Reckoning

by Fields, Sara

“You won’t, but you don’t need to worry about that,” he answered.

  I sighed shakily.

  “You can do this. I know my little girl is going to make me proud,” he added firmly and I lifted my eyes to meet his.

  I smiled in return.

  “It takes a very strong woman to be Daddy’s little girl. Remember that. You can take on the world and I will always be there at your side,” he said, and I found his fingers with mine. I squeezed them tight.

  My heart was so full.

  “Yes, Daddy.”

  “Let’s conquer the world, little girl.”

  “I’m looking forward to it, Daddy,” I grinned, and he knocked on the glass window, signaling to the driver to open the door. I slipped out and approached the hotel with as much self-assurance as I could. I heard the car pull away behind me, but it didn’t sadden me. I had Daddy’s bracelet around my wrist and my pussy was still bare for him beneath my dress. My bottom still stung a great deal from both his palm and the wooden spoon and if I really focused on it, my asshole was still a bit warm from the ginger.

  I felt his hands all over me even though they weren’t touching me anymore and that was the most empowering thing in the world.

  Without even a second’s hesitation, I took the elevator up to the top floor. I slipped the keycard out of the small purse I’d taken with me and walked inside. I plastered a grin on my face and stumbled a bit, taking on the persona of an excited girl who had a bit too much wine on her night out.

  “Well, you look like you had fun.”

  I giggled and looked away, playing up my giddiness in the way that I knew best.

  “I like my job. What can I say?” I grinned.

  “Your cheeks are flushed,” she observed, and I smirked.

  “They should be,” I shrugged.

  “That good, huh?”

  “I’m certainly going to enjoy myself with this one. Not only is he the epitome of a wine and dine guy, but he’s also really fucking good in the sack,” I mused, and she laughed heartily.

  Good. It was working.

  “Sometimes, my marks are terrible and it’s a hell of a lot of work to fake it with them. I’m happy to say Salvador is not one of those men.”

  “You were with him for a long time,” she mused.

  “I’m a needy girl. What can I say?”

  “He likes that?”

  “God. He fucking ate that shit up like ice cream on a hot summer’s day. It’s a part of him. He wants to take care of the girls he’s with,” I answered. “He takes great pride in being the breadwinner and when I told him about our dream of opening the bakery in honor of our so-called late parents, he jumped at the chance to help.”

  “Yeah?”

  “He’s going to look at which neighborhoods in the city are best for it. Watch him buy it for us,” I laughed.

  “You enjoy this, don’t you?” she asked, and I swallowed hard.

  “I do. I’m really good at it,” I replied. Her eyes searched mine for something. I wondered what she was looking for. Did she buy my story? Did she know Dean had found me once again?

  Did she realize I’d been fucked in Daddy’s bed all evening?

  I smiled and cocked my head to the side. I needed to distract her from whatever she was thinking about right now.

  “What did you do while I was away getting to know our mark?”

  “I was checking in with a few various projects of mine,” she responded.

  “Are those projects secret?”

  “Not really… Maybe some of them,” she answered thoughtfully. Wherever her mind was, it was far away.

  I sat down at the table with her, having to do everything in the world to hide the wince that threatened to show all over my face once I pressed my sore bottom against the seat of the chair. She had a laptop open in front of her. I put my elbows on the table and my chin in my palm, watching her as she typed away at something on her screen.

  “Is there one you can tell me about? I’d like to understand more about what you do, rather than just the assassination stories I’ve heard about for so long,” I pressed.

  She sat back and her eyes searched mine.

  “You really want to know?”

  “I do. The better we know each other, the easier it will be to take down our mark. For better or for worse, we’re partners now.”

  Her expression softened.

  So, she was human.

  I was even more relieved to know that Dean wasn’t going to kill her.

  “I don’t like killing people, Willow. I do it because I have to.”

  I stared at her for some time before I finally figured it out.

  “The Father holds something over you too, doesn’t he?”

  She was silent for a long moment. I’d hit the nail on the head.

  “He’s owned me for all my life,” I began. “From the day I was left on his doorstep, he’s owned every facet of everything I’ve ever done, from my schooling, to my job, to all the things in between. I have no parents. No siblings.”

  I gave her a bit of vulnerability and her eyes searched mine. In that moment, I looked at her not as my partner or someone to fear. She became a mark to me just like all the rest.

  “I have no one, which makes me ideal for the work that I do.”

  She turned away, but I’d caught something else in her expression at that moment.

  Regret.

  “What is it?” I urged gently.

  “He has my daughter,” she whispered.

  “I’m so sorry,” I breathed. “How old is she?”

  “Fourteen. If I don’t do as I’m told, he has threatened with selling her at his brothel. He’s also warned that he’s not above hurting her if I don’t listen to him.”

  “He’s good at holding things over people’s heads and making them do what he wants,” I said.

  “Yeah…”

  “Have you ever tried to take her away from him?”

  “How? You know as well as I do that he’ll find someone to punish me for that kind of insubordination. As long as the Father exists, so will the organization. We can never be free from that,” she muttered, clearly disheartened.

  “You did once, didn’t you?” I pushed.

  Her gaze flashed to mine and she grasped at her collar, pulling it aside and revealing a wicked scar beneath.

  “This is one of the many marks he left behind with his knife that day. He was so displeased with me that he tortured me himself,” she spat. “He told me that if there was a next time, the blade would cut into my daughter and he’d make me watch the whole thing.”

  “I didn’t know,” I whispered, horrified. For a moment, I’d considered pulling her into the scheme of what Dean and I had planned, but I knew that was no longer an option. There was no fighting a mother’s love like that. She’d do anything to keep her daughter alive and that would mean that her loyalty would always be with her and never with us.

  I dropped the subject. It was clearly painful for her and I didn’t want to cause her any more stress about it than she already put on herself.

  “It’s okay,” she answered, and I chewed my lip. I pushed my way over to the minibar and grabbed a few small bottles of champagne.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Running up the Father’s tab,” I answered plainly.

  She chuckled.

  “Pour me one too,” she added.

  “I’d already planned on it,” I smirked. I popped open two of them and very carefully poured them into the fancy flutes on the counter. When I was done, I returned to the table and handed one to her. I set mine down and slid a chair closer to her, grinning as I did so.

  “I kind of hate him, you know,” I began.

  I was going to push her, but not in a way that she’d recognize. I’d trained all my life to read people and I was going to use every last skill right now to figure out what I needed to know from her.

  She laughed with genuine amusement.

  “Yeah. He’s kin
d of a dick, isn’t he?”

  “For sure. You know, I’ve never had anyone I could talk to about him before, and it’s kind of nice,” I began. I looked down at the table, playing with my hands and hesitantly looking in her direction. “I’ve never had a confidant before.”

  She looked at me suspiciously.

  “Don’t look at me like that. I’m telling you the truth,” I pouted, and she relaxed a little.

  “You know, now that I think about it, I’ve never had a friend like that either,” she replied.

  She’d called me her friend.

  “Sometimes, when I have to work with a particularly difficult or annoying mark, I like to imagine what I’d do to the Father if I had ever got the chance,” I confessed.

  She snorted out loud.

  “God. I do that too. All the goddamn time,” she mused.

  “Last I knew he was living in New York somewhere in some fancy hotel and I dreamed about sneaking into the kitchens and poisoning his espresso he insists on having every morning at eight a.m.,” I pushed.

  She kept laughing and that made my smile grow even bigger. Finally, she cleared her throat and glanced playfully back at me.

  “He’s not there anymore. Last time I saw him, he was living in some massive mansion upstate with more servants than you could count. He flew me there at one point blindfolded just to remind me of what was at stake if I didn’t listen.”

  “Fucking bastard. Was your daughter there too?”

  “It had been so long since he allowed me to see her that she hardly recognized me,” she replied sadly, and my heart broke for her.

  “I’m sure you’ve thought about it. How would you do it?” I smirked.

  She hesitated, looking down at the table. With trepidation, she opened and closed her mouth.

  “You won’t say anything to anyone?” she asked.

  “Who would I tell? The Father? Hell, I’m his fucking ward and he doesn’t even have the decency to tell me he moved,” I spat.

  “Good point,” she chuckled.

  “Plus, he sent you to deal with me. He doesn’t care if I live or die and if I told him that I wanted him dead, what do you think he would do to me?”

  She didn’t need to say it. We both knew. She took a deep breath. It was her jumping into the deep end now.

  “I’d call him. I’d let him know I was coming for him just minutes before I arrived. I’d find a vantage point somewhere that covered all the ways out and when he tried to run, I’d pull the trigger myself,” she whispered.

  “Why call him first?” I asked.

  “Because I’d want him to know it was me,” she answered.

  I sat back and took a healthy sip of champagne.

  “What about you? Would you want him to know it was you?” she asked. Her eyes were soft. There were no ulterior motives behind them. It was just the two of us sitting together commiserating about our terrible boss over some cocktails.

  “Just between us girls?” I replied. I allowed my voice to shake a bit with insecurity in an effort to make her believe that I was risking just as much as she was by confessing such a terrible thing.

  “Of course,” she answered.

  “I’ve never killed before,” I ventured, chewing my lip as I thought it over.

  “Ignore that part. The first time is the hardest, but after that it gets easier.”

  “Yeah. I’d want him to know. One hundred percent. I’d send a note along with his coffee, or maybe even a bouquet of flowers, but I’d make sure he’d know it was me too.” I sighed.

  “That’s a nice touch,” she replied.

  “It seems so easy,” I mused.

  “It does when it’s just the two of us. There are so many more complications, like the number of security guards surrounding the compound or the number of armed servants he has at his beck and call. He has so many resources and people at his disposal that it makes any of our fantasy assassinations virtually impossible,” she added.

  “A girl can dream though,” I answered wistfully. “We may not be able to kill him, but at least we can make sure he pays rather dearly for our services.” I raised my glass and took a long swig.

  I winked and she chuckled softly.

  “If only he would just make it easy with something like a peanut allergy. I’d send him a gift basket with an extra special treat,” Janet continued, and I laughed wholeheartedly. I didn’t stop until my stomach was sore.

  “What about shellfish?” I giggled.

  “Not that I know of,” she exclaimed giddily. She downed her glass and looked lazily to the bedroom before she yawned. “I think I might call it a night.”

  “Already? But we’ve only had one glass of champagne.”

  “You’re way ahead of me, girl. How much wine have you had today?”

  I grinned guiltily.

  “There would be no catching up to you,” she chuckled.

  “That’s fair,” I smirked. “Sleep well.”

  “You too, Willow. Goodnight,” she answered, and she closed her laptop as she pushed herself up from the table. She took it with her as she walked into the bedroom.

  I smiled warmly and she closed the door behind her. I swirled the rest of the champagne in my glass and stared down into it.

  She didn’t deserve to go to jail. She wasn’t the monster I thought she was.

  I fingered the bangle on my wrist, looking at the deep blue sparkle of the gemstone at the center. Carefully, I pressed down just enough to hear it click.

  Within seconds, I heard something engage within the walls. I turned my head to see a metal plate rising from the floor to cover the window. It was swift and without even needing to turn my head, I knew that the rest of the suite was going under lockdown too.

  This hotel suite was a safehouse. It was meant to keep others out, but it would keep Janet and me inside. She opened the door and came rushing out.

  “What’s happening?” she blurted.

  “I’m not sure,” I answered shakily, continuing the ruse until Dean was here with me.

  The door clicked open behind me and I didn’t even need to turn my head to know it was him.

  “You,” Janet sneered. “What is this?”

  “Wait,” I began, and I stepped toward her, wanting to protect her.

  “You’re to be taken into custody, Janet Andersson. I’ve taken the liberty of gathering enough evidence against you to ensure that you never again see the light of day,” Dean continued.

  “Please. Wait,” I said again, and Dean gestured to someone outside the door. A group of three very large men dressed in expensive suits walked into the entryway looking like they had every intention of taking Janet as prisoner and not in a nice way.

  “Daddy, please don’t do this,” I begged, and he finally stilled.

  “Did you have something to do with this, Willow?” Janet blurted and her voice broke in a way the tore my heart in two.

  “Daddy, you asked me to trust you today. Will you trust me?”

  His blue eyes met mine, soulful and true and hesitant.

  “Don’t send her to prison. Lock her away in a safehouse for a few days while we deal with the Father,” I explained.

  “Why, little girl?”

  “He has her daughter,” I said simply. His eyes narrowed with anger for a split second before he said anything in return.

  “I see,” he replied. “Take Janet into custody. Make sure you don’t hurt her. Take her to the Lisbon house. See to it that she is comfortable. Call in as much help as you need.”

  “Willow,” Janet whispered in horror and I turned back to her. I swallowed hard.

  “You may hate me now, Janet, but that will pass. Dean and I are going to deal with Father, and I’ll make sure that we bring your daughter back to you in the end.”

  She looked at me with anger and fear. I didn’t blame her.

  “Go with them. They’ll keep you safe until it’s done,” I added.

  Her mouth tensed in a firm line before it finally relax
ed.

  “You love him, don’t you?” she asked, looking from me to Dean and back again.

  “I do,” I answered shakily. “I want freedom from the family and the only way to do that is to kill the Father. You know that and so do I. Dean has the resources to make that happen.”

  She was quiet as she studied me and then she took a shaky breath.

  “Her name is Elsa,” she whispered. “She has my eyes.”

  “She will be protected. I promise.”

  “What if he kills you? The both of you? What’s going to happen to me?” she pressed.

  “You will be kept captive for one week. If that period of time passes and your daughter is not returned to you, you will no longer be our hostage. You will be free to blame your absence on me,” I explained. I didn’t ask Dean for permission on this. I would explain everything to him later, but this was important to me.

  He moved to my side and didn’t say a word. Instead, he just placed a hand on my shoulder in support and just when I thought I couldn’t love him any more, I did.

  “We will not keep you prisoner. Please trust me,” I said softly.

  Her eyes still held a sliver of suspicion and slid back to Dean.

  “You will be kept inside a safehouse within my Lisbon home. You will be given food, water, and whatever else you need within reason. You will not be hurt,” he said gently.

  She nodded once with understanding and I could see that her once sharp anger had faded away.

  “Take care of yourself, Willow,” she whispered. “I expect to enjoy a glass of wine with you after this is all over where you will tell me all about this Dean and you.”

  I smirked.

  “I’m looking forward to it,” I exclaimed.

  With a deep breath, she walked over to the men in suits, and they led her outside. They formed a tight ring around her, and I sighed with relief at knowing that she wasn’t going to prison for the rest of her life.

  “Thank you, Daddy,” I whispered.

  “Anything for my little girl,” he murmured, and he kissed the top of my head.

  Chapter 11

  It took two days to identify possible locations for the Father’s mansion and by that time, Dean and I were already on a private jet back to the States.

  Dean had used every single resource at his disposal, from a deep investigation of Janet’s laptop, to a triangulation software that zeroed in on any call made from her cell phone, to a deep dive into the records of nearly everyone who lived in a mansion in upstate New York that was large enough to require a full-time cleaning staff. He didn’t leave a single stone unturned, and he brought whoever he needed to get the job done including his former FBI division. It didn’t take long to identify the right mansion after that.