by S. K. Lessly
Good fucking riddance you piece of maggot dog shit.
Next up, Perchenko and his band of assassins starting with Emily Parsons.
13
Misty
Holy fucking shit!
I collapsed into the club chair in front of Shane's desk, after Shane left his office, and closed my eyes.
My breaths were still coming fast and my heart hadn’t stopped pounding against my chest. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. Shane… damn that man.
I knew when I had left Malcolm’s office; I’d hear it from Shane. I could tell he was pissed but I had no clue as to why. Didn’t he know Malcolm and I were just friends? Malcolm’s touch on the side of my face was nothing. In fact, he had done it plenty of times, in front of Shane no less. What made this time any different from the past? I had no clue.
You’re mine. No one touches what’s mine, that’s what he had said to me and I couldn’t help the shit-eating grin that accosted my face right this very moment. He was jealous. He had no reason to be jealous, especially of Malcolm but I felt all warm and fuzzy knowing that he had the same possessive nature I had.
I shouldn’t have been surprised by his reaction. I had been equally jealous when he disappeared with Malibu Barbie the night of Malcolm’s birthday party.
We had moved to a place in this relationship where there was no turning back. He had told me he loved me and that I belonged to him. It should scare me, but it didn’t.
However, as I thought about the secrets I held, things could possibly change. I wasn’t sure how he was going to take the news I kept something this big from him, but I knew it wouldn’t be favorable for me.
After several minutes, I felt myself calming down. I made my way to the bathroom to clean myself up. Shane kept clean linens underneath his sink and I used a washcloth to freshen up. I also fixed my hair and tried not to look as if I had just been possessively fucked. Unfortunately, the bastard ripped my shirt. I rummaged around his bathroom and found a folded t-shirt in a small basket underneath his sink. I grabbed the shirt, smelled it and groaned. His scent was all over the shirt.
Not caring if the t-shirt was dirty or clean, I peeled off the rest of my ripped shirt and threw it in the garbage. I then pulled his over my head, tied it in the back and took in my reflection. Yup, I looked as if I had just been fucked right out of my clothes.
I shrugged. Eh, no matter. I stepped back into his office and finished getting dressed. I put my boots on and made my way to the door. I slowly opened it to find his sergeant’s desk empty, thank fuck. I did not want to take the walk of shame, especially since I was walking out of his office with Shane’s shirt on. The little fucker was scared of me, though. He probably wouldn’t have said anything to me. Still, I was paranoid like that and if he had looked at me funny in any way, I would’ve beat his ass.
I started for my office, thinking of what all I needed to do before I left for the day, when Nickels grabbed me.
“Misty, you need to see this.”
I didn’t take too kindly to the tone in his voice, but I overlooked it. The man looked stressed, more so than usual. With that in mind, I followed him, without a word, to the geek squad section of our office. It was only him inside the huge space and he quickly went to his desk and logged into his laptop.
I grabbed a chair and saddled up next to him to wait. Once he seemed to have everything ready, he turned his twenty-two-inch monitor my way. On the screen was a freeze frame of one of the interrogation rooms in our old location of Hell on Earth. I leaned forward a little and took in the scene before me. There were four people in the room, Crasse, Noah—who looked to be chained properly—Sweets, and finally Davies. Realizing what I was looking at, I brought shocked eyes to Nickels.
“I thought the security footage was destroyed?”
Nickels shrugged and didn’t answer my question. Instead, he started tapping away on his laptop and the screen came alive. Ignoring the fact that he didn’t answer my question, I brought my focus to the screen in front of me. There was no sound. There didn’t need to be. Based off what Sweets told me about her meeting, I could follow along without any problems. I was eager to put reality to the story Sweets had given me, not that I didn’t believe her. I just needed to see everything for myself, to draw my own conclusions on behaviors, body language and shit like that.
The scene had unfolded just as Sweets had described. Crasse walked out of the room but not before he threw Sweets a scathing look. She had told me that she felt uncomfortable when he walked past her.
Okay, so far so good.
Once he was gone, things continued to go as any interview would. Sweets was sitting across from Noah no doubt asking him questions. Noah sat cocky and arrogant, his body language giving off the vibe of insolence.
As the interview went on, I could see Noah getting to Sweets. Her posture told me all that I needed to know. She was scared but she was also getting pissed. This was probably when he was baiting her, telling her how he fucked her sister. I swear he was a low life son of a bitch and so was her sister. I made a note that if I ever saw that bitch again, I would knock her the fuck out on principle.
I continued to take in the footage and noticed the moment when things started going to hell in a hand basket. It was obvious Sweets was losing control of the interview. Noah was running shit, pulling her down with him as each second ticked by. Sweets, however, didn’t go down without a fight. I had to give it to her, she did try to gain control back when she slammed her hand on the table, but it was no use.
I smiled at her efforts. However, as I told her, a man like Noah didn’t respond to that kind of behavior. They needed a bit more finesse before they behaved. As I suspected, Noah still seemed uncooperative. Until he wasn’t.
Sweets asked him something and I could see the tension leave his body replacing it with… what was that fear? Then all hell broke loose. The lights went out.
“Change to infrared.” I said quickly, not wanting to miss anything, but Nickels was already typing before I could get the request all the way out.
Changing the footage to infrared illuminators allowed me to see the room despite the lack of ambient light source. The second the screen changed to a green hue, and allowed me to see inside the dark room, I almost stopped breathing. Noah had Sweets flush up against him, the chains connected to his wrists around her neck. He was choking her as he backed away from the door and Davies.
I leaned forward and watched in horror as the revelation of what had truly happened in that room came to light. Sweets had come extremely close to losing her fucking life and it had nothing to do with the chain wrapped around her neck.
I slammed my fist on Nickel’s desk, rage boiling in my veins, and said to no one in particular, “I should have killed that motherfucker right then and there.”
In fact, as I continued to watch the video in silence, Noah wasn’t the only person I should have killed. As Sweets struggled in Noah’s grip, that son of a bitch Davies stood there as if he had no care in the world. Sweets had said he was trying to help her, but as I watched him lean against the wall, Davies was doing the exact opposite. He was waiting for Noah to kill her. He wasn’t protecting or trying to get to her like Sweets had originally thought.
Seething and wanting to murder someone but helpless to do anything, I continued to watch the video. The footage suddenly changed from infrared to regular lighting. I turned to look at Nickels and raised my eyebrow at him. He nodded and answered my unasked question.
“This was when the security alarm shut off and the lights were restored in the building.”
I gave a quick nod of my head and brought my eyes back to the screen just in time to see Sweets began to beat the shit out of Noah with a chair before Davies grabbed her.
Fuck, I wanted to be proud of her, I really did. But I was too gone to feel anything but anger.
When the screen went dark, I stared at it blankly, unable to say a word. Sweets had told me what happened to her, but her explanatio
n and actually seeing what happened were two different things. I wanted to kill. I wanted to maim and destroy both Davies and Noah. Fuck, I couldn’t believe what happened.
“It’s bad isn’t it?” Nickels asked me and I turned sharply in his direction.
“What do you think? Do you have any idea what’s going to happen when Josh finds out Noah tried to kill his wife; again!”
I ran my hand through my hair and blew out a breath.
“Do you know where Sweets is? Does she know about the footage?” I asked, finding it hard to reign in my fury.
“Yeah, she knows. She said she was going home to get herself together and wait for Josh. She was going to speak to him tonight.”
I blew out a breath. “Good. I think if she talks to him before he sees this footage, things would be better for her. If that man sees this before he talks to Sweets? Well, I don’t have to tell you what’s going to happen. Josh will destroy this city brick by brick until he finds Davies. Not to mention he’s going to rip Noah into tiny little pieces.”
We both fell silent after that truth was spoken, both of us probably visualizing the carnage that would definitely ensue. I knew I was anyway. I shivered at that thought and so did Nickels. We both looked at each other noticing our reactions and shivered again.
“Please tell me you’re close to finding Davies?” I asked.
“We are hot on his trail but the man is slick. We haven’t been able to locate him yet.”
I stood and stepped back from his desk. “Yeah, well for you and the rest of the geek squad I suggest you work harder. Once Josh gets a whiff, he’s going to want results like yesterday.”
I had walked out of geek squad city fuming for multiple reasons. I felt cheated in a way, lied to of course but mainly denied retribution. Had I known what really happened that day, that it was that bad, I would have killed both Noah and Davies the second I saw them.
I mean I should have killed Noah based off what Sweets had told me. She downplayed everything. She claimed he didn’t want to kill her, he wanted to help her and that her moving about caused the bruising. From what I had just seen that shit wasn’t true.
She also warned me against Davies, but I should have followed my gut with that too. That day I felt something was off. It was why I had asked Junior to investigate the bastard. To know I was right gutted me and shamed me. I had failed my best friend, my sister.
The truth that Davies could have killed her made my stomach hurt. I had no doubt that if I hadn’t shown up when I had he would’ve done just that. The big fucker knew his plans were shot the moment he saw me. I wasn’t an amateur and the fact that I entered in the facility undetected and right under his nose told him I wasn’t to be trifled with.
But not killing Davies when I had the chance was the least of my problems. Shane was going to be beyond pissed at me. They all were, Josh especially. He and I had squashed all the shit with Simon’s case. We were good now, but after he sees this video, we were going to be right back there. I failed to protect his wife. I kept a secret from him, from all of them, and I knew they wouldn’t understand why I did it. It wouldn’t matter that I had every intention of telling them everything. Shane wouldn’t care that I tried to tell him today. All they’d care about was that I kept a secret from them…again!
I had strolled out of the building to my car with a purpose. I called Sweets to see where she was and prepare her for Josh, but she didn’t answer her phone. I called Shane just to see if he was still in Hell and he didn’t answer his phone either. I didn’t expect him too. But I had hoped that maybe shit didn’t go well and Noah clammed up. Or maybe they were working on Noah now and he was telling it all.
I groaned at that thought feeling the dread seep through my pores. I sat in my car unsure of what to do or where to go. Then I made a decision. I started up my car and peeled out of the parking lot. As I drove into the city, toward my destination, I sent a prayer to the Lord above hoping he hadn’t given me the love of my life only to take him back.
Shane
I finally made it to the war room, which was down the hall to the left of the interrogation room. The war room was our gym. The space naturally had gym equipment, i.e. free weights, a couple of stair-climbers, ellipticals, and treadmills. They were placed in the back of the room. In the middle of the room was a ring. Everyone on my team was proficient in hand-to-hand combat. Skills ranged from Muay Thai, jiu-jitsu, boxing, to Krav Maga. We all needed a place to train, to hone our skills privately and with people equal to our skillset, and this was the place we used.
Josh was already inside the ring, bouncing around on the balls of his feet. He showered, washing away the blood and life from his previous victim, and dressed in a pair of shorts and a tank. There was ice in his eyes, tension in his shoulders and it was all directed at me.
I held back my smirk and flexed my head from side to side, stretching my neck. It’s been a while since he and I grappled. Most of the time, Josh stayed away from me when I wanted to go a few rounds. Shit always got heavy when he and I fought. I wasn’t sure why. When Malcolm and Josh tossed a few punches, there was minimal animosity between them. They fought fair, kept shit clean and mouths closed. However, when Josh and I fought, it got… well let’s just say it got a little violent. He’d talk shit, I’d talk shit and we’d go in on each other until the other tapped out. Most of the time Malcolm was around to play referee, he always insisted. He feared if he wasn’t around, we’d kill each other.
He was overreacting as usual, but it did seem to get personal between Josh and I in the ring. Maybe I’ll ask about it after I kick his ass.
I had already changed into a pair of shorts and a tank. My fists were already taped. I was ready. I stepped inside the ring and smirked at my brother. He also wore this pissed off look on his face that he normally showed those he wanted to intimidate. All it did for me was deepen my smirk.
I started to shadow box a bit, loosening up my arms and shoulders, all the while keeping a keen eye on Josh. I thought he would have lost the anger by now, however as I looked deeply into his blue-green eyes, I could see the hulk was alive and well.
“You mind telling me what crawled up your ass?”
Josh cracked his neck and flexed his pecs.
We walked forward meeting in the middle of the ring. I was just about to ask how long he wanted to dance when the fucker swung. The punch came fast and aimed right for my got damn face.
He caught me off guard with the attack, but I managed to lean back. However, it wasn’t far enough.
“Shit,” I cried out, my face exploding with pain. My ear started ringing and it took a few seconds for me to get my shit in check. Once I did…
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I asked on a growl, stepping right up to his face. I was taller than my brother by a few inches and I played on that height.
We stared into each other’s eyes for a long fucking minute before he growled one word or shall I say one name.
“Misty.”
The temperature in the room after that dropped like fifty degrees.
The fuck?
Was he questioning what belonged to me?
I narrowed my eyes on him and allowed my anger to flow freely through my veins.
So, my brother wanted to “talk”? Well I hope he's ready for a long discussion because I have a lot to fucking say.
14
Misty
I used the ride to Shane’s to think about what I was going to say. Honestly, there wasn’t an easy way to tell someone you lied to them, especially on something as important as this. Yet, it had to be done.
I found a parking space on the street, outside Shane’s building. I stared up at the windows of Shane’s floor wondering if he was home yet. Maybe I should text him to let him know I was coming over.
Yeah, that thought lasted for about two seconds before I shot it down.
Why hint that I’m coming? I should just jump right in the cold ass water and hope I didn’t die from hyperthermia.
Plus, he had given me carte blanche over his apartment. He had told me once that I was welcome anytime. I was going to take that as gospel and use it against him if he wasn’t pleased with my presence.
I made it to his apartment without incident. The locks on the door hadn’t been changed, which was a good sign. He also wasn’t home. I checked the time on my phone and wondered again if I should text or call to tell him I was waiting for him. But again, I didn’t move to pull out my phone. I needed this time to think of a strategy.
How do you tell the man that you love you betrayed him? Should I get naked, attack him and fuck him senseless then break the news? Or should I just yank the band aid off the second I saw him.
I moved to his kitchen to grab something to take the edge off. I pulled out a cold bottle of beer, twisted the cap and took a very long pull. I should look for something stronger, but this beer would have to do. There was no telling how long Shane would be and I didn’t want to be drunk on my ass when he got home. I needed to have a clear mind to have this conversation.
I headed for the living room and sat down to wait. As I waited, I tried to figure out the best way to broach the subject. Either way I looked at it, things were going to be rough. I committed the carnal sin. I kept shit from the team. Hell, one could argue that I wasn’t a team player. But that wasn’t the case.
I felt like I was the protector of the group. I was the sniper, the one who sat on high, watching everything and everyone below me through my scope, with my finger resting on the trigger. I was the one that saw the threat first and acted before anyone knew to get ready. I guess that was why I kept this case from Shane and Josh, mainly Josh.