by Selina Rosen
“How’d it go?” Conner asked.
“Very well,” Elantra said.
“Lanny I... I have to tell you something. I...” Conner looked up into her dark eyes and froze.
“What?”
“I’m tired. I want to go home,” Conner said.
“I’ll get someone to drive you,” Doc Pherson offered.
Conner didn’t want to eat. She didn’t want anything to drink. The man who had driven them home helped Conner into the bedroom where she took a pill, took off her shirt and her boots, lay down and went to sleep. Elantra usually wore nothing to bed, but tonight it was a little chilly and there was no chance she was going to get any. She put on a blue sweat suit, and turned the CD player on low. She saw the screwdriver the Contractor had given her lying on top of the dresser. She grabbed it and stuck it in her pocket for no better reason than she liked having pockets and sticking stuff into them. She walked over to the bed and lay down beside Conner.
She liked Constructionist music. She liked this particular CD above all the others because it’s the one that had been playing the first time she and Conner had made love, and just as Conner had said, listening to it reminded her of that time. Filling her momentarily with that wonderful mixture of fear and confusion and need. Reminding her of how quickly Conner had quieted her fears, and satisfied both her curiosity and her longing. Dygarhythms never did that. They were pretty noise at best.
Mr. Buttons jumped on the bed, and this time it was Elantra that kicked him off. The last thing they needed was cat germs around Conner’s wound. She chased the cat out of the room and shut the door.
“What was that?” Conner asked, more asleep than awake.
“The cat. I threw him and his germs out. Go back to sleep.”
“Hold me.” Conner whined. Elantra lay down and curled herself around Conner, who smiled.
“You’re kind of cute when you’re pathetic,” Elantra said.
Conner was asleep again. Elantra was almost asleep when she heard a noise. She sat up in bed, and before she had time to react in any other way the bedroom door burst open and three big men with huge guns jumped in the room.
“God damn you, Hammer!” the one in the middle screamed. “Is this how you remember my sister, by fucking Tarent Powers’ daughter?”
Now Conner had been fast asleep, so Elantra was a little shocked when Conner rolled over, grabbed her, and rolled to the floor just as a bullet went into the pillow where Conner’s head had been.
“Damn it, Mishy!” Hammer screamed as she grabbed her nail gun from under the bed. “Don’t make me kill you.”
“Fuck you, McVee, and your little black bitch, too.” Before Mishy could squeeze off another round Conner started firing wildly. Across the room the window broke out, and two men Elantra recognized as men who worked for her father jumped in, firing at the other three men.
Conner reached under the bed, grabbed her tool belt and slung the strap over her shoulder. She grabbed Elantra, who was still lying underneath her, in her free hand and literally pulled her under the exchanging gunfire and out of the room. She stood, up dragging Elantra to her feet, and they ran out of the house as the room behind them disintegrated in gunfire.
They made a run for the car.
Elantra turned around to see if anyone was following them. What she saw was her cat. “Mr. Buttons!” She jerked out of Conner’s grasp. Conner tried to grab her, but groggy and with her one good arm full of nail gun she just flat missed.
“Elantra, no!” Conner screamed. Elantra didn’t stop. Hammer started after Elantra and realized that someone was running through the house. “Elantra, come back.” She wasn’t going to make it in time. She hadn’t lived through all she’d lived through without learning one hard and fast rule. Desperate times called for desperate measures.
Conner aimed and fired. The cat spun across the living room floor to land quietly against the far wall. He never knew what hit him.
Elantra stopped in her tracks, screaming in shock, and Conner caught hold of her and started dragging her back towards the car. They jumped in and Conner roared off just as two men ran from the house firing at her.
Conner tore off down the driveway and onto the main road. She drove with her knees for a second and threw her belt in the back seat. She put her gun between the seats.
“Poor Mr. Buttons,” Elantra cried, “and I was mean to him, too. God damn it, Conner! You killed my cat.” She slapped Conner in the shoulder, and Conner flinched. “Why did you do that? Why did you kill Mr. Buttons?”
“Elantra... You were going to go back into a house filled with warring crime lords to save a fucking cat!”
“But why’d you have to kill him? Why? Why?” Elantra cried.
“Damn it, Elantra, I only have one good arm right now. I’m drugged completely out. I’m not really thinking straight. First Mishy and his thugs jump in the room screaming and then Tarent’s goon squad. I’m trying to get us out of there in one piece, and you start to go back for the cat. I could only hold onto you and the gun if you weren’t jerking away from me. I couldn’t catch you. I knew if I killed the cat you’d stop. So I shot the fucking cat, all right!” Conner screamed. “It was you or the cat. The cat lost. I’m sorry. Right now I’ve got bigger things to worry about. Either Tarent’s men or Mishy is right on our tail, and I’ve got to tell you the truth – everything’s a blur to me.”
Conner headed out of town, or at least she thought she was. The last thing she wanted was a firefight in the middle of a bunch of civilians. “Radio on,” Conner ordered.
“Radio on,” it responded. Elantra looked at her.
“Hey, I can be religious, but I still have to be practical,” Conner defended. A shot bounced off the car and she flinched. “WrenchTown police agency.”
“This is WrenchTown agency. We read you, Hammer.”
“I’m being pursued. I need help.”
“Have heard shots and am responding. Cars have been sent to your residence, and we’re putting a bead on the car following you now.”
Conner heard the anti tank gun go off. When she looked in her rearview mirror the car that had been chasing her was nothing but flames. “Thanks, guys.”
“Our pleasure,” they replied.
“Radio off,” Conner ordered. Elantra was still crying. Conner drove out of town and headed in the direction of AxeTown. It was normally a two-day drive, but in her condition it was probably going to take three. She looked down at her wrist. She didn’t know whether she had ripped it open or not, but the wound was bleeding. There was blood on her left shoulder as well. Something had knocked a nice little hole in her flesh. It was nothing to be worried about. It was mostly just annoying. Like not having a shirt. Her head was pounding, and her vision was blurred. “I’m really sorry I killed your cat, Lanny. I really am....” Elantra only cried louder and turned her shoulder to Conner.
Mishy got up from the floor and dusted himself off. Luckily he was wearing a good bulletproof suit. Tank and Jumpy hadn’t fared so well. They were both shot all to hell. There was a sixteen penny nail between Jumpy’s eyes.
“Fucking McVee! She doesn’t even have to be awake or even try and she kills people.”
He’d heard Tarent’s men roar off, and then a few minutes later he’d heard them blown up. The Constructionists took care of their own, and if he didn’t want to end up the same way he had better get the hell out of WrenchTown. He stumbled out of the house and then stumbled up the hillside to his car. He had just reached it when four cars pulled in around the cabin. He got in his car and waited for all the cops to go inside. “Car, drive me back to FreightCity as fast as you can.” The car drove off without being noticed. “Seat recline.” It did, and he lay down. Now he’d have to go through the task of finding Hammer all over again, but he’d done it once, and he’d do it again. And this time he’d be damn sure he hadn’t picked up a tail.
Tarent knew when he couldn’t get through that Hammer had killed Little Jimmy and Big Bobby.
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to think. Elantra could be dead, too. There was no way of knowing. Mishy had been there, and who knew what Hammer might do if they had pinned her down. Any of them could have killed her.
No. Elantra must still be alive. Mishy or Hammer would have called gloating by now if she were dead. Unless of course they were dead as well. He was going to have to wait for his answers, and Tarent didn’t like to wait.
An hour down the road Elantra was still crying about the cat. Conner had learned the hard way that saying things like, it was only a cat, I’ll get you another cat, or even, I’m sorry, were not helpful.
“You never did like him,” Elantra cried loudly. “You always hated him. You wanted to kill him. You enjoyed it.”
“Lanny, I said I’m sorry. I can’t take it back now. I wish I could. I’m very, very, grovelingly sorry. Now please stop crying. You’re tears are more punishment than I deserve.”
Elantra sniffled and dried her eyes and nose on her sleeve. “Why, Conner McVee, that was almost poetic.” She sniffled again. She thought maybe she was done crying, so she settled back into her seat. “I don’t understand why my father’s friends were trying to kill us...” She remembered the horrible moment when the night had been splintered by intruders, the words the man had said, and who Hammer had said he was. Somewhere in Elantra’s brain it all started to click. “That man... he was Mishy... Peggy was Mishy’s sister... My father’s men weren’t here to kill them, they came here to save me, from you.” She hauled off and hit Hammer in the shoulder as hard as she could. Hammer swerved and pulled the car over and stopped. It was a good thing she did. Elantra started pounding on her everywhere she could reach. Conner held up her good arm to protect herself. “You... You never rescued me. You kidnapped me. That’s why you wouldn’t let me talk to my father. You made me love you. God damn you, Conner McVee!” She hit Conner again. “Do you care about me at all?”
“Yes, I love you. I never lied about that,” Conner answered. Now she really wished she had a shirt. This was not the kind of discussion she wanted to have bare chested, especially if Elantra was going to keep hitting her, and it didn’t look like she was going to quit any time soon. “Mishy kidnapped you first, he would have killed you...”
“Has anything you’ve told me... Has any of it been the truth?” Elantra started to cry again.
“The way I feel about you, almost everything I’ve told you, only the part about me working for your father was a lie,” Conner said weakly.
“Peggy was murdered, wasn’t she?”
“Elantra... it doesn’t matter.”
“Was she?” Elantra demanded.
“Yes!” Conner screamed back, crying herself now. “Yes! Gang raped, killed and mutilated by your father’s men, at his command. All captured on DVD except of course for faces. So that we know exactly who did it, but it isn’t enough evidence for a conviction.”
“I’m... I’m sorry that happened to her, but it doesn’t excuse the fact that you kidnapped me to get back at my father. Because you believe he killed Peggy...”
“Damn it, Elantra, wake up! I’m not trying to excuse what I did, but Tarent did kill Peggy,” Conner defended.
Elantra quit hitting her then, and just started sobbing. “You made love to me. You said you loved me.”
“I do, Elantra. I love you more than anything, more than life. I’d never do anything to hurt you.”
“You kidnapped me! You killed my cat!” Elantra screamed, in angry disbelief. “So what was the deal? What was the ransom?”
“Lanny, I didn’t know you when I kidnapped you. I couldn’t have known that I was going to fall in love with you...”
“What was the ransom?” Elantra demanded.
“I Told Tarent I would kill you if he didn’t kill himself or turn himself in. I loved her, too, Elantra, and I wanted him to pay for what he did to her. What he’s done to a thousand people like her. What he did to me...”
“Were you planning to kill me before or after we’d had sex...”
“I couldn’t kill you, Lanny. I never could have. I had decided that I couldn’t even before I realized that I was in love with you.”
“How very nice of you,” Elantra hissed through her tears.
“I could never hurt you, Lanny. Don’t you see? That’s why Mishy came after us. Because I wasn’t giving him the revenge he wanted...”
“But you were still getting revenge, weren’t you, Conner McVee? By sleeping with me, turning me into a Constructionist, a lesbian, making me all the things my father hates. Making sure that I couldn’t return to building life.”
“If that were true, why wouldn’t I say so, Elantra? Why would I care one bit about how you feel now? If that were true, why wouldn’t I have encouraged you to call your father and tell him?”
“Because the computer doesn’t work,” Elantra said.
Conner looked down at her hands silently. Elantra knew what the silence meant.
“It’s not broken, is it?” Elantra screamed.
“I took it apart so that you couldn’t use it.”
“Another lie!” Elantra screamed. “How can I believe anything you say, Conner McVee? You kidnapped me and held me prisoner...”
“Oh, come on, Elantra. You were the happiest damn prisoner I have ever seen,” Conner said with an exasperated sigh. “I knew this was going to be hard, but I didn’t think that even you would be hardheaded enough to make it impossible.”
“Were you ever going to tell me the truth?” Elantra demanded.
“I don’t know,” Conner said honestly. “I wanted to. I started to a dozen times, but I didn’t want this. I didn’t know how to tell you so that there wouldn’t be this. I knew it would hurt you, and I never want to hurt you.”
“Let me guess, you couldn’t find the words for, ‘I kidnapped you and I was going to kill you to get back at your father but I fell in love with you’... It’s lame, Conner. To put it in terms you’ll understand. ‘It sounds like bull shit.’ You’re using me to get back at Daddy for something that I know he didn’t do, but you don’t have the guts to kill me, so you’re just going to fuck me instead.” She cried harder. Conner reached over and dried a tear off Elantra’s cheek. Elantra pulled away from her.
“I do love you, Elantra. What do I have to do to prove that to you?” Conner said.
“Take me home,” Elantra ordered.
“Elantra, your father is a criminal. He’s kept you a prisoner your whole life, do you really want to go back to that? Back to the corporate crime groom? I love you, we got away from them, and we’re free now. All we have to do is keep driving and start our life someplace new.”
“Why?!” Elantra screamed accusingly at Conner. “Because you love me, or because you aren’t finished punishing my father yet. If you care about me at all, you’ll take me home.”
Conner took in a deep breath. The trust between them had been shattered, if not forever, at least temporarily. She quickly ran all possibilities through her brain. Elantra isn’t ready to forgive me, not even ready to try. She may never forgive me. This may be something that we can’t overcome. Tarent isn’t going to hurt her, at least not physically, and going back there just might prove to her how much she no longer wants to be there. Tarent will have no doubt beefed up security to the point that Mishy shouldn’t be able to get at her. One thing’s for sure, she can’t be out here on her own. Of course Tarent’s probably never going to let her back out either, at least not willingly. I could force her to go with me. It would be safer for both of us, but if I do, then she’s always going to resent me. This is always going to be between us and we’ll never get back to where we were.
She didn’t really have a choice, not if she wanted to save the relationship. Not if she were going to have any chance of regaining Elantra’s trust. And without Elantra, she didn’t really care what happened to her.
Conner had a change of clothes in the car for just such occasions, and although she would have liked to
take a few minutes to get them, there was something suddenly comforting about the discomfort caused by her shoeless feet and shirtless body. She started the car, turned it around, and headed back towards FreightCity. “All right. I’ll take you home then,” she mumbled. Tears stung at her good eye. Luckily her implant was starting to function normally, so that she was able to see. She took a deep breath and tried to speak calmly and without the choke of tears in her voice, it didn’t work. “I’ll take you back to that steel and glass hell, because that’s what you say you want.” Unable to stop herself she added sarcastically. “Well, this really worked out well for me, didn’t it? Tarent’s got a price on my head, and now Mishy wants me dead. You hate my guts, and Peggy’s death remains unavenged.”
“Just take me home!” Elantra cried.
“I’m taking you home!” Hammer’s pain eroded into anger. “I’m putting my very life on the line to do it. You’re as big a liar as I am, Elantra, because you said you loved me and now you’re making me do this,” Conner said. “You’re just walking away from me.”
“Don’t you dare!” Elantra screamed back. “Don’t you even try to act righteously indignant. You did this to me.”
Hammer swallowed her own anger. Elantra was right. If the tables were turned, I wouldn’t believe one word she said. She doesn’t believe her father is a crook, much less a killer. Why would she believe that? She’s probably never seen him do anything more horrible than sit at his desk. Except...
“I’m sorry, you’re right. Why should you trust me? If you ever had any feelings for me at all, make me one promise.”
Elantra sniffled. “What’s that?”
“Don’t trust your father. Your mother did, and now she’s dead,” Hammer said.
“My father didn’t kill my mother. Damn it, Conner McVee! You are completely obsessed with the thought that my father is this evil monster. Haven’t you hurt me enough?” Elantra said through angry tears.
