by K. M. Hodge
“Do you want to talk about it?” Ellie rubbed the muscle above the cast hoping to lessen the constant, aching pain.
“No.”
“Ha. All right then, I’ll just have to guess. Did you and mystery man have a fight?”
Mari shoved the phone into her shoulder bag and stood up. “I said I don’t want to talk about it!”
“Okay, okay, don’t bite my head off.”
“Fucking men.”
“I thought we weren’t talking about it?” Ellie slid off the exam table and reached for her crutches. Her husband Chris wouldn’t be back in town for a couple of days, so she would have to deal with this inconvenience on her own.
Still, she couldn’t help but wonder about her friend’s new lover and why things seemed to have soured between them.
Mari stood with her shoulders squared and her arms crossed over her chest. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said again, and then paused. “I need a drink. Let’s go to the Elephant Room after this.”
“Bar tonight? I’m not sure drinks will mix well with the Vicodin I’m taking.”
“Please don’t make me drink alone.”
Ellie sighed and adjusted her crutches underneath her. “All right, but just one drink and then I need to get home.”
Mari winked and a wicked smile flashed across her face. “Sure, one drink.”
***
Charles MacAvoy’s Estate
Danville, Virginia
June 26, 2026
6:00 PM
~~~
“Could someone please get me my duffle bag?” Zane crouched down beside Jason to check his vitals, and sighed with relief when he found a pulse. The acrid smell of vomit wafted up to his nose and he noted crusted blood on the corners of Jason’s mouth.
Julie joined him on the floor and took a wet washcloth to Jason’s mouth. “He’s throwing up blood.”
Sally leaned forward. “He... he has ulcers and varices. He’s supposed to be on medication. Is... is he going to be okay?”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine, Ma.”
His ma handed Zane the doctor bag and he fished out his stethoscope and listened to Jason’s heart and breath sounds, which were all normal. He took out his blood pressure cuff and checked Jason’s pulse. Then Zane took a quick listen to his abdomen and detected the familiar gurgle of bowel activity.
When he had finished his cursory examination, he stood up and stretched. “He’s gonna be all right. My guess is he got a little lax with his medication and the stress of the last few days caused a flare-up. He hasn’t eaten anything all day and his blood pressure is low. That’s probably why he fainted.”
He pulled up an app on his watch and ordered some medication to be delivered to the house. “Um... is there a room we can put him in until he wakes up?”
“Yeah, we can put him in the south wing drawing room.”
Several servants surrounded Jason and carried him to a quiet room off the kitchen. Once Zane situated Jason on a small couch with a few cushions, he went back into the hall.
Charles stood waiting for him with his hands shoved in his pockets. “I need to talk to you, son.”
“He’s going to be fine.”
“That’s good to hear, but that’s not what I want to talk to you about.” Charles rubbed the stubble on his chin.
“Okay, what’s up?”
“Let’s take a walk. I can show you to your room.” Charles pointed to the end of the opposite hall. “I want to talk to you about the plan your mom and I have put together. I don’t know if you know this, but she’s been staying here this last year.”
Zane shoved his hands into his pants pockets and looked down at his shoes as they walked.
“Scott informed every criminal organization this side of the Mississippi about your mom being alive, and about all her work as a spy. A lot of people are after her right now—”
Zane sucked in an anxious breath. “She didn’t tell me that.”
“She didn’t want to worry you anymore than she already has.”
Yeah, right. Like my feelings factored into her silence. What a joke!
Charles paused mid-step and faced Zane. “The transplant is set up for two days from now at St. Rita, the hospital I opened last year. I’m offering Julie a fellowship and making you chief of the ER. You’ll have a fully dedicated lab and staff to carry on your research. I understand that you specialized in emergency medicine.”
Zane nodded. “My work in the ER is what inspired my Nanobioresponder project.”
“This job and lab is yours. I know you’ll want to be close by your mother, and I believe in your research. I want to make sure you have enough resources to make it a go.” Charles turned and started to walk again, rounding another corner.
The massive house overwhelmed Zane and such opulence appalled him. This money could have done a lot of good for a lot of people instead of bringing joy to only one man.
“Why are you helping me? What’s in it for you?” He knew there had to be a catch.
“Because I can’t repay the debt I owe your father, because I think you’re a good investment, and because your mother almost died in order to help me out.”
Zane wet his lips, a bad habit that often led to dry, cracked lips. They stopped outside a door at the end of the hall.
“What do you think, son?”
“Can I think about it?”
“Of course you can.” Charles opened the door with a flourish. “This is your room.”
The large guest bedroom made his studio back in Cali look like a closet. Zane dropped his bag on the floor and looked around.
So this is where Mom spent the last year.
A servant popped her head into the room. “Mr. Knettle seems to be waking up.”
“All right then, I’ll let you tend to your patient.” Charles patted him on the shoulder and then stalked off in the opposite direction.
The servant walked with Zane down the winding hallways, leaving Zane feeling, once again, turned around and disgusted by the wealth displayed. “What’s the square footage of this place?” he asked.
“The home is fifty-thousand square feet with thirty bedrooms, twenty full baths and fifteen half-baths. The property sits on a hundred acres of land and was built in 2017.”
“Wow.” Zane didn’t trust wealthy people. He grew up hearing his old man and his cronies spouting off about how he should, “Never trust the Virginian Blue Bloods.” Of all his pop’s advice, that one had stuck.
Jason looked up at him as he entered the side room, and Zane gave him a small smile. His mother’s new boyfriend seemed pretty cool, for a Virginian. He knelt down beside him and tugged the ends of his stethoscope, feeling self-conscious.
“Look who’s awake,” he said.
“Wh-at happened?” Jason’s voice sounded raspy.
Zane cleared his throat. “Have you been vomiting blood?”
“Yeah, I’ve got varices and an ulcer. I haven’t been taking my meds.” He tried to sit up but Zane gently pushed him back down onto the sofa.
“Take it easy. You fainted.”
Jason blushed and averted his gaze. “What are you, some kind of doctor or something?”
“Lucky for you, yes, I am. I’ve sent for some medication that should help alleviate your current symptoms, but you need to tell me if they worsen.” Zane stood. “Oh, and take the meds.”
“How’s the patient?” His mother’s small voice startled him.
He never saw her look at anyone the way she looked at Jason right then.
She’s in love with him. He wasn’t sure what to do with that information.
Jason sat up when Zane’s mother charged into the room.
Zane turned away to give them a moment alone, but not before he caught them kiss.
As he walked out of the room and towards the dining room, he wondered if he could trust Jason. He really needed to be able to put his faith in someone, after being set adrift to fend for himself all these years, but that kind
of thing never came easy to him. He shook his head and let his mind wander to the giant bedroom and the hot new doctor he hoped would be joining him later. A smile crept across his face as he walked into the dining room and caught Julie’s eye.
Julie smiled back and her cheeks stained red.
Small mercies....
***
Unknown Building
Unknown Location
June 26, 2026
6:30 PM
~~~
The dank-smelling abandoned building was overrun with rats, but Scott didn’t give it much notice. No one remembered it as a Syndicate safe house, but he did. He remembered everything. Rage washed over him in waves as the growing need to kill her choked him.
It needs to be soon. Very soon.
He fantasized over that blessed moment until his desires hit a fevered pitch.
What will it feel like to have her blood on my hands?
He thought about ripping out her vital organs and eating them, then tried to calm his racing heart.
Soon. It will be soon. To capture a wild animal, you have to trap them first.
When he’d informed all of the low-life scum in Ocean City about Sally and her extracurricular activities, resources had poured in from all over. A lot of people wanted her dead for real this time. The bitch would die a long, slow and painful death, but not before he destroyed everyone she loved first.
He walked through the narrow aisle of the small hunting and fishing shop, and fingered the tip of a field dressing knife until a drop of blood welled at the top of his finger.
“Can I help you, sir?” A pimply-faced young man stood beside him wearing a maroon apron and a pair of beat-up dungarees.
“No.”
The young man wasn’t swayed easily from the sale. “That’s an excellent knife, made in Norway. High-carbon steel that’s been sandwiched between two outer layers of stainless steel. So it’s strong and has great edge retention and resists corrosion. It’s shorter than American knives, but it’s crazy sharp.”
“I’ll take it.”
***
Charles MacAvoy’s Estate
Danville, Virginia
June 26, 2026
6:30 PM
~~~
Once again they were all seated around the dining room table.
A servant brought Jason some medication and a large glass of ice water. Jason tossed the pills down his throat and prayed they would stay down. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the good doctor watching him. If first impressions were everything, then he was in trouble.
At the head of the table, Charles sat up straight and cupped his hands together on top of the ornate oak dining table. “Let’s begin.” He paused, glancing around the table at the motley crew of anti-Syndicate crusaders. “I asked all of you to come here tonight to discuss the plan to take care of the Scott Mitchel situation.” He took a long sip of ice water.
Jason shook his head and tried not to roll his eyes. A man could only tolerate so much bullshit showmanship.
“What’s the plan, Charles?” Manny’s tone belied equal annoyance.
“The plan is to kill Scott.”
“Oh, that all?” Jason didn’t bother to hide his sarcasm.
Charles’s cheeks colored and he narrowed his steel blue eyes, where a familiar rage lurked. He’d murdered three people in cold blood, and assaulted countless others, his ex-wife included, so Jason knew he needed to tread carefully.
“How do you plan for this to go down, Charles?” asked Manny. “Being as you’re under house arrest and all.”
“Sally?” Charles nodded in her direction.
“He’s offering me a kidney in exchange for having his homing chip embedded in me.”
“No! No, fucking way!” Jason slammed his fist on the table. “You’re crazy.”
Jason stormed out of the room and crashed through the back door, causing it to bounce in its frame. He spotted a small hill off in the distance and stalked off through the back lawn in the direction of the grove of trees on the hill. The longer he walked, the calmer he became, and he soon slowed to a normal stride.
He reached the giant oak tree at the top, and plopped down onto a grassy patch below it. Heaving a deep sigh, he leaned against the trunk and took in the city stretched out in front of him—home. Far off in the distance rose the building that housed his ePaper. He made a mental note to call his editor-and-chief, Lisa Eddie, to check up on things. He normally never went this long without popping in, but his break from the real word seemed to be coming to an end.
Nothing is ever simple, at least not in his world.
He heard heavy footfalls heading his way from behind.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
Jason sat still, leaving the question hanging in the air between them. When Charles sat down beside him, Jason fought his first instinct to bolt, portraying instead a calm demeanor of indifference.
“I know I’m probably the last person you want to talk to right now.”
That’s the understatement of the year.
Charles leaned back against the tree, brought a blade of grass up to his mouth and blew.
The whir of the homemade whistle grated on Jason’s nerves. Does this man take anything seriously? He had never known Charles to think of anyone but himself... with the possible exception of Katherine. “What the fuck do you want?”
Charles dropped the grass. “Can you set aside your hatred of me for just a minute? I know I haven’t earned that right, but I’m asking nicely.”
Jason inhaled deeply, tilting his head against the tree and closing his eyes. When will I stop being a pawn and get to live my life for myself?
“J, I know you think this is a crazy idea, but I can’t just let that psychotic asshole get away with this shit anymore. The law is useless... you know that.” Charles yanked a handful of grass from the hill and tossed it into the wind.
Jason looked down and noticed several small bare patches of grass. How often does he come up here to unleash his frustrations?
“There’s no justice in this world. If there were, Scott would still be in jail and it would be me down there in the cemetery and not Katherine.”
How dare he mention her name to me! Jason’s face burned hot and his stomach boiled again with an age-old rage. He knew if he opened his mouth a vitriolic diatribe would vomit out of him, but with age came some wisdom. He kept quiet and let the man speak.
“When Sally first propositioned me last year to go forward with her scheme to bring down The Syndicate, I said no. But then she mentioned you and your work. When I saw that you were going to get the truth out, I was impressed. You’re a good man, Jason. I always thought so. If it wasn’t for you, the world would have lost Katherine a long time ago. I like Sally, too. She’s a pretty ballsy chick. I know you care about her. I don’t get it, but I hope you can someday find a sort of happiness with her.”
Jason noted the sincerity in his tone, but also caught on to the word, proposition. He blinked hard and cleared his throat. “Did you and her... ever...?”
Charles’s face flushed as he bowed his head, silently answering the question. “You need to focus on the future. With Scott gone, you two can go down there, and live the normal life together, like the rest of the world—none of this Lifetime movie bullshit.”
Jason’s breath hitched in his throat. The thought of his Sally being with a slime ball like Charles made him sick to his stomach. But the man did have a point. There was no luxury of time to deal with his girl’s many past sexual exploits. “That’s all well and nice, Charles, but I don’t trust you.”
Charles stretched out his legs. His steel blue eyes brimmed with the glassy sheen of imminent tears.
Before he could say a word, a voice from behind them broke the silence. “Then trust me.”
Charles stood and dusted off his khaki pants. “I’ll leave you two alone to discuss things.” He walked off, disappearing on the other side of the hill.
Jason tried t
o ignore her as Sally sat beside him and tried to coax him with her soft touch, but his body betrayed him. The hair on the end of his arm came to attention as she brushed it with the back of her hand. Her request hung in the air between them, stirring a war between his rational mind that wanted to bolt, and his heart that wanted to follow her no matter the cost.
Her words came out in a choked whisper. “Can you trust me?”
“I want to, Sal.”
***
Zane stood by a bay window overlooking the palatial grounds. Jason’s abrupt reaction had brought dinner, once again, to an abrupt end, but he didn’t blame his mother’s boyfriend. Zane’s mind raced with concerns over his mother’s newest scheme, too. From where he stood inside the small room, he could see the silhouettes of his mother and Jason at the top of the hill in the backyard. The quiet of the library and the scenic view did little to settle his nerves, however. He couldn’t help but wonder what arguments his mother might try to use to sway Jason to her side.
What will she say to me? Or will my opinion not matter?
The sound of heels clip-clopping on the wood floor startled him out of the persistent clouds of worry that hung over him. He turned his head and smiled.
Julie carried two tumblers with a golden liquid and ice cubes that clinked against the glass when she walked.
He gratefully accepted the drink. “Thanks, I need this.”
“I thought you might.”
He took a long grimace-inducing gulp. Scotch.
Julie took a short, ladylike sip from hers.
A drop of shimmering liquid sat atop her lip sending a rush of desire through him. He leaned down and licked away the liquor with a quick sweep of his tongue. “Mmm... you taste good.”
“Maybe you should have another taste to be sure.”
Her words and the look she gave him sent a thrill straight to his groin. He flashed her a wide smile and she hooked her free arm around his neck, reeling him in for a kiss. All through the drama of dinner she had brushed her bare foot against his leg and managed to steal a few covert kisses, until he had been wound tighter than an eight-day clock.
He broke away from her kiss now and took one last gulp of his drink—for courage—and then placed both of their drinks down on the table by the window. His arms snaked around her waist and he recaptured her eager mouth with his. The normally level-headed veneer he always wore crashed to the ground, leaving his urges and desires bare to her. He backed her up against the leather sofa behind them and fell atop her on the way down, making her gasp.
