Fragrance of Revenge (31 page)

Chapter
95

She watched blood spraying
everywhere from his sliced neck. His eyes told the whole story of disbelief.

“Chris, if you can still hear me
that is for coming into my bedroom and reading my private diary. You had no
right to read that. You and the doctor now can enjoy your time together in
hell. I wanted my family. He kept me from it and you took them away.”

Tears were cascading down her
face. She reached out and slashed his face with the razor. She tried to stop,
but she couldn’t stop hitting him with the razor. Seconds later, she could no
longer recognize him.

She was covered in his blood. She
realized he really didn’t deserve what she did to him, but she had Scott to
herself now. There was only one member of her family left and she now had a way
to get to her too.

The razor was still in her hand when
she left the room and headed quickly to Scott’s bedroom.

It was obvious by the look on
Scott’s face he knew what had happened to Chris. Chris’ screams and the blood
covering her body were a dead giveaway.

She moved quickly to the side of
his bed and studied the two arrows pointing at her target. Her twin was dead,
but she had managed to pick up where she left off. It was just Scott and her
now and she was anxious for him.

She watched his eyes travel the
length of her naked body and then fixate on the bloody razor in her bloody
hand.

“I hope you’re happy to see me,
but I can tell by how deflated you are that you’re not. We can fix that.” She
climbed onto his body and sat on his thighs. She ran her free hand across his
face and slowly downward. “I read in my sister’s diary that you tried harder
than any of the men to resist her attention. However even you eventually gave
in to her. I have all the time in the world, and like her, I will get what I’m
after.”

She moved the razor to her
sister’s arrow and traced the scar with the back of the blade. She looked at
Scott’s eyes and smiled. Then she moved the back of the blade to her own arrow,
which was showing the first signs of healing. The razor was leaving traces of Chris’
blood on his body.

“This isn’t acceptable.” She moved
the razor to Scott’s mouth. “Lick it clean or I will put your own blood on it.”

She watched as he carefully licked
the razor. She moved her free hand down further between his legs. “That’s clean
enough.”

There was a loud crash downstairs
and she realized that somehow they had been found. She wanted Scott to see what
happened next and cut all four of his ropes freeing him from the bed. She
climbed off Scott when she heard the pounding of footsteps on the stairs.

Chapter 96

Mike had crawled under the house
and both of them were waiting for him to come back to let them know whether there
was anyone in the house.

The early morning calm was split
wide open with a man’s tormented screams. They all had their answer and someone
was being killed. She looked at Paddy and he was in shock. “Paddy, my God
you’re having a heart attack.”

“I’ll be fine with one of my
pills. Go, Mike may need some help.”

She jumped out of their cover,
pulled the gun out of her waist band and ran to the camp and onto the porch.

She thought of Scott being killed
by her sister which was enough adrenaline to give her the strength to kick the
door and shatter the frame. The door banged off the wall and she ran to the
stairs leading upstairs.

She reached the top of the stairs
and caught sight of the blood on the floor. When she entered the bedroom she
saw what was left of Scott on the bed. He had been cut apart and his face was a
bloody pile of mush.

There was a loud thump and the
sound of someone rushing down the hall. She didn’t care about her sister or the
guy with her. She moved away from the bed and slipped on the floor falling to
her knees and dropping her gun. She leaned her head down and felt her insides
coming up. She heard the noise beside her and looked up to see a naked woman
about to swing a razor at the back of her neck.

She was covered in blood but the
blade was shiny. It was all slow motion.

Then she thought she saw Scott behind
her. However, it was too late. The razor was behind her sister’s head and in
one quick motion she was going to be killed.

Scott reached out and grabbed her
wrist, but her wrist was covered in blood and he couldn’t hold onto it. She saw
Alexis spin and kick Scott between his legs and he immediately doubled over.
Alexis turned and rushed towards her again with the razor raised.

The room exploded and Alexis fell
over her onto the bed. She looked at the bedroom door and it was Mike standing
there, pistol pointed where Alexis had been.

*.*.*

The area was swarming with police
as the medic was treating Scott. She thanked God he was still alive. Minutes
ago she thought her life was over in many different aspects. If had been a
tough few days, but it was over now. She wanted so much to yank the blanket
covering Scott and show him how much she loves him. However, there were too
many people around.

“Scott, I thought the body on the
bed was yours and one of my sisters had finally taken you away from me. I’m so thankful
you’re safe. I’m so sorry we had the disagreement on the phone and I doubted
you.”

“Mercy, I love you and want to be
with you for the rest of my life. I promise I’m never going to do another
investigation.”

“Well I accept all of those
commitments. I have given my notice with the FBI. More importantly, I want you
with me for the rest of my life too.”

“Do you like the sound of Mrs. Scott
Tucker?”

“Do I detect a proposal?”

“You really would make a good
detective you know.”

“That is all behind me now. If you
are serious about never doing another investigation, I like the sound of being
your wife.”

“What will you do?”

“I think the first thing to do
right now is to start practicing on how to make a family.”

“I’m up for it right now.”

The medic had already finished
tending to his wounds. She pulled the blanket open and looked at his body. “I
can see you are working on it, but you look like you need a little more
assistance. How about we get out of here and start practicing?”

They watched Mike come over to
them. “You two look like you’ve made up.”

“Mike, am I needed here any
longer?” Scott asked.

“No, we have your preliminary
statement, but they will need a more detailed statement later.”

“Is tomorrow okay?”  

Chapter 97

It was Mercedes’ final day at the
FBI. A meeting had been set up for the end of the day, but she wasn’t told what
it was about. She figured it was going to be a goodbye session.

Ralph was back at work for a week
and he took her out for lunch. “Mercedes you were incredible to work with, but
I would like to still be friends. Would you mind having lunch with me every
once in a while?”

“Ralph you are a great agent. You
will have a great career with the FBI. We can still be friends and I would like
very much to enjoy lunch with you once in a while. I have to thank you for
respecting me…you could have made it more awkward.”

Later that afternoon they both
headed to the large conference room. The door was already closed and Mercedes
knocked. The door opened and Max was standing at the front of the room.

“Welcome you two. The attractive
young lady is Mercedes Strong. The young man with her is Ralph Reynolds. Please
have a seat over here.”

He waited for them to take their
seats near the front of the room. “Today is a sad day as we are saying goodbye
to one of our agents, Mercedes. She has been an asset to our agency and we will
miss her very much. However, the rumor has it that she is going to be married
very shortly. Congratulations Mercedes. It is also a special day as we are
welcoming Ralph back to our agency and he is now a Special Agent. Congratulations
Ralph.”

Max continued after the polite
applause. “We have some special guests in the room that I would like to
introduce to both of you. We have two very thankful young ladies, Marie Quinlan
and Helen Scott. They and many others were rescued from their abductors.”

There was polite applause as well
for them.

“Next to them is Richard Damelio
who was also rescued. Because of his excellent record keeping we located all of
the US citizens and with the help of the Venezuelan military rescued
all
of
them
and all
of the other abducted women from other countries.”

Once again the room filled with
applause.

“Seated beside him is Robert
Damelio, Richard’s brother. None of you knew about him. Mercedes, you mentioned
that you must have had a guardian angel watching over you…I’d like you to meet
him in person. Rob, and a former member of the Venezuelan military, were the
key investigators in Venezuela. Through their combined efforts they discovered
where his brother was, but more importantly who was behind the abductions. They
also stayed with it long enough to pinpoint the leaders behind the slave
trade.”

She got up and went over and
hugged him. “I have my life thanks to you.”

Max resumed, adding, “Rob, as I
mentioned in the invite, many people are free today because of your
investigation.”

There was a loud applause.

“This envelope contains an offer
of employment with the agency, and I would be very happy to have you on our
team. You can read the details later, but Mercedes and Ralph were more than
just agents here…they were friends. Thank you.”

The room erupted again.

“The rest of the story is that
Captain Chavez was the leader of the gang, along with Jose and Hector Hernandez.
Chevez was killed when he resisted arrest while attempting to board a flight to
Boston. Mercedes introduced Hector to her elbow and his body was returned to
his native country. Jose and the other members of his gang were arrested in a
large number of coordinated raids by the Venezuelan military. The military has
since learned the names of the people associated with similar gangs operating in
other parts of Venezuela.”

“In addition, the president has
sent a communiqué to the Venezuelan president thanking him for the excellent
work of the Venezuelan military in rescuing our kidnapped citizens. There is
still an investigation now being conducted by the Venezuelan government to
recover the vessels that were taken illegally.”

She watched as Max picked up a
small gold-wrapped package on the far credenza. “Mercedes this is just a small
token of our appreciation for your years of service.”

She stood and opened the package.
She read the inscription on the plaque-

‘In Recognition of Your Excellent
Service

Thank You Mercedes Strong!

From Your FBI Family’

*.*.*

It had been a busy two weeks.
There was the funeral for Mercedes family members including Alexis. Mercedes
was waiting until after she left the FBI to deal with all of her parents’
personal affairs. She was considering managing her father’s real estate entity.
There was a right hand person handling the development side of his business,
and she was planning on giving him the reigns.

I was making us a shrimp scampi dinner
when I heard the door open to her former apartment which was now our apartment.
I had suggested we go out to dinner to celebrate her last day at the agency,
but she wanted to celebrate privately.

I saw her smiling face first and
then the box she was carrying. I went over to greet her and smelled the sweet
scent of Gardenia. “Welcome home honey.”

“It’s nice to hear that when I
come through the door.”

“You look like you had a good day
today. Did they give you a nice sendoff?”

“Yes they did, and I was quite
surprised by it.”

“Would you care for a drink?”

“A glass of white wine would be
nice.” She sat on one of the counter stools. “My guardian angel came to a
meeting at the end of the day.”

I handed her the glass of wine and
touched my small glass of bourbon to hers. “Cheers.”

“Cheers.”

“I don’t fully understand…guardian
angel?”

“Well the ‘Readers Digest’ version
is this…when we were in Venezuela both Ralph and I seemed to be rescued before
anything serious happened to us. It was like we had a guardian angel watching
over us. I met him.”

“Him?”

“Yes, him.”

I listened to her explain what
happened at the meeting. The more excited and animated, the more I detected the
scent of Gardenia. Although she had lost her parents she seemed to have the
weight of the world lifted off her shoulders. I stirred the scampi, but wanted
to turn it off. I couldn’t wait to get something off her shoulders and
elsewhere for that matter.

Right in the middle of her telling
the story, she stopped. “Are you listening to what I’m saying?”

“Every word of it.”

“Then why do you have that
expression?”

“Can’t you guess?”

“Are the Indians getting their
bows and arrows ready?”

“I don’t know about the Indians
and the bows, but the arrows should be pointing at something.”

“That’s not the only thing that’s
pointing.”

As we passed by the stove I turned
the scampi off and followed this beautiful creature. She was easy to follow,
leaving a trail of clothes along the way. When we reached the bedroom she was
on the bed totally nude and holding her arms out to me. I had one last article
of clothing left to remove and saw her big smile. “Let me do that for you.” She
slowly pulled down my briefs. “Do you have anything to say for yourself Mr.
Tucker?”

“If you ever get lost there should
be enough road signs along the way.”

“Cute, but I don’t plan to get
lost.”

“I think the more we practice
this…the better we will get.”

“Promises…promises. They say that
practice does make perfect.”

“Oh, wait Scott this is important.
I talked with Maggie today and she is thrilled to death that she is going to be
my maid of honor. However, we both agreed that she would bring a date to the
wedding. I told her about this nice guy named Ralph at work. I think they will
get on famously, don’t you?”

“I’m sure they will. I talked to
Mike and he’s consented to be my best man.”

“He might be your best man…but
you’re mine.”