by D B Steward
“After this is over I am going to do so much sexy stuff to you.” Kelly whispered seductively and Sonny’s lips curled into a grin.
“You better Miss King.” She turned and left to get into position and Kelly watched her melt into the darkness. Kelly took a deep breath and got back into the car.
Hector heard the doorbell and felt anxiety rise inside him. He was really doing this, he was taking over MH4. There was no going back after this. His doorbell rang again and he took a deep breath. “Go let her in Jose.” One of the two men Hector had called to back him up went to the door.
Kelly held her facial expression in check when a man she didn’t recognize opened the door. “Hector, what happened? You don’t look so good. You should get more sun.” The heavily tattooed man sneered in irritation but moved to the side grudgingly so she could enter. He led her down a small entryway to the large room with the bay window they had spotted from outside.
Standing off to the side of the window was Hector looking particularly pleased with himself. “Where's your pretty friend?” Hector said salaciously, forcing Kelly to hold back her vomit.
“I didn’t think I needed to bring her.” She surveyed the scene. The guy from the door was now behind her, effectively keeping her in the room. Besides him there was one other man standing in the far corner, also out of the view of the bay window. “But I see you brought some friends.”
“Shit.” Sonny hissed from outside as she listened to Kelly over their radio. Kelly was now outnumbered and alone in the house. To make matters worse, Sonny had no clear shot of anyone in the room. She watched Kelly stroll to the window and look out toward Sonny’s general direction. Through her sniper scope, Sonny could see Kelly’s eyes wide open like saucers and a confused look on her face that lasted for less than a second before she replaced it with a blank expression and turned around. It was a message to Sonny. Kelly was in trouble.
“I guess we are just making up the rules as we go along, huh Hector?” Kelly asked and Sonny assumed that she was talking to her and not Hector. They were going to have to wing it.
Sonny was going to have to get inside quickly. She was just about to stand when she felt a hard blow to the back of her neck. Before she could comprehend what had happened she was unconscious.
Inside, Hector moved uncomfortably close to Kelly. “So if we are going to be in business together chica, you are going to tell me who you work for. Also, I’m going to need a small deposit as a show off faith for our new partnership.”
“A deposit huh?” Kelly smirked, Hector was a greedy weasel and she had assumed that he would try something like this. “What kind of deposit were you thinking?”
“Oh, say one million in cash wired to an account.” He grinned and showed off the diamond in one of his canines that she was now close enough to notice for the first time. “Right now.” He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and handed it to her. “And use this phone.”
“Getting greedy already Hector? I thought you said half a million before.” Kelly kept her poker face firmly in place and took the phone from him. “In the future we pay after the jobs are done Hector.” She began to dial Trace. “But we’ll consider this a deposit for future work.” She dialed the safe number to Trace.
Sitting in her generic motel room on her laptop, Trace saw the notification of an incoming call from an unknown number. “New number, who dis?”
“This is King and I need to authorize a wire transfer.” She heard the businesslike tone in Kelly’s voice. Trace concluded that she must be within earshot of Hector or his friends.
“Are we on speaker?” Trace asked.
“No, that won’t be necessary.” Kelly responded. “I need a million sent to the following account.”
Trace assumed that Kelly was telling her that she could speak freely. “I’m running a gps trace on your phone now. I can spoof the transfer to any account you give me.” Kelly handed the phone to Hector and he rattled off the numbers before handing the phone back to Kelly.
“Are we all set?” Kelly said into the smartphone.
“Transfer is spoofed and I have a fix on your location. You’re going to be lights out in two minutes.” Trace spoke fast.
“Thank you very much.” Kelly ended the call and handed the phone back to Hector. He eyed her suspiciously before dialing another number.
“This is Hector. Is it there?” He looked at Kelly and she met his gaze. Her eyes were steady and calm while Hector’s eyes appeared nervous. “Okay cool.” He ended the call and put the phone away.
“Can we get down to business then?” Kelly crossed her arms, showing more confidence than she felt. In her head she was counting down until the blackout and figured she had about ninety seconds.
Hector grinned and Kelly’s stomach turned in disgust. “Okay lady, the money’s there so you seem legit. I guess I can do business with you. Now tell me what you want and who you work for.”
“Like I said before Hector you impressed my bosses with how MH4 got to Senator Sanchez. We want to hire MH4 for some more jobs like that.”
“Look, we didn’t have nothing to do with that. Arturo wouldn’t order a hit on a senator.”
Kelly saw that he was telling the truth, MH4 had nothing to do with Sanchez’s murder. “But that was the old MH4. Arturo ain’t running things no more. I’m the new leader of MH4.”
“I don’t think so cabrone.” The deep rumble of the voice had all heads snap immediately to the speaker. Ramon stood in the doorway. His giant frame had Sonny’s body slung over one shoulder and a sawed off shotgun in his other hand. Kelly’s heart leapt into her throat, seeing Sonny there like that released a tidal wave of fear inside her. “Arturo wants to talk with you.” His black eyes moved to Kelly. “And you to gringa.”
Kelly couldn’t speak, she didn’t know if Sonny was alive or dead. Then the lights went out.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
The flash from the shotgun pierced the darkness of the room. The boom echoed off the walls like thunder. Kelly saw one of the men fall backwards over a table before Ramon’s gun exploded again, cutting the other man in half.
“Ramon!” Hector’s high pitched squeal followed close behind the second man’s crash. “What the fuck man! What are you doing?” She couldn’t see him but Kelly could hear the panic in his voice.
For her part, Kelly was too shocked to feel panic. She was too worried about Sonny hanging lifelessly over Ramon’s shoulder. She hadn’t seen any blood stains on Sonny’s clothes before the lights went out. But she could only see Sonny’s backside from her vantage point.
“Let’s go little brother.” Ramon’s voice sounded like the growl of a caged lion to Kelly. She knew what he was capable of unspeakable things and her concern for Sonny continued to grow. “You’re driving.” Even in the dark she could see the gold in his teeth gleaming.
“Okay Ramon okay.” Hector was shivering in terror. “I’ll drive okay. It’s cool brother, it’s cool. Let’s go see Arturo.” She heard his feet sliding across the floor toward Ramon.
“You too bitch. Arturo wants to talk to you and your girlfriend here.”
Kelly felt like she could exhale finally. He said that Arturo wanted to talk to her and her girlfriend. Sonny was still alive! The relief almost forced a nervous laugh out of her. If Sonny had died, she didn’t know if she would have been able to get her head together in time to save herself. Now that she knew Sonny was still alive, her head cleared. She focused on getting them out of the nightmare they had stumbled into.
“Okay, take it easy. I’m coming.” She raised her hands and kept her voice calm as she followed behind Hector towards the outside. Ramon was herding them to his truck, sweeping the barrel of his shotgun between them.
“You’re driving little brother.” Ramon indicated for Hector to get behind the wheel and the smaller man obeyed. “You get in the back.” He grunted at Kelly.
She slid into the back seat as Ramon dumped Sonny on the seat next to her. Her unconscious bod
y slumped down until her head rested in Kelly’s lap. Ramon got into the front next to Hector and kept the shotgun pointed on his brother. He turned in the seat, putting his back to the car window so he could see Kelly in the rear as well as keep an eye on Hector.
“Now drive.” Hector started the car and they pulled out. Kelly could feel Sonny’s body breathing and felt relief washed over her. Scanning her visually, the only blood she could see on Sonny was a thin trail from her hairline going down her back. She was going to be okay.
She would be okay if they made it out of this alive, that is, Kelly thought. At the time their future wasn’t looking too good. It was time to formulate a plan. They weren’t restrained and they hadn’t been frisked. Kelly was confident that Ramon’s machismo wouldn’t allow him to be concerned about women. Hopefully that overconfidence would prove fatal for the brothers.
A strong feeling of deja vu gripped Kelly. She recalled being in the back seat as Ivan and Sonny struggled in the front. She could feel the material of the seat belt cutting into her palm as she pulled it tighter and tighter around Ivan’s neck. She heard the choking and the gurgling as Ivan struggled to get breath into his lungs. He was strong but adrenaline and rage had fueled Kelly, even as the muscles in her arms screamed in agony. She felt Ivan’s final shudder from her knees pressing into the back of his seat. She had never killed a man when he was that close to her. He was so close that she could smell the stale coffee from Ivan’s protruding purple tongue.
She shook her head to pull herself from the nightmare of the past to return to her current nightmare. Ramon scowled at the sudden movement of her head. She stiffened again and that seemed to placate Ramon enough to return his attention to Hector.
Kelly refocused on how she and Sonny were going to survive through the night. Kelly’s hands were in her lap with Sonny’s head. She moved one hand to Sonny’s back and began to make small comforting circles with her palm. Ramon noticed her but ignored the action, seeing no threat from her. Kelly felt the blade in Sonny’s bra strap and started to make a plan.
Kelly always wore sneakers unless she absolutely had to wear something else. It began when she was a young girl. When all the other girls in her class were wearing sandals and pretty shoes. Kelly wanted shoes that looked cool and made her run fast. She was a Chicago girl and she wanted to be like Mike. High heels struck her as impractical and most women’s casuals felt too flimsy. So her high tops were the go to shoes and she thanked her gay genes for that. She slipped her hand under Sonny’s top and up to the bra strap. With her eyes frozen on Ramon she removed the blade and withdrew it. It was a small stiletto with no handle. A sharp blade with a tiny hub for fingers to hold onto. When it was out and in her hand she placed it in her shoe and hopped she wouldn’t slice her Achilles Heel in half.
The car was slowing down and Kelly finally paid attention to where they were. They were pulling up on a gravel driveway in front of a McMansion. She assumed they had arrived at Arturo’s, and as if on cue there he was. He was flanked by two mean looking thugs. Although they both couldn’t hold a candle to Ramon when it came to being terrifying.
“Get out.” Ramon was looking at Hector but he meant her as well. She got out and took an assessment of the situation. Ramon was pulling Sonny, who still hadn’t moved, from the car.
The two men standing near Arturo held guns in their waistbands. From where she was standing it appeared that the boss himself was unarmed.
“What’s up brother? I heard you been busy.” Arturo smiled, but there was only malice in his dark eyes.
Hector’s knees felt weak and he was struggling to get air into his lungs. “Hey Arturo it’s not what you think! I was doing this for us brother! For the family!” He waved his arms around frantically and tried to rest one on the shoulder Ramon didn’t have Sonny slung over. Ramon growled and yanked his shoulder away.
“Hey, hey, we’re not doing this out here Hector.” Arturo interrupted. “Let’s go in, get something to drink, you know hang out like brothers.” He started back inside followed by his two guards. Kelly felt Ramon’s shotgun in her back pushing her forward. She was behind Hector and could see the sweat rolling down his neck. He looked like he was on his way to the electric chair. Kelly hoped that she was going to be getting a call from the governor granting her and Sonny a stay of execution.
It had been almost fifteen minutes since Trace cut the power for Kelly and Sonny. There had been no contact since. Something was wrong. When Kelly had called her from the unknown number Trace was able to grab the device ID. Now she started an application to locate it. It was a burner, but it was powered on and the GPS was active. Trace found it located somewhere else than where they had called her from. She started to worry. Hector could have killed them, left their bodies and gone somewhere else.
But why would Hector run from his own place? If he killed them he would stay at home and have the bodies disposed of someplace. Although, maybe that was what he was doing now, she thought. She examined where he was and it appeared to be an estate and that seemed an odd place to dump bodies. Her speculation was putting her thoughts in a recursive loop. She needed more information. Trace opened an application for her hardware hooks and turned on the smartphone’s microphone.
“Sit those bitches down over there while we catch up with little Hector here.” Ramon followed Arturo’s command and unceremoniously dumped Sonny on a sofa and indicated with his shotgun barrel that Kelly should sit next to her.
They had still not tied them up yet. Kelly thanked the god of male chauvinism that they didn’t consider them a threat. Although Ramon glanced in their direction from time to time, the rest of them ignored the two women. She felt a tap on her right foot and looked down to see that Sonny’s foot had done that. Her eyes went wide as she looked at Sonny without turning her head.
“Are you okay?” Sonny’s whisper was barely audible but hearing it allowed Kelly’s throat to unclench. Their chances of survival had just gone up by fifty percent. Kelly answered without moving her lips.
“Yes. You?”
“Fine.” Sonny answered. “I’ll have a headache for a few days but I’m good. I can’t feel my blade. Do you have it?”
“Yeah. It’s in my shoe. I have a plan, but wait for my signal.”
“Copy.” They stopped whispering and concentrated on what was being said in front of them.
“Arturo listen, it’s not what you think!” Hector was practically wailing with fear. “I was juicing these two for their money! I just made a million dollars!”
“Us brother?” Arturo laughed out loud, but there was no humor in his tone. “I thought you were using them to take over and get rid of your big brothers.”
Hector’s hands were clasped in front of him with his fingers intertwined and his palms pressed together hard enough to make a diamond. “No! No! That’s not what I was doing! Why would I do that Arturo? Come on! We’re brothers!” His smile was toothy but his lips were quivering.
Arturo shook his head. “I don’t know if I believe you Hector. What do you think Ramon? Is little bro telling the truth?”
Ramon’s face was a mixture of disgust and rage. “No. He’s a traitor.” Kelly could see all the blood drain from Hector’s face.
“Arturo listen,” Hector licked lips that felt like sandpaper while his mouth was so dry that it almost hurt. “They came to me with an offer. I wanted to see if it was real, you know! If they were on the up and up! I had them give me a deposit and then I was going to bring it to you!”
“You don’t even know who they work for!” Arturo snapped and angry spittle flew from his mouth. “They could be fucking feds from the states! And you let them play you like an asshole!” Arturo pushed past him to get close to Kelly. He grabbed her roughly by the chin, pinching her painfully. “Who’re you with bitch? The FBI? The CIA?”
Kelly smirked. “Why? Do you have a VIP area for them? Because I could use a Jack Daniels, and could you turn the music up?”
The slap came fast and
hit her near the ear, close to her jaw line. Her eyes went black for a moment and the ringing in her ear was vibrating through her skull. At the moment when she was struck she felt a slight jerk from Sonny’s body. The assassins' muscles tensed. Kelly could imagine that Sonny wanted to tear Arturo’s throat out. That thought allowed Kelly to give Arturo a chilling smile of her own.
“Oh so you got a smart mouth bitch? Don’t worry, we’re going to do something about that mouth of yours. Me and the boys here are going to give you something to put in your mouth bitch. I’m going to show you what we do to cops like you.”
Kelly couldn’t hold it back anymore. “You going to do to us what you did to agents Galler and Simms? What did you do to them? Huh Scarface? What did you do to those two agents you kidnapped?”
Arturo laughed and turned his back on Kelly as he walked back to where his brothers stood. “I told you Hector!” He clapped his hands in amusement, he looked back at Kelly. “I told you they were feds! Now I have to kill them like I did those other two.”
Hector looked like he was about to cry. “I didn’t know Arturo, I didn’t know.” Arturo shoved him hard, knocking Hector onto his ass.
“That’s because you’re too stupid to know anything! You’ve always been stupid! Fucking retarted!” He kicked Hector in his side, making him curl into the fetal position. “Do you know how sick and tired me and Ramon are about always having to babysit your dumb ass? All our lives we had to carry you!”