by Mike Dagons
“A tropical island where? Is your brother rich?”
“The answer is I have no idea, to both of those questions. Kenyah, I want you to go with me, and I want to try to repair our marriage.”
“And if I don’t want to go, then what?”
“Then I go without you, and I won’t fight the divorce.”
She thought about Desmond, and how passionate he was. The sex had been great, but she didn’t love him, and he didn’t love her. Trent had hurt her badly, but she did still love him.
“Trent, you’re wrong about him having my mind. I admit that I was worried about his safety, but I don’t love him, and I don’t think about him when we’re together. I love you, and I’m sorry that I did what I did,” she teared up. “I know it was stupid, but I wanted to hurt you. Xena was beautiful, and she had you first, and she was going to give you a child. It made me feel like an outsider, and…”
Trent pulled her into his arms and hugged her close. “If you still love me, then we can work on the rest,” he kissed her temple.
“I love you. I love only you.”
“Then we’ll get through this. I promise we will.”
Chapter 21
The evening air was warm when Monique left the clinic. It was late, so most of the little shops were closed, but she had time to kill, so she strolled absentmindedly and window shopped.
She was feeling good about the news that she was pregnant. She was hoping the baby would bring her and Ice closer together, and make it easier for her to persuade him to stop accepting freelance contracts, and start working solely for Genesis.
She was meeting Leon for an early dinner, and she was planning to tell him that it was time to end their affair. She was going to be a mommy, and she planned to be a great one.
Monique was about to walk across the street to her car when she spotted the speeding van turning the corner. Instinctively, she knew she was in danger.
Being married to an assassin meant there was always the possibility that she’d find herself in a dangerous situation. It’s why she, her friend, Chanay, her sister-in-law, Sam, and Ice’s mother, Isabel, had been receiving special training to teach them how to protect themselves. She knew how to detect a threat, and she knew the protocol for handling it.
The van was speeding towards her, and everything in her told her it was carrying an assault team. Whether she was the target was yet to be determined, but she was not going to wait around to see. She pressed the alert button on her cell first. It would notify Melvin, or any Genesis team member in the area, that she was in trouble.
Next she took out the Sig Mosquito she carried in her shoulder bag, stepped out of her high heels, and ran.
The Mosquito had a ten round clip, and she knew how to use it, but she wouldn’t unless it was absolutely necessary.
She was wearing a pencil skirt, and she had it hiked up high on her thighs so she could take longer strides. She ran every morning, so she had the stamina and the speed, but she was trying to outrun a vehicle, and she didn’t know anyone who could do that but Anakin.
She turned the corner fast, and heard the van’s tires squeal in protest as it made the turn. The van was still in the street, and running parallel to her. She was trying to make it to the next corner. The street was one way, and if the van followed, it would have to drive against traffic.
There were not very many people on the street, which was a good thing; fewer people, fewer obstacles, and she was eating up pavement. She only had a few more feet to cover to reach the corner when the van jumped the curb, knocked a pedestrian ten feet in the air, and cut across in front of her.
Monique was forced to slide to a stop to keep from running full force into the side of it. The concrete burned the soles of her feet, and scraped skin off her hip and elbow as she hit the ground.
Ignoring the irritating pain of the asphalt burns, she jackknifed her body, doubled back, and took off in the opposite direction.
She heard the boots pounding pavement behind her, and knew her pursuers had given up the van to chase her on foot. Adrenaline had her revved, but she knew she couldn’t keep it up. She would tire, and they would catch her.
Monique stopped suddenly and dropped down on one knee in a sweeping turn. She brought the Mosquito up, and fired.
The quick maneuver took them by surprise, and the .22LR hit the targets dead center, knocking two of them off their feet, but they were wearing Kevlar, so all she did was slow them down.
Two more dove for cover, but they did not return fire. The realization that they wanted to take her alive released a fresh rush of adrenaline into her system, and her heart nearly exploded she was so scared.
They wanted her alive. That meant they either wanted to torture her to death, or use her as leverage to control Ice. There was no way she could let either of those things happen, so she stood her ground. This time taking aim, and going for headshots.
Ice made her practice relentlessly, and she was good with the Mosquito, and hit one of her assailants between his eyes. She grazed another one as he dove at her, knocking her to the ground.
Her gun skidded out of her hand, and she delivered a palm strike to his chin, followed by an elbow to his cheek, knocking him off her.
She was scrambling to get back on her feet when she took a solid blow to her jaw that put her back down on her back. She didn’t try to get up right away. She waited for him to reach down to lay hands on her, and when he started to pull her to her feet. She delivered a side kick to his knee. It folded at the joint like a broken hinge. He screamed as he crumbled to the ground, and she got back on the run, only to be tackled again, this time from behind. She took the hit just below her hips, and pitched forward, hitting the ground hard enough to force the air from her lungs.
This man sprang to his feet quickly with her in tow. In an effortless motion, she brought her knee up and drove it into his balls. When he doubled over in pain, she came down on the back of his neck with both elbows.
“Bitch,” he shouted, as he went down, and fired a double tap into her chest.
The punch of the bullets sent her sailing backwards, her arms pinwheeling like a broken marionette. The sound of her blood pumping in her ears made the noises around her sound muffled.
Monique felt like she was floating until her head hit the pavement with a sickening thwack. Her body bounced freakishly before it settled on the ground. She felt the warm blood on the back of her neck, and she knew she’d never hold her baby. Tears formed in her eyes, and instantly, she felt no more pain.
“Childs, you fucking idiot! What have you done? We were suppose to bring her in alive!” the team leader screamed at the man who had killed her.
“The bitch broke your leg!” he shouted back.
“She should have broken your fucking neck!” He would have shot him right then, but he knew his boss would want to make an example of him for disobeying orders. “Let’s get the fuck out of here,” he draped an arm over the moron’s shoulders so he could help him back to the van.
Ryan and Bender drove around the corner just in time to see them hauling somebody into the van. “Wait Ryan,” Bender shouted when he started to pursue them.
He had noticed the crowd forming, and her signal wasn’t moving with them. “She’s still here,” he said.
Ryan stopped the truck, and they got out. They ran over to the sidewalk, and there she was sprawled on the ground in a growing pool of blood, her eyes staring blankly at the sky.
Melvin’s heart seized when he saw her, and for a second, he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t speak, and his feet felt like they were glued to the ground. He thought about Ice, and the fact that Sam had told him that she thought Monique was pregnant. He stood there mourning for her and his brother’s unborn child.
“We’re too late,” Bender said, and pushed through the crowd to get to her. “Move back!” he ordered while flashing his phony badge.
He knelt beside her and looked at the swollen battered face that had been so beautifu
l and friendly. Emotion threatened to get in the way of protocol, and he pushed it back and snapped a photo of her.
He needed to retrieve her gun and her phone. He glanced around and spotted her gun right away. It was on the ground a few feet away, but he didn’t see her purse or her phone. Her homing signal was linked to her phone, so he knew it was there somewhere. Bender picked up the gun, and pushed it into his waistband.
The phone was a prototype communicator that Ethan had purchased while in Europe. It was an encrypted, water proof, tamper proof, homing device that just happens to make phone calls.
He had made improvements on the design and issued one to every Genesis field agent. Monique had come to him secretly and charmed him into giving her phones for her, Mrs. Cole, Sam, and Chanay. She also talked him into making homing bracelets for the kids.
When he warned her against losing it, she’d replied, “I’ll always keep it close to my heart.”
Bender went inside her shirt, and removed it from her bra. “Good girl,” he murmured to her quietly.
He rubbed his hand down over her eyes, closing them, and then he got up and hurried back over to Melvin, who was still standing in the same spot.
Bender grabbed hold of his arms and shook him. “We have to go.”
“We can’t just leave her here,” he tried to push him away, but Bender held on.
“We need to find those muthafuckas. We can’t get tied up in a question and answer session with the cops; maybe later, but not right now.”
Melvin knew he was right, so he left his sister-in-law on the ground, and ran back to his truck with Bender. They drove away from the scene quickly, and Bender took out his palm PC and got to work.
Chapter 22
Severe looked up into Ceylon’s eyes while he made love to her. He pushed her hands up over her head, and pinned them there while he did wicked things to her throat with his tongue.
She never thought it possible to love one man so much, but Roc hated him, and that put a wrinkle in their happiness.
“Stop thinking about it,” he said, reading the worry in her face. He kissed her generous mouth teasingly, tasting, nibbling and exploring it until she started to moan.
Severe wrapped her legs around him, and started pumping her hips faster, following his rhythm. “You love me?” he murmured the question into her mouth.
“More than anything,” she exhaled a throaty groan, her fingers curling into fists.
Ceylon kept his eyes on hers as he palmed her fist, and then forced her fingers open on her left hand. “Then marry me,” he pushed the ring onto her third finger.
“Oh God, yes!” she screamed as she climaxed.
Ceylon rolled her over, and let her take position on top. “Was that my answer, or you cumming?” he smiled sexily.
“Both, don’t talk,” she answered breathlessly. She pushed her palms down flat on his chest, and stole a first look at her diamond ring while she rode him. “It’s beautiful,’ she gazed into his eyes lovingly.
“Love you,” he guided her hips with his hands until she was moving with him the way he wanted, and then he yanked her down on top of him, and exploded inside her.
Severe lay on top of him, too weak to move. “I have to tell Roc before I can wear this,” she wiped sweat off his forehead with her thumbs.
“I’m okay with however you want to handle it. You want me with you when you tell him?”
“It’s better if I do it alone.”
“What if he refuses to accept it?”
“Baby, I love Roc, but I’m not giving you up. He has to understand what you mean to me. He has to understand or—.” She let the thought hang in the air, because even thinking it made her sad enough to cry.
She grew up with Roc, and he’d always been the person who took care of her. He loved her like a sister, and until they joined the Genesis team, they had no one but each other.
Ceylon pulled the covers over them when they heard the door to her apartment open. They knew it was Roc. He lived upstairs, but whenever he was in town, he stayed in her guestroom instead of in his apartment. It was his second home, as his apartment was hers, and he never knocked on doors in her place.
“Severe, I want to order pizza tonight. What kind you want me to pick up?” He opened the door to her bedroom without knocking.
“Oh, you got company. I’ll eat by myself.” Remembering his promise to play it cool, he sulked back out the door.
“Wait Roc, I need to talk to you. It’s important,” she called to him.
“Then come out here and talk to me,” he yelled back.
Because Ceylon worked for a rival agency that they had a major conflict with a few years back, Roc didn’t like him, or Viper, the agency that employed him. He thought Severe could do better, and he didn’t hide the fact that he thought she was living beneath her privileges by fucking with him.
“I’ll only be a minute,” she kissed Ceylon, and then got out of bed.
“Take your time. I’ll go and get the pizza. It’ll give y’all time to bond,” he chuckled.
He got out of bed, and was completely dressed before she finished putting on underwear. He holstered the Glock he was never without, grabbed up his lightweight jacket, and headed for the door.
“Thanks for being so good natured about Roc’s attitude. I know he makes it difficult.”
“I can handle his short ass,” he joked. Roc was close to 5’10”, but he was 6’3”, so it made him short to him. “What kind of pizza he like?”
“Pepperoni, sausage, and peppers, and hurry back.”
Roc was sitting on the sofa watching the door when Ceylon came out the bedroom. “What’s up?” he said to Roc, and got a head nod in return.
“I’m going to get the pizza. Severe will be out in a minute. I asked her to marry me, and because she loves me, she said yes.”
“So fucking what? I hope y’all be happy,” he rolled his eyes, and then turned his head to avoid looking at him like a mad kid.
“She won’t be happy if you don’t approve. She loves you, and she needs your approval to really be happy. So if we don’t get it, then I won’t marry her. I won’t let her choose me over you, because living without you in her life would crush her spirit. I love her too much to watch that happen,” he turned to walk out the door.
“Muthafucka, how I’m suppose to say no after you telling me some shit like that?” Roc growled.
Ceylon shrugged, and then walked out.
When Severe came out of the bedroom, she was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes. She walked over to the sofa where Roc was sitting.
“You want to marry him. It’s alright with me!” he blurted.
She suddenly felt lightheaded, so she sat down on the sofa next to him and used his thigh for a pillow. “I love him, Rottweiler. I don’t want him to beat you up,” she slurred the words.
“Girl, have you been drinking? That nigga can’t beat me up,” he laughed. “I do want you to be happy, so if you want to marry the jerk, then I’ll try to stop giving him a hard time if he don’t try to make you move to California. You hear me?” he asked when she didn’t respond.
Roc pulled her hair back off her face, and saw that she was out cold. He noticed he wasn’t feeling too good either. He looked up at the air vent, and saw the white mist piping into the room.
His mind wanted to shut down, but he fought the urge to close his eyes, and moved her head off his lap. He stood up on wobbly legs that buckled under him, and he dropped to his knees. He tried to regain his equilibrium to stand, but as soon as he pushed himself up, he toppled over, falling between the cocktail table and the sofa.
The door busted open with a loud bang, and he saw the men entering the apartment through a haze. He had his fingers wrapped around the grip of his gun, but he was too weak to move his arm.
They were on him in an instant, binding his hands behind his back with flex ties. He saw someone lift Severe off the sofa, and then walk out with her in his arms.
; Roc felt an uncomfortable strain on his shoulders when he was lifted off the floor, and two people carried him out by his arms and legs.
They were being abducted, and although he had no idea why, he thought for sure that Ceylon Battle and Viper was behind it.
Chapter 23
Ryan contacted his father as soon as he was back in his truck, and wasted considerable time trying to persuade him to fly their family out of town to safety instead of staying to claim Monique’s body.
“Have you talked to Ice? Does he know?” he asked.
They were each on speaker, and Melvin could hear his mother crying in the background. They all loved Monique. She had been with Ice since they were in high school, and he couldn’t imagine how the knowledge that she was dead was going to affect him.
“I haven’t been able to reach him on his cell. Bender says it is turned off, and he’s somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.”
Melvin knew it probably meant he was taking the Osaka job, but now wasn’t the time to tell his father.
“Bender, have you identified the threat?” Ethan asked.
“No sir,” he answered, “but I’m working on it.”
“Dad, since we haven’t had time to properly assess the threat, I’d feel better if you got the family out of the country.”
“I’ll put them on the plane and meet you at headquarters.”
His father was the best assassin to ever come out of Charter 6, the clandestine organization that also trained Ice.
Ethan Cole, aka Charles Edwards, adopted Melvin before Ice was born. Ice is his only biological son, but he loves them both the same and the three of them are bonded in ways that are stronger than blood ties.
“Dad, I need you to stay with the family until the threat is eliminated,” he urged. “We know nothing about these people, but we do know they don’t have a problem targeting women. I’d like to keep the family as far removed from the danger as possible, but I have no guarantees that it won’t follow them. If it does show up, there is no one else I trust to protect them more than you.”
