Partners

by D B Steward

Chapter Fourteen

  There were six kennel-sized cages, one empty with only a blanket and a bucket inside of it. The other five cages held five women who looked at her with eyes that would haunt her forever. In them, she saw resignation. They were resigned to their suffering, they were resigned to their pain, they were resigned to their horror, they were resigned to their own eventual lonely deaths. Their hair was stringy, their skin had a jaundiced look, and they all looked like they were starving. Looking closer, she saw the same bucket in all the cages and realized it was their toilet. Sonny was already opening the cages by picking the locks and as the cages swung open, Kelly noticed that the girls never moved, not even when Sonny moved away from the cage openings. They had been broken, like horses; they wouldn’t leave their stalls even if the barn burned down around them.

  Sonny looked at her then, her eyes still showing no emotion. “What do you want to do?” Kelly was taken aback for a moment. Sonny was looking to her to decide what their next move was to be. From what Kelly had surmised from her observation of the assassin and her personality, the fact that Sonny was giving up control meant that she had been deeply affected by these women as well. Although Sonny would not show it visibly, Kelly realized that she was probably hurting on the inside just as much as Kelly was. It was just that Sonny had lived her entire life hiding her emotions and stuffing them down and maybe she would break down later when she was all alone. At any rate, she was looking to Kelly for the answers.

  “Leave everything as it is.” She looked at the cages. The women were not even looking at them anymore; they were staring out of their cages blankly, seeing God only knows what. “Including them. We call the cops and get the hell out of here.” Kelly watched Sonny nod toward George Silver, silently communicating her question. Kelly opened the empty cage and pointed her gun at him again. “Get in.”

  George Silver’s jaw dropped and he scoffed. “You can’t be serious! I’m not going in there!” Kelly closed the distance between the two of them quickly and pressed the gun barrel to his right knee.

  “I am and you will. If you don’t go on your own, you lose the kneecap and we put you in anyway. Your choice.” He looked back and forth between the two women for a moment and then ducked down and climbed in. Kelly locked it and walked swiftly past Sonny and then up the stairs. Sonny gave one last glance to the women and one of them locked eyes with her. Sonny recognized the young girl from the airport and worked her jaw angrily. Silently, she followed Kelly out of the basement.

  Outside behind the van, Sonny opened the liftgate door and then handed Kelly a cellphone. “You call. I can’t have my voice recorded on the emergency call.” Kelly took the phone without speaking, her eyes never leaving the decrepit house that they had just left. As Sonny began removing her gear and stowing it in the van, Kelly dialed.

  “911, state the nature of your emergency.”

  Her voice droned calmly and without emotion, as if she were simply ordering takeout. “I hear some screams coming from 13399 South Riverdale. I think you should send someone to check it out. It sounds like a woman is in trouble.”

  “Ma’am, are you still hearing the screams?”

  “Yeah, please hurry.”

  “Officers are on the way right now, ma’am. What is your name?”

  Kelly ended the call and put the phone in her back pocket. Sonny looked at her quizzically and closed the van door, having just finished putting away all of her equipment. “Why didn’t you tell them what’s inside?” They both walked to the front of the van and got in. Kelly waited until Sonny started the engine before answering.

  “If I told them everything, then they would dispatch a tactical response team and a dozen cars right away. Now they will only send one car, so when we leave, there will be less of a chance of being spotted.” Sonny nodded and pulled away, satisfied with the answer. As they left the house behind them and turned the corner, Sonny chanced a glance over at Kelly. She saw the woman looking absently out of the side window with her hand on her chin. Sonny knew that she was most likely in shock over what she had seen and it made her feel bad for the other woman.

  Sonny imagined that Kelly had probably never seen horror on a scale as what she had witnessed in that house and would probably need time to process it all. She felt some sympathy for Kelly, her view of the world and humanity having most likely changed forever tonight. Sonny questioned if she had truly done the right thing by bringing her inside. Kelly seemed like a genuinely good person and Sonny grieved for her loss of innocence. She told herself that Kelly had needed to see what was going on for herself; there weren’t enough words that could have come close to defining the awfulness of what was being done to those women. She convinced herself that Kelly had to see it for herself, even if she did grieve for the woman’s loss of faith in the belief of man’s inherent goodness.

  Chapter Fifteen

  She kept her eye on the road as they made their way back to the safehouse. They had not encountered a single police squad car on their route back and Sonny had to admit to herself that Kelly had been right about the 911 call. Once inside the garage, they exited the van silently and entered the safehouse, Sonny locking the doors behind them as Kelly walked by her. The woman had not said a word since the call and she was surprised that she kind of missed hearing her voice.

  “I’m going to shower now,” Sonny said as she walked toward the bathroom. “You should take one too after I’m finished.” She paused at the doorway and looked back at Kelly. The woman was just standing in the middle of the empty living room, staring at a blank wall. “Miss King?” No response. “Kelly?” This time, her voice was softer and Kelly’s head jerked slightly before meeting her eyes.

  “Shower. Right.” Sonny twisted her lips as she watched Kelly return her attention to the blank wall, seeing God knows what instead of the beige paint and white crown molding. She entered the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

  Sonny let the hot water pelt her skin under the shower head, rolling in rivulets down her back as she rinsed off the evidence of the night’s activities. With her palms pressed on the shower wall, she kept her head down, looking at the shower drain, watching the water swirl around the black hole as the water hit her neck and streamed onto her scalp, falling in heavy drips of the long black strands of hair. She questioned herself again for bringing Kelly into this mess. Why had she done it? Why didn’t she just drop her someplace and forget the whole thing?

  There was something more, a reason she had brought Kelly along, and deep inside of her soul, in parts she had kept hidden and locked away, a reason she could not acknowledge. Sonny lived a life of isolation, lived inside her mind, her thoughts her only company. Kelly King, that irritating little blabbermouth, had awakened something inside her. In a very short span of time, Kelly had brought to light just how lonely Sonny really was.

  Kelly was someone that she could talk to about what she did. Never in her life had she been able to discuss her occupation with another person, and Sonny found it an emancipating feeling. There was also the desire that Kelly brought out of her. She was a beautiful woman and her personality was challenging to say the least. She smirked under the showerhead thinking about the dry wit of the other woman. She found it extremely attractive in Miss King.

  Sonny felt a twinge of guilt. Had she done the right thing? Had the events of the night broken something inside of Kelly? Had she accidentally extinguished the fire inside of the ex-agent that she had found so intriguing? She shut the water off and climbed out of the shower, grabbing a towel and drying herself. After she had wrapped the towel around her chest, she grabbed a garbage bag from under the sink and placed her clothes inside; they would have to be burned, along with the clothes Kelly was wearing. She would have to get her more clothes, as she did not have a large wardrobe at the safe house and dressing for two was not something she had planned on. That could be done tomorrow when they brought the rental van back.

  Sonny exited the bathroom with her long black hair still damp a
nd the ends clinging to her shoulders. Stepping into the living room, she saw that Kelly had not moved a muscle. She still stood with her shoulders hunched over, staring at the same spot on the wall. Sonny grimaced; the woman was definitely in shock. She cleared her throat, not wanting to startle the woman or embarrass her. Kelly did not move and Sonny started to get worried, so she stepped forward and gently placed a hand on Kelly’s shoulder.

  “Hey.” She kept her tone soft, barely above a whisper. “Kelly. Are you okay?” Light blue eyes flickered for a second and then locked onto Sonny’s dark ones.

  “What?” Kelly had not heard her enter the room. “Yeah, I’m good.”

  Sonny saw her eyes begin to well up and there was a slight tremble to Kelly’s bottom lip. “Hey. It’s okay.” Sonny was unsure of what she was supposed to do, but Kelly did it for her by crumbling into Sonny’s body. Kelly wrapped her arms around Sonny and buried her face into her shoulder. Sonny stiffened at first, not used to this level of physical contact. But as Kelly started to sob, Sonny felt the tears on her bare skin. Awkwardly, her arms went up and wrapped slowly around the crying woman. After the initial shock, Sonny began to relax. She squeezed Kelly harder to comfort her and the ex-federal agent clung to her in response. “You’re alright, Kelly,” she whispered into the woman’s short red hair and rubbed her hands in circles on her back. She could feel Kelly’s muscles flex as she cried and chided herself for thinking about the distraught woman’s body like this. Although, the embrace did feel very nice to Sonny. Holding Kelly felt very natural and Sonny was suddenly very aware that all she was wearing was a towel. Still, she wanted to help Kelly right now so she tried to ignore the tightening feeling below that had started, but it was becoming increasingly difficult as she nuzzled her nose into Kelly’s hair. Time was going haywire as the two women embraced in the middle of the room. In real time, only a few minutes had passed, but the hug felt like they had been holding each other for hours and yet at the same time, it ended much too soon.

  Kelly sniffled and pulled her face off of the assassin’s shoulder. Her eyes were red and puffy but she struggled to put a smile on her face. “Thanks. I’m okay now. I should hit the showers.” Sonny nodded with her lips slightly parted, all at once missing the loss of contact as Kelly pulled away. She watched Kelly walk to the bathroom and close the door softly behind her. Once the door clicked, Sonny released the breath she was holding and looked to the ceiling.

  How had this woman gotten so far inside her so fast? Sonny knew that this was bad. She was falling for Kelly King. Hard.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Miss King?” Sonny knocked softly but had to raise her voice a bit, trying to be heard above the streaming water of the shower. Sonny’s tone was filled with concern for Kelly. She had gone into the shower twenty minutes ago and the water had not turned off. Sonny bit her bottom lip and knocked again, louder this time. “Kelly?” A lump began to rise in her throat, her worry doubling for Kelly King. “Are you okay? Can you open the door?” Kelly wouldn’t hurt herself, would she? She seemed to be a strong-willed and stable woman, but had the horrors she had been exposed to that night broken her? “Kelly? I’m opening the door.” There was a tinge of panic in her voice now and she turned the knob quickly.

  The clothes she had been wearing were in a pile on the floor in the corner. A cell phone was on the sink and Sonny was momentarily reminded that she had given it to Kelly and had forgotten to take it back. The lapse of judgment disturbed her for a millisecond; Sonny was always meticulous about protecting her security. Leaving the phone with Kelly was yet another example of how much of a distraction she had become to Sonny, but a distraction that she began to enjoy nevertheless. But her focus was now concentrated on the tragically small woman huddled on the floor of the shower, her knees drawn to her chest with her arms clenched together in front of them. Kelly’s head was buried behind her knees, hiding her face, her short red hair now appearing black stuck to her scalp, soaking wet. Kelly’s naked skin was pale and covered in gooseflesh as the cold water poured all over. She was shivering and Sonny was propelled into action automatically. She shut off the water and grabbed a towel. Stepping into the shower, she covered Kelly’s trembling body, rubbing the dry material over her skin that was pruning and gray in some places, desperately trying to warm the freezing woman. Not caring about her own clothes getting wet, Sonny sat beside her and pulled Kelly’s head into her lap, her own sweatpants and T-shirt becoming damp as it pressed against the wet surface of the shower. She moved back cold, wet strands of hair now the color of merlot from Kelly’s face, revealing to her the purple lips of the woman.

  “Kelly, you’re freezing.” It was not an admonishment, it was a statement showing her compassion and concern for the other woman. She pulled her closer to her, trying to share her own body heat to the shivering body she held. “Kelly?” She spoke quietly to her again, the bathroom eerily quiet, the only sound heard being the rhythmic drip of the showerhead, measuring time as regularly as a ticking clock. “Kelly, please talk to me.”

  “She’s dead.” Kelly’s voice was flat and emotionless. Her eyes finally opened, but they were not looking at Sonny, instead trained on the wall opposite them.

  Sonny began to slowly and tenderly caress Kelly’s damp hair. There was no denying it to herself anymore: she cared for the ex-FBI agent. “Who’s dead, Kelly?” Deep concern was thick in her words.

  “Lori.” Kelly was as still as a statue and seemed not to even notice Sonny’s soft touches. “They killed her.” Questions bubbled up inside of Sonny, but she knew she had to measure them and not pepper Kelly with them. Right now, the woman was fragile like a China doll.

  “Kelly? Who’s Lori?”

  “My girlfriend.” Was that an eruption of jealousy she felt inside her? Kelly had a girlfriend and had not told her? She had flirted with her and withheld the fact that she was unavailable? Sonny punished herself internally for having fallen so hard and so fast for her. She frowned outwardly but never stopped smoothing out Kelly’s wet hair. “My ex-girlfriend.” Kelly’s limp addendum swept over Sonny like a tidal wave. She was ashamed of her reaction, but she could not help it, the relief so strong that it surprised her.

  She had to clear her throat and hide her elation at the fact that Kelly was indeed single. “Who killed her, Kelly?” She was grieving and Sonny was ecstatic; the reaction shamed her.

  Sonny felt Kelly’s muscles tense before she answered.

  “The Popovs. They killed her in my apartment.” Flint was sparking in her tone. “They were looking for me.” Her blue eyes finally looked up at Sonny whose face hovered above hers. “Looking for you.”

  Sonny felt a flash of anxiety. Was Kelly blaming her for her ex’s death? Her eyes must have reflected that feeling because for the first time, there seemed to be some kind of recognition of her surroundings as Kelly’s attention focused onto Sonny. “She was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” The statement turned the dynamic upside down, her words now comforting Sonny.

  “I’m so sorry, Kelly.” Whether she was speaking of the murder of her former lover or at her unwarranted jealousy, Sonny could not be entirely sure. In an attempt to atone for her selfishness, Sonny tenderly touched her fingertips to Kelly’s cheek. The contact produced a current of energy between the two women, traveling through the skin to skin connection. It was not the first time they had touched, but it was the first time that Sonny had initiated the contact with obvious affection behind it.

  The cold air in the bathroom rapidly began to heat up as both women began to quicken their inhalations, exchanging their breaths between the now conspicuously apparent close quarters. Sonny deepened her touch until her palm rested on Kelly’s gradually warming cheek. Kelly turned her face into the touch and her skin began to flush around the shared contact. Sonny’s lips parted and she found it hard to take enough air into her lungs as her chest started to rise and fall rapidly. Kelly’s eyelids lowered as her lips opened slowly, her tongue sliding slowly o
ver them. Sonny gulped at the sight and she wondered how soft those lips were and how they would feel pressed against her own. Kelly’s head began to rise from Sonny’s lap and closed the already short distance between them until their noses touched. Both women stared into each other’s eyes and for a brief moment, it almost happened. But something flashed in Sonny’s eyes that Kelly saw just then and she registered the emotion that had been broadcast by the assassin, the same one that she now felt as the haze of passion lifted from them like a fog burning away from the light of the sun.

  Restraint.

  Sonny moved her head from side to side by a fraction of an inch, never breaking the contact between their foreheads. Her eyes closed regretfully and Kelly understood the meaning behind the action. “Not like this,” Sonny whispered in the small space between their lips. Their first kiss, and by now they both were very much aware that there would be a first kiss, would not be here in a safehouse bathroom and it would not be the result of a damaged heart and a fumbled and clumsy attempt at comfort. It would be done right, it would happen because of the right reasons, and it would be something that neither of them would ever look back on with regret.

  The corner of Kelly’s lip curled slowly and her voice came out as a whisper. “The Matrix.” Sonny could not hold back the genuine and spontaneous laugh and her head leaned back, breaking the connection. Kelly chuckled as well and pushed up off of Sonny’s lap slowly. She rose to a seated position, now shoulder to shoulder with her. The towel was loosely draped over her chest, barely covering the swell of her breast, but the passionate moment was temporarily broken, now replaced with a much lighter atmosphere of shared relaxation. The two women looked at each other with amused grins reflecting between them.

  “You, Miss King, are a piece of work.”

  Kelly chuckled. “Oh, it’s Miss King again?” She smirked at Sonny. “What happened to ‘Kelly! Oh Kelly! I want to kiss you all over! Let me put my lips on you!’”