by Bryce Evans
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Mac asked surprised.
“Yes sir. A missing leg doesn’t hinder a person from using their mind. The brain is the most powerful weapon there is, Mr. Evans. Can I have your number?” London asked, and then started punching his name in her phone to add his number. She didn’t know why she trusted this man, but she did. If he turned out to be serial killer she would toss her phone and get another one, but right now, her gut feeling told her that Mac Evans was a man of worth.
Mac continued to stare at London, as he stuttered his number out. She reached down and touched his shoulder.
“Mac?” He looked back up at her. “Never ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something.”
With that comment, London smiled then turned around to leave. She stopped but didn’t turn around. “And Mac, I will be in touch with you soon. Have a great day.” London continued to walk to her car. Today had been a strange day but listening to Mac’s story ended her pity party.
Chapter 10
London shut her phone off before she left for New York. She knew Me-Len would be calling her along with Zoey, but she was too mad to talk to them. She needed to calm down and getting her thoughts straight before she called either one of them back, but she felt guilty for leaving her grandmother and best friend without so much as a goodbye.
She drove until she couldn’t drive anymore. Her emotions were all over the place and she needed to sleep a few hours before she hit the road again. Pulling into a cheap motel, she paid for one night and took her overnight bag in with her. Looking around at the room she almost gagged when the smell of cigarettes hit her as she sat down on the bed.
She knew she needed to call them, but still she resisted, opting for a hot shower instead. London got up and headed for the dingy bathroom. It was small, but looked fairly clean. She held the towel up to her nose and smelled it to see if it was clean, then turned the shower on hot and got in. All the emotions and uncertainty dripped off her body as the water went down the drain.
When she finally climbed out, she was thinking about Ryder again, and how he seemed to want to fight with her. She felt like she had whiplash during dinner. One moment he spoke in demanding, ruthless tones as he called her a witch, but just an hour before he had acted concerned as she lay on the bathroom floor. Maybe she was a witch. After learning her best friend was a werewolf she figured, anything was possible. London lay in the bed wondering if she should call this late. Taking a chance she dialed Zoey’s cell phone.
She answered it on the first ring. “London, is that you? Are you alright?”
Sighing, London could hear the concern in her best friend’s voice. “I’m fine. I’m sorry, Zoey, but I just couldn’t take it anymore. Your br—”
Zoey cut her off before she could finish. “I know he was an ass. I cussed him out when we realized you left town. I’m sorry for how he treated you, London. He had no right to question you about being a witch, and Jena shouldn’t have been there period. Where are you?”
“I’ve got about five more hours until I get to New York. I stopped at a small hotel, so that I could sleep for a while, then get up in the morning and drive on. Was Me-Len upset?”
“No London, she wasn’t mad at you. She was mad at herself. She knows how you value your privacy and she felt bad because she didn’t do it in private. I made sure she got home safely.” London felt like shit now.
“Zo? I’m sorry and thank you for that. I let my temper get the best of me and I allowed your brother to—”
“You stop right there. You are not in the wrong here. They are. My brother has never acted like that before. He was worried sick after you left. He knew he had screwed up. I’m sorry, London. Really I am. I pushed you into going to eat with us and messed up your special day.”
“No you didn’t. Hey, let’s not talk about it anymore. Look Zo, I need to get off the phone and get some sleep. I will call Me-Len tomorrow. It’s too late to do that now.”
“Uhm. London?
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry. I really didn’t know.” London could hear the sorrow in Zoey’s voice as she apologized.
“It’s okay Zoey. I need to go. I’m exhausted and I’ve got a big drive ahead of me in a few hours. It’s out there now but I don’t feel like talking about it right now. I’ll call you when I get to New York.” London hung up the phone before Zoey could continue to apologize to her for her brother’s actions. She didn’t deserve the way Ryder treated her tonight but for some reason he didn’t like her. She figured she would just stay away from him and maybe ask Zoey to come to New York for the holidays.
London climbed into the bed worried that this was how her life was going to turn out. Chaos. Nothing seemed to be going in the right direction. Then she remembered Mac’s story, and how the kid befriended the soldiers, before using as a bomb to blow them up. Mac said that they had been warned, that the Taliban used kids to hurt the soldiers. How could they train against that? London lay awake for hours trying to think of a way to help Mac and others before she finally fell asleep.
Chapter 11
Ten months later…
London typed furiously on the Jansen project. It was due tomorrow, and she wanted it to be perfect. She knew she was a perfectionist when it came to her work, but she was on a roll and felt like this was her best work ever. Sitting back, she glanced over it as she saved the document.
She was proud of the program she created. When she met Mac Evans ten months ago, she wanted to find a way to help military and law enforcement in deadly situations, so she built a program in ten months to do so. It was made so the military could feed different scenarios into a gaming system, and allow the soldiers and officers to be put into situations and figure out what to do. It was a virtual reality program and nobody had anything like it on the market. More and more scenarios would be added to continue the officers and soldiers training. She’d called Mac Evans a hundred times over the course of ten months to get information from him on what to add, and she sent him money every time she spoke to him, using some of her savings to pay for his expertise and knowledge.
When she talked to Mac, she could hear the excitement in his voice, and assured him that he would be able to play with the program when she had it up and running. First she had a few bugs to work out before she could bring him to New York. She explained that she named the program the Active Shooter 2000 or AS 2000 for short. Mac seemed pleased that he was helping keep other soldiers safe. He explained to London that he finally felt useful and needed.
London reached up and grabbed her necklace holding it securely in her hand as she thought about the spell she was learning. Me-Len sent London her journals that she’d had since she was a little girl. She said she wanted London to know about her heritage and the best way would be to relive it through her grandmother’s own words.
London spoke to her grandmother on the phone every two days and Me-Len would test her on the spells she had learned. Me-Len advised her that she was a fast learner and had a special gift. She told London that the Tree of Life must like her because there were even some seasoned witches who couldn’t do some of the spells she was attempting. She figured that Me-Len was a powerful witch with all the covens wanting her to come and help them out. Me-Len informed London that at the rate she was learning she would be one of the most powerful witches of her time.
Me-Len cautioned her to only use the spells if she was in danger. She stressed that she should never let her emotions get so strong that she took matters into her own hands, and explained about her past about how her own magic was powerful enough to defeat the covens of bad witches who were using dark magic to gain power.
London had to tell herself over and over that she could not turn people into toads no matter how much they deserved it. She thought of her new friend Donnie Morgan who found one of her spells that London had been working on. He asked if she could conjure him up a new man.
Donnie was quite a character, and he had become a part
of her family. She trusted him like she trusted Zoey, enough to let him help her build her program. He had completed as much as he could in creating the program, but London was the one with the gift. She was a genius when it came to computers. Her boss, Tracy Allen, wanted her to turn the project in tomorrow before they presented it to the Vice President of Marketing, John Belleview. Then if it passed John, it would go to the President of the company.
“This is a great opportunity for you London.” Donnie insisted.
Looking up, London smiled at her new friend. “You mean us. You did help me on this Donnie. This is our project, so if I go up, then you are going with me,” London replied as she continued to scan the program.
“Girl, are you for real?” Donnie asked surprised. London stopped typing and looked over at her friend.
“What do you mean?”
“Look you are in New York now and there are only a few ways to the top: lying, cheating, or knocking someone off. You don’t have it in you to be any of those people. You reek of goodness and smell just as sweet.”
London started laughing at her eccentric friend’s comment. “Come on, you know better. Working hard is what gets you to the top too.”
Donnie Morgan was her only friend here in New York. They hit it off immediately when she met him, and he showed her the ropes and helped her out with the ins and outs of New York City.
Donnie didn’t smile back this time.
“Why are you frowning at me?” London asked.
“Because you’re being naive if you continue to believe that, London. These people will eat you alive and spit you out before you know what hit you. Don’t trust them, baby girl. Tracy Allen is going to take this project, minimize your part in it, and tell them that she did the work. I know she said this was a team, but it’s a corrupt team and that bitch is going to do it. You need to prepare yourself for that.” London was taken aback at what Donnie was saying.
“No she won’t. She told me that she would tell them who wrote this program and that it was a team effort, so that we would all prosper from it. I have to trust her.” London argued as she watched Donnie shake his head. She was worried now, because that was the only way she knew how to be, honest and trustful to people. Her favorite quote was from Colin Powell, and she believed in that philosophy on getting to the top. “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.”
Her boss walked into her office just before their ten o’clock meeting with the Vice President of Marketing. “Is it ready?” Tracy asked.
“Yes, yes ma’am it is. Just put the disk in and the program will start. You can go over it like we discussed.” London handed the disk over with the paperwork.
“Is this all of it? The originals, too?” Tracy asked sweetly. London nodded and looked over at Donnie who only shook his head in a disapproving manner.
“Now you know you are not to talk in this meeting. You are to keep your mouth shut. Do you understand?” Tracy instructed London as she picked up the paperwork walking out of the office. She didn’t bother to check if she was following her.
This was the moment she had been waiting for. London blew out her breath before she got up and followed her to the conference room. If this were successful, then she would be over the accounts that the computer program was to be used for. It would be a huge promotion for her and put her plan into motion. Tracy was looking to move up to be the First Vice President under John.
London was nervous as she walked into the room filled with people. John Belleview sat at the head of the table. She stood up straighter as she sat in a chair by the wall while Tracy went to the front of the room and inserted the disk. She helped pass out the headsets that they would need when the game was inserted to show how people could be put in real life situations. This program would be used for training. Any situation one could think of could be built in the program so that officers could see what mistakes were being made. The program even accounted for how long it took the officer to shoot back and told them where their bullet entered the bad guy. She passed out the paperwork, and then sat back down as John instructed Tracy to start.
London continued to smile throughout the presentation. The computer program she had made would make the company billions of dollars. She knew it was good when she finished. John Belleview continued to watch Tracy. She was a great presenter even if the work she was presenting wasn’t hers. London watched John when it was time for him and the others to put on their headsets as Tracy took them through the virtual reality situations. John continued to smile.
When Tracy finished, John got up and clapped his hands. “It's a fantastic program, Tracy. You did a great job. This is unheard of and it is going to skyrocket the industry when it becomes available. This is going to move you up. Walk with me to see Pierce. I think he needs to see this now.”
Tracy looked shocked but got her stuff and never looked back at London as she walked out of the room with John. London didn’t know how to take it. She didn’t mention her and that she was the one who wrote the program. Now Tracy was going to see the President of the company.
She quietly got up and walked out of the room. Surely, she wouldn’t take her work as her own. Shaking it off, London walked back to her office. Donnie was pacing as she walked into the room.
“How did it go?” he screeched as he rushed over to her.
She grabbed her friend before he rolled her to the floor. “He loved it. Loved it so much he told Tracy that she would be moving up and told her that they should show it to Pierce immediately,” London responded. She kept the fake smile on her face as she sat down at her desk.
“The bitch didn’t even mention it was you who wrote the program, did she? I can see it on your face,” Donnie demanded. London continued to move her mouse around on her desk trying not to look at him.
“No, but she was shocked when John told her she was moving up and he wanted to go now to see Pierce. She didn’t have a lot of time. The man was walking out of the room when he said it. She had to move quickly, but I know when she moves up she will be putting my name in for her job so I can oversee the program. Nobody knows that program but you and me, so stop worrying. Hey, let’s eat Chinese tonight.” London tried to explain, but she could see Donnie’s expression.
Donnie didn’t bring it up anymore. He knew if London were going to make it in the real world then she would need to experience this. He had been with the company long enough to see how people like Tracy Allen get to the top and it wasn’t being nice and a hard worker.
Chapter 12
Jim Sanders, Alpha of the Sanders Pack, glared at his little sister, shaking his head as he paced in front of her.
“You had your chance to get rid of the girl and you failed again.” Jim Sanders spit out. She could see the veins in his neck pop when he yelled.
“What did you want me to do, kill her in front of the whole school? Yeah, let your baby sister rot in jail for killing the Malone princess. It’s not my fault she was being watched all the time. Every time I got close to her, somebody came around. They watch her all the time, Jim,” Penny complained.
“We have to take them all out if we want to take over, Penny. You know this. How many times do I have to explain it to you?” Jim demanded, as he walked around the table watching Penny squirm in her seat.
“Now she’s back here in Alpha City where she’s protected. Not just by her brother, but by the entire group of Alpha’s. Damn it, Penny, we should already be in control. We wanted him distraught with his sister’s death. It would have been so much easier to take him out when he isn’t thinking right. This is entirely your fault,” Jim yelled, slapping Penny’s face. He hit her so hard that her body went flying through the air crashing into the wall.
“Now pick your ass up and get out of my sight. You are fucking useless to me. Useless!” Jim screamed, as Penny shuddered from the heated sound of his voice. Penny tried using the wall to pull herself up. The pain from her brother’s hand hurt, but the pain
of him not loving her was worse. She hated Zoey Malone for making her life hell. She would always be compared to that damn woman.
Nothing she did would ever be good enough for her brother, and she missed her mom and dad. Life had changed so much since Jim had taken over, and his mate was even crueler than he was. Her name is Metilda Blackwood and she was a witch from Louisiana who just showed up in town one day changing everything. Her brother, who she loved, had become a monster that relished in torturing others. His need to rule had him packing up their entire pack and moving to Alpha City where he plotted to destroy the Malone Pack.
The Sanders wolves lived in fear of her brother, and his new enforcers. Penny wanted to leave so bad, but she feared what he would do to her if she did. She’s saw what her brother did to wolves who objected to the pack moving to Alpha City, their speaking out got them killed or beaten. The women lived in fear all the time, because some of his enforcers had raped them. Most of the young girls in the pack have been hidden so they couldn’t be taken.
Penny rubbed at her face where blood dripped down. She had to do something soon or he was going kill her. Her own brother had changed so much that she didn’t even recognize him anymore. The witch he mated, Metilda Blackwood was beautiful, but evil to the core. She relished in the fear he dished out. She loved it when he beat on people. She even encouraged it. Penny could see the darkness inside of her magic. It was black and tainted with dark magic. She has no choice but to do what her brother says and that is to kidnap and kill Zoey Malone.
* * * *
London and Donnie sat at the table in the cafeteria. “So you heard anything yet?” Donnie asked.
