Power (Romantic Suspense) (49 page)

What did you see, Noah? How did your parents not realize you’d changed?

Noah must’ve been barely fourteen years old. A girl stood on his right. She didn’t even look at the camera. Instead she stared at him with wide eyes.

Is that Butterfly. Ha! She had braces! I don’t know why that makes me happy, but I will get my joy from any place I can get it.

I checked out the others in the picture. In the back, Crusher towered over them. He had the same damn face, but with a youthful look, which wasn’t saying much. I bet the teachers didn’t discipline him at all. He had to be close to six feet appearing more like a father of one of the kids in the picture than their trusted friend.

I pointed at the guy on Noah’s left. “That’s Domingo.”

A huge cross hung on the Domingo’s skinny frame. That must’ve been Rasheed on the other side of him. I didn’t remember his face, since I’d only seen him once.

I squinted at Rasheed. Bruises covered the young kid’s face. “What happened to him?”

There were other kids around them as they stood on that dirty corner, but I didn’t care about them. I studied the ones that I knew, wondering what made them become psychotic adults.

Rasheed’s face had a lot of bruises. Maybe one of his parents beat him. Domingo looked pretty creepy the way he wore that cross. Definitely something about religion affected him. That crazy birthday party was definitely a sign of his struggle with sanity and Christianity. Noah had told me enough about Butterfly to understand why she became a demon spawned, female death trap.

And what about Crusher? Fuji said he killed his mother? And why does he like Disney songs? I like them too, but. . .I don’t fucking kill people. It seems like you would like heavy metal or something when you murdered people

A bang came at the door.

I jumped. “Uh. . .yes?”

Crusher’s dark voice came through. “Are you decent?”

“As in, have clothes on?”

“Yes.”

With big shoulders and his usual towering presence, he stalked into the room. “Are you hungry for breakfast?”

“No, I can’t eat.” I returned to the picture.

“Why not?” He walked over to me, bent over, and checked out the image. “That was when Noah took down the East and West Gangs.”

He tapped on the little black boy at the edge of the picture, sitting Indian style on the sidewalk. Sunglasses covered his face. His expression appeared neutral. “That’s Aristotle. He’d just lost his dad and brothers two weeks before.”

“Aristotle wasn’t mad at Noah for taking out both of the gangs?”

“No. The other gang killed his family members. Then they got killed themselves. Noah took out the remaining people one night, but none of them had anything to do with Aristotle.” Crusher touched his face in the image and yanked his hand away as if he’d been shocked.

Nervous about Crusher’s nearness, I swallowed and attempted to gain some more information from him. “Aristotle doesn’t look sad at all. Do you think he got a chance to mourn his family?”

“Why?” Crusher eyed me.

“I’m just wondering how Aristotle went from this boy to the grown man stuck to an evil house.”

“Life is crazy like that.”

I stared at him, waiting for more. “Really? That’s it.”

“Mourning don’t bring people back.” Crusher flipped the page as if I’d given him permission.

The next image was of Noah and Crusher standing in front of large castle. Mouse ears sat on the top of their heads. They must’ve been eighteen or nineteen by then.

“You and Noah are just alike.” Crusher turned the next page and didn’t even comment on that last image. “He always wanted me to mourn.”

I cleared my throat. “Is that why he took you to Disney?”

“He used to make me go with him. Thought that shit would fix me.” He straightened and walked off.

“Crusher?”

Pausing, he turned my way. “Yeah?”

“What happened to you?”

“You want the PG story or the one for adults?”

“Which one will give me less nightmares?”

“The PG one.”

He tossed me the most blood-curdling smile. I shivered.

“My Dad stole some money from some big guys. Men that Noah and I later killed, years later. But at the time, we had no power and no hair on our balls.”

“Uh, okay.”

“We were young.”

“I’m gathering that.”

“Dad hid the money at his mistress’ house, which wasn’t a good idea. Mom found out about it.”

I raised my hand.

“What?” he asked.

“Your mom found out about the money or the mistress?”

“She’d already known about the mistress. She had people on him. Her own people actually.” He must’ve caught the confused look on my face. “Noah didn’t tell you that I’m the offspring of two hired killers. Monsters are born from monsters.”

I gulped.

“Mom found out about him hiding the money and was pissed for whatever reason women get angry about these things. Maybe she thought that him keeping the money over there proved that he liked the mistress better. In all honesty, Dad only loved me and himself.” Crusher closed his eyes and said nothing for a moment. But on his sides, he curled his fingers into huge fists.

The silence chilled me.

What type of person cut off a story like that with no show of emotion? Nothing skittered over his face—not sadness or humor. And then just like that, he opened his eyes and continued, “Mom didn’t do anything for a good month. The men who Dad stole the money from had no idea who took it. Everything could’ve been fine, but something snapped for Mom. School let out. Summertime came. Mom and Dad took different jobs to kill people, telling me about it sometimes at the breakfast table.”

Crusher looked at me and laughed. “It wasn’t until spending the night at Noah’s house, one time, when I realized that families didn’t talk about death like mine.”

He paused again and didn’t say anything. This time at least five minutes passed and he gazed off in the distance.

“Fuck!” He yelled.

I jumped. Photo albums fell to the floor.

“Fuck!” He slammed his hands hard together. “I didn’t bring my dwarves.”

“Dwarves?”

He snapped his attention to me as if he’d just noticed that I’d been in the room. “Fuji has to go back and get my dwarves”

He walked away.

“Eh!” I rushed after him. “Finish the story.”

“Oh, yeah.” He headed to the living room. “My mother killed my father in front of me as we rode the ‘It’s a Small World’ ride at Disney.”

“What?” I stopped in the small hallway.

“It’s the ride with all the little robotic kids from all those different races and they’re holding hands and singing—”

“No. I got that part.” I held my hands in front of me. “I’m just saying. . .”

“What?”

Fuji rubbed his heads as he stumbled toward me. “Man, Crusher I’m tired. It’s your turn.”

“Fuck that. I need my dwarves.” Crusher dove his big hands into his pockets and flung the keys at Fuji. “Go get them.”

“I can’t keep my eyes open.” Fuji handed the keys back.

“I can’t sleep without them.” Defeated, Crusher put the keys back into his pocket. “You know I can’t.”

I waved a hand in the air. “Why not?”

Crusher scowled at me. “Before the ride, Dad had bought me three dwarves from Snow White—Bashful, Sleepy, and Dopey.”

“So you like to keep them, because it reminds you of that day?” I asked.

“No, they’ve got my father’s teeth and bones in them.”

My whole body went tense. “O-kay.”

“Those were things I could pick up off the floor of the ride. His shattered bones pieces and several cracked teeth.” Crusher held his big hands in the air, made it into a gun, and pulled the imaginary trigger. “Mom blew a hole into dad’s head, put the tip of her gun right in his mouth, and pulled the trigger. I sat in the back. I could see through his head. Ya know?”

“Oh.” My stomach twisted.

“People screamed and all that jazz. Mom yelled at me to jump off and escape with her, but I wouldn’t leave,” Crusher said. “I had to get parts of him. She jetted, raced off. I don’t know how much time passed, but when the cops found me, I was on my knees in the ride with Dad’s rotting body. His brains shot to mush and broken matter on the ground. My hands and arms were covered in him as I searched for pieces of bone and teeth. I just wanted something to take back with me.”

Silence returned.

Crusher stared off into the distance again and whispered, “When I die, Noah’s going to spread my ashes all over the park. I bet I’ll see Dad’s ghost or something. Life is crazy like that”

A growl of annoyance came from Fuji. “Fuck it, Crusher. Give me the keys. I’ll go get the damned dwarves. Did you have to fucking tell that damned story again?”

“MJ asked,” Crusher explained.

Next time I will keep my goddamned questions to myself.

Chapter 34

Noah

An intellectual came to check in on a friend who was seriously ill. When the man's wife said that he had 'departed', the intellectual replied:
"When he arrives back, will you tell him that I stopped by?"

–Philogelos (The Laughter Lover)

O
n
the bed, Butterfly lounged next to me as I rolled over to my side and gazed into her eyes, hoping she believed all of my lies.

“How do we end this?” I asked.

Butterfly tucked a curl behind her ear. “You started it.”

“No. We don’t have time for the back and forth. People are dying around us. How do we end this?” I pulled her toward me. Her huge breasts pressed against my chest. Where once they excited me, now they felt like large, hard plastic things pushing toward me.

“Noah?” Butterfly fell into my embrace with no hesitation. I took a quick glance at her guard. He stirred in his seat, but still kept the point of his gun targeting me.

Good. I’m going to have a chance. If he was good, I wouldn’t be this close to her.

“What else do you want, baby?” I kissed her deceiving lips, wishing I had the razor blade in my mouth at that moment. But it would be too soon to slice her tongue. I had to figure out the guard in the room and the two outside of the door. For now, the blade remained in the wrapped paper under my foot.

“Tell me how to finish this.” I kissed her some.

“Noah,” she panted.

Sucking on her bottom lip for a few seconds, I let go and eyed her. “What do you want from me?”

“I. . .I want to work with you.”

I nipped at her chin and she shivered against me. “You want us to run the city together?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” I leaned in to kiss her again and she pushed me away.

“I don’t believe you.” She got up from the bed and paced in front of me. “You’re playing me in some way. I know you are.”

“How?” I took my shirt completely off and lay back down on the bed. “Accept the win, Butterfly.”

“Is this a win or some sort of plan to take me down?”

“Do you think I could ever kill you?”

She paused and glared at me. “Yes.”

“Then why would you ever want to work with me? Why would you love me if you thought I could kill you? That doesn’t make any sense. You’re smarter than that. If you thought I would kill you, you wouldn’t have let me in this room tonight. You’re too smart. Think, Butterfly. Why would I kill you?”

“That’s the way of the streets.” She returned to pacing.

“That’s not the way of love.”

“And you know about love?” She snorted.

“Yes. And I know that I love you.” The words tasted sick on my tongue, but I forced them out just the same. “You’re the only woman I’ve ever loved.”

I will kill you and enjoy every minute, every second of it.

“You’re lying,” Butterfly said. “You don’t even know me.”

“I know that long ago, years in fact, a girl was being hurt by several boys in a plant. They tried to take her down, but she wouldn’t let them. They tried to ruin her, but she fought. And I helped her get away, but I probably didn’t need to step in. She was a fucking tiger and they were fresh meat. That’s who I love. This girl that’s not too soft for the streets. She’s hard. Rock. Steel. Ice-cold like me. A queen for a king. I fell in love with you on that very first day.”