Saint's Sacrament - Sins of the Father

by Laveen, Tiana

  “Saint Aknaten was attacked in a grocery store parking lot.”

  He observed the color drain from the woman’s face.

  “Believe me, Shianne, Sinclair is not the person you should be worried about. It’s me that you should be afraid of. Now…” He looked down at his nails and picked out a piece of dirt from under his thumb. “Tell me about this shit with the IRS. We know Sinclair had something to do with it, just like we know he had those guys try to attack Saint. Now talk!” His voice echoed in the room.

  “I…I don’t know what you’re talking about. I only know Mr. Grayson from when he used to work at—”

  Jagger was on her like a lightning bolt, her throat in a harsh grip. He zoomed in her face, his nose almost touching hers.

  “Shianne, I will squeeze the pathetic life out of you, do you hear me?! I can get the information I need with or without your help, but if I have to go it alone, you won’t be alive to tell your version of the damned story! You’re wasting my time, and my time is precious. Now talk!”

  “Oh…okay.” She wouldn’t stop shivering and now, a lone tear trekked down her face as he continued to hold tight to her scrawny neck. “Sin…Sinclair is…very angry with Mr. Aknaten…and…he just…wanted him to pay…for what he did. So…” She stopped and wailed, a moan made out of the things fear is made of. Jagger wasn’t moved. He rolled his eyes and shrugged. “He…had…he had…some friends jump Saint.”

  “Yeah, we’ve already got that understood. I want to know about the IRS now.”

  “I…I don’t know anything about…any…IRS.”

  “You know what, Shianne?” Jagger smirked. “You just might be telling the truth. But…I need to be sure.” Suddenly, he placed his hand over her forehead, forcing her down onto the bed. She screamed out, flailing beneath him, kicking her legs wildly.

  “Shhhhh,” he said coolly. “Just relax, young lady. This will be over in just a moment. It may hurt a bit, but that’s a small price to pay. Now, I just need to check what you’re hiding inside of you. I’m tired of waiting to get to the damned punchline. Let’s see here…” She continued to kick about, her muffled screams never leaving the room. “Oh my, Shianne…what do we have here?” He continued to read her until he ran smack dab into something he hadn’t expected. The motherload.

  He snatched his hand off of her and looked down at her in disgust.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?!” He snatched his belt, making it snap as it flew through his jeans loops, causing her to shriek.

  “Shut the hell up! How in the fuck could you do something like that?!” He snatched her up by the arm and used his belt to tie her to her bedpost. Grabbing his cell phone out of his pocket, he paced the room nervously. “Saint, goddamn it! Pick up!” He hung up and called Lawrence.

  “Lawrence!” he screamed before the man could say ‘hello’.”

  “Bro! I’m over Shianne’s house, I read just her! I think she killed Xenia!”

  ~***~

  Hassani and Dakarai sat shoulder to shoulder on the over-sized, dark green couch. Hassani wiped a tear away from Dakarai’s face as the younger boy lay across a worn, tan pillow.

  “It’ll be okay,” he whispered to his younger brother. “I think Mommy is doing better now. I can feel it, I think.”

  “She got me blocked. I can’t feel nottin’,” Dakarai said weakly between sniffles.

  “I know. It’s just a hunch. I can just sorta tell, you know…”

  “What’s a hunch?” Dakarai asked, looking at his brother with big, golden eyes like their father’s.

  “It means like…” Hassani sighed trying to find the right words. “Like when you think something is true, but like, you don’t know for sure. Kind of like how we think Mommy and Daddy are asleep late at night, so we sneak out our rooms and go down to the kitchen or play. Dey could be up though. That’s like a hunch.”

  Dakarai nodded in understanding.

  “Why did Daddy lie to us ’nd tell us dat every botie okay?” Dakarai whispered.

  “’Cause Daddy think we just little kids and he don’t want us to worry. Grown people do stuff like that, Day-Day.”

  “I can’t feel Daddy no more. I could feel him before. He gone.” Dakarai burst out in tears again and covered his face with his palms. Hassani grabbed his brother and hugged him tight.

  “I can’t either, Day-Day, but remember what Mommy always tell us?”

  “Whu?” Dakarai asked between sobs.

  “She said, if we ever feel scared, to try ’nd think happy thoughts and pretend like what we really want is happening. Like, if Daddy hurt, we should believe he fine. That way, maybe he will be. You get it?”

  Dakarai sniffed and shook his head up and down. “Yeah, I get it…nobody will tell us nothin’, ’cept Mommy needed to see a doctor. Isis mad too…she cracked tha glass.”

  Hassani looked at his brother confused. “What chew mean she cracked tha glass? She asleep in the bedroom.” He pointed down the hall.

  “Nu uh.” Dakarai wiped his face with the back of his hand and sat up. “I walked in dere after we ate, and she was cryin’ so much, she cracked the glass on the table in there wit’ her voice ’nd stuff was floatin’ around her—just like your toys.”

  Hassani looked at Dakarai, unable to hide his astonishment.

  “Did Chantel see it?” Panic struck him. He remembered his father’s warnings about such things.

  “Chantel ain’t see it. It was just me ’nd Isis. I put evey thang back before she got back in there, dough. Daddy said nobody ’pose to see us do that sorta stuff.”

  Hassani swallowed hard. No one was quite certain what gifts Isis had as of yet, but this proved one thing for certain. If Isis was mad and causing havoc in her environment, something really was wrong with their parents…something major.

  Hassani’s eyes watered, but he wanted to still be brave for Dakarai. He grabbed him tighter, letting him know through his embrace that he loved him and he was the oldest, so he’d protect him and Isis no matter what.

  “We gotta do just like Mommy said, Day-Day…you gotta believe, okay? You got to!”

  Dakarai nodded, but continued to cry. Hassani cried a little too. He just made sure Dakarai didn’t see it…

  ~***~

  “We’re not certain,” someone whispered in the distance.

  A stream of filtered light beamed through the otherwise dark room. Xenia slowly rose onto her elbows, prepared to feel another gush of pain as she had many hours before. Was it hours ago? She’d lost track of time—time during which she’d swam in the strangest oceans called dreams.

  “Mmmmm,” she grunted, then ran her hand through her wild tresses. Her mouth felt dry and her nasal passages were clogged, feeling like a raging sinus infection. For a split second, she thought she may have dreamt the entire horrible ordeal up —until she looked around and saw that she in fact was in a hospital room and her arm felt stiff, unyielding. “Oh my God…” she croaked, unable to find her true voice just yet.

  “She’s awake,” someone else whispered. “Hi Xenia, my name is Debbie and I’m your nurse. Let me help you, here.” The white woman with short blond hair and heart shaped lips who looked to be in her mid-fifties helped her sit up, then ran a hand lovingly over her shoulder. “Your doctor will be in shortly. I just paged him. We don’t know what you recall and what you don’t, but approximately six hours ago, you appeared coherent. It was brief, but long enough for us to realize that you no longer needed any oxygen. We are all in shock that you have been recovering so quickly.” She laughed lightly, “You’re a miracle. Now, do you recall what happened?”

  Xenia started to shake her head then paused. “Wait…yes. My…my car…”

  “Yes.” Debbie nodded and patted her leg. “You were in a car accident,” she said soothingly. “You’ve had some injuries, but they appear much milder than we originally thought.” Just then, the hospital door opened.

  A short man with small green eyes and a shiny bald spot surrounded by dark b
rown hair approached her.

  “My name is Doctor Phelps. How are you doing, Xenia?” He smiled pleasantly then sat at the foot of her bed.

  “I have…a headache, but I’m okay.”

  “You are more than okay.” He grinned as he looked down at his paperwork. “Mrs. Aknaten, you arrived here with swelling of your brain, a pretty deep laceration to your upper thigh, glass in both eyes, internal bleeding in your intestines, and a broken bone in your left arm, as well as a myriad skin abrasions. At one point in time we were convinced you may slip into a coma. That is how severe the injuries you sustained were. However, your heart rate was very strong, and it was doing quite a bit of work to keep you going. We are not sure how this all turned around, but it did. I’ve never seen a recovery like this in my history of being a surgeon. Even the cut on your leg the nurse had sewn up looks like it is months old, instead of just days. Now, about your eyes. I do need to ask you some questions concerning that. Is anything blurry or painful in either eye?”

  “No. There is a little pain, like, when you rub your eyes too hard, but that’s it. Everything feels normal.” Xenia coughed.

  “Very good, and the discomfort you described after such an injury is normal. It should wear off in the next few days. Should that change, please let me know. We cleaned them out, but sometimes the effects of glass if it hits the cornea doesn’t show up right away. We would like to keep you for another day or two for observation, and if things continue to progress well, you will be free to go home.” He stood and began to walk out of the room then paused and turned back to face her. “Mrs. Aknaten, I don’t know if you’re a religious woman or not, but someone must have been praying for you. We actually had a meeting about you two hours ago. You are a miracle and though your stay is brief, you are someone we won’t soon forget.” He smiled and walked out of the room.

  Debbie patted her hand. “Is there anything I can get for you?”

  “Yes.” Xenia swallowed, her eyes watering with tears. “Where is my husband? Where are my children?”

  The woman’s face turned from cheerful to worried. There was no mistaking it.

  “Uh, let me step out for just a second. I will be right back.”

  “Where is my family?!” Xenia screamed, her voice cracking. “What’s wrong?!” She tried to move her body, but it seemed to weigh a ton with all of the tubes running this way and another. She soon realized she had on a catheter, and the nurse had escaped.

  “Saint, where are you?!”

  ~***~

  Lawrence and Jagger looked down at Shianne, who was tied to the bed. Her screams were muted as soon as Lawrence entered the residence. He waved his open palm over her mouth to stop all the racket. The two men stood there, their eyes heating…the anger palpable.

  “I told you!” Jagger finally said.

  Lawrence casually put up his hand, asking for silence. He pointed at Shianne, causing her to flinch.

  “Now,” Lawrence whispered calmly. “I am going to permit you to speak again. Should you decide to scream out, your voice will be taken away and you will not have the opportunity to plead your case any longer.” He waved his hand over her mouth.

  “What’s wrong with your eyes?! What are you two?!” she blurted.

  Lawrence smirked and cocked his head to the side.

  “You…you sliced her brake lines? Poked holes in them?” The rage he felt was something he hadn’t endured in years…perhaps ever. All Lawrence could think about was how Xenia was a mother of three small children, his friend’s wife, Saint’s soulmate, and how her life was hanging in the balance. “You poked holes in them so that, when she started the car, there wouldn’t be a noticeable problem. If you had cut them, her brakes wouldn’t have worked right away. This gave her time to get to the expressway and accelerate. Then, if she pushed on those brakes, they’d barely work, if at all. That is pretty damn diabolic.”

  “I never told you that! I didn’t do it!” the girl shrieked.

  “You didn’t have to tell us and oh, you did it all right!” Jagger leaned up against the wall. “I know the idea wasn’t originally yours, that is for certain. That instruction must’ve come from Sinclair. You’re a real sick woman, you know that? You are going to pay for this.”

  “It was Sinclair’s idea!” she exclaimed, looking frantically from man to man. “I didn’t want to do it, I didn’t!”

  “Jagger.” Lawrence licked his lips nervously but didn’t take his eyes off the girl. “We need to get a hold of someone. He is not answering either of our calls and unfortunately, he called me but I was…preoccupied, I didn’t hear the phone. That was quite a while ago. He didn’t leave a voice message, either. We don’t know where he and Xenia are, but we must find them and I can’t tap into him. I’ve tried several times.”

  “Me neither. Let me call the office and see if anyone knows anything.” Jagger walked out of the room with his cell phone.

  Lawrence took his time, walking leisurely around the bed. Shianne sighed loudly, her tears running down her face and collecting in the recess of her collar bones.

  “No sense in crying now, Shianne. You’ve at the least injured a woman and at the worst, killed her.” He dabbed with a tissue at the perspiration on his forehead. “Either way, your intent was malicious. Now…I know that you were asked to do it.” He ran a finger along his bottom lip, his eyes narrowed. “But, you could’ve said no. And, please, don’t worry,” he said calmly, smiling. “We will take care of Sinclair. You see, Shianne, Sinclair has started a war there is no way he can finish or win. We are all friends and, well, people believe I am the peacemaker.” He grinned wider. “I am, but, there are times when the peacemaker must bring pain in order to maintain the peacefulness, you see. What we are must be embraced. Bad, evil people, must be eradicated so they can do no further harm to others.”

  “Please! Don’t!” she screamed, shaking. “I didn’t want to! I’m not…bad! Please…believe me! I’m not…evil!”

  “Oh.” Lawrence dramatically poked out his bottom lip and looked at her with ersatz pity. “But you are, Shianne. You lied to Xenia. Pretended to be a woman in need, befriended her. She trusted you and the entire time, you were in a relationship with her enemy and doing his bidding. You see, that’s evil, Shianne. You knew it was wrong, but you maintained the position because well,”—he shrugged—“you wanted to get money…to be taken care of, instead of making your own way. You even had a shred of remorse about this at one point in time. I saw that, I understand. Now, that is truly admirable. Jagger found you in a state of despair, which signifies to me that you are sorry for what you’ve done, but you’ve still possibly destroyed a family.”

  “Please!” she pleaded.

  “Xenia has children,” Lawrence continued. “You met them, yet, you still were a catalyst in them possibly not having a mother at all anymore. How cruel. How cold. How incredibly evil.” He shook his head at her, disdain filling him. He fought the urge to snap her fucking neck…

  Jagger burst back into the room. “Xenia did have a bad car accident!”

  “Ahhhh….noooo!” Shianne moaned.

  “Shut the fuck up! This is all your damned fault!” Jagger pointed at her then looked back at Lawrence.

  “I know what hospital she’s at. She’s alive! We gotta go.”

  “Thank God.” Lawrence zipped up his jacket to make to leave then paused, his head spinning. He touched his temple and winced.

  “Wait.” He put his hand on Jagger’s chest to help keep his balance, sorrow in his heart. “She’s okay—but Saint isn’t…”

  ~***~

  Xenia could hear her mother’s voice loud and booming.

  “I don’t give a shit! I’ve been waiting in that damn lounge; you all said I couldn’t see her until she saw the doctor. I saw that slew footed man shuffled his Donald duck, Doctor Dolittle lookin’ ass in there ’bout twenty minutes ago. He been there and gone, and my baby is still in there and I ain’t seen shit!”

  “Ma’am, I need you to ca
lm down…” was the quiet response.

  “What is going on here?” Porsche demanded. Xenia could not see her family, but she sure as hell heard them.

  “You can see her now. We were on our way to get you.”

  “Get outta my way, had me in there waitin’ like it was an all-you-can-eat buffet and only one chicken wing left… a roller coaster line for my own daughter! That’s my child!” The hospital room door swung open and banged like Hulk Hogan circa 1983 and Pam was ready to rumble. She pushed her way inside like a bulldozer gone wild, berthing herself between two nurses. Xenia took one look at her mama, and burst out crying.

  “Mama!” she wailed, extending the one arm she could lift. Pam turned a chair on its side and barreled toward her, then gave her a hearty hug and kissed her cheek.

  “Xenia, honey! I prayed all night, non-stop. We all did. Look at you! You look almost…like yourself.” Pam stood back from her, shocked, amazed. “Your hair look like a porcupine sat on your head or a cat’s back when it’s scared, but I can get that fixed. I got a comb in my purse.”

  Laughing, Xenia grabbed her mother’s arm and pulled her close again.

  “Mama, how are my babies? Where is Saint?” Xenia sniffed, wiping her tears.

  “Hassani, Dakarai and Isis are with the sitter since the nanny is outta town. Me and Porsche swing shift when we she gotta go to work. She been real nice about everything. I called the boys and let them know you were doing much better.”

  There was a stiff, unyielding pause.

  “…and Saint, Mama? Where’s my husband?”

  “As for Saint…” Pam’s eyes watered and her lips trembled. “Saint…” A tear fell down her cheek and she gripped Xenia’s hand. Porsche moved closer, picked up the fallen chair and helped Pam sit in it.

  “Xenia, the doctors aren’t sure what’s going on but—”

  “Doctors? What does he need a doctor for? He’s hurt?!”

  “Xenia.” Porsche leaned over and pressed her sister down, restraining her as she went wild again. “Sis, I need you to calm down and listen to me. He was here with you all night and maybe it was stress, they don’t know, but they suspect he had a heart attack. He is on another floor in the hospital being monitored. He is not yet talking or anything, they gave him a sedative, but he is alive and breathing, okay?”