Harbor City (An Alec Winters Series Book 4)

by Chariss K. Walker

  “Boss, Petrov has been murdered.”

  “When?” The question was asked calmly, but Ivan was no longer detached or bored.

  “Just now.”

  “Tell me everything. Quickly now!”

  “He went inside the Toulouse Bar to punish Natasha for not being at her corner. But, he never came back out. Suddenly, the police surrounded the place. Petrov and Natasha were in the back alley. Both dead. Someone carved Petrov’s last mark on him.”

  “Why were you not with him?”

  “He didn’t want us with him. He told us to stay in the car.”

  “And, you listened to him when I have ordered you to protect him…to never let him out of your sight.”

  “Sorry, boss. He was angry and we didn’t want to agitate him further.”

  “So, because you are sensitive, you let my son walk into an ambush and die.”

  “No boss, that wasn’t it. You know how Petrov can be…could be. Ah-hmm. It wasn’t our fault. It was only Natasha. There wasn’t a reason to think he was in danger from that old whore.”

  “Who was the last person he murdered? Who was the last person he carved with his mark?”

  “Some high-class escort.”

  “Why would he have any interest in her?”

  “He thought she had knowledge about the powerful men she fucked. He wanted to present this information to you. Make you proud.”

  “Her name?”

  “Devereux, Sabrina Devereux.”

  “Ah, yes. The Goddess of Light.” His voice took on an uncharacteristic softness when he said the name.

  “You knew her, boss?”

  “Yes, I knew of her. Her Madam wouldn’t allow me an appointment with her, but I knew of her. And, she is also dead?”

  “Petrov said she was. Natasha went crazy after that. He was trying to reel her in. That’s why we stayed out of it and out of his way. He was very agitated over this woman because he couldn’t break her. Then, Natasha went off the rails too.”

  “And as a result my son is also dead. Who would retaliate for Miss Devereux? She was orphaned long ago,” Ivan thoughtfully mused.

  Suddenly the atmosphere of the room changed. Something was different as Alec entered, but those present were unaware of the actual reason it was different.

  “Me. I would avenge her and I have already killed the two most responsible for her death, but the rest of you will pay for her murder as well,” Alec quietly said. His ice-blue eyes stared deeply into Ivan’s and the mobster boss felt as if this intruder could read his soul.

  Surprised that the man had gotten into the building, Petrov’s personal guards were slow to react. So were the rest of the men that stood around Ivan. Now, a well-trained army soldier, Alec killed several before the rest could pull their weapons. Shots were fired. A bullet grazed Alec’s shoulder and he rolled to the ground towards cover. The pent up rage, previously put aside for this task, returned with a fury.

  On his feet again, the demon thunderously roared. The very sight of him froze Ivan the Terrible’s heart. The old man was helpless as the icy tendrils of death held him in its grasp. Once a man to be feared, now the old bastard slumped in his chair with spittle dripping down his chin. His right arm twitched uncontrollably. The rest of the men cowered in fear. They were no match for such an enemy. The red-devil mercilessly killed each one, piling their bodies in a heap that reached six feet in height. Ivan the Terrible was the cherry on top. When he left, Alec set fire to the building.

  It was finished. Sabrina was avenged, but Alec didn’t feel any better. If he hadn’t been heartbroken, he might’ve felt elation and victory that he had finished the job so quickly and efficiently. Instead, he only felt intense sorrow and the painful loss of Sabrina. As his grief returned and flooded over his body, mind, and soul, Alec felt as if he had been flattened by a steamroller.

  The cab driver, unwilling to abandon him, still waited outside. As the flames began to rise, he drove the wounded man to the corner of Carrollton Avenue and Bienville Street. Alec tried to pay his fare again, but the cabby waved him off, “Naw man, this was on me.”

  Alec got out to walk the rest of the way home. Even though his mystical ability ensured he was unremarkable, he couldn’t take a chance that the cabby would know where he lived.

  “This was a trip and I enjoyed every minute of it! Yes siree! I certainly did. Best fare of my life! You take care, man,” the cabby called out the window before driving away.

  Chapter 9

  Cassidy and Catalina anxiously waited for Alec to return. Psychically attuned to her brother, Cat knew the moment he was injured and tearfully told her mother, “Alec’s been shot again.”

  The two women were nearly frantic by the time Alec came in the front door. He was bleeding, but he thought it was only a scratch. The bullet that whizzed past him never slowed him down and there wasn’t an entry wound. He certainly didn’t need to see Chaz or seek other medical attention. The cabbie had offered him a clean mechanic’s rag to staunch the blood flow. He still held it tightly pressed to the wound.

  Cat, in a panic, cried as she reminded Alec to use his angelic power for healing, “What’s wrong with you, Alec! You know our lives depend on you! You know we couldn’t bear to lose you! I can’t believe you’re so stubborn. Do it, do it now!”

  Alec sat down and thought about his love for others, his love for Sabrina, and his love for his family. Filled with compassion, the angelic light emanated around him and the wound healed instantly. Cassidy witnessed it for the first time and was awed.

  “See,” Cat gleefully announced. “It works. It always works. But in order for it to work, you have to use it. You scared me to death!”

  “Sorry, little sister. I didn’t really have an opportunity to use it until now. Don’t be mad. I know how important it is. You won’t have to beg me to do it again.”

  In spite of his victory over the Russian mob, Alec was glum and morose. He couldn’t fully understand why Sabrina was taken from him – why their lives had to change so drastically.

  Perfect and perfectly fucked, he silently scoffed. His faith wavered and he couldn’t imagine what would ever be perfect again. Not without Sabrina. Not without the one person he’d loved most for all of his adult life.

  Meanwhile, ambulances, fire trucks, sirens, and alarms went off in every corner of the warehouse district. Every available service professional was called to the scene. The fiery blaze could be seen far across the city.

  Vivien Simon, unable to sleep after revisiting Sabrina’s mutilated body at the morgue, followed the melee to the warehouse that was ablaze. The fire threatened to spread throughout the entire district. She couldn’t really get close enough to see anything with so many workers trying to contain the fire. So, she sat in her car wondering what the hell the city was coming to with such senselessness.

  Detective Deters was one of the first to respond at the Toulouse bar scene. After seeing the way the victims were murdered, he called Bright at home.

  “What?” Bright snarled. He was enjoying a particularly satisfying dream that involved Vivien Simon and he didn’t relish leaving it so abruptly.

  “Boss, you probably want to see this crime scene. It looks an awful lot like some of the others we’ve investigated…especially the one with the graveyard over on Tchoupitoulas.”

  “What?” Bright repeated, still somewhat groggy.

  “Just saying that I think our vigilante is doing it again.”

  “Where’s Vivien?”

  “Not sure. You want me to call her?”

  “Tell her to meet me there.”

  Vivien got there a few minutes later. She waited for Lieutenant Albright to arrive before moving towards the crime scene. She didn’t want to risk offending the other officers who had dibs on the scene. Bright could always smooth the way with those who resented her position with the precinct.

  “When will the coroner arrive?” Bright asked Deters before he turned his attention to Vivien.

 
“He’s on his way, boss.”

  “Deters thought this looked like the work of our watchdog from Tchoupitoulas, Vivien. What do you think? See anything that reminds you of that?”

  “The brutality of the murder is certainly the same,” she replied as she took a look at the body. “Look how the victim’s head is smashed flat even after all the other torture.” That’s as far as she got before Davis arrived. He looked everything over and then made observations to Bright and Vivien.

  “I’d say it is very similar, but God help us if the FBI gets called in again.”

  “What makes you say that?” Bright asked with unusual irritation.

  “Because I don’t want your team benched again!” Davis heatedly retorted.

  “Not that…about it being similar.”

  “Well, that’s easy enough. His head may be smashed flat, but before that was done, his nose was taken off… either bitten, pinched, or something.”

  “Did he eat it?” Deters asked, trying to stifle a chuckle. Nothing got to the detective and he could find humor in anything.

  “Oh, I doubt that he ate it. There’s plenty left here to reconstruct the face,” Davis replied.

  “Where the hell did you get that?” Bright demanded over the din of everyone talking at once.

  “This is his nose right here. It’s not chewed up or anything. It was in the dumpster next to the body,” Davis explained as he used a pencil to lift some of the flesh.

  “Jesus!”

  “If I’m not mistaken, his eyes were removed as well. I see some tissue still on the parts left behind. Whoever did this made several slices. Who’s our victim?”

  “Randy Petrov,” Deters replied. “Assumed to be a Russian mobster.”

  “He was definitely tortured before he died. Oh…,” Vivien suddenly startled.

  “What is it?” Bright asked.

  “The symbol on his chest – it’s the same one that was carved on Sabrina Devereux. Do we know what it means?”

  “Not yet, but Davis is reaching out to a friend at the FBI, aren’t you?’ he asked. At the coroner’s nod, he continued, “We’ll know something soon.”

  “This symbol is not carved as methodically as the one on Miss Devereux,” Davis said, “but if you notice, much of the same injuries on this body are like the ones on hers.”

  “It’s more or less a copy, drawn in anger,” Vivien added.

  “Exactly,” Davis said as he smiled at her. “Who do we have over here? Another body?”

  Vivien was so tired and distraught she hadn’t even noticed that there was a second fatality. She was still too rattled about Alec Winters and Sabrina Devereux. Their heart wrenching misfortune had completely consumed her thoughts. Natasha had already been placed on a gurney by the EMS crew. Covered by a sheet, her features were hidden. Davis pulled the material back to look at the second body, and as he did, some of her long blonde tresses slipped over the edge of the stretcher. Vivien gasped.

  “Dammit Vivien, what’s going on with you?” Bright asked as he scowled at his consultant. He wasn’t angry with her, he was worried about her and overly conscious of every movement and sound she made.

  “I don’t know. I think I’m still shaken from the earlier case…knowing the victim and all. I really liked Sabrina and I hate that she was murdered.”

  “Do you know this one too?”

  “No. It was the hair…at first it reminded me of something…someone, but I was mistaken.” She tried to hide the information from her boss, but she couldn’t deny that the hair she had collected at Sabrina’s apartment looked like a match for the hair on the victim. Alec had spotted it. Now, she wondered how he had managed that trick. The crime scene investigators would’ve never seen it. She would’ve never seen it. How did Alec manage to do so?

  “What is our female victim’s name?” Davis inquired.

  “Natasha Flint. Prostitute. One of Randy Petrov’s working girls to be exact,” Deters answered.

  “Isn’t she a little old for that?”

  Vivien had an uncomfortable feeling that quickly grew into panic as she thought about Alec Winters. She could see him as he quickly summarized everything it had taken her and her team hours to discover. She watched him again in her mind’s eye as he walked across the room to the sofa where he’d immediately found the blonde hair. Only a single strand, but still…Then, he had sniffed it before she took it from him as evidence. Why had he smelled it? What had he learned from that action? Was he able to track Natasha Flint from a single strand of hair?

  That had to be an impossible task! It was mind-boggling. Vivien felt light-headed as she recalled Alec’s crystal blue eyes when she’d looked up at him. Her world began to reel and spin out of control.

  Oh my God! She silently screamed. He has the same eyes as the angel in Catalina’s drawings. Vivien shivered and then fainted.

  Bright was close enough to catch her limp body before Vivien’s head hit the corner of the dumpster. The paramedics pulled out another stretcher and Bright laid Vivien’s unconscious body on it while Davis quickly examined her.

  “All of her vitals are fine,” Davis said. “I can’t see anything wrong with her other than exhaustion. The last case has been hard on her, both emotionally and physically. I don’t think she’s had any sleep in the last two days. She needs rest. Why don’t you take her home and stay with her until she comes around?”

  “Can’t you give her something…I mean, like smelling-salts or something to revive her?”

  “I could, but I won’t. She needs to rest.”

  When Vivien came to, she was lying on the sofa in her small cottage’s living room. Bright was sitting in a chair across from her.

  “What happened?” she groggily asked.

  “You fainted. It’s not like you, but then, what do I know?” While she was unconscious, his mental dialogue had him worked into a tizzy. Knowing that he desired to be more than a coworker to Vivien, and not knowing whether or not she wanted to be more to him, the thought of her with someone else had set his feelings on edge. Hell, he mentally ranted, she could be seeing someone else. How would I know?

  “What do you mean by that?” She sat upright to ask.

  “I don’t know what you do in your free time. Are you seeing anyone, Vivien?”

  “What?” she gasped. “Why would you ask that? When do I have time to see anyone?”

  “You fainted, like I said. It’s not like you. I just wondered if maybe you were pregnant or something.”

  “I’m not pregnant!” she stormed. “And, I might add, I haven’t been exposed.” She was indignant now.

  “Sorry to have to ask,” Bright chuckled even though he was pleased with her answer. “Davis said you were all right, so I brought you home. Maybe you’re overworked and need a break. Would you take a few days off?” he asked.

  “I’ll be all right, Bright. You worry too much,” she replied still somewhat huffily. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” She got up and opened the front door, “Goodnight.”

  Ordinarily, Vivien would’ve been happy to spend ‘alone time’ with Bright. She found the man exceptionally appealing and wanted to get to know him better… better than she currently knew him as Lieutenant Albright, her boss of the precinct. However, right now, she had a lot to think about.

  She couldn’t get Alec Winters out of her mind. His eyes. The self-assured way he had read the crime scene. His eyes again.

  “Now, hold on,” she muttered as she paced the living room, “don’t jump the gun on this…he does have military training. He could have learned a lot of investigative tricks while serving in the army.”

  Still, she knew it was more than that; she simply wasn’t ready to admit it…at least not out loud.

  Her thoughts returned to Bright. If she ever had the opportunity, she really wanted to be in his arms again… she wanted to kiss him and feel his strong body next to hers. Then, it dawned on her… he wondered if she was pregnant because he was jealous. It’s why he’d asked if she was seein
g anyone. She chuckled softly. It was a start and she’d take it.

  Chapter 10

  In the meantime, Danaé Chisholm kissed her husband goodbye at the door before heading to Krav Maga class. For her, it was a daily ritual that she’d maintained for the last twenty years.

  Once the student, she was now the teacher. The self-defense and hand-to-hand combat class was also one of many suggestions from Martin Saguache that Danaé had followed. “Be prepared for anything both dangerous and unexpected,” he’d advised.

  At the present moment, she whispered, “I love you,” with her lips still lightly against Tommy’s.

  “I love you more,” he teased while pulling her closer for a long, warm hug. “Remember, it takes fifteen seconds to release the endorphins we need, so hold on tight, baby. One, two, three…,” he softly counted as they embraced. The seconds passed too quickly.

  After class and a quick shower, Danaé dressed for work. When she turned around, Martin Saguache leaned against a nearby wall. Never one to pull punches, he got directly to the point, “It’s time to go home, Danaé. Alec needs you.”

  “He’s back?”

  “Yes, he’s been back a few months.”

  “I understand, but I have a husband now. I can’t just up and leave him. I have a job, a life. You can’t ask this of me!” There was panic in her normally self-assured voice.

  “Sabrina was murdered. Alec needs you now more than ever. You must fulfill your destiny. Only you can comfort him now. Only you can save him from this misery. Remember, you are his perfect match. You’ve always been the one for Alec even if he didn’t know that. It’s time to show him that you’re there for him.”

  Although her heart instantly went out to Alec in his time of loss, Danaé was dazed. Her mind spun out of control as she tried to consider the possibilities and everything else that she’d have to do to make this happen.