The Mandate of Heaven (18 page)

Before he’d even caught his breath, Alex was up and running after him.  Sliding along the polished floor, this time taking no chances as he passed the doorway, his fusion beam reaching out once again—but his prey had disappeared.  The sound of footsteps further down the corridor had him sprinting in that direction, but before he could reach the junction he ran smack into two more people.  These two must have come from the same troop of gorillas as the last bunch, as taken by surprise at Alex’s sudden appearance, they were slow to react.

Alex rammed an elbow into the throat of the first and the man dropped to the floor clutching it in agony.  The second managed to pull a heavy pistol free from a shoulder holster, but Alex was able to catch hold of his wrist, deflecting the first round up and away from his face.  With both of them struggling for the pistol, Alex was forced to let his own drop to the floor as the two of them fought back and forth over the weapon.  The man was extremely strong, taking Alex by surprise and he was forced to duck as another round exploded from the pistol, almost taking his head off.  Fortunately, the shot gave him a brief reprieve and using one hand to continue to deflect the pistol, drew his other hand back and, making a fist, rammed it into his attacker’s face.  The blow had almost no effect and, with time quickly running out, Alex drew his arm back once again, unleashing a massive blow.  With a
crack
and spray of blood, the man’s nose broke.  Three more quick successive blows and the man collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

Still, by then it was far, far too late.  Alex checked all the adjoining corridors, but Javier had long since disappeared.  He quickly debated attempting to rouse one or both of the men he had incapacitated, but he recognised hired thugs when he saw one and knew that neither of them would have any useful information.

Picking up his fallen pistol, Alex turned round, heading back in the direction of Rifkin’s offices.  If nothing else he would get his money back, hopefully then the entire trip wouldn’t have been a complete waste of time.

*****

Jessica stepped into the room, swinging the pistol right, then left, this time hesitant to just spray gunfire around the room—for this was Alex’s library and the room had sentimental value to the both of them.  For she felt that it was here that they had finally reached some sort of understanding, or perhaps truce was a better term.  For while they both came from backgrounds light years apart, they still seemed to have a lot in common, with a love of reading and history, just two of them.  Anyway, some of the books were almost five hundred years old and she was loathed to risk damaging even one of them.

Distracted by her thoughts and concern for the contents of the room, her concentration wavered for a moment and that hesitation proved to be her downfall.  As having failed to check carefully, she took a step further into the room.  She was a second too slow to register the motion of somebody behind her, when once again an arm slipped around her throat, the nauseous breath and smell once again causing her to gag, as she was pulled sharply back against the very man she had been pursuing.  But this time it was different, just him and her, with nothing to stop her using all the advantages that she’d been born with.  For some reason, the thought of picking up this man by the throat and choking the very life out of him, felt very appealing.

However, the man must have felt her start to tense and tutted under his breath.  “None of that now,” he said at the same time raising his pistol, tapping the point of the barrel against her brow.  “I saw what you did to poor Ewan and don’t need a replay.  If I even so much as feel you start to move, I’ll blow your pretty head off and that would be such a waste…” He ran the barrel of the gun against her cheek, along the length of her throat, caressing her with the cold metal.

Jessica couldn’t help but flinch, dropping her pistol in the process, which just made him laugh even louder.

“Not so confident now are you?” he gloated.  “I’m willing to bet that you’ll fetch a pretty penny in the whore markets, that’s if Greystone doesn’t cough-up the coin first.  Somehow I think he’ll pay handsomely for your return, but first I’ll sample the wares as such.”  He chuckled nastily as if finding the situation incredibly humorous.

Having overheard Mary and Alex talking, prior to his departure, Jessica wasn’t entirely certain that Alex could afford food, let alone her ransom, but thought it best not to share that little nugget of information.  Instead she rolled her eyes at his blatantly suggestive and, equally absurd, threat.

“What is it with you men out here, on this washed up, backwards planet.  So far I’ve been kidnapped, imprisoned and ransomed—and that’s just Lord Greystone.  Soon I’m really going to lose my patience with the lot of you.”

“You Lords and Ladies, always looking down your nose at the rest of us, we’re nothing more than your slaves,” the man sneered. He tightened his grip on her throat, until she struggled for breath, seeing stars at the corner of her vision.  “Well, you’re all nothing but talk,” he growled lowering the pistol further, until it reached her knee, before drawing it back up, along with the hem of her short nightgown, the only one that Mary could find.  “Perhaps it’s now time to put your mouth to a better task,” he ogled suggestively.

Jessica was about to prise his hand from her throat, rip it off and then crush every last breath from his body, pistol or no pistol to her head, when suddenly there was a muffled cry from behind and the man slumped against her.

“He should take his own advice,” a voice drawled out, “and shut up.  Told you I’d arrive, just at the right time—” Sheriff Abercrombie pronounced in such a voice, that Jessica knew without having to turn round he was smirking.  “But I’m not going to help you clean up this mess.  I’m the sheriff, not a housemaid, and I’m telling you now that Alex is going to be mad.  You know what he said about no parties while he was away.”

Having not given a second thought to the damage to the house that she’d wrought in her pursuit of the thieves, her eyes opened wide in horror.  The sheriff was right of course; Alex was going to be furious.

*****

Trudging wearily down the corridors of his home, Alex was absolutely livid.  The entire trip had been a complete and utter waste of time.  He hadn’t found any answers to the questions that he had sought and, furthermore, Rifkin had already spent every last credit of the advance that belonged to him.

Five million credits, in the span of a single week.  Gone.

It beggared belief that one man could actually spend so much in such a short period of time.  Yet, when he’d demanded to know where it had all gone, Rifkin had shrugged. “Booze, gambling, women.  What else is there?”

At that point all restraint deserted him and he had shot him, point-blank, for the second time.  What else could he have done?  Unfortunately, his subconscious must have felt that he still owed Rifkin some sort of debt, for instead of vaporising him, much as he intended, it just knocked him unconscious, again.  Alex had spent the next few minutes putting the boot in, literally, before leaving.  At least the loathsome man would have a few sore ribs to remember him by.

So engrossed in his thoughts about the utter failure of the trip, he paid little attention to his surroundings and blinked in surprise upon arriving in his study.  He had planned on numbing the pain of the past few days with a strong drink, but instead found himself far from alone, instead surrounded by almost a dozen people, some milling around righting overturned furniture, many tramping in and out, taking notes, others still photographing every square inch of the room.

Alex blinked.  When had his private retreat turned into a complete circus?

Eyes narrowing dangerously, he could only think of one reason, or more specifically, one
person
.  It was official he was going to kill her; she would have to be returned to her family in a closed casket.  Looking around for his intended victim, he finally spotted her through the crowd, with her back to him, seated in her now usual spot next to the bay windows.

“Jessica!” he snapped, all thought of formal address and etiquette going out of the already open window.  “What on Arcturus is going on here?”

Jessica meanwhile spun around, stumbling to her feet so quickly that Alex had to reach out to steady her in case she fell.  Her face paled at the sight of him, eyes wide, darting first one way then the other, as if looking for an escape route.  “I didn’t realise that you would be back so soon, look I can explain everything…” she faltered.

Whatever else she said was drowned out as she lifted her face, and the dawn rays illuminated the red mark on her face.  It stood out glaringly against her otherwise pale cheeks.  Mouth falling open in disbelief, Alex ran his eyes down from her face, fixing on her neck where a pair of livid bruises were clearly visible, consisting of a motley collection of colours; yellow, black and blue.  With eyes still fastened on her injuries, he reached out a trembling finger touching her chin, angling her face further towards the light so he could see the extent of her injuries better.

“Who did this to you?” he barked, eyes blazing, teeth grinding from the incandescent rage that had abruptly taken hold of him.

“—What?” Jessica came to an abrupt halt, aware that he hadn’t heard a single word she had said.

“Who.  Did.  This?  Where are they?” he demanded a second time, his voice pitched low.

“Oh, I see,” she blinked, surprised at the question.  “Don’t concern yourself about them.  The sheriff has them all under lock and key, in your reception room.”

“What reception room?  I don’t have a reception room.”

“Oh, yes, well you do now,” Jessica replied with a forced smile.  “It’s just off the main entrance hall, you used it as a storage closet, but it’s really a very beautiful room, as the morning sunlight shines right through the—” she stumbled to a halt when it again became obvious that he wasn’t listening, as he’d already turned his back on her.  “Where are you going?” she called out after him.

“To repay those who broke into my home and attacked you.  For you’re under my protection and nobody hurts what belongs to me.  It’s going to be a short, sharp punishment and they’ll never repeat it—the dead can’t reoffend.  Stay here,” he growled, before stalking from the room.

Jessica blinked.

*****

“…and nobody hurts what belongs to me.”

The words reverberated inside her head.  So Alex had already decided that she belonged to him now, did he?  Well, she would see about that.  Anyway, if anybody was going to be inflicting bodily harm on those heinous individuals then it would be her, not him.  Ever since the sheriff had arrived, she’d been working herself up into such a state, worrying what Alex’s reaction would be on his return, but to simply be dismissed out of hand?  She could already feel her temper start to boil over.  She would show him that she wasn’t beholden to
anybody
.

Stepping out of the study, she observed his rapidly retreating form vanishing down the corridor in the direction of the main entrance and their newest addition to the house.  Hurrying to catch up with him, she cursed her overly large boots and after stumbling in them twice, she eventually gave up and kicked them off, instead chasing Alex, barefoot, down the hall.  She was just in time to observe the deputy that the sheriff had placed at the entrance to the reception room, step aside, to let Alex pass.  She could hardly blame him, having been on the receiving end of his ferocious glare already that evening.

Sheriff Abercrombie, however, was a different matter entirely.  He was not going to be intimidated and, most definitely, was not going to step aside.  Which relieved Jessica so much, that was, until she caught the tail end of their conversation.

“I’m the law here, and I’m not going to allow you to take it into your own hands,” the sheriff insisted.

“No,” Alex shook his head violently.  “You’re the law out there,” he pointed in the direction of the entrance hall.  “And you do so with my tacit understanding and agreement that I don’t interfere with how you do things, out there, but here, in my own home, I’m the law and once I’ve finished with them, and thrown their carcasses out the door, you’re more than welcome to them.  Until then,
get out of my way
!”

“Listen to yourself,” the older man persisted.  “You’re acting as if you’re one of
them
now.  Judge, jury and executioner.  You’re not like
them
, you’re better than this.”

“In this you’re completely and utterly wrong, for I’m
exactly
like them.  Now stand aside, or I’ll make you.  Decide quickly, for my patience is fast wearing thin.”

For the longest time the two of them stared at each other, a clash of wills, with seemingly neither of them willing to back down.  Finally, the sheriff’s eyes momentarily flickered to hers and then, with a knowing smile, he took a step back, raising his hands as if in surrender.  “Fine, do as you wish.  But remember their blood is on your hands, not mine.”

With that he took a step aside, allowing Alex to pass, much to Jessica’s incredulity.  If anybody could talk some sense into Alex, she thought it would have been him, as they seemed to have a close, unlikely friendship that she didn’t fully understand.  Well, if somebody had to make him see sense, then it would have to be her.  With a little luck she would have to hit him over the head with it, repeatedly.