Jaxson

by Kris Keldaran

  Jax was second in line and he felt an old feeling rise up inside of himself. A smile slipped into place. The cold, terrible one Gunny Adams called it, a wide, teeth bared snarling grin. Any time someone saw it, they knew something crazy was about to happen. And now that death's head rictus made itself known. He nodded his assent, tapped Xavier on the ass so he knew to move, then followed him. Time slowed as he charged around the corner, pistol up and firing.

  *****

  Kehau had gathered the students around her, doing her best to calm fears and wipe away tears. Sione stood in the center of the room, holding a gun in one hand and a tall bottle of vodka in the other. He would look around the room anxiously, then take a pull straight from the bottle, occasionally making jokes with his fellow hostage-takers.

  If he hasn't changed his routine, he's probably drinking on an empty stomach, Kehau realized. He’d definitely be feeling the effect of the alcohol soon.

  "We've got nothing to worry about, keikis," she said soothingly.

  "But they have guns, Ms. Makoa!" a student protested.

  "Leilani, do you know what stops a bad man with a gun?"

  Leilani shook her head. "No."

  "A good man with a gun. And there's a whole bunch of police headed this way.”

  “Shut up!” one of the other masked men in the room barked at her.

  Until the day she died, Kehau would never forget what happened right then. The men standing in the hallway went down, blood, bone, and brains flying everywhere. There was no sound, aside from the strange popping noise made as their heads exploded like gore-filled balloons. Instantly she threw herself in front of the students trying to push them all into the corner. “Turn around and close your eyes, keikis!” she screamed.

  The man standing nearest the door wheeled around and started to step through it. His Uzi wasn’t even fully up before he fell back into the room, a massive knife of some kind stuck in his neck. Blood splattered against the doorframe in thick red spurts. The children were crying, and Sione was panicking. He motioned for the other masked man to move toward the door. The man hesitated, shook his head. That was when a canister rolled into the studio. Smoke filled the air. Now she couldn’t see anything.

  From the direction of the door area where the other man had been standing, she heard a double thump. Sione stumbled to the window, coughing and hacking every step of the way. The window cracked open and the smoke started to drift outside.

  That was when five men appeared, wearing body armor and holding guns. They formed a semi-circle around Sione. One of the men was covered from head-to-toe in blood and ichor. She couldn’t make out his face for the grinning skull faced—mask. He looked like an avenging angel of death.

  That mask gives me nightmares. Don't want to see the man underneath at all. He probably wears it for good reason.

  Sione turned to see the men standing less than a dozen feet away.

  "Sione Akamaka, you are under arrest," one of them announced.

  Sione looked at them, a wild crazed glance before he started to swing his gun up toward the children in the corner, finger depressing the trigger as it went.

  Several things happened at once: in a flash, Skullface threw himself at Sione, as the two nearest the children dove in front of them. Sione and Skullface collided against the wall in a THUMP, but the stranger came up first. He slugged Sione’s jaw with a gauntleted fist, breaking it as a spray of teeth and spit followed.

  Still, the wounded Sione tried to fight, which only seemed to enrage the giant assaulting him. Picking Sione up over his head, like he was weightless, the giant pitched him through the opened window in an explosion of glass and a roar.

  Sione fell out of sight, and Kehau imagined she could hear the sound of his body hitting the ground two stories below.

  There was a groan from one of the officers in front of her as he rolled to his feet. "Feels like I got kicked by a damned mule!"

  Why does that voice sound familiar?

  He turned her way and she saw two silvery looking dimples in his chest.

  Those are bullets. Oh my god those are bullets! she mentally screamed.

  "Ma'am, are you and the kids okay?"

  “I want my mommy,” Leilani cried out.

  “We’re gonna get you there in a quick moment, sweetheart,” the man assured her, then turned back to Kehau.

  "Nothing we can’t fix later," she told him.

  "Good, have them hold hands and keep their eyes closed, then follow us please."

  The man in the skull mask went through the door first, then two more men. Leading the children by hand, Kehau followed in their footsteps as they traveled down the hall and out of the building, the last two men at her rear. By her count there had to be eight bodies in the hallway, shot or stabbed to death, or in the case of a thug in her classroom, head neatly cut off like a chicken in a butcher shop. No reason for the kids to see that, I hope they all kept their eyes closed.

  At the building entrance, the man in the mask paused. Standing behind him, she wondered what he was waiting for. Pausing, he clicked the safety on, then lowered his gun on his hip and yelled out to the police forming a perimeter outside, “Coming out! All hostages alive and well! All tangos down!"

  She knew that voice! But there was no way he’d be here. He was just a consultant, right? And he's mad at me. The question wouldn’t leave her alone though, and she couldn’t hear anything else. Officers rushed into the building as paramedics took the children and began looking them over to check for any injuries as parents watched fearfully. Kehau noticed none of it.

  The big man had pulled off his mask as he spoke to a pair of officers, but he was still facing away from her. Even with his back to her though, she recognized the sleeve tattoos running down each arm.

  When he turned his head to one side to address an EMT, Kehau knew it was him. Beyond any shadow of a doubt—it was Jax. But what was he doing here? She started to walk toward him, numbly, when a police officer approached.

  “Hey, Jax."

  "What's up, Sam?" Jax asked.

  "Got some reporters asking questions."

  “Live TV?" At this, Sam nodded his head.

  Jax sighed. "You know I hate reporters."

  "Think of them as free advertising."

  "Okay, but do me one favor."

  "What's that?"

  "Make sure the cameras don't get turned off until I say so."

  Sam smiled almost as evilly as Jax. "Deal." He walked over toward where a public affairs officer was trying to keep the reporters contained.

  “Squad leaders to me, fall in!” Without another word, Jax checked his appearance in a car window one last time. To his right the four men with him were in a precise, neat line, weapons at their sides.

  “Weapons at low ready, gents.”

  Smoothly the four men complied.

  “Right FACE!” Pause. “Forward, MARCH!”

  He lied to me! She watched them move toward the crowd of reporters. He never said what kind of consultant he was, another part of her brain spoke. Logic had no place in this argument though, not with emotions running high. Kehau was plenty mad.

  “Ma’am, do you need some help?” Sam, the officer who had approached Jax, asked.

  “How do you know Jax?”

  “Jaxson Kuznia?”

  “Yes, he’s my boyfriend. We’re… Arguing right now.”

  “Well, he’s about to be on camera. Follow me.”

  He led her to a command vehicle of some sort where the operators were enthralled watching as Jax and the other men marched up onto the dais behind the microphones.

  “My name is Jaxson Kuznia. I am the CEO of Jaëger Guard LLC. I am a veteran of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, as are all the men behind me. We provide tactical training and support to organizations like Honolulu PD. Today, we received word that a hostage takeover had occurred on Hawaii Pacific University’s Kaneohe Campus. We made entry, neutralized all threats, and secured the hostages. Questions?”

/>   The stunned reporters looked at him as if he’d grown a new head. One of them, more astute than his colleagues, raised a hand.

  “Mr. Kuznia, when you say neutralized, do you mean killed?”

  “Of course.”

  “What gives you the right to do that?”

  “There were twenty-nine children in that room. Which of them would you like to see dead?”

  “But, but…”

  “Which of those children deserved to die today?”

  That question skewered him like a deer caught in headlights, and he wisely chose to shut his mouth before he made more of a fool out of himself.

  “They were a group of Nanakuli boys, drugged up on heroin or PCP, maybe both, with Machetes, guns, and a room full of hostages. As it is, one of my men took two rounds to his bulletproof vest when Sione Akamaka tried to shoot at the children and their teacher.”

  Kehau was furious. She turned to Sam. “So he’s not a consultant?”

  “He is. But it’s not all he does.” Sam gestured at the building behind her. “When crazy assholes decide to hurt people, Jax and one of his teams get sent in to deal with it.”

  Logic started to speak up, and Kehau batted it aside. She hated lies and half-truths. Absolute honesty. All the time. Something her relationship was obviously lacking.

  “I really need to go home right now. Can you have somebody grab my bags from inside and escort me to my bike please?”

  He looked her over curiously. Whatever he wanted to ask though, he kept to himself. “If you’ll give me a moment, I’ll radio for somebody to bring them out.”

  “Thank you.”

  The whole ride home, Kehau was silent. Her mind was still in shock over what she’d seen. Why hadn’t he told her what he did for a living? Was it so hard to say I teach people how to kill. Then again, maybe it was. Trust. That was what it came down to. Obviously he didn’t trust her enough to tell her everything. What other secrets was he hiding from her? Why was he so resistant to her?

  “Hey, Sam, you see a dark-haired wahine around here, wearing gray yoga pants and a Kahuku shirt?”

  “About same height as you, green eyes?”

  “Yeah that’s the one,” Jax confirmed.

  Sam shook his head as he sidled up beside Jax. “Tell me something, brudda, did you ever have the chat with this wahine?”

  “What chat? Where is she?” Jax demanded.

  “She left right in the middle of your press conference. And by the look on her face, seems she had no clue what you do for a living. She did not take it well.”

  Jax’s face fell. “You told her, didn’t you?”

  “Well you obviously didn’t. Man up and tell her.”

  “Go fuck yourself.”

  “That’s go fuck yourself ‘uncle’.”

  Jax started to walk away.

  “You don’t get to walk away, boy!” Sam barked.

  Jax turned to face him. “So I do what, Uncle?”

  “Tell her the truth about yourself, damn it!”

  “And what if I want to try to fix things with her?”

  “If she can’t love all that you are, it means she wasn’t the right woman anyway. Why the hell do you think your Aunt Kalani stuck by me all these years?”

  “They don’t make ‘em like that anymore,” Jax argued.

  Sam snorted. “Nobody’s ever made for it, boy, they grow to it. Hell, look at you. You didn’t just pick up a rifle and become a gunslinger presto-bango-boom. You grew to it, you learned how to be one. And you did a damned good job of it.”

  He clapped a hand on his massive nephew’s shoulder.

  “But at the end of the day, even hardass gunslingers need somebody to go home to. Go tell her the truth.”

  “Think it’ll do any good, Uncle?”

  “Only one way to find out. And if it don’t, well Aunt Kalani’s making Portagee sausage empanadas tonight.”

  “If that’s the case, I may just let Kehau sleep on this and talk to her tomorrow.”

  Sam punched his arm. “Knock it off. Go talk to your lady, boy. And don’t screw up this time.”

  *****

  Kehau didn’t know how long she’d been sitting there, looking out across Ka’elepulu Pond. She knew she’d been there long enough for her bottle of Budweiser to go completely flat. It was the second bottle she’d grabbed out of the fridge. She'd wanted something harder, but nobody had gone shopping yet for more. The first bottle was drained in a single pull, but the second, that one she was nursing. Damn that man, why couldn’t he just tell her what he did? Was it that hard? Lifting the bottle to her lips, she realized it was empty. Disgusted, she threw the bottle in the direction of the trashcan.

  “You missed.”

  Kehau jumped out of her seat with a scream. Standing there not quite twenty feet away, still dressed in bloody pants and shirt, was Jax. Calm, deliberate. As always.

  “I didn’t tell you what I do for a lotta reasons. Mainly for your security.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Whatever, cat’s outta the bag. You know now.”

  “Yeah I kinda do.”

  “Also didn't tell you because most of my clients demand privacy. It's written into the contracts.”

  “I don’t like contracts a whole lot.”

  “If you wanna walk away from us and whatever we are, go right ahead. I don’t blame you. But if you stick around, understand that I'm not changing my profession. It’s what I’m good at, and what makes me happy.”

  Kehau was taken aback by this. She was so used to Sione’s guilt trips and pleadings. But there was Jax, as unrepentant as ever. The more she thought about it though, the more she realized she couldn't blame him. She'd watched him kill nearly a dozen men in a loud, shockingly violent manner. The same hands which held her had been used to sever a man's head from his shoulders! She'd watched him throw another man out of a building! Their blood was liberally sprinkled across his clothes. Could she see anything good in him ever again?

  Yes. The answer boiled up with a huge swell of pride. Her man ran toward danger. Her man risked life and limb to protect her. Her man had saved all the children with her. Her man had more courage than anybody she'd ever met. But first things first.

  She slapped him. As hard as she could.

  "That's for walking away! You have a problem with me, sit down and talk, we'll figure it out together. Got it, Marine?"

  Then she kissed him. Hard and fast and greedily, her hands wrapped around his neck.

  "I love you," she whispered huskily into his ear. It was the first time she'd ever said those words to him. “I love you, Jax."

  She kissed him. "Still need a date for that fancy event of yours?"

  "Normally, I'd take my girlfriend, but I hear she's mad at me. Might have decided I’m no good and she should dump me. I was thinking of taking Aunty Ipo instead."

  Kehau smacked his arm. "You punk!"

  "I'm kidding, I promise," he swore, wrapping her up in another kiss.

  "If I go dress shopping day after tomorrow, I should be just fine," she told him. “But first I have a question. Every time I kiss you, you get super-tense. I know that's not normal. I just don't understand why you do it. Who hurt you?”

  Jax’s face took on a sad look for a moment. “Her name is Shyler Williams. She was my fiancée. I was three months along in Afghanistan on my last trip when I got a letter from a friend full of pictures and an SD Card of videos. She was cheating on me, with a sailor she met on base. Fucking and sucking him in our bed, in the house I bought for us to live in after we got married.”

  Kehau’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh that's awful! I'm sorry, Jax.”

  “I was on suicide watch for a couple days. They wouldn't let me go on patrol or be near ammo at all. I called the friend up via Satphone. He promised to handle it.”

  “What did he do?”

  Jax’s face brightened. “Officially, absolutely nothing. Unofficially, a video found its way onto her company’s website of her and him, quite clearly engaged in
sexual acts. She got fired in two heartbeats. The same day, my house caught fire and burned to the ground. She lost everything. I might have had all my stuff sitting in somebody’s garage safe and sound.”

  “Wouldn't she have gotten insurance money though?”

  “Not when everything was insured in my name.” He cast his eyes around, bitterness woven all throughout his words. “I gave her everything and she betrayed me.”

  “You still see her at times, don't you?”

  “You'd think after three years it gets easier. It doesn't. Especially when she’s the last woman you were with.”

  She kissed him then. Slowly, and with purpose. Give yourself to me and we’ll make new memories together, Johnny Rocket, Kehau silently promised.

  “I should probably let you know that I brought pizza and cheesy breadsticks over for dinner,” he volunteered helpfully when they came up for air.

  “Pizza and breadsticks sounds perfect. Oh and Jax?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Us needs to go visit my parents tomorrow. I should probably tell my mother about you before one of my cousins does.”

  “I was curious about that.”

  Kehau sighed. “I was very emotionally invested in my relationship with Sione. My parents and I got into a fight about it one night, and I stopped talking to them. That was almost ten months ago.”

  “Well hell. Guess we should pick up flowers for your momma on the way over. In the meantime call her and tell her you're okay.”

  “And this is why I keep you around, you think of everything.”

  Chapter Ten

  In walked her daddy

  Standing six foot four

  Said you ain't gonna swing

  With my daughter no more!

  Warrant

  Marcia Makoa was in her element overseeing the family party going on in her back yard. Plenty of food, beer on ice, and cousin, Randall, had just brought a fresh tray of haupia out from the kitchen. Laughter filtered through the air, and she was at ease.