Explicit Instruction

by Scarlett Finn

  The water went off, and Flick listened to the noises of Serendipity going through the motions. When she came out of the en-suite, Serendipity had tears in her eyes and rushed over to hug Flick. Knowing that Serendipity still had access to her emotions was positive, but Flick wondered at the anger, and if it remained.

  Serendipity had just tied back her damp hair when thunder joined them.

  ‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing?’

  The women turned to see Rushe inside the doorway. Serendipity took one look at him, then one at Flick, and filtered out of the room, presumably going back to Jansen in the study.

  ‘Me?’ Flick asked.

  ‘Don’t wander around, don’t go looking for things,’ Rushe said. ‘Stay where I leave you.’

  ‘How has that worked out for you in the past?’ Flick asked him.

  ‘If I have to tie you to something—‘

  ‘Why did Jansen come to you?’ Flick asked, ignoring his fuming bull imitation. ‘If he was a cop, couldn’t he go to his superiors?’

  ‘Jansen came to me because when Victor found out that he was an undercover cop, Victor kidnapped Serendipity. Victor wanted Jansen to feed his superiors misinformation. Not just about his own dealings, but those of others too. Jansen did it. It put Victor in a position of authority with members of the criminal community – he could get things done.’

  ‘What has that got to do with—‘

  ‘Jansen’s not the only cop that lowlifes have on the books. But he was the only one whose job it was to spy.’

  ‘Except he became a double agent,’ Flick said.

  ‘Right. When he tried to talk to a superior about it, Victor found out.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Jansen didn’t know, still doesn’t.’

  ‘So he couldn’t trust anyone.’

  ‘Right, and Jansen had dabbled in more than a few illegal activities himself by that point. Victor had him over a barrel, and both of them knew it,’ Rushe said, and stepped back to gesture at the door.

  But Flick didn’t exit. ‘Why do you take cases in defence of women?’

  ‘What?’ Rushe was taken aback by the question. ‘Who told you that?’

  ‘It’s your reputation.’

  Rushe came deeper into the room toward her. ‘What do you know about my reputation? Jansen was supposed to tell you to scram.’

  ‘He did,’ Flick said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

  ‘But you ignored him, sure,’ Rushe said.

  ‘You paid my ransom.’ Again, she’d surprised Rushe. ‘You personally ensured my freedom, but you paid the ransom anyway, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said, without moving his lips.

  ‘I can’t believe you would do that. No one’s ever cared for me like that.’

  ‘No one’s ever cared for me at all,’ Rushe confessed. ‘But I can’t get rid of you; you’re like a terrier at my ankles, all the fucking time.’

  ‘You wanted me to see Jansen in that diner,’ she said. ‘You deliberately provoked me in the motel. You woke me up, and threatened me with cuffs, to goad me into it. You wanted me to think that coming with you was my idea.’

  ‘It was.’

  ‘Yeah, but you had it first, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why couldn’t you be honest with me?’ she asked, pushing back up to her feet. ‘Was it just about deniability?’

  ‘I told you at the shack that these guys weren’t to be trusted. I didn’t know how it was going to play out. If something had happened to me, there was nothing stopping them coming for you. If I couldn’t be there for you, then you wouldn’t have a chance. Damn right I paid the ransom, I wasn’t gonna let Vic think that he’d lost either money or face. I paid it. I told them it was from your father, and he believed me.’

  ‘And Jansen?’

  ‘I didn’t trust Victor,’ Rushe said. ‘I knew he’d figure out my connection to Jansen eventually. Jansen was the only person other than you who knew I was here, and why.’

  ‘I didn’t know why.’

  ‘Victor didn’t know that,’ Rushe said. ‘He sent Shiv and John to torture you in the basement because he thought you knew everything, everything he didn’t.’

  ‘I could’ve told them. How did you know I wouldn’t?’

  ‘You didn’t know his name, or who he was,’ Rushe said, then hesitated.

  ‘What?’

  ‘If it had meant guaranteeing your freedom, I’d have demanded that you tell them.’

  Though his stature was subdued, she could read the fortitude in his eyes. But Flick couldn’t believe that she’d understood him correctly. ‘You would rather I gave up you and your friend, to save myself?’

  That determination inside him, that glowed down onto her, didn’t waver. ‘I’d give up anything to save you, Flick, anything.’

  ‘Why were you at the shack?’ Flick asked. ‘In the first place, I don’t understand what—‘

  ‘Jansen wasn’t supposed to know that me and the other guys from the shack were on Victor’s crew. The meeting you walked in on was Victor making plans with the guys bankrolling the trafficking operation. Guys like that want the profit at the end, but aren’t interested in how the sausage gets made.’

  ‘Deniability.’

  ‘Some guys are squeamish,’ Rushe said. ‘The guys at the bar and shooting pool, everyone hanging around were from various gangs, everyone there had people with them, everyone blended to one.’

  ‘So Jansen wasn’t supposed to know you, Skeeve, and Shiv, Glen and the Kid were working for Victor? You were a backup crew?’

  ‘Victor started me working for him independently. I had to make it clear that I wanted more; I had to be hungry for it. Victor was impressed with me. But my goal was to find Serendipity, except Victor couldn’t know that. I wasn’t going to find her collecting cash on the streets. Victor, he put us in the shack, out of the way, ready to move in if he needed us. His fear was Jansen somehow getting Serendipity out on his own, or getting the cops involved. He didn’t tell us that. As far as we were told, we were enforcing, collecting Victor’s debts, proving to him that we had what it took to move to the next step.’

  ‘Trafficking.’

  ‘That and I think he wanted rid of Skeeve. No one will have to worry about that again after tonight.’

  ‘Have you killed him?

  ‘Broken a few fingers,’ he said. ‘I don’t work quickly. If you work slowly, make it clear there’s no hurry, people are usually tipped over by the wait. You let them torture themselves.’

  ‘In their head, like Skeeve downstairs.’

  Rushe tucked his gun into his jeans and came to her, resting his hands on her shoulders. He opened his mouth, then paused and took a breath, before he started again.

  ‘When I was twelve or thirteen... there about, I was a kid. I never stuck around in the same area, and tried to keep my nose clean as best I could but... I’ve always been in trouble, Kitten, I’m never gonna lie to you about that. I’d been arrested for fighting, and stealing, joyriding, vandalism, kids’ stuff. But I’d been on my own, part of the system, all of my life. I ran away from more than a couple of group homes. I’d been on my own on the streets for a while. I’d always looked out for myself, I always had to.’

  Flick didn’t know where he was going with the story, but she’d give him all the time he needed to get it out. Opening up to her, to anyone, was unnatural to him, and she could sense his unease. But he’d never surrender to fear, even the psychological kind.

  ‘One night, sorta by mistake, I... I saw a woman come out of her apartment, she put this pizza box in the dumpster and... I went in after it. I was too busy scarfing down the food to notice that she’d come out again. She tried to talk to me but I...’ Rushe shook his head and his eyes fell from hers. ‘She started putting food out for me a lot; she was good to me, I... I don’t know why...’

  ‘What happened?’ Flick asked, sliding her hand up to his jaw.

  ‘She tr
ied to talk to me...’

  ‘You didn’t talk to her?’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘She didn’t make me eat out of the trash, she cooked for me, but I wouldn’t go inside. I didn’t want to be inside. I knew by then that you couldn’t rely on people, that you couldn’t trust them... One night I was eating in the alley, and she brought me a beer. I was always tall and broad; I’d never told her how old I was. She was drinking one too, and I... I couldn’t believe that someone, anyone, would want to share a beer with me. I didn’t know that such casual situations existed.’

  ‘That’s a good thing,’ Flick said. ‘She was trying to reach out to you.’

  ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘This group... this gang, I didn’t know their colours, but they were... there were a dozen of them, maybe more, they started to give us hassle. She was cool but...’

  ‘But?’

  ‘I heard her scream... I knew what they would do to her, but... there were so many of them, I couldn’t take them all.’

  ‘You ran away?’

  ‘That would’ve been the smart thing to do,’ he said. ‘No, me, like an idiot, I fought. I didn’t stand a chance. I should’ve left. I should’ve got help, not that I trusted the cops but... a few of them were beating me and I saw... I watched them carry her out the end of the alley.’

  Flick didn’t want to push him. She didn’t want to see him in the torture that he’d clearly put himself through for all of these years. ‘You did your best. You did what you thought was right. You were a kid.’

  ‘I passed out, I was unconscious for... I don’t know how long. I got myself patched up at a free clinic. I didn’t tell them anything. It wasn’t so bad... for me.’

  ‘If you were unconscious for that amount of time it would’ve been awful, so many of them, and only one of you.’

  ‘I went back there a couple of days later, as soon as I saw the yellow of the police tape...’

  ‘They killed her?’ Flick said in a rush of breath, without considering her words.

  ‘Eventually,’ he said, in such a distant voice it was as if he wasn’t here with Flick at all. ‘It was in the newspaper, the things they did to her... it was horrific... and I’d been right there. I let it happen.’

  ‘They raped her? And beat her,’ Flick said. Rushe wouldn’t look her in the eye, but he lifted his head in the slightest of nods. ‘You’ve blamed yourself for it all these years. That was why you couldn’t let them... with me, in Dell’s... why you need consent, why you despise all of these men... Oh, Rushe.’

  With a long exhale, Flick grabbed her arms around him, and held him as tightly as she could. He’d never sought her affection; he’d spurned it frequently, because he didn’t know how to deal with it, because he didn’t think he deserved it.

  ‘You’re a good man,’ she said into his chest. ‘You’re an incredible man, and I love you.’

  His hand rested on her head. ‘You should be ashamed of me.’

  ‘I’m not,’ Flick said, lifting her head to find his eyes. ‘I could never be ashamed of you, Rushe. And I’m going to spend the rest of my life proving it to you.’

  His features relaxed though his turmoil remained. Before either could say more, a sharp bang startled them both.

  ‘That was a gunshot, stay here.’

  ‘No,’ Flick said, following directly behind him when he left the room and raced down the corridor.

  Rushe paused at the double doors with his gun already drawn, and flattened his hand to Flick’s abdomen, pressing her back against the wall.

  ‘Please, Kitten, stay here.’

  Flick shook her head. ‘You don’t work alone anymore.’

  The half a beat of eye contact they shared was broken by another gunshot. Rushe turned away, and opened the office door without going inside. Serendipity was crouched at the side of the desk, and Rushe kept Flick at his back as he moved into the room.

  Jansen came out of the side room backward with his gun pointing behind the drape. Then he turned and bolted out.

  ‘Serendipity?’

  ‘Oh my god,’ Serendipity said, poking her head over the desk.

  ‘What happened?’ Rushe said, not more than three feet inside the room.

  ‘I released Skeeve,’ Serendipity said. ‘I wanted to—‘

  ‘You shot him?’ Rushe asked Jansen.

  The question was answered when Skeeve came into the room brandishing a weapon of his own. Though the weasel stood proud, one of his hands hung limp, and useless, at his side.

  ‘He got it from under the bed,’ Serendipity said. ‘He shot the Kid and Glen too.’

  ‘Now who’s in charge!’ Skeeve crowed.

  With another bang Flick physically jumped, her hands landed on Rushe’s back. Past his outstretched arm, Flick saw the splurge of red on Skeeve’s chest, and the dismay frozen on his face as he fell to the floor, his gun dropping from his fingers. Everyone seemed to take a minute to establish what had happened, but it was Jansen who spoke first.

  ‘You shot him,’ Jansen said.

  ‘Because I said no second chances,’ Rushe said. Flick thought of all the women who would be saved from Skeeve because he could terrorise no more.

  ‘You hate shooting people,’ Jansen said.

  ‘Not when they’re asking for it,’ Rushe replied.

  ‘I’ll remember that.’

  ‘Any more issues?’ Rushe asked.

  Jansen headed back to the side room, stepping over Skeeve in the process. As soon as he pulled aside the drape, his attention snapped back around. ‘Simone is gone.’

  ‘Made a run for it,’ Rushe said. ‘Down through the basement.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Jansen said, crossing to his backpack, which was on the desk. ‘You two better clear out if you want to miss the cavalry.’

  Jansen retrieved a phone from his pack. Rushe joined him at the desk while cleaning the weapon he’d shot Skeeve with. Jansen dialled and put the phone to his ear. He smacked Rushe’s arm, during the handover of the gun, then the men shook hands. Rushe, after a nod at Serendipity, was back at Flick’s side. He took her away from the study, down the corridor, and out the front door.

  ‘Where are we going?’ Flick asked Rushe when he started to run down the gravel drive. ‘Shouldn’t we wait for the police?’

  ‘Jansen’s a cop.’

  ‘But we’re witnesses.’

  Rushe didn’t answer her, he took her out the gate, and over the road, then slung an arm around her to keep her pressed into his side.

  ‘Won’t he get in trouble? He was lying to them? How is he going to explain it?’

  ‘That’s not our problem, Kitten.’

  ‘Won’t we get into trouble for leaving the scene?’

  ‘They’ll never know,’ Rushe said. ‘You want to be my girl, then you’ve got to get used to some things.’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Like that I’ll never appear on a database of any kind. You’ll be dating an apparition.’

  ‘As long as you’re dick isn’t imaginary, that’s fine by me.’

  ‘Serendipity was Victor’s insurance policy. Jansen knew that Victor had him by the balls. I got involved because I’m not official, I can go under the radar and do pretty much what I want. I’m the guy people come to when every other avenue has been exhausted. I’m the last resort when all else fails.’

  ‘Ok.’

  ‘Jansen’s been tap-dancing both sides of the fence for a while. I’m here because of him, because of Serendipity. Damn sure he doesn’t want his bosses talking to me. I don’t exist, and getting you or me into it only makes things worse for Jansen.’

  ‘And Victor took me as an insurance policy against you?’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘I can’t believe... this is so... it’s...’

  ‘You have to understand. Sometimes I’m on the side of the good guys, and sometimes it’s the bad. But I have to believe in the cause. I would never work in malice. I take only the cases I want to because I like to dedicate time to the missio
n. I give it my focus. Distractions or bad intelligence in this game can get you killed.’

  Flick considered his revelation while following his lead through the streets. Rushe was so determined that she wondered at his plan. But she was still absorbing the fact that she’d been right all along, Rushe wasn’t a bad guy. He helped people.

  ‘Got any money?’ he asked her.

  ‘Uh.’

  Flick dug for the notes Jansen had given her. Scooping them from her back pocket, she handed them over. Rushe counted them quickly in one hand, then stuck them in his own pocket.

  ‘We’ll stay local tonight. I’ll make a few calls; get us out of here first thing in the morning.’

  ‘Out of here to where?’ she asked.

  ‘Home.’

  ‘I meant to... the ransom; you paid it. But the money, I don’t...’

  ‘Job pays well, Kitten,’ he said.

  ‘Ok,’ she said, knowing it didn’t make an ounce of difference to her. ‘What’s next?’

  ‘Sex.’

  His face was blank, his brow was angry, and she had to take three steps for his one stride. They’d almost lost their lives. Either of them could’ve been killed at any second, and he was thinking about sex.

  ‘It has been a while,’ she said.

  ‘Yeah.’ Flick might have been sarcastic, but Rushe answered seriously. ‘Did he touch you?’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Shit sucking Skeeve. I didn’t have time to get details.’

  ‘He’s dead,’ she said. ‘I told him you would kill him. I didn’t know I was right.’

  Rushe stopped them abruptly, and shoved her into an alley. Pushing her past the dumpster, he thrust her back against the exposed brick of the wall, and planted his hands above her head.

  ‘Tell me,’ he growled, baring his teeth. ‘Tell me what he did.’

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘He didn’t have sex with me.’

  ‘But he tried; I wanna know how far he got.’

  Flick knew this side, this caged animal look, teetering on the edge of reason. This Rushe was capable of anything. ‘Does it matter?’