by Mike Dagons
Roc had been instructed to stay off his feet for at least a week. His injuries were extremely painful, so they were keeping him heavily sedated. Bender had given the household staff the week off, and they had the van loaded and ready to go.
Blue was driving, and Bender was in the front seat next to him. Trent was sitting in the seat behind the driver, and Doc Ramsey was in the one behind Bender. Melvin and Roc were on bench cots in the back.
Bender keyed in the sequence of numbers to open the gate from his tablet, and he got a blip, and a ten second delay before the gate started to open. “What the fuck is this?” he stared at the computer screen in his hand.
“What is it?” Melvin asked from the back.
“Ice sent me a text message last night that was auto tagged with a worm, and it delayed the delivery. Somebody is in my system,” his voice drifted off as his fingers flew wildly across the keyboard. “The muthafucka has been intercepting my messages, and he put up a wall to keep me from detecting it.”
He read the message from Ice, and then immediately began debugging and reconfiguring his system. It shut down ten seconds to reboot, and when it came back online, he got a flashing red light warning; “INCOMING HELLFIRE!” he shouted, and Blue dropped his foot on the gas.
Bender would have known Jeff Basin had infected his system even if Ice hadn’t sent the text. It was protected by a guardian viral detection program that he wrote, and even though Basin’s program had been able to fool it for a few hours, it wouldn’t have been able to hide forever. It was responsible for the malfunction in his hardware. Little things like the delay in opening the gate would have, and did, alert him to the intrusion. With the system functioning at a hundred percent again, he went to work on getting them out of there and off the island alive.
Trent, the only man in the van that didn’t already know how Genesis operated in a crisis situation, asked, “What do we do?”
“Outrun the muthafucka,” Blue answered while he expertly handled the speeding vehicle. “Unbuckle your seatbelt, son. You may need to jump.”
Trent didn’t have to be told twice. He unfastened the belt and got down low next to the seat like Doc was doing.
“Bender, you know what they’re using?” Melvin asked in a voice way too calm for the moment, Trent thought.
“Predator C drone,” Bender answered in a voice equally as calm while his fingers flew madly across the android device he had attached to his laptop. “It’s too close to kill. It’s going to hit,” he said a second before his beautiful beach home was reduced to rubble.
The explosion shook the ground, but Blue, an ex-stunt driver, didn’t lose control of the van. “They’re using two drones,” Bender reported. “The Predator I can override the controls, but the other is a variant of the Reaper. It has a heavily encrypted guidance system that’s going to take more time than we got for me to redirect it. The son of a bitch is tracking us.”
“Then we’ll have to stop it the old fashioned way,” Melvin said. Ignoring the pain in his leg, he rolled off the cot onto the floor.
He winced as he picked up the mortar gun and propped it up on his shoulder. He was glad he had let Doc talk him into taking a pain shot. His leg was throbbing, but it was bearable. “Open the doors, Trent, and then grab Roc and get back behind me,” he said.
Trent stepped around him and pushed the disengage button, and the double doors opened and flew off the hinges. He dropped back and pulled Roc, who was still fast asleep, off the cot and onto the floor with him behind Blue.
“Wait for it, Ryan,” Bender said. “Wait for it, FIRE!” he commanded when the missile was released.
Melvin aimed the big gun at the missile streaking towards them and fired. It was different from firing a M40, in that it required more control to hit a speeding target.
Melvin wasn’t concerned about that because his sniping skills were unmatched. He could hit any target he could see, and he was so disciplined he could hit eight out of ten targets blindfolded.
The mortar round hit the missile, and it exploded in the air, but the force of the explosion lifted the backend of the van off the ground. Trent and Doc were pushed back against the front seats. Trent held Roc between his legs, and Melvin dropped the mortar, rolled over onto his stomach, and held on.
Blue held it steady while it skidded forward balancing on the two front tires. “Holla when you need me to stop, Ryan,” he shouted, deciding to keep rolling with the backend elevated.
Melvin got into position with his M40, and when he spotted the drone, he shouted, “Now, Blue!”
Instantly, Blue came to a screeching vertical stop, perfectly balancing the vehicle to keep the backend suspended at a 45 degree angle for one, two, three, four seconds, which is exactly how long it took for Melvin to target the drone’s rotary-wing, shoot it, and then hit the other missile under its belly.
Bender took over the control of the Predator and crashed it into the other UAV. They exploded, and then spiraled out of control, dropping out of the sky like somebody pulled the plug.
The van bounced back down on all four tires hard enough to make the struts cry in protest. “We’re clear, so let’s get the fuck outtá here,” Bender said.
“Man, I’ve never seen anything like that,” Trent blurted excitedly.
“You think that was something? You should see me in action,” Roc said.
“Muthafucka, you finally decided to wake up?” Blue shouted, and they all enjoyed a minute of relieved laughter.
“Basin has been reading our communications for the last forty eight hours. Anything you sent out this morning, he knows about, Melvin,” Bender reported.
Melvin counted the text messages he’d sent; “Choc, Valow, and Severe. Can you warn them?” he asked.
“I already have,” Bender replied.
Chapter 8
Desmond was sitting in a window seat in first class when he saw Kenyah and Severe Payne walking up the narrow aisle on their way to coach seating. He reached over the woman in the aisle seat next to him, and tapped Kenyah on her arm. She stopped and said, “Hi Desmond,” in a cheerful voice, and then proceeded up the aisle.
Severe gave him a subtle nod as she passed, and he craned his neck to look over the back of his seat to watch them for as long as he could. “Who is she?” the woman next to him asked in an agitated voice.
“We use to work together.” His answer was dismissive, but she persisted.
“Is that all you used to do together?” she eyed him.
He redirected his focus and looked at her like she was reptilian. “When I asked you to come with me to Paris, I did make it clear that I was meeting my wife and kids there. Didn’t I? In case you didn’t get the gist of it. It meant that I was not interested in making you my woman.”
“Really, and exactly what are you trying to say?” she twisted in her seat and looked directly at him. “That I’m not your only side chick?”
Gloria Collins worked with him at M-Style Data Company. She was forty, which was actually eight years older than him, but she was extremely attractive. They’d worked together for years. He’d always known she was interested, but he’d been faithfully married. His status hadn’t changed, but his ideas about his marriage, and the way he did things, had. So he decided to do what his wife had been doing their entire marriage, and act like he was single. He had taken Gloria up on her offer to have an unattached sexual relationship. He had emphasized the unattached part, and he hoped she wasn’t trying to change their agreement.
If Kenyah hadn’t called and told him that she was quitting M-Style, and shutting down what they had going, so she could dedicate herself to rebuilding her marriage. He and Gloria never would have happened. Kenyah was supposed to be out of his life forever, and he was never supposed to see her again, but here she was on the same plane to Paris with him.
“I invited you to come along on this trip because I like you. I enjoy being with you, but you need to remember that we are not in a relationship.”
&nbs
p; “So, what you’re saying is we just fuck buddies. Does that mean I should expect you to fuck other people?”
He was not going to have a relationship fight with her on a crowded plane. “Actually, I’m finished talking about it,” he tilted his seat back and closed his eyes.
His trip to Paris was courtesy of the Genesis Group. It was supposed to be a family vacation, and was intended to put some distance between him and the Lincoln Scott case that he’d inadvertently gotten himself and his family involved in, when he witnessed Kenyah’s kidnapping.
Melvin Ryan had given him tickets to Disneyland Paris with accommodations for his family, and suggested he leave right away. He sent his wife, Vectra, ahead with their boys and her mother, but he delayed his departure for a few days so he could spend some quality time alone with Gloria.
When Desmond shared his plans to go to Paris with Gloria, she’d begged him to let her go with him. He didn’t see how it would be a problem as long as she agreed to pay for her own expenses. He had his ticket, so all he had to do was change his seat at the boarding gate so they could sit together on the flight. He was enjoying her company, but clearly she was reading something more into their relationship than he intended.
Severe sat by the window, and Kenyah took the aisle seat next to her. Chanay and Sam sat directly behind them, but they didn’t look like they were traveling together.
“Is it a coincidence that Desmond is on this flight with us, or did you call him?” Severe asked after they all settled in for the long flight.
“I haven’t been in contact with anyone,” Kenyah answered testily.
She didn’t like all the moving around, and she didn’t like doing it without Trent. If the danger was real, then why wasn’t he allowed to go with her? She had asked that question, but Trent couldn’t give her a satisfactory answer. He just did whatever his big brother told him without question. He was asking her to blindly trust him like she’d done before. None of it made sense to her, and she had warned him that she was not going to be dragged back into their old life where she was expected to spend ninety percent of her time alone.
“Kenyah, I’m only asking because I want you to remember how important anonymity is to our safety,” Severe said. “Any leaks can seriously threaten our lives.”
“So I’ve been told a thousand times, although no one can tell me why. I’m tired of hearing it, and I’d thank you not to tell me again,” she tilted her seat back and closed her eyes.
Severe glanced back over her seat at Sam and Chanay to see if they’d heard their exchange. They indicated they had with head nods.
Chanay leaned over and whispered to Sam, “I hope that bitch don’t make me get ghetto and beat her ass.”
Sam suppressed a chuckle, and then she lowered the shade on her window, reclined in her seat, and closed her eyes. Melvin had sent them together because four girlfriends visiting Paris was not an unusual occurrence. Severe was a trained Genesis assassin, and she was assigned to protecting Kenyah. She and Chanay had enough self-defense and weapons training to be formidable opponents in a fight. So he thought they were equipped to take care of themselves, especially if they all stuck together.
Kenyah had been bitching about going with them since they left the island, and they were all sick of it and her bad attitude. If she couldn’t understand Melvin was doing it this way to save their lives, then maybe she didn’t deserve to live.
As soon as most of the passenger lights were out, Desmond got up and walked back to coach. Kenyah had been pretending to be asleep so she wouldn’t have to talk to Severe, but when she looked up and saw Desmond walking up the aisle towards her, she sat up straight.
“Hello, ladies,” he said, but his eyes were on Kenyah. He frowned when Severe ignored him, and turned to look out the window.
“Hi, Desmond,” Kenyah smiled.
“Severe, can you exchange seats with me?” he asked.
Severe looked at him. “My name is Mildred,” she answered curtly. “And the answer is, NO.”
She was a petite white girl with dark hair, and pretty brown eyes. She looked innocent enough to be a Mildred, but he knew that she was much more dangerous than she looked, so he decided not to get in an altercation with her, and turned his attention back to Kenyah.
“Can I talk to you for a minute, alone?” he covered her hand with his.
Kenyah couldn’t believe the sexual charge she got simply from touching his hand. “Sure, Desmond,” she cooed. She ignored the subtle jab Severe gave her, and got up.
Desmond stood back so she could get in front of him, and then he followed her as she rushed down the aisle towards the stairs to the lower level lavatory.
Desmond followed close on her heels, and when she darted into the compact bathroom, he squeezed inside with her and locked the door.
He took her face in his hands. “You want me as badly as I want you?” he murmured, and then pressed his lips to hers.
“I want to talk. Why aren’t you in Paris with Vectra and the boys?”
“I had a few things to take care of at home, so I sent them ahead. I’m meeting them in a few days. Genesis gave us two full weeks so we’ll still have plenty of time to spend together. I was surprised to see you walking on this plane,” he pushed his tongue in her mouth, and kissed her deeply.
“Are you sleeping with your wife, now?” she moaned against his lips.
“No, you’re all I’m able to think about,” he lied, because he didn’t have a condom, and he didn’t want to give her a reason to deny him her body.
He pushed her back against the basin, hiked up her skirt, and dipped his fingers in the silky moisture dripping between her thighs.
Kenyah stopped pretending she only wanted to talk, and spread her legs wider while deftly removing his penis from his pants. She closed her hand around it, and he moaned, “Damn, I want you, baby.”
“I want you, too,” she admitted.
Desmond ripped off her thong, and she guided him to the right place. With his eyes fastened on hers, he sank into her slowly while watching her surrender to the pleasure.
Desmond gripped the undersides of her thighs, pulled her forward, and buried himself in her to the hilt. “You feel good,” he grunted.
Kenyah braced her hands against the walls in the tiny room to give herself the leverage she needed to match his stroke. She locked her legs behind him, and thrust her hips forward as the need to be satisfied grew more pressing. Desmond gripped her butt, and lifted her up off the basin and pumped her harder.
“Oh God, Desmond,” she moaned as she peaked.
Her climax was pulsating hot, and so damn wet it triggered his. He pushed into her a final time, and welcomed the sweet release that made his body tremble. “Damn, baby,” he moaned, and captured her mouth with a succulent kiss.
Kenyah hadn’t planned to give herself to him on the plane, but he was so damn hard to resist.
“I love what you do to me,” he whispered in a puff of breath, while he was still sheathed inside her.
“I love it, too,” she sighed. “I’d better get back to my seat before my guard dog comes looking for me.”
“I thought the danger had passed.” He pulled out of her, and then gently lowered her legs to the floor.
“It has, mostly.” She smoothed her skirt down over her hips.
“Can I see you while we’re in Paris?”
“I can’t keep doing this, Desmond,” she met his gaze.
“What, buying new thongs?” he joked, and then dropped hers in the garbage.
“No, having sex with you, especially in public places,” she giggled.
“Come to my hotel room when we get to Paris. I won’t be leaving to meet Vectra for a few days. We can spend some quality time together.” He kissed her nose.
“Where are you staying?”
“The Hôtel George V and you?”
“I’m not supposed to tell.”
“You can tell me. Who am I going to tell?” He added when she hesitated.
She thought about it a second, and then said, “The Hôtel de Crillon.”
“Promise to call me tonight so we can hookup.”
“I’ll call if I can get away from my bodyguard,” she kissed him again, and then opened the door and pushed him out.
Kenyah looked at her reflection in the mirror, and combed her fingers through her hair. She didn’t doubt her love for Trent, but her attraction to Desmond was something she couldn’t deny. She touched her lips, and remembered the way his lips felt pressed against them.
She yearned for the way he made her body ache. She’d wanted to resist, but in the end, she couldn’t. The desire she had for him was too strong, and the need he stirred in her too great. She absolutely could not get enough of him. “You had better get it together, girl, because you love your husband,” she spoke quietly to her reflection in the mirror.
She used soapy paper towels to wash between her legs, and then she threw them in the trash, and walked out of the bathroom. Severe was standing there like she was waiting to get in, and seeing her made Kenyah feel self-conscious.
“You finished?” she asked in an annoyed clipped tone.
“Yes, you didn’t need to follow me.”
“Yes I did. I’m not supposed to let you out of my sight. I don’t think you realize how real the danger is to all of us. It is not just about you.”
“I don’t think you realize just how sick I am of hearing it,” she strutted off, and then ran up the stairs, and went back to her seat.
Severe took a deep breath, and tried not to entertain the thoughts she was having about killing the bitch herself, and saving Luther the trouble. Since she was standing there, she took a minute to use the bathroom before she returned to her seat.
Chapter 9
When Desmond got back to his seat, Gloria was gone. He figured she had gone to one of the other bathrooms on the plane, so he didn’t worry about her. He had asked her for the window seat when they boarded the plane, but now that he knew Kenyah was on it; he wished he hadn’t. Having the aisle seat would make it easier for him to take another trip to the lavatory if Kenyah happened to get the urge to talk to him again.