did today?”
I sheepishly nod.
“You're fucking mistake could've cost you your life.” His hand travels down his face wiping away that wave of anger. “Let me just make sure I understand what happened today. The Devil called and gave you a choice.”
“A fucked up one,” I comment back. “But yeah. A choice.”
Madden stops and folds his arms. “And you chose the girl.”
My eyes flicker at the girl wound so tightly around me, she's beginning to cut off the circulation in my arm. When I look back at my oldest brother I answer, “I'd choose Azura every time.”
It’s just like the comic book. Sometimes saving one person saves the whole world…or at least my world.
To my surprise he gives me a smile.
I think he's broken.
“What's wrong with your face?” Knox points out. “It's doing this weird thing. We call it smiling, but yours just...looks infected.”
He wipes it away. “Fuck off, Knox.”
“That's probably what she was doing this morning, which is why she wasn't here,” Drew chuckles at Madden's expense until the death glare moves to him. Quickly he stutters out, “W-w-we know why Mel and I weren't here.”
“Where were you?” Knox folds her arms across her chest. “You typically bring your bitch bar trash back to your own bed.”
The jealousy in her voice makes the rest of us wince.
Madden states, “I always bring it back home. I won't do the walk of shame for anyone.”
“Are you capable of shame?” she snips.
“Can we focus?” Drew interrupts. “If you weren't out fucking last night, why didn't you come home?”
Uncomfortable Madden simply states. “I gave you a check in that I was fine.”
Drew quickly argues, “That's not what I asked.”
“That's the only information you need.”
“That's not fucking right and you know it,” Drew growls. “None of us can have secrets. None of us can just fucking disappear when we feel like it. We're all stuck in the house like fucking prisoners because it's what you demand! The least you can fucking do is give us some answers!”
Madden tightens his stance. “No.”
Silence chokes the life out of the room. Between the tension of unanswered questions and the tension of hurt feelings, it starts to feel like the only way any one will ever breathe again is on life support.
“How did The Devil know you would all be gone?” Azura speaks up. When our attention turns to her she repeats. “How did he know that Destin would be alone?”
A realization that makes me uncomfortable to my core strikes me. “He's watching us.” Panicked, I gripe, “He has someone watching the shop.”
“No,” Drew denies quickly. “You swept for bugs. You
keep sweeping for bugs. You're security feed would've picked up something.”
“Traffic cameras,” Mel whispers. “The one closest to the shop. The one we have to pass through when coming or going. He could tap into that to watch for your vehicles.”
“But why offer Destin the chance to kill him?” Azura questions.
“It wasn't a real offer,” Madden growls. “He was fucking with him. He was proving the point that no matter what we do, he's always going to be ahead of us. No matter what happens, we won't risk hurting someone we love to hurt something we hate.”
“He may not always be ahead,” I mumble grabbing everyone's eyes.
Displeased by the remark Madden demands, “Explain.”
“A few days ago when the BV MC member came by, she mentioned something that I....was waiting to tell you.” Drew shakes his head at me. Timidly I apologize, “Sorry, Big D. I just...I didn't wanna take the risk until I knew more.”
“You lied to my face.”
“You knew I lied to your face.”
“Is that why you were so upset that day?” Mel asks him.
“What's the information I'm waiting to beat the shit out of you over,” Madden says sharply.
That ass whooping is gonna hurt.
“If Azura swears she doesn't remember anything-”
“I really don't!” she squeaks.
“And we can return something they're missing as a peace offering, they'll leave her alone.”
“Something they're missing?” Knox questions. “They're a gang. How does something just go missing? And do you look like the Hardy boys? Where does it say you like to pull out your magnifying glasses and solve mysteries?”
Don't encourage her by laughing.
“A token they stole from another gang went missing a few years ago. I figured if I could find out what it was, we could make a forgery, give it to them, and everybody would win. I just...I had to figure out what it was first.”
Madden questions sternly, “And did you?”
“Yeah.” I reach for my phone and scroll through the pictures until I find it. “It's this.”
Holding the screen up Drew grunts, “Is that a shirt barrette?”
“Brooch,” Knox corrects him. “And no. It's not.”
“It's a diamond scorpion cuff link,” I inform everyone. “It wouldn't be that hard to recreate.”
A look I don't recognize comes across Madden's face. “There's no need to.”
“No need to what?” Knox asks.
“Fake it. I know exactly where it is.”
Blown away how that's even a possibility, I snap, “What?”
“What do you mean you know where it is?” Drew echoes.
“How do you know?” Knox joins the conversation.
Madden hums to himself. “I'll explain later. For now...I have a plan.”
You know, usually when there are this many McCoys all in the same room at the same time and there's not dinner or a party involved, it means the worst has happened or is about to. For everyone's sake, I hope for once, it's just the opposite.
Destin
Sitting wedged between my two brothers at the long wooden table, I hold my composure knowing the smallest sign of weakness sensed by them will turn things ugly.
Turns out BV MC is even scarier in person. Just in case you're wondering.
Slaughter taps his thumbs together. “I'm here. Neutral territory. That's smart McCoy.”
“Being dumb gets you killed,” Madden informs coldly.
“You know,” he starts, still tapping his thumbs together. “I bet you'd make a helluva MC member.”
“Bet I wouldn't,” my big brother counters. “Now, to business. You're an important man. You don't have time to waste.”
“I don't.” He agrees. “So talk.”
His entire presence is as fucking intimidating as Madden's except instead of being brunette he's blond. Like my brother who has a jagged scar along his jawbone, Slaughter has one that runs across his neck. It looks like someone tried to slice him open and failed. I don't wanna know what happens to failures who try to kill men like them.
“I wanna cut a deal,” Madden announces.
Slaughter's fingers tap together again. “I like deals. Particularly when they have a price tag. Does yours?”
“A big one,” Madden assures. “Destin.”
Putting my tablet on the table, I tab over to the first set of documents.
“That is a sworn testimony from the woman you are hunting down stating she has no memory, no recollection of the crime you allegedly committed. She does not recall you leaving the scene. She does not remember your name, your face, or even being there at that time.” When my finger swipes over Madden continues, “This is the law in which would be used by your lawyer to prevent a two decade old memory from holding merit in court.”
The large man on his left, his VP to my understanding, leans over his shoulder. “Do you want me to call our guy to verify that?”
Slaughter holds a finger to him to shut the man up. “Continue.”
When Madden tosses me a nod, I tab over a few to another document that looks damn near identical to the first. “This is a sworn testimony from the woman you are hunting down that says she recalls the crime in perfect detail. She describes the entire afternoon vividly, including you leaving the house of ZD President on the day of his murder.” After I tab over he adds, “And this is the law in which the prosecution will use that very testimony that can no longer get you charged for the original alleged crime of theft, but can be used against you for the open homicide investigation.”
“There's no statute of limitations on murder,” Drew inserts. “But you knew that.”
The growl from the man across the table is followed by the sucking of his teeth. “That's not exactly honorable McCoy.”
“Protecting family first,” he states. “And I think that's the honor that matters most to you doesn't it?”
Slaughter doesn't disagree.
“We'll give you a copy of her testimony that says she has no recollection and something you want that's been missing for quite some time.”
His eyes light up. He rocks in his seat. “And what do you want in exchange, McCoy?”
“The girl left alone. For good.” Madden starts. “And a favor.”
Slaughter leans back. “I'm not big on favors.”
Slowly Madden leans forward. “This one comes with a price tag.”
“And I like those.” Slaughter sly smirks. “Alright McCoy. You have my complete attention now. What's the favor?”
Oh it's a good one....You'll see.
Azura
Flustered I snip, “Damn it, Destin! Hand me the tape!”
“What tape?” He wiggles his empty fingers at me. “I don't see any tape.”
On a defeated sigh I whine, “You are turning a two day packing job into a two week one.”
“Drama queen,” he grunts and tosses me the dispenser that he had tucked in his pants. “You're lucky I love you.”
“That I am.” When he smiles at me, I lean over and give him a quick kiss. “But that doesn't mean you get to torture me while you're supposed to be helping me pack.”
“It's hard enough I have to see you go.” Destin flops down on the edge of my bare mattress. “I really don't like the idea of being the one to help you do it.”
Leaning against my dresser I reply, “I know.”
After the park incident, Madden came up with a plan that freed me from the fear of the BV MC. Once it was all settled, Destin broke down and begged me to take the job. I told them I would take it on the condition that I could work from home unless it was a requirement to travel. Marshal agreed but demanded I still spend the first couple of months in London for training. Destin agreed he could live with a traveling girlfriend as long as I came back to him and without the fear of the BV MV waiting around every corner to kill me, I think I'm okay with it too. Doesn't make actually having to leave the person who is going to miss me most any e
asier. Even if it is temporary.