Welcome to the Family

by Nancy S. Reece

  Tsichevna growled at her, leaning in close as his hands gripped her shoulders. “I want your father to know pain. I want him to know what he has done to others will come back to haunt him. I want revenge.” The cold in his eyes was thawing fast. There were two bright pink spots, one on each cheek. “And I am not alone. Kwan Tsi also holds a contract for your brother, Greg to kill him in repayment for damaged military goods Greg sent to Egypt last summer during the uprising. A grenade exploded prematurely and innocent people were killed, a little two-year-old boy among them.”

  “So my family, especially Martin, is hauling black market transactions in weapons and transportation parts and then cheating people on stolen goods? Do you know how crazy that sounds?”

  “Yes Mrs. Ferguson, but I think you know deep inside the truth of my words. You’ve wondered for years about the strangeness in your life, all the secrets and security. You knew something was wrong. How many ten-year-old girls can field strip and reassemble a rifle in under a minute? Your entire life has been directed to maximize the possibility of survival along with complete deniability. Trust me, I am not the only one to survive being on the wrong side of a Devlyn deal, just the first one to come after them. Honestly Mrs. Ferguson I’m surprised no one else has tried to take this route to your father prior to me. You are the only person he truly loves.”

  Cassie snorted in derision. “I think you have some of your facts wrong Mr. Tsichevna. Nothing is more important to him than the company. I’m somewhere lower than his dog and above his secretary.”

  “Tell me Cassie, if I may call you that, what happened to your mother?”

  Cassie frowned at the sudden switch in topics. “She had an accident.”

  “Do you know what happened?”

  “Not really. We were on our way back home from a day on the lake and someone stopped us at the gate. We were told Mother took a knife and slit her throat. She wanted to die but Martin found her and stopped the attempt.”

  “Don’t you find that strange? Your mother had no history of depression yet out of the blue decides to slit her throat, a hard thing for a person to do to themselves? The facts don’t add up.” Tsichevna crushed his cigarette out on the floor under his heel.

  Cassie closed her eyes, nauseous at this line of questions. Every sensation she’d tried to deny for years, every unexplained absence, the extreme security, and the odd looks from classmates all began to swing into place. Did Martin attack her mother? What did she know that needed kept silent? She shook her head to chase away the horrible idea. How could Martin hurt Katheryn? Despite Tsichevna’s assistance, she couldn’t make sense of the pieces.

  “Mr. Tsichevna, so much of what you’ve said makes parts of my life come sharply into focus. But I have the feeling this is only one aspect to the story. One thing though, do you know with whom these double deals originated? Is my father the only one, or do all my brothers work on both sides?”

  He shrugged. “If I had to lay bets I would say Martin kept these deals off the books, all to himself, just because he’s a greedy asshole. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if Greg’s hand was in there somewhere. That little shit would sell his own body parts if he had to. There is no honor in your brother.” His words sent her spiraling into turbulent belief. Greg would sell his heart, if he possessed one, to gain power and approval from Martin. Such a classic male child.

  Pieter pulled her cell phone out of his pocket and dialed the number for Sean. Again he held the device up to her ear, a little closer this time than before. She smelled the essence of fear her body was mass producing and hoped her kidnapper couldn’t. For the first time since awakening from the drugs, Cassie wondered if she was going to live through this.

  Sean answered on the first ring. “Where do we make the exchange?”

  “There is an abandoned elementary school south of Atlanta, near the airport. Before sunset, which is slightly more than an hour from now. Tell no police.”

  “You got it.” She could hear Sean grinding his teeth, probably to keep from pounding his fist on the dashboard. She’d ridden with him before when he was pissed.

  “Mr. Ferguson, do you remember who I am?

  “Arms dealer to several rebel countries in the Eastern European block, also linked to human trafficking and drug smuggling from Afghanistan. You have an affinity for well-aged Scotch and Cuban cigars and your family was killed in airplane crash several years ago. And three years ago in Istanbul you threw me and my mates to the radicals which led to a near international incident. Am I right?”

  “Very much Mr. Ferguson. I hope you don’t harbor any ill feelings over that matter. It was just business. It was either you or me and I took the self-preservation route. You’d have done the same thing, I’m sure. But I say all that to let you know, I intend to take this information back to my boss and let him make the final decision on this matter.”

  “I don’t harbor ill feelings, I just can’t wait for karma to have her day with your life, Tsichevna. Tell your boss whatever you want, but also let him know I’ll be by her side twenty-four/seven.”

  “Very well then. Are you coming to play with Mrs. Ferguson? Or will her brothers let you that close to her? I’ve heard they are a jealous clan.”

  There was a long pause. Then Sean answered in that precise tone Cassie knew grew out of his rising anger. “Tsichevna, if you hurt her, there won’t be anywhere on this earth you can run from me.”

  “The Devlyns chew up and spit out people as they need to. You won’t be any different. Believe it or not after my conversation with your lovely wife, I’m on your side here. She’s an intelligent, graceful woman, and if you get ahold of her, then run. Run as fast as you can, not from me—from them.”

  He clicked the phone off and threw it on the bed. Pieter untied Cassie’s hands and showed her around the cell. There was a bathroom with no windows, no tub, just a toilet and a sink. A bag of items from the local Walmart sat on the bed, intended to make the prisoner feel at home. To make things a little more comfortable, she found inside a pair of men’s jeans and a large flannel shirt. Moccasins completed the makeover. She washed her face, went to the restroom and then lay down on the bed. Too keyed up to sleep, Cassie entered into a very disconnected half dream state.

  Her dreams were full of Sean, her spunky Irishman. His eyes were the most incredible green and his broad shoulders which narrowed to the waist and well-muscled thighs along with tight ass brought a mix of feelings she’d missed these past few months. From the moment he stepped close to her that day in Florida, Cassie’s body responded to the intense maleness of him. Damn if the man didn’t exude sex. Her lips parted in anticipation of kissing him again, but her body told her a kiss wouldn’t be enough.

  If nothing went wrong with the drop then she should survive with only minimal scarring. But her inner feelings warned these men were not through with her yet. It made sleep restless and shallow. Soon she awoke to the sound of the locks in the steel door being turned. She opened her eyes in time to see a large fist slamming into her right one. Screaming she tried to move away, but found her hands and legs tied again.

  “I’m sorry Mrs. Ferguson, but these men lost family members as well in that plane crash. While the money will ease their grief, they do want you to take some souvenirs back to dear daddy and the choir boys.” The cold was back in Tsichevna’s eyes as he watched the assault continued with a strange lustful glimmer she could just see over her rapidly swelling face.

  Cassie heard his voice over the roar of pain racing through her head. “There, now I have sent the information for the pickup to Sean. If he tracks your phone, then your rescuer should be here in about twenty minutes. That is the least of your worries though, as there is a bomb programmed to explode in forty-five minutes.”

  ****

  When Sean arrived at the GPS coordinates, there was an abandoned building but no cars around nor any signs of life. The windows were broken, doors missing, and an air of decay hung over the structure. This had apparently becom
e the town dump after the school closed, as old mattresses and broken furniture littered the grounds. A quick search revealed a spotlight above a door leading into the basement of the abandoned property. Ferguson investigated and concluded it wasn’t rigged to any trip wires. Forcing the door open he came face to face with a small cinderblock prison, complete with steel locking door, built in the middle of the basement. He opened the door to find Cassie. Once they locked eyes, she began screaming through her gag.

  Cassie was in a sorry state when the door opened. The beating from the kidnappers gave her pale porcelain face two black eyes, a broken and bloody nose, and swollen cheeks along with torn and tattered clothes. Her wrists were raw from twisting inside the ropes and duct tape covered her mouth. Anger raged in Sean, his vision went white with hatred, and his hands flexed and released as he anticipated taking out his fury on those responsible.

  Cassie continued to scream inside the duct tape. Sean tried to gently remove it but in his frustration just pulled in one smooth motion. She used that pain to scream at the top of her lungs.

  “Untie me now! There’s a bomb set to go off in ten minutes.”

  Sean pulled a combat knife from his boot and sliced through the ropes in one smooth motion. “Can you stand up and walk without any help?”

  Cassie nodded. She was weak but Sean knew she wasn’t about to lose her life before having the chance to confront Martin and Greg.

  Sean led Cassie by the hand, helping when she seemed unable to walk. Just as his feet touched the doorsill, the house exploded over their heads. For a moment everything froze, then debris rained down. Sean pulled her close, shoving her under the steps near the foundation, while steel rebar and concrete collapsed around them, separating them from the door but not each other. Every particle of his body ached from the blast and debris. Roaring filled his ears as a concussion from the blasts sent his eardrums into hyperactive mode. Heat scorched the air, making each breath useless.

  He tried to cover both their heads as Cassie took the brunt of the debris upon her. Luckily one large oak beam nearest to them kept tons of concrete and sheetrock from landing directly. Instead the mess created a small niche above her chest. As the sounds of the explosion began to drift away he took inventory of their situation.

  “Cassie!” Sean shouted, but if Cassie were experiencing the same agony as himself, he knew she could not hear anything except the roar of the explosion’s concussive force. “Sing out darlin’, let me hear you!” He saw only the top of her head, as her back cradled awkwardly against his chest. He hoped she was conscious, prayed she was alive.

  ****

  Cassie spat out a mouthful of dust and rock and tried to move as she breathed in, but a large pipe lay across her legs. She wasn’t sure she could maneuver out but knew she had to try. First though she wanted to find out if Sean was ok. His hand still felt warm wrapped around hers, but wasn’t squeezing anymore. “There is something on my legs,” she cried as loud as possible. The words echoed loudly in her head, competing with a bitch of a headache from debris that clobbered her during the initial explosion. She didn’t know if Sean could hear any better than her. She only knew they were in a world of shit.

  Cassie hoped Sean was in a better position. A slight overhang of the foundation should have allowed him to crawl under, giving extra space for his body and, she hoped, precious fresh air. She thought if both her legs moved out at an angle, Sean could pull her into the larger, cooler space. Then they would wait together for the rescuers to dig them out.

  Squeezing her hand, Sean got Cassie to look at him. “Let me pull you free.”

  “I can’t hear you,” she wondered if he could even hear her after the explosion, or if she were just wasting her breath.

  Using crude sign language, he sketched out what he wanted done and by working together, they pulled and tugged until Cassie wiggled free. They somehow managed get into the crevasse together. The air was cooler but still filled with fine dust and smoke floating in the void created by the explosion. Once together, Sean turned her around, giving him an opportunity to see her damaged face.

  “Welcome to my man cave,” he joked as she sucked the cleaner air into aching lungs. Both were covered with dark dust and shards of sheetrock and cement. He ripped a large section of his shirt and gently cleaned her mangled face. “I think I heard sirens out there. I know an explosion that big got someone’s attention. The police and fire departments are close, just two streets over and soon they will assess debris removal. They will be to us soon. Are you all right?”

  She wondered if Sean knew she couldn’t hear yet. She only knew he was talking from the vibrations she felt against his body. While nothing felt broken other than her face, every inch of her felt abused. Top the physical beating with small bumps and cuts from the explosion and the occasional incidents when the world slid out of focus, it was easy to tell Sean came through the initial blast in better condition than Cassie.

  Whispering or screaming, she was unsure which way he heard it, Cassie answered him with small talk. “Nice to see you again, Mr. Ferguson.” Cassie smiled as well as she could considering the state her face was in. Both eyes were swollen shut and blood oozed from her nose, mouth, and multiple cuts on her face. Sheetrock dust clung to her hair and all over her body. She was quite a vision obviously, and she could tell Sean’s fury was building deep inside at the sight of her injuries.

  “You too, Mrs. Ferguson.” The minimal relief he had for finding her alive grew as it became obvious they would both survive. As the debris finished settling, the heat began to dissipate and the outside cold began to drift quietly into the ruins. She thought she heard people talking and machinery rumbling around, and began to wonder how intricate a process removing their debris prison would become.

  Sean was still talking to her, though she could only hear every other word. “What did they do to you, what did they say? Who do I need to kill?”

  “They decided to fill me in on some of the less public aspects of my father’s business. He told me everything they were doing, arms shipments, double deals, murder—the list goes on and on. What kind of monsters do things like that and then come home to dinner with their family or sit in church on Sunday and smile at everyone?”

  “I would say they’re men who just got greedy. They saw how much money there was to be made. But after this I think it’s safe to say all sense of a moral compass has disappeared. I can’t help but wonder if this is the secret your mother discovered all those years ago.” Sean’s musings brought Cassie’s questions onto a different track.

  “Do you think Kevin knows all this?”

  Sean sighed. “Honey, your brother is a lawyer. What do you think?”

  “After today I’m more than a little pissed at my family again.” A hardened edge formed on her features, as she took inventory of her family’s machinations and her own blindness. “I’ve been such a fool. Martin let me stay safe in my academic world and never let me know too much about MM Air right from the beginning. Even though I sit on the board of directors, I’ve never been privy to the inner circle decisions that Greg and Martin make. Now I know why.”

  “If it helps any, I’ve never had any direct dealings with your family. I mean, I’ve traveled on their planes out of necessity but I’ve never sought them out. Too much dislike on both sides of the family for that to happen.”

  Cassie smiled as wide as possible. “Thank you Sean, that means a lot. Of course you should have told me about this long ago.”

  “I didn’t think it was my job to tell you,”

  She wondered how Sean, or her brothers, could lie to the one person who trusted blindly, but what else could they do when the truth was this horrid for her to hear.

  “Then whose was it? Martin? He and I slammed that door a long time ago. Matthew doesn’t think that way and Greg wouldn’t dare violate the restraining order. As for Kevin, I will deal with him when we see him.”

  Sean blinked. “You finally took out a restraining order on your b
rother?”

  Cassie’s expression slammed shut. She wasn’t in the right frame of mind for this discussion. “Let’s just say my family never stops in their efforts to pull me back under their ‘protection’. The restraining order is to remind Greg I’m not ten years old anymore.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” his temper flared, obviously hot at being shut out of an important decision in her life, again. Now that she had this moment to reflect upon matters, he was right. This was a moment he should have been involved with.

  “I haven’t seen you to tell you anything,” she countered to deflect his attention, “Not to change the subject, but the kidnapper said he was hired by Kwan Tsi, does that name ring any bells?”

  “No, but let me think on it for a while.”

  “We don’t seem to be going anywhere soon,” Cassie fell silent again.

  A long stretch of silence between them followed as Sean struggled to find a modicum of relief from the dust. She was mad, he knew that. Not just about being kidnapped, but other issues as well. But then again so was he. Sean wasn’t the one who left, who asked for time to regroup, to heal. Cassie was the one who ran. She always ran when their relationship got tough. It was her signature move. He was getting tired of people thinking he was the one who had commitment issues. If something didn’t change soon, he just might be the one to bolt for good. Let Cassie see how it felt for once, to be left standing there like an idiot, as she’d left him before.

  Gradually the sound of equipment digging into the pile above them began to drift down. The downside was, every moment on the excavation sent a torrent of choking dust and heavier debris raining down toward their basement position. But try as he might, neither one could move any further.

  She was the one who broke the uncomfortable silence hanging between them. “I’m sorry Sean, you’re right. I should have let you know what was going on with Greg. You were away and I didn’t want to bother you with my family problems so I just went ahead without thinking about what you might say.”