“Oh, Jamal. You gone make a girl fall hard for a boy like you,” she told him, leaning forward to kiss him on the cheek.
“Yeesh, for Chuck’s sake,” Raphael said, walking away and looking for the notebook where he kept his running list. He was a trained Navy SEAL. A well-paid assassin. A man of focus and determination. Three weeks ago, he had stopped to take a piss and picked up a child who changed his life. She was now in the other room putting her handful of pixie dust all over that poor kid who spent three flipping days on the beach looking for the perfect sand dollar.
“Shoot,” he said, looking down at the notebook, preparing to go over his list.
He sat quietly for a moment, but he was entirely too distrusting to leave Jamal alone with Karli for more than five minutes. A kiss or two the boy could steal in that time, but it would take more time than that to get closer. He found himself going over the list again.
Clean the gun.
Threaten teenage boy (girl) Jamal with gun acid (????)
Show daughter how a boy is supposed to hold her when they dance.
Dance lessons with teen daughter.
Clean bigger gun and knife to Threaten teenage boy girl. Jamal.
Movie night.
Set time with the girls on for Saturdays.
Write financial plan, include stocks, bonds, index funds and a few blue chips.
Talk to Willow about setting an allowance for the girls.
Talk to Willow about her monthly allowance for the house and personal accounts.
Debit card for Willow’s crafting. (Bank on Monday)
Swimsuits for the girls and Willow. Get those on the way.
Remind Willow to pack dresses for the girls. White gloves for tea? Straw hats?
A tablet for Karli.
Create online account with child parameters for Karli to buy 100 books.
Enroll the girls in a self-defense class
Who the hell is Jamal(?) Threaten Jamal with 1200 yard Daddy stare.
Plan for evening walks on the beach with Willow in search of sand dollars to make the perfect jewelry piece.
“Jesus, this takes a lot,” he said, taking a seat at the table across the room. He could see Jamal and Karli, but he wasn’t in the immediate vicinity. She’d crossed her little legs as she chatted with him, dissecting the world of the Potterverse, sharing insights and laughter.
It was the laughter which felt the best for him. “You’re safe, Pooh Bear.”
For the man they called Mr. Exit, he had pulled off the interstate and instead of getting lost, what he found made him forever grateful. In the meantime, he needed to reach out to the Archangel to discuss the Investment Club and as well as the other five Technicians, Mr. Merge, Mrs. Hump, One Way, Falling Rocks and Mr. Slow.
“Oh! Willow would need to make neck ties and handkerchiefs and I guess mugs for them as well. Plus, Wrong Way, she’s not out of the running yet. Yeah, that chick needs a necktie too,” he said, chuckling aloud and adding to his notebook.
“Daddy, are you talking to yourself?” Karli asked.
“Working it out, Pooh Bear,” he said, continuing what he was doing. “Daddy is working out some business matters.”
“I love you, Daddy!” she yelled out.
“Love you back, Karli,” he replied, getting back to the matter at hand. It was going to be a good life with Willow and the girls. Hopefully, soon they would add one more to the fray. A little boy. A little boy would be nice. Tomas? Vincente?
Vincente Hoyt.
“I like that a lot,” he said, allowing his mind to drift to what his wife was going to create for dinner. He was lucky to have her, grateful for the blessing, and thankful she agreed to be his.
He liked that idea a lot too.
RAMI SLANECKI WAS A sadist. He liked that about himself a great deal. It did his heart good to run the arrow through the back of Proderick Hymn’s L-7 vertebra and watch the man’s legs stop working last week. Life didn’t offer many rewards, but this was one for The Glitter Man.
“The thing is, Proderick, I like to keep my word,” he told the man as he lay on the cot, strapped to the bed, staring at the images dancing on the wall. “I found your family in North Carolina.”
He’d never tell Hymn that the family actually lived in South Carolina. He couldn’t have Proderick sending people to retrieve the woman and girls. That would never do, so he allowed the lie to stick.
“Look at how pretty Willow looks in that dress. Oh. Oh. Wait, when he turns around and sees her walk in...right there! Right there! That look on his face. Priceless. Hymn you can almost feel the love,” he told a drooling Proderick Hymn.
The video rolled on as the image of Karli coming down the water slide and diving into Exit’s arms played next. This was followed by Dusty Rose learning to swim across the pool on her own after two examples shown by her new Daddy. Karli was next, swimming like a champ across the water, to be praised by her father.
“Look at how relaxed they are floating around that lazy river,” he said to Hymn. “Hold up, let me show you something really cool.”
Rami flipped the camera around to Willow sitting in a lounge chair sleeping as the girls floated in the water. Her face showed nothing but peace as she rested in the seat, unaware she was being filmed. The image also made Rami smile.
“You know, I was going to get film of them in the bed, but you know what, I didn’t feel she deserved that. By the looks of things, she has slept better in the last few weeks than she has in six years,” Rami told Hymn. “Maybe it’s just me, but I’m a sucker for a happy ending. And trust me when I tell you Hymn, that woman and those girls are really happy. Makes me feel kind fuzzy inside.”
He showed his pictures of the wedding. The Glitter man showed pictures of Dusty Rose in shades lounging by the pool, a teen boy standing close by chatting her up. He shared photos of the little girl, sitting next to Willow, grinning as she ate a cookie.
“Yes sir, they are one happy family,” The Glitter Man said, smiling at the images. “They are going to have a really nice life.”
Epilogue
THE SERENITY OF THE night held the Archangel captive, not allowing him peace and troubling his ability to rest. Rising from the couch in the hotel room at the lodge, an unsettling wedge jammed itself into his craw and would not budge. The woman Willow unnerved him in a way that also dogged his thought processes, but seeing Merge again after so many years, added to the inability to sleep.
“Get a grip, Gabe,” he cautioned, getting to his feet. The hotel had a bar, and although he wasn’t a man to imbibe in the habit of spirits, now and then and good shot of Bourbon eased his mind.
Cabrina’s cheeks were still rosy from the amount of sun she received playing in the pool with Michelle and Johnnie. It had also become obvious that his wife was ready for her own family. Chuckling to himself, it would be his luck to get a smart as a whip daughter like that Karli, who made him smile each time he thought of the little girl.
“Ten years old and forming a trust circle. Knuck if you buck, what in the world,” he said, laughing, and letting himself out of the hotel room. In the morning, they would head home, but the uneasiness climbed over him again as he entered the Lodge Wood Fire and Grille and took a seat at the counter. The drink options were limited and instead of a bourbon neat, the Archangel ended up with a red wine, a bit too sweet for his liking, but it was all they had.
Less than five minutes had passed when a familiar scent appeared, followed by the body of a man he knew would return.
“Merge,” the Archangel said not looking up.
“Gabe, how’s it swinging?” Joel Thomas Lee said as he took a seat and ordered a cola. “You knew I was coming back didn’t you. I figured you’d come down and wait for me. How do you always know?”
“I guess we are connected on a spiritual level. You don’t check in regular enough Merge, I need to hear from you more, understand what is happening in your head,” the Archangel said.
“Same stuff that h
as been happening in my head most of my life old man, still trying to find my purpose, well, that is, outside of the one you’ve given me as an angel of death,” Merge replied.
“You were always so dramatic,” Gabriel said lifting the glass of wine, taking a hearty sip.
“And you my mentor, have always over simplified the way through life. There is always a toll to pay to the Ferry Master, and at some point, the bill comes due,” Merge said, solemnly.
“In the interim, we move forward, tend the flock and ensure that all are fed and few are being misled,” Archangel replied. “Do you need anything, Joel. You know the front door is always open for a visit. The spare bedroom is just as you left it eight years ago.”
“A lot has changed in five years Gabe, especially me,” he offered. “Besides, now you’re married. Hell, a lot of the crew is married. Is that your next step in building your church of the wayward souls; creating family units?”
Gabriel Neary sat quietly. The weight of the conversation hovering between them as he gave thought to Willow’s words, the child Karli, and others like Dusty Rose who were victims, or soon to be victims of predators because they had no where to go. The kids were too old to live in another adult household and too young to live on their own. A thought popped into his head.
“Family is what you make of it, and to be honest Joel, there are kids out there, experiencing the same ugliness you went through as a teen, who all need help. Not only do they need help, they need a safe place to get their lives on track so that life doesn’t eat them alive,” Archangel told him. “It is my hope that the next evolution with you is to give back that which has been given unto you.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean? I don’t trust your double-tongued talk you insane bible thumper,” Merge said. “Yeah, you provided me shelter, a purpose and protected me from some ugly stuff, and now you want me to give back to others what you did for me?”
“You have the land, the resources and more than anything, the space,” he said to Merge.
Joel Thomas Lee liked being a technician. He enjoyed tending his carefully cultivate crops of hemlock, oleander and every day plants that were toxic to human and animal alike, but more than anything he enjoyed his peace. The Archangel was a busy body of the worst kind, he did it in the name of the Lord which meant the man never thought he was wrong.
“You’re wrong on whatever you are thinking. I’m not going to take on some middle-aged woman with a houseful of kids and become some ready-made dad. It’s not my way, and you can’t make me,” Merge said frowning, shifting slightly on the bar stool. “I will admit, Exit was kind of worried when he thought I was coming for his wife. Hey do I get a necktie as well?”
“Stay focused Joel. All your thoughts seem to merge together when you speak. Yes, you will get everything that is coming to you,” Archangel said getting to his feet. “Come on, bring it in.”
He outstretched his arms for Mr. Merge to walk into for a hug. It was a thing he did every night for nearly a year before getting Joel into college. Spring break, Summer breaks, and holidays, he spent with Gabriel Neary or his brothers, working, earning money to help offset his costs of living and tuition. Gabriel also maintained contact with Joel’s grandfather in Monroe County, Arkansas, sending reports on the progress. It was no surprise to Gabriel when Jedediah Williams made the call asking for his grandson to come home.
The forty acres of land tended with care over the years was the birth right of Joel Thomas Lee, since his mother had been the only living child to survive childbirth for the Williams’. Jedediah’s heart broke when his only daughter Ursula ran off with a seasonal worker, a white man named Robert Earl Beauregard Lee. He later found out that Ursula had married the man and gave birth to a son, Joel whom they raised in Ohio.
Years passed without Jedediah hearing from his daughter, only to find out from a man who called himself the Archangel that Ursula and Robert Earl both were killed in a car crash. Joel entered foster care and try as he might to find his only grandson, his effort had failed. By that time, the Archangel had taken oversight of Joel. Regular reports were sent of the boy headed off to college and at the encouragement of the Archangel, majored in soil sciences at the university.
All of it paid off. Jedediah sent word that his health was changing and Joel was needed on the farm. Seven years after the death of the old man, Joel still managed the land with deft precision. However, things were about to change for the technician in a way he’d never imagined. The Archangel was up to his normal meddling.
“I don’t trust you Gabe. You’re planning something and I’m not going to have much say in it, so I’m telling you now, I don’t want a wife, or kids,” Merge stated adamantly.
“Not a problem. No wife. No ready-made family,” Gabriel answered, giving a toothy grin. “Come on, bring it in.”
“I don’t want a hug. I don’t want to hug you,” Merge said pouting, but getting to his feet.
The big brother hugs always made Joel feel better. No matter how crappy his day had gone, every night before bed, Gabriel Neary gave the young man a brotherly hug. Before he left for school in the morning, or returned to college, or off to Summer work assignments in the church camps for teens, Gabriel Neary gave him a hug. Anger simmered just below the surface as he embraced the man, needing the connection, accepting the love and support, yet never wanting to admit he craved what the Archangel offered.
“Joel, things are going to change for you. Step into this and use what you spent Summers learning how to do, but think bigger. I’m here if you need resources or support, but you need to go home now,” the Archangel said.
“Why? What have you done?” Joel said, stepping out of the hug.
“The bill is coming due for you. You’re right, it’s time to pay up,” Gabriel said, leaning in to provide a fond kiss to Merge’s temple. “Be safe. Call me when you get home or if you need anything.”
“I need for you to leave me the hell alone, that’s what I need!” Mr. Merge said to the man’s strong back as he walked away. “Shit, I shouldn’t have come back. I shouldn’t have come back. He was expecting me. Sitting here drinking wine like he’d just left the Last Supper. Gabe gets on my gosh dang gone nerves. The bill is coming due. Ain’t that what I just said to him?”
Mr. Merge, the technician skilled with all things toxic, worked for the company for nearly six years. He created and provided a product. In the past he worked alongside Wrong Way to create the solvents she used in that truck of hers. Most of what he created, The Company bought in batches and seldom was he required to make personal appearances. This time he had to come to North Carolina, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized it had been set up by the Archangel.
“Yeah, I’m headed home. I’m heading home because I’m ready to go, not because you said I needed to Mr. Archangel,” he grumbled, making his way out the side door to his shop.
The drive home would take ten hours if he pushed it going through Atlanta, but he would drive as far as Knoxville tonight, going up and over through Tennessee instead. For lunch tomorrow he would stop in Nashville and grab a couple of hot chicken dinners and then roll on to the farm.
“If he thinks I’m getting married, that man has another thing coming,” Merge said grumbling for the entire trip to Arkansas. Just outside of Memphis he stopped to pick up dinner for himself. An odd sensation settled into his belly and he ordered two dinners.
A quarter past the hour of six, he arrived at Valvasti’s Way, driving up the long dirt road to the homestead. The white house, built when his great great grandfather was a sharecropper on the land, still stood. Over the years, minor improvements were made to the house, bringing it to modern times, but the last six years, Joel took pride in modernizing the farm house.
He’d set subtle markers about the place to indicate if someone had trespassed on his land, or were hiding in his home. The automatic cameras would kick on and give him and indication if such matters were taking place. Once he crossed over
into Arkansas from the Tennessee state line, the camera kicked on, showing off and intruder who let himself in through a side window. Only the intruder wasn’t looking to steal, he sat down his backpack, took a seat on the couch and went to sleep.
“Good thing I bought two dinners,” Merge said, pulling in around the side of the house and coming through the back door.
His two cats, Oleander and Night Shade greeted him at the back door. He added one scoop of wet food to each bowl, scratching his friends behind the each of their ears. The automatic feeder provided dry food when he was away; he enjoyed giving a wet as treat. In return he received a modicum of soft love vis a vis the form of rubbing fur against the legs of his pants. The other visitor on his couch he was about to awaken.
The containers of food were placed on the table, as well as two cold bottles of water from the fridge, and a two glasses worth of lemon aid made earlier in the week. Two forks, no knife and a spoon were placed on the table with a napkin as Merge took a seat, and cleared his throat. The body on the couch jumped awake, grabbing for the backpack, ready to bolt.
“I got us some dinner,” Merge said, pointing to the plate. “Wash your hands first, then come and join me.”
“What, you not calling the cops on me?” The young man, who appeared to be no more than seventeen said.
“I have to call, just to let the Sheriff know there is a kid staying in my house, if not, people tend to get the wrong ideas, and I can’t have that,” Merge said.
“You letting me stay?”
“Kid, I have no idea why you are here, but you look scared and hungry. That ain’t no way to live, so if I can offer you a few nights of good sleep where you ain’t scared for your personal safety, then let me do that.”
“And what is this kindness gonna cost me? I know your type, food, a shot or two of liquor, a few recreational drugs, then it all turns,” the kids said.
“Nope, none of that shit. I don’t take drugs for medicinal purposes and sure as hell don’t do’em for recreation. Go, wash your hands, come back and eat and tell me your sad ass story,” Merge said. “But first, tell me why you came here.”
Blind Copy (The Technicians Series Book 5) Page 27
