Worth Killing For

by Jane Haseldine

  “That’s right. I don’t care about that kind of stuff, but it’s worth a fortune. But like I said, splitting the pot wasn’t something Kenny or I wanted to do. Kenny and Ahote went after Liam. Max’s kid was only going to get a cut because of his dad, but Liam killed himself before they got to him. Big daddy Max had promised Lemming a cut when he was still alive. Kenny told him the deal was off after Max died, but Lemming swore he’d rat out Kenny to the FBI, so we had to cut him in. But Lemming is out of the picture now. We hired a guy to take him out. He shot Lemming in the back of the head at one of his clubs in St. Louis about an hour ago.”

  “How do you know Kenny?” Julia asked.

  “Through a relative. Anything else?”

  “Go to hell. Did Ahote kill my brother?” Julia asked.

  “Ah, Julia. Always such a hard edge on you. Ask me nicely, and maybe I’ll tell you. You’ve come this far, right? Don’t you want to know? Say ‘please.’”

  Julia looked out the window at the dark night and the road passing by them and could picture Ben in her mind’s eye as if he had never left her side.

  “I’m not going to beg you for anything. You wouldn’t tell me the truth anyway. My brother, when I was a kid, he told me to always fight back against the bullies. You don’t have anything over my brother and me. And you never will.”

  “Pride is a wonderful thing. Until it keeps you from what you really want.”

  Phoenix’s eyes stayed on Julia again in the rearview mirror, but then darted away as he pulled his vehicle off the main road directly behind Kenny’s car. Julia tried to take in her surroundings in the dark of night and saw the dirt kicking up under Phoenix’s tires as they traveled several miles into a deep thicket of woods cut only by a narrow road.

  Sarah leaned in toward Julia and whispered in her ear, “What are we going to do?”

  “Hey, cut the shit. No talking,” Phoenix said.

  The two-car caravan went another mile on the desolate offshoot until it dead-ended at a clearing. A two-story white house, with its windows boarded up, sat to the right of the property, and to the left was an old brown trailer.

  Julia felt a cool horror run through her as she realized this was likely the same place where Ben was taken.

  Phoenix pulled up next to Agent Kenny’s car between the two structures and killed the engine. “Don’t move and keep your mouths shut,” Phoenix said as he got out of the car and then secured the locks to ensure Julia and Sarah were trapped inside.

  The door of the old trailer opened and Ahote came out. Phoenix extended his hand to Ahote, who, instead, grabbed the younger man in a big bear hug.

  Phoenix had left the driver-side window open a crack, and Julia could hear the conversation play out between the two men.

  “The deal is done. We got Duke and had to pick up his daughters to close the loop. I’ll take care of them. You ready to get to work?” Phoenix asked, and winked at Ahote.

  “Always. Where’s Duke?” Ahote said. His gaze trailed over to Phoenix’s car, and when he caught a glimpse of Julia sitting in the backseat, he seemed to lose interest over the man he had been entrusted to snare. Ahote made a slow, almost-zombielike approach over to Julia’s window. He bent down so his face was next to the glass and stared into Julia’s eyes without blinking and then mumbled something incoherent.

  Julia heard a car door slam and looked over to see Agent Kenny exiting his vehicle. He looked irritated as he strode over to his security man and grabbed Ahote upright by his arm.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Kenny asked. “Duke’s in the backseat of my car. Take him inside. Don’t screw it up like you did with Chip Haskell. Torture Duke, but keep him alive until he tells you where the notebook is. I mean it, Ahote. You kill him, I’ll kill you. I haven’t waited this long and come this close for there to be any mistakes.”

  Ahote followed Kenny’s cue and pulled Duke roughly out of the agent’s car. Duke shot a look at his daughters and gave them a bright smile, like everything was going to be all right, but Julia could see the fear in her father’s eyes and she was surprised at the odd sense of loyalty she felt toward the man who had abandoned her and dragged her into this situation.

  “Something doesn’t feel right,” Sarah said to Julia. “I got a sense about these things.”

  Julia let Sarah’s words sink in as she looked back at the men. Agent Kenny led the way to the house, with Ahote and Duke behind him in a straight line, with Phoenix the last man in the row. When Kenny reached the front steps of the house, Ahote shot a quick look back to Phoenix, who reciprocated with a subtle nod, which prompted Ahote to cup his hand over Duke’s mouth and move off the path.

  Now steps away from the front door, Agent Kenny, still with his back to the men, waved a hand over his head like a warning.

  “You’re done, Duke. Your choice. Give up the location of the notebook and painting, and you die easy. Otherwise, my man, Ahote, here is going to make you beg for him to kill you. You’ve seen Ahote’s work before. Is that how you want to go down?”

  Kenny reached in his pocket for the keys to the house and began to open the door.

  “Think about it, Duke. Fifty million dollars makes a man hungry enough to do anything,” Kenny said.

  As the front door slowly edged its way open, Kenny started to turn around. Julia could catch just a glimpse of the FBI agent’s face from the headlights of Phoenix’s car. The agent’s eyes looked dark and mean, but he had a look of eager anticipation for the prize that was never so closely in sight.

  Kenny’s expression slipped to surprise as he quickly reached inside his jacket for his weapon. But, Phoenix was already there, now three steps away, with his gun drawn and pointed at the agent.

  Julia heard a shot ring out from Phoenix’s weapon and watched on as Agent Kenny crumpled to the ground. The agent struggled to get up, but only managed to turn on his side. Kenny tried to go for his gun, but Phoenix quickly reached into the agent’s coat and removed the weapon from Kenny’s holster.

  “You bastard,” Kenny gasped as he looked up at Phoenix.

  “You were right. Fifty million dollars would make a man hungry enough to do anything,” Phoenix said.

  Julia scrambled to come up with an escape plan as Phoenix coolly bent down over the FBI agent, whispered something in his ear, and then fired his gun one more time into the agent’s chest at close range.

  “Oh shit. The game is changing,” Sarah said to Julia.

  Ahote stepped over Kenny’s body, which was now strewn across the front entryway of the house, and pulled a struggling Duke inside with him.

  Julia felt like a trapped animal as Phoenix came back to the car, with a huge smile on his face.

  “Come on. Get out,” Phoenix said. He opened the back door of the car and reached in for Julia, whom he grabbed and nearly flung to the ground as he pulled her out of the vehicle. He then locked an arm around Julia’s waist and pointed his gun at the backseat for Sarah.

  “Move,” Phoenix said.

  Sarah slid out of the car, and Ahote appeared from the front door of the main house.

  “Don’t tell me there’s a problem already,” Phoenix said.

  “Not a problem. I’m just getting started with Duke,” Ahote said. He then looked down at the ground sheepishly as if he were a little boy asking a favor. “I’d like to take care of Julia. I get Duke to tell me where the notebook is, you save her for me.”

  Phoenix shot Ahote a patient glance and smiled. “Whatever you want, Uncle. Just do your job and be quick about it.”

  “You two freaks are related?” Sarah asked.

  “That’s right. Blood is loyal, baby. We had a plan to take out Kenny from the beginning.”

  Ahote looked on proudly at his nephew. “Phoenix Pontiac is a brave warrior.”

  “He’s a piece of shit,” Sarah said.

  “Find out where the notebook is, and you can have whatever you want, old man,” Phoenix said.

  Ahote moved in heavy, lumbering steps b
ack toward the house, but then he stopped and turned around to look at Julia.

  “Your brother, he was a worthy opponent,” Ahote told Julia. “I wonder if you will be, too.”

  A rage built inside Julia at Ahote’s mention of her brother’s name. Julia began to lunge toward Ahote, but Phoenix pulled her back.

  “What did you do to my brother?” Julia screamed.

  Ahote looked back at Julia and pointed his index finger in her direction. “It is not what I did. It is what I didn’t do.”

  Ahote then turned back around and continued up the path. Within seconds after Ahote shut the door, Julia heard Duke moan in agony as Ahote began his work.

  “Come on, girls, let’s go,” Phoenix said as he pushed the sisters in front of him toward the old trailer.

  Once inside, Julia felt Phoenix’s hands shove her forward into the dim, narrow trailer, which had a hospital-like, antiseptic smell. She turned around to face Phoenix, but felt his leg sweep under her feet before she could catch herself. As Julia fell to the floor, Phoenix kicked her hard in the rib cage. She began to move back to the wall to get away from him, but Phoenix abruptly stopped his assault and laughed.

  “Funny how you wound up right in that spot. Go ahead. See what your brother did,” Phoenix said, and gestured with his gun to what at first appeared to Julia to be tiny dark scuff marks on the border between the floor and the wall. Julia looked more closely and ran her fingers over the words: Ben Gooden was here.

  “Ben and I spent some time in this dump. Ahote stuck me in the trailer with your brother while he did work for Max. What I told you about my mom, that was true. She was crazy, just like Ahote, but she took drugs to make it stop. The courts took me away from her. I didn’t wind up in foster care like I said, but Ahote took me in.”

  “I don’t care about your personal story,” Julia said.

  “You’re a reporter. You care about everyone’s personal story, no matter what you say,” Phoenix said. “You know, Ahote had a thing he did before he hunted. If he had the victim for a couple of days, he’d starve them so they’d be weak when it came time for the hunt. I felt sorry for your brother, I did. I brought him a candy bar every time my uncle locked me in here with him. You see, I’m not all bad. If you got to know me, you’d like me, just like your brother did. That’s why he gave me your charm bracelet. I think if we’d met under different circumstances, you and I would’ve been friends. Or at least we would’ve had sex.”

  “You’re disgusting,” Julia said.

  Julia, still with her hands tied behind her back, worked to get to her feet as she heard Duke’s screams echo from the main house. Julia closed her eyes, praying that her father would be all right, when the screaming stopped and was replaced by an even worse silence.

  “Jesus. Why is Dad quiet? Why is he quiet?” Sarah cried out.

  The door of the trailer opened and Ahote appeared with a bright spatter of blood on both of his hands. “It’s done,” Ahote said; his smile was cruel and wanting as he looked at Julia.

  “Duke told you where the notebook is?”

  “Yes,” Ahote answered. He leaned into his nephew and whispered in his ear.

  “Nice job. Did you kill him?” Phoenix asked.

  “He’s got to be dead. I get Julia now,” Ahote said.

  “Sure, old man. Whatever you want,” Phoenix answered. “Just be sure Duke is dead and you can have her.”

  Phoenix flipped his shoulder-length hair to the side of his face and smiled at his uncle as the older man left the trailer and began his short trek to ensure he had indeed snuffed out another man’s life.

  Phoenix stood silently in the trailer’s open doorway and looked out at his uncle. When Ahote made it halfway up the path, Phoenix slunk his body down low, like a panther, and swiftly pursued Ahote. When he was just a few feet away from his uncle, Phoenix stood to his full height, pointed his gun at Ahote, and pulled the trigger.

  Ahote lurched forward as the bullet embedded in his lower abdomen. Julia was sure he would fall, but the giant merely stopped in his tracks when the bullet hit him and doubled over for a moment before righting himself. He then turned toward his nephew with a look of surprise and hurt etched on his face. Ahote, with his dingy white T-shirt now turning red with blood, took a quick glance back at the trailer and his promised treasure of Julia, and began to run at Phoenix for all he was worth.

  “Sorry, old man,” Phoenix said. Ahote somehow stayed on his feet as the first two shots from Phoenix hit his body, but the third one to his chest crippled the giant, and Ahote fell to his knees.

  Ahote looked up at Phoenix and his thick, dry lips parted. “Why?” Ahote asked.

  “Sorry. I really am. But fifty million dollars, Jesus. You sure Duke is dead?”

  “Has to be.”

  Phoenix bent down, patted his uncle’s hand, and then tipped the barrel of his gun into Ahote’s ear and fired.

  Julia watched the gruesome scene play out and then turned to her sister. “We’ve got to get out of here. When he comes back in the trailer, I’m going to try and distract him, and I want you to run.”

  “Phoenix has got a gun, and right now, we don’t. And even if I can get away, how are you going to fight him with your hands tied?”

  “I’ll figure it out. This is our only chance,” Julia said.

  Phoenix made his way back into the trailer and looked over his shoulder at his uncle. “It’s a shame. I mean the guy was weird, but he was still blood. Now, here’s how we’re going to play. My uncle taught me to hunt. I’m an expert tracker. I know every inch of these woods, every tree, every smell, every type of animal that lives here.”

  He leaned into Julia and put his face next to hers. Before she could move away, Phoenix inhaled deeply. “And now I know your scent, just like Ahote taught me. Everyone has a distinct scent that can be tracked through the thousands of other smells in the woods, if you own it. And now I own yours. Don’t worry. I don’t do the bow-and-arrow shit like Ahote. That’s too crazy for me. I just hunt with a gun. I picked you first because you’re special to me, Julia. Are you ready?”

  Julia gave the slightest motion with her head to cue Sarah to run as the sound of a bird cawed out a dark warning just outside the trailer. As Phoenix turned his head toward the noise, Julia used the only thing she had and kicked Phoenix as hard as she could in his thigh.

  “Run!” Julia yelled to her sister as Phoenix fell back. But instead of heading out the door, Sarah ran directly toward Phoenix who had recovered and was closing the space between himself and Julia.

  Phoenix quickly pivoted and swung his gun in Sarah’s direction. A shot rang out in the confines of the small trailer, sounding like a deafening thunderclap in Julia’s ears. She looked toward her sister as Sarah flew back against the wall, and a growing splotch of red quickly spread across her lower thigh.

  “You bitch,” Phoenix said, his eyes looking crazed with rage in the dim light.

  Before he could fire off another shot, Julia called out a distraction to get him away from Sarah. “I’m the one you want. Not her. If you want to hunt, let’s go.”

  Phoenix hesitated in front of Sarah, but then dropped his gun to his side.

  “How bad does it hurt?” he asked Sarah, and smiled.

  She sat with her knees bent on the floor and trembled as she looked down at her leg, but she didn’t give Phoenix the satisfaction of an answer.

  “I’m ready. Come on,” Julia said.

  “I like your spirit, Julia. I know you’re a runner, so let’s even out the odds. I’m going to take your shoes off. Running barefoot in the woods, not easy, especially with your hands tied behind your back. That’s fair, don’t you think?”

  Julia nodded at Sarah, silently trying to let her know everything was going to be all right, as Phoenix removed Julia’s sandals and then pushed her toward the door.

  * * *

  Out in the stillness of the country night, Julia looked up, hoping for a clear sky and the bright canvas of stars
that would help light her way, but instead, a thick blanket of clouds hung in their path. Julia shook her head to try and get a buzzing mosquito away from her face and then panned the dense woods that encircled the house and the trailer to try and figure out her best route.

  Phoenix locked the door of the trailer behind him and looked Julia up and down.

  “I tailed you during a few of your runs. You were good, and I enjoyed every minute of it. But I know these woods better than anyone, even Ahote. I’d normally give you a five-minute lead, but because it’s you and I can’t let you get too far ahead, you’ll only get two minutes, unless I decide I’ve been too charitable. You ready, babe? On your mark. Get set. Go!”

  Julia sprinted around the back of the trailer away from Phoenix’s line of vision. Her usual effortless rhythm felt awkward at first, since her hands were tied behind her. Julia’s legs found their usual routine and she quickly found her pace as she skirted in the direction she thought would double back toward the circle of trees that surrounded the main house and, hopefully, in the opposite direction Phoenix would think she was going.

  The muggy air seemed to explode around Julia as she ran. She pounded forward to a destination unknown as she dodged through a maze of knee-high grass that coated the ground in between a dense nest of birch, red oak, and black gum trees that seemed to be closing in all around her.

  Julia heard her breath coming fast and quick as her bare feet beat a path through the underbrush. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying out in pain when her foot caught something jagged that sliced through her right heel, and she continued on deeper into the woods. She stopped abruptly when she came to a clearing and stayed behind a giant fir tree to keep from being seen. The forest seemed to be swallowing her alive as she looked behind her, swearing she could hear the almost-inaudible footfalls of Phoenix’s deadly approach.

  Her eyes quickly darted back to the clearing and she started running in its direction when she heard an eerie, high-pitched cry of a bird above her. Julia stopped just as she was about to leave the cover of the tree and looked up at the bird, a kind that she had never seen before. It was large and brilliant in its crimson display, with wings that seemed to glint gloriously in the inky blackness of the woods. Julia held her breath as the bird hovered over her and then made a quick and low flight to the right.