Queen Bitch

by Michael Anderle

  He wasn’t happy, but he was in a pickle. It was obvious that the group of guys that all wanted to ‘slay the vampire, let Werewolves be free’ were cowed at the moment and wouldn’t do him any good. Gerry never liked him and Jonathan obviously licked Gerry’s ass. Paul was quickly forgetting his earlier fear and started to get a belligerent look on his face. Everyone was looking at him.

  “What? You want me to apologize? Want me to say I’m sorry for what all of us want Gerry? We just want to be free. Free like we should be. Should I apologize for that?”

  He started to believe he could change this around. He played to his audience again. He had worked them into a frenzy on the way over here, worked them like a comedian works a room at Caesar’s Palace. He started his rhetoric again, willing the guys over here to start getting mad again.

  “No little fucking cunt…” That’s all he said when his head suddenly exploded, splattering half of the belligerent group with his brain matter. Two had their mouths open at the time.

  All of them looked at Bethany Anne who hadn’t moved. Damn! They knew vampires were fast but… She just looked upwards in exasperation and pointed towards the tunnel.

  All of their eyes and heads followed her finger to the tunnel entrance where Darryl and Scott stood. They both lowered their weapons. Darryl told them all, eyeing each one and made sure to include Gerry, Jonathan and Nathan. “You will respect the Queen Bitch.”

  Scott added his own comment, “Or we will kill you. Do you have any questions?”

  Even Nathan noticed he was shaking his head left and right. These humans were some scary fuckers.

  Bethany Anne walked back into the tunnel. “Let’s get this show on the road. With all of this blood everywhere, I’m getting hungry.”

  Two of the Weres involuntarily shuddered. She winked at Darryl and Scott as she went past them as her eyes turned normal again and her teeth retracted.

  She didn’t kill Paul, so how upset could John be this time?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  New York City, NY - USA

  The actual conversations after the fight were a little subdued. No one felt like pissing off the vampire, or her guard and they needed to get out of there. Gerry had already detailed a team to handle the bodies. He had been prepared with four windowless vans. He only needed one.

  John and his team had cleaned up all of the bullet casings while Bethany Anne heard the stories from those who had legitimate grievances with the strictures as they were now.

  She admitted that she didn’t know where Michael was, and would probably release some of the harsher sentences and take the punishment for doing so should he show back up.

  However; everything would go through the council and if anyone got ahead of her and took advantage of her ‘good nature’, she or her team would implement the harsher sentences for breaking faith with her. If they had any questions, they could ask their alpha and their alpha the council. The council could contact her through Ecaterina.

  Someone asked how they could get hold of Ecaterina, that rumors were she was a really pretty woman. Nathan stood up and eyed the guy and just said, “Through me.”

  That took the tone down a notch until Bethany Anne slapped his arm. “Don’t forget, she is still listening, did you want to make sure that works for her?”

  Everyone laughed when they realized that Nathan’s face had lost a little color. Shit, shit, shit! “Of course, I merely meant that as a preliminary process to be clarified later.”

  Sniggers were heard in the back of the group. No one wanted to really piss off Nathan Lowell to his face. Except, apparently, the vampire.

  The human John Grimes was next to her, but the other three were facing outward, looking for additional dangers.

  Finally, they wrapped up everything and needed to go. They would make another meeting happen in the near future without so much drama attached to it.

  The twenty uninvited not either dead or in a coma received a personal visit from Bethany Anne. With red eyes and fangs glistening, she asked each one if they would abide by the council’s commands. It wasn’t going to be her problem unless they acted up again. She let each one know that they had just received their one warning.

  Her team walked back to the Chevy SUV, got in and Carl took them back to the Airport.

  The plane wasn’t the most cozy to sleep in, but it was safer than a hotel and they didn’t have to deal with questions for the explosives and guns they had with them.

  The next day, Bethany Anne wore a dark red dress and matching Blahniks to meet Nathan at the bank. Ecaterina went with her and Bethany Anne opened two accounts. One that she shared with Nathan so that she could move money into an account he could use for withdrawals and the same for Ecaterina. Ecaterina opened a personal account as well.

  Bethany Anne wasn’t sure what to do about a salary for Ecaterina. It wasn’t fair to just keep her without her own means of support. She deposited $20k into Ecaterina's personal account and told her they would work out the real salary in the near future.

  She then deposited one million into the shared account with Ecaterina to start getting the house in Miami ready. She placed fifteen million in the account she shared with Nathan. The house would need ten million and she needed some money to start the process of purchasing Bobcat’s business. Once they had all of the details on the loan for the Black Hawk, they would pay that off directly.

  She let the two of them enjoy a lunch together while she went shopping for a pair of Christian Louboutins. She found a style which almost matched a pair she would wear to work all of the time at Neiman Marcus. It was amazing how much personal service you could receive at that store.

  She had them Fed-Ex one of each shoe in a box with no return address to an austere looking office building in Washington D.C. And also to a military base in Denver, Colorado. The sales lady never even blinked at the request.

  Finished with sending her private packages she caught up with the Ecaterina and Nathan.

  They actually kissed each other goodbye in front of her. Wow, her two little love birds were finally admitting to the world they were an item. Ach, she could gag herself, but she was happy for them.

  Nathan was going to follow the following day. He had a couple of things he had to do in Boston in the morning before he flew down to Florida. Jonathan, however; had asked if he could save a seat on the plane? They talked and she agreed to the idea, it wasn’t like she didn’t have space either on the airplane or at the house. After a quick phone call to John, he agreed to the request as well.

  Carl finally dropped the two of them back at the airport and they said their goodbyes. Bethany Anne and Ecaterina had eight shopping bags of stuff on the ground. She noticed a sullen young man next to Jonathan. Guessing this to be the recalcitrant Pete, she walked over and offered her hand to Jonathan. John Grimes was there with him.

  “Good afternoon Jonathan, how are you?”

  “Doing fine, Bethany Anne. I would like to introduce you to my son, Peter. Peter, this is Bethany Anne.”

  She looked over at Pete who just raised his head in a gesture of ‘I see you’. John’s face formed a frown.

  Ok, time to setup an object lesson.

  “Pete, can you see those shopping bags back there?”

  Pete looked to where her head was gesturing to, “Of course, I’m not blind.”

  “Good, then you won’t have any problem finding them, will you?”

  “I’m not going to be looking for them, so I won’t have to find them.”

  Jonathan was starting to get the idea of what was going on. He started to say something but caught the barely perceptible head shake Bethany Anne gave him.

  “And why would you think you aren’t going to go get them?”

  “‘Cause I’m not your slave, you twit.” The next thing Pete knew, he was hit so hard in the jaw his arms were flung to the side and his whole body went down. He hadn’t hurt this bad in forever. When he started to focus again, it was the face of John Grimes in
front of him.

  “Listen, you little spunk rag. The last person who was disrespectful to Bethany Anne had his head shot off by my men. Be thankful that was only my fist that hit you. Unless you want an ass whopping right in front of the girls, you will get up off your useless ass and gently get those packages on the plane. Then you will find a seat and be the nicest gentleman you can possibly be. Do you feel me, Pete?”

  Pete looked up into the eyes of the human and understood this man wasn’t his father. He would absolutely kick his ass if he didn’t get into action. He tried to look for his father, why wasn’t he protecting him? Where was he?

  He felt a tap on his shoulder and he tried to roll his head the other way. Finally his father would fix this asshole!

  “Pete, you better listen up. I watched Paul Gleason get his head shot off for calling Bethany Anne names. She didn’t kill Paul, her protection team did. You have to grow a pair and stop being a jackass. Bethany Anne is going to fix the issue with the two women back in Colorado, but you have to stay for three months with her team. I’m not promised you will come back alive, you got me? Don’t fuck this up, son.” His dad stood up, and he and Bethany Anne started walking towards the car that brought them here. Pete watched him reach the car where Bethany Anne spoke to him for a moment. Pete’s father got in the car and left the airport.

  Oh, his life was so screwed up now. Oh my god, he was with the Queen Bitch herself.

  Grimes grabbed him by the jacket and pulled him up. “Get your punk ass over to those packages and don’t scratch one of them.”

  Pete was about to mouth off again, but his jaw hurt too much to talk right then. Good thing. He didn’t have much feeling left in his jaw and he didn’t need to be hit again.

  He sullenly started walking over to the packages.

  “Walk straighter. You’re not a weakling, are you Peter? Are you so frail you can’t stand straight up?”

  Peter straightened his back. ‘Frail’? Who the hell did this guy think he was? Pete would show him.

  John Grimes watched Pete take the packages in two trips. Back straight and arms out showing him he could hold the weight of the packages.

  He smiled a little to himself. Maybe the boy has potential, he thought.

  Over in Colorado, two women were each mailed packages with scandalous information that they didn’t think anyone knew about them. If they ever tried to release anything about Pete, the information would be released.

  They talked together and decided that they weren’t sure what they saw happen with that guy and the wolf. But they sure as hell didn’t want that other information getting on their social accounts. They both decided to delete the video and never talk about this again.

  Miami, FL USA

  The team made it back to Florida just fine. The rest of the team went off to deal with the new digs and Bobcat went over to his hanger.

  His friend, Billy “William” Stevenson, was tightening up a cover on his baby when he got back. They slapped hands and punched each other.

  “Hows it going on my baby, here?” Bobcat went into his office and grabbed two beers, offering one to William who followed him in, they sat down.

  “Oh, you mean Shelly?” William smiled at Bobcat’s grimace. “She’s good, you’ve done alright by the old lady. How did your trip go?”

  “About as smooth as we could have hoped, not too much breakage.”

  William raised an eye. “Was that the glass type, or the sandpit type?”

  “Sandpit.”

  “No shit?”

  “Not a bit.”

  Now William was interested. He had wanted to be with an outfit, but the only chance to be with a group that was making things and breaking things was over in the sandpit. If there was an option closer to home, he wanted to know more.

  “Is that why you have me getting Shelly dressed in the nicest clothes I can find?”

  “Could be. But the answers you are seeking are on a need to know basis my friend. Not to be an ass, but unless you’re interested in sticking around you don’t need to know.”

  William thought about it. He heard the stories over the last week how a black hawk was seen above the Southeastern Financial Center during the terrorist attack. Then, it was seen again landing in a park and a deserted field and finally over in the Ritzy Smugglers Cove area. He had started wondering what was going on when he cleaned out some long grass from the landing skids. The kind of grass you might find over the area by Key Biscayne.

  He had seen the hard cases coming off the G550 when they landed. He had a really good guess that the black ballistic nylon bags weren’t for golf clubs when he heard the metal clanking. He watched a sullen teenager carrying shopping bags from expensive stores as well. His face broke out in a smile as he realized it fit with the stories from earlier in the week. The Black Hawk was rumored to be above the building of the terrorist attack and then only a couple of hours later it was rumored that an eccentric woman was playing Rambo over in Smugglers Cove. She had landed her helicopter and bought a home right on the spot. A really, really expensive home.

  Williams eyes looked around Bobcat’s office. “Did you say you’re selling your business?” William took a swig from his bottle.

  Bobcat just smiled and took a swig of his. “Um hmm.”

  “So, your new boss. Is she new in town?”

  “You might say that, why?”

  “Just curious. If you had to drive over to where she lives, might you take the 913?”

  “I probably would, if I wasn’t flying Shelly over there.”

  That was about as close to the truth that William was going to get out of Bobcat. Som’bitch. This was the team that took out the terrorists AND bought a $9 million dollar home right afterwards.

  “It doesn’t look like these two helicopters would need me full time after the retrofit. If all you’re doing is flying around the keys.”

  “I didn’t say we were only going to have a helicopter or two, did I?

  “What else?”

  “What else are you willing to work on?”

  Ah, here was the question that Bobcat wanted William to answer. They had shot the shit so many times that Bobcat knew everything that William could work on. Which was just about everything the Army had thrown at him in the last fifteen years. The question wasn’t what could he do, but what would he be willing to do for the team.

  “For the right reasons, I’m willing to put in all the sweat and ingenuity I got. My birds don’t drop and my auto’s don’t stop. I just am not doing anything against my brothers, you know what I mean?”

  Bobcat smiled, “I know what you mean. You interested in sticking around?”

  William smiled, “Hell yeah, the honeys are good on the beaches in Miami. That’s a good enough sandpit for me. So long as I’m not going to be bored, whored or floored I’m good.”

  “Trust me, the Army whores you out more often than Bethany Anne will and you get floored every time you get too much to drink. You start a fight. You can’t hold your liquor to save your life. As for bored? Well, that’s for me to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  “Boy, I hold my liquor like Hoover dam holds water.”

  Bobcat busted out laughing, soon William joined him. It was well known that while William could drink a few beers, he couldn’t hold whisky down worth a damn. He would get belligerent and start a fight over whatever was popular on the news at the time.

  One time he was in Texas, had a couple of shots and stood up on the bar and called all the women in the bar his ‘ho’s’ and the fight was on. They found him asleep under a table. As best they could figure out later. He swung at the first guy who came at him and got decked hard enough to go down hard and woke up in jail.

  He would say it was good times, but he honestly couldn’t remember any of it at all.

  Bethany Anne had told Bobcat that he needed to vet his chief engineer and was ultimately responsible for that engineer’s actions. If he made a wrong decision, the exit interview could be a
bitch if he went the wrong direction with what he knew.

  Bobcat got the meaning. He would make sure that William was the right guy before telling him too much. He didn’t need to know he had caused an untimely death.

  Miami, FL USA

  It was a week and a half later. Bethany Anne was finally enjoying the house a little after three truckloads of furniture were delivered.

  Her neighbors weren’t too happy with her at the moment. They had heard the story about her playing ‘Rambo’ in the attack helicopter and thought she was a little too weird for them. On top of that, she had so many people living in her house at the moment the stories were starting to fly.

  The next door neighbor was bitching out John one morning because a work truck had blocked her driveway the day before. Bethany Anne was in bed and heard this lady shouting at John. Bethany Anne didn’t appreciate how her neighbor was disrespectful to her team lead, or the yelling either.