When he got back to his office he sat down in his expensive chair and ran a hand over his head. He was sweating, whether from the fear or the exertion he didn’t know. What he did know was this was his shot. He could get ISO off his back for good and be a partner instead of a servant. This was perfect. That stupid wench bought everything he said, hook line and sinker.
He retrieved his phone; it had finished powering up a while ago. It unlocked with a touch of his finger and he opened his contacts and found Vaas’s private number. It was listed as “Hotel Concierge” so if anyone looked through his contacts, they wouldn’t find it. He leaned back in the chair, hit the call and speaker button and tossed the phone on his desk.
This was it. Time for Henry to shine. Visions of yachts and fancy cars filled his head.
The phone rang through the speaker. Then another phone rang behind him. Puzzled he turned the chair around to see what was making the noise.
Sitting on the trophy mantle behind him, with all his high school and college sports trophies, was a small box. He recognized the box; he’d given Madi her wedding ring in an elaborate box just like that one. It was the size of a shoe box and he’d made her dig through it to find the ring.
He lifted the lid off the box and stood-up to look inside. A phone covered in blood lay on top of four brown bricks. Both phones rang a fourth time.
Bricks of… oh no!
He spun around to cancel the call—
***
I wanted to feel something… maybe sorry? As his house exploded I wasn’t sorry at all. He lied to me through the whole conversation. The only thing he said that was the truth was that he really did try and get me and Spice to leave. Watching his house burn didn’t make me feel better, but it certainly didn’t make me feel worse.
“You should have just killed him yourself,” Spice said from the passenger seat. “Then we could have enjoyed the meal.”
“Don’t talk like that,” I said as I started the car. At least Henry drove an Audi; it wasn’t as loud or boisterous as the Hellcat, but it handled nicely and was worth a pretty penny.
“Now what?” Spice asked.
“You don’t know?”
She shrugged. “I told you, I can’t read your mind.”
“I have one more loose end to tie up.
Fifteen minutes later I parked in Kenner next to the restaurant I had stayed at. I ducked out of the car, careful to avoid being seen, and made my way through the outside entrance to my little apartment. I had some clothes there I wanted and I needed to talk to the owners before I left.
All my things were dumped on the bed; it looked like they had gone through my stuff after I left.
Figures.
I hadn’t left anything of value, just clothes. Clothes I liked, though. I stuffed everything back into my suitcase, closed it and headed out down to the restaurant. Alessandro’s loud angry voice echoed up the stairs. After the damage to the building I imagined they wouldn’t be opening again anytime soon. That was part of the reason I was here. They may have betrayed me, but I wanted to give them a gift before I did what I had to do.
Their argument went silent as I came down the stairs. Alessandro went white as a sheet when I walked into the room. I smiled, trying to reassure them. “It’s okay, really. I’m sorry I put you through that.”
“Put us through…?” Jahaira asked. “We betrayed you. You saved us and that was how we repaid you.” It was obvious she’d spent the night crying. I gave her a small sad smile.
“I’m sorry about the damage to the restaurant. I have this for you, if you want it.” I pulled out a stack of hundred dollar bills. Twenty-thousand in total. Her eyes went wide as she took the money. His narrowed.
“What is the catch?” he asked. She slugged him in the shoulder as soon as he spoke.
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “No catch, I just wanted to say how sorry I was.”
She looked confused. “Sorry for what?” she asked.
The little bell rang on the front door as it opened and a woman walked in. “Mama, Papa, I’m back from Columbia!”
I stepped back behind the pillar that separated the dining room.
Jahaira turned to her daughter. “Bonita! Come her and meet the nice woman who rented your room while you were gone.”
I winced at her referring to me as a ‘nice person’ since she was about to hate me. The woman I knew as El Fuego came around the corner. The last time I had seen her she’d set my Mom on fire, followed by my house.
It took her a second to recognize me. Her eyes went wide, and she took a step back. She was probably trying to use her powers, but I wasn’t the same helpless person as last year.
I whipped out Vaas’s silver revolver—a .500 magnum that was far too large to be practical—and pulled the trigger. The bullet shattered her face, knocking her backward over a table. I stepped forward, fired the remaining four rounds into her body, tossed the gun on the bloody mess that used to be a human being, and walked out the front door.
I felt bad for Jahaira; she was a nice lady.
So was my Mom.
EPILOGUE
“Where too next?” Krisan asked as I got out of the car at the warehouse where she asked me to meet her.
“Belize City; time to deal with the rest of ISO. For good.”
She smiled as she rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. As always, she had her phone in one hand. Now I knew why.
“Then I have something you’ll want to see. I have to say, I’m pretty proud of this. I didn’t know how exciting it would be to buy black market weapons!”
Dealing with scum to buy weapons wasn’t the best idea, but at the same time, I needed weapons to fight the really evil folks. As crimes went, I put murder and rape as the worst. Arms dealing was something that could wait until I was finished with ISO.
I followed Krisan through the door. She turned the lights on, which I didn’t need but she did, and yelled. “Ta-da!”
I whistled. She had outdone herself. I looked over at her and smiled. “When you said you wanted to help, I had no idea.”
“Did I do good?” she asked.
I walked into the room full of weapons: from sniper rifles to pistols, boxes and boxes of ammo, mannequins with armor on them—everything I would ever need to fight my one-woman war against organized crime.
In the back of the room, painted a deep red that looked far more subdued than the car could handle, was a Dodge Hellcat.
“You really liked that car, so I got you another.”
I was going to ask how she pulled this off, considering I only had eighty thousand to my name, but I decided against it. The less I knew the better.
I let out a whistle as I looked around at the seemingly endless array of weapons. A phrase from one of the history books Joseph made me read popped in my head, and it felt right.
"Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum,” I said.
Krisan laughed and waved at the weapons. “I don’t think this is what the Roman general meant when he said that.”
I shook my head. “This is exactly what he meant. If you want peace, prepare for war. War is upon us, it has been for years. Now it’s time we start winning it.”
I picked up a Skorpion just like the one I used in Detroit and pulled the slide back.
Yeah, this will do nicely. Time to put the fear of God in these people.
UNTIL NEXT TIME…
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