“Hey, no worries girl,” Jesse muttered. “We both knew this was gonna be how it ended.” He coughed slightly and blood began to trickle from the corner of his mouth. He winced as pain shot through his body.
Someone was coming toward her and Charlie lifted her head to watch him come. It was Bull. Judge and Tank were close behind.
Her eyes dropped back down to Jesse. “We got him though, didn’t we? We got the man who hurt our girl Maggie,” she whispered. Tears flowed down her face and dripped off her chin as she watched Jesse’s last moments.
“We sure did. I thought maybe it was Paolo but until he admitted it, I didn’t know for sure.” Jesse cried out as his body arched in pain. Opening his eyes he implored her, “Watch over Braden now, don’t forget. Make sure he grows up to be the kind of man that would make his mama proud. Make her proud girl.”
“I will, I promise.” Charlie blubbered.
Jesse searched her face for a moment then smiled. “I can feel her you know, she’s waiting to take me home with her.”
“No don’t leave me behind,” Charlie cried out. “I never had anybody until you guys came into my life. If you leave me, I’ll be alone again.”
Jesse lifted his hand and brushed her cheek. “I think you’ll be okay girl.” His eyes moved to stared at Bull. “I think the big guy’s got you covered. Besides, you were always so much better than me and Maggie. We were proud to know you, to be considered your friend.” He smiled again, his eyes were losing the battle and taking on the glaze of death. “I guess both me and Mags were never supposed to stay long in this world, maybe there’s something better waiting for us on the other side.”
Charlie sobbed louder as Jesse began to slide away from her.
“I can see her now girl. She’s waiting for me. I gotta go now. Love you Charlie.” Jesse’s breath rattled in his chest and then he grew silent. His eyes remained open as he stared into the nothingness of death.
Charlie held his hand close to her chest. Heartbreaking sobs rent the air.
Finally, Bull knelt beside her and took Jesse’s hand from hers. He laid the hand on the other man’s chest and drew Charlie away from Jesse.
“Come on honey, let’s get the hell out of here.”
Charlie laid her head on Bull’s chest. Her arms wrapped around his waist. Before they could take a step, a single shot rang out and Judge cried out, falling to his knees. Grabbing his shoulder, he fell on his back to the floor. Groaning, her began cursing violently.
Charlie raised her head and watched as Conrad Bane walked into the warehouse. He’d come from one of the side rooms where he’d run to when the shooting started. Maybe it was the huge gun in his hand or the fact that Bull and Tank’s guns were hanging at their sides but he didn’t seem to fear anything or anyone at the moment.
Conrad had a crazy look in his eyes as he came closer to where they stood. Pointing his weapon at Charlie’s head, he glanced around the room. Sneering he said, “Well, you solved one of my problems. These pissheads were becoming more trouble than they were worth but I still needed them, well at least for a little while longer anyway.”
“What were you going to do with them once they were no longer needed?” Charlie asked snidely. “You would kill your own men?” Charlie looked shocked for a moment then shook her head. “I might have guessed.”
“Everyone must die at some point.” Then Conrad Bane looked at Bull and the others. “And you’ve delivered my enemies to me at the same time, I thank you for that.”
“You really are a bastard aren’t you?” she sneered.
Conrad smiled as he stared at her for a moment before he said, “My mother would disagree with that statement. She was very much married to my father when I was born.” He turned his glare to Bull. “I’ve been looking for you for some time now, about five years in fact. You and your friends owe me for my brother, Salim.”
“What the fuck do we owe you?” Bull snorted.
“You owe me blood.” Conrad snarled. “You spilled his blood and now I’ll spill yours.”
“You’re fucking nuts, you know that old man.” Bull stated calmly.
“No I’m not crazy,” he stated. “It took me five very long years to find you and every day since my brother died I’ve been planning how I would kill you all.”
“Tell me something old man.” Charlie glared. “Why did you kill Joni Martin twenty years ago?”
“Joni?” Conrad frowned. “Why are you asking about her? She was a long time ago and meant nothing.”
Charlie caught her breath as pain raged through her. “If she meant nothing to you, why did you kill her? Why waste your time with the likes of her if she was nothing to you?”
“Because she fuckin ran away from me. I had was just starting to groom her to be my bride while setting up my empire and she fucking ran away from me. She found out about something I’d done and she couldn’t take it!” Conrad screamed at her. “With the fit she threw when she found out what I’d done, I no longer wanted to make her my bride. She left before I could end it with her.”
“What did she find out?” Charlie frowned.
“She found out that I arranged her parents’ deaths. They didn’t like me and didn’t want her to hang out with me, so I eliminated them from the equation. She would have been the perfect bride. If only she’d given in to what I asked of her. But no, she couldn’t do that. When she found out I set up her parents to die, she got scared and ran away from the problem, instead of figuring out that I would never hurt her as long as she obeyed me.” He snorted. “Then when I found her after almost three years of searching for her, I also found out she was pregnant with my brat when she left. Now I have a bastard kid out there somewhere. A brat I didn’t want in the first place, a kid that never should have been allowed to be born.”
His hard words hammered home his real message. His words told her that the man who helped create her was a total monster. A person who never loved anyone, not even himself. He was the one who should never have been born, not her.
Shaking her head, she just looked at him. “Wow, I have never met anyone quite like you before, do you know that?”
“Why would I care about that?” Conrad sneered. “I have no desire to know you either although I will put a bullet in your head as soon as they are dead. You are nothing to me.”
“Oh, you couldn’t be more wrong in thinking that you bastard.” Charlie laughed at him.
“Just who the fuck are you?” He snarled.
“I’m the daughter you claim should never have been born, daddy.” Charlie snarled back emphasizing the word daddy. “Yeah, that’s right, you slimy bastard.” She nodded at his stunned look. “You are the father I never wanted either believe me.”
“You’re Joni’s child?” he whispered. “But you’re a girl.”
“Oh, you noticed that huh?” Charlie sneered. “Ten points for daddy.”
“But Charlie is a boy’s name.” he screamed. “All these years I thought I had a son, not a bitch.”
“Sorry daddy.” Charlie smirked.
“Stop calling me that,” Conrad shouted. “I’m no one’s daddy.”
“That’s for damn sure.” Charlie sneered.
“Shut the fuck up,” he yelled at her. “I was right to kill your mother. Instead of a son, she gave me a fucking daughter. She couldn’t even do that right.”
Charlie broke out of Bull’s hold and stomped over to the man she called daddy a few minutes ago. Conrad was so stunned by her actions he allowed her to get close to him. Then Charlie took her own life in her hands and slapped him. The slap echoed in the warehouse.
Bull quickly dragged her away from the enraged man.
Conrad turned the gun on her for a moment. The rage in his eyes gave him a crazed look and everyone saw his finger tighten on the trigger. “I should kill you where you stand right now.” He growled.
“Why don’t you just do it then?” Charlie screamed. “Kill me like you killed my mother, like you want to kill them.” He
r hand swept out toward Bull and Tank. “What’s stopping you, you murdering pig?”
“No I won’t kill you until I’ve made you watch them die.” Conrad moved his gun toward Bull. “I want you to watch me kill them.”
“Maybe I’ll let them watch me kill you instead.” Charlie grabbed at the firearm at Bull waist. She pointed it and cocked the trigger before Conrad could even turn his gun in her direction.
When he saw the weapon pointed at him, he laughed. “You are your mother’s daughter for sure. She pointed a gun at me once too. But she lacked the will power to actually fire the weapon. I don’t think you’re going to shoot that weapon. I am your father and I don’t think you got what it takes to kill a man in cold blood. That takes a killer’s mentality and I don’t think you have that any more than she did. I, on the other hand do have that quality and I’m not afraid to use it when it’s needed.”
A single shot rang out in the quiet. Conrad got a stunned look on his face and slowly he fell to his knees and then to the floor. He landed face down in the dirt and gore on the floor. A red pool slowly grew around him.
For a moment, no one moved then Bull reached out and grabbed the gun from her hand.
Charlie didn’t make a sound but as her eyes rolled back in her head and she began to fall Bull scooped her up into his arms and carried her out of the room. Tank reached down and helped Judge to his feet. Throwing his arm around the other man’s shoulders, he helped him walk to the door of the warehouse.
Outside, they were met by the others. Hawk, Mustang and Wild Child were standing together in a loose circle while Bull was off to the side cradling Charlie who was still passed out in his arms. There were about three dozen other people wondering around the dooryard. Some had jackets with the letters FBI while the others sported ATF on them.
Hawk looked at Tank and then over at Bull and Charlie. “What the hell happened in there? We saw Bane come out a back room just as we were coming around the doorway. We didn’t want to spook him, so we waited to make sure he didn’t come running outside.”
“He won’t be coming out, at least not on his own two feet, maybe in a body bag.” Tank snorted.
“You got him?” Mustang nodded. “Good.”
“Not us, her,” Judge stated. “She killed him.”
“Charlie?” Hawk asked stunned. “She killed him? How the hell did that happen?”
“I guess she’s more like her old man than we realized. She just pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger.” Judge winced in pain as Tank tried to move him.
Tank dropped him and stepped away from the man. Glaring he shook his head. “I don’t fuckin believe you Judge. After everything that man did to her and now you’re still slamming her.”
Judge held up his hand. “I’m not slamming her, just stating a fact. What she did in that warehouse was save our lives. Bane wouldn’t have thought twice about putting a bullet in our brains and walking away without a care in the world. She stopped him.”
“But at what cost to herself?” Hawk asked. “She doesn’t have the heart for killing.”
Mustang nodded at the pair of them, Bull and Charlie. “Oh, I think she’ll do okay. Bull isn’t going let anything bad happen to her. He’ll bring her around.” Shrugging he turned to when Judge was sitting and glared at the other man. “Of course, we may not get him back as part of our team but then I don’t think I’d bring my woman around where she wasn’t wanted either.”
“I didn’t say she wasn’t wanted,” Judge argued.
“That’s all you’ve been saying, maybe not with words but you can feel the hatred you have for her every time you come near her.” Hawk growled. “Your whole body pulses with it every fucking time you look at her. You just can’t get over who her father is, even though she never knew his name until today. You got a real problem man.”
“I know,” Judge said quietly. “It’s something I’ve struggled with every day for the last five years. Ever since we were forced out of the service, I’ve been looking for something to focus my rage on. Then Salim’s pipeline came back and I thought I could focus on that. I wanted to break it up for good. When we hit one wall after another the rage grew out of control.” He turned to look at the woman in Bull’s arms. “Then she came along. She had all the answers we needed to stop the pipeline. She knew the players and every time we turned around, she had the answers we were looking for. We spent every fucking day for the last four years looking and she knew everything all along.” Shaking his head he went on, “Then we find out she’s Conrad Bane’s fucking daughter. That was just too much. You can’t tell me you trusted her at first either.”
“Maybe not.” Hawk shrugged. “But the more I got to know her, the more I trusted her.”
“I got a question for you Judge,” Tank spoke up. “Now that Bane and the Ratz are under wraps what are we going to do about Ritcher?”
“Yeah, he’s the worst,” Hawk admitted. “He betrayed not on our unit but his own country when he allowed millions of dollars’ worth of drugs to flow into this country. He lined his own pockets on the back of junkies.”
“Oh, don’t you worry about Ricther,” Judge vowed with a hard look in his eyes. “We’re gonna make him regret everything he’s ever done. That I promise you.”
* * * *
Bull tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear as he waited for her to wake up. “Come on darling, open your eyes and look at me. I need you to look at me.” His heart was breaking as he watched her.
She wasn’t moving at all. She was barely breathing and that scared him. Her face was bruised and bloody again. Her skin was pale and her breathing was faint.
He hoped she was just in shock but he worried her condition was much worse. He’d seen that bastard slam upside her head with his weapon. When he saw that, he almost popped a cap in the man then but he waited for the signal from Judge.
On top of that, she’s shot and killed her own father. She never hesitated for a moment, she pulled a weapon and shot him. Bull had faced death time and time again and never feared it, but when Bane pointed his gun at Charlie’s head fear froze the blood in his veins. He hesitated for the second time in his life.
Suddenly, she groaned and came around. She struggled against the hold he had on her. “No, let me go. Let me go.” Still struggling, she pushed away from him then her eyes flew open and she stopped. “Bull?”
“Yeah baby, I’m here. Are you okay?”
Charlie snuggled back. “Yeah, I guess so. My head hurts but I think I’ll live.” She closed her eyes briefly. Tears squeezed from beneath her lids. “I killed him, I actually killed him didn’t I?” she whispered.
“Yeah baby, you did. But he didn’t give you much of a choice.”
She shook her head. “No I had a choice.”
“No sweetheart, you really didn’t,” Bull reasoned. “If he had killed you, he would have killed the rest of us too.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t have been able to watch you die any more than you could watch me die. I know we haven’t known each other very long but I have felt more for you in these last few days than I have ever felt for any woman in my life. All I know is I can’t lose you and I would have taken a bullet for you.”
Charlie opened her eyes and the tears ran freely down her cheeks. “I couldn’t let him shoot you either. You have been the one good thing in my life besides my mother. The only good thing after Maggie died.”
Bull leaned forward and pressed his lips on her forehead.
Charlie pressed her lips on his chin then Bull dropped his lips to hers and the kiss grew hot. A cough behind them broke the kiss and Bull turned his head to find Hawk grinning behind him. “What?”
“Just wanted to know if you guys were ready to talk to FBI and ATF yet? They have some questions.”
Charlie groaned and planted her face in Bull’s chest. Bull nudged her away and said, “Let’s get this over with. Then we can go home and talk a nice long shower and relax.”
“Then you and I have a date,�
� Charlie reminded him.
Bull grinned. “That we do baby, that we do.”
Three hours later, the last body was loaded in the van and they all watched as it pulled out of the dooryard of the barn. EMT’s had given aid for Judge’s shoulder and Charlie’s head wound had been looked at. Then it was just the seven of them left.
FBI and ATF agents had recovered the hidden evidence from inside the walls of the barn and one agent informed them they had also recovered the bodies of the three missing agents in Texarkana. They were now going to concentrate on gathering up the cartel members and finally putting a stop to the pipeline.
Bull turned to his former team mates. “You guys can stay at the warehouse for as long as you want.”
“Where are you and Charlie going?” Hawk asked sharing a glance with Mustang and Tank.
“I’m going home and I’m taking Charlie with me. I’ll stop over and talk to you guys before you leave in the morning,” Bull told them.
“The FBI have agreed to keep this quiet until they bust the cartel members living here,” Judge informed the rest of his group. “We have work to do before that happens. We have a Senator to break.”
“What are we going to do to him?” Tank asked.
“We’re going to talk to him of course.” Judge grinned.
“And what are we going to talk to him about?” Hawk raised a brow.
“Oh, how about the fact that he betrayed his country? How he lined his own pockets with drug money and how he made friends with a certain drug lord many years ago? We got all the proof we need from Bane’s flash drive. Then we’re gonna watch him on TV get arrested for his crimes and spend the rest of his miserable life in jail.”
“Yeah, a bullet would be too good for him.” Mustang swore. “It would be over too quick. This way he suffers for a long time.”
“Which is better than he deserves.” Tank growled.
“You tell him from me I’ll be waiting for him the day they release him from prison,” Bull stated. “I’ll even give him a ride home.”
Knox Brotherhood Page 156
