Authors: Arlene Brathwaite
The chief let the theory spin a couple laps in his head before rejecting it.
“Should I send Jimmy to see what’s going on?”
“Yeah, send him over, but tell him not to do anything until I get there.”
“Chief—”
“Do as I say,” he said, grabbing his jacket and heading out of the station.
“Get up,” Marion shouted to Jean. She shook her head violently, refusing to move from the corner of the room she wedged herself into. She screamed when he squeezed off a shot, missing her by inches. “Get off your ass, now, before I put a bullet in it.”
She got to her feet, shaking like a leaf. Marion spun toward the window when he saw a lighting flash and pulled the trigger. The window shattered as he sent three bullets through it.
“Sir, you’re going to have to give me that weapon,” Stevens said.
“Bull motherfucking shit!” Marion had the gun pointed at him.
Stevens held his hands up.
Marion turned the gun back on Jean. He threw the phone at her. “Call Vince and tell him to start up the Hummer. I’m getting the hell out of here.” Jean dialed Vince’s room.
“Radio Roberts, see what’s going on out there,” Marion said to Stevens.
Stevens got on his radio. “Roberts—” He spun around with his MP-5 in hand. Marion spun in the same direction. The direction both men heard Steven’s voice over a radio. Marion opened his mouth to say something, but was quickly silenced by Steven’s hand. The beam over them creaked. They looked up and fired at the same time. Jean screamed and ran back into the corner, covering her ears. Marion locked eyes with Stevens and for the first time, he saw fear in the soldier’s eyes.
“Marion,” Saint’s voice came over Steven’s radio. “If you put your guns down, I promise not to kill you… slow.”
Marion ran to the corner and grabbed Jean. He held the screaming assistant in front of him. “Fuck you! Here’s the deal. I got my men at Glenn’s fashion show, and I gave them the order to kill him and his fiancée. They’re as good as dead if I don’t call them back in five minutes. By the way, Miss Martin is with them.” Instead of Marion’s words stopping Saint in his tracks, it only enraged him. He dived through the window that Marion shot out earlier. He shot Stevens in the back of the head. Before Stevens hit the ground, Saint yoked him up. Marion fired. His bullets buried themselves into Steven’s vest and flesh. One, two, three, four, click. Marion’s gun was empty.
Saint dropped Stevens and walked toward him and his trembling assistant. He snatched her out of his grip and threw her to the ground. She scurried behind Marion and back into the corner.
Marion fell to his knees. He clasped his hands together and bowed his head. “S-Saint, please, whatever you want. I’ll do it, I’ll get it.”
Saint took a step back as he saw the piss stain in Marion’s pants getting bigger. “Why’d you try to have Josephine killed?”
“That wasn’t me, I swear to you.”
“Don’t lie to me,” Saint said nudging the Glock against his head.
“No! I wouldn’t lie. Not about that. I have no reason to kill her. Our businesses have nothing to do with one another. What would I gain?” Marion started crying. “You’ve got to believe me.”
“Look at me.”
Marion tried, but he couldn’t.
“Look… at me.”
He was able to hold his gaze for a full five seconds before his eyes filled with tears.
Saint stuffed the gun in his waistband. “I believe you.”
Marion was shocked.
“Call your men and tell them to abort.” Saint drew his gun, spun, aimed at the footsteps he heard approaching from the adjacent room. Vince froze in the doorway, throwing his hands in the air.
“He’s my driver,” Marion said.
“Well, driver, I suggest you get into a car and drive!” Vince took off.
“Make the call.”
Marion looked on the floor for the phone. He saw it and grabbed it. He called the men at the Apollo. The longer it rang, the more ragged his breaths became.
“What’s wrong?”
Marion was too scared to hear the nervousness in Saint’s voice.
Marion hung up and dialed the number again. “He’s not picking up.” He backed up into Jean when Saint pointed the Glock at him. “I will pull your toenails out one by one. I will rip your fingernails off one by one. I will pry your teeth out one by one. Then I will peel the skin off of your entire body strip by strip.”
“Pick up!” Marion’s face was ghost white.
The only source of light in the Theatre was the lit up exit sign. Grace jumped as she felt someone grab her by the wrist.
“Baby, it’s me,” Glenn whispered. He hopped down from the stage. He grabbed Olivia by the hand and stood them up. Both bodyguards stood.
The one nearest to Glenn spoke. “Mr. Lemora, we should stay put until the lights come back on. Glenn could hear Mr. Seeger speaking into the microphone, informing everyone not to panic, that the lights would be back on momentarily.
“No,” Glenn said. “We’re getting out of here.” The bodyguard held his hand up to protest, but Grace knocked it down.
“Don’t’ put your hand in my face.”
“Maam—”
“Maam, nothing, back the fuck up.” The red-in-the-face bodyguard backed up. Glenn made a beeline with both women to the exit sign.
Anticipating that they would run toward the exit sign, the men Olivia saw before were waiting in the shadows. One of the men stepped out, stopping them in their tracks. When they turned around, both of the bodyguards, who were running to keep up with them, seen the man stepping out in front of them and they started to draw their weapons. Glenn pointed behind the two men, but it was too late. The other man, hiding in the shadows, materialized behind the two bodyguards and shot them in the back. Olivia saw the gun flash, but didn’t hear the sounds. She thought maybe she had gone deaf, but then she saw the extended nozzle of the gun and realized the gun had a silencer on it. These men were going to kill us, just like the two bodyguards, and no one’s going to hear us die.
The man from the rear kept walking until he got into striking distance and hit Glenn over the head with the butt of his gun. Grace started to attack the man, but was quickly silenced when he stuck his gun against her cheek. The man in front grabbed Olivia by her hair and forced her to her knees. Glenn started to crawl toward the man who had his gun against Grace’s cheek, but he stopped when the gunman cocked the hammer.
“Please… don’t do this,” Glenn cried.
The man smiled as he turned away from Glenn and decided to pull the trigger.
Both men turned their guns into the same direction. At first, Glenn, Grace, or Olivia didn’t hear it, but then the sound pounded in their ears. It was the click-clack of heels.
The men froze when they saw her. “You know who I am, no?” Josephine asked.
Both men nodded.
“Yet, you still point your guns at me?”
Both men dropped their guns to their sides like scolded school children.
Josephine was dressed in black, and her mood was blacker. She took off her shades and shoved them into the pocket of her leather trench coat. Her hand was slow going in, but it came out in a blur. When both men realized she had a gun in it, she had already squeezed off two shots. They both dropped to the floor with tiny holes in the center of their heads. Glenn hugged Grace as she started to cry. Olivia stood up and locked eyes with Josephine to keep from looking down at the corpses in front of her and passing out.
Glenn stepped in front of Grace and Olivia as Josephine approached them.
“If I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t have budded in.”
“What’s going on, Josephine?”
“Glenn, Glenn, still slow on the draw I see.”
“You know this woman?” Grace asked. When Glenn didn’t respond, she studied Josephine and remembered seeing her before. “You! You’re the woman who walked into the salon a while back.” Grace looked at Olivia. “This is the woman you took into your office. Olivia, please tell me what’s going on?”
Josephine pointed her gun at the gunman at her feet and fired two shots into his chest. Grace and Olivia jumped.
“He moved, I shot, reflexes.” But then she realized that he didn’t move. Something in his pants moved, vibrated. She dug into his pants pocket and pulled out his cell phone. She cleared her throat and answered it with the best man voice she could muster.
“Yeah.”
“Where the fuck have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you!” Marion said. “Did you take care of that yet?”
“They tried, but they failed,” Josephine said in her own voice.
“Josephine! What are you doing there?”
Saint snatched the phone from him. “Josephine?”
“This is becoming a habit, me saving those closest to you from harm. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“Don’t worry they’re safe.”
“How did you know they were in danger?”
“Glenn called me.”
“Glenn—”
“I love to chat with you longer, my love, but we’re standing in the middle of four bodies. Just come back to me in one piece.” She hung up before he could say another word.
He dropped the phone. If Marion didn’t try to kill Josephine, then who did? He did a mental lineup of the usual suspects, and then the unusual ones. Marion’s sniffling brought him back to the matter at hand. He looked down at him and raised the Glock.
“W-wait! You said you believed me.”
“I do, but I don’t’ like you.” Jean screamed as Marion’s hot blood splattered her. She looked up at Saint. Blood from the hole he put in Steven’s head soaked the front of his vest when he was using him as a shield. She stuck her head between her knees when Saint flinched at her. She peeked from behind her hands to plead for her life, but the boogeyman she would forever have nightmares of had vanished.
“We must get out of here,” Josephine said, putting her gun away.
“And go where?” Glenn asked.
“I don’t care where you go.” Josephine banged the exit door open and walked into the night.
“Hold on,” Olivia said, following her outside. “You just can’t leave us.”
“Watch me.” She pulled out her key to her Burgundy S-Class.
“Josephine, wait,” Glenn said, running behind her. “Is anyone else going to try and come after us?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care.”
“Then why did you stop Marion’s men from killing us?” Grace asked.
“Those weren’t Marion’s men. They were mine.”
“They were your men? I don’t understand.” Olivia said.
“I’m beginning to.” Josephine pressed the button on her keypad to unlock the car door of the burgundy Mercedes.
“What are we supposed to do?” Glenn asked. “Four men are dead and people are going to realize that we’re missing.”
“Don’t worry about the bodies, they’re gone by now.”
“Bodies don’t just disappear,” Grace said.
“In my world, they do.”
“You just can’t leave us,” Olivia said.
“Watch me.” She opened her car door.
Olivia grabbed the door handle. “What if someone comes after us again?”
“That’s not my problem.”
“What just happened back there wasn’t your problem, yet you got involved.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have.”
“But you did. Why?”
Josephine was the first to hear the two black SUV’s gunning down the street. The first one skidded in front of the Mercedes, while the other stopped inches from the back bumper.
Van got out of the first one, with gun in hand. “Don’t,” he said to Josephine as she drew her gun.
“You won’t dare shoot me,” she said.
“Don’t tempt me. Toss the gun into the car.”
“I toss it, you’ll probably kill us.”
“You don’t toss it, I will definitely kill you.”
Olivia put her hand on Josephine’s shoulder, indicating that she should do as Van said. She bared her teeth at him as she tossed the gun into her car.
“Now close the car door and all of you walk toward me.”
Josephine closed the car door and they all walked toward him. Two men from the rear SUV got out and escorted them to the truck.
“Olivia!” Baby called out from across the street. Her and Miki just got out of a cab and was heading for the Theatre when they saw them getting into the SUV. Both women grabbed each other when Van pointed his gun at them.
“Come here.” He said, waving them over.
Miki shook her head.
“Run!” Olivia said to them.
“Run and I’ll kill her, and dump her body right here in the street,” he said, jabbing his gun in Olivia’s side.
As they edged toward him, he lowered his gun to his side. People were already starting to stop to take notice at what was going on. When Miki got in arm’s reach, Van grabbed her by the elbow. He ushered both of them into the back of the first truck.
He climbed into the back with them. “Drive.” He pulled out his cell phone, and made a call. “It’s me. Take down this address.” He read off the numbers to the mansion in the Catskills. “Be there tomorrow by three o’clock.”