by Mike Dagons
The two story farmhouse was miles off the main highway, and it was stocked with food, clothes, medicine, and plenty of ammo and hot water, so they all got a chance to take a hot shower, and Choc cooked them a hot meal.
It was the first time they had been able to relax in days, and they welcomed the normalcy of feeling comfortable and safe for a little while.
Chapter 23
Valow was put in one of the upstairs rooms, and I stayed in the room next door to it with the doctor. She was sitting in one of the arm chairs watching my every move. “Are you still going to kill me?” she asked.
I gave her question some thought before I answered. She had saved Valow’s life, but I wasn’t sure it should buy her absolution. “Your brother is responsible for the death of my wife and unborn child,” I stated.
“I know,” she said, and got a double take from me. “Cynthia told me while she was assisting me in removing the bullet from Valow’s chest. She loves him. He is in exceptional health, and I do expect him to make a full recovery.”
“Thank you for that,” I answered curtly.
“Killing me won’t bring your wife back, and it won’t hurt my brother like you think it will.”
“So you’ve said,” I replied.
“I’m not a security risk. I can’t tell anybody about you, or what I did to save your friend without losing my medical license. Your secret is safe with me. You don’t have to kill me,” she pleaded. “Just drop me off someplace and leave me.”
“Shut up!” I screamed, turning on her in a rage with my Sig pointed at her head.
“I’m sorry!” She recoiled, violently falling backwards out the chair to put some distance between us. She was backed up in the corner trembling like a scared rabbit.
I hated myself for bullying her. I didn’t like what I’d allowed Monique’s death to turn me into. I had become a man without a conscience that was full of hate. I realized that a piece of me died with every person that I killed, but I didn’t know how to stop the anger from consuming me.
I put the gun away, and then walked over to where she was cowering on the floor. “I’m sorry,” I said, and she looked at me with tears in her eyes.
I reached down, picked up her chair, and guided her back into it. “If Valow lives, I’ll let you live. Now get some sleep while you can,” I said, and then walked out the room.
I started to go downstairs but then I stopped and stood with my back to the door. I was tired so I wasn’t operating on a hundred, but I still sensed that there was something off about the way she had cowered away from me.
The whole time she’d been with me. She had shown me nothing but nerves of steel. I’d been standing guard over them while she was working on Valow, and I couldn’t remember her doing anything but barking orders at Cynthia. They certainly hadn’t had a friendly conversation about me and Monique, or Cynthia’s love for Valow.
Thinking of Monique made me remember something she’d once said to me. ‘You are much too vulnerable to tears, Ice. Sometimes bitches just be acting to get you to feel sorry for them,’ remembering the words prompted me to go back inside.
I opened the door and saw that she had gone into the bathroom and closed the door. I was getting ready to knock when I heard her talking, so I put my ear to the door and listened.
“I’m with Ice, four men, and a woman,” she said. “Ceylon Battle is one of them. He is working with him. Ice came for me like you said. I’m sorry I didn’t listen,” she whispered. “The one they call Valow was shot. He can’t be moved, so you can ambush them if you can get here quickly. We’re in a—”
I kicked the door open and clubbed her with the butt end of my gun before she could finish the sentence. She dropped into unconsciousness, and I snatched the cellphone out her hand and let her fall to the floor.
“Nicole! NIKKI!” Basin was screaming when I put the phone to my ear.
“Hello Jeffrey,” I answered coldly. “I had actually started to feel sorry for this bitch, but there was something about her trembling with the fear of God that didn’t ring true to me.”
“Ice, this is between you and me. Leave my sister out of it,” he barked.
“I got your message,” I answered, and then ended the call. I took the battery out her cell, and then stomped it before I dropped it in the sink and ran hot water on it.
I mentally kicked myself for not searching her or tying her up before leaving her in the room alone. She was a part of that fucking family of serpents, so I should have known better than to cuddle her in my bosom like she was a furry pet.
I reached down and grabbed her by arm and dragged her unconscious body out the bathroom. “Bring me some rope up here,” I spoke into my Voxer, and Anakin and Ceylon both responded.
They all came up together, and Ceylon was carrying the rope. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“I caught this bitch calling Basin. I stopped her before she gave him our location, but I don’t know if he has the capability to track her anyway.”
“I’ll call Bender and put him on it,” Choc said. “Where’s her phone now?”
“In the sink in the bathroom,” I answered.
Choc went into the bathroom and when he came out, he had the smashed up, wet thing, in his hand. “I’ll make the call downstairs,” he said, and then left the room.
Nicole stirred into consciousness, and immediately, her hand went to the bump on the back of her head. “Ahhh,” she grimaced, and then squinted up at us. Fear sparked in her eyes when her head started to clear. “I didn’t—”
I slapped her hard enough to bloody her lip. “Bitch, don’t you tell me another lie,” I barked. “Where is your brother?”
Immediately, she dropped the scared rabbit act and stared up at me meanly. “I don’t know!” she snapped.
“I heard her tell him that you’re working with us, Ceylon. You better let your father know that he needs to beef up security on your family.”
“That was taken care of when I decided to come on board,” he assured me.
“What you know about me?” I asked the doctor.
“You’re a heartless murderer who killed my father and stepmother because you were too much of a coward to face my brother like a man!” she spouted.
“Damn, your brother told you that,” Ceylon chuckled.
“Okay doctor, this is what you should know. I am going to kill your brother for helping Luther kill my innocent wife, but first I’m going to ask you some questions. Every time you say, I don’t know. I’m going to cut off one of your fingers,” I held my hand up, and Anakin put a hunting knife in it. “Now, I ain’t never seen a nine fingered surgeon, but maybe you’re more talented than the rest. “Where is Jeffrey?”
“I told you that I don’t know!” she screamed.
I pinned her arm with my knee, and then put the blade on the tip of her little finger. “I swear I’m not lying! Please, I’m sorry about what happened to your wife. I don’t know where Jeffrey is, please!” she begged franticly.
I stopped and studied her. Thought…what if she’s telling the truth. I glanced up at Anakin, and he said, “You want me to do it?”
“She doesn’t know,” I said, not knowing if I really believed it, or if I’d just lost the taste for butchering the innocent.
I flipped her over and hog tied her. I dragged her over to the closet, threw her inside, and then closed the door. The house was air conditioned, and I’d been careful not to bind her hands tight enough to prevent circulation, so she wouldn’t be too miserable in there.
Choc walked back in the room, and interrupted the silent stares Ceylon and Anakin were giving me. “Bender says we’re safe. He put out some signal scramblers,” Choc reported. “He also got a name to match that address Leon gave me. “Mario Fletcher, aka Cherry LaCreme, female impersonator, and Luther Scott’s one and only true love,” he said.
“So the muthafucka do care about somebody,” I smiled.
“You bet your ass,” he laughed, and understanding the pu
n. We all laughed with him.
Chapter 24
Valow opened his eyes and looked at Cynthia sleeping in bed next to him. He was hooked up to an IV pump, and a constant drip of fluids was being infused into his bloodstream. He started to peel away the tape holding the needle in place in his arm, and she covered his hand with hers, and stopped him.
“Don’t take it out. I had them stop the pain meds this morning, and the doctor removed the Foley catheter. It’s just saline and antibiotics in the IV. No pain medication,” she assured him, and he relaxed his hand.
“I should have known I wasn’t getting pain meds by how bad it hurts,” he cracked a smile.
“I have the shot,” she showed him the vial she was holding in her hand. “I know what to do if you want to ease your pain.”
“No, I don’t want to become dependent on anything that can be taken away. That’s why I want,” he hesitated.
She was looking at him attentively like every word he said mattered. No one had ever looked at him that way that he wasn’t holding a gun on. There was no fear in her eyes, only love, and it made what he had to do just that much harder.
“What? What do you want? Tell me, and I’ll get it, or do it if you’re feeling that much better,” she wiggled her eyebrows jokingly, and it made him laugh.
“You’re a special lady, and you’ve done so much…you’ve made me very happy, but whatever this is between us,” he said and stopped when he saw her expression turn hard.
“Go ahead and say it. You’re breaking up with me, aren’t you?”
“Cynthia, it will never work. You’ll get me killed, or worse, I’ll get you killed. I am a man who has too many enemies to be in love. I can’t buy a house and settle down because I can’t stay in the same place too long for fear of being a sitting target. People want to kill me just so they can boast about being the man or woman who killed the phantom killer. You would give them something to use against me. You would be a liability that I can’t afford,” he stopped when he noticed she wasn’t responding or even attempting to argue the point.
Cynthia sprang out of bed and ran out the room slamming the door behind her. “Well, it’s done,” he closed his eyes and let his body relax, but the pain in his chest was ten times greater than it had been minutes ago. He missed her already, and he couldn’t ever remember feeling so depressed. Not even when he was in the prison camp. It had to be done, he thought.
The door slammed open, and she marched in with the silver plated Walther aimed at him. Valow startled upright in bed, “WHAT THE FUCK?!” he shouted. “Hey, put that down!” he stretched his arm out to reach for it.
“You want to make any last statements before you die?!”
“Cynthia, put the gun down. You don’t want to accidentally shoot somebody,” he spoke in a quiet tone.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Anakin stepped in the doorway smiling, and Choc stood looking over his shoulder.
Anakin had been passing by their bedroom door, and had inadvertently overheard Valow’s speech. He had seen her storm out the room, and she marched right by him and busted into Choc’s room without knocking. “Give me Rayce’s gun,” she’d demanded.
“Why?” he asked.
“It doesn’t look like it is too heavy for me to handle, and I want to shoot Valow!” she’d stated pointedly.
“Okay,” he’d said, and she’d come out with it in her hand.
“It’s not going to be an accident. I’m going to kill you now, since you too fucking afraid to live! They should have named you the zombie killer because that’s what you are! A fucking scary cat that is sleep walking through life because really living and feeling might hurt too damn much! You think I’m a liability? Then you teach me how not to be one! You don’t break my fucking heart. You don’t kick me to the muthafuckin’ curb because somebody might try to use what you feel for me against you! You PHANTOM IDIOT! Her eyes were filled with tears, and she had the gun barrel pressed to his forehead.
He had realized halfway through her rant that he’d been an idiot, and she wasn’t bluffing. She was actually mad enough to shoot him. He also knew that Rayce’s gun could only be fired by her hand, so he wasn’t worried about her shooting him in his head even if she pulled the trigger. Choc and Anakin knew it too, and it’s why they were standing there looking amused.
“What’s going on, Cynthia?” Ice asked when he stepped into the room with Ceylon behind him.
“She’s going to shoot Valow with Rayce’s gun for breaking her heart,” Choc answered, and Ice instantly understood why nobody was trying to disarm her.
“Sis, I don’t want to die,” Valow responded calmly.
He wasn’t a public person, and he’d never formed any personal bonds outside of the Genesis Group. Outward signs of affection and public displays of emotion were foreign to him. Everybody watching them knew it except for Ceylon, so they were all surprised to see him having a love spat.
“You already dead, Phantom!” she spat angrily.
Anyone could see that she was serious, and Ceylon thought about disarming her, but since the others were clearly amused. He decided to stay out of it, too.
Valow kept his eyes on hers. No one had put a gun to his head in more years than he wanted to think about. Russian roulette had been a form of torture back in the camp. After he escaped, he’d hunted and killed every one of his tormentors. Nobody could truthfully say that they had pulled a gun on the Phantom killer and lived to talk about it.
“I realize now that I was being stupid. I don’t want you to kill me because,” he hesitated and cut a quick glance at his audience who were thoroughly enjoying his awkwardness. Ice even took out his cell and took a picture, prompting the others to do the same. Cynthia was so angry. She hadn’t even noticed that they were being watched.
“I love you, and living without you would kill me quicker than this gun you’re holding to my head.” He wrapped his hand around hers and the gun, and pulled her down into his lap.
Valow looked into her eyes, and the love he saw for him in them made him forget anybody was in the room with them. “I love you,” he repeated, and he didn’t care what anybody thought about it.
“Then stop trying to cut me out of your life,” she caressed his cheek lovingly.
“Then marry me,” he kissed her.
Instantly the room was filled with cheering and applauding, making Cynthia realize they were being watched. She broke off the kiss, and covered her face with her hands.
“Is that a yes?” Ice grinned.
“Oh my God, yes,” she exclaimed, and Valow hugged her to his chest.
“Damn, y’all better than a hot bath and a soap opera,” Anakin said, and they all laughed when Valow flushed red with embarrassment.
“Man, you got so much color in your cheeks, we’re going to have to stop calling you the phantom,” Choc joked.
“Y’all get the hell outtá here,” Valow laughed.
They all started filing out the bedroom. “Hey Choc!” he called, and then tossed him the Walther. “Order one for Cynthia for me.”
“You got it,” he smiled.
“Nice work, Sis,” Ice said. “You’re the only person in the world to live after putting a gun to Valow’s head. I can’t wait to tell Ryan. I think I’ll call him now,” he laughed when she threw a pillow at him, and then he closed the bedroom door on them kissing.
Chapter 25
With the morning’s entertainment over, it was time to get back to business. I went into my bedroom and pulled the doctor out the closet, and untied her.
I had been keeping her locked away in the closet for the three days we’d been at the safe house, only taking her out for meals and bathroom breaks.
The down time had given us all a chance to rest and reboot. We had been in constant communication with Ryan, and had learned through him that Severe and the women were safe and secure as were our parents and the children.
Bender had used his cyber expertise to locate another safe house for them t
o hold up in. It was a completely new location that hopefully not even CIA Cobra could find.
Being well rested and assured that my loved ones were safe gave me a new sense of purpose. I was focused and ready to get back to hunting my enemies.
“Leaving me tied up like this is cruel.” The doctor pouted when I pulled her out the closet.
“Lady, you haven’t seen cruel,” I cut a glance at Anakin sitting in a chair across the room from us, and he saluted her.
“Who are you, his cheerleader?” she snapped, and before she could blink. Anakin had slapped her.
Her hand went to her cheek reflexively, and she stared at him in amazement. “No one can move that fast. It’s not humanly possible,” she said.
I knew what she was thinking because his speed was nothing short of supernatural. One minute he was twenty feet away, relaxed in a chair. The next second he was standing in her face after having hit her.
“Your brother left me tied to a chair with a man he called, The Doctor, Nicole,” Anakin spoke to her quietly. “The Doctor had a variety of sharp instruments that he had already used on the dead man they had tied in a chair next to me. Jeffrey Basin is a cruel man. It stands to reason that you know some of the horrible things that he has done. But I guarantee that you have never known the kind of brutality I’m capable of engineering. Now, you’re going to dispense with the condescending outrage and call that muthafucka. You will tell him that Anakin Fury has you, and if he’s forgotten what that means. He should read that file with my name on it that he showed me.”
Anakin offered her his phone. It was an extraordinary instrument that was used exclusively by Genesis field agents. It was bio encrypted, and couldn’t be cloned, and the calls made from it couldn’t be traced. It was also a homing device that was linked to the other phones like it. The unique feature could be activated by using a genetic decoder that was programed in each person’s phone.
Basin had managed to hack into the system briefly, but Bender had fixed the vulnerabilities in his firewall. He had also upgraded the system and gave the phone more capabilities. Now it could instantly pin the location of any number it was used to call.