"Ok then, Governor.” She looked back down at her plate to gather up the remains of her meal. "Congratulations by the way.” She took the forkful and continued through her chewing. "So, this was a simple way for you to suddenly make this some little bipartisan barbecue frivolity?"
"Evangeline, you know I came for you. I haven't seen you since you came back home over three years ago."
"You mean when Dad pulled strings to have me discharged after the incident?" she said it matter of factly, but it dropped like a stone.
"Yeah, I guess so," he said exhausted, "but I'm not going to spin the same lines he gave you about wanting to keep you safe. Though, that 'incident' you are talking about was a suicide bomber that blew himself up in front of you, and Burke, and Jackson, and the rest of that squad. Only the three of you got out of there alive. And we still don't know what you were doing there with them, Evie."
She took a breath and looked away from him. She didn't like keeping things from him, but it was above his pay-grade, even now as a Governor, and even as her brother. "Yeah, that happens over there sometimes, and he told me to enlist."
"No, he tried to force your hand, and as usual, underestimated you. The minute you enlisted you won this shitty game between you two."
She let out an exasperated laugh. "No, he always wins. He can deny it as much as he likes, to whomever he likes, but he pulled me out of there for his own gain, after eight years, right at the end of my tour. And then paraded me around, still bandaged, unhealed for every photo op he could. I guess I figured he would, but my last straw was when I found out he pulled the same strings to force Burke to retire."
He had nothing to say to that. He dropped the other shrimp tail next to the rest, and he put his hands to his face and rubbed his finger tips hard into his forehead. "Yeah. I always thought he might have had something to do with that."
"As if it was Burke’s fault his daughter got hit with shrapnel, like I was some sort of guarded treasure he failed to protect. A senator’s kid. I was a Marine."
"Well, not to sound too cheesy, but I think you describing yourself as a treasure is some what how Dad sees you." She gave him a roll of her eyes and looked back out the window. "Hey, there's many ways you can take that, but I know Mom had some eyes on you over there too."
"I'm sure, but she never put her hands in it," she said as she looked back out at the party. About a third of the guest list were now standing out in the yard holding their drinks, instead of in the entry hall. She watched a young kid in a valet uniform wander past, looking stoned out of his mind. He kept bumping into the stone retaining wall that separated the patio from the back yard.
"Evie.” She turned back to him. "At the end of the day, I just wanted you to know that he was wrong. In everything he did, or that he forced your hand in, regardless of his motive. Whether it was his love for you or political photo-ops," he smirked at her, and took a few steps towards her, cutting the space between them in half. "I also want you to know, I'm proud of you. What you did over there, and kept doing, even though it's all technically confidential, even for me." He adjusted his collar in mock cockiness, and she couldn't help but let out a little laugh.
That was her big brother. He may have been their father's golden boy, but he was always her biggest supporter and good at making her laugh.
"I love you, Evie, and I'm so happy to know you're safe and doing well. I'm proud of you back here, too. Even if it's working for this Lucas Adams and his family. Mrs. Adams seems… interesting," he said very diplomatically.
She gave him a look. "You have no idea. Which, now that I have the chance, I want to talk to you too, about Mrs. Adams and Saxon Walters."
"What?" he asked in disgust and surprise at the representative’s name.
"Yeah. I've already told Mom, and she said she'd bring it up to Dad, but I want you to be another voice in his ear too."
"Alright, yeah, of course! I thought I saw that snake in here, but I just didn't believe it."
"Well, as was announced so respectfully just before," she said sarcastically, "I'm Evan Adams' nanny. My official title, if his mother even cared to look into, instead of my past, is his incognito body guard."
His eyes went wide, and he let one side of his mouth rise, "No, shit!"
"It's not that cool. It's being a nanny with a gun."
"I wish I had one of those growing up. All we ever had was Ms. Nan," he joked, and she laughed at the memory of sixty year old, round Ms. Nan who they would tire out before lunch time every day when they were young.
"Well, I'm no Ms. Nan, but Tucker, there is some disgusting stuff happening here. And, I may have to step in. This morning I-" Suddenly she heard a scream from outside, and they turned to look out the window.
It was almost comical at first. Out on the lawn, it looked like a group of old men in an all out brawl. A pile of red, white, and blue writhed around on the ground as punches flew. But then the screams grew, and more fights seemed to start breaking out across the entire space. Everyone was now mixed in it, struggling around with one another. Politicians, their spouses, some of the staff, body guards, even that valet she was watching earlier. Then people began to run. Every where, any where. They were covered in blood. And then the guns started to go off.
Evie instinctively reached for hers, but her hand just slipped down the smooth fabric of her dress. "Shit!"
Her brother grabbed her arm as she went to run out there. "What the fuck is happening?"
"I don't know, but I have to go check on Evan.” She got one more step towards the back staircase, her bare feet cold on the tiled floor, when the kitchen door burst open.
Screams from the front of the house could be heard now as their mother walked in with their father, his arm wrapped around her. As the doors swung shut, a young waitress ran past screaming. Their kids ran to them, her brother taking the weight of his father off his mother.
"What the hell is going on out there?" he asked as Evie ran and tied an apron she pulled off a hook on the wall around the handles to bar the door. Just as she did, a different valet walked up to the small, circular windows of the doors. From nose down, his face was coated in blood, his pupils fully dilated in wide black circles, and he charged right at her. Thankfully the apron held, the doors only pushing in half an inch. Evie stared into his face trying to figure out what could possibly be going on.
"I- I don't know! One of the aides was out front having a cigarette when one of the valets attacked him. Agent Jackson got him, but somethings wrong with him. He just wouldn't stop. Some people went to help the poor man, but- he was, he was already gone they said. Bled out. The young man bit him! At the throat!"
"Where's Jackson?" Evie yelled over the chaos of screams rising up from all around them. She started to pull knives from the butcher's block the chef used.
"I don't-" Her mother raised up her hands in confusion and terror, but couldn't formulate any more words.
"Mom," Tucker said as calmly as he could manage. "What happened to Dad?"
Both women's attention suddenly went straight to the man whose son was holding him in his lap. The man's eyes were wide, and his face was sweaty and gray. His breathing was labored enough to notice, even from the other end of the kitchen where Evie stood.
"I- He was just telling me how he wasn't feeling well, before this even started. I was trying to sneak him to this back hallway so no one would see. I thought he maybe had too much to drink already."
Evie rounded the island and crouched down in front of the man. All she needed to see was how he was gripping his left arm and she knew. "Fuck!"
"Evie! What?" Her mother's face was panic stricken as she looked from the scene outside the bay window to the bloodied valet at the door, then back to her husband.
"He's having a heart attack. Quick," Evie said, trying to lift him up under his arms. "Get him in here.” She started to drag him to the butler’s pantry at the end of the counter.
"What?" her brother asked somewhere between confusion and d
isbelief, but he got the other side of him and helped her.
"What are we going to do in here?" her mother asked as they laid the Senator down in the middle of the large walk-in closet like space.
She looked back out to the hall as she heard more noises and saw that psycho still banging on the door. It was now opening to about three inches. "I think there's aspirin in one of the cabinets. Get him some water from the sink.” She pointed to the end of the room where a little sink sat underneath a small square window where some of the party's light from outside was streaming in. "You'll be safe in here. I'll come get you when I can get you out safely." She turned to her brother. "Lock it." Her voice was strong in the order, and he just shook his head in understanding as he held their father's head in his lap, their mother leaning over him. She quickly stood up and pulled her clutch bag from underneath her arm when she noticed Evie was holding a kitchen knife.
"Here.” Evie’s mother started to fumble with the clasp of the bag, dropping the whole thing when she was startled by a loud bang on the kitchen door. She picked it up and reached inside, handing Evie the little Remington 95 her mother always carried with her when she could.
"What am I suppose to do with this?" Evie asked as her mother pushed it into her hand.
"You would know more than me, Darlin’!” She tried to give her a smile, but the fear and panic had her face too tense. "There's two bullets in there. Use them wisely."
Then two shots were fired out in the hallway just before the doors came flying open. One agent fell backwards in, his gun sliding out of his hand as his limp body and head hit the floor. The bloodied valet landed on top of him, his teeth buried into the agent’s throat. Blood was pooling around them fast, but then he looked up and spotted her.
She screamed at her brother, "Lock it!" then slammed the door on them.
With the knife in one hand, and the gun in the other, she quickly turned just as this psychotic stranger came at her. She took the knife and sliced perfectly at his throat so quickly the man didn't even react. She backed away from him. A few drops of blood squeezed out of the wound, no arterial spray, but most surprising of all, the man kept coming at her without even a pause. Wide eyed in shock, she stood looking at him until he was four feet away and reaching out for her. She raised her mother’s beautiful, tiny white gun, and fired it point blank into his right eye. He dropped like a stone. She looked down at his body, and saw he had two bullet wounds in his chest already. They were just gory little holes, only slick with blood around the outside and a small trickle from the bottom of each.
The screams of more people scattered around the place jolted her from her incredulity. She grabbed the guard’s gun off the ground, tossing the knife back into the kitchen. The little derringer she shoved into the top of her dress. She could feel the guard’s Glock wasn't fully loaded anymore, and she knelt down by the side of his body, feeling at his belt for another loaded magazine. She found one at his back. A man ran past screaming, and she jumped to her feet aiming the gun at him as he flitted past the windows of the kitchen doors.
Slowly she walked over and peered out. The hall was still dark until the end that met at the foyer towards the back of the staircase, where just an hour ago, she stood sipping champagne, worried about having to talk to these people. Now some of those people were laying dead all over, in ways she hadn't seen since the explosion that sent her back home. She carefully pulled open one of the doors and made her way out, checking each direction before picking up speed towards the front of the house. She could still hear shots being fired sporadically all over. Screams of agony and fear came from every where. When she reached the large open room, it was chaos.
Blood was pooled and sloshed all over the white marble tiles. Most of the floor had lifeless bodies strewn on it. Others seemed to be attempting to drag their broken bodies away. A few people were cowering under tables, too frozen with fear for her to even help. As she reached the center of the room, she noticed the front doors were still wide open. Out in the middle of the lawn were a group of guests, all kneeling over something. Piled up on one another they were wriggling about from their shoulders to their heads over something in the center. Then she saw the once impeccably pressed white leg of a pantsuit sticking out from underneath them, ending at a pointed toe high heel. Bloody red hand prints were smeared all over the fabric. She didn't have time to fully process what she was seeing when she heard Evan's terrified scream from above her.
She took off up the stairs two at a time, her bare feet not issuing a single sound as she flew. Once at the top, she was looking straight into Mrs. Adams’ office. And at the back behind her desk, almost just like always, she herself stood. Fear had turned her as white as her gown as she watched five monsters circling her, stumbling around in drunken blood lust. When she saw Evie staring at her, and noticed the gun in her hand, she screamed for her to come help. The sound of her voice seemed to have drawn them in even more, and they lunged for her immediately. Evie stood and watched expressionless and unmoving until they had brought the woman down to the ground behind her desk. Evie only looked away when she had lost sight of her. That was one monster she knew was gone.
Quickly she made the left towards Evan's bedroom and saw standing between her were two more blood soaked creatures. That's what they looked like, not even human anymore. As the first came at her, she simply kept on her way, heaving him over the side of the banister by lowering her shoulder into him as he reached for her. She heard the thud of its body smash down on the tile below, and kept going. The second was a few doors down, but still between her and Evan. She raised her gun up aiming it at the thing as she walked.
"Evan?" she shouted, wanting to make sure he was in his room and hadn't run to a different spot in fear.
Her ears strained for only a moment to hear him when the shrill shriek came. "Evie!"
For a split second the monster stopped coming for her and turned back just a bit towards the boy’s voice. "Evan! I'm coming!" she shouted, picking up her pace just as the monster started for her again. Then suddenly out of a door just in front of her would-be attacker, flew Saxon Walters, screaming like a maniac and running for her.
"Help me!"
She pointed her gun right at his head without hesitation and shot him between the eyes. His momentum caused his body to slide just a bit to her feet. She kept walking. She raised her gun back up to the monster in front of her, just about to shoot it, when one more made its way out from somewhere and started for her too. Then she turned and saw some coming out from Mrs. Adams’ office, making their way to her from the other side. She was drawing too much attention to herself, and it was going to bring them all right to Evan's door.
Quickly she took out the one in front of her, and prepared to take care of the small growing group behind her, slicked with what could only be Mrs. Adam's blood and other parts of her as well. She shot the one in the lead, and did some quick math estimating she only had just over half her clip left. She was going to have to try and toss a few more to the first floor again, just to conserve bullets. There wasn't going to be time to change magazines. Behind her she heard some people coming up the back stairway at the other end of the hall. When their voices became clear enough she could hear them shouting out orders and plans in a way that could only be some other agents. She turned and saw Logan with one of the guards from the normal staff. He was holding his arm, blood trailing over his fingers, a pained look on his face.
As soon as Logan caught sight of her, he picked up his pace. She turned back and shot the new one in the lead, then grabbed another, pushing it down the stairs.
"MacNamara! This way! We've cleared the exit. We gotta go!"
She turned to see the injured agent start to bang on Evan's door. "Burke! Burke!" He pounded a few more times.
Logan turned back to him, but grabbed at his own ear. "We're heading out by the pool. Have the car ready."
The man was leaning against the boys door, a smear of blood starting to form as he slowly sunk
further and further down, growing weaker and weaker. Then the door opened, and he fell in a bit. She saw Burke stick his head back and look around. They made eye contact for a split second. She took a step towards them just as another monster came wandering out from Evan's playroom across the hall. Burke hauled the injured agent in and fired at the monster, two in the chest. But it didn't go down. He didn't know yet.
"Burke!" Evie raised her gun and just managed to hit the thing in the cheek as it turned to her voice. Then another followed it out of the playroom, and she heard Evan scream. The raw terror his voice pierced through her. Burke quickly slammed the door closed again.
She started to jog towards his room, while Logan was running towards her. He grabbed her, and yanked her arm just as she got to the door, pulling her further down the hall.
"What are you doing? We've gotta leave!" He looked behind her at the growing group as it closed in on them.
She squinted at him in anger and shook her arm loose from his grip. "I'm not leaving without Evan." Her frustration and panic were rising up in her. Then she heard Evan scream again, but he was still inside his room with the door shut. It didn't make sense. She turned to go to him just as one shot, then another rang out from inside the room, and she hesitated for just a second trying to figure out why. And that's when Logan raised up his hand and swung his gun at the back of her head.
PART 4
The screaming of her name grew louder and louder until her ears rang and felt like they were on the verge of bleeding. She went to cover them, to shut some of it out, but she couldn't lift her arms. She couldn't move at all. His voice was growing somehow even louder. The terror in it now reaching a new pitch, like a screeching tea kettle. Her inability to help him, and stop the noise was pushing her to insanity, and she let out a scream to rival that of his.
Evangeline, Alone. (Book 1): Evangeline, Alone Page 38
