by Ty Marshall
“Yeah, looks like she went through with her planned suicide without you,” Torrence said flipping open the folder allowing him to see the pictures of the scene and newspaper clippings.
It was then that Dayvid knew it was true. He felt a pain he hadn’t felt since standing in the cemetery watching his parents being lowered into the ground. Losing Rain was like losing a piece of himself. Fueled by rage Dayvid tried to leap from his chair and lunge at the Marshals but he was easily subdued due to his shackles and the pain shooting up and down his legs.
“Fuck you bitch,” Dayvid screamed at U.S. Marshal Torrence. “I’ma put a bullet in your head and I’m gonna kill everybody you love, that’s on my sister’s grave,” Dayvid promised the startled Marshal as officers rushed the room and began levying blow after blow on him before picking him up, leading him down the hall and tossing him back in his cell.
***
The sound of his cell opening made Dayvid sit up on his bunk. Although he didn’t know the time, his body told him it was the middle of the night. Sergeant Roberts looked like the devil standing in the doorway holding a pumped shotgun in his hand, with four of his minions behind him dressed in riot gear holding body shields in front of them.
“On your feet Porter,” Roberts demanded cocking the gun and pointing it at him.
“This muthafucka,” Dayvid thought to himself as he slowly rose to his feet, unsure of what the unpredictable men were up to. The evil grin on the faces of the officers alarmed him as he braced himself to deal with whatever was about to happen. Dayvid balled his fist up and put his back up against the wall ready to fight.
“Ha Ha Ha Ha,” the sinister laugh of Roberts was sickening to his ear. “Save your energy, you’re gonna need it. Now you can come on your feet or we can carry you, it’s really up to you,” he informed Dayvid aiming the shotgun directly at his head.
Dayvid lowered his guard as the officers stepped inside his cell and handcuffed him. He was forced to walk down a hallway to a service elevator as the officers walked closely behind him and Roberts kept the shotgun pointed at him. As the elevator doors opened, Roberts nudged the gun in his back making him step off. A large gathering of officers, in what looked to be the boiler room deep in the bowels of the jail immediately caught his attention. The mass of men opened up and Roberts ordered for him to keep moving. Dayvid felt wads of spit hitting him as he made his way through the group of heckling officers. The rabid men formed a circle around him as one of the guards released his cuffs.
Dayvid looked around, still unsure of what was happening, until he saw the circle open up on the other side. Stepping into view was a hulking 6 foot 6, outlaw biker with long hair, a beard, and tattoos covering most of his body. Not a small man in his own right, the brawny monster dwarfed Dayvid.
“Here are the rules for the new guy,” Roberts shouted over the crowd’s ruckus. “You fight or you die and you fight until one of you is dead!” he continued. “Now place your bets.”
The room began shouting out the name of the competitor they were taking in the fight. “Norton,” the name of the tatted up giant was an overwhelming favor in the room. But there were a few officers willing to bet on Dayvid.
Suddenly, the room grew silent and the circle got bigger just as a lead pipe and 3 pound sledgehammer was tossed in the middle of the two inmates. The crowd erupted as the two men raced to grab a weapon. Dayvid reached for the lead pipe which was closer to him, but was rocked by a punch from Norton knocking him off balance and to the ground. Norton scooped up both weapons and tried to decide which one he would use as Dayvid laid on the ground trying to shake the cobwebs out his head. Norton tossed the lead pipe into the crowd, far out of Dayvid’s reach, then came down with a powerful swing with the sledgehammer like Thor. Dayvid barely escaped the crushing blow as he rolled out the way and to his feet. The two men began circling one another, each man sizing up the other. Norton rushed Dayvid swinging his weapon wildly, but missing with every attempt. Easily avoiding his opponent, Dayvid landed a combination of punches that landed flush but one stunned him briefly. Norton thrust the sledgehammer into Dayvid’s ribs a few times, stopping him from throwing anymore blows. He then landed a knee to his jaw followed by a blow to the back with the weapon, dropping Dayvid to the ground flat on his stomach and spitting blood from his mouth. Norton kicked Dayvid in the face opening a cut over his eye. Norton played to the crowd of officers as they called for him to end the fight. He dropped the sledgehammer to the ground and pulled a shank from under his shirt as they all went crazy.
Dayvid vision was becoming blurry from the blood dripping into his eye, but he could still see the Grizzly Adams looking biker approaching with the sharp object in his hand. Dayvid flipped the razor he held concealed in his mouth and spit it into his hand.
Norton grabbed a hand full of Dayvid’s curly mane and attempted to lift him up to cut his throat. Dayvid swiftly came across the back of the biker’s foot with the razor cutting his Achilles tendon in the process. Norton squealed like a stick pig, as he dropped his weapon and fell to the ground with blood pouring out the back of his foot.
A bloody Dayvid rolled over onto his wounded opponent pinning his arms down with his knees and began pounding Norton’s face into a bloody pulp. The sound of bones crunching could be heard with every blow landed. Dayvid grabbed the shank from off the floor next to him as the crowd’s boos grew louder. Dayvid repeatedly drove the shank into the side of Norton’s neck as blood squirted everywhere, not stopping until he was sure the man was dead.
Dayvid was covered in blood as he rose to his feet. Some of the blood was his, but it was mostly the man who lay dead at his feet. He scanned the crowd until his eyes landed on Sergeant Roberts, who by the look on his face was not happy with the outcome. Dayvid smirked.
“Gas him!” Roberts commanded.
The officers dressed in riot gear quickly approached Dayvid and sprayed him with pepper spray. He dropped to his knees trying to catch his breath. Unable to breathe, he began coughing violently until he was vomiting and spitting up blood.
“Take his ass to the infirmary,” Roberts shouted, the evil grin returning to his face. Dayvid would learn one way or the other that he always got the last laugh.
***
A Week Later
Dayvid laid awake in the dark cell consumed with thoughts of his twin sister. Every time he closed his eyes he saw her face and could hear her voice in his head so vividly he began answering it back. All through the night he jumped out of his sleep thinking he heard her in his cell. He was truly at his wits end and his sanity had begun to slip away. The news brought by the U.S. Marshals had done what North Branch and Sergeant Roberts had failed to do these past few weeks; break him mentally and spiritually. Dayvid contemplated suicide as he lay in his cell. He thought about trying to grab one of the officer’s gun and having them shoot him to death, anything to ease the pain he felt. All these things ran through his mind as the darkness of the cell had begun to seep into him and eat at his once unbreakable will. Suicide was the easy way out though. It was something Dayvid frowned upon because it was for cowards, which was something he could never be. He began to reserve himself to the fact that he could possibly spend the rest of his days in a cell just like the one he was in. He felt his eyes becoming heavy and decided to try again to get some sleep.
He had finally fell into a deep sleep when he was awaken by the sound of his cell door being opened. A little groggy, Dayvid attempted to get to his feet. He hadn’t heard an officer call his name or the slot slide open before his door was cracked. He was fully prepared for Roberts’ goon squad reaching under his bunk for the shank he kept there. Just as he made it to his feet he was rushed by some figures that he couldn’t quite make out in the darkness of his cell. The shank fell to the ground forcing Dayvid to knuckle up and swing trying to connect with the first person he felt close to him. He was successful and heard a loud moan followed by a thud of a body hitting the floor after he connected flush on the person�
��s jaw. Dayvid suddenly felt a shock of electricity shoot through his body and saw the flickering light of a taser illuminate his cell. No longer able to control his body, Dayvid’s legs gave out and he came crashing to the floor before blacking out.
Slowly coming to, he could feel himself bouncing up and down and immediately knew he was riding in a vehicle that was moving at a pretty good speed. Opening his eyes, the darkness didn’t give away to light like he expected and he quickly realized he had a cloth bag over his head. Dayvid’s body ached and his head was banging, a result of hitting his head after being tasered.
After a while he felt the vehicle come to a stop and from the sound of the doors behind him opening, he knew he was in a van. Dayvid felt two sets of hands grab him and pull him from the van, then pulled him across the floor before tossing him roughly into a chair. He was powerless to do anything due to his hands being tied behind his back. Dayvid heard the men that had hauled him to the chair go silent all of a sudden and he could hear the sound of shoes in the distance grow louder as they walked towards him and stopped.
“Remove his hood,” he heard the man’s voice say and in a matter of seconds Dayvid could see everything that was in front of him. Looking around at his surroundings, he realized that he was in the middle of a dimly lit abandon warehouse. He counted four men in suits, including the man standing directly in front of him. Dayvid and his sisters had robbed many men and made many enemies over the years so there was no telling who these guys were and what they had against Dayvid. The men looked like a professional hit squad for a major player. Who else could pull strings to have me kidnapped out of federal custody, he thought to himself. Dayvid had now seen it all and after going through so much he was ready to die. He sat up straight in the chair, spit on the floor and awaited to hear his fate.
“Hello Dayvid,” the man standing in the shadows in front of him spoke.
Dayvid squint his eyes trying to make out his face but could only see his silhouette.
“I know you’re a little confused as to what you’re doing here. And I plan on explaining all that to you. I also plan on offering you a deal, a way out of all this trouble you’re in. But first I need you to listen carefully to everything I say,” the man said.
“You can stop right there slim. I ain’t never told shit and I ain’t about to start now, so you can keep your deal. And I would appreciate if you took me back to the jail and let me do my muthafuckin’ time,” Dayvid informed the mystery man.
“This deal won’t require you to do any of that. Like I said, I need you to listen carefully,” the man said finally stepping out of the shadows, allowing Dayvid to see him. “I’m David Banks, U.S Secretary of Homeland Security and I was friends with your mother, Remy.”
Dayvid tilted his head in disbelief looking at the white man in the suit standing in front of him. He had never remembered his mother having any white friends. He didn’t even know she knew any white people for that matter. “How you know my mother?” he asked.
“I met your mother about a year before you and your sister Rain was born. Out of respect for her, I’m here to offer you a way out of all of this. A fresh start, a new beginning, a whole new identity. The same deal I gave your sister Rain.”
“Fuck you mean the same deal you gave Rain,” Dayvid fumed. “We’re Porters. We don’t make deals with people like you.”
“Like you, Rain was reluctant at first but after hearing what I had to say she became receptive and agreed to the deal,” Banks said calmly.
“Some fucking deal, Rain is dead. Who you think you fooling with this bullshit story? You gotta come better than that,” Dayvid declared.
“Rain Porter is dead, but your sister is as alive as she’s ever been,” Banks informed him. “I have the power to make a lot of things happen. That thing with the van blowing up was me. Rain Porter is no more, she has a whole new identity and there’s not a fed in the country after her.”
The whole thing sounded a little too good to Dayvid but he played along. “What about Fallon and Autumn?” he asked.
“My agency hasn’t been able to locate them yet but I have people on it and they will receive the same deal.”
“So what I got to do? You want me to kill some politician or something,” Dayvid inquired causing Banks to laugh.
“No, none of that. All I ask is that you leave this life alone and disappear never to be heard from again,” he explained.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it,” the man responded.
“Let me ask you a question why you doing all this? How you say you know my mother again?”
David Banks lowered his head, breaking eye contact with Dayvid. “Your mother was a very special woman and she really meant a lot to me. She was a beautiful woman as well. I met her at a concert when I was in college and we dated for a brief time, until my father came between us many, many years ago. Two weeks ago I received a visit from your mother’s friend, Miss Jackie. And she shared with me a secret that your mother had only told her.”
“And what was that,” an anxious Dayvid quizzed.
“That I’m your father.”
“Get the fuck out of here,” Dayvid laughed. “My father’s name is James Porter,” Dayvid said. But inside it was always something he had wondered about because he and Rain were lighter than both their parents and their sisters. The white man standing in front of him would explain his light skin.
“It’s true, I performed a DNA test on Rain. I’m you two’s father. My nickname for your mother was Raindrop and my name is David. That explains where you two got your names from,” he explained.
Dayvid had always wondered why his mother hadn’t made him a junior, naming him after the man he thought was his father; it all made sense now. “I hope you not expecting some kumbaya type moment,” Dayvid said to his new found father seeming indifferent about it all rather than shocked or angered. “I’m a little too old for the father-son baseball games and that ain’t really my thing anyway.”
Banks motioned for one of the men to release his son from his restraints while another man handed him a change of clothes. “Listen all I need is for you to lay low for 24 hours while I get all your new identification straight and come up with a story for the news to explain how you just disappeared from North Branch. Then off to Mexico you go.”
“That’s cool but I ain’t going nowhere without Autumn. I know Fallon is already in Mexico but Autumn’s not and I ain’t going nowhere until I know she is safe. I heard she may be in some trouble. I gotta get my baby sister.”
“Dayvid you have to trust me. I will get Autumn safely to Mexico but I need you to disappear immediately. I’m putting my career on the line doing this,” Banks stated. “None of this works if you go off the rail. I’m not gonna let anything happen to her.”
Dayvid took a deep breath and thought a moment before reluctantly agreeing. “Ok, but there is something I need to do before I leave,” Dayvid announced.
“What?”
“I have to get my girl, Nova. She’s coming with me.”
“Not happening,” Banks told his son. “That’s not part of the deal; you can no longer contact anyone who knows you as Dayvid Porter. That person is dead. That will put everything at risk. That can’t and will not happen. This deal only pertains to you and your siblings, that’s it.”
“She won’t say anything. I’m willing to bet my life on it,” Dayvid said.
“But I’m not,” his father said frankly. “And I won’t.”
“Then you can take ya deal and shove it in your ass, sideways, cuz I ain’t going nowhere without Nova.” Dayvid said flaring his nose like he did when he became angry. Nova meant as much to him as any of his sisters and he was willing to spare her the pain and suffering. With a second chance, he planned on doing all the things he and Nova had discussed when thinking about their future.
“Don’t blow this Dayvid. If you walk out that door all bets are off; you’re on your own. There’s nothing I can do for you,” B
anks pleaded with his son.
“I been on my own my whole life, that ain’t nothing new. I never even knew you existed before now. I ain’t need you then and Ion’t need you now. I’m good in these streets,” Dayvid brashly stated.
“If you get caught this meeting never happened,” Banks said realizing Dayvid’s mind was made up.
“What meeting?” Dayvid said showing his father he fully understood what he was walking away from.
“Dayvid,” Banks called out stopping him in his tracks as he walked towards the door. “At least lay low for a few hours, let me feed the news a story,” then he nodded to one of the men who slid a gun across the warehouse floor to Dayvid. “Good luck.”
CHAPTER SIX
“Thou has shed blood abundantly and has made great wars: thou shalt not build a house unto my name, because thou has shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.”
(1 Chronicles 22:8)
The rain had started to pick up its pace providing Dayvid with the perfect cover as he turned down Harlem Avenue in the Edmonson Village section of Baltimore. All the while keeping his hand close to the gun on his waist. Cutting through a path camouflaged by trees, he hopped a fence into the backyard of an attached brick two level home. Using his foot, Dayvid removed a pile of leaves off a slab of concrete before lifting it and grabbing a key he kept hidden underneath. The obscure basement apartment in the low income neighborhood was one place Dayvid knew he could go undetected. He used the hideout only once before and knew no one would think to look for him there. Entering the dark apartment, his nostrils were greeted by the smell of stale air as he felt along the wall until he found the light switch and clicked it on. The light flickered a few times before fully coming on and lighting up the entire space. The small studio apartment consisted of a kitchenette, with raggedy white cabinets and a small refrigerator, a sleeping area with a pullout couch and a TV and a cramped bathroom with a standup shower. Dayvid began to remove his wet clothes, stripping all the way down to his boxer briefs before heading over to the closet. Hanging in the empty closet was an all-black hooded sweat suit along with a pair of never worn black timberland boots. Dayvid quickly grabbed the change of clothes and put them on. Since being in jail, he had shed a couple pounds making the clothes fit him a little loose than he expected, but they would have to do for now. He clicked on the TV then headed straight to the bathroom to take a piss.