The Genesis Group

by Mike Dagons

“You don’t know Sam, and sadly you don’t know me either if you think I’d sacrifice her happiness for mine. I married Sam because she’s everything you’re not. Every time she looks at Mel, she’ll see an innocent child who needs to be loved, and she’ll love her as much as she loves Kendall. Melvina will be safe, and she’ll be happy. She’ll grow into a young woman with confidence. Of course, you won’t be around to see it,” he promised.

  “You don’t think my death will hurt Melvina? Losing your mother is a painful experience. You know that first hand.”

  He had shared some intimate feelings with her, like losing his mother in a car accident when he was a teen. She had shared stories of her upbringing with him, too. Probably all lies of course. Now he wished he could take those shared moments back. “It’s not the same thing. You don’t have the same feelings of loss when the mother you lose is not loving and kind. If you were telling the truth about yours, then you should know something about that.”

  “It’s true that my mother never cared about me. You think that I don’t care about my child, but you’re wrong. I do care about her, Ryan. I care more than you can imagine.”

  “Like your own mother, I think you have a twisted way of showing it, but I don’t care about any of that. What you feel or what you think Sam will feel is all irrelevant. You are out of Melvina’s life for good, and soon you’ll be out of mine,” he stood up.

  “Melvin, please try to understand how much I loved you. Losing you to another woman and then learning that I was pregnant nearly destroyed me. The truth is I didn’t want to live. I loved you so fucking much. I would have given anything to have a family with you, and I had convinced myself that it would happen someday. What we had was—”

  “We didn’t have a muthafuckin’ thing,” he interrupted angrily. “I never told you that I loved you when I wasn’t fucking you! I was completely honest with you about what was going on between us. It was wild sex and good fun, and when it was over, I told you it was over. So, don’t you sit here and pretend that we shared anything other than an occasional movie, dinner, and a bed.”

  “Well, we share more than that now! We share a daughter that I gave birth to because I loved you too much to have an abortion.”

  “Nothing you did was out of love for me! You make me sick, and we both know I should kill you right now!”

  “Then kill me, Melvin!” she shouted back. “I actually wish that you would. It would be better than having you treat me like I’m invisible, the way you have been since I got here.”

  “What the fuck did you want from me, Janie? I’m married, have been for years. Did you think I wanted you on my team so we could pick up where we left off?”

  “Yes!” she was on her feet now, shouting back at him. “I thought you wanted me to come and work for you because you missed me as much as I missed you. Instead, all I got was a front row seat to your wonderful life with your perfect wife! She took you from me, and now you’re letting her take my kid. So, go ahead and kill me, damn you. What are you waiting for? Just do it!” she screamed.

  He moved closer to the vents in the glass and spoke directly into her face. “I’m waiting until I have enough time to make you suffer like you deserve,” he growled. “You’re not going to have the luxury of dying quickly,” he promised.

  Janie stared up at him through the glass, her eyes teary. She knew she had pushed him to his limit. He was going to kill her, and he’d promised that it wasn’t going to be pleasant. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  “Save it for somebody who gives a fuck,” he walked away.

  Janie got up and went behind the toilet privacy partition. It was the only place in the cell that was partially hidden from view. She sat down on the toilet like she was using it because the partition sat a half foot off the floor, so her feet were always in view of the cameras. She turned at the waist and lifted the rubber piece covering the automatic flushing sensor, and pushed her fingers inside. She felt relieved when her fingers touched the head of the three inch carpentry nail she had placed there before she left the building the day Severe shot Jamal. She knew that getting in bed with Yeltsin carried a lot of risks, and she had hid a nail in each one of the holding cells just in case she found herself locked in one. Plan for Murphy because anything that can go wrong will,” she laughed when she thought about it was a survival lesson she’d learned from Melvin Ryan.

  She pushed the rubber back in place, and two seconds after she stood, the toilet flushed automatically. She washed her hands and got back on the bed.

  Melvin thought that he had outwitted her, but he had not. She had a plan, a well thought out plan that so far was progressing perfectly. Deep down, she hated betraying the team, but in the end, she knew she was doing the right thing. She had to look out for herself. She’d learned that lesson early in life, and the one time she forgot it, Melvin had made her regret it.

  Her brothers were safe, Melvina was safe, and Melvin wasn’t going to kill her until the mission was complete. All she had to do now was concentrate on finishing what she started.

  Getting shot was an unforeseen obstacle that she hadn’t planned on, but she could not allow it to stop her. She’d give her leg as much time as she could to heal, but when the time was right she would not hesitate to put her plan in motion.

  Chapter 17

  I woke up disoriented and sensed that I had been drugged to keep me out longer. I was sitting in a chair with my hands tied behind my back. Well, they sure ain’t concerned about my comfort, I thought, as I pulled my arms and tested the strength of the plastic ties—I wasn’t going anywhere. I raised my head up off my chest and tried to see through the darkness.

  “HELP!” I screamed. “Somebody help me, please!”

  The lights came on, and Ceylon Battle walked through the door with Mark, and another tall black man who looked to be a couple of decades older than both of them. I’d seen pictures of him, and recognized him right away as Tyler Basin. He was resplendently dressed in an expensive suit that fit his trim body like it was tailored especially for him, which it probably was. He had a full head of thick black hair that was graying at his temples.

  “Hello Severe,” he stepped around Ceylon and Mark, and stood in front of me, his commanding personality making him seem bigger than life. “Steven worked for me. Do you know who I am?”

  I looked back and forth between him, Ceylon, and Mark. “Did you kill him?” I asked in a trembling voice, instead of answering his question.

  “No…did you?” Mark answered with a question.

  “I didn’t even know he was dead,” I bit back a sob.

  “No? Then why were you running away?” Mark replied.

  “I wasn’t running. I was meeting him for dinner, like we had planned.”

  “Why pack clothes?” Mark asked, and I looked at him like he was strange.

  “I was planning to stay overnight if it’s any of your fucking business,” I responded with attitude. “Who are you, and why do you have me tied to this chair?”

  “Steven never mentioned me to you? You’d think he would mention his brother to his girlfriend,” he snorted.

  “You’re his brother?” I asked in a surprised voice, like I hadn’t recognized him on sight.

  “My stepson never told you that he worked for me, Severe?” Tyler Basin took over the questioning.

  “Of course he told me that he works,” I paused like I suddenly remembered that he was dead. “He told me that he worked for his stepfather. I’ve never seen you before, so I can’t be certain you are really him. Can I see some identification?”

  They all laughed, except Ceylon, who simply gave me an appreciative smile. Actually, Steven never told me that Tyler Basin was his stepfather. I’d learned that information about him like I’d learned the rest. It was in the dossier Bender made me read. Steven always referred to Basin as his employer, and for obvious reasons, I let him think I believed it was the extent of their relationship.

  By telling them that I learned it from Stev
en, I was hoping to reinforce the closeness of our relationship on the premise that he wouldn’t share family secrets with just any slut. In any case, it was a safe gamble, because he wasn’t there to dispute it.

  “I assure you that I am Tyler Basin, my dear. However, I’m surprised that Steven told you I was his stepfather. It’s not something he usually reveals to casual acquaintances.”

  “I’m more than a casual acquaintance, Mr. Basin. Steven and I are…we were in love. Why do you have me here? Is Steven really dead, or is he in some kind of trouble?” I fired a couple of questions at him that any hostage who was really in the dark about what was going on would ask.

  “Steven is dead, my dear. He was found dead in his loft this afternoon from an apparent heart attack.”

  “You’re lying. There was nothing wrong with his heart!”

  “That’s exactly what I said,” Mark growled. “Did you kill him? His body is being autopsied, so you may as well fess up if you did.”

  “I want to ask you a few questions about the time you spent with Steven before his death,” Tyler interjected while I was gaping at Mark like he was from another planet.

  “Is this some kind of sick joke?! I don’t know anything about his death. I don’t even believe he’s really dead. If he is dead, then where is his body?”

  “If you didn’t kill him, then that is not your concern,” Tyler said.

  “I didn’t kill him, but I loved him, and I am concerned. I want to know the truth!” I shouted.

  “His death is being investigated, but I’m hoping you’re going to be able to fill in some of the blanks for me. If you answer truthfully, you can go back to your life in Chicago.”

  “Where am I, and why am I tied up?” I asked before he could ask me anything.

  “You’re not in Chicago anymore, Dorothy,” Mark hissed. “You’re in Kentucky at the slave plantation, but there ain’t no more nigga slaves here for you to fuck when you get the urge.”

  I glared up at Mark Basin, Tyler’s oldest and only son by his first wife, and thought, he is as ignorant as his file portrays him to be.

  Mark was light brown with curly sandy brown hair. He was very tall, like his father, and very handsome. He was also a narcissist with acceptance issues. His mother died when he was a child, and his father raised him alone until he remarried. His racism wasn’t mentioned in his file, but apparently he was every bit as nutty as his daddy.

  Mark recently retired from his career as a ruthless black ops mercenary to head his father’s personal security team. He had never worked with Viper or Ceylon Battle. Intel had him in Persia right now, so I wasn’t expecting to cross paths with him on this job. Given the importance of it, I should have known Basin would call him in. I wondered why Bender didn’t know he was here.

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” I didn’t have to pretend to be confused by his dumb ass comment, because I really was.

  “Bitch, watch your mouth!” he barked.

  “Are you serious?” I asked him, and then added, “I’m really in Kentucky? Why did you bring me here, and why knock me out to do it?”

  “Yes, you’re really in Kentucky,” Tyler answered.

  Clearly amused by my confusion, Mark chuckled. “We brought you here because my father wants to ask you some questions,” he said.

  “So, you’re Steven’s brother, Mark, and you’re Mr. Tyler Basin?” I asked like I was having a hard time believing it.

  “I was his stepbrother, but he’s dead, remember?”

  “You could have told me that when I found y’all sitting in his loft. I would have gladly answered any questions you had if I had known you were his family. And who are you?” I asked Ceylon, who hadn’t spoken a word.

  “It’s not important who he is,” Mr. Basin answered. “I don’t know if Steven told you, but he was in Chicago on business for me.”

  “I know that. He was brokering an auction deal.”

  “Really, he told you that?”

  “Yes,” I answered.

  “Did you kill him to get that information?” Mark asked.

  “You are unbelievable.”

  “Answer the fucking question!” he barked.

  “Abso-fucking-lutely not!” I snapped. “Why on earth do you think I would need to kill him to learn he was organizing an auction?! He was selling antiques, not bombs!” I huffed, and rolled my eyes at him.

  “If you didn’t kill him, do you have any idea who did? Maybe it was one of your friends who wanted information about the auction. You ever heard of Genesis?” Mark squat so that he was eye level with me.

  “It’s the first book in the bible, and the name of a club on the north side? And I don’t know any psychos that would kill to get information about an antique auction, that is, until I met you,” I fixed him in a contemptuous stare.

  “You a smart mouth bitch, ain’t you?”

  “What I am is confused by this bullshit, and heartbroken to learn the man I loved is dead. I don’t know what it is that you think I can tell you, but you don’t have to use coercion. I’m willing to do whatever I can to help catch the person that killed Steven. Please, just untie me?”

  “Did Steven entertain any suspicious characters while in your company?” Tyler asked.

  “No!” I tore my eyes away from Mark, and looked up at him. “You think Steven was into something illegal, don’t you? Well, I can assure you that he wasn’t.”

  “Bitch, you only knew him a few months. How you know what he was into?” Mark questioned.

  “He spent every minute that he wasn’t working with me. That’s how I know!”

  “How much did he tell you about the antique auction that he was organizing in Chicago?” Mr. Basin asked.

  “He was here…I mean there to sell some rare royal stones and coins. I assumed they were valuable, but he never told me anything specific about them, and I never asked.”

  “Is that all Steven told you he was doing, organizing an auction to sell artifacts?” Mr. Basin smiled deceptively.

  “Yes, are you saying it’s not what he was doing, and it’s why he was killed?” I asked the logical question.

  “Do you know where he kept his computer?” Ceylon asked in an unassuming tone that would have been disarming had I not known who he was. His dossier said he was very dangerous and very crafty.

  “What do you mean?” I looked puzzled.

  “Bitch, don’t pretend you don’t know what he means. Where did Steven keep his fucking computer?” Mark was in my face again.

  “He kept it in the bedroom, or the kitchen, or in his car, or wherever he was when he was working on it,” I answered in a slow drawl that conveyed my annoyance with him, and his stupid questions.

  “You know the combination to the safe he has in his loft,” Ceylon remarked in a way that clearly wasn’t a question. He was trying to lead me into a reflexive response.

  “He doesn’t have a safe in his loft,” I answered with my eyes fixed on his.

  “You think he gave the building manager the combination to his safe?” Mark asked like he didn’t just hear me say he didn’t have a fucking safe.

  I closed my eyes in frustration before I answered. “Steven is, was, serious about his business. If he had a safe, which I just told you he didn’t. He wouldn’t have given the building manager, or anyone else, access to it,” I opened my eyes and rolled them at him.

  “He couldn’t have been too serious about his business if he shared it with every white girl he fucked,” Mark snickered.

  “Fuck you!” I snapped at him in anger. “I ain’t just some white girl he was fucking. We were going to get married. He asked me to move back here with him.”

  “He tells all of his white whores that same damn lie, but he never brought any of you nasty bitches home. My brother was never going to marry you,” he answered coldly.

  “I don’t know about any other women. I only know that he loved me,” I lowered my head and started to cry.

  I didn’t believe for on
e second that he thought I was just another white chick Steven was using to pass the time. He had seen that million dollar ring, so even if he believed I was a whore; the ring proved his brother didn’t see it that way.

  “Did you talk to anyone about Steven’s job?” Ceylon asked after he let me cry a few minutes.

  “No, why would I?”

  “You said you were in love. I’d think you’d want to share your happiness with your family and friends,” he shrugged.

  “I don’t have any family. I’m an only child, and my mother is dead. My friends at work know that I’m dating Steven, and yes I talk about him, but not his job. They know that he’s a suit, and his job pays well because he lives in a fancy building downtown.”

  “What about your roommate? You have a roommate, right? You tell her he’s brokering an auction?” Ceylon asked.

  “She’s been on a road trip with her family. I told her about him, but she hasn’t met him yet. And yes, I told her that he sells antiques for his wealthy stepfather for a living, so what?”

  “So you don’t know where his computer is now?” Ceylon asked.

  “No,” I stared at him, wide-eyed, like I was having an epiphany. “Is it missing? Is it why you think somebody killed him? What was on it?”

  “We KNOW somebody killed him,” Mark growled. “He didn’t die from a fucking heart attack, unless you saying you gave him something to bring it on.”

  “Why would I kill him for some stupid ass computer that I can’t do a damn thing with?” I sighed in exasperation.

  “You could sell it,” Mark snorted.

  “I usually steal my laptops directly from the Apple Store. You get more money for them when they’re new,” I snorted back at him, and saw Ceylon crack an amused smile.

  “Severe, I need to know how much information Steven shared with you about the business he was doing for me in Chicago. I need to know if the deal I’m working on has been compromised.”

  “Steven spoke highly of you, Mr. Basin. He loved and respected you, and he would never do anything to jeopardize a deal he was brokering for you. If the computer was important to your deal, he would have died before he told anybody about it,” I told him convincingly.