by Adair Rymer
“Maya's getting so big now too, she's beautiful! It's the only good thing my brother has ever done. You're always saying that everything happens for a reason. Well, baby, maybe Maya was that reason. She's worth all of it and I can't wait to get to know her when all of this is over.
“It's almost over, baby. Just a few more weeks and I'll have everything lined up and you, me, and the girls can get far away from that shitbag and the Blue Angels. I just need a little more time.
I'm not very good at putting my feelings down on paper. But if that's the only way that we can talk right now then I'll keep writing. Please be careful. I love you.
“Always, yours.
“-Robert
“P.S.- sorry about all the cursing. I know you hate it.”
I put the paper down. I had started to cry at some point, I didn't even know when. It was a lot to take in. Robbie was Anna's father? I guess I did know the truth but forced myself not to see it. There was no mistaking that Anna has Robbie's cobalt blue eyes.
I imagined just how different my life would've been if their plan had worked. Growing up with a father that actually cared about me and my sister. Jesus, Anna would only have been a half sister but that didn't matter. With Mom and Robbie, we'd have had a real family.
But their plan didn't work, they both wound up dead. Now that monster, Slick, is threatening everything else that I hold dear. I would die before I allowed him to hurt anyone else that I loved. I needed a plan.
I'd leave the bank a message somehow. I quickly scanned the area, of course there was nothing to write on or within this vault. I looked up at the cameras and slowly mouthed, as clearly as possible, what the situation was, that I needed help and what aunt Gina's address was. It was all being recorded but they might not check it until the bank closed, if at all. By then it would be too late.
No, I needed to leave a physical message as well and for that I needed something sharp enough to carve into the table. Unfortunately nothing in the box could help me and I couldn't ask for a pen out in the bank or the Angel would call Slick. I had to find a way to leave the message in here, but how?
I picked up the shabby pocket watch, this small chunk of cheap metal had been invaluable to me so far and now it had one final thing to offer me. I snapped the watch cover off and tried to carve a message, but the table was too hard to carve into in any meaningful way.
I sighed, turned my hand over and looked at my palm. “Fuck...” There was only one way to do this, and it made me a little queasy just thinking about it. I had no choice. I took a deep breath and pushed passed my hesitancy then I stabbed my palm with the jagged edge of the watch cover.
Blood beaded on my hand but it wouldn't be enough. I took another deep breath and stabbed my hand again. My fingers twitched but now the blood was flowing. I scrawled my aunt's address and the words HELP ME. I overdid it with the cut, the blood kept flowing.
I couldn't go out like this. The biker would immediately know that something had happened. I slipped one of my shoes off and grabbed a sock. It was kinda gross but it was all I had. Fortunately, they were ankle socks so I'd be able to hide it in my fist easily enough. I just hoped the thin fabric would hold.
Being that Slick wouldn't know how many documents were in the box originally, I put half the documents in the box that I'd be leaving with and the other half in the hole in the wall where my box was. Just in case something were to happen to them or to me, I'd made sure to leave enough incriminating evidence behind for the police to put that son of a bitch away for a long time.
The Blue Angel was waiting for me when I got out, he gave me a skeptical searching look, which I ignored then he followed me over to see the same lady that had been helping me. I thanked her and asked her to wrap everything in my box. She removed from her desk and folded together, one cardboard box that was approximately the same size as my safe deposit box. Then she hustled off, her heels tapping down the hallway.
When she returned, her smile was tarnished and she looked a little rattled but nothing could shake her polished demeanor, she was still as pleasant as ever. The lady handed me the box. I could feel that it was half full, she'd only boxed up what was on the table and not what was in the hole. So far so good. “Thank you, Maya for your patronage and on behalf SeaCoast Bank,” she said, quickly returning to her practiced, bubbly cadence. “We're pleased to have been able to assist you. You two have have a wonderful day.”
I thanked her again before the biker draped an arm over my shoulder and ushered me outside. On our way out, I saw the lady's happy, helpful facade fall away as she called the bank manager over. Now I could only hope that they would let the police know and that they could get to us in time.
Once we were inside the car, he grilled me on why it took so long. I told him that it wasn't my box to begin with, that it was my mom's and that I had a lot of trouble figuring out the pin, which was all true.
“You saw that I didn't talk to anyone inside,” I argued.
He regarded me skeptically for a second then pulled out his phone and called Slick.
“Wait! I told you the truth. I—”
“We got it. All set, bro.” He slid the gun out from under the seat and placed it on his lap, the barrel uncomfortably facing me. The man studied my face, measuring me. I think he was deciding how to answer a question that Slick asked. “No, everything's fine.” The Angel hung up.
Oh, thank God!
He narrowed his eyes at me and started the car. It was a clear warning that I'd better not have fucked around or the consequences would be severe. We made the short drive in silence, he had one hand on his gun the whole time. When we arrived at my Aunt's house, the Angel put his black gloves back on and took the box, then he shoved me toward the door. It made sense that he'd want to be behind me in case I ran.
I opened the front door to find the house trashed and Hendrix on his knees about to be executed. He was beaten bloody, bleeding all over the place and groveling. I'd seen Hendrix stare down the wrong end of a gun barrel before, but he never groveled. He was up to something.
Slick, the executioner, was standing a few feet away, his gun pointed at Hendrix, while the other biker simply crossed his arms and looked on. Behind them all was Gina who was frantically cutting her leg restraints with a knife and was somehow overlooked completely.
That was the play. Hendrix was buying Gina time to get free!
“Perfect timing,” Slick's voice was thick with triumph. “I wanted you to see—”
I knew that if I was going to act it had to be right now. I couldn't let that psycho win. I spun on my heels and slammed the door behind me shut, locking my biker chaperone outside. He cursed loudly when I felt the door connect with a part of him that I hoped was extremely painful.
“The fuck are you—” Slick's momentary confusion gave Gina the few more seconds she needed to get free.
Gina screamed through the gag, which she hadn't yet bothered to take off and buried the knife into Slick's back. He shrieked and whirled around, slapping her to the floor. Then to my horror, he shot aunt Gina three times in the chest.
I screamed for her, leaning backwards into the front door for support. The biker outside apparently wasn't hurt as badly as I'd hoped. The wood around the locked deadbolt cracked apart as he kicked it. The force of the blow sent me careening into the adjacent doorway of the coat closet.
I slumped to the ground, but was able to kick the door shut again before he could get back inside. That's when I heard the sirens in the distance. The bank lady had called the police! Hope swelled within me. We might just make it!
Bullets punched through the door right above me. The Blue Angel outside heard the approaching sirens too and decided that killing me was the only way in. I screamed and stretched across the floor, pushing against the closet door frame and the bottom of the front door itself.
Slick flailed for the knife that was jutting out from between his shoulder blades, making him look like a life-sized wind-up toy. Decades-old anger drov
e Gina's hand, but she wasn't a murderer. She had stabbed him out of unwilling necessity, which led to Slick's wound being painful but not deadly. He would survive.
The other Blue Angel inside the house drew his gun and foolishly left Hendrix unattended to help his president. Hendrix seized the opportunity and sprang up like a coiled snake. He grabbed the back of the passing biker's head and rammed it into the nearest wall. Hendrix did this with such brutal strength that the biker's face smashed right through the drywall. The Angel's unconscious body hung limply, suspended awkwardly by his head and neck.
The sirens wailed just outside as several cars screeched to a halt. The biker outside crashed into the door once more, he was desperate to get in. I pushed against it with everything I had left. The metal hinges strained and twisted and deep lines spread across the wood threatening to snap it in half but somehow it all held. He wasn't getting in.
There was yelling outside, back and forth from both the police and the stranded biker. Then there was more shooting. I rolled away. I knew I didn't need to hold the door shut any longer.
Slick whimpered as he carefully pulled the knife out of his back and let it drop to the floor. Hendrix glanced back at me with a concerned expression, making sure I was alright, then he hurled himself at Slick. The Blue Angel's President was too quick. He stepped backwards and fired two shots into Hendrix.
“No!” I screamed, as if the word could somehow deflect the bullets. It didn't. Hendrix crumpled to the floor like a sack of potatoes and my heart crumpled with him.
My Aunt and now Hendrix too. It was soul-crushing. I shifted my gaze up to my father, the man who had taken everything from me. Sorrow, self-loathing, depression, all were just tiny islands in my ocean of vengeance.
He had to pay for this!
Slick kicked Hendrix's body over to check the entry wounds, he was always deadly thorough. Seeing that Hendrix wasn't dead yet, he lined up one last shot that would finish the job.
Like most of my life, my father didn't notice me. He didn't notice that I had picked up the unconscious biker's pistol. He didn't notice that I had carefully aimed, but he sure as hell noticed when the wrist that held his gun exploded.
Slick screamed, turning to look at me with both shock and anger.
Do you see me now, Dad?
His hand, now only loosely attached to his arm by some skin and frayed ligaments, flopped lazily, spurting blood in every direction.
Much to my surprise, he refused to quit and wasn't giving in to the pain. With his other hand, he wrenched the gun free from his useless appendage and brought it around to shoot me. Again, I was faster. I fired, this time catching him square in the knee. Broken bits of cartridge and bone matter sprayed out through the new hole in the back of his pants.
Slick staggered backwards, tripping over some of the wreckage from their trashing of the place earlier. His injured leg buckled, then with a series of sickening pops, it bent the wrong way completely, causing him to crash to the floor in a heap. Slick laid there whining and groaning.
“Hendrix!” I rushed over to him. Hendrix had lost a lot of blood and was in rough shape, but the only life threatening wound that I could see was the one just above his heart, and he had pressure on it.
My father missed.
“Do it. Kill me,” Slick called out to me through labored breathing. We heard the police cautiously approaching the house. They'd be here any minute. It was all over for him and he knew it. I went and stood over him anyways. I needed to see that even monsters got what was coming to them.
“Why did you kill Mom? Was it because you found out about her and Robbie or was it because you knew that Anna wasn't yours?” I didn't have a way of recording our conversation. There would be no way to prove any of what he said right now in court and Slick knew that too. I didn't care. I just needed to hear it from him. I needed the closure.
“I didn't give a fuck about your mom. She was just some chink whore that I married to keep up appearances. I killed her because my brother needed to know his place.” Struggling against the tremendous amount of pain, Slick used all of his concentration to just form the words. “I put your mom on her knees and made Robbie watch as I blew her fucking brains out. Then I warned him that I'd do the same thing to his daughter, if I ever so much as heard his name mentioned again. He needed to disappear and live knowing that everything that happened was all on him. That he was a nothing but a worm beneath my boot.”
He was goading me on. My arm shook. I wanted to kill him. He deserved it. The gun I held was pointed at his head. My finger tightened around the trigger. It would be the easiest thing in the world to end his life, to kill the monster that had caused me so much hurt over the years. I could take revenge for Mom, Aunt Gina, Robbie, Miles and probably countless others as well.
“Do it!” He snarled at me, drooling through clenched teeth and grimacing through the pain. “I'm owed too many favors. I won't be in prison long and when I get out, I'm coming for you.”
It was a bluff, all that talk about not staying in prison. With all the evidence I had against him if I testified in court, he was fucked and he knew it. He wanted me to kill him. Death was his only way out of a lifetime of torment. “Be the tough Merritt girl I always knew you could be,” he said.
“I'm no daughter of yours. You're going to prison for the rest of your shitty, broken life. I want you to watch as I dismantle everything you've ever built. I'm going to tear the Blue Angels apart brick by fucking brick. You're going to feel what it's like to be the one beneath the boot.” I kicked his gun away instead.
Then I tossed my gun aside. I didn't need it any longer. I would hopefully never need it again.
Slick's expression darkened once he realized there would be no easy out for him. He clammed up, the pain finally overtook his concentration to speak.
I sat beside Hendrix. “Great speech, I wanted to clap but I thought I might die.” His free hand slid over mine and he managed a weak smile. The good news is that I'm hurt too badly to go directly back to jail.” His strained chuckle became a horrible wheeze.
“Don't joke, you idiot!” Tears streamed down my face. I was racked with remorse over his wounds, but was relieved that he was alive. “I was so worried about you. After all this, you're not allowed to die on me now.”
“Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. I don't care what it takes, but I'm never going to lose you again. That's a promise.” Hendrix squeezed my hand. “Your Aunt Gina is alive. I saw her chest moving.”
Chapter 12
Hendrix
There was a knock at my hospital room door.
“Can I come in?” Maya's silky voice greeted me. She wore a black business suit with a white shirt. It was quite the change from stolen lost and found clothes. Maya looked great in, and especially out of, anything she wore.
“Of course. I'd get up but...” I raised my arm to the length that the handcuff would allow. “I've never been much of a jewelry guy, but at least they didn't give me a matching set.”
“Bracelets aren’t a good look for you. Now an earring, that's a different story.” She brushed the hair from her eyes and smiled. It had only been a few weeks but I missed the hell out of that smile.
“How's your aunt?”
“It's going to be a long road but she's recovering. She told me to send you her thanks.” Maya walked over to my bedside. “You've been on my mind a lot lately.”
“I'd have called but you never actually gave me your number. I was hoping I'd get to see you before they transferred me.”
“That's part of why I'm here. Your charges are in the process of being dropped. I wanted to tell you in person.”
“You're joking. A twenty year sentence doesn't evaporate that easily.”
“No joke, Hendrix. The gun you had under the seat of the rental car was picked up by the Blue Angel that brought me to the bank. With both sets of prints on there they couldn't prove who used it to do the slayings in the casket warehouse. And with him killed while shooting at
the police, they couldn't get a statement from him. All they really have you on is skipping town on parole.”
Maya unlocked my cuff. It was my first taste of freedom since I was shot. “Between my witness statements of what happened with the Blue Angels and the Coffin Eaters, plus everything my mom had stashed away, I practically have the ATF bending over backwards for me. Negotiating your release took a little work, but was easy in the scope of things.”
I rubbed my raw wrist. “Sounds too good to be true. These kinds of things don't usually happen for guys like me.”
“Also doesn't hurt that I'm a lawyer too.” She winked at me and smiled. “I'm sorry I couldn’t get here sooner.”
I scooted to the edge of the bed and forced myself to stand. The various tubes I was attached to pulled taut and pain crackled up my leg from the slowly healing bullet wound in my thigh. I fought through the pain but I stumbled a little and Maya caught me. I looked into her beautiful reddish brown eyes. “You're here now.”
“Get back into bed, crazy.” She weakly protested.
“Not yet.” I slipped a hand behind her head and kissed her. I needed that far more than painkillers or rest. I was dying without it. We parted, I hugged her and breathed her in. Lilacs. She still smelled of lilacs.
“How's your heart?” Maya whispered, her chest fluttered a little at my closeness.
“Better now. It's missed you.”
“Hendrix...” She swallowed hard. I knew she missed me too but I could feel her hesitancy. Something weighed heavily on her.
I leaned back to get a better look at her. “If you're trying not to get attached, it's a bit late for that.”
She sighed. “It's not that. I just...”
I sat down and she sat next to me.
“What did they want from you for my freedom?” My tone took on a darker edge, that's what this was about. Nothing with the government was ever strings free.
