Justice Black: The Game Never Ends

by Gartia Bansah

  Kaitlyn soaking wet crawled away and vomited; her mind soon cleared enough to call both dogs to her. With both dogs safely in her arms, she finally stood and searched the darkness for Justice.

  “Get inside, Dr. Joseph!” Dillon yelled.

  “Shoot him!” The man yelled blindly into the darkness. “Dave, shoot him now.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dave cowardly running away. “You coward!” he yelled.

  Dave ran toward the pool house, glanced over his shoulder, and saw two men gaining on him. Lights shined through an open apartment door. A woman stood in it, and he ran toward it.

  Caldwell shouted, “Aurora, get your ass back inside, and shut that damn door!”

  Aurora slammed the door seconds before Dave could rush inside.

  “Let me in!” Dave shouted and pound the door. The pool. There’s a gate leading to the street. He remembered it from the map of this place and ran to the pool area swearing. “Ed ruined everything.”

  A few moments later, a single gunshot was heard in the pool area.

  “You’ve got no one now,” Justice shouted.

  “Steve!” I said shoot this black bastard!”

  Steve stood paralyzed at the edge of the fountain. He was confused and unable to comprehend what to do. His gun rested at his side.

  “Dave! What do I do now” he cried. “What do I do, Dave?”

  Rayford held his gunsight on Steve.

  “Put your gun down, Steve. Lay down on the ground with your hands in front of you!”

  Steve looked at the chaos, then at Elrod holding Sterling facedown in the mud.

  “Get down on the ground, Steve, or I’ll bring you down,” Rayford repeated.

  Steve wept as he lay on the muddy, cold ground being handcuffed. I can’t do it.”

  “You whining bastard,” He sneered. “You and your brother are useless.”

  “Don’t listen to him, Steve.” It was Lane. “These guys will shoot you dead.”

  Between the shooting, Justice saw the man managed to run a short distance to a dark corner of the complex. Justice caught him and kicked him to the ground. But he quickly rose and broke through the crowd of officers, subduing the young rookie, who was caught off guard. He furiously swore as he took his gun and pressed it against the officer’s head.

  “Back off, or I’ll blow his head off.” Desperation was in his voice as he counted to three, but Justice didn’t hesitate and shot seconds before Caldwell and Dillon. The man fell with the frightened officer.

  Kaitlyn nearly made it inside the apartment when Justice heard the dogs barking at Kaitlyn being pulled toward a waiting car.

  Sirens blared toward the complex, and suddenly the media swarmed like locusts. Serenity Place was under siege.

  chapter

  SIXTY-SEVEN

  Justice took a rifle from one of the officers and jetted onto the freeway, battling against the rain and growing darkness, trying to keep the blue Volkswagen in sight. Blood heated in Justice’s ears when the lightning flashed and he saw the driver punch Kaitlyn in the face when she struggled for the wheel.

  “Damn him!” He made a quick call to one of his units and then swore when he saw someone sit up in the backseat of the car. If the car got to the rural area, the denseness of the forestation coupled with the rain would make it almost impossible for anyone to see, but he knew he could do it. His year fighting in the dense forests of the Congo proved that.

  The driver wiped the blood from his mouth where Kaitlyn had scratched him.

  “Bitch, if you do that again, I’ll kill you and throw your body on the side of the road. I should have kept going and forgotten you.”

  This was not his plan. All he’d wanted was to get to Ed, but there were too many officers around. Then hell broke loose, and Dr. Joseph was standing there, free.

  He looked in his rearview mirror and knew Justice was closely behind. He turned his lights off.

  “Foolish bastard. Ed screwed up everything, but I won’t.”

  The car skidded on the newly paved road and nearly ran into the guardrails. He skillfully maneuvered the wheels and branched onto the rural gravel road. The road was flooded. He plowed through anyway, and the car stalled.

  Kaitlyn took the chance and jumped from the car and ran into the woods. Fallen tree branches made running difficult; the thick, muddy red clay made it almost impossible. Fear and her desire to survive dismissed all of that, and she ran even faster.

  Justice jumped from his car before he came to a complete stop, keeping Kaitlyn in sight. Wet branches slapped against his face as he ran. The lightning helped him see Kaitlyn zigzag into the denser part of the forest.

  “Don’t stop, Duchess. Don’t stop,” he repeated. Another flash of lightning showed Tate running in the opposite direction, away from the forest.

  Tevis kept close to the dense underbrush, chasing Kaitlyn. “Everything I planned spoiled because of Ed’s sick obsession with this woman.” He caught up with Kaitlyn, pulled her hair, and threw her to the ground with such a strong, violent force that she screamed in pain.

  Her instincts shouted to fight. She rose with a small branch and swung at him. Tevis took it and then dragged Kaitlyn through the mud as she struggled and bit at his hands. The rain made it harder to keep her in his grip; he yanked her hair to stop her struggle. Kaitlyn was nearly paralyzed she was so scared.

  “I ought to kill you. I told Ed you weren’t worth the trouble, but he wouldn’t listen.”

  Tevis shoved her against a tree. His breathing was hard, and the gun shook in his hands. She was not his problem and not the threat.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “Why am I doing this? We worked too hard for Justice Black to mess this up. He has to be destroyed. After the chairman told me you were his woman, that meant he wouldn’t want you harmed. The soldier boy will come for you.” Even through the rain and darkness, the unnatural look on Tevis’s face frightened Kaitlyn. “You stay here, and if you so much as make a sound, I’ll blow Black’s head off, bring back what’s left, and hand it to you.”

  The rain had slowed to a drizzle. Still the air felt as if death hung in it. It was cold. Kaitlyn silently pleaded to God not to let him hurt Justice.

  “People trusted you. What do you think you will gain from doing this? What about your son, Rodney, and your wife?”

  “You think I came this far to lose everything? Rodney’s not my son. I didn’t care about him. My darling wife Vicky couldn’t forget Cutter. I thought giving her a new name and life would change everything.”

  Stunned hearing Vicky as his wife and everything else Kaitlyn said, “Justice will catch you.”

  “You’d better hope he doesn’t.” He’d wasted enough time and pushed her into the underbrush and fired once.

  Kaitlyn couldn’t move. After the bullet whizzed past her head, her ears buzzed. Her feet were nearly frozen. Although she barely heard him run in the opposite direction, she couldn’t take any chances. It seemed an eternity that she lay there holding her breath, ignoring the pain in her back and head until the sound of sloshing feet came her way. Very quietly, on her hands and knees, she moved farther back into the brush. Thorns stuck into her flesh, but she didn’t make a sound. The distant sound of the helicopter offered some hope.

  The rain stopped. Justice stood and measured the distance of the sound of the gunshot. He heard a faint rasp of breathing. Through the denseness of the brush, he saw Kaitlyn’s bright-yellow top. She wasn’t moving.

  “Oh God, Duchess?” He barely missed being hit with the stick when Kaitlyn swung at him. His usually hard face showed strained relief. Justice pulled her muddy live body to a standing position and briefly held her against his drenched body.

  Crying, Kaitlyn raised trembling hands to his face and touched his forehead.

  “Are you all right? Can you move your legs?” he
asked.

  “Yes.”

  “That’s my girl.” He helped her steady herself when she limped.

  She knew he’d carry her if she wasn’t able to walk. “I can make it.”

  Justice stared in the opposite direction. He had to find Tevis and Tate.

  “He ran across there.” She pointed.

  Rayford and Victoria sloshed through the mud toward Justice. Rayford recognized the same controlled but scared look in Justice that he had when Gracie was kidnapped and wounded.

  “Victoria?” Justice asked.

  “Pen sent for me. It’s what we do, Boss. We’re a team.”

  Justice pulled Rayford and Victoria aside. He didn’t want Kaitlyn to hear. “Don’t use the coroner here, but I need DNA on the guy I shot. It wasn’t Ed. The patch was over the wrong eye, and he limped on the right. I sent a unit to Tevis’ ranch to look for Ed. He may be there. I need Elrod to check for any sarin at Kyle’s ranch. Make sure nothing is left behind.”

  “I got it,” Rayford said.

  “What about Dave Winncott?”

  “He’s down,” Rayford answered. “We have your runner in sight. We’re looking for Mavis.”

  Justice looked back at Kaitlyn who stood shaking. He took his jacket off and gently drapped it over her shoulders, her bright yellow blouse now a muddy mess. “Have the EMT check Kaitlyn don’t let her refuse. You understand.”

  “Don’t worry about a thing.” Rayford assured him.

  Kaitlyn grabbed Justice’s arms before she followed Rayford. “Justice, please be careful,” she begged. “It’s—”

  “I know. It’s Tevis Mitchell.”

  Justice turned back to Rayford and no words were needed when he exchanged rifles with him. Victoria nodded knowing a manhunt was on. “Pick up Genevieve Rayford.” Justice ordered. “She’s the chairman.” He then looked at Victoria and said, “Let’s go.”

  “God no, not Genevieve.” Kaitlyn gasped as she watched Justice run into the woods for the city mayor.

  “Dr. Joseph, we need to go now.” Rayford understood what had to be done and led Kaitlyn away.

  Tevis stood alone, waiting in a copse of pine trees. Tate was to meet him with another car, but there was no sign of him.

  “Where the hell is Tate? I’ll kill him too. Nothing has gone right tonight.”

  Tevis had long decided he was not going back. He was done anyway. If Justice didn’t kill him, Legion would for bringing Ed back only to fail again. The chairman would do what she could to protect him, but the decision was no longer in her hands.

  “Tevis,” Justice shouted. It started to mist. This time wind came with it. “You know how this will play out.”

  Like a cornered animal, Tevis had backed himself into a thick den of blackberry bushes; the thorns poked into his flesh. Even with the moonlight, he couldn’t clearly see Justice. He instead fired in the direction of his voice.

  “Screw you, Black. You think it matters what happens to me now? Ed screwed it up with his obsession with Joseph.”

  Justice shouted, “So you started the fire—for what? Money you will never use. Those lives meant nothing to you. Same as the people dying from that contaminated water.”

  “You’re damn right. They probably didn’t vote for me anyway. I didn’t give a damn about them.”

  Justice carefully listened to the direction of Tevis’s voice. A slight movement from Tevis was all he needed.

  “Tevis, cut your losses. Cutter took your wife; you raised his son. Genevieve was turning her position over to Cutter. You couldn’t handle Kentucky, and she tired of cleaning up your mess starting with your mistress. The chairman seat was the one thing she ever denied you. The two of you set up my arrest hoping I would resist and get shot.”

  “Instead of arresting you, those deputies were told to kill you. And yet you’re here. Why couldn’t you just leave things alone? You would have been paid well to just look the other way. But no, you have what? Ethics? So screw you. You may as well be a damn ghost, and I don’t believe in souls or ghosts.”

  “Maybe I am, Tevis,” Justice said.

  Something quickened inside of Tevis. He’d been a fool. He blindly shot again in Justice’s direction. Justice shot once. Tevis fell. But seconds later he heard a gunshot from another direction. Justice turned and aimed but then saw Caldwell restraining Mavis.

  “Boss, you OK?” Caldwell yelled.

  Justice checked Tevis’s body. “I’m fine.”

  “Did I get him, or was it you?” Mavis asked. “It doesn’t really matter. Is he dead?”

  “He’s dead,” Justice answered.

  “Good,” she said. “He killed my brother as if he’d shot Ed himself. I warned Tevis. I told him what I’d do if he touched my family. Since I was ten years old, Tevis wanted me. My parents wanted him to wait until I was fourteen before he came for me. But he didn’t. He came for me when I was eleven.” She laughed. “How can any parent sell their child like that? When I found out how he and his mother used Andy, I knew I’d kill Tevis. I found out Genevieve was Tevis’s mother, and Senator Kane Wray is his half brother. Tevis needed a kidney transplant, and on some documents Tevis had hidden, Genevieve listed Wray as a half sibling. They were a perfect match. When I was sixteen, even Wray had his share of me until with pictures I’d secretly taken, Cutter contacted Wray and his father and threatened to expose the two of them if his son ever touched me again. So you see, Dr. Black, it doesn’t matter what happens to me now. I was damaged long ago by my family. My life as Vicky Dansworth was nothing. But Cutter always loved me and our son. Cutter and I never had a chance.”

  “Caldwell,” Justice said, “you take care of things here and Ms. Mitchell. Send help out to Tate’s place. Victoria, let’s go. We need to get Tate.”

  “This could be a trap,” Justice warned Victoria as they reached Tate’s mother’s place. “The family is heavily armed, and there are dogs inside the trailer.”

  “Dogs are inside the house where they live? Why?” Justice gave her a quick scowl. Victoria never liked the concept of dogs being kept indoors. “All right Boss, how many?” Victoria could handle herself; she liked knowing what her odds were.

  “There’s at least four people: the mother, Tate, Jeanette, and Tyson and two dogs. You cover the front, and I’ll take the back.”

  Justice wouldn’t have seen Tate if wasn’t for the white dog.

  Tate crawled from underneath the trailer and made a run with his dog. Victoria fired in the dog’s direction when it charged toward Justice.

  Tate blindly ran and didn’t see the trash cans until he nearly fell into them, but he was quick and struck Justice hard. Each man’s blow was equally powerful. Justice’s last blow landed Tate, badly bruised, up against a tree.

  “I’ll kill you,” Tate yelled. “I should have taken the shot at you instead of Kyle. I wouldn’t have missed.” There was deep hatred in his eyes when he said, “Clarissa told me J’miah was mine; I was paying her cash for child support. I found out later she was getting child support from another man. She said it was you. Then she told me J’miah died in a car accident. If you hadn’t taken her from me, she and J’miah would be here with me today. You were supposed to die tonight.”

  With a loud yell, Tate saw another chance and, with a syringe now in his hand, lashed out at Justice. When Justice kicked his leg, Tate felt a sharp, hot, searing pain before he heard the snap and screamed. His leg was broken.

  Victoria and two other officers ran breathless toward the sound of the scream.

  “Boss!” she yelled. Her heart took a big leap when she saw Justice standing.

  “Is everything done?” Justice asked.

  “Yes, sir, Boss. The mother and Jeanette were passed out. Tyson let us in. He seems different from the others.”

  “He is. Bag the syringe. Call an ambulance. The man can’t walk.�
�

  Kaitlyn refused to stay at the hospital. Instead she stood in Justice’s apartment door waiting. She prayed again for the third time tonight. “Please God, protect Justice.”

  Yellow police tape lined Serenity Place’s parking lot. Most of the crowd had gone home. Only a few curious remained. Kaitlyn let out a small cry when she saw Justice.

  “What’s wrong now?” Justice asked when he and Victoria saw that scowl on Caldwell’s face.

  “Boss, it’s not worth me saying it again because you already know what I’d say. We clean flushed that cesspool Kyle called a ranch. The man had an arsenal out there.” He shrugged. As far as Caldwell was concerned, everyone at the ranch served no viable purpose on Earth. They were all hellbent on destruction. “Kyle Lomax didn’t come in peacefully. He’s dead. Rusty Logan didn’t put up a fight at all. I found him hiding in one of the closets. We’re doing DNA on everyone. Bad news, we found a tunnel. Elrod took care of the sarin that was stored out there. There was quite a bit. What was their plan, Armageddon? Kill everyone in sight? Pen wants you to call him when you have the chance. I told him it’ll be a while.”

  Caldwell was still swearing as he walked away to help his team.

  “Boss, what didn’t Caldwell want to say?” Victoria asked.

  “He hates this town, and I should too,” Justice answered as he looked at Steve. Handcuffed, Steve sat sobbing on the ground. His brother was dead.

  “Dr. Black, I sent the photo to Dr. Joseph; I was hoping she’d remember it, and I thought I could come to her later. I never had the courage. I sent the books to Dr. Eastermann.” Confused, he began a fast-paced rocking and talked rapidly.