by Mike Dagons
“Go to hell, you treacherous muthafucka!” I shouted at his dead body, and then I got up and kicked him because I was so fucking angry at myself for letting him trick me into trusting him again.
I heard the echoing scream behind me, and turned in time to see Jeff Basin falling by the window. Instinctively, I knew that Anakin had thrown him off the roof.
“Basin flew off the roof, but he was thoughtful enough to leave us his bird. I got it hovering if y’all ready to go?” his voice in my walkie made me smile.
I gathered up Ceylon and we made our way up to the roof. True to his word, Anakin already had the rotor spinning, and we climbed on board to let him carry us home.
As we flew out over Lake Michigan, I realized Basin’s home was close enough to the water that he may have survived the fall. It was a concern, but not a problem that I wanted to deal with today. If he was alive, he’d find me because if he loved his woman like I’d loved mine. There would be no peace for him until I was dead.
Chapter 31
Anakin flew us back to the Viper farmhouse. I had made Luther and Jeff pay for taking Monique, but my heart was heavier than ever. Leon was right about one thing. All the killing in the world wouldn’t bring her back to me, and now that it was over. I had too much time to think about all the things I had done wrong to bring me to this point.
After we debriefed, showered, and grabbed a hot meal, we got on the phone with Melvin, Bender, Blue, Trent, and Rayce.
“You fellas did a helluva job,” Melvin said. “Ice I moved your friend, Curtis, from the place Leon had him held up last night, so he’s safe,” he reported.
“It’s good to hear your voice,” I said, and I meant it. Melvin Ryan was everything that I was not. He was a faithful husband, a good father, and a great son and brother. I loved him dearly, but knowing I would never be the man he was made me sad.
“Ice, you are every bit the man that I am and more,” he said, like he was reading my thoughts.
“Vain muthafucka, you ain’t psychic. I was thinking about how I didn’t measure up to Roc,” I said, and got a laugh from everybody in both camps.
“Mr. Battle, we owe you a debt of gratitude we may never be able to repay,” Melvin said. “I’m adding twenty percent to the payday the Scotts stole from Viper, and you have my word that Genesis will back you up in whatever way you need in the future.”
“I appreciate it, Ryan, but what I really want is your crews’ blessing on my marriage to Severe. She won’t be happy without it.”
“I can’t speak for the other fellas, but you have mine. Standing in the gap for her like you did. It showed where your heart is, man.”
“This is Rottweiler, nigga. I’m the only muthafucka you need to worry about approving the shit. I told you it was okay to marry her, so just do it.”
“Oh my bad, I forgot your short ass was the controlling factor in our lives,” he replied, and we all laughed.
“Ceylon, you and Anakin have been requested to fly to Paris with me to meet up with our women. Our parents will be bringing the kids, Ice. We’d like to have you there with us to enjoy some down time,” Melvin said.
“I’ll think about,” I lied. I didn’t feel up to facing our parents, especially our father. He was a natural born killer that oddly had high moral standards and family values. I knew that he was going to frown on me killing women and children. It was something he did not condone. Hurting women and children was not something that the men in our family did, ever, so I expected him to be pissed about the way I exacted my revenge.”
“I talked to dad, and he’s not angry about you killing the women and the two teenagers. He understands, Ice,” Melvin said. “He told me that he’s proud of you. Him and mom really want to see you, man, and so do the kids,” he said, and then he continued the briefing when I didn’t respond.
I was happy to hear it, but if knew Melvin, he’d defended my actions to the old man, and it was why he was being accepting of what I’d done.
I loved my father. I wanted him to be proud of me, but I just couldn’t measure up. And although he never tried to make me feel inadequate, I always did.
We learned that Bender had given the all clear to the team. D’Agon had reported in. He was alive and well along with twenty five of the thirty employees who were in the building when it blew. The bomb detectors had gone off, so mostly everyone was able to make it to the safe rooms.
After we ended the call, I went up to my room to relax and think about the events of the last few weeks. Valow had finally found a woman crazy enough to fall for his scary ass, and Choc was going home with Rayce. I was sincerely happy for all of them, but Trent and I would be going home alone. I heard he was taking the death of his wife better than I had. He didn’t blame anyone for it, and Melvin said, he had just cried quietly.
Trent Real was a mild mannered man, and I was hoping the business wasn’t going to change that about him. Lying in bed, I thought about Monique. It was common knowledge that I had an eidetic memory, but not even my family knew that I was hyperthymestic, and able to recall almost every day of my life in near perfect detail. Not everyone with the rare condition had the ability to control the flashes of memory. Fortunately, I’ve always been able to control mine.
I allowed myself to drift into sleep thinking about some of the funny things Monique had done and said since we met in high school. She would always be the love of my life, and knowing those intricate memories of her would always be in my head gave me a measure of peace.
I was awakened by a knock on my door. “Come in,” I sat up in bed when Anakin stepped inside my room.
“The others are leaving for the airport this morning. I want to talk to you before we leave.”
“Shoot,” I said.
“You should come to Paris with us. It’s not good for you to be alone.”
“Alone is exactly what I need to be right now. I want to wind down. Maybe visit Monique’s grave, since I didn’t give her a proper funeral.”
“I’ll stay here and go with you,” he said.
“Man, you’re turning into Melvin Ryan,” I joked.
He laughed, and his gray eyes turned a cool green, meaning he was feeling cheerful. “Besides, if you don’t show up, Chanay is going to kick your ass.”
“I talked to her, and she said as much. I will drop you off at home, if that’s where you’re going.”
“Okay, I’ll take a ride, but I’m going to my parent’s place. I’m not ready to go back home yet.”
Chapter 32
After we said our goodbyes, we got on the road. We talked very little on the drive to my parent’s estate in Northbrook, and when Anakin dropped me off at the front door. I promised to check in with him tomorrow.
I watched him drive away, and then I unlocked the front door and walked into the dark foyer. The sharp pain in the back of my head knocked me to the floor, and the foot upside my head knocked me out.
When I woke up, I was on my back, shirtless, and tied to my parent’s dining room table. “So, in case you’re wondering, you haven’t been out but a few minutes. I’m not only smarter than you, but I’m faster,” Jeff boasted.
“So you did survive the fall,” I mused.
“Why of course I did,” he answered in a creepy calm voice. “I’ve been here enjoying your parent’s lovely home while I waited for them to return. I figured you had told them it was safe to come out of hiding since you thought I was dead.”
“If you thought my father was going to be as easy to kill as yours. You were in for a surprise, Jeff.” I chuckled.
“Talking smack will not distract me from what I’m here to do, Ice. You should know that about me.”
“It is what I was doing, but it’s the truth. My old man is a deadly muthafucka. I’m a saint by comparison,” I said, and it was the absolute truth.
I got satisfaction in knowing that even if he killed me. Ethan Cole would hunt him down, and make his death more torturous than he could possibly imagine.
“I’ve heard of your father, of course. Rumor has it that he is the man who tortured and killed our old security chief, Maverick. I heard that he was special in his day, but he’s old now. And there is no way he has what it takes to kill me.”
I laughed really loud. “I’d heard that you were narcissistic, but nobody told me you were also a delusion fool.”
“Your friend, the great Anakin Fury thought he could kill me too,” he smirked.
“And why aren’t you dead, Jeffrey?” I asked just to keep him talking and maybe give myself time to free my hands from the ropes.
“When I’m in town, I usually stay at that house. Of course, I won’t be staying there anymore, since you killed my sister there. I dive off that roof into the lake for fun,” he chuckled. “I was already in my helicopter when your man, Anakin, surprised me. He is unusually fast and strong. Is he cyborg or alien?”
I laughed because it was exactly what I thought the first time I witnessed him do some extraordinary shit. “Why you got me tied up? I thought you wanted to settle your debt with me man to man?”
“I do, or I did until you killed my sister.”
“Technically, I wasn’t the one who killed her. I just brought her to the party like you did Monique,” I fired back.
He lowered his head, closed his eyes, and massaged his temples with his fingertips. “You’re right, and apparently you were right to blame me for her death because I sure in hell blame you for Nicole’s. I don’t know if I want to live without her,” his voice wavered, and then he cleared his throat and looked directly at me.
His eyes were cold black. They didn’t change colors like Anakin’s, but they were filled with emotion, so he wasn’t a sociopath like his bio read. He was just good at remaining detached like me. Knowing that he was hurting gave me a euphoric sense of relief, and I realized I got more joy from seeing him this way than I would have from killing him.
Hoping to add to his misery, I said, “I feel your pain, and I can tell you from experience that it doesn’t get any better with time. Knowing that the woman you loved more than anything was killed because of your choices makes it hard to breathe, and I am so fucking happy for the small part I played in making you share in my misery.”
He slapped me just hard enough for it to sting, like I was a bitch. And that made it hurt more than it would have if he’d punched me. “She was a gifted surgeon who had saved many lives. She would have saved many more!” he shouted in my face.
“I don’t want you to misinterpret my meaning, because I mean it literally and from the bottom of my heart. I don’t give a fuck about what you’re going through or how you feel about losing that sick bitch you loved in all the wrong ways. I do know what it feels like to have your heart torn out, and I can die happy now because I know that yours has been torn out, too!” I smiled because I knew first hand that nothing he did to me was going to make him feel better.
Jeffrey didn’t say a word. I watched him walk over to the credenza and put his gun down on top of it, and then he opened the drawer and took out a carving knife.
“I don’t know if this is going to make me feel better about losing Nicole. She was the only person in my happy family that truly loved me unconditionally. My parents loved me, or at least my mother did, and her death hurt me a lot, but you expect your parents to die before you. It’s why I didn’t make any special effort to find yours initially,” he spoke absently, almost like he was talking to himself instead of me.
He walked over and stood next to me. “My father was not a faithful man like yours. He cheated on his wives, and his mistresses. And he murdered them if he even suspected they were doing the same. Nicole’s mother was one of his mistresses. She allowed him to believe that he had fathered Nicole, because he would have killed her if he’d known the truth. He thought Nicole was his daughter, and he took care of her financially, but he never loved her. I found out about her when I took over his bookkeeping. I contacted her, and we developed a close relationship behind my father’s back. Over time, we fell in love. It’s when she told me that she had taken a DNA test. It proved what her mother suspected. Tyler was not her biological father, and we were not really siblings. We didn’t have sex until we were certain that we weren’t related. So I loved her in all the right ways, Ice, just like you loved your precious Monique, who was fucking Leon Turner by the way.” He placed the tip of the blade in the center of my chest.
“Leon told me that he lied about that,” I answered defensively.
“Yeah, he only wanted to kill you. Not hurt you like I do,” he said, and then swiftly cut a line around my left pec. “They say that revenge is best served cold, but I’m much too compulsive to wait.”
“The only time revenge is best served cold, is when you ain’t talented enough to handle it while it’s hot!” I said, and then I gritted my teeth against the pain.
It was a shallow cut that didn’t do any real damage, but it stung like a muthafuckin’ paper cut. Blood beaded on my skin and dripped down my stomach.
“I like that,” he laughed. “I am going to kill you for killing my parents, Ice. But I am going to make you suffer for killing Nicole,” he said, and then sprinkled table salt on my chest, and it might as well have been sulfuric acid it hurt so damn bad.
My eyes watered inadvertently, and I grinned to keep from crying. “Whatever, muthafucka!” I shouted angrily, but then I screamed in pain when he pushed the blade up under my skin, and cut a pocket under my beast. He dumped salt in it, and then pressed down on it with the palm of his hand, grinding the salt into the wound.
“You have no idea how much pleasure I’m getting from hearing you scream,” he smiled.
“Then I guess I’ll have to stop screaming,” I glared at him defiantly.
He found a new spot to work the blade in under my skin, and when he poured the salt in the wound, my body shook, but I didn’t scream.
“So, you’re going to make this more interesting,” he said, and then sliced a deeper cut under my other breast. “I’m skinning you slowly in case you were wondering,” he laughed mockingly.
I felt the blood stream into my waistband, and I knew if he peeled the flap of skin back. I was going to scream even before he poured the salt in the wound.
Pain is a funny thing. Anticipating it is sometimes worse than actually feeling it, so I understood why he was being meticulously slow. He cut another line, and then grinned at me while he dumped salt in his hand.
I tried to push the thoughts of how much it was going to hurt when he peeled my skin back out of my mind. I clamped my jaw shut tight, and prayed to God to let me bear it silently.
Jeffrey smiled down at me knowingly as he pushed the blade under my skin and started to lift it, and Anakin Fury flew into the room in a blur of speed like an angel dispatched from heaven.
“HALLELUJAH!” I shouted, because the Lord had heard my prayer.
Anakin clamped a hand on Jeff’s knife hand, and one on his throat. “I heard you’re talented, but if you move a muscle. I’ll tear your throat out,” he smiled. “You want me to kill him for you?” he asked me.
“Nah, I want to do it myself,” I said. “Untie me.”
Anakin wrenched the knife out of Jeff’s hand, and cut one of my wrists free. He handed me the knife, and then waited until I had cut the other ropes binding me, and got up off the table before he released his hold on Jeff’s throat.
Jeff didn’t show Anakin any resistance. He stood with his arms hanging loosely at his sides and wearing a smile that said he welcomed the opportunity to beat my ass.
“He’s all yours.” Anakin said, and then took a step back.
“It ends with us. Only one of us walks away,” he said.
“It’s what I agreed to,” I answered, and then I flung the knife across the room, and hit him in his nose with a solid left cross. “Man to man, muthafucka,” I smiled at him devilishly.
Jeffery leaped up and hit me with a roundhouse kick that sent me flying across the table top and opened up a
fresh cut above my eyebrow. “Bring it, wonder boy,” he taunted, and then came at me.
From the floor, I pushed up on my arms while I kicked my legs out behind me like a donkey, and rammed both feet into his center. He doubled over in pain, and I did a hand spring into a standing position, rushing him, and slamming an elbow into his face that snapped his head back. I followed up with a right cross, and his jaw went slack. As he started to fall back, he reached out, and his fingers closed around a patch of skin he had carved out my chest. I only had a second to anticipate the pain, and it took less time than that for the unimaginable horror to happen.
Blinding pain exploded in my chest as he ripped my skin off like it was cheap fabric. I screamed, and in that instant I forgot about my martial arts training, and reverted back to that cold kid I was in grade school, fighting on the playground. It was that kid who had earned me the name, Ice, and he was colder than a muthafucka.
I grabbed hold of his head, and latched onto his ear with my teeth. Biting down hard, and shaking my head like a ferocious dog, I ripped it off and spit it out.
Jeffrey let go and clutched the gapping hole that had been his ear, and I raked a forearm across my bloody mouth. We were both hurting bad, and a looked passed between us that said we were through fucking around.
His eyes cut to his Beretta on the credenza, telepathing his next move. We went for it at the same time. He had bragged about being smarter and faster than me, but it was bullshit.
Jeffrey Basin was good, but he was about to learn that good just ain’t enough when you fucking with a nigga cold as Isaak Charles Edwards.
I pivoted around him like he was standing still, scooped up the Beretta and fired a single shot into his astonished face. “Die muthafucka!” I shouted, and then fell to the floor beside his dead body, exhausted, panting, and shaking from the pain in my chest.
