by Dale Mayer
“Life isn’t quite so simple,” Michael said gently. He looked up behind her and frowned. “And there’ll still be your mother to deal with.”
She turned slowly to see her mother, standing there, glaring at Catherine. “Hello, Mom. I didn’t think you’d come in person.”
“I didn’t want to,” she said briskly. “What are you doing here?”
“I had to come and get Fallon, didn’t I?” she said.
“No, you didn’t. You don’t need to have anything to do with this.”
“You had a friend of mine kidnapped,” she said. “What did you expect me to do?”
Her mother glared at her. “You could have walked away.”
“I’m not you,” Catherine said.
“You’re more like me than you know,” she said, “just give it a few years.”
“Give it a little bit of a trial, give it a little bit of love-lost-and-stomped-into-the-ground, that kind of thing?”
“Yeah, something like that,” she snapped, “and don’t you get so high-minded with me, young lady.”
“I wasn’t planning on it, Mother. This isn’t easy for any of us, you know?” she murmured.
“Maybe, but the bottom line is, you don’t have any answers to this problem. I keep looking for them, but you won’t let me.”
At that, she stopped and frowned. “You’re looking for Bullard. I get that,” she said. “Do you think he’s still alive?”
“If he is, I’ll find him,” she said, “and, for the moment, I’ll let you walk on out of here, even after interfering in my world,” she said, “because I’m hoping Kano will dump you, like he did last time. You deserve it, you know?”
“I deserved it last time,” she said, “but that doesn’t mean I deserve it this time.”
“Yes, you do. You keep that stupid little naïvety close to your heart, as if it makes you better than all the rest of us. Everybody out there will betray you, given the right set of circumstances. As soon as you realize that, you’ll be much better off.” DeeDee looked at Michael and frowned, glaring at him.
He held out his hands. “What did you want me to do?” he asked. “I could hardly kill her. She’s like my own daughter.”
“I know,” DeeDee said, “and that was a problem right from the beginning, letting you handle this.” She groaned. “Now look what I have to do,” she said to her daughter.
“You don’t have to do anything,” Catherine said in alarm. “He’s been loyal to you too.”
“Sure, but I can’t let him get away with this, or everybody else around me will take advantage of me. The minute you show any weakness, they’re after you.”
“So, what then, Mother?” she said. “You’ll kill a friend you’ve had for years, who’s been at your side, and who is the most loyal and trustworthy man on your entire team? All because he let your daughter live?”
“It’s not that simple,” her mother snapped. “Some things are black-and-white.”
“Not killing Michael,” she said. “Retire him with a pension, so he can walk away and leave.”
“Why would I do that?” she said in genuine amusement. “He has served his useful purpose. I’ll hardly turn around and pay him off, like a pensioner.”
“Maybe you should,” she said, stepping between her mother and Michael. “Michael has always been part of my family. You can’t just kill off people because you want to.”
“Actually I can,” she said, laughing. “It’s not at all hard, you know?” With that, she pulled out a small handgun.
“Then we’re done here,” Catherine said.
“So what?” her mother said, looking down at the handgun. “I have no intention of letting you blackmail me into keeping my team alive.”
“Keeping him alive has nothing to do with your team. You’re just pissed that you are not in control of this situation.”
At that, her mother slowly raised her gaze and stared at her. If Catherine had ever doubted or had ever thought her mother had warmed to her at all and had become anything other than a coldhearted killer, the look in her eye said otherwise.
“Move,” DeeDee snapped. “I have some discipline to hand out.”
“No,” Catherine said defiantly. “You’re not killing him.”
“I wouldn’t kill him,” she said. “I would just make him useless to anybody else.”
“No,” she said, but she could feel hands on her arms.
And Michael said, “If she doesn’t hand out punishment, the rest of the team will see her as weak.”
“She can’t just hurt you for looking after me,” she cried out passionately.
“She has to,” he said, his voice calm.
She spun and looked at him. “You just can’t blindly accept that she’ll shoot you and that it’s the right thing to do.”
He cracked a smile. “You know what? That’s the thing about life. Sometimes what seems like the wrong thing is actually the right thing.”
“And what if she maimed you?” she snapped.
“Who’s to say? I guess I have to leave that up to her.”
She spun to face her mother, who wore a satisfied look on her face, as she studied the two of them. “Is this who you really are? You’ll shoot this man, who’s stood by your side, done you bidding, and loved you all these years?”
Her mother raised an eyebrow. “Is that what you think this is?”
“What else is it?”
“He’s nothing but a puppy dog,” she said, “and sometimes you have to kick them too.”
With a speed that reminded Catherine of a coiled rattler, her mother shot Michael behind her. She’d somehow shifted her position and fired quickly. Michael went down without a sound but, once on the ground, moaned ever-so-slightly. Catherine looked at her mother in horror and raced to Michael’s side. Immediately she clamped her hand down on the wound, slowly pulsing blood from his lower abdomen. “She shot you,” she cried out in horror.
“Yeah, she’s a bitch,” he said, and a note of complete understanding filled his voice.
“You’re sick,” she said, “both of you. How the hell can you just accept this treatment from her?”
“It’s the life,” he said. “Remember that before you get yourself into it.”
“I have no intention of doing so,” she said.
“Then you have to trust Kano,” he said. “Are you sure you’re ready to trust him to that extent?”
*
With the two men secured, and the cops called to pick them up, both Kano and Fallon had slipped back inside the back door in the corner of the warehouse where they’d been expected to exit. They gave a quick thought to going back up to the roof and entering that way but had decided against it. As soon as the door opened, a trigger had been pulled. Probably to a silent alarm where Michael had been.
Inside, the warehouse was still in darkness, with no other sounds except Catherine’s voice and maybe—was that her mother? With Fallon understanding Kano’s raised finger of warning, the two men split up and went around the wide area of the warehouse, skirting along the walls, until they came up close to where the three people were talking. Kano couldn’t believe that DeeDee had come in personally to handle this. Surely another henchman was here to do her dirty work. As it was, Kano wasn’t so sure. It appeared to be just her.
But then maybe Fallon had better luck sorting out what he saw. As they kept looking and heading that way, Kano paused to try to listen to the conversation. Just after he stopped, he heard a shot ring out, then watched in horror as Michael hit the ground. More horrible was the fact that Catherine had stepped in front of him. He wondered at the loyalty she felt to a man who had worked for her mother and how confused she must feel, facing her mother right now. He was confused himself. He was currently at her one o’clock, and the thought of giving DeeDee one round to knock her out for a lifetime crossed his mind.
“So you’re both just playing this sick little game between you?” Catherine asked.
“It’s called loy
alty,” her mother snapped. “You wouldn’t know anything about that.”
“No, this isn’t loyalty,” she said, “This is completely dysfunctional.”
“It works for us.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t work for me. I don’t know what the hell you’re doing, but I’m leaving,” she said, and she strode right past her mother.
“Wait,” her mother called out.
Catherine stopped, turned, and looked at her. “What? For a bullet?”
“I already told you that I wouldn’t shoot you,” she said curtly. “But you’re starting to really piss me off.”
Immediately Michael called out from his position on the ground and said, “No, don’t.”
DeeDee snorted. “Why not?”
“Because she’s my daughter, and I don’t want you to,” he snapped.
At that, Catherine froze and looked at him. “Michael?”
He nodded. “Yeah, it’s true,” he said. “I should have told you.”
“Yes,” she said, racing back to his side and crouching beside him. “Hell yes, you should have, damn it.”
He chuckled, only to quickly groan. “I didn’t know if it would upset you or make you happy.”
“It makes me very happy,” she said. “Compared to everybody else who’s been in my world, you’re definitely the one I would prefer to be my father.” Then she spun on her mother. “Are you kidding me right now?” she roared. She bounced to her feet, straddling his body and she stood over him. “Not a word, Mother. Now I’m pissed.”
Her mother sneered. “You don’t belong in our world,” she said. “You need to leave.”
“Absolutely. I agree on those two points,” she snapped, “but I’m taking him with me.”
“No,” her mother said, turning the gun on her. “Michael works for me.”
“He won’t work for anybody for a while. You just shot him. Remember?” She strode up to her mother and pulled her arm back, her hand in a fist.
Her mother raised her handgun, placing it against her forehead. “Back off.”
Catherine took a long slow deep breath. “Yeah, you are that kind of person, aren’t you?” she said, “Go ahead, Mother. Put a bullet in my head, and see if I give a shit.”
“Oh, stop the melodramatics, please,” her mother said. “I’ve told you again and again that you don’t belong in my world. You don’t belong in Michael’s world either. So just leave, and leave now, and lose our numbers while you’re at it.” She gave a wave of her hand and said, “This is your one and only freebie.”
Catherine stood, hesitating, while Kano kept trying to send her telepathic messages to take the offer and to run. But he also knew how hard that would be for her. She turned to look at Michael, and he just waved his hand at her.
“Go on,” he said, “I’ll be fine.”
“And just when I find out I have a father,” she said bitterly, “I’m supposed to walk away.”
He gave her the gentlest of smiles. “I’ve always been here. Nothing’s changed.”
“Maybe not,” she snapped. “But what if I don’t want to lose you?”
“She won’t kill me,” he said.
Catherine started to walk away, then turned and said, “Too bad you don’t keep track of all the BS going on in your own company,” she said to her mother, “instead of spending your time on what you’ve got going on here with him.”
“Explain yourself,” her mother snapped.
“You’ve obviously got a train wreck happening, if you’ve got people associated with your organization kidnapping people without your knowledge,” she said, “like over in England. And now that we’re here trying to get answers, you have no intention of providing them.”
“I’ll clean my own house,” her mother said, as she slowly raised the handgun. “Now I told you to leave.”
With her head high, not saying another word, Catherine turned and walked out. And, for that, Kano had to admire her. But he also knew that this had to be incredibly painful for her right now. He slipped backward, knowing Fallon could see him, and headed down to the far door. He didn’t know if they would get away free and clear, but what he did know at this point was that DeeDee had nothing to do with Bullard.
And that she was trying to clean her own house and to figure out what had happened and to see if he was still alive. Kano would take the help, even though he didn’t like where it was coming from. But what he had to do right now was get the hell out of here and get a hold of Catherine to make sure she was okay. There’d been a lot of shocks in this deal. Too many along the way.
As he made it to one of the side doors, Fallon joined them. They opened the door and slipped through. As soon as he made it outside, he froze, as a metal gun barrel was placed against his neck.
“There you are,” a stranger said.
He stiffened and looked at Fallon, to see that he too was being held under guard.
“I’m here,” Kano said in a conversational voice. “What do you want?”
“I’ll take you,” he said, “but I also want the bitch.”
“The bitch’s inside,” he said, pointing to the warehouse. The man laughed at that. “That’s true enough, one hell of a bitch. But I meant the daughter.”
“What do you want with the daughter?” he said, stiffening.
“Oh, you don’t like that,” he said, and then he chuckled.
“What’s to like?” he snapped.
“Everybody keeps picking on that one. She deserves it—it’s her mother, so it’s her challenge.”
“Hardly,” he said.
“Oh, absolutely. The thing is,” he said, “we can only use so much leverage against the mother. And the daughter’s somebody we’ll need for that.”
“I think you overestimate the impact the daughter has on the mother.”
“That’s possible,” he said, “because honestly the mother is a pretty hard case. Besides, you know it’s really you we wanted. And we’ll take her out anyway.”
“Be my guest when it comes to taking out DeeDee,” he said, “I really don’t want anything to do with her.”
“No, she’s a hard case for sure,” he said, “but we won’t do it right now. We’ll let her do the research to see if somebody’s still alive or not.”
Then Kano realized who he was talking about. “You’re talking about Bullard, huh?”
“What do you know about Bullard?”
“You know exactly what I know,” he said, with a heavy sigh. “If you’re responsible for blowing his plane out of the sky, you can bet I’ve got something to say too.”
“You can say what you want,” he said, “but it won’t make a damn bit of difference.”
“Maybe so, but, at the same time,” Kano said, “there is a lot in life that you don’t understand.”
“Maybe not,” he said, “that doesn’t mean that you do either.”
This game wasn’t getting them anywhere though.
“Come on,” the gunman said. “Let’s go for a walk.”
“And if I don’t want to?” Kano replied wondering where the hell the cops were.
“Doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “I’ll shoot you right here and right now.”
“Why is that?”
“Because your death is something that gets us back in the bitch’s favor.”
“Shit, you would kill me just because of her?”
“She put a number on your head a long time ago,” he said. “And she’s never pulled it. We just checked.”
“Great,” he said, “so it doesn’t matter what I do. It always comes back to her anyway.”
“Absolutely,” the man said, with a smile. “So, what’s it to be?”
“I don’t know,” Kano said. “You tell me.” And, with that, he ducked and spun, coming underneath the man’s gun arm, causing his shot to be fired off into the air, as Kano’s knee came up, but the other guy was just as good. By the time they’d punched, kicked, tossed, and turned back, Kano realized that this gu
y was very skilled. But Kano had the advantage, since his life was at stake. Then he got lucky, as the guy made a mistake—they always did, but you had to be ready to catch it when the chance showed up. With that, he planted his fist hard against the man’s nose, shoving the bones right into the back of his head.
The guy stopped, fell to his knees, staring at him, a look of complete shock as he fell face-first. Immediately Kano turned to see Fallon, standing and grunting, over the top of his own guy.
“What the hell?” Kano asked. “Apparently there’s a price on your head too?”
“First I’ve heard of it,” Fallon said. He looked down at the man on the ground and said, “But now that we know, we have to fix that.”
“You think? Talk about confusing the issue. It won’t make DeeDee any happier to know that somebody else failed to take me down,” Kano snapped.
“So what’s the answer?”
“I don’t know,” Kano said. “I’m really not sure what the solution is at this point. We could take these guys back to her and drop them at her feet and tell her to pull the price off our heads maybe?”
“But what’s your angle for that? She’s not gonna do that just because we ask.”
Kano replied, “I don’t know. I’m just thinking out loud.”
Then the door opened, and two more men stepped out.
Kano looked at them and frowned. “Are you not done yet?”
And then the spider herself exited the building. She looked at the two men on the ground and said, “Of course they didn’t make it happen.” She looked up at Kano and said, “You’re a hard man to kill.”
“Maybe,” he said, “but I’m also the one who keeps saving you some money because you don’t have to pay out that reward.”
“There is that,” she said, “but, if I kill you myself, I don’t have to pay it out either.”
“Or,” he said, “you quit worrying about killing me, knowing that at least your daughter will be happy.”
She stopped, looked at him, and said, “Seriously?”