Killian took the opportunity to slide his right hand under his body and grab hold of the gun he had been lying on.
“That’s right, you little black whores. Both of you.” Sabra growled. “You people are nothing but a disgusting race of foul-mouthed, lazy nig—”
Rolling over on his back and aiming only at the sound of Sabra’s voice, Killian shot his father’s killer right in the mouth.
Blood and small chunks of flesh sprayed Ruby in the face and down her body, halting her in mid-stride, leaving her frozen with disgust. Toni, coming to a stop directly behind her sister, was spared from the gore that rained down around her.
Even with half his face blown off, even as he died, Sabra still made a final effort to get a shot in. But before he was able to swing his rifle down at Killian, Killian fired off a wild volley of his own shots. Most missed and went blasting through the overhead; but two hit Sabra, one in the chest and one in the face, knocking the undercover agent back, tripping him over Rudenko’s inert body, killing him even before he hit the deck.
After the ghostly echo of the gunshots had faded away, the only sound to be heard in the cabin was the yacht’s ventilation system as it kicked on and began a monotonous hum somewhere off in the distance.
Killian lay still on his back.
Ruby came to and rushed off to the head cursing.
Toni stared down at the two dead bodies. Even though she had grown up on one of the meanest of streets in one of the meanest of cities in the country, she had never before witnessed an actual murder. Now, however, Sabra’s death was her second of the day. She lowered herself to the deck, careful not to sit in any blood or chunks of flesh. Her head was spinning and she felt as if she were going to vomit.
RJ, woken by the gunshots, worked herself groggily up onto an elbow. She stared through fuzzy eyes at the carnage in the room for a moment before saying, “Killian, are you all right?”
Killian didn’t respond.
“Is Killian all right?” RJ asked with panic in her voice as she struggled to sit up. She looked at Toni, but Toni was sitting on the deck with her head between her knees gagging. Ruby was in the bathroom cleaning herself off, cursing Sabra for covering her with his blood and ruining her yellow bikini top.
RJ began crawling to Killian. The side of her head where the butt of Sabra’s rifle struck was painfully swollen and a dark, vicious purple. The strain of crawling caused the injured site to explode with even more pain, tearing her eyes, blurring her vision. When she finally reached Killian, she threw herself on top of him and cried.
“Killian speak to me,” she said, pulling herself up so she could look at him. His eyes were open but she couldn’t tell if he was dead or alive. She straddled herself on top of him and grabbed him by the shoulders. She shook him hard. “What did they do to you, Killian?” she said, crying. She laid the side of her head down on his chest and listened for a heartbeat; however, her own pain pounding in her ears made it difficult to tell if she was hearing his beating heart or hers.
Toni, her face drawn and gray, lifted her head from in between her knees and took in a deep breath, trying to settle her nauseous stomach. She saw RJ lying on top of Killian, pleading with him to wake up. She looked behind her to the bathroom for her sister. Ruby wasn’t there. Ruby wasn’t anywhere in the room. Without a word, Toni stood up. On wobbly legs, she walked over to Sabra. She knelt and removed the rifle that was strapped around his dead body.
“What are you doing, Toni?” RJ asked.
Toni stood up and looked over the gun. It took her a moment before she figured out how to release the magazine so she could check how many rounds were left. After she saw that she had nearly a full clip, she reloaded it into the rifle. “Ruby’s gone,” she said without emotion. “I’m going to get her.”
“Toni, wait,” RJ said.
Toni stopped at the door but didn’t turn around.
RJ, still lying on top of Killian, sat up on her knees. “I’m coming with you,” she said.
“No, you’re not,” Toni said with finality. “You’re staying here with Killian. He needs you. And I need to take care of my sister.”
RJ didn’t like the way that sounded. “What do you mean you need to take care of her, Toni? What are you going to do?”
But Toni didn’t respond to RJ’s questions. She just left the cabin without bothering to close the door behind her.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE
RJ was woken by what sounded like a loud popping noise. She raised her sore head wearily from Killian’s chest and looked around the cabin, listening. Other than herself, Killian, and the two dead bodies, the room was empty. Quiet. The door was still open as Toni had left it. And then there was the sound again, a loud pop somewhere off in the yacht. And then again.
Gunshots.
She shook Killian. When he didn’t wake, she pounded on his chest. “Killian, you have to wake up,” she screamed. “I think Toni’s in trouble. We need to go help her.”
When he still didn’t respond, she lay her head down on his chest again and cried. “You can’t be dead, you hear me? I can’t leave here without you. I won’t.”
Killian moaned softly.
“Oh, thank god, Killian. You’re alive,” RJ cried with relief.
Killian moaned again and began blinking his eyes rapidly.
“Killian, can you hear me? Are you all right?” RJ said getting to her knees. “Can you get up? I think Toni is in trouble.” She spoke rapidly, as if she feared he would slip away from her again.
Killian’s brow furrowed deeply as he squinted. “RJ?”
“Yes, Killian. It’s me, RJ. Are you all right?”
“RJ... I... I can’t see. I can’t see anything.”
RJ leaned over his bruised and swollen face and looked into his blank, searching eyes. “What do you mean, Killian?” She waved a hand in front of his face. “Can’t you see me?”
Killian shook his head desperately. “No, I can’t. Everything... everything is black.” He tried to sit up on an elbow, but the pain was too great. He lay back down flat on the deck. “My head... the pain.”
“Okay, Killian. Listen to me,” RJ said. “I’m going to go find Toni and then we’re going to get you out of here and to a hospital, you hear me?”
Killian didn’t respond.
RJ was uncertain what to do. She couldn’t help Killian by herself in the condition he was in. And her own vision was blurry and she had no idea how much damage had been done to her head by the blow she had taken. She only knew that it hurt and that the light in the cabin was too bright and that everything around her moved in waves. She put a hand on Killian’s chest to feel for his breathing. Its rising and falling was shallow but rhythmic. She didn’t realize how cold she was until she felt how warm his chest was against her cold hand. If only she could close her eyes, close them and curl up into his warm arms until everything was better.
When her eyes opened again, Toni was standing in the doorway leaning against its inside frame. The left side of her tracksuit looked wet as if it had been splashed with water and was a much darker pink than the rest. It took a moment for RJ to focus her vision enough to recognize the wetness not as water, but as blood. She leaped to her feet and ran dizzily to her. “Oh my god, Toni. You’ve been shot,” she cried out. “I knew something bad had happened.”
Toni walked into the cabin before RJ could reach her and went straight to Killian. “I’ll be fine, but we need to get the hell out of here fast.”
RJ looked at Toni expectantly as she walked by. “Killian’s hurt pretty bad,” she said quickly when she realized Toni wasn’t going to say anything more about what had happened to her. “He can’t see. We need to get him to a hospital.”
Toni knelt next to Killian. “Killian, can you hear me? It’s Toni. We really need to get you out of here, okay?” She looked up at RJ. “Come on. Help me sit him up.”
RJ positioned herself on the other side of Killian and together she and Toni hoisted him up into a sitti
ng position.
Sitting now, Killian said wearily, “You two have to promise me that you won’t take me to a hospital. I can’t go back. I won’t go back.”
“Killian, we can’t promise you that, god damn it.” RJ said desperately. “You need medical help. Your face and the back of your head is busted up so bad who knows what the hell damage has been done. I mean, you’re blind for Christ’s sake.”
He shook his head in violent disagreement, but the pain of movement was too great. His unseeing eyes searched for her face. “I don’t care what’s wrong with me. I can’t go back to the hospital.”
“But it’s not just you, Killian,” RJ said in agitation. “Toni has been shot. She also needs to get to a hospi—”
Toni cut her off. “Killian. Listen to me. We need to get out of here right now. I’m not sure but think DeBlanc was able to get a call out for help.”
“How?” RJ asked, her eyes wide in disbelief.
“My fucking sister,” Toni said disgustedly. “I’ll explain later,” Then she said to Killian, who hadn’t yet made any effort to move. “Killian get your ass up now, big man. The longer we stay here trying to convince you to leave with us, the more danger we are in.”
Killian tried to free himself from their grip. “Then go on without me. Seriously. Get yourselves out of here and get Toni to a hospital. I’ll just be a drag on you in the shape I’m in.”
Toni looked at RJ and shrugged. RJ sighed hopelessly.
“Okay, Killian. You win,” RJ said. “We promise. No hospital for you. Just Toni.”
“All right, big guy. You got what you wanted,” Toni said as she swung Sabra’s Kalashnikov onto her back and grabbed Killian firmly under the arm. “There is a boat waiting for us. Let’s get you on your feet so we all can get the hell out of here.”
Killian nodded. He tucked Rudenko’s gun in the back of his pants and held out his other arm to RJ. RJ swung McKnight’s rifle onto her back and helped Toni pull him to his feet.
As they entered the passageway, RJ said. “Hold on for a minute, Toni. Let’s lean him against the wall while I run to the room next door and grab something real quick.” Before letting go of Killian, she said. “I’ll be right back, okay.”
With vacant eyes, Killian nodded.
When RJ returned she was carrying a pistol. After checking the magazine to count the rounds, she reloaded it and tucked the weapon into the back of her sweatpants. “Henderson’s Glock,” she said. “Just in case.” She grabbed Killian again and they began making a slow but determined progress up the passageway to the elevator.
“So what happened to Henderson then? And his buddy McKnight?” Killian asked as they walked.
Toni looked over to RJ to see what she was going to say, but RJ just stared straight ahead. “RJ took care of them for us,” Toni said in answer to Killian’s question.
Killian looked over in RJ’s direction, trying to see her. “Are you okay, RJ? I mean, those were some serious dudes. What the hell happened?”
“I’m good,” RJ said shortly. “I did what I had to do, that’s all.”
They were quiet the rest of the way up the passageway.
After they had entered the elevator, RJ looked at Toni, “Where to? Oh shit, I forgot about Ruby. Where is she? Still in DeBlanc’s room?”
“No, take us up to the second deck. Ruby’s already down on the boat waiting for us.”
“What about DeBlanc? Where’s that creep?” RJ asked as she pushed the button.
Toni looked down at her bloody side and then back up to RJ. “He was down by the bar when I got to his room. He had the satellite phone in one hand and a gun in the other. He got a shot off before I could take cover.” She pulled up the bloody jacket. Underneath it there was a bloody washcloth on her side just above the left hip with a pink satin belt wrapped around it and her waist to hold it in place. She pulled the washcloth down slightly to reveal an ugly wound. “Don’t worry, the bullet just barely caught me and it looks worse than it is. But DeBlanc wasn’t so lucky. I shot the fucker twice, right in the face. He’s dead,” she said with a satisfied smile.
“Who was he talking to on the phone?” Killian asked.
“I don’t know,” Toni said. “I’m not sure if he had just finished calling someone or if he was just about to.”
As they stepped out of the elevator, a large foyer greeted them with its glistening marble floors, lush, expensive furniture set exactly about, and stately marble columns that reached all the way up to the third deck. To their left, forward of the yacht, a wide, grand stairway led up to a dining room that looked from where they stood to be the size of a basketball court. To their right heading aft, just a short distance away, was the salon DeBlanc had told them about.
“Jesus, the things money can buy,” RJ said, shaking her head in amazement at the opulence of everything she saw.
“Yeah, like young girls. My sister. Me,” Toni said, her voice hard, cold. Then, to move on from the subject she said quickly. “The hatch that leads to the boat is just up ahead.”
“Oh my god, Toni. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so… so insensitive,” RJ said sincerely.
Toni kept her eyes forward and nodded as they shouldered Killian along. “I know.”
They walked past the salon with its grand piano and large viewing window, a window that looked out onto what must have been a beautiful view of the Gulf during the day, but at that hour it showed only the tepid glow of a light shining briefly out into inky waters before fading quickly into the black void of the disconsolate night.
After exiting through the watertight hatch located just past the salon, they found themselves standing out in the cool damp night, a night moonless and black thanks to an overcast and agitated sky, cramped together on the small landing at the top of an accommodation ladder. Despite the dark desperation of their situation and the dark threatening sky above, the water glowed magically around the yacht from small lights inset into the hull just under the waterline. At the bottom of the ladder, a retractable slip, lit up like a runway with tiny recessed lights twinkling along its outer edges, had been extended out from a hold midships of the yacht. Moored inside it was an Italian-made, twenty-three-foot Castoldi Jet Tender, white, with blue trimming running along its sides to match its blue upholstery, its decks, bow, and swim platform made of polished teak.
Ruby was sitting in the middle of the stern on a bench that ran along the entire back of it in the shape of a U. She was no longer wearing the yellow bikini top and white short shorts that had been covered with Lukos Sabra’s blood; she had been allowed to shower and was now wearing an outfit of Toni’s choosing: a loose-fitting New Orleans Saints sweatshirt, a pair of Levi’s, and a pair of light-blue Sperry Top-Siders. She was also bound and wearing a gag; but she wasn’t wearing a blindfold and even from a distance they could tell she was looking up at them with hate in her eyes.
“Well,” RJ said after seeing Ruby glaring up at them, “I had half hoped that when you said Ruby was waiting for us, that she had finally dropped the attitude and was now being cooperative.”
“Fuck that bitch,” Toni said angrily, “taking up with a creep like DeBlanc over me, her family. The only reason I didn’t shoot her ass along with his was because she’s my sister. But you know what? Fuck that. That bitch is no longer my sister. The only thing she is to me anymore is my mother’s daughter.” Then she hollered down to Ruby, ‘You hear that, bitch? You ain’t shit to me no more, girl.”
“Come on ladies, we really have to go,” Killian said impatiently.
“Right,” RJ said. “The ladder down is very narrow so I’ll go first and you hold onto my shoulders, okay? Toni will be right behind you.”
RJ, who knew her way around a boat from all the time she had spent fishing in her father’s old Bass Cat Pantera Pro on Lake Marburg for bluegill and largemouth bass, took a seat at the helm found on the port side of the boat and began familiarizing herself with the steering and navigation console. Toni situated Killian
on the bench next to RJ and then, at RJ’s direction, went forward to cast off the lines. RJ found the keys already in the ignition and fired up the boat’s 292-horsepower Steyr diesel engine. Toni cast off the bow line and then hurried aft to cast off the stern, and then, despite the growing pain in her side from the bullet wound, gave the tender a hefty shove away from the deck.
Once cleared from the yacht, RJ throttled down and turned hard to port, heading them north for the mainland, straight into a damp, unwelcoming headwind and the black choppy waters that it stirred.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
Toni sat on her knees looking forward on the small bench seat that joined off the back of RJ’s and Killian’s seat. She had to hold on tightly to the chairback to keep her balance as the boat beat its way through the unpredictable chopping of the waves, waves now foaming with angry phosphorescent whitecaps. “So, now what?” she said. “Where are we going to go?” Even though she was behind RJ and Killian and speaking almost directly into their ears, she still had to holler in order to be heard over not just the roaring of the boat’s powerful engine, but also the bow of the boat beating hard against the waves and the howling of the growing headwind.
“As far away from this nightmare as quickly as possible,” RJ said. “I’m heading for that little patch of light straight ahead. As soon as we hit the beach we’ll get you to a hospital.”
“No, forget the hospital. I’m fine. Really,” Toni said as she followed the direction of RJ’s pointing finger, trying to make out the lights she was referring to. Off in the distance to her right, the silhouette of the Half Moon Island loomed beneath dark, low clouds moving fast along a sky colored a mean mixture of blacks, purples, and grays. Straight ahead, well beyond the eerie-looking island and glimmering like a constellation of alluring stars, were the lights of New Orleans. She was unable to tell which lights RJ was pointing to.
“Here’s what we need to do,” Killian said as he turned in his seat to face the women. “Take a slight northwest heading, and once we get past DeBlanc’s island keep your eyes open for the shuttle boats that run between it and the mainland. They run all night. After you spot one, follow its course back to the shore where there will be a big, lit up complex with restaurants, slot machines, souvenir shops, and a bunch of crazy gamblers running around spending their money while they wait on the next shuttle out. I stole a boat from there that I used to take me out to the island and I have a car parked nearby. At least I hope it’s still there.”
The Good Kill Page 41