Protecting the Enemy

by Christy Newton

“What happened?”

  “I don’t know… something big.”

  Both on the edge, they watched and waited. Her mouth went dry. After ten minutes, the fire truck left. A forensics van pulled up behind the police car. Someone was dead.

  “I think we should go.” Reid started the car.

  “Yes. Whatever’s going on, the last thing we need is to be tied to it in any way.”

  ***

  The newscaster confirmed that Mrs. Grant had committed suicide when she found out that her husband, Senator Grant, had been involved with several strippers from the club that he was killed behind. Though his death was still believed to be an accident, sources confirmed a stripper had blackmailed Mrs. Grant the same day she’d taken her own life with the same type of gun used in several random murders across the city. It was unclear if the senator and his wife were behind any of the murders yet.

  Julianna had squeezed Reid’s hand so tight listening to the breaking news that when she let go her own hand tingled. She hugged him and smiled. “We’re free.”

  “Yeah, there’s nothing to connect us to the senator or any of the assassins. ETE 7 died with Mrs. Grant. It never existed to the outside world. One last thing, we need to get rid of the Jags and clear out our ETE 7 apartments.”

  ***

  Reid handed the money Brandon Voss had stocked away in his pillowcase to Julianna. “Since Brandon was, in his own way, trying to protect you, I know he’d want you to have it.”

  “I don’t want his money.”

  “Just take it for now until we can decide what to do with it.”

  She sighed. “Fine.”

  After Reid thoroughly examined their Jaguars and found them safe, they drove the cars to the mechanic Reid had gone to years ago.

  Reid jiggled the keys. “Would you be interested in purchasing both cars?”

  The heavily tattooed man raised an eyebrow. “These stolen?”

  “No. They were our company cars and that company went out of business. We need to liquidate our assets ASAP.”

  The mechanic looked over at the Jags. “I may be interested. How much are you asking?”

  Reid crossed his arms. “We’ll take eighty grand for both.” The used cars were well worth over a hundred.

  He whistled and ran his hand over Julianna’s car like a man would caress his lover. “I can give you seventy grand today.”

  Reid uncrossed his arms. “Sold.”

  “Give me a few hours and I’ll have your money.”

  “We’ll see you in a few hours.” Reid and Julianna hopped back into Reid’s car and drove to a Jaguar dealer.

  “Are you sure he’ll come up with money?

  “Positive.” Reid pulled into the lot. “Time to pick out something new. Are you ready to let go of your convertible?”

  “Yes. I want something nice, but more practical. I don’t want to stand out anymore… I want to blend in.”

  Reid stopped in front of a small sedan. “How about this XF? It has better gas mileage. Still sporty, but not as bold as our old cars.”

  She tilted her head to look at the price tag. “Does it come in red?”

  Reid laughed. “Blend in huh?”

  ***

  Things moved quickly with cash. Reid had had enough of his savings to buy both cars. After the elated salesman gave them their keys, Reid and Julianna got into their new Jags. Julianna stroked the leather seats and inhaled the new car smell. Nice. The first of many changes to come.

  When they got back to their place, Julianna contacted an auctioneer to see if they were interested in the furnishings from both ETE 7 apartments. They were more than happy to take the high end stuff off their hands fast and offered a reasonable amount of money. After that business was taken care of, they brought some Chinese up from downstairs.

  Julianna stirred her food with the chopsticks and took a bite of her sweet and sour chicken. “Well, that was an exhausting day.”

  “It was, but look how much we accomplished.”

  Julianna nodded. “I’ve been thinking about something.”

  Reid glanced up from his food. “Okay.”

  “I want to donate Brandon’s money to a nonprofit foundation for foster children. If we could help even one child from growing up to be susceptible to the kind of life we were drawn into… it wouldn’t make up for the lives we may or may not have wrongly taken, but it would help ease at least some of the guilt. For me anyway.”

  “You’re an assassin with a heart of gold, Jewels.”

  She folded up her takeout container. “Ex-assassin.”

  “Let’s do it. We can afford to get by and if it will make you feel better, I want to.”

  “Really?” She expected an argument. Maybe even a flat out no. “It’s a lot of money, Reid.”

  “I’m in.” He handed her a fortune cookie.

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. Now that we got all of that out of the way, what are we going to do? As much as I like this smelly, yet charming little place, I can’t see us staying here forever.”

  “Neither can I and I’m not even sure that I want to stay in Maryland.”

  Reid’s phone vibrated making them both jump. They’d have to get used to having cell phones again. He answered the call while Julianna held her breath.

  Julianna could hear Weasel’s voice on the other line. Her stomach flip-flopped. Had he found her mom?

  Reid disconnected. “He found the cemetery where your mom is buried.”

  Her heart raced. “Where?”

  “Finish eating, it’s closer than you think.”

  She threw the unopened fortune cookie into the sack. “I’m finished. Let’s go.”

  ***

  Thirty minutes later, Julianna pulled her thin wool coat up around her neck to deter the frigid air. A small gray headstone was all that was left of the mom she’d never gotten to meet. Julianna bent down and kneeled on the cold hard earth to place red roses next to her mom’s name engraved in the stone. Scarlett Fox. Julianna’s eyes misted. Her obsession with the color red meant something now. In some way, her mom had always been with her. In every red piece of clothing she’d worn, every red lipstick she’d applied, every red wall she’d painted. “Thank you, mom, for saving my life. I wish I could have known you.” She didn’t know what else to say.

  Reid held out his hand. She took it and he helped her back up. Something cold and wet landed on Julianna’s face. She looked up. Millions of tiny snowflakes danced around before falling to the ground. The first snowfall of the year. The snow was sticking to the grass, but as it landed on the red roses, it melted. Julianna shivered and Reid pulled her close, wrapping his unbuttoned coat around her.

  Chapter 16

  No matter what she told herself, the guilt was eating away at Julianna like rust on metal. Corroding her happiness. Tainting her future. She kept seeing the faces of the men she’d erased or more accurately killed. Three men had died at her hand. Five if she counted the attacker that grabbed her at the hotel while she was filling the ice bucket and then Agent Fuller, but that those were both self defense.

  Even though she’d thought she was at war with the enemy, what she knew now changed things. Even if Reid had made peace with what they’d done, she hadn’t. It hadn’t been justice. It’d only been a sick game and they were the pawns. When she believed what she was doing was for the greater good, for justice, it had been okay. She thought she was saving innocents in danger from ruthless people.

  In the past few days she’d become withdrawn. No matter how much Reid tried to make her laugh, he’d not been successful. She wanted to laugh. She wanted to drown her feelings. The walls were closing in around her at the one place she’d felt safe the past few weeks. Why couldn’t she just let it go?

  Reid was still asleep. She could leave. Run. Her mind made up, she removed some money from her pillowcase and got dressed. She looked over at Reid and couldn’t just slip out. It’d be too cruel. He’d worry, not move on. She didn’t even know
where she was going—just that she had to get away, alone. With a heavy chest, she reached over and nudged Reid. “I need to leave.”

  He opened his eyes, not yet aware of what she was actually saying. “Leave? Where?”

  “I just need some time… by myself.”

  He opened his eyes then shut them with a sigh. “How much time?”

  “I have no idea. I just know that I’m not happy and I don’t know how to fix it.”

  “After all we’ve been through you’re leaving?” The hurt look on his face almost broke her heart.

  “Please understand that it has nothing to do with you or us.”

  Reid sat up in bed, now alert. “How can you even say that? It has everything to do with me. If you’re gone, I’m not whole. I thought you felt the same way.” He reached for her arm and pulled her over to him.

  She couldn’t stay. Maybe she was losing her mind like her second cousin had. Maybe she’d come from a long line of crazy people. “I have to go. Please don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”

  Reid’s eyes pleaded with her. “I can help you. Don’t leave me. If you want to leave, take me with you.”

  Feeling like she was drowning, she wiggled out of his arms. “I can’t.”

  “If you leave, I can’t promise I’ll be waiting here if you change your mind,” his voice was barely more than a whisper.

  She grabbed her coat and turned to look at him before opening the door. “I wouldn’t expect you to.”

  ***

  Reid got out of bed and slipped on some jeans. He had to go after her. She wasn’t being reasonable. He flung open the door. “Julianna!” His breath was visible in the chilled air. He didn’t see her, so he ran down the snow covered steps barefoot. He went around the building and looked both ways. Her car was gone. The cold shocked him into what had just happened. Shit! She was gone and he had no idea where she was headed.

  His feet were numb by the time he got back inside the apartment, but his heart was another matter. The pure agony deep inside his chest was all too recognizable. Her cell phone was still on the table. He raked his fingers through his hair. Maybe she’d come right back for it. She had to.

  He went over to the bed and reached for her pillow. He reached inside the pillowcase… her money was gone. His heart dropped. She’d come back. She would. He tried to convince himself. His stomach growled reminding him he’d skipped breakfast and lunch. He took a shower and went downstairs to grab some food.

  His hope that maybe Julianna had returned in the five minutes he was gone was crushed when he opened the door to an empty apartment. He swallowed the lump in his throat and ate a couple bites of take out. His stomach turned. He tossed the rest of his Chinese into the trashcan.

  He should have stopped her. He should have searched harder for her when he ran after her, but deep down he knew that he couldn’t help her. He was at peace with what he’d done. They’d been lied to and manipulated and now it was time to move on. Julianna was different though. He could tell she was more affected by the truth. It didn’t help matters that it turned out her whole family had been involved. A family she’d not even known had existed. As much as he wanted to fix everything, there were some things a person just couldn’t erase.

  ***

  Julianna hated to leave Reid, but he didn’t understand. He wasn’t having trouble with moving on as she was. Of course, it wasn’t his family that had betrayed him. Her own dad had had her mom killed and meant to do the same to her. Her second cousin had turned Julianna into a killer. Her life was more complicated than a daytime soap opera.

  As much as she wanted to immerse herself in Reid, she couldn’t. It wasn’t fair to either of them. She had to figure out what she wanted and how she would ever go on with the burden she carried.

  Meandering the streets of Baltimore without a plan was not her brightest idea. Feeling lost was scary. Before she knew what happened she was sitting in front of Reid’s brother’s church. She’d never been a religious person, but something drew her there. Julianna parked her car and got out. Something pulled her inside. She walked up to the last pew and sat down, unsure what to do or even why she’d driven there. The heat of the church caused her remove her coat.

  “Good place to warm up.” A male voice startled her. She turned to look and was surprised to see a man that resembled Reid, though not nearly as handsome. But that didn’t make sense, they weren’t biological brothers.

  “Yes.” She stood up. “I was just leaving.”

  He sat down in the pew across from her. “Don’t rush off on my account. Was there something on your mind? I’m always here to listen and provide guidance.”

  Of course she couldn’t tell him what was bothering her, at least not exactly. “I’ve done some things that I am ashamed of. At the time I did these things, I thought I was protecting people, providing justice.” She looked down at her lap, afraid he’d be able to see the truth in her eyes. “But I learned recently, that what I did may not have been protecting the right people. I don’t know how to live with myself, knowing that what I’ve done may have caused a lot more harm than good.”

  “I see.” He folded his hands in his lap. “You know God forgives us no matter our trespasses. You must first forgive yourself.”

  She bit her lip and pulled at a loose string on her coat. “But I don’t think I can.”

  “The harm you think you may have caused, maybe you should go to those people and simply apologize. Maybe it isn’t as bad as you think.”

  He had a point. She needed to acknowledge what she’d done, at least to herself. While she couldn’t really apologize to the men, she could apologize to their loved ones, in a way that wouldn’t incriminate her. “Thank you. You’ve been a big help.” She stood up.

  He smiled placing a hand on the back of the pew. “Any time.”

  ***

  Just having a plan, already made Julianna feel better. She’d go to the loved ones of the men she’d killed, look into their eyes and apologize for their loss. It wouldn’t change things for them or bring the men back, but at least it was her acknowledging that they were men and perhaps not the enemy.

  She would need a certain computer hacker’s help. She parked her car down the street from his house, in the only free space. The snow dusted sidewalks sparkled like diamonds in the sunlight. The temperature was dropping, because of the wind. The sky was a grayish-blue which seemed appropriate. Julianna pulled her thin wool coat up tighter around her neck. As she walked up to his house she could see her breath. It was odd not carrying a gun after all that time she’d spent looking over her shoulder, afraid for her life.

  When she first knocked on Weasel’s door he didn’t answer, so she knocked harder.

  The door opened. Weasel stood in a pair of X-Men boxers paired with a wrinkled T-shirt. “You’re not bleeding are you?”

  She laughed. “No, not today, but I do need your help.”

  He rubbed the goosebumps on his skinny arms. “Come in, it’s freezing.”

  She walked inside. Even though it had to be close to noon, by the looks of the tumbled sheets hanging off the bed, she’d woken him. “Sorry to wake you from your beauty rest.” She resisted the usual urge to tousle his shaggy hair as if he were her kid brother. A sibling would have been nice she realized.

  He grinned. “You can wake me anytime. As long as you’re not asking me to stitch you up.”

  She stood beside his desk. “How was the cruise?”

  He shrugged. “It was okay. Mom liked it.”

  “I was wondering if you would look up some people for me. I need previous addresses of some deceased men. And I need you to look into my mom. I want to know if there are more relatives I don’t know about.” She gave him a pleading look. “I’ll order pizza.”

  “Sure, okay.” He cleared the books away from the chair.

  She sat down and wrote the names of the men she’d erased. Each name had been etched into her brain. She slid the paper over to him. “Oh and if Reid a
sks, I was never here.”

  His forehead crinkled. “Uh, that dude kind of scares me. Do I really need to lie, because I’m pretty sure he’ll know if I’m lying.”

  Maybe Reid wouldn’t come looking for her anyway. “It’s okay. Never mind.” She picked up his phone. “Meat lovers’?”

  He nodded, already whisking his fingers across the keys. “Better make it an extra-large. This could take a while.”

  ***

  Reid strode out of the jewelry store with the tiny velvet box tucked into his coat pocket. The next time he asked Julianna, it wouldn’t be a secret. The next time he’d put the ring on her finger where it belonged. He got into his Jag and drove to over Weasel’s place. He had a gut feeling Julianna may have gone there. He had to know that she was okay.

  Reid knocked on Weasel’s door determined to find out if the kid had seen Jewels.

  His favorite hacker peeped his head out. “Come in.”

  Reid walked inside. He crossed his arms and stared at Weasel without saying a word.

  “Shit!” Weasel sat down on the edge of his bed. “What do you want to know?”

  “All of it. Was Julianna here?”

  He nodded. “Yes. She had me look up addresses of some dead guys.”

  Poor Julianna. Why was she torturing herself this way? They were only following orders. Innocents were sometimes casualties of war. As much as he hated it, they couldn’t change what they’d done. Neither of them would have killed those people if they’d known the truth. They were not to blame. Senator Grant, his wife and Brandon Voss were to blame. The blood was on their hands. Why couldn’t Jewels see that? “Okay. Anything else?”

  “She had me look into her mom and if she had any living relatives.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “And?”

  “She has a grandma living in Connecticut.”

  Maybe she just went to visit her grandma. If the woman was anything like Boss… shit. “That’s all?”

  “Yeah, that’s all I could find.”

  “Thanks for the information.” Reid pulled a hundred dollar bill out of his wallet.

  Weasel held up his hand. “That’s okay. I wanted to help her.”