“Call her,” he said to his brother.
And Mick, his cell phone already out, made the call.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
When the car stopped in front of Kattia’s home in the suburbs of Montreal, Charles looked at Mick through the rearview. “Give us a minute,” he said.
Mick knew he had to prepare Jenay. He got out and headed for the entrance.
Charles turned toward his wife. She could see the anguish in his eyes. “What is it, Charlie?” she asked.
“The woman who lives here,” he said, “is Kattia Tremblay.”
Jenay was cautious. What was he trying to tell her? “Okay,” she said.
“Kattia was the woman that approached you at the banquet.”
When he made that statement, Jenay’s heart slammed against her chest. “Okay,” she said.
“Some years ago, many years ago, I cheated.”
Jenay’s heart dropped. “You cheated?”
“I had an affair, yes. But the marriage was over, babe,” Charles said distressfully. “It wasn’t even a marriage. We were only together for the sake of the children.”
Jenay, at first, was confused. Then she realized he was talking about his first marriage! He cheated on his first wife, not her! At least not in this instance, she thought.
“You know how Arianna was,” Charles said.
Arianna, Jenay knew, was Charles’s first wife and the mother of his four sons. She was a handful, alright, but she was still his wife!
“She was bitching about everything,” Charles continued “and was doing whatever the hell she wanted. She was rarely at home. Sometimes I had to,” Charles was about to say, but Jenay cut him off.
“Nope,” she said, shaking her head.
“What?” he asked her.
“You aren’t doing that. You aren’t going to sit up in here and blame Arianna. No, sir. Not in my presence you won’t. You were married to her, I don’t care how she was, she was your wife. She didn’t put a gun to your head. She didn’t go out and fuck that lady. You did that!” Jenay looked at him hard. “Don’t you dare act as if her bad behavior made yours okay.”
Charles knew Jenay was right. And he felt ashamed for even trying to justify what he’d done. “I messed up, Jenay,” he said. “I was a married man, and I cheated on my wife. With Kattia. That was what she was going to tell you at that banquet I’m sure. She wanted to warn you about me. She wanted to make sure you knew that I would do the same thing to you. But babe, I wouldn’t. There’s no way.”
The only reason he did it while he was married to Arianna was because they were living separate lives anyway, although they were still married. But Jenay was right. That did not excuse what he’d done.
But he had to make one thing clear. “What I did was wrong,” he said, “but I’ll never do that to you, Jenay.” He reached out, to touch her, but she moved away from his grasp.
Then she looked at him. He saw the disappointment in her eyes. “Amelia is in trouble,” she said. “The focus has to be on her. Not your ass!”
And then Jenay got out of the car and headed for the entrance.
Kattia Tremblay had already opened the door and was pleased to see Mick at her door. She’d asked, when he phoned, if Charles was with him. When he said that he was, she quickly said that of course they could come over. She assumed it concerned some illegal shit, given that Mick was involved, but she also knew Charles didn’t play that. He was a nasty s.o.b, and he did have that affair with her, but he was still the most honest man she’d ever known. The best man she’d ever known too.
For Kattia, the older she got, the more she realized a profound truth: Charles was the one that got away.
She viewed Mick’s call as providence. She was more than happy to get him back.
But when she saw a woman heading toward the entrance, with Charles walking up behind her, she had to open her screen. And that was when she realized the woman wasn’t just anybody. She was Charles’s wife.
“I know better than this,” Kattia said.
But Mick had a private message for her before his brother and sister-in-law could arrive at the door. “Disrespect my brother’s wife,” he said, “and you’ll answer to me.”
Kattia stared at Mick. She once read where they called him the boss of all the bosses, and vicious beyond belief if you crossed him. And making idle threats, she knew, was something he did not do. This was one bitter pill she was going to have to swallow.
She walked away from the door, and went back into her home, as Jenay approached it.
This was insulting to Jenay, to have to come to this woman’s house, but she’d do it a hundred times if it would help get Amelia back.
So she stood beside Mick, her head held high, as they both waited for Charles to walk up. Mick looked at his sister-in-law, a woman he cared deeply for. “You’re okay?” he asked her.
Jenay only nodded. “I’m okay.” It wasn’t as if Charles cheated on her, after all. But the fact that a man with his sense of right and wrong; the man Jenay used to believe could never have moral lapses, would cheat even on Arianna, disturbed her mightily. This was news she had to digest. This was news she couldn’t just hear as if it was normal and natural. It wasn’t. Not with Charles it wasn’t. Because he wasn’t like other men. He didn’t do that shit!
This was some major-ass news he’d just laid on her.
But for Amelia’s sake, she went with it. They said this woman was their best option: she had to go with it. If this Kattia stayed in her corner, she would stay in hers. If she chose to play the bitch, Jenay could go there too.
And when Charles walked up and led them into that house, Jenay realized it was going to be tougher than she thought. He walked right past her because he knew she wasn’t feeling him right now, and he decided to keep it on the business tip too. “We need guns,” he said to Kattia, as soon as they walked in, and Kattia smiled.
“And hello to you, too, Charlie.”
Jenay’s throat tightened. She thought she was the only woman who called him Charlie.
“It’s so good to see you again,” Kattia added.
But Charles wasn’t playing along. “Don’t fuck with me,” he said. “We’ve got a situation. Tell us where and tell us now.”
“You are such a warm, compassionate sort of person,” Kattia said sarcastically. Then she pointed toward her basement. “Down there,” she said.
Mick hurried in that direction. Charles glanced at Jenay. He didn’t want to leave her with that barracuda, anybody with eyes could tell.
But Jenay was all about the business too. “I’ll be okay,” she said. “Go.”
Charles hurried downstairs too.
“Would you care for a cocktail?” Kattia asked after the men had left.
Jenay shook her head. “No,” she said.
Kattia smiled. “Suit yourself.” Then she sat down in a chair. “Have a seat,” she said. “Or you don’t do that either?”
Jenay knew this woman had done nothing to her, and she had no reason whatsoever to be upset with her. Arianna, when she was alive, had no reason to be upset with her either. It was Charles who had been unfaithful. It was Charles, or at least the image Jenay had of him, that had let her down.
She sat down on the sofa. And crossed her legs.
“Nice legs,” Kattia said admiringly. But Jenay didn’t respond. “I see you come from the Big Daddy school of warmth and affection too,” she added, jokingly.
Jenay still didn’t respond.
“You don’t have to be intimidated by me, you know. I don’t want your man. If I wanted him, I would still have him.”
Jenay just stared at her. Kattia was as transparent as glass to her.
“But I don’t want him. Nope. Not at all. That man? I don’t want him at all!”
“Oh, you want him alright,” Jenay finally said. “With every fiber of your being. And I don’t blame you. But cut the crap, alright? You’re fooling no one but yourself.”
It was Kattia�
�s time to stare at Jenay. Then she grabbed a pack of cigarettes from her side table and pulled out one. She offered one to Jenay.
“I don’t smoke,” Jenay said. “It kills you.”
“So does falling in love with a bad boy,” Kattia said with a smile, “but I don’t see where that stopped you.”
“Charles isn’t a bad boy,” Jenay corrected her.
“Oh, yes, he is. He’s Mick on steroids. And you know it too. Just don’t want to admit it. Otherwise, why-oh-why is he downstairs, in my basement, loading up with weapons? To go play bingo? To go volunteer at the soup kitchen? I don’t think so!”
Then Kattia laughed and leaned back to light her cigarette. “You may be married to him,” she said, “but nobody knows a man like his mistress.”
“His former mistress,” Jenay corrected her.
But Kattia only maintained that smile of hers, and then lit up her cigarette.
If she thought she was going to confuse Jenay into doubting Charles, she was failing miserably. Jenay was pissed at Charles for not coming clean with her when she asked him about Kattia, although she didn’t know her name, after the banquet. But she still trusted him. And believed in him. And would take his word over Kattia’s word any day of the week.
“You say former,” Kattia said. “I don’t.”
“You’re right,” Jenay said. “His former side piece would probably be more accurate.”
Kattia stopped mid-puff and looked at Jenay. And Jenay smiled that time.
And when Charles and Mick came back up from the basement, loaded with all the firepower they needed, including hand grenades that had to have come from Mick’s specially-made white coat, Jenay stood on her feet. They had a job to do, and she wanted to make sure Charles was focused on that job, and not on her.
Charles threw the keys to Kattia. “Put the car in the garage,” he said. They couldn’t exactly walk out in suburbia, in armored vests, armed to the teeth as they were. They would load the car when it was in the garage.
Kattia didn’t like it, but she did it. She left out of the front door.
“Can you trust her to keep her mouth shut?” Jenay asked him.
Mick answered her. “If she doesn’t want to spend the rest of her life in prison for stockpiling illegal weapons,” he said, “or buried in concrete, yes. She knows me. Her brother knows me. We will have no problems with her.”
Jenay nodded. Then she looked at Charles. Charles was staring at her. “You’ll be okay here,” he said, “until we get back.”
“How are you going to approach that mountain? They had so much firepower.”
“We’re ready for them,” he responded.
“Do you have a plan of attack?”
Mick smiled.
“Our plan is to come back alive,” Charles said, “and with Amelia, alive and well, with us.”
Jenay was pleased to hear it. “Good plan,” she said.
Then she moved up to Charles and stared into his eyes. She placed both hands on the sides of his face. “I’ll be fine,” she said. Then corrected herself. “We’ll be fine,” she added, meaning the two of them. “Just stick to the plan.”
Charles smiled. And they kissed. And even Mick could see the burden lifted from him. The stress wasn’t. Amelia’s captivity was the cause of his stress. But at least he knew his woman hadn’t turned against him. At least Jenay was strong enough to press on. That was why Mick loved her. She knew how to chastise her man when he did wrong, but she also knew how to stand by him when he was trying to do right.
When they heard the car driving into the garage, they said their goodbyes to Jenay, reminded her to use her weapon if she had to, and took off. They didn’t feel they had an extra moment to waste.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
They returned to Charlemagne from the back side of the mountain. They drove halfway up, but had to scale the mountain the rest of the way up. The element of surprise had to be on their side, although they also knew, given Hammer, it still might not be enough. But they couldn’t bring an army. They couldn’t wait for one to be constituted, and they couldn’t risk that kind of exposure. They were both fit men. They made it up easily.
But getting into that house wasn’t going to be so easy. And they knew it. They made their way just far enough onto the property to avoid tripping alarms, but also to avoid other less-obvious detections Hammer might have.
“We’ve got to make it loud enough,” Mick said to Charles, “to echo out.”
Charles, who was double-checking his weaponry, looked at his brother. “What the fuck that means?”
“Those shots the last time were on the front side of the house. We need them to respond on the back side. That requires precision. We toss together. That should do it. And as soon as we hear the first gunshot, we have to move. We have to make a run for it.”
Charles nodded. “Got it.”
“Okay. On my count,” Mick said. Then he counted one, two, and on three they pulled the pins out of the grenades and threw them toward the east end of the big estate. Then they fell back, as the explosion was impactful enough to cause them to get back, and loud enough that it created the desired effect. And they waited. Ten seconds. Twenty seconds.
“On my count,” Mick said again. “One. Two.” And on three they removed the pins and tossed even more grenades, at the same east end of the estate. But this time, as they had hoped, the gunman was in place, having heard the first explosion, and began firing away from an upstairs room.
“Now!” Mick yelled and he and Charles took off toward the west end of the house, away from the explosion and gunfire.
Once up near the door, they slammed their backs against the wall of the house and waited. The gunfire continued uninterrupted. They had not been seen.
And Charles took over. Mick got them up to the house, he was taking them in. “On my count,” he said. “One. Two.” And on three he kicked the door in. And he, with Mick right behind him, hurried in.
They hurried in, with their guns drawn, both containing two, and with their bodies crotched and ready for battle. And they found men alright. But every one of them were already dead. Shot multiple times.
“What the fuck?” Charles asked with a frown on his face, as they moved in further.
But they knew they had a live one too: the gunman upstairs. And they ran in that direction, stepping over dead body after dead body inside Hammer’s house, as they did. They were looking with keen, terrified eyes for one particular body: the body of their sister. Praying, as they stepped, that they would never find it there.
Once upstairs, the gun fire was still ongoing. It sounded like machine gun fire to Mick, or artillery fire. Which would make them, despite their arsenal, outgunned.
But they still had that element of surprise, if the continued firing was any indication. And they were ready. They knew it could be Hammer in that room. And Amelia could be in there with him. They had to go in hard, but they couldn’t enter firing.
Mick looked at Charles. Charles silently mouthed one, then two, and then he kicked the door in, and the two brothers went in, once again, in their defensive pose.
The gunman wasn’t Hammer. It wasn’t Ozzie Jones, Hammer’s righthand man, either. He wasn’t anybody they knew. But as soon as he moved to turn that machine gun their way, they couldn’t hesitate. They shot. Only one shot. Because they needed answers, Charles was careful to hit him in the arm. But he wouldn’t quit. He continued to try and turn that gun on them, leaving them no choice. It was him or them. And it wasn’t going to be them.
They took him all the way out.
And it angered them because Amelia wasn’t in that room. They searched every other room too, throughout that house, and there was no sign of Amelia in any of those rooms either. No sign of Hammer or any other living being. The gunman was the last survivor of what looked like a massacre.
But who were these men? And where was Amelia? And where the hell was Hammer???
Charles had to lean against a wall, to regain
his composure and the energy drain his emotional state created.
“I can’t believe this shit,” he said to Mick, who was still walking around, stepping over bodies. Then he looked at him. Mick was the practicing gangster. This kind of craziness wasn’t new to him. “What are we going to do now?” he asked.
“Damn if I know,” Mick said. “What could have happened here? And why isn’t Hammer here?”
Charles had no answers either. He was hoping Mick did. “Let’s get back down that mountain,” he said. “And regroup again. I would call in the cavalry, but what the fuck are we calling them to? We have nothing. No answers. No leads. A big fat zero! This shit is starting to anger me.”
Mick knew what his brother meant. It was angering him too. And, something that rarely happens with Mick, it was beginning to scare him. No answers always meant a tight ship. Whoever was doing whatever they were doing, they were skilled at it. They knew what they were doing.
“Once my men get in town,” Mick said as they made their way out of that house, “I’ll get them to send a crew up here to take photographs of these bodies. Get a scan on every face. They’re working for somebody. We just have to run the scan and find out who.”
“Maybe Hammer’s men since it’s his house?” Charles asked as they walked.
“Maybe,” Mick said. “But I’ve never seen any of them.”
Charles had to admit that he didn’t either. Which only made matters worse.
And as Charles and Mick begin making their way back down that mountain, they could hardly make the journey. They were just that emotionally spent.
And when they got into the car, and Charles began driving them away from Charlemagne, the least sound spooked them. They were on heightened alert.
Charles pulled out his cell phone, turned it on, and saw where he had a missed call.
“Who from? Jenay?” Mick asked.
“No,” Charles said. “Tony.”
Mick looked at Charles. And Charles glanced at Mick. And then he quickly phoned the caller back.
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