by Tiya Rayne
“What the hell is going on?” Shep yells.
He takes out his gun and fires at the birds, missing as they maneuver effortlessly through the air. The other big man in the room screams as he clutches his eye. The H pigeon flies over to me, dropping right at my feet, a bloody eyeball dangles from its beak. The bird drops it and flies back out the window.
I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I’m not staying around for that crazy killer bird to come back for me or Emory. I slide closer to Emory, turning my back to her. I place my duck tapped hands to her face.
“I need you to bite into this tape. Try to tear as much as you can.”
Shep and Wolf rush out of the room with a pigeon behind them. The now blind man lies on the floor groaning. Emory fights to chew through my duct tape while I try to wiggle my wrists free.
I can move my hands a little more when I see the bird fly back through the window. This time from its beak it has a freaking knife hanging by a ribbon. I start to panic when the bird gets near, but it drops the knife right in front of me, and then flies back out the window it came through.
“Hold on,” I say.
Em stops chewing on my taped hands. Awkwardly, I turn around, facing Emory with my back to the knife. I move my hands around the area the weapon should be.
I touch the sharp edge, nearly drawing blood before moving down the blade to find the hilt. Grasping it as best I can in my bound hands with the blade pointed down, I saw into the tape.
My arms hurt from using them at this odd angle and the point of the knife keeps digging into my wrist, but I don’t stop until I cut through the tape.
I break my hands free and quickly shake them out before crawling to Emory to undo her hands and feet. After pulling her up, she takes the knife from me. I would object but seeing as I’ve seen what she can do with a weapon I don’t argue.
“Come on,” I tell her, grabbing her hand. We race out of the apartment, into the hallway.
We run toward the stairs and hurry down them. Most of the building is a skeleton of its former self. Weak floors with holes allow a view all the way to the next floor.
Doorways lead from the hallway to other vacant apartments. With each floor we go down we have to run to the other end of the hallway to get to the descending stairs. By the time we get to the fifth floor, my legs are burning.
I stop for a moment to catch my breath, my hands on my knees before taking off again. We turn the corner to run up the hall to the next set of stairs then come to an immediate stop. We spin on our heels as snarling comes from behind us to come face to face with a German Shepard wearing what I think is a bulletproof vest. We are only about thirty steps from the stairs behind us, but I won’t risk trying to get to them with this dog.
I stand in front of Emory who peeks around me. If this dog attacks, at least I can hold it off so my baby can get away. Suddenly, stepping out of one of the abandoned apartments comes a beautiful girl with wild curly magenta tipped hair. On her shoulder is that damn pigeon with the H on his chest.
“Nieder,” the girl says to the dog, telling him to sit and he immediately obeys. Thank goodness for Grams forcing me to learn at least two other languages. “Hi, I’m Ari. You must be Malia.”
Her cheerfulness seems odd due to the circumstances.
“Yeah,” I reply hesitantly. “This is my daughter, Emory.”
“Oh, I love that name. Do you know there’s an Emory Peak, an Emory river in Tennessee, and an Emory University in Atlanta?”
I look down at my daughter who looks up at me before we both look back at the girl in front of us. The pounding of feet up the stairs grabs my and Emory’s attention. I can’t see anyone, but by the sounds of the heavy footfalls, I’m estimating the arrival of about five or six men.
The girl in front of us continues to tell us of all the places she knows with the name Emory. She doesn’t seem the least bit concerned about the company we have coming for us.
“They’re coming,” I point out to her.
“Oh,” Ari says as if it’s an afterthought. “Hold on then. Kraken,” she calls out. The dog turns to her with his ears up. “Kampf,” she commands the dog to attack.
The dog, or Kraken as she calls him, takes off toward us. I grab my daughter and pull her into me as the dog rushes past us like a blur of fur and charges down the steps. Soon screams rise up as unseen men face off with the dog.
I turn as Ari brushes past me with a kindly placed, “Excuse me.”
She walks down the stairs as unrushed as if she were going to check the mail. I lose sight of her like I did the dog, but the sounds of gunshots firing causes me to grab Emory and move as far away from the stairs as possible. With my back to the hallway and my daughter wrapped in my arms; I stand holding my breath.
After a while, the screams, the gunfire, and the snarling of the dog stop. Silence fills the hallway. I step away from the wall, releasing my grip on Emory.
“Stay here,” I direct her as I move closer to the stairs. Before I can make it, Ari pops her head up over the railing.
“Come on. I’m going to take you to Lucien.”
I have no idea what the hell is going on, but we go with Ari down the steps. Every gunman we meet, she quickly dismantles with the simple command of Kampf.
The moment we reach the hallway on the third floor a gunman comes out of one of the apartments, catching us off guard. He points his gun at Ari’s head, but before he can shoot the bird flies off her shoulder and attacks him.
He blindly swings at the bird, until the dog bites down on his crotch. An inhumane scream comes from him as he tries to hit the dog in the head with his gun. Ari fires one shot and places a bullet dead center in his forehead. He crumbles to the floor.
“You shouldn’t hit animals,” she says, turning to us as if we asked a question.
“Good job, sis.”
We all turn to the sound of the female voice. Two more black women and another dog steps out another door from the third floor.
“Sorry about that,” she says pointing to the dead guy on the ground. “We thought we got everyone on this floor for you. These assholes are like roaches,” the dark-skinned beauty with gray eyes says.
“I didn’t know the Church had all this extra manpower just lying around,” Ari says.
“These guys don’t belong to the Church. They’re hired gunmen.”
“They must have got them on sale,” Ari replies, kicking the dead man at her feet.
The dark-skinned beauty walks up to me and wraps me in a hug. I have no idea who this woman is, but I accept her hug. It’s been a long a day.
She releases me and steps back. “Hello, Malia. We’re friends of Grams.”
“Friends.” I look to the young women who are around me. “How?”
“We work with her. I’m Kyra.” She holds out her hand for me to shake. Just then a man rushes out of the first door. Without turning to look at him, Kyra raises her gun and shoots the guy in the head.
He drops to the ground. I look back to her smiling face. I place my hand in hers and shake.
“I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but Grams is no longer with us.” The last part of my sentence comes out strangled. For a second, I relive her death all over again.
“Wait, you didn’t tell her?” Kyra turns to Ari and asks.
“It didn’t really come up.” Ari shrugs.
Kyra rolls her eyes before turning back to me and releasing my hand. “Your grandmother is fine. She’s in one of our comfort suites recovering at the moment. The DOE has some of the best doctors in the world on payroll.”
The weight of the world is lifted off my shoulders and for the first time since the moment I thought she died, I breathe easily. I clutch Emory into my side further and for a split second we celebrate Grams survival. I don’t question what a DOE is or why Grams is in a comfort suite instead of a hospital. I only relish the fact she’s still alive.
“Come on,” Kyra says, touching my arm lightly. “Let’s get yo
u back to your man.”
We follow Kyra, Ari, and the other lady down the remaining flights of stairs. Once we get to the last floor, I stand at the top of the stairs and look down into the foyer.
At the bottom of the stairs surrounded by a collection of bodies is Seth and a few other men. Before I can acknowledge him, Emory slips from behind me and takes off to him.
“Seth,” she calls his name and he turns to her, the smile that spreads across his face will forever be painted in my memory.
I never have to doubt if he loves my daughter or not because he smiles at her as if she painted the stars in his sky. The love is written clearly in his eyes.
It happens so fast I don’t have time to warn her. From out of nowhere, Shep steps out and grabs my daughter, placing a gun to her head. Wolf is beside him aiming two guns at everyone in the room.
“Not this bullshit again,” an older man in a suit says.
“All right, party is over,” Shep says. “It’s real simple. The kid or Hawk.”
A handsome tall man with dark wavy hair steps forward. “No, Hawk,” Seth says, holding up a hand. “This is between me and Shep.” He turns to Shep, holding his hands out at his sides. “You’ve always wanted your shot at me. Here’s your chance. Put my kid down first.”
This is the absolute wrong time, but my heart fills with joy when he acknowledges my daughter as his.
“Yeah right, I let her go and your guys shoot me faster than I can blink.”
“No, they won’t,” Seth says, eyeing the men with him
“You sure about that?” Kyra asks her eyes glued to Wolf.
“I’m sure. Shep’s been wanting a piece of me for a long time.” Seth drops his hands back down. “You’ve always wanted the name Twin, here’s your chance to take it from me.”
Shep glares. “Fuck your name.”
He points his gun at Seth. I scream, but the gun never has a chance to go off. Emory reaches up, grabs a hold of Shep’s arm with the gun and flips him over her shoulder.
Shep lands on his back with a thud. Emory grabs the pigeon’s knife out of her boot and flings it in the direction of Wolf, lodging the blade in his throat. Not even a second later, she twists the wrist of Shep, aiming his gun at his head and pulls the trigger.
The entire room is silent, staring at her in awe. I can’t help but think how badass my daughter is.
Ari claps startling everyone. “Emory, Texas,” she shrieks. “I knew there was another one.”
“Let me kill her. Please just let me kill her,” the older man pleads, while an Asian guy tries to take his gun out of his hands.
I rush down the few steps to Emory, grabbing her and hugging her to me. I plant kisses all over her face as she giggles. Someone clears their throat behind me. I turn around to face Seth.
He runs a hand through his hair. This is the first time I’ve seen Seth look anything but cocky. “My name is Luciano Seth Gramble. At the moment, I’m only Seth. I’m thirty-three, I’m a hired hitman and occasionally, I turn into a four eyed nerd. If that shit doesn’t run you off—”
I cut off his last words when I pull his face down to mine. I kiss him long and hard. I kiss him until he understands I don’t care anything about his imperfections.
I love him exactly the way he is.
Epilogue
The Puzzler
Seth
The next day…
I slip away from the others after making sure Tiny Rambo is okay. Lia left five minutes ago to check on something in her office and has yet to come back.
“You’re being overprotective,” Lucien says in my head.
“Fuck that. I’ll be whatever it requires to keep our girls safe.”
He no longer fights me over calling them ours. Yes, we are the same person, but we’re still different. However, we have agreed to share Lia and the responsibility of being Em’s father.
Lucien already forged the documents to file as her legal guardian and we can officially call her our kid. The marriage papers will be next. I want him to do it now, but he says we can’t.
It will set off alarms at the Church too soon. Lucien will turn in the menu on Takar tomorrow and then we’re going to start the process of trying to leave. Priest said he’ll help the best he can.
After walking into her office, I don’t see Lia. I turn around and head into the back-storage area. Light gray commercial carpet softens my footfalls as I enter the small room.
Boxes and books stack up against the right wall. File cabinets are lined up against the back one. A few rolling carts and a wooden table with one chair are in the center of the room.
Noise coming from the bathroom in the back has me heading in that direction. Before I can make it to the door, it swings open and a distracted Lia walks out. She looks up and startles, dropping something out of her hands.
“Seth, what the hell?” She goes to pick the white stick up. However, I get to it before she can. “I’ll take that.”
She tries to snatch it from me, but I pull away from her. Looking down at the object in my hand, an hourglass blinks on a little digital screen.
“I’m a few days late.” She shrugs as if it’s no big deal, while tugging at her shirt top. “I didn’t exactly remember to take my pills after I got shot, and when Lucien went away, I was distracted. Look, no need to panic, it could be nothing. I’ve been having a few symptoms.”
Drowning out the rest of her words, I turn away from her and head in the opposite direction. I place the stick down on the table, before heading to the door quickly and clicking the lock. The sound echoes in the room and Lia lifts her head to look at me.
“What are you doing?”
I don’t answer her. Instead, I yank my shirt over my head, tossing it to the floor. She looks down at the fabric with wide eyes.
“You understand how my disorder works, right?” I ask as I undo my belt buckle and kick my shoes off.
She watches every movement with the same confused look on her face.
“Yes, Luc explained it to me.”
“You know that technically we are the same person, yet we experience things separately.”
“Yeah, I understand all that.”
“Good,” I say, yanking my belt out and dropping it at my feet. “You’ve had sex with Lucien, but now you’re about to get fucked by me.”
I watch her eyes as they widen even more before returning to normal. I approach her with a hunger like no other. I had no problem being her friend when my brother wanted me to hide, but now that we are one, I needed my piece of Lia.
“We… we can’t,” she stutters, but I notice though her words object, her body doesn’t. It leans toward me, her nipples so hard they poke through her shirt.
“Why not?” I give her a chance to voice her concerns. If it has merit, I will back off, but if not…
“I have to wait for the outcome of the test.”
A slow smile spreads across my face. “That test doesn’t matter. I promise you either way, when you walk out of this room, your ass will be pregnant.”
She whimpers when I approach her, eating up the small space between us. I fist my hand in her hair, tug her head back and kiss her. I try to imprint on her lips how desperately I’ve wanted her.
I kiss her like I wish I’d been old enough to do the very first time we met. I sink my teeth into her bottom lip, not hard enough to draw blood, but enough to let her know that this shit is about to be real. She releases another whimper when I use my free hand to squeeze her breast over her shirt. The moan that slips between her lips has me losing my restraint—well, the little I have.
After releasing her mouth, I rip her shirt off over her head, tossing the fabric at my feet. I quickly make her bra follow. My next step is lavishing her chocolate tipped breasts, going back and forth between the two. While licking one, I suck the puckered flesh of the other. Lia claws at my shoulders as she sings my name. My teeth graze her nipple, nipping at the flesh gently. Lia’s body shudders as she comes on the spot.
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“Do you want to have our baby, Lia?” I ask as I straighten, allowing her bud to fall from my lips. I want to hear her say it.
“Yes,” she moans, her body still shaking.
I don’t have to ask Lucien if he is down, I can feel him in my head egging me on. Nothing has changed about our situation. The Church will still not allow me to have Lia, and if they find out about Emory or the kid I’m about to plant in Lia’s belly, they’d kill us. However, it still isn’t going to stop me.
I lead Lia to the table and chair in the middle of the room. After pulling out the seat, I demand she sit. Obliging, me she settles.
“I need to know your limits, Candy girl.”
“Whatever you want.”
I chuckle, she has no idea what she just signed up for.
“Open your mouth.”
She opens her mouth, while I work my jeans off my hips and down my thighs, my boxers following right behind. Once I’m fully free of all my clothing, I stroke my dick, rubbing my precum over her bottom lip as if it were chap stick. She sticks out her tongue tentatively, licking it off.
I growl, pinching her chin I hold her lips open as I slide my length into her hot mouth. I can tell I’m stretching her by the way her eyes water.
“That’s it, Lia, take my shit to the back of your throat.”
She relaxes allowing me to fuck her mouth. I push as far back as I can go and she starts to gag. I leave it there for a moment, staring down into her face as she chokes on my dick.
The vein in her forehead bulges, her eyes water and saliva pools out the side of her mouth. I pull out allowing her to get the air she so desperately needs. Yanking her head back, I look down at her again.
She smiles and opens her mouth, she’s ready for more. I slide right back in, aiming for her tonsils. She gags and sputters around me, her nose brushing against my pubic hair.
I pull out of her slippery mouth and she gulps down another breath. I use my thumb to wipe the trail of saliva from her lip to my dick.