Laughing Eyes: Bittersweet Familia (3)

by Melissa Jane

  “What’s the plan?” I said, realizing I had been staring at the phone for longer than needed, Aiden picking up on the memories such a message would evoke.

  “I’m sorry, Danny. I know this was the last thing you needed to go through again.” There was genuine concern in his voice, but I couldn’t allow my past to hinder the future that belonged to him and Laila.

  “It’s fine, truly. Let’s just find this fuck and settle the score.”

  Aiden hesitated for a few seconds, unsure whether I was speaking the truth. “Ok,” He said hesitantly. Pulling his tablet off the trunk of the car, he pointed to the screen where the red dot told me the location of our target. “I was thinking you take this road and loop around. If you go this way you can surprise them by flank. His attention will be on me which makes him a perfect target between us.”

  “Ok, but we need to perfectly time this. We are in the middle of the desert which means he will see you coming. There will be no backing out, no changing of plans. Once we are on our roads, stay in touch so that we reach at similar times. He will be expecting you to come from the North, your last location.”

  “Correct. I will need you to take Ethan. I don’t want him to be in the firing line. If you can, take out Juan’s men, as many as possible, but leave him for me.”

  ***

  Back in the car heading South, Ethan remained quiet. I didn’t know much about the kid other than he was the main cause of our current predicament. It’s hard to say whether his getting involved with the Florez family was a bad thing. For one, if he hadn’t come along it would’ve made it extremely difficult for Aiden to remove the two underage girls from the awful fates that awaited them. Perhaps it was just a case of the wrong person being used for the job. If it was someone else perhaps they wouldn’t have had their sibling seeking their whereabouts. But it is what it is and now Ethan was struggling to come to terms that there was a real possibility he may never see his sister again.

  “You know how to shoot a straight line?” I had to ask, even if he did look like the type who bummed it out at the beach.

  “No,” he mumbled, his eyes staring out into the nothingness of the desert.

  “Right, well shit’s about to get real interesting where we’re going so I need you to really listen to what I say. I can’t have a grown man freaking out just because he’s pissed his pants with fear. You hear me?”

  No response.

  I waited for another five minutes of silence to pass before I changed tact. “Look, Ethan… Laila will be fine. It’s gonna get a whole lot messy before it gets any better, but at the end of the day, we are going to do all that we can to get her back.” I could promise our efforts would not be vain, but it simply would not be fair to promise something and it not be true. I couldn’t say we would get his sister back alive. Four years ago I was certain Anna would have been on that plane with me out of Costa Rica safe and sound. But that’s not how shit works out.

  “Will he kill her?” Ethan asked. His voice was so quiet I could barely hear him. His attention now glued to the scenery.

  “I just don’t know. From what I do know that Aiden has told me, he likes to play games. He loves the thrill of the chase, which is what he has us doing now. I know men like Juan. They are ruthless, born without a conscience and are void of all emotion that makes us human.”

  I could feel Ethan’s gaze now on me. “Who have you met that was like Juan?” It was a simple question and one meant with no ill-intent but it still chilled me to the bone. I didn’t have the words to answer him.

  “Is this what you do? Hunt down people like him?” Ethan continued.

  “It’s certainly becoming a trend.”

  A silence settled between us. I could still see the glances from my inquisitive passenger, not content with my lack of answer.

  “I met a man worse than Juan. He was a cold, cold man. Not an inch of humanity in him. It was like he was born without a heart. Only a mind that was solely focused on destruction.”

  “What did he do?”

  “An arms producer. He had his factory set in the heart of Costa Rica, but would travel to the outskirts of Panama recruiting people to work for him. He targeted the poor who had been ostracized from the community after the war. If they didn’t go with him, his troops would kill them all, women, children, all cold-blooded murders.”

  “Did you stop him?” Ethan was like a kid at story time. Sometimes I forget that the average man was innocent to world I had witnessed.

  “Did I stop him? Well… I killed him, but only after he had taken something very dear from me.”

  Danny

  “Fuck and fuck!”

  “Who are they?” Terror had snuck its way back into Ethan’s voice. Up ahead seven hundred yards on the dusty desert road stood three men, their car parked sideways across both lanes.

  “I could take a wild stab and guess who they belong to and I’m certain I would be the winner.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  I slowed my speed down granting us more time. There was no going back. I couldn’t turn around. That would mean leaving Aiden in the lurch. These thugs don’t know me from a bar of soap. The trouble would start once they recognized Ethan.

  “Reach into the duffle bag at your feet and pull out the three Glocks.” Ethan acted fast despite his hands shaking. “Right, you keep one and give me the others. I know you can’t shoot but just do the best you can.” He placed the two on my lap and I positioned one of them to the left down by my side, the other between my legs.

  From where I sat, I could hear Ethan’s heavy breathing, the panic starting to take hold. “Ready?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the men ahead.

  “No!”

  “Good, let’s do this.”

  ***

  The car came to slow stop only a few yards from the men. They looked at each other, their silent communication coming across loud and clear.

  “If things get out of hand, sink down to the floor.”

  We both fell silent taking in their threat. They were each adorned with their weapons, standing casually as if what was about to transpire was only known to them. One man approached, he was of medium height, his jaw set in a firm line. He tapped my window with the tip of his Glock. I wound it down half way and put on my best innocent face.

  “Where you headed to?” His voice was gravelly and heavily accented.

  “Going South to Arizona.”

  The man’s jaw twitched as he took a step back to peer in through my window.

  “What’s his problem?”

  I turned to Ethan to find him profusely sweating, his eyes glued to something ahead, the back of his hand occasionally swiping at his nose. He looked more like a crack addict coming down from a high then a man searching for his sister.

  “He’s been sick. I’m taking him back to his family in Arizona.” The man peered through again, his eyes squinting to get a closer looked. He seemed unconvinced. Not buying my story, he gave a curt nod to the other two men who drew their weapons.

  “Fuck me!” I muttered under my breath in frustration. He had one job and the fucker couldn’t even act normal for ten seconds. “It’s on,” I said loud enough for only Ethan to hear.

  Before the man at my side even raised his gun, my finger was already pulling the trigger. The Glock to my left side fired through the paneling of the door, embedding itself in the thigh of my attacker just below his groin. At the same time my left hand rose with my other Glock and aimed with precision at one of the two ahead. He fell to his knees, bleeding from the chest, the other taking cover behind their vehicle.

  “Get down!” I yelled to Ethan, who without a moment’s hesitation sank to the floor. The man I shot in the groin was regaining composure, his face burning with hate. Throwing the car in reverse, I put a few yards gap between him and me before taking aim. He fired three shots, one cracking my windscreen, the other two piercing the hood. My bullet found its target with ease, blood spurting from the side of his neck. He dr
opped his gun as he clutched desperately at his wound, rivers of red flowing from between his fingers.

  “Is it over?” Ethan sounded from the side.

  “Not quite,” I answered, almost to myself. Squinting against the sun, I reversed back some more until I saw the feet of the third man hiding behind the car. Opening the door I climbed out and lay flat on the ground.

  “What are you doing?” The urgency in Ethan’s voice was ill-disguised.

  Ignoring him, I lined up my target. The coward had not moved and I started to question whether he indeed had been hit in the crossfire. Seconds after pulling the trigger I saw the man’s shin explode in a fury of blood and bone, accompanied by his tortured cry.

  “There’s something about that sound that excites me,” throwing Ethan a wicked smile, I watched as he eyed me with a newfound sense of caution.

  “Relax, I only shoot the bad people.” As I said that, I knew it was a lie. I had shot Tomas. Killed him instantly. It was an accurate shot for the wrong person. Forcing myself from my dark thoughts I put the car into drive and moved with speed to the side of the road until I rounded on the car blocking the lanes. There, without a gun in his hands, was the third man looking as though he had spent the last fifteen minutes crying. He didn’t seem as tough as the others, almost like he was in training. Younger looking, with a face more of fear than hate, he didn’t deserve to be finished off like the other two. As I drove past him, his faced morphed from pain to gratitude. In the condition he was in, he would no longer pose a threat.

  “You have two missed calls from Aiden,” Ethan said still a little shook up over what had just transpired.

  “Call him back.” With the phone on speaker, we listened as the call rang out. “Try again.” Inside, my gut was churning with a sense of dread I just couldn’t shake. Aiden was depending on me pulling flank when he confronted Juan. He had been calling to double-check my whereabouts. The call ended without being answered, my foot pushing harder on the pedal. Ethan’s silence spoke volumes. He too knew that life had gotten that much scarier.

  Danny

  I could hear the gun shot echo through the canyons. Its exploding boom only reinstating the fact that I had let Aiden down. He was in the thick of things and I had basically handed him over to the wolf pack. Ethan followed close behind as we took off at a sprint. I had my sniper rifle slung across my shoulders already, but we were still some distance away. The sound of screaming following the gun shot propelled me forward, adrenaline kicking in. I prayed that those painful appeals did not belong to our side.

  Slowing our speed, we took careful steps up the small hill. In front of us was series of naturally formed rocks that basically looked like picture frames. It was the perfect location for me to get set up. Keeping Ethan behind me, my Glock at the ready, we doubled over to remain unseen, crawling on our knees for the last few yards until we reached the rock.

  “Stay down and out of the firing line. If you see anyone flanking us or coming from the sides, you shoot. Don’t hesitate, don’t take any moment to question your fucking moral position. Just shoot the fuckers, got it?”

  He nodded his head in agreement but I could still see the fear shining from his blue eyes. He was just a kid in trouble because of one reckless decision. Dropping my bag, I stole a glance over the rock ledge.

  “Fuck me!” I muttered, completely unimpressed with what I was witnessing. “This is bad! This is very fucking bad!”

  I realized my mistake as soon as turned to my left. Ethan’s fearful eyes were now so many shades of distraught it was sickening. “What’s happening? Is Laila ok?”

  “I’m not making any promises kid.” Turning my back to him, I moved over to the far left where I would have the perfect shot. “Remember what I said! Take out any fucker who dares to take us out.”

  I shuffled under the protection of the rock ledge across the dusty earth, stationing myself out of view from my targets. Setting up my rifle, I swallowed my own fear and took in the sight before me.

  I could see Aiden. He was bloodied and weakened from the bashing he had received from the six men surrounding him. That wasn’t to say they were coming off as the better fighters. Two were already knocked unconscious, one struggling to reposition his shoulder and those who remained standing were covered in blood and desert dirt. Aiden was a strong fighter, but one could never come out injury-free after an ambush. I followed his troubled gaze to where Jorge lay doubled over on the ground, groaning. His hands were wrapped around his leg desperately clutching his knee cap that had been blown to bits.

  Aiden was holding his side, dark blood staining his shirt when one of the men went in for another attack. To the right I could hear Laila scream. I couldn’t quite see her courtsey of Juan and another man blocking my view. Her hysterical cries echoing throughout the canyons as Aiden fell to his knees, a sense of loss haunting his features. Seconds later a gun fired, followed by screaming. I watched, numb, as my best friend collapsed, landing heavily on his back.

  No! No! No!

  Swallowing the vomit that had made its way into my mouth I took aim, squeezing the trigger, an almost silent pop heard from my end but not theirs. My first target fell to the ground, the others barely noticing. The second and third men man followed in similar fashion, landing in two separate heaps, plumes of dust surrounding them before dissolving in the air.

  This time Juan took notice. He eyed his fallen men curiously not knowing what was wrong. A few seconds passed before it finally clicked, a look of realization on his smug face. Spinning around and bringing Laila to her feet, he waved his Glock around like a mad man taking aim at nothing in particular. He didn’t know where I was. I was an invisible enemy. He genuinely appeared frightened, using Laila as a human shield. Dragging her back towards the cars, I knew he was going to make a break for it. I lined up the man who appeared to be higher in the pecking order to the other men, his brain matter exploded upon impact. I watched with bittersweet delight as Juan’s face grew furious yet my thoughts were solely with the dead body of my best friend.

  “You fuckers! Show yourselves you fucking cowards!” Juan yelled.

  As if my past had somehow revived itself, my body broke out in a sweat knowing that Juan had no plans of releasing Laila. My vision blurred, only Anna’s face my main focus. I could see her struggling to free herself from Nicolas’s hold. I could see the tears cascading down her cheeks as he pressed the knife across her throat drawing blood. And then, as if the blade had stabbed through my own heart, I watched again for the millionth time as the girl I loved fell into my arms, all life having been torn from her body.

  “Shoot!” A voice sounded behind me, but I didn’t want to look away from Anna. I didn’t want to say goodbye.

  “What are you waiting for, Danny? Juan is taking Laila.”

  At the sound of her name, I woke from my place of hurt to focus on the scene before me.

  “I can’t,” was all I could manage.

  “What? Just shoot!”

  I was shaking now, my body racked with trembling I couldn’t stop. I was scared, no longer for Anna but scared I wouldn’t hit my target. Scared I would hit Laila instead of Juan. Scared that I would have another innocent life on my hands just like Tomas.

  The focus on my rifle was jostling all over the place, moving in time with my body’s movement. Juan was using Laila as a human shield and I knew that I would have to make a decision that could potentially not end well.

  I needed to stop the tormenting thoughts. The gravity of the situation was rapidly destroying all the confidence I had worked so hard to reform.

  I had failed Anna, watched her die at the hands of a ruthless murderer.

  I had shot and killed Tomas, missing Nicolas entirely.

  Aiden, my best friend who had been with me through all that, was lying dead on the desert floor.

  And now, I had one chance. One chance to make some things right and I couldn’t line up my target.

  “Fucking shoot, Danny!” Ethan’s voic
e hissed in my ear.

  Juan was dragging Laila back toward the car, still no idea where I was, his gun waving wildly through the air. I fired off some warning shots, my finger slippery on the trigger from nervous sweat. Plumes of dust ballooned around them, terror etched on Juan’s face. They fell between the cars, disappearing from sight, but that didn’t stop the warning shots. I aimed at each car window I could see and watched as the exploding glass rained down. A few moments passed before the second car spun its wheels and took off down the long stretch of desert road. Dropping my rifle, I took off at a sprint, heading straight for the body that lay motionless on the ground. Laila was already there, cradling Aiden in her arms, crying hysterically. I could hear Ethan behind me and I was grateful he had followed. Somehow I knew she would react better with him being there, a familiar sense of comfort. My heart ached with that familiar sense of loss, but a part of me wanted to believe that he would be ok. There was blood still leaking from his lower abdomen from the earlier knife wound yet there didn’t appear to be any blood where the bullet hit.

  “Laila!” I yelled over her cries. My hands wrapped around her frail shoulders in an attempt to pull her away. She didn’t resist but she didn’t come easily. Trapped in a world of grief, Laila had no idea that we were even there.

  I turned my attention back to Ethan. “We need to get the three of them back to the van.” He nodded in agreement and bent down to cup his sister’s face.

  “Laila, we need to go. Please!” he urged, tears welling in his own eyes.

  Knowing that each second that passed was putting us further behind, I hooked my arms under Laila’s and hoisted her up. She fell into me as Ethan ran back the way we came to collect the van.

  “Shhh,” I soothed, holding her tight.

  My chest hurt as I struggled to control my own emotions. I wanted so desperately to fix everything. To turn back time four years and change our paths to ensure that we were competent enough to top the people set out to destroy the ones we loved.