by Marnie Perry
Hennessey expected the mug to hit him square in the face at any moment but Lando simply asked, ‘so, what was the second reason you set her up?’
‘That reason will be explained later, and to her.’
Lando stared at him then made a “huh” sound then set his cup down on the window ledge and turned to walk away from him. But Hennessey grabbed his arm effectively stopping him, ‘Lando, there’s something else I want to talk to you about.’
Lando looked down at Hennessey’s hand clutching his arm then back up at him and there was steel in his eyes and in his tone as he said, ‘if you don’t let go my arm you’ll never talk again, Hennessey.’
Hennessey looked into Lando’s eyes and knew he meant it. Not that he was afraid of him, but he really didn’t want to get into a confrontation right now and not in front of the woman. She needed them to be united in this. He gave Lando one of his smirks then let go of his arm saying, ‘okay, let’s not get into it now.’ He looked over at Adela but she was still staring into space as though oblivious of everything, even so he kept his voice low as he whispered, ‘we need her to know we’re together in this, don’t let her see us arguing, okay?’
‘Then don’t touch me again.’
Hennessey looked angry for a moment then sighed, ‘I want to ask you a favour.’ Lando looked at him in disbelief that this man should dare ask him for a favour. He said, ‘I don’t know what kind of favour I could grant a professional killer, Mr. Hennessey. ‘
He curled his lip and turned away but turned back as Hennessey said, ‘it concerns Miss. Faraday.’ Lando narrowed his eyes suspiciously but stayed put.’ First off, I want you keep your eye on her; she can be reckless, not with your life or maybe even mine, no matter how much she despises me, but with her own. She’ll act or react without thinking things through, especially if she thinks you’re in danger. You’re her Achilles heal. Just watch that she doesn’t do anything stupid, okay?’
Lando was aghast by the words, “Achilles heal." Yet he knew he was right, she would rather die herself than see him hurt, see anyone hurt because of her. But he resented this man voicing his concern for a woman he had treated so abysmally. He gave him an icy glare, ‘maybe you should have thought about her welfare before you exposed her to this danger.’
‘I know, but as I already said, I thought I was doing the right thing,’ before Lando could reply he held up his hand and rushed on, ‘but that’s not all I wanted to say.’
Lando waited and Hennessey continued, ‘you heard some of what happened to her,’ Lando raised his eyebrows and Hennessey amended, ‘all right, what I did to her. He hesitated and looked away from Lando’s gaze for a moment, ‘she probably only told you a fraction of what I did to her. The rest she may tell you one day, or at least tell someone. I did some things, things I shouldn’t have, things I’m ashamed of.
No matter what you and she thinks of me, no matter what I am, I’ve always had one rule, I don’t hurt women and kids and I’ve always abided by that, until now. When I did what I did to her I violated my own rule, and her too.’
Lando’s face darkened and Hennessey hurried on, ‘oh not like that, well not quite like that.’ He shook his head impatient with the turn this conversation had taken then looked over at Adela again who sat so pale and still on the couch, ‘anyway, right now she's running on adrenalin. There’s so much other stuff going on, too much for her to really sit and think about what’s happened to her,’ he looked back at Lando, ‘what I’m trying to say, Lando is, when we get out of this she’s going to need help, I want you to make sure she gets it, okay?’
Lando was amazed at this man’s nerve. ‘She seems like a pretty strong woman, you’ve said so yourself. She’ll cope. Besides she told me what happened so she’s part way there already.’
Hennessey looked impatient, ‘that’s not the same thing and you know it. Look, I’m sure that relaying parts of what happened and to have you listen to her was somewhat cathartic for her; it may have enabled her to get some of it out of her system. But that’s the key word “some.” She wouldn’t have told you all, but even if she had, telling you is not the same, you were a cop, you still are deep down. You see her as a victim and treated her as such. She would have reacted to that and seen you as a cop and treated you as such.’
Lando gave him a warning look but Hennessey went on, ‘I’m sure you asked the right questions to get her to tell you her story.' Lando glared at him and stepped forward crowding Hennessey’s space but Hennessey held up his hand in a placating gesture. ‘I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, Lando, on the contrary, it’s what she needed right then, the cold clinical interrogation. Just –the- facts- ma’am, nothing personal.
But after this is over she’s going to need much more than that. She’s going to need comfort and understanding and professional help.’
Lando stepped back but kept his cold eyes fixed firmly on Hennessey’s. He was angry by Hennessey’s summation of his talk with the woman; he made it sound so clinical. It hadn’t been like that. Or had it? He had snapped questions at her when she had talked about Blakemore and Glissando.
He knew the scepticism and disbelief at some of the things she had said had shown in his face. Maybe he had come across as cold and unsympathetic. He said now, ‘and you, Hennessey, you offer counselling to the bereaved families of those who’s lives you’ve taken do you? Make sure they’re taken care of after you’ve violently removed their loved one from them?’
Hennessey didn’t reply to this and Lando added, ‘anyway, she has family don’t she? When she’s home she can talk to them, that’s what families are for ain’t it?’
Hennessey frowned then shook his head, ‘her family? Obviously she didn’t tell you as much as I thought. There are some families you don’t need, Mr. Lando.’
Lando looked at him in surprise but said, ‘well perhaps she would have been more forthcoming if she hadn’t been so preoccupied with her injuries and her fear of you and Glissando.’ Hennessey said nothing, 'anyway she don’t need me to tell her what to do, nor you either, Hennessey, least of all you. You’ve seen for yourself what she’s capable of yet you still underestimate her.’
Hennessey again shook his head and raked his fingers through his hair, ‘she’s not like you and me, Lando, we’re used to guns and violence and death, she’s not, these things are strange and repulsive to her.’ He looked over at Adela who had risen from the couch and was standing staring at a picture on the far wall. ‘She’s going to need someone; I hoped it would be you. Or that at least you’d see to it that she got some kind of help, you’d know where to find that better than I would. But you’ll probably just go on as you have been, avoiding responsibility, walking away from those who need you and hiding yourself away like a hermit, like the uncaring, unconcerned guy you want everyone to think you are. But yeah, walk away just like you did from the other woman in your life.’
Lando’s jaw clenched so tightly that Hennessey thought it would crack. His eyes were like two laser beams pointed directly into Hennessey’s as again he took another step forward, this time raising the gun he held in his hand.
Hennessey stood seemingly unconcerned but had to admit to a certain unease; he didn’t know Lando and was not sure how he would react to what he’d said. Maybe he shouldn’t have said it but he hoped to shame him into helping the woman after he himself was gone. He took in Lando’s combative stance and considered either apologising or trying to take the weapon from Lando’s hand when the stand off was abruptly ended by the sound of his phone ringing.
Both men continued to stare at each other for a moment until Lando said, ‘don’t you think you should answer that?’
Hennessey reached into his pants pocket and took out his phone. He put it to his ear and listened looking at Lando as he did so. He said into the phone, ‘you’ve done really well kid, your country is very grateful to you. I’ll see that you get a mention in my report to the president.’
Lando rolled his eyes and turn
ed away. Hennessey listened some more then said, ‘no, Sammy, you find somewhere safe and stay there, okay. You’ve done your part; let us take it from here. And thanks again, kid.’
He was smiling as he switched off the phone but the smile vanished as he looked first at Lando then at Adela who was still standing where she had been but was now looking at the two men her hands clenched tightly in front of her, her pale face now ashen.
Lando followed Hennessey’s gaze then looked back at him and said, ‘well?’
‘They're on their way, ETA, ten minutes.’
Lando moved first. He strode over to where Adela stood, opened a cupboard door and his tone firm and brooking no argument said, ‘get in there and stay down, and don’t come out until one of us gives the all clear, okay?’
Like a sleepwalker she let him thrust her inside. He snapped, ‘and for the love of God, lady, this time do as I say.’
She neither consented nor contradicted but just stood wide eyed as he shut the door, but just before he clicked it shut he could have sworn that once again he heard her say, ‘please be careful, Mr. Lando.’
Again that warm feeling enveloped him and he stood a moment looking at the closed door. He checked his weapon before turning to Hennessey who was looking out of the window making sure he could not be seen by anyone who may be out there.
He turned as Lando approached, ‘there’s five of them according to Sammy, but there might be more joining them. They’ll come from all sides so we’d better split up, you take the bedroom.’
Lando didn’t appreciate being told what to do in his own home, and he had been a cop so was not new to this kind of situation, but now was not the time to argue. Hennessey looked at him as though he knew what he was thinking but admired the way he just did as he bid without argument, the mark of a good cop and a sensible man.
Lando in the bedroom first checked on Dante, he was still breathing but it was obvious he was very sick. Gathering the top sheet around him he very gently picked him up and moved him into the bathroom where he laid him down in the bath. He stroked Dante’s head thinking; well at least unconscious he won’t be upset by all the gun fire there was going to be before this was over.
He stood and took one last look at Dante before leaving the bathroom; he put his gun down on the bed and holding his rifle in his hand began his wait at the broken window. As he waited he thought about what Hennessey had said about the woman and about him. He had sounded very sincere when he had asked him to see that the woman was taken care of, as though he genuinely cared. But then he had fooled the woman with his earnest declarations of concern and affection. And what had he said about him? That he had walked away from another woman, obviously he had meant Adrianne. But you can’t walk away from a dead person can you? Or can you?
He knew that some if not all the problems in their marriage had been because of him, or more to the point because of his job. Adrianne had hated it with a vengeance. As she had hated this place. He had brought her here several times during their first year of marriage and at first she had liked it, she had called the cabin quaint and the wild animals cute. But she had soon tired of it, and the quaint had become ramshackle and the animals dirty.
He often asked himself, and her, why she had married him, after all he had been a cop when they met. He realised only much later that she was one of those women who thought they could change a man, that once they were married she could persuade him to leave the Alabama P.D and get another more lucrative, better paid job, preferably as an investigator with her father’s law firm. When he had just laughed at her suggestions she had accused him of having no ambition. He knew he had driven her to do what she
had, she wanted the things she had been raised with, money and influence and power but instead she had ended up with a low paid, overworked, work obsessed, absent husband.
She had never wanted kids and when he had approached the idea she had fallen backwards onto the bed in shock then had laughed fit to burst.
So why had she married him? As a challenge? Because he was different than any man she had hitherto known? Because he been the only one in her life up to then to say no to her and that had seemed exciting and romantic? For a while anyway. Then when she had become bored with that and had gotten angry at being left alone so often and for so long, she had strayed, not once but many times. He had overlooked it at first, because he had loved her, or at least that’s what he’d told himself. But if he was honest it was because he didn’t really care that much, while she was having her flings she was happy and would leave him alone and cease her constant nagging. But mostly because he didn’t love her, he was not sure he ever really had.
So that was the real question, why had he married her? Because she was beautiful? Oh God was she beautiful. She was glamorous and elegant and sexy as all get out. And the sex had been phenomenal, at least at first, then it had become ponderous and lazy and more of a chore than an enjoyable act.
Every man had wanted her, including himself, although he had not shown it. In fact he had been dismissive of her and showed her nothing but contempt and disdain. He had laughed at her lifestyle, and called her spoilt as well as selfish and self centred, something very soon into their marriage she had started to call him. They were both right. They should never have married and once they were they should have ended it as soon as they had realised that they had nothing in common, which was very early on.
If they had divorced she would not have been driven to find excitement and adventure with other men. Or maybe she would. Maybe that was part of it, the sneaking around, the danger of discovery, and with his best friend too.
Or perhaps she had just gone through most other men in town and now was working closer to home. Maybe she had wanted him to find out, had wanted him to care, to be jealous enough to get angry and screwing his best friend was a way of accomplishing that. Perhaps she thought that he would react at last to his discovery of her affair with his friend, and he had, but not in the way she had envisaged and not for the reasons she had hoped. Even in that he had let her down. But he lived every day with the knowledge that if they had just stopped playing games and gotten divorced she would be alive today, he would still be a cop and he wouldn’t be here right now.
This got him thinking about the woman again, something he had not wanted to do. He knew that Hennessey’s comments and innuendoes were designed to get a reaction from him and admit he felt something for her.
He realised his initial animosity towards the woman was because he knew she had money and this was confirmed when she had offered those two guys six million dollars. She was like everyone who has money; they think it can buy anything, that they could pay their way out of any situation no matter how bad.
Adrianne had been like that; she flashed her cash and her credit cards thinking that was the way to happiness. Well she was proved wrong wasn’t she, just as the woman had.
Yet the woman was nothing like Adrianne, in fact she was the antithesis of her.
Although she was elegant and smartly dressed, well usually anyway, she was neither beautiful nor glamorous. But neither was she mean minded and petty and self indulgent. She might be wealthy but she was not spoilt and condensing and a snob as Adrianne had been.
She was not unmindful and uncaring of the feelings of others, on the contrary, she was maybe too caring, that was why she was in this trouble now. She was not loud and in your face, but quiet and somewhat shy. Until she got angry that is, but even then her anger was not as Adrianne’s had been, it wasn’t about yelling and hurling things. The English woman’s anger was quiet and restrained as though she was uncomfortable and embarrassed by her show of temper. Although if the situation called for it she let you have it with both barrels, but even then she spoke, not loudly and nastily, but with frankness and truth.
And she had spoken the truth to him as she had seen it, and she had seen him as Hennessey had, as someone who ran and hid from his problems, someone who buried, not only his head but his entire body in the san
d, including his heart. But when she had suspected she had gone too far and hurt him she had been mortified and had apologised even in the midst of her…and he had to admit it…justified anger.
She was also the only person who had made him smile in almost eight years, although he had fought to hide it. But her humour, unlike Adrianne’s, was not cruel or cutting or vindictive but gentle and teasing.
No, she was nothing like Adrianne had been, not beautiful in an obvious way, but pretty and sensitive and she oozed warmth. And sexy? In an understated, refined, unconscious way, yes, she was. Fuck, what was he doing, he was letting Hennessey’s jibes and probes get to him.
He was brought out of his reverie by a movement in the bushes and drew back quickly from the window but peeped out from behind the curtain. He gripped his rifle tightly in his hand then waited maybe twenty seconds before he saw the movement again. Then he saw a figure dart from one tree to another crouching low. He just hoped Hennessey was seeing this too.
He waited some more and sure enough the man was joined by another. To his right another movement caught his eye. Three so far, where were the other two. There was no back door to the cabin so there was no threat of anyone taking them by surprise that way and the bathroom window was too small for a grown man to squeeze through.
He cast his eyes from left to right but still saw only three men, he wondered if Hennessey’s vantage point gave him a better view. Just then the man to his left crept from the tree he was crouching behind and ran towards the cabin something in his hand, not a gun. Lando knew what it was immediately, a flash bomb. He knew these could cause severe pain in the ears and even render a person unconscious. He knew how bad they were from first hand experience and wasn’t about to experience it again. He raised his rifle aimed and fired; the man went down never to get up.
Lando looked to his right and saw another guy peep out from behind the tree. He aimed his weapon and fired, the man went down unfortunately only nicked in his shoulder but it was enough to make him draw back behind his cover.
