Risk

by Raquel Belle

  Adios buttheads.

  ***

  Jack

  The sniper misses a shot at me. It hits a floor tile in the kitchen and takes out a piece the size of my hand—CHACK!

  It’s a large caliber weapon, probably bolt action. That guy is good.

  I manage to take cover behind the island though, but now Brenner has both Glocks. I’ve got the P90, but when I reach up for the M16, I feel Brenner snatch it away.

  “Too slow, Jack!”

  Fuck it.

  “Brenner, I swear to Christ, if you don’t call him off right this second, I will smash the drive to pieces here and now and you’ll walk away with nothing. All of this will have been for NOTHING!”

  “Aww, Jack. You’re no fun at all.”

  I throw the radio over the island, “DO IT!”

  I hear him let out a huff of frustration, then the squawk when he clicks the talk button, “Stand down, Zephyr, over.”

  “Say again, team leader? Over,” a Russian voice comes back.

  “I said stand down and return to checkpoint beta, if you don’t hear from me in ten minutes, return to base and await contact. Confirm? Over.”

  “Acknowledged, team leader. Zephyr out.”

  “Happy now, Jack?” Brenner says.

  “Almost,” I say, “toss the M16 and the Glocks over. Now.”

  “Yeah, right, so you can just get up and shoot me?”

  “No, hand to hand, one on one, just like I said…we’ve got to keep things interesting, don’t we?”

  He blind fires with the Glock over the island, POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! Maybe he’s trying for a ricochet or to make me panic—he ought to know better—he’s not going to get anything. POP! POP! POP! As he’s firing I use the noise as cover to duckwalk around the island. I poke my head out and his back to me. He’s expecting me to stand up in the corner with a weapon.

  “Jack?”

  I don’t reply.

  “It was never personal.”

  POP! POP! POP!

  His clip is empty.

  I rush the distance and put him in a rear choke hold with my left arm before he knows what’s going on.

  “Everything is personal,” I use my right to reinforce it and he’s almost off his feet. He struggles and drops the gun, it’s useless to him now.

  He gives me two left elbows to the gut. They knock the wind out of me. When he gains purchase with his feet he pushes me all the way back through the glass sliding doors.

  We smash through with a loud CRASH! Glass flies everywhere. We bounce off the railing and land in a heap.

  I can’t keep the hold locked. He gives me another elbow and breaks free.

  A well-placed boot to the face and I’m seeing stars.

  He grabs me by my neck with both hands and pulls me up. “Why won’t you just DIE?!” He tries to force me over the railing.

  No.

  I summon what strength I have in me and use two hands for a hard, upward strike to break his hold. His arms fly apart.

  “Because,” I strike him in the throat with a quick right, he grabs his neck and lets out a choking cough. “Someone,” while he’s reeling I clap both my hands to his ears as hard as I can, then scoop him up stunned from the blow and lift him over my shoulder, “is waiting for me!”

  I dash forward and land a running powerslam through the coffee table. It takes everything I’ve got—he’s one heavy motherfucker. The table gets destroyed, crumpling on impact.

  Now I’ve got a few seconds to gather myself.

  One, two, three breaths.

  I pull myself up and land an elbow to his face, then get up higher and land two straight right hands. I’ve got him on the ropes.

  Then I feel something sharp in my side when he shouts, “FUCK YOU!”

  He’s stabbed me with a big piece of table leg.

  Not good.

  The look on his face is one of delirious, murderous rage. He turns me over to my back, gets on top and then starts hammering me with his fists. I can’t feel the pain yet, it’s the adrenaline. My arms are up in front, but I’ve got no move.

  I’m not going out like this. I have to get back to her. I told her I would.

  I wait for an opening while he pounds on me.

  As soon as he pauses for a breath I manage to land one upward strike on his chin. I grab his neck and get my legs under him. I pull down with my hands and kick with my feet. I use everything I have to flip him over my head. I feel a tearing pain in my midsection. My side abdominals are mince—maybe even a kidney. I follow through anyway, doing a back roll and landing on top of him.

  I smash him in the face again with my elbow, once, twice, then pull the wooden stake from my side and plunge it into his chest.

  He gasps as it penetrates his rib cage…I feel the bones crunching and splitting, he coughs blood. I force it deeper and hammer it down with a balled fist.

  He reaches up like he’s still got some fight in him, so I use all my weight and drive it till it can go no further.

  He’s not getting up from that. He gurgles out some blood and then I feel the pain coming. I look at him lying there and there’s only regret.

  “You were one of us. We loved you.” It hurts to say that to him more than the wound in my side, but he needs to know. “You were my brother.”

  I try to stand, stumble backwards and fall.

  I land hard and lay there for a few seconds. I put my hand to my side and bring it away covered in blood. I don’t know what he hit, but I’m going cold and numb. I’m losing blood fast.

  I’m so sorry Deanna. I’m so sorry. I love you.

  I force myself to stand and see Brenner taking rapid, shallow breaths. I don’t know how he’s still alive, but he’s going in to shock and drowning in his own blood.

  I pull the flash from my pocket and toss it on him. “Here, it’s empty, you can have it, you piece of shit. Die with it in your hand.” I cough and some blood lands on him.

  “Why?” He chokes out the word.

  “Why what?”

  “You…you could have taken…taken the money…left.” His head rolls right and left, like he’s search for something—maybe wondering about the afterlife.

  “Because I wanted to see the light go out in your eyes… For Ross, Lester and Daryl. For Charlotte and Derrick. For Angie, Beth and Dina. For their kids. For Deanna. For me. For every time you took a life and didn’t care.”

  He starts laughing, it’s a struggle, he chokes and gurgles. Blood sputters out of his mouth. “You’re…coming with me…Jack. We’re going…together. Brothers…in…arms.”

  He opens his hand as he takes his last breath and closes his eyes…there’s a frag grenade with no pin.

  Fuck.

  I turn as fast as my body will let me. I take two steps and—

  ***

  Deanna

  I’m lucky I saved this location on my phone’s maps so I could find my way back here. I’ve been driving like a bat out hell for thirty-five minutes. The Humvee does well pedal to the metal, but it’s no Porsche.

  I don’t even know what I’m going in to. I don’t even have a gun…not that I’ve shot at anyone before.

  Maybe there’s one in the trunk somewhere?

  I’m just hoping Brenner hasn’t gotten there yet…and that hope is gone once I pull in and see the black SUV in front of the house.

  Everything is quiet. No one is around. The windows are all broken and the place looks like a bomb went off inside.

  Oh no!

  No! No! No!

  I run inside. Yes, a bomb did go off in here.

  “JACK!”

  “JACK! CAN YOU HEAR ME?”

  I start picking my way through the living room…oh God…there’s…I turn away and puke.

  Get it together.

  “JACK!”

  Every window is gone, the couches are shredded, there’s human flesh all over. Please God, don’t let this be Jack.

  “JACK!”

  The coffee table i
s non-existent, there’s a pile of wood and red slime where it used to be. I walk around it. There’s no one on the porch. I look over the railing…no one over there. I check behind—YES! JACK! The couch at the far end. Oh my God! “JACK!”

  He looks intact, but he’s in a pool of blood! NO! “JACK!”

  I start shaking him, he’s bleeding out. He looks pale. Oh my God. Please God…don’t do this to me. “JACK! Wake up, baby! Please! Please!” I take his face in my hands. Before I know it, my tears are falling on him. “WAKE UP!” I slap him. You have to wake up! “Baby, please wake up!” He’s not budging.

  “JACK!” I slap him hard, “WAKE UP!”

  Oh God, he’s dead, and the last thing I said was that I didn’t love him.

  “I love you, Jack. I love you. Baby, please wake up. I love you!”

  Oh God, he’s dead.

  “WAKE UP! I LOVE YOU! PLEASE BABY!”

  “I LOVE YOU! WAKE UP!” I slap him again! Please wake up…please. I don’t want to live without you.

  “WAKE UP, BABY!” I hit him again.

  He shifts a bit and then… “Ugh…don’t call me baby.”

  Oh God, I start crying more! “Thank you, God! Jack!” I hug him. “Come on, let’s go, we need to get to a hospital. Where’s the blood coming from?”

  “I…I don’t,” he coughs up blood, “I don’t…”

  He looks delirious, he can’t tell me.

  “Don’t worry, baby, I’ll find it. I’ll find it.”

  Stop crying Deanna!

  I check his body, there’s a big one on the lower abdomen, two pieces of shrapnel on the right leg—probably shouldn’t remove those—and a bleeder on the left arm. I tear my t-shirt and use it to stop the bleeding on the arm, all I can do is tie it off.

  “I’ll be back, I’m coming back, I’m coming back, baby.” I say.

  I run to the bedroom and get a sheet out of the closet, I come back to Jack and then I have to force him to sit up.

  “COME ON! UP!”

  He’s almost gone.

  “COME ON! UP! UP!”

  He groans in pain but he does it. I quickly wrap the sheet around him and tie it down tight.

  He makes a choking noise when I pull on the knot and spits up more blood.

  “You’re going to make it! Come on, soldier! On your feet!”

  “I—” He’s drowsy.

  “ON YOUR FEET SOLDIER!”

  “Deanna…I—”

  “ON YOUR FEET!”

  “Yes ma’am,” it’s almost a whisper. He’s fading fast.

  I struggle and pull him up. He stands, unsteadily…but he’s standing

  “I’ve got you baby, I’ve got you!” Thank God!

  I have to get him to the car.

  “You’re going to make it!”

  Please God, let him make it.

  Epilogue

  Deanna

  The scariest thing that ever happened in my life was when Jack died that night in the hospital…twice.

  And twice he fought and came back to me. Sometimes I still have nightmares about it. It’s been just over eight months since it happened.

  Today is my 28th birthday. I wake in a VIP suite at Fortuna and I’m tangled up with my man, just the way I like. I turn around in his arms.

  “Hey, lover,” I say.

  “Hey, yourself. Happy birthday, gorgeous.”

  “Aww, thank you, baby,” I give him a kiss.

  He taps me on my nose and laughs, “Don’t call me baby!”

  “But it’s my birthday!”

  “Okay,” he pulls me close and kisses me, “today, you’re calling the shots.”

  “Baby, how is that different from any other day?”

  He laughs, “You’re right, that’s pretty much every day, isn’t it?”

  “Damn right,” I laugh. “by the way, that was some good lovin’ you gave me last night.”

  “Which reminds me,” Jack says with an excited smile. He reaches into the drawer on the nightstand. “I’ve been getting really tired of carrying this around, do you mind wearing it?” He opens a ring-box.

  Oh my God!

  “Damn! That’s sparkly!” I feel my face split into a wide smile. “Here, put it on me,” I give him my hand.

  He slips it on my finger. “I love you, Deanna. I love you so, so much. I…” He gets stuck. I see him getting a little misty. “I…”

  “I know, Jackhammer.” I kiss him. “I know. It’s you and me.” I look at the ring, “It’s beautiful.” It starts getting blurry, I’m tearing up.

  “Lilly helped me pick it out. It’s a claw set solitaire diamond in platinum. They call it the My Girl ring.”

  “I don’t care what it is. You could have made one out of rusty wire and I’d say yes. Every time. You know that. Now if I could just not cry, that would be great!”

  He laughs.

  “It is beautiful though. I love it,” I kiss him. “I really do cry a lot, don’t I?”

  “Just the right amount. You and me, always. I love you.”

  “I love you, Jackhammer.”

  “I love you, Deanna…Morton or Madison?”

  “Morton,” I give him a kiss and climb onto to him. “You want to start trying to make babies?”

  “Yeah, lets,” Jack laughs, “if we make four of them we could have a band in a few years!”

  “If it’s a boy do you want to do Jack junior?”

  “I don’t know, I’m an orphan so I don’t really have lineage or anything.”

  “Jack, we have $100million, we can invent one,” I kiss him, long and slow. “OH! I’m not supposed to tell anybody, but now that we’re engaged, yesterday Lilly told me that she’s preggers!”

  “Get out!”

  “YEAH!”

  “That’s so great!” He gives me a funny look, “You’d have told me anyway, right?”

  “Yeah,” I laugh.

  My phone rings and I grab it from the nightstand, it’s Charlotte. “Hey,” I answer.

  “Happy birthday, cupcake,” she laughs.

  “Why thank you, G.I. Jane,” I chuckle, “what’s up?”

  “I’m down at the pool with Lilly, I thought we were going to have breakfast?”

  “Yeah, we are, what time is it?”

  “It’s almost nine.”

  “Oops, we overslept, we’ll be down in a few minutes.”

  “Okay, see you in a bit.”

  I hang up and turn to Jack with a groan. “We have to go down for breakfast,” I make a sad face.

  “Okay,” he kisses me.

  “But I’m engaged and I’m horny! I’m Engaged Deanna!”

  He laughs, “We’ve got the rest of our lives to have sex,” he slaps my butt, “come on, let’s go.”

  I climb off him and jokingly roll my eyes, “Whatever!”

  He laughs again, “It’s Lilly’s birthday too, we can’t leave them hanging. We’ll come right back after breakfast and do it right.”

  “We’d better!”

  Jack gets out of bed and I see his throbbing monster, erect and standing at attention.

  “How are you going to hide that!” I say.

  He looks down. “Quick one?” he shrugs and smiles.

  I take a running leap into his arms and we fall onto the bed.

  ***

  There’s an Olympic sized pool out in the sunshine with deckchairs all around it and an adjoining restaurant. We saunter in after a solid romp and I spot Lilly and Charlotte at a six-seater wooden table with umbrellas. We’re all wearing sarongs and bikinis. Jack can’t be convinced to wear anything but jeans and t-shirts. I put my arms out to Lilly.

  We both sing as we trot to each other, “Happy birthday to us! Happy birthday to us!” Then we hug and kiss. I give Charlotte a hug and a kiss as well. Jack does the same with both of them.

  When we’re all sitting Jack asks, “Where’s David?”

  “He had a thing,” Lilly says, “he’ll be down in a few minutes.”

  “Where’s Ni
cholas,” I ask?

  “Right there,” Charlotte points to the pool, “they’re swimming, he loves it. Mel’s having the time of her life.”

  “Look at aunty Charlotte over here!” I joke.

  She smiles wide.

  Let’s see who notices my ring…

  “You wouldn’t believe the traffic this morning,” I say, and gesture with my left hand—fingers spread.

  “What?” Lilly says, a confused look on her face.

  I change my voice and say, “The service in this establishment is simply deplorable!” I wave my hand again and leave it hanging.

  It’s so obvious guys! Come on! I’m practically shoving it in their faces.

  Jack starts laughing.

  “Why are you being weird?” Charlotte says.

  “How dumb are you bitches? Look!” I say, and wave my hand at them.

  Lilly starts laughing, “I thought you were going to do it tonight,” she says to Jack.

  “I couldn’t wait,” he says.

  Charlotte is laughing too, “We weren’t supposed to say, I wasn’t even looking, I thought you were just being crazy as usual. Congratulations!” She gets up and hugs us both.

  Lilly does the same.

  “I guess these two can skip the detective exam then,” I say to Jack.

  We all laugh.

  I spot David taking his usual long strides towards us. “Mr. Millionaire!”

  “Sorry I’m late,” he says, “I had a tiny emergency.”

  “Some more mobsters to sort out?” I joke.

  He shakes his head and smiles, “Are you ever going to stop being a pain in my ass, Madison?”

  “Not while I’m alive,” I say. He gives me a hug and a kiss, then shakes Jack’s hand and Charlottes.

  “Thanks for the nice digs, I appreciate it,” Charlotte says.

  “Oh, think nothing of it, please. You’re very welcome. Anytime.” He unbuttons his suit jacket and sits next to Lilly. They give each other a quick peck. “So, what did I miss?”

  “Oh, not much,” I put my hand to the side of my face exaggeratedly.

  He smiles, “I thought that was tonight,” he says to Lilly, then gets up to congratulate Jack and I.