Reckoning Read online

  I don’t think you want to.”

  I closed my eyes for a minute as I heard V12 in my ear. “You don’t have to take him, D; your body is not up for it. You just got out the hospital yesterday. Two shots and it’s over with.”

  What he was saying wasn’t the complete truth, but it wasn’t a total lie, either. If I tried to get with Karrion head-up, there was a distinct possibility I was going to lose more than just the fight. I opened my eyes and looked over at Natasha, watching her eyes as she shook her head, silently echoing the sentiments of the voice in my ear, despite the fact that she couldn’t have possibly heard what he was telling me. sajira echoed the sentiments, her eyes pleading me to end this some other way than some showdown that I might end up losing.

  V12 was still in my ear, giving me options that might have made this clean and easy. “Say the word, and I’ll slice through her hand to take the gun out of the play. Next shot and I can take out her pet.”

  Karrion seemed to think he was involved with whatever was about to go down. He tried the punk move first to see if he could rattle my cage. “Aww, come on, Dom? I know you’ve been dying to get some payback from me putting you in the hospital. Come on, I know you want some; come get some!”

  I never took my hands off my gun, but I did lower it for a moment to figure out my options. With V12 still in my ear, imploring me to take the shot so he could disarm Veronica, I found myself wondering if I really could take him, even in my weakened condition. The indecision felt foreign to me; under normal circumstances, I would have simply told Karrion I was dropping the gun and the dance would begin immediately. Veronica would get the show she wanted, but the only problem I faced was that I was in a no-win situation.

  If I killed Karrion, Veronica had me in her sights and she would probably take me out in a heartbeat. If I didn’t kill Karrion, he was going to finish off. Now that his handler was there to give the order, there would be nothing to stop him, except for V12 taking him out, which would set off a chain of events that would end in the murders of Natasha and sajira.

  That I couldn’t allow.

  “Say the word, D, I got you.” V12 was getting antsy, and I couldn’t blame him, but I had to see if there was a way to talk them both down and find a more sane and peaceful solution. “I can take them both with two shots; you don’t have to drag this out.”

  I looked over at Veronica, my gun still lowered, and I tried to see if I could get to the woman that lay underneath the crazy that I witnessed on the surface. “Veronica, you don’t have to do this. I’m sure whatever it was that you think I’m responsible for, it’s all in your head, okay? You have this man thinking that we killed his Mistress, when you were the one who had her killed in prison.”

  Karrion heard that information and immediately turned to Veronica, looking for answers. “Is this true? Did you have my Mistress killed? Tell me that can’t be true!”

  Veronica’s eyes widened, as she didn’t think I had that information at my disposal. She wanted to shake her head to tell Karrion not to believe me, but her silence betrayed her badly. When she finally spoke, I noticed that her hold on Karrion wasn’t as strong as it was before. “Sweetie, you know he’s lying to get you to turn against me. You can’t believe a word he’s saying. He’s a PI; they’re paid to twist the truth.”

  Karrion seemed more interested in the non-answer than he was the other spins and rhetoric that came from her lips. “I don’t think I heard a yes or a no in response to my question, so I’m going to ask you one more time; did you have my Mistress killed?”

  He began to move in her direction, wanting to hear the answer from her lips, the sneer present on his lips. He moved closer to her, his eyes trained on her face, waiting for her to answer. “Well, are you going to tell me or not?”

  Veronica lifted her arm and squeezed the trigger in one motion, hitting Karrion between his eyes. As his body dropped to the floor, she finally opened her mouth to verbalize, knowing he would never hear the answer. “Yes, you weak-ass bitch, I killed her. Happy now?”

  As I watched his body drop, my emotions were all over the place. I wanted to be the one to take him out, but I was relieved that I didn’t have to worry about taking on a man who was in “Hulk Smash!” mode and probably had the damn adrenaline to keep up with the mentality.

  The other thing was the cold-blooded nature of how Veronica simply shot him. The fact that she didn’t hesitate let me know that this thing was far from over, and despite no one to back her up, that made things more precarious, if anything. I kept my gun drawn, never taking her out of my sight. Her eyes were still wild, daring me to figure out if I was willing to take her out or if I was going to be a cop and take her into custody.

  My attempt to engage in a dialog was my only way out of this, so I appealed to her vanity and superiority. “Beauty and brains, huh? You had me scrambling from the first day, Veronica. What did you have in mind for the finale?”

  “You just had to put me in the position to kill him, didn’t you?” Veronica’s body language was completely closed off, leaving no way for me to talk her down from the ledge she was dead-set on jumping from. Her eyes never left mine as she kept the finger on the trigger. “No matter where I turn, you’re always there, fucking up my plans. I had a nice racket going out in Dallas, and then you had to go and screw that up. Then, after triggering that damn clause and payment, my husband divorced me, picking up a newer modeled trophy wife. Do you know what he said to me after the divorce?”

  “Veronica, I’m—”

  “Shut the fuck up! You’re going to listen to every goddamned word I have to say before I kill you.” She was at the point of no return, and I needed to make sure I didn’t miss when the time came to shoot. She raised the gun, her hands shaking this time as her anger and emotions began to take over from her logical mind. “He was so cold about it, like I’d taken one of his children or something. He basically said he should have gotten rid of me years ago because I forgot how to stay in my lane and be the trophy wife that he needed to keep his career going. Dropped me for one of his pretty little interns he was fucking at the office.”

  I started to say something to break her from her extended monologue, but the barrel was trained on me. I couldn’t take the chance of her having a moment, so I kept my mouth shut.

  “Then, when I tried to make a play for you, and you turned me down, I started wondering if he had a point. Maybe I was being a bit too much that even run-of-the-mill dudes on the street didn’t want to bother with me. I was a congressman’s wife, dammit! I don’t deal with dudes that ain’t on my level!”

  She’s unstable; the divorce did her in. It probably didn’t help that she might not have had a leg to stand on if they had a prenuptial agreement, and she got so comfortable being in the lap of luxury with a man who got kickbacks—well, allegedly speaking—that she didn’t bother making her own money or at least kept something on the side for such emergencies.

  I had to check my proverbial pockets to see if I could find any fucks to give about her life post-cushy-ass-marriage, and when I couldn’t find any, I basically looked for the trigger that would set this off. With V12 in my ear, I silently gave the green light to take the shot when he was ready.

  “You know what, there’s nothing wrong with dudes who ain’t on your level, seriously.” I began to bait her, more to take her eyes off Natasha and sajira than anything else. I didn’t want her trying anything stupid. “What you should have been doing this entire time, instead of focusing on me, you should have taken the money that you tried to pay Sarge off and done what you needed to do to get back on track. He paid you off; I know he did. But no, you had to come after someone who really wasn’t thinking anything about you.”

  I heard sirens faintly blaring in the distance. I figured someone heard the flash grenade and called the police to check things out. I had no choice but to speed this up, or it could turn into a hostage situation, and I didn’t need that. It almost never ended well for the shooter.

 
; “Well, you won’t be thinking about much of anything anymore, especially once I cancel your bitch.” Veronica turned toward Natasha and made the motion to shoot.

  Instincts took over; I had to act fast. I squeezed the trigger, aiming for her shoulder to take her down. She took the hit, but somehow she only stepped back a few paces, moving toward Natasha like she was possessed. She fired off a shot, aiming for Natasha but barely missing sajira, still moving toward them to get a closer shot. I didn’t want to kill her, trying to get her to think about what she was doing before she would regret it.

  “I don’t want to kill you, Veronica!”

  “You’re going to have to kill me, Dom! I’ll kill her if you don’t kill me!”

  The sirens got louder; it was only a matter of time before they arrived at the house. I told V12 to clear out of the area and I’d take the blame for the aftermath. He all but ignored the order, telling me that he was not leaving me until this was over. He didn’t leave me much choice, but I also knew that if anyone in the Squad could get out of a tight spot, it was definitely him.

  I watched Veronica as she continued to walk toward Natasha and sajira, ignoring my orders to stop. I realized there was no other choice and I was going to have to take her out.

  I pulled my other weapon, squeezing the trigger once more, watching her body drop in mid-step, going for the shot that would put her out of her misery instantly. I knew there was not such a thing as a mercy killing, but she wouldn’t have stopped, and there’s nothing more I could have done to make her stop. Didn’t mean I couldn’t find a way to get it done.

  Two words: rubber rounds.

  She was not about to get off that easily.

  I checked her body to make sure she was still breathing, moving over to Natasha and sajira to get the zip cuffs off them and take the tape off their mouths. As much as she didn’t want to show her gratitude, sajira kissed me deep, quickly disengaging when she realized what she was doing.

  She turned red from the blushing over her outward display of affection, lowering her eyes as she remembered her protocol. “Sir, please forgive me for doing that. i was scared that i might die, but seeing You helped keep me calm. Why did she take us like that? What did we do to her?”

  “I’ll have your Daddy explain after we get the two of you checked out at the hospital, sajira.” I patted her hand to ease her emotional state. She gave up a weak smile, realizing that her body was going into mild shock from the experience. Luckily, the EMTs were entering the room to check on them. “I’m glad I was able to get to you two before anything horrible happened.”

  “Thank You, Sir, i hope i will be allowed to find a way to repay you for saving us.”

  “I’m sure we’ll find some way to get that taken care of. For now, let the paramedics check you out. I’ll call your Daddy and let Him know you’re okay.”

  Once they attended to sajira, I turned my attention to the property that belonged to me. “Are you okay, baby?”

  “Yes, my Sir, although I didn’t have this in mind when I said I had a fetish for predicament bondage.” Listening to her make jokes in light of the tense situation was a welcome relief. It was also her defense mechanism for dealing with high-stress situations. “Thank You for coming to get me. I knew You would.”

  “I didn’t have much of a choice; your sis would have killed Me if I didn’t.” I slipped a kiss over her lips as we awaited the EMTs to check her out and the police officers to interview me on what happened. “There was nothing on this planet that would have stopped Me from coming for you…nothing.”

  TWENTY-FOUR

  I did what I could to relax as much as I could over the next day so I could prepare for the other case. With the other case now over except for the paperwork, I felt the need to work through some of the particulars of the Ashton assault. I couldn’t explain it, but it seemed like there was something I was missing, and it was gnawing at me to no end.

  I listened to the audio of the interrogation of sirius, trying to find as many clues as I could that would open this thing up and give me an idea of whatever was throwing things off.

  I slammed my hand against the desk in frustration as my cell phone rang at nearly the same instant. I didn’t have to guess who it was; Ramesses had been trying to contact me all morning, but I’d been ignoring the calls for the simple fact that I didn’t have any answers for him as of yet.

  The calls wouldn’t cease until I answered, so I put myself out of my own misery and put on the best professional voice I could, regardless of how I felt. “Yes, Sir, what can I do for you?”

  Ramesses didn’t flinch on his first question. “I know you’re ignoring my calls, partner, but I didn’t want you obsessing over this case when the answer might be sitting in front of you.”

  I was ready to spit nails when he said that. He tended to see things from an angle altogether differently than anyone else, and it worked my nerves. I was supposed to be the grizzled veteran, but sometimes I wondered if I was the rookie at times with some of these cases. “Enlighten me, Sir. I have got to hear what you have to say on this.”

  He couldn’t stop laughing when he heard me say that. After he took a minute to calm himself, he got dead serious in seconds. “Okay, now that the jokes are out of the way, what if there was a third person involved who might have been pulling the strings the entire time? We know Segal is in on it, but he’s not that smart to be able to pull this off by himself. Who would be the plant that was placed in plain sight?”

  Was he serious right now? I needed to scream in that moment. He was right; there were more than a few people pulling the strings, and they did so much to try to not seem like they were together that it couldn’t have been more obvious. We were so focused on one person that the others quietly worked behind the scenes in other capacities, trying their best to put an innocent man behind bars.

  The fucked-up part was, he was willing to do it for money, and the love of a woman who had no more interest in him than she would the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Until he found out how long he would have to wait to claim both. It was the perfect cover, and I was really pissed that I didn’t sniff it out sooner, but the other case screwed with my focus.

  “Please tell me that you figured this out in the past few hours or so and you weren’t torturing me with this bullshit?”

  “You should know me by now, Dom. I don’t torture anyone except my girls, and they don’t always enjoy it when it happens.” His voice never wavered, nor did he hesitate in anything he was telling me. That’s how I knew he was going to drop the hammer. “To answer your question, no, I didn’t figure it out until I did some digging of the other players involved in the situation and what they hoped to gain. You might need to get down there and stop Sharpe from making a mistake that’s going to cost him a few years down the road.”

  “How am I supposed to do that? They have a confession already.”

  “I’ll have the information you need to change their minds by the time you get in the truck. I haven’t steered you wrong yet, young’un, so trust me when I say I got you.”

  I jumped in the truck and headed downtown as quickly as I could. Once he was in my ear, explaining what he’d found out through his kink-related sources, I was even more convinced that a trap needed to be set for the two that thought they’d gotten away with this shit.

  If I played this right, and I could get Sharpe involved, I could kill two birds with one stone, which was exactly what I’d set out to do in the first place.

  TWENTY-FIVE

  I couldn’t get to the precinct fast enough.

  I popped out of the truck and rushed inside the building, doing my best to not draw too much attention to myself. The power walk was enough to let folks know there was more to the situation than what I might have tried not to let on.

  Sharpe listened to everything I had to say to him, including the angle that Ramesses came up with and the information he had to probably shut everything down, and he had to take a seat for a minute.

  E
ver the logical mind, he still had facts to stipulate and questions to ask. He reminded me too much of my business partner. “We have a confession. The victim was recovered. Why are we revisiting this again?”

  It was an uphill battle, but I needed Sharpe to believe me when I said there was something wrong about the whole confession that sirius signed off on. I was convinced there was more to this than a man who was obsessed with the object of his desire.

  He was obsessed with someone, but it wasn’t who we originally thought it was.

  I needed time to gather the proof before they took this to arraignment and trial.

  “Look, Sharpe, I don’t know how I can tell you this without sounding crazy, but something doesn’t add up here. It’s too clean, and Segal was the one who helped connect the dots, too? Something doesn’t smell funny to you, bruh?”

  Sharpe looked like he wanted to strangle me, but my track record spoke for itself, both with and away from the department. My detective work managed to keep innocent men from getting caught up in the system. It wasn’t exactly noble work, but I had this overly developed sense of getting shit right the first time.

  “So, what do you suggest we do, huh? The only person that might be able to have a clue in hell of what to tell us is still in a coma.”

  “I understand that, but there’s something that we’re missing, I can feel it. The information Ramesses had is compelling on top of that. It’s enough to reopen this thing and figure out if we have the right man.” I did as best I could to quickly present my case as I could without boring the man. “He’s way too willing to take the heat for something that could put him away for the next ten to fifteen. Give me a shot at him; let me see if I can get him to crack. If I can’t, then he’s signed his own sentence.”

  It was a long shot, but I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing that I didn’t exhaust every possible angle. This dude was not built for that life; the real criminals would eat him alive before he got out of prison, if they didn’t kill him first.