Mayhem and Mutiny

by Charissa Dufour

Using her core muscles, Bit flung her good leg up, her boot slamming into Zandri’s chest. He stumbled, his grip on her hair loosening. She jerked her head free, the dreadlocks protecting her scalp from being torn from her head. As Randal had always said, “we’re stronger united than apart.” Evidently, the same theory was true with hair.

  Bit rolled to her stomach and jumped up to her feet in one swift move. As she came up, Zandri took a swing. Bit ducked, barely evading his fist. In a quick glance, Bit noticed Zandri’s stance—feet apart, relaxed, eyes alert. He had training, and something similar to what Randal had taught her.

  Bit jabbed at him, testing his speed. He jumped aside, a grin forming on his lips. She knew in a fair fight she would be fast with longer stamina than him—his age playing a factor—but her knee made this anything but a fair fight. She couldn’t move like he could, dancing around her.

  But he didn’t have what she had—hatred to fuel him.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Jack descended the steps of the elevated train platform. The police officers and locals were all dashing for cover, as though the rain would do more than get them wet. His crew stayed just a step behind him, almost flanking him like a protection detail. It made him feel powerful, though Jack knew in this high-end neighborhood he had no real power.

  As they neared the scene of Bit’s “crime”, Jack waved for his men to back off. They huddled under one of the umbrellas placed out in front of a tea shop, leaving Jack to peruse the officer alone.

  He followed the officers to the entryway of a tiny shop. “Officer!”

  “What?” demanded the nearest policeman as he wiped rainwater from his cheeks.

  “Sorry to bother you, sir. I was just wondering what had happened here,” Jack said in his most endearing tone of voice, pretending he didn’t already know the basics.

  The officer’s face softened. “Sorry. We got called out here about some report of a runaway indentured servant. As it turns out, the guy has no idea if it really was an I.S. or just a slum-bunny looking for a handout.”

  “Oh gosh. Talk about wasting your time.”

  The officer nodded, taking off his sodden hat.

  “Maybe you could help me. I’m trying to find someone here in this neighborhood, or at least I think he lives around here. Are you familiar with the locals?”

  “Been working this beat since I was an apprentice,” announced the officer as he puffed out his chest until Jack could see his armor through his uniform.

  Jack smiled. “Perfect. Do you know Douglas Zandri? Or where he lives? Last time we talked I forgot to get his address.”

  “Oh yeah, the new guy. He lives just up Maiden Lane. The mansion with the bamboo fencing. You can’t miss it.

  Reaching out his hand, Jack thanked the officer. “You’ve been a huge help.”

  With that, he left the shop, ducking into the sheets of rain. He turned in the direction the officer had indicated, trusting his crew to follow at a respectable distance until they turned the corner.

  “Well?” Randal asked as they turned the corner and caught up with him.

  “Zandri does live here. Just up the street. I think we’re about to find Bit.”

  His men smiled, but Jack didn’t feel their enthusiasm. He still didn’t know how he would respond to Bit when he found her. They headed down Maiden Lane, the street dipping down into a natural little valley. As they neared the bottom of the valley, the water began to rise up above their ankles, and finally to their knees.

  Absently, Jack wondered how anyone kept their houses from flooding on Maiden Lane.

  Bit waited for her moment, ducking and dodging Douglas Zandri’s attacks. “Tell me where she is.”

  Zandri grinned again, throwing another punch and dancing to the side. Bit avoided the fist and pressed into him, forcing him to back up—right into his own coffee table. He tumbled backward, breaking the delicate glass thing. Bit jumped forward, trying to grab his shirt rather than strike at him. It was a mistake and gave him time to roll away.

  Bit noticed a few flecks of red where the glass had nicked his back. It wasn’t much, but it was something. Zandri made it to his feet in record time, putting a living room chair in between them.

  “Why do you care so much?” he asked.

  Bit shifted to her right, trying to get to him, but unsurprisingly he danced around the chair. “Because she’s my only family left. I have to know that she’s okay. Now, where did you send her?”

  “Why should I tell you? What’s it worth to me?”

  Bit grabbed up a leg to the destroyed coffee table and flung it at him. She was done playing nice. Zandri ducked to the side, barely evading the missile. It gave her time to round the chair, slamming into his side and taking them both to the ground. Bit slammed her small fist into his face, her injured knee screaming as she put her weight on it, holding the larger man down with her other hand pressed into his collarbone.

  Raising her arm, she went to drive her fist into his face again when he ducked at the last second. Bit’s hand connected with the wooden flooring of his living room. Bit cried out at the pain while Zandri bucked, dumping her off him and climbing to his feet.

  Before Bit could make it up herself, Zandri drove his foot into her side. Bit coughed, the air driven from her lungs.

  “You’re just a worthless I.S. Go back to your owner. You’re out of your depths here, kid,” Zandri yelled, driving his foot into her stomach again.

  Bit rolled with the second kick until she bumped into an end table. She hurried to her feet, grabbed a delicate lamp from the table, and swung it like a baseball bat. It connected with the side of his head.

  Though blood poured down his head from a cut above his ear, Zandri grinned at her, his fists still raised to protect his face. Bit had expected the blow to do more, but she had grown weak over the last few days. Nothing she did would hurt him as badly as his blows.

  “What could you possibly do to help her,” said Zandri with a sneer.

  Bit let out a senseless cry of rage as she ran toward him, for once unaware of her knee’s injury or the gash on her wrist or the bruise on her back. All her aches and pains washed away as she charged at him. Despite her tiny frame, Bit barreled into Zandri’s body, driving him back at full speed.

  They rammed into the exterior wall of the house, the enormous pane of glass shattering around them as they fell through it. They tumbled into the falling rain, plummeting the half story down to the ground. Deep water broke their fall, splashing up in brown waves away from them. They both rolled away from each other, surprised by the wet landing.

  Bit came up sputtering. Before she could clear her eyes, something solid smashed into her gut. She dropped again, her head barely above water as she caught herself on her hands and knees. Lunging forward, a blow meant for her back hit her in the thigh. She scrambled through the water, half doggy-paddling half crawling. She put enough distance between her and Zandri to get to her feet as he waded through the knee-deep water.

  As she came to her feet she scrambled for one of the many floating sticks. The soggy bark shredded under her hand, but it was still sturdy. She swung it blindly as she spun, the stick colliding with Zandri’s own piece of storm debris, much like a sword.

  The chopped at each other recklessly, neither of them ever being trained with swords. Bit took a blow to her hip while getting a good jab in at his gut. Zandri doubled over the end of her stick, grabbing it despite his pain. He jerked it out of her hand.

  Bit turned and ran as fast as she could in the deep water. She felt no shame in running from a man with two sticks while she had none—some small portion of her mind thought it a good analogy for her life in general.

  She reached a tree and began to scramble up its side, grabbing a branch above her head and walking up the side. She was just about to hoist herself onto the branch when she felt Zandri’s hand grip her ankle. He yanked her down and she tumbled under the water.

  Darkness overtook her as she instinctively closed her e
yes. Zandri’s hands fumbled around her chest, looking for her neck. She held her breath, her chest instantly tightening in her exhaustion. Her body couldn’t take much suffocation before she passed out entirely.

  Bit kicked at him as she grappled with his large hands. If he lowered himself onto her, she’d have no hope of escape. He was at least twice her weight. Bit gripped his hand by the fingers and bent them back. Under the water and the heavy rainfall, she couldn’t hear him scream, but his body jerked as she put all her new-found strength into his hand. She felt the pop she had been waiting for and finally released his fingers.

  As Zandri gripped his injured hand, Bit sat up, gasping for air. She scrambled back a few paces before climbing to her feet. Zandri looked up from his disfigured hand, a dark glare plastered across his wet face.

  “Where is that child?” Bit called, wiping rain and blood from her face.

  She didn’t know when she had begun to bleed, but she guessed it came from her fall through the window.

  “I’ll take that secret to my grave.”

  “That won’t take long!”

  Bit charged at him, her injured knee dragging in the water as yet more rain pummeled the city. They collided with each other, both too tired and injured to do much more. Bit grimaced as she put her weight on the bad knee and drove her good knee up at his privates. She missed, grazing his thigh. Though he grunted with the impact, it did little else to annoy him. At the same moment, he drove his fist into her stomach, making Bit want to throw up. She held her stomach under tight control as she swung awkwardly at his face. She missed, and he shoved her away from his body.

  Stumbling back, Bit raised her arms up just as Randal had taught her. They felt like lead pipes attached at her shoulders, but she kept them up, her fists in front of her face. Zandri stumbled to the side, his feet struggling against the rainwaters. He looked almost as tired as she felt.

  “You should run, Little Bit, before I kill you.”

  “Take your own advice,” countered Bit.

  Bit took a step forward and swung. Zandri easily ducked out of her reach. She was moving slowly, her fatigue and the weight of the water pulling her back.

  “Why won’t you just tell me?”

  Zandri opened his mouth as though he intended to reply, then closed it again, spitting out the water that had ran down his face and into his mouth. He readjusted his foot as the water pushed against his shins. Finally, he opened his mouth to speak again.

  “I told you already. I loved your sister,” he yelled over the pounding rain. “I loved you, dammit. I wanted to be like a father to you, but the minute you found out your sister was pregnant, you saw me as the villain. I couldn’t get near you. I couldn’t even be a friend. Then when your sister died, you were inconsolable. You wouldn’t even be in the same room as me unless I ordered it.”

  Bit stared at him, blinking as the never-ending rain dripped into her eyes. She didn’t remember it like that. Their avoidance of each other had been mutual, she thought. Zandri had seemed so distant after her sister’s death, as though he had no emotions, and never had cared for them in the slightest. At Bit’s young age, she had thought he was upset because he had lost the wealth attached to Alesha.

  Then, when Zandri had sold her niece the very next day—before Bit even had a chance to hold the child—Bit had thought of every bad word she knew to describe her feelings toward Zandri.

  “We were both hurting,” continued Zandri. “But you refused to let me in. You wouldn’t even answer me when I asked a direct question or put you to a task. I realized you couldn’t possibly heal in my house, and that the best thing for you would be to move away. So I sold your debt.”

  “Heal? You really thought I would heal under Earl Baugh’s tender cares? Do you know what he did to me?” she asked, thinking of the horrors of those three years with Earl.

  Zandri’s face went blank at her words, as though he feared to think it.

  “I was trying to do what was best for you,” he finally yelled over the rain, spitting yet more water and blood from his mouth.

  “You’re lying!” Bit screamed.

  Fueled once again with rage, she charged him, knocking him off his feet and into the water.

  She couldn’t grasp his words. It was impossible that the man she had hated for the last decade had wanted to be her family all along. This was Douglas Zandri, after all. The man who had raped her sister and sold her niece. He wasn’t the good guy. He didn’t care or love or show compassion.

  After Zandri, Bit had spent three years with Earl Baugh and eight with James Asselstine. They had both mistreated her, starved her, overworked her, beat her, and worse. She couldn’t believe Zandri meant it when he said he had wanted to be a father to her.

  They grappled, taking turns with their heads below the water. They were each growing weak and their efforts were bordering on the comical. Finally, Zandri grabbed the front of her shirt and dragged her up, climbing to his feet and pressing her back against a tree.

  “We could have been happy together!” he screamed. “We could have been a family! But you had to treat me like a pariah.”

  Bit’s mind raced. She was the injured party, not him. He had impregnated her sister, sold her niece, and sold her as well. Bit tried to think back to the day her sister had given birth and remember how he had acted, but all she could remember was her sister’s screams and the neighbor woman’s harsh words when Bit got in the way.

  Had that been Zandri’s happiest of days, or was it a nightmare to him? Had he been looking forward to the first time he held his child, or had he always intended to sell it?

  Bit slammed her arms down on the inside of his elbows, forcing him to release his grip and drop her back into the water. Even with the water breaking her short fall, her knee screamed in protest. She shoved him back, disgusted by the man’s proximity.

  “I don’t believe you!”

  “Of course not! Little Bit is always the victim. No one else suffers but her. No one else has a broken heart but her. No one else lost someone when Alesha died. It’s always you!”

  Zandri flung a punch at her. Bit dodged to the side just in time and Zandri’s fist slammed into the tree. He wailed, but it didn’t stop him from chasing after her. Bit tried to run, aware that Zandri’s own rage had caught up with hers. He shoved her from behind, knocking her straight into the water. She rolled over, just in time for him to grab her shoulder and shove her down.

  Her fear came true. Bit felt his weight rest on her hips as he straddled her body, his large hands pressing into her collar bones. Bit writhed, flinging her head back and forth and kicking upward with her feet. Nothing helped. He had her pinned under the water and showed no intention of releasing her.

  Even through the water and rain, Bit heard him yelling at the top of his lungs. She couldn’t understand his words, but she was certain Zandri was releasing his years of anger toward her. Absently, a small part of her mind wondered how he had stayed so calm when they met on the Lenore.

  Bit’s lungs burned with the need to breathe. As the need grew, her toes and fingers began to tingle. Finally, blackness clouded her vision.

  This is it, Little Bit, she told herself, her mind screaming out for Jack and Oden and Randal and all of her new family.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Jack and the crew stopped at the gate of an estate with bamboo fencing. A tingle ran up his spine, despite the continuous downpour. Something didn’t feel right, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Like the other men in his crew, he was keeping a constant awareness of their surroundings, but the heavy rain made it difficult to see beyond his own nose.

  Through the sound of the rain, he thought he heard the shouts of a man. “You hear that?”

  Randal nodded from his side. “I think we need to get in there.”

  The large security guard grabbed one of the delicate-looking sticks of bamboo on the gate and pulled. It didn’t budge. Oden came to his side and took his own hand hold, while Reese and Cale
n joined forces on another stick. It wasn’t long before they had made a hole in the gate large enough for Randal to fit through. The six men jumped through and hurried toward the glowing house. As they drew near, Jack spotted a broken window, water dribbling into what appeared to be the living room.

  “Where is she?” Reese asked, directing his question to no one in particular.

  “And what happened there?” Oden asked, pointing at the broken window.

  “Bit!” Jack called.

  The rain answered back, coming down heavier than before.

  “Calen, Reese, search the house. Randal, Wic head that direction. Oden, come with me. We’ll go the other way. Meet behind the house.”

  Everyone nodded and took off. Oden and Jack headed around the house, trying to see through the sheets of rain. As they jogged through the deep water, the sound of a man yelling increased. Finally, the form of a man bending over the water came into focus. Oden raced ahead as Jack stopped, trying to figure out what the man was doing, but Oden was way ahead of him.

  Oden came up behind the man—Zandri, Jack guessed—and grabbed him around the neck, dragging him backward. The man wailed, flinging wildly about, but Oden easily overpowered him. It wasn’t until Zandri’s hands came up that Jack realized what he had been doing.

  Jack ran after Oden, grabbing the limp form. Bit was unconscious and, by the looks of her bruised and bleeding face, the loser of a long, drawn-out battle. He lifted her out of the water and gave her a rough shake.

  “Is she okay?” Oden asked as he grappled Zandri down to his knees.

  “She’s not breathing.”

  Jack looked around, trying to find something to lay her on so that he could administer CPR. Everything was two feet under water. Finally, Jack lowered his lips to her, holding her as flat as he could, and breathed into her mouth. Jack felt his eyes burning as his lips caressed hers. They were soft, despite a touch of bruising, barely visible in the storm’s premature dusk.

  He held her with one arm, using the other to thump her chest a few times. He lowered his lips to hers again, remember to plug her nose at the last second. Jack pushed air into her, panic making it hard to breathe for both. He bounced his fist off her chest a few more times and repeated the gestures.