Coming For What's Mine pt 2: The Politician (Law Boy's Series)

by Edwina Fort

  I stood for a moment and stared at the shower. My hand lifted as if it had a mind of its own and touched the glass. Just the other day, Jo made love to me in this shower, I remembered the claw marks my fingers made in the steam as I grabbed onto the glass, needing an anchor or anything to let me know that I was not dying of pleasure.

  Snap out of it, Journey! If you’re going to get over him, you can’t be thinking about how awesome the sex was…

  I made quick work in the shower, not able to stand amongst those memories. The moans and the quiet screams that had come from my lips that day now haunted me. But that wasn’t where the ghost of amazing sex past ended. I found myself standing in front of the bed staring at the sheets and blanket that still carried the scent of us.

  How can I sleep in this big bed without him?

  Tears filled my eyes as I angrily began to rip the sheets off the bed.

  I hated him!

  I hated him!

  I hated him, because I loved him still…

  Disgusted with myself I curled up on the empty bed in a fetal position and cried myself to sleep.

  Joseph

  My head felt like it was going to explode. It happened again. These black outs…or more like transferal of personalities. It used to happen a lot while I was in the military. And even a few times in the field.

  God…Journey had to witness it!

  She looked at me as if I was a monster. She was so afraid of me. I would do anything to turn back time so that she never had to see that side of me. I didn’t even know how to begin to explain it to her.

  Hell…I really didn’t understand exactly what happens myself.

  One minute I’m in control and if I sense real danger, it’s like I step aside so that a more lethal version of myself can step in place. It’s still me…sort of.

  All feeling disappears, my emotions shut off so that I can do what needs to be done. During that time, I don’t feel love, or anger or pain. I feel absolutely nothing. And when my emotions come back on I’m generally surrounded by a pile of bodies.

  I pulled up to my lonely penthouse and just killed the engine. I did not want to go in there. I wanted to go back to the cottage where the warmth was. Where my heart was.

  Damn, she asked me to let her go…

  Of course, I said yes, I’d f***** up, what else could I say? But I had no intentions of honoring that. There was no way. I needed her like I needed air. She did something for me that has never been done. She made me feel love. She breathed warmth into my cold heart. There was no way I could give that up. I’d rather go back to the Navy and enlist for another forty years.

  Getting her to agree to stay in D.C. was the first step. She’d gotten out of my car confident that she would be able to be this close to me and resist my pull on her. I chuckled, she actually thought I would behave. I don’t know if that spoke more about the purity of her spirit or the absolute scoundrel in me. I would unapologetically do anything to keep her.

  Lie, kill or steal….

  That was the last thing I remembered thinking before I woke up, or rather came through to consciousness in handcuffs. I still could not open my eyes. Without a shadow of a doubt I had been drugged.

  My father and the strange man that sounded so familiar continued to argue. Were they talking about me?

  “You do your part and I’ll do mine. If anyone even suspects that one of the Law brothers is becoming aware, they are going to start making sacrifices to save their own asses and guess who are the lowest men on the totem pole and just right to become the scapegoat.”

  “Speak for yourself, senator. This is not my first rodeo. I know how these bastards work, and I’ve prepared for it. If this thing goes south I am a ghost.” The man my father spoke to had a very calm voice, it was so familiar, yet…distant

  The memory of that voice seemed just out of reach. I racked my brain causing more pain in trying to place it.

  “What about the oldest brother, has he been found?”

  “No. I believe he’s dead.”

  “What makes you believe that?”

  “I have trained them to always come back to me, no matter what. If he was alive I would know.”

  “And what about his handler?”

  “Also dead.” The man paused for a moment. “Speaking of handlers, when you cut the ties, you’ve got to get rid of the old man, they’ve become too close.”

  My father exhaled. “I’ll cut the ties…you regain control of him. If he doesn’t announce his candidacy soon, Jeff is going to come for my head. Macon Technologies paid for a president and a president they’re going to get.”

  God dammit!

  They were talking about me. I balled up my fists, using all my strength to open my f****** eyes. What the hell was going on? Who was this man my father was talking to? And who the hell was the Law brothers? Where had I heard that name before?

  Rome!

  He’d asked me if I knew a man named James Bennet Law…my eyes opened.

  “Ahhh!” I yelled as a piercing alarm went off inside my head. The pain was blinding. A door opened and my father and a man dressed in a lab coat stepped into the room. I went to look at the man’s face, but the alarm got louder in my head.

  “Ahhh!” Gritting down on my teeth I tried not to pass out from the pain.

  “F***, do you think he heard us?” My father asked.

  “It doesn’t matter, when he awakes from this he will not remember a thing he’s heard.”

  I cursed when I felt the sharp prick of a needle. Seconds later everything went black.

  ***********

  When I came to, it was to see Albert’s ugly mug staring down in my face with concern. I frowned.

  “Why the hell are you staring at me like I’m dying?”

  He visibly exhaled. “You were in a car crash, kid.”

  What?!

  It was then I noticed the beeping of a heart monitor. I was lying in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm.

  What the hell?

  “How did I get here?” I asked sitting up in the bed.

  “Ahhh!” My damn head was killing me.

  “Take it easy, man. What part of you was in a car crash didn’t you understand?” Clutching my head, I turned so that my legs hung over the side of the bed. Confused I looked around.

  “How in the hell did I get to the hospital? And what is this nonsense about a car crash?” Albert picked up the remote and turned up the news.

  “Breaking News…Authorities say a drunk driver coming down the one way in the wrong direction crashed head on into newly retired Senior Special Agent Joseph Warren’s car doing over thirty miles per hour. We are told that he was rushed to the nearest hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries.”

  Albert muted the television again.

  “What the hell?” I was drawing a complete blank.

  “You don’t remember having a head on collision?”

  “No.”

  “What’s the last thing you do remember?”

  I thought past the pain in my head. “Journey dumping me.” I moved my arms rotating my shoulders. There was no pain anywhere else but my head. How could that be if I’d been in a head on collision?

  Albert was now looking at me with a thoughtful look. But I was already one step ahead of him. Throughout my life I’ve experienced two kinds of black outs. One that seemed almost natural to me. Although, it was a change of personalities per say, I still remembered everything that happened.

  However, there was another black out that have happened where there was a vague memory, but it was just out of reach. Always just out of reach.

  “Anything in the news about me trashing a restaurant and leaving a pile of bodies?”

  Albert shook his head. “Not a word… But then again, it never is. What happened?”

  I exhaled. “One minute I was beating the sh*t out of that poetry reciting bastard. And the next I was surrounded by some cats dressed in full military gear. They didn’t trigger my alter u
ntil one of them picked Journey up and slammed her on the ground, hurting her.” I shook my head.

  “The rest was history. When I came through again I was surrounded by bodies. Nothing new there. However, this accident.” I shook my head again. “That sh*t didn’t happen.”

  “What did happen?”

  I rubbed my hand along my head to my neck, trying to rub away some of the stiffness. “I don’t know….”

  Albert slapped his hat against his thigh. “They f***en with your head, man! And I’m telling you, your dad got something to do with it. Something ain’t right with them people.”

  For as long as I could remember, I’ve had Albert in my life. To a lot of folks, he appeared to be an old man enjoying his retirement years and before that, my driver. But looks were misleading. Albert was one of the deadliest men I knew.

  Like me, he’d been a military man in his youth. He enlisted in the army at the age of seventeen. By the time he was twenty –three, he had been recruited for a hostage rescue and counterterrorism force, one of the “Tier One” units. They recruit almost exclusively from other SOF, in particular the 75th Ranger Regiment.

  Now, he was what our government considered retired and extremely dangerous. The old fox liked to argue that he had a more impressive military career than I. Because of course in his day, the enemy was smarter, stronger and faster. Albert said the world wide web was turning the world into a bunch of pu*****. His words.

  Although that was a bunch of poppy cock, I still trusted him with my life and the life of my woman and child. He has been telling me something has been going on with these black outs that I have no memory of for a while.

  At first, I waved that away as nonsense.

  But now…

  Now, I was beginning to believe him. There was no way in hell I was in an accident. I sat for a minute and eternally checked my body again. Outside of my head I wasn’t feeling any pain anywhere else. This accident story was a bunch of bull****.

  He lifted his hand to rub his head. “I don’t know, but whoever it is, they’re messing with my head too.”

  Also something he’s been saying for a while.

  “Do you have pictures of the wreck?”

  He took out his phone and scrolled through it. This is why I trusted him with my life. He’d heard I’d been in a crash and I don’t doubt he’s done a full investigation already, which is why he knows I spoke the truth when I say it didn’t happen.

  “They said the car came at you head on at thirty miles per hour.” He handed me the phone.

  Son of a *****! My damn car was totaled.

  “It’s only one problem with their story.” He took the phone and scrolled through a couple more pictures before handing it back.

  “Them bastards!” I hissed, feeling rage waking up inside of me.

  Albert had taken a few close-up shots of the smashed-up hood. Deep in the creases were brick particles that who’d ever smashed my car into a wall missed when they were cleaning up behind themselves.

  “You got to figure this thing out, kid. You can’t keep pushing this to the back burner. You got a woman and child now that you need to keep safe. Whoever is playing with your head is now a danger to them. You understand that, right?”

  I nodded balling up my fists wanting to destroy something. When it was just me and Albert was spouting what I thought at the time was nonsense that was one thing, but now things were not adding up. And there was no way I was taking a chance with Journey and Ayana’s lives.

  “You’re not going to want to hear this, but I don’t think you can trust your parents. It may be wise to hide your hand from them.”

  He was right, I didn’t want to hear that. I mean it was true that I didn’t come up in the warmest house. My parents weren’t the type that heaped on the affection. I don’t think I could ever remember them telling me they love me or me telling them for that matter. They often spoke about how proud they were of me, but that was about as far as their endearments went.

  Still, they are my parents. What Albert was suggesting was unimaginable.

  “You probably shouldn’t trust them noodle necks down at the bureau either.” He grunted. “Hell…you’re in a tight spot, kid. I don’t know where you should even begin your search.”

  “I do,” I told him, as my soul cringed at the thought.

  He chuckled. “Journey’s brother…”

  I nodded. “I’d rather work with a leprechaun than work with that bastard. But if it means keeping my family safe, I’ll do what I have to do.”

  Albert nodded. “I never doubted you would.” He paused for a moment. “So, she left you, huh?”

  I exhaled shaking my head. “Yep.”

  “And what? You gon’ give up?”

  I chuckled. “Hell no, I already got a plan.” I pulled the IV out my arm coming to my feet. “I’m going to need your help to pull it off though.”

  He didn’t budge out of his chair, just looked up at me with a skeptical look. “You do know I’m trying to get her mother to the altar, right?”

  I made my way over to the closet where my clothes had been hung. “Good for you, old man. But what does that have to do with me asking for your help?”

  “Don’t give me that sh*t, I didn’t just meet you yesterday. You’re up to some kind of trickery. You damn politicians are as crooked as the letter S and you want to pull me into your f*ckery!”

  I laughed as I slid my legs into my pants. “Oh, don’t pretend like you’ve never participated in my shenanigans. Now that you’ve found you a good woman you’re suddenly a saint, huh? If she knew half of the things you’ve done in your miserable life, she’d be on the first thing smoking.”

  It was his turn to laugh. “Whatever you say, young buck. Unlike you, I know how to play the game. You let your girl catch another woman on your arm. My Abby Cat know I only got eyes for her.”

  Damn his words stung. I couldn’t believe I’d let that dumb sh*t happen. I thought I had time. Chloe was the furthest thing from my mind. She wasn’t even important enough for me to dump as soon as I knew Journey was the one.

  But that’s alright. I’m not the kind of man who wallowed in my mistakes. I don’t accept defeat and I never give up. Albert knew me well. I was desperate and not above trickery. What ever it took to get my woman back in my arms I was willing to do. Period!

  “The way you going, I’m gon’ end up married to the mama…before you can even get a ring on her daughter’s finger.” He still chuckled at his own relic a** humor.

  I shook my head. “Don’t bet on that, pops…Like I said, I have a plan. Get ready to sit back and take notes, I’ll show you how to tuck your tail and plead with your girl to come back like a boss.”

  Albert erupted in laughter.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Overlay for The Underplay

  “Misery won’t touch you gentle. It always leaves its thumbprints on you; sometimes it leaves them for others to see, sometimes for nobody but you to know of.”

  -Edwidge Danticat

  Journey

  They say when depression falls on you, you can feel it all the way down to your bones. My mother says depression is a demonic spirit that’s attracted to your pain. She says that it grabs a hold of you and feed off your grief. And to keep its food supply coming, it continues to feed you lies and doubt so that you can sink further and further into its greedy clutches.

  I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I do know when I opened my eyes the next morning, my whole body was in pain. I had to drag myself out of my bed to tend to Ayana. As I fed her my mind raced with thoughts of failure. It was just me and Ayana before Jo came into our lives and I was doing just fine. So now, why does it feel like I’m going to crumble and fall without him?

  And what the world did I witness yesterday? I was a hundred percent sure that Jo had a split personality, one that was deadly. What the hell was I supposed to do with that information? And what about all the men that he killed in the restaurant? I’m sure that
once the press got wind of it, self-defense or not, his chance for running for office was shot.

  I gave Ayana her bowl of cherry puffs and put my head in my hands. Goodness! Everything was a mess. And poor Kyle, when Jo was done with him his face looked like ground beef. Oh! Man!

  “Wow, Journey, you look like your best friend has died.” My mother said coming into the kitchen to fix her a cup of coffee.

  “I feel like my best friend has died. Well…at least dead to me.” I muttered without taking my face from my hands. It hurt to even hold my head up. I felt like I was drowning. Life without Jo was unthinkable.

  “You ready to talk about it?” She asked as she took two mugs out the cabinet. One she prepped for chamomile tea and the other she prepared for her coffee.

  I took my hands down sitting back in my chair. “Nothing to talk about. Found out Jo had a fiancée, got embarrassed out of my life, ran and hid in a motel room and cried my eyes out for two days.”

  My mother sat a steaming cup of tea in front of me. I leaned over and just inhaled. The smell of chamomile is so very soothing. Yet this morning, it did little to soothe me.

  “How do you know it was his fiancée?” She asked sliding down in the chair across from me with a cup of coffee in her hand.

  I just stared at her for a minute. What kind of question is that? Did she think I was making this up?

  “Because he came into the party with the heffa on his arm, and then the news reporter asked him if they were going to be announcing their engagement soon!” Even though I tried to school it, my words came out a little snappy.

  My mother wasn’t fazed one bit. “Soooo… they’re not engaged?”

  I looked at her as if she had grown a building out her head.

  “Don’t look at me like that! You the one that just said the lady asked when they were going to announce their engagement, which means something that has yet to happen.”