Reckoning

by Shakir Rashaan

  Ramesses wasn’t in the mood for games anymore; he needed to cut to the chase, and so did I. The veiled threat toward his “baby” was the last straw. “So, how exactly are you planning to end this so-called game we’re playing, Sir? I’m curious to know, seeing as you think you’ve already beaten me at this point.”

  “I can tell you now, I have beaten you.”

  “Not when I still have the audio of the call in my possession.” Ramesses didn’t want to show all of his cards, but he also wanted to rattle his cage a little bit. “I’m sure that the ADA would love to know what other indiscretions you might be accountable for. You know, in the interests of justice and all? I’m sure you wouldn’t mind that at all.”

  “And you also have the carcass of the other person in your possession, too. Did I neglect to mention that I hadn’t paid him yet?” Kraven laughed again, but this time, I wasn’t fazed by his laughter. He’d hooked himself without us offering the bait anymore. “You’re going to have a hard time getting that pretty little ADA of yours to press charges with such flimsy evidence.”

  He sounded a little disturbed in that last exchange, like he might have realized that we might have something else on him that he wasn’t exactly accounting for. His voice wasn’t as full of confidence as it was at the beginning of the call.

  Ramesses must have recognized it, too; the hesitation in his voice emboldened him. But, in typical Ramesses fashion, he left his opponent in the dark and guessing over what his next move might be. Ever the chess player. “Well, there’s only one way to find out, Sir, seeing as you have the upper hand in this situation. I’d hate to upset you or cause you to try to capitalize on that advantage, either. In the meantime, I wouldn’t want to make any long-range trips out of town, though. I also wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see you in the next day or so. Oh, one more thing: there’s still the matter of your threats against my wife and our submissives. If I were you, I would seriously be looking over my shoulder for the foreseeable future. You were better off coming for me like a man instead of threatening my family. Now, I’m going to make it my personal business that your whole world comes to a screeching halt.”

  Ramesses cut the phone off before Kraven could retort. It was a good thing, too; Sigma was having one hell of a time keeping Logan’s screams and whimpers from reaching the speakerphone. “Is he still alert, Sigma?”

  “Yes, Sir, he is.”

  “Good.” Ramesses walked over to him, kneeled down next to him as Sigma continued to apply the pressure to his wounds to keep him from blacking out. His eyes locked with Logan’s, as to make sure he was heard clearly when he spoke to him. “You’re going to disappear, do you hear me?”

  Logan nodded, feeling the effects of the sedative Sigma used. What he wasn’t aware of was the concoction was a combination of Rohypnol and a few other narcotics that would have him waking up about twelve hours from now, completely unaware of where he was—outside of the hospital he would end up in somewhere in north Florida—and what happened to him. The explanation of his severed fingers was also a fabrication, a recount that would be told to the emergency personnel after he was dropped off with them: he was in the process of saving a young child from falling into a well, and he got his hand stuck against some sharp rocks. He ripped his hand away, severing his fingers in the process, passing out from the loss of blood. He wouldn’t want any publicity over the act; all he needed was a chance to get on his feet again.

  That story would work out better than the one that his former employer had in store for him. Somehow I doubted that he even cared if Logan was dead or alive; if he did, he would have at least come to check for himself at the very least, instead of thinking that the poison took him out.

  Logan slipped into the darkness, his body going limp as the sedative finally took its hold on his body. In the next moment, he was being loaded into J-Roc’s truck, heading to Peachtree-DeKalb Airport, where a plane was waiting for his arrival and subsequent departure. Destination: Tampa.

  Once he disappeared, I turned to Ramesses, shaking my head at the whole situation. “Kraven’s trying to play dirty, partner. When do you plan to get grimy with him?”

  “I don’t have to get grimy, partner,” Ramesses replied, taking his phone out to make another call. “That’s what I have you for; to make me look good. However, he’s not getting away with that bullshit threat against Neferterri and the girls. I’m going to make his life a living hell, you can believe that shit. The only time that I plan to do anything whatsoever about Kraven is once I have his balls to the wall and he can’t go anywhere or use anyone else to slip out of another charge. When he slips up—and he already has slipped up—I’m going to nail him, you can take that to the bank.”

  NINETEEN

  The next morning brought its own brand of madness, which was something I was hoping would not be the case, but the way these cases were set up, there was no avoiding the inevitability.

  The first instance of trouble on the horizon was the call from Niki. It wasn’t good; sirius had been charged with kidnapping and attempted murder. The Ashtons wanted a quick resolution to the mess, and Kraven had managed to place himself in the midst of the situation, almost to the point to where he almost came out looking like the hero. As it turned out, that was the sole reason he came down to the precinct when we crossed paths.

  What I wanted to know was how in the world he was able to identify sirius as the suspect so easily? He wasn’t anywhere in the vicinity of the crime or where the body ended up being deposited, so how in the world was he able to be the shining hero in this scenario? This thing was beginning to stink; the politics demanded that someone was going to take the rap for this, and it looked like they were able to find the scapegoat for this particular crime. My old captain would have never let me roll with the flimsy evidence and the suspect identification, but I had to remember that I wasn’t with my old captain, and this crime happened in a different part of the city—the part that was financially influential.

  This nightmare couldn’t have played out any worse. With Kraven acting like he was instrumental in the capture of the suspect, it made it that much more difficult to figure out if he had anything to do with what happened to Kendyl. I was incensed, and for good reason; there’s no telling what the hell he told the ADAs assigned to the case, and Niki wouldn’t be able to tell me anything while she was at the office or risk conflict of interest and recusal.

  sirius was being railroaded. Everything that was happening further fueled my suspicions that he was covering for someone, and it was becoming clearer by the minute that the person was Kraven, but the connection between the two escaped my grasp. Kraven didn’t deal with male submissives on that type of level; in fact, I was certain he had a contempt for them to the degree that they weren’t even allowed in his presence at public functions.

  This whole situation was working my nerves. I needed to figure out what in the bloody hell was going on before the wrong person got pinned for something that I knew for a fact he didn’t do.

  In the middle of my stressing out over this case, I got a call from Ty out of the blue, which was a godsend to say the least. I had been waiting on his call for a couple of days now, hopeful that he would be able to figure some things out on the virtual end with regard to the other case involving Jason and Tori. “Ty, give me some good news, bro.”

  “I can do better than that, bro, I can show you a hell of a lot of stuff, including your killer.” Ty sounded really hyper, almost nervously excited for some reason, and he didn’t usually sound that way. “Can you get over here, ASAP? I think you’ll be very interested in what I have to show you. It’s definitely some explosive stuff.”

  Now, as long as I’d known Ty, he’d always been cooler than the other side of the pillow, to borrow the phrase from the late, great Stuart Scott, so to hear him sounding a little more animated than usual was a warning sign for me. Either someone was there with him, or they’d been there and given him the scare of his life.

  I d
ecided to test my theory so I would know how to prepare when I got over there. “Ty, how explosive is the information? Is it righteous, or is it to die for?”

  “It’s definitely to die for, D.” He used the phrase I thought he would use. The killer was still there with him, and the coded phrases we were using were meant to keep Ty alive more than anything, but there was no guarantee that he would be alive once I got there. I was betting on the idea that the killer wanted to catch a big fish with live bait than the alternative.

  Time was of the essence, and I made that clear to him while I had him on the phone. “Give me twenty minutes to get over there, bro. I have a feeling this might be the break I’m looking for in this case.”

  I hung up the phone, grabbing for my guns as I headed out the door. Something was off, and I had a feeling that if I didn’t get to Ty soon, I would run into a scene that I wouldn’t be able to handle.

  I got to Ty’s house by dusk, and my senses were already heightened by the time I pulled up to the house.

  I purposely parked the unmarked sedan I drove a couple of houses away from his, as to not trip out the person that I suspected lay in wait for me, using Ty as bait for a convenient trap that I had no choice but to walk into. I had no idea whether Ty was dead or alive, but I couldn’t let a friend go without a fight. I’d completely dropped the ball with Tori, and I was not about to make the same mistake twice.

  Neither of them would have recognized the car as I drove past, so I still had the element of surprise on my side. That might have been the only advantage I had as I quietly slipped to the front door. I grabbed a handkerchief from my pocket, using it to cover my prints. I checked the door and hoped that my instincts weren’t on point.

  Unfortunately, they were, as the door opened with little effort.

  Keep your head, Law. You know he’s in here somewhere.

  The lights were out; not a good sign.

  He wanted me to know he was here. The question I had that hadn’t been answered was whether Ty was here, and if he was still breathing.

  I cleared each room in his townhome, going through the ground floor first. His place had three floors, and considering he was as careful as I was, he had cameras everywhere, with night vision capabilities in case someone got the bright idea that nothing could be seen in the dark.

  My advantage had now become my disadvantage. For all I knew, the killer was here in the house with Ty, watching me as I cleared the house. Rather than trying to give the clue that I knew where to go, I continued clearing each room, eventually moving to the second floor to do the same thing.

  This cat-and-mouse game that was being played irritated me to no end, and I wanted to get this over with, but I couldn’t simply do that without tipping my adversary off and making him do something rash. I had to play this to its conclusion, no matter how much my nerves wanted me to end the curiosity and cut to the heart of the matter. Ty’s life was at stake.

  After clearing the second floor, I made my way to the third floor, knowing where the control room was, but playing stupid the whole way. I kept trying to calm my irritation, wondering where they were, not in the mood for the hide-and-seek games any longer. My mind prepared for a fight, and it would only be a matter of time before I got what I wanted. It wasn’t a matter of if, but when.

  I finally heard a hint of Ty, hearing him groaning in one of the side bedrooms across from the control room. I moved to where I heard the sounds coming from, finding him bruised and bloodied, but still alive, thankfully.

  I checked his vitals, finding a faint pulse as I turned him on his back to let him know I was there with him. “Don’t worry, bro, I need you to hang tight until I take care of this dude. Can you get to the silent alarm and trip it?”

  “Yeah…I think so…I don’t know where he went…he…he might be…hiding somewhere.” Ty was having a hard time breathing, and it might have been asking a lot, but I figured I would be able to keep the killer busy long enough for Ty to make his way to the alarm in the control room. “He’s crazy, Dom…it’s like he’s possessed or something…you can’t take him straight up.”

  “Don’t worry about me, bro; just get to the alarm so the cops can get here.” I rose from where he was to check the rest of the top floor.

  I kept my gun drawn, my senses alerting me that someone was still close by. I yelled out into the darkness, taunting him while trying to keep my anger at bay over what had been done to my friend. “You had to be a bitch and beat on someone who couldn’t defend himself, huh? How about you come for someone your own size, jackass!”

  I heard a sound coming from the bathroom, and I moved in that direction as quickly as I could, tracking the sound to the bathroom closet. I moved to a position to where I could get the drop on him, staying low to avoid any head shots, in case he had a gun, too.

  “Okay, hide and seek is over, bitch, and I don’t want to have to stain my friend’s linen or clothing, so come out nice and slow, and I won’t have to put a bullet in the door to put you out of your misery.”

  I moved a little closer, passing by the bathtub, doing a quick swipe across the shower curtain to feel if someone might have been standing in the tub. My patience was short; under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have been so sloppy. Convinced that he was in the closet, I moved away from the tub, fixating my attention back in that direction. My pulse quickened; I couldn’t figure out which way I wanted to move, but I needed to end this as quickly as possible. I tried to decide between the kill shot or pulling him out so I could see him for myself.

  A few seconds later, my patience had run out. “I’m counting to three, and I’m putting a bullet in the door. One…two…”

  I didn’t get to three.

  He came out of the shower, swinging and connecting with the back of my head. I felt cold steel as I instantly saw colors. Brass knuckles; he was a bitch, and a cheater, too. I dropped to one knee, dropping my gun in reflex as he tried to connect with my head again in an attempt to knock me out.

  I slipped the second swing, swiping my elbow behind me and connected with his ribcage, causing him to cry out in pain. My eyes were still a little blurry from the first strike, so I had to rely on his sounds to let me know how close he was to me. I followed the elbow with a hard right cross to the same area, hoping to stun him until my vision cleared, but this guy seemed to be on as much adrenaline as I was. He recovered quickly, landing a series of blows to my jaw that should have put me down quick, but my fight-or-flight instincts were purely in survival mode.

  I lunged at him to avoid the punches to my face, driving him into the wall near the sink. He seemed to be ready for me with that move, too, as he drove an elbow into my lower back before dropping a knee into my shoulder that launched me away from him and into the door of the closet.

  He was on me in seconds, pinning my shoulder with his knee and commencing to pummel my ribcage, the wild look in his eyes giving me the distinct impression that he was going to try to kill me, one way or the other. I tried to use my free arm to counter and slow him down, but he seemed possessed, like nothing I did affected him at all.

  Ty was right; I wasn’t ready, and he was taking full advantage of the fact that I wasn’t ready.

  I was determined to not have him beat me to death, so in a desperate move, I lifted my knee and got him flush in his groin. The pain shot through him like he’d been struck by lightning, the howl sounding like a banshee in the night air as he rolled off me. I still had some fight left in me, and now that I had the upper hand for a moment, I picked myself off the ground, holding my ribs as I stalked him, insistent on dropping him permanently for making me work to find him and putting me through this shit.

  A swift leg sweep took me off my feet, and the way I landed on the tile floor knocked the wind out of me. He took the same leg he swept me with and dropped it across my bruised ribs, making it harder to breathe.

  He had the drop on me, and with my gun within arm’s reach, he could have easily picked it up and put me out of my misery.
I did what I could to get up, but every time I moved, it made it harder to breathe. He saw me stretch out for my gun, stepping over me to kick it out of my reach. Realizing he had me beat, he proceeded to slap my face over and over, trying to humiliate me. I couldn’t lift my left arm; he’d managed to stretch it to where I had no strength to do any real damage to him.

  “Pathetic. I thought you would give me a better fight. I don’t know what my Mistress saw in you.” He continued to slap my face, no longer worried about me coming for him again. I was nearly unconscious from the lack of oxygen in my system. I struggled for every bit of air I could get. “I’m gonna make you pay for killing my Mistress. I’ll make you all pay dearly.”

  Killing his Mistress? Did he mean Kacie? She was dead?

  My mind swirled as the words hit my ears. I thought I was hearing things; the last time I’d checked on her, she was still in the same prison that Simone was housed in. She had been transferred from the Emmanuel Correctional facility in South Georgia after she got caught having sex with one of the guards and causing harm to another inmate. Needless to say, she was no longer considered a candidate for minimal security facilities.

  There was no way she could have been killed while she was down there. I knew Sarge too well; he would have never allowed something like that to happen on his watch.

  He spat in my face, the ultimate disrespect. The glare in his eyes let me know that he could have ended me if he wanted to, but something else in his eyes tipped me off as to why he couldn’t. Someone was controlling him. But who?

  He took one more swing, fading my world to black with a punch to my temple. The last sound I heard was the security system’s speakers, asking Ty if he needed assistance. He was able to trip the system while I was getting my ass handed to me.

  At least someone would find us before too long, but I knew a few people that wouldn’t be too happy to see me laid up in the hospital, though.