12- Pimple or Bullet?

12

 

Bullet or Pimple?

 

The Gross Proposition...

They laid on the couch.  It was a large sectional in an L-shape that took up most of their living room. They watched television, which had always been one of the Deveruax's favorite past times.  Leo looked over and watched as his wife fingered a growing pimple on her leg angrily.

She saw him watching her and felt the need to explain.  "This thing appeared this morning and will not go away."

Leo raised an eyebrow and grinned.  "I'm sure the constant picking helps."

Jo scowled at him.  "Seriously, I want to get rid of this thing."

"I could bite it."  He said.  Leo had been prone to saying gross things just for the sake of disgusting his wife.  It was a hobby that he enjoyed.

On cue, Jo's face curled into revulsion.  "Ugh, nasty!  Why would you say something like that?"

“Because that’s how much I love you.  I would pop one of your pimples with my teeth.”  He said, trying to trap her.

The joke was on him.  “I just want you to know, I don’t love you that much.”

He feigned insult.  “I’m hurt.”

She shrugged.

“If you had to either take a bullet for me or pop a pimple of mine with your teeth, which would you do?” Leo asked the brutal hypothetical but Jo didn’t flinch.

“Bullet.” She answered almost immediately.

Leo looked surprised.  “Really?  I mean the bullet could kill you, a pimple is just gross.”

“Don’t care.“  Jo answered.  “In that situation, you always take the bullet.”

****

Present…

Leo saw Barkley spin, gun in hand, and he willed his broken and beaten body to move.  He heard the gun bark two loud shots before he grabbed Barkley’s arm and pushed it up so it pointed toward the sky.  He loosely punched at the agent with his other hand, taking Barkley by surprise.

Barkley took the weak blow and fell back against the throttle, pushing it to a stop.  The boat quickly came to a halt in the lake waters.  The attack had more startled Barkley than anything, Leonard having been weakened from the pounding he had taken at the hands of the Russian.  Barkley hand not seen the attack coming and that was why he had allowed it to happen.

Leonard knew he didn’t have the strength to fight Barkley so instinct kicked in and it told him that controlling the gun was everything.  He placed his other hand on Barkley’s wrist and focused only on keeping the gun point away from him or anyone he cared about.

“Fat piece of shit!”  Barkley roared in irritation and began to rain blows down with his free hand on Leo’s neck and shoulders to attempt to force him to let go.

After the third or fourth blow (Leo was losing track), his resolve began to weaken.  All he could hope was that Jo had gotten out of range and that she was safe.  That was all that mattered to him now.  That was all that really mattered to him ever.

Leo began to lose his grip when the two of them were splashed with what seemed like buckets of water. The force and surprise made them stagger slightly.  Leo felt his grip slip and knew in the next second it would be over.

****

“Let him go and get down.  Come on Leo, get out of the way.“  Eliza was speaking as if Leonard could hear her out there on the lake, and realize he was just in the way and move.

Eliza had been tracking them and they had begun to move out of range when Leo had thrown himself at Barkley and, in the struggle, stopped the boat.  She now had the range and the shot if Leonard would just get out of the way long enough for her to take it.

“Yes!”  She yelled as Jo pulled her Jet Ski into a hard sideways stop as she reached the boat sending a miniature tsunami of water of the two men.  The move forced Leonard to let go and stagger.  Barkley rose to shoot him and Eliza’s finger began to tense on the trigger…

“Damn it!”  She cursed as, just before taking the shot, Jo dove off her Jet Ski and into the back of the boat crashing into Barkley before he could kill her husband but more importantly before Eliza could take the shot.

She released the trigger and continued to watch and wait, looking for her shot.

****

The water stunned them both but Leo lost his grip and stumbled.  Barkley regained his composure and was about to take the shot, but Jo could not let that happen.  She rushed forward, the adrenaline in her body helping her to ignore the pain in her shoulder.  She grabbed the wrist of Barkley’s gun hand with both hands, roaring as she did.

The roar was more for herself than anyone else.  A way to quiet the panic in her head.  Barkley became enraged as she grabbed at him.  “Where do you people keep coming from!”

Barkley placed his free hand on his own wrist and started to slowly point the gun back towards Josephine’s head.  She could see the dark opening of the barrel like a black hole and the pain in her shoulder flared.  The gun moved towards her.  She could not stop it.

Leo recovered, placing both hands on the barrel of the gun and beginning to pull it back away from her. They stood there for a second, deadlocked, wrestling over the firearm in a struggle for life and death. The Deveruaxs began to force the barrel back toward Barkley.  Even with their wounds, combined they had more strength then Barkley.

Barkley had something they didn’t, however, and that was experience.  He saw that Leo had his hands over the barrel so he fired the gun into the air.  The slide on the gun slid back and forth with the action catching the skin of Leo’s fingers and tearing them.  He howled in pain and let go.  At the same time, Jo was deafened and stunned by the sound so close to her.  Barkley ripped the gun away and punched Leonard hard to the face.  He staggered backwards and fell.  Barkley then backhanded Jo and she fell to Leo’s right.

Barkley raised the firearm and leveled it at them.  “You fucking tourists should have minded your own damn-“

One gunshot rang out, but not from the small boat.  It came from the shore line.  Simultaneously, Barkley’s chest plumed red as the rifle bullet entered through the front of his breastbone above his heart and exited out his spinal cord.

Barkley never got to finish his sentence, or anything for that matter, ever again.

The body tumbled backward over the side of the boat and into the water with a splash and just like that, it was over.

There was almost a full thirty seconds of silence as both Jo and Leo just sat there and blinked.  They fought to catch their breath.

“Did we win?” Leo finally asked through gasps.

Jo nodded to herself more than anyone else.  “Yeah.  Yeah, I think we did.”

“You took a bullet for me.”  Leo said and Jo turned toward him.

“What?” She asked, frazzled.

“You took a bullet for me.” He said again and reached out to point at it but accidently touched it.

She yowled in pain and slapped him.  “Ass!”

He yowled in pain when she slapped him.  “Hey, come on, that hurts.”

“Would you still take the bullet?”  He asked as the pain subsided.

“Huh?” She asked again not seeing what he was getting at.

“Instead of popping the pimple with your teeth.”  He explained.  “Now that you have taken the bullet, would you still choose it over the pimple?”

Her shoulder was on fire and her chest and arm covered in blood.  “Yes, you always take the bullet in that situation.”

Somehow, through the pain, they found the ability to laugh.

****

A Freakin’ Castle…

“Were are we going?” Jo asked again, she hated not driving but Leo had insisted.

Leo just smiled in reply.  “It’s a surprise.”

It had been two weeks since their so called vacation to Michigan where all hell had broken loose.  After an extended stay at the hospital, the D.H.S had paid for their remaining stay and the head of Homeland Security himself came in to thank them personally.  Leo had been beside himself but Jo had been suspicious that it had just been a way to keep them from suing.

They were now trying to figure out what to do with their remaining millions.  Jo was savvy and knew that though $50,000,000.00 seemed like a lot now it wouldn’t last them forever if they just blew it on whatever they wanted.  They would have to use this opportunity to make their fortune so they wouldn’t have to work again.

“So, any more ideas on what to do with the money?”  She asked.  Leo took a breath and Jo quickly corrected her mistake before he could capitalize.  “Aside from buying a comic shop.”

Leo exhaled, defeated.  He took a second then shrugged.  “I’m not sure.  We should probably buy stock or something like that.”

Jo raised her eyebrow at him.  “Do you have any idea what that involves?”

He shook his head.  “No, I was hoping you did.”

She shook her head.  “Oh well, we’ll figure something out.  We just need to be careful spending it.”

Leo made a grimace and Jo narrowed her eyes at him.  “What was that?”

He recovered and shook his head but the damage was done.  Jo pressed him.  “How much did you spend?”

Leo looked meek.  “Just a couple of million or so.”

Jo Looked shocked.  “What in God’s name could you have spent a couple of million on?!”

Leo stopped the car and pointed.  “That.”

Jo stared in amazement and confusion.  “Is that… a castle?!”

The house was huge and sprawling in front of them, made of old brick and stone to resemble an old English castle.  “That is a freakin’ castle!”

“Why?” Jo sputtered aghast.

 “Because we are winners, babe.”  He said.  “And winners have castles.”

Jo couldn’t help but laugh and Leo reached over and pulled her into him before she could stop him kissing her hard, she kissed him back. Love didn’t always make sense but it did make happiness.

He broke away.  “Not to mention, we can build our bat cave under it.”

Leo wiggled his eyebrows and then got out of the car.  She shook her head.  “No… Leo.  No.  We are not super heroes.  Leo, are you listening to me?!  Leo?!”

END OF SEASON 1

11- Keep Going

11

 

Keep Going

 

Eliza’s story…

Eliza tried to cover her ears with her hands but no matter how hard she pressed, it never seemed to block out the sounds, not really.  Even if it could have stopped her from hearing the screams, sobs and the echo of her father's fist crashing into her mother's face, she just would have heard it in her own head.

There was no escaping it.

She curled up tighter into a ball on her bed.  The people on the posters and pictures stuck to her wall seemed to stare as if to mock her fear.  She felt a pang of regret as she realized she was more worried about dear old dad deciding to come upstairs than her mother's well-being.

The fear that racked Eliza Adams thirteen-year-old body was all-encompassing.  It was so heavy, it was a physical pain that spread from her head to her feet.  Tears streamed down her face but she was not crying.  It was like her body was shaking them out of her.

She just wanted it to be over, wanted to go back to pretending they were a normal family.  She wanted to go back to the fairy tale life where her father did not get drunk once every two weeks or so and beat the shit out of her mother, and sometimes her.

After what seemed like an eternity, the screaming stopped with a slamming of the front door.  Her father had left too cool off.  He would return sometime in the middle of the night a different person, filled with guilt and regret.  He would apologize and win her mother over and the pretending would resume... until next time.

She relaxed slowly like a scared animal coming out of its hiding spot after a great storm.  Her door opened and at first she tensed, half expecting it to be the dark creature that possessed her father, but instead it was her mother.

She would have been a beautiful woman if the years of stress and abuse had not taken such a devastating toll on her.  Her right eye and the left side of her mouth were swollen and beginning to turn purple.  There was a deadness in her, like the life and energy had been drained from her soul.

She sat down on the bed next to Eliza and held her in her arms.  Eliza broke into sobs as she always did.

"You be strong, Liz.  You never stop."  Her mother repeated over and over like a mantra and Liz knew that one day she would be all out of tears.  One day she would find the strength to stop this fear that came in waves.

"You never stop."

 

****

Reality brutally returned to agent Eliza Adams.  She took a deep breath of air, as if she had surfaced from the water after a long dive, then coughed.  The bullets her partner had fired into her abdomen had been stopped by her standard issue vest.  The close range and impact had still pounded into her and knocked her out by forcing the air out of her lungs.

"Jesus!"  One of the Sheriffs standing over her said as Agent Adams returned to the land of the living.

Eliza ripped at her shirt sending buttons scattering along the pavement.  She then caught the Velcro and pulled it, freeing the vest that swung open and just like that she felt like she could breathe again.  She did not care that she was lying in just a bra in the middle of a crowd of strangers.  She was just happy she had oxygen in her lungs one more time.

"Status." She said in a raspy voice and everyone just kind of looked back and forth at each other, confused.

Eliza took a deep breath.  "What is the status of the situation?  Where is Barkley?"

One of the Sheriffs was squared into speaking.  "Sorry ma'am.  He took a hostage and confiscated a boat.  We radioed for a copper and the police boat’s ETA.  Five minutes till intercept."

Eliza nodded and forced her jelly legs back to the solid form they had once been and stood.  As she did, she looked around and noticed something.  "Where is Josephine?"

The Sheriff looked confused.  "Who?"

"The female civilian.  The one woman who got into the ambulance with the hostage!"  Her patience was wearing thin.

The Sheriffs looked around and shrugged and Liz knew then exactly were Jo would be, where she had always been.  With her husband.

"I need a rifle, now!"  Eliza said and the Sheriff hopped to the task of finding her one as Eliza began to hobble toward the dock where Barkley had killed the tour guide and made off with the boat.  She could she him shred the water already two hundred yards out.

She turned and saw the Sheriff running back toward her.   He had a Remington 700 .308 with a scope.  "I use this for hunting!"

He tossed the gun to her and she caught it, flipping it around and spinning.  The rifle was bolt action.  She pulled the bolt up and jammed it open.  The Sheriff handed her a couple of bullets but she only grabbed one, she only had time for one, and jammed it into the rifle before closing the action with a satisfying mechanical clank.

Eliza had always hated scopes.  She understood they were necessary but hated not having any peripheral vision.  There was something about it that unnerved her and made it hade for her to find the target and lead it properly.  She would have to make do.

She raised the gun to her shoulder and closed an eye, peering through the scope.  She saw Barkley at the helm of the boat.  Leo was draped over the back of the boat, his head and arm dangling.  She cursed her luck.  He was moving too fast for her to be able to get a clean shot off and soon he would be too far for her to take a shot altogether.

She scanned the water and that's when she saw her.  Jo was on a Jet Ski she had confiscated from the docks, racing after Barkley and her husband in distress.  This made matters worse.  Jo was not combat trained, she was just a scared wife, bumbling after her husband and putting herself in the way.

"What are you doing, Jo?" Eliza mumbled to herself as she watched and hoped for an opening to present itself.

 

*****

"What in the hell am I doing?!"  Jo yelled to herself as she gunned the Jet Ski and bounced over the wake that was created by Barkley's newly acquired boat.

This was a defining moment for Josephine because she had never seen herself doing anything like this. She was not this person who dives in head first and hopes everything works out, that was her husband. She was a ‘tell the cops and worry’ sort of person.  Her logical brain told her she couldn't possibly help, and that she was, in all probability, making things worse.

As much as she knew this, there was another part of her, the part that had made her defy her instincts and fall for the man in the silly hats and the stupid shirts.  The part that could not imagine her life without him.  The part that commanded she go after him, that she free Leonard or die trying.

She turned the accelerator and pushed the Jet Ski harder.

She saw Leo look up and see her as she closed in on the boat and a myriad of emotions passed over his face, both happiness and concern were in them as he knew she was putting herself in danger for him.

Barkley turned and saw her as well.  She saw his mouth twist into a curse as he turned and fired his pistol.  She heard the three pops, clear as day, and felt an impact rock through her.  Instinctively, she gripped the Jet Ski and didn't fall backward.

The pain started a second later.  It began at her shoulder and blitzed forward through her upper chest and torso.  The bullet had caught her in the meat of her shoulder.  Blood began to run out of the hole and drip down her hand and arm as well as her tank top.

She had come to a stop in the water on the machine trying not to let the hurt go too deep, trying not to let it get to her.  She had never been a fan of pain, but now it had become her enemy.

She heard the pop of the gun a couple more times and looked up.  The boat had come to a stop as well, only fifty-or-so feet ahead of her.  Barkley struggled with a beaten and hurt Leonard and Jo knew he would lose this fight.

Logic told her to stay where she was but love made her twist the accelerator and rush, head long, into trouble one more time, live or die, for the man she loved.

TO BE CONTINUED...

10- For Points

10

For Points

For Points…

“It was the roommate,” Josephine said, only ten minutes into episode.  “He did it because he is secretly in love with the girlfriend.”

Leonard’s eyebrow arched at the prediction.  “It is still pretty early in the show to make that kind of statement.”

Jo smirked back at him across the couch, curled under her favorite blanket on a cold October night.  “For points.”

That meant she was serious.  For points had been a little game they had organically invented some time ago.  Basically, if you called ‘for points’, you were sure of the outcome of the show without a shadow of a doubt.  It was as if to say you were playing for points.  Although no formal point system had been invented to go along with it, Leo was positive Jo was ahead.  She was always ahead.  She just had that knack for understanding the mystery in front of her.

In addition to constantly battling for points that didn’t really exist, the game also kept them from ever really just enjoying the natural progression of the show.  In the rare cases where both failed to predict the ending, they both felt unsatisfied with the program.

“For points?” Leo questioned the action.  “You sure you want to do that?  The night is young.”

“You are just upset because you know I am right and you didn’t get to the answer first.”  She mocked him.

Leo put up his hands in surrender.  “Alright, champ.  Your loss.”

“I’m right.  You know it.”  She twisted the knife.

He knew she was.  “What ever happened to just watching T.V.?”

Jo smiled.  “It was boring.”

****

Jo climbed into the back of the ambulance after her husband was wheeled into it on a stretcher.  It was safe to say the vacation had not been what they expected.

Thankfully, the paramedics were in no hurry.  Leo was beat up but he was not fatal or critical in any area so, with some time and a little love, he would heal and be back to being the husband Jo had married.

A second later, the last two people she wanted to see climbed into the ambulance; the two D.H.S agents.

The man, Barkley was his name she thought, closed the doors behind them.

“Give us a break, will you?” Jo said, irritation heavy in her voice.  It was obvious she had been crying.  Her eyes were red and wet with tears but she had recovered control before getting into the ambulance. Leo didn’t need to see that.  Not now.

“It’s okay, babe.” Leo said weakly.  “They are just doing their jobs.”

“I’m truly sorry ma’am just a couple more questions.” Liz said, the regret in her voice was honest but Jo had had enough.

“Look,” Jo said, finally.  “You have this all wrong.  The guy in the lobby, who had the drive in the first place, he’s not your traitor.”

Eliza looked stunned and then Barkley chuckled.  “I don’t think so, Miss Dev-e-rocks.  We have it from a reliable source in the D.H.S itself that he was planning to sell secrets.”

Jo rolled her eyes.  “Let me ask you a question.  Since you’ve been after this guy, did you do any research on him?”

Barkley was getting frustrated.  “Of course we did, he was financially bankrupt and was looking for a payout.  It was his motivation.”

Jo nodded.  “Of course it was his motivation but not for being a traitor.  For blackmailing the traitor instead of turning him in.”

Eliza was interested.  “What you are saying?  You think Bill Lentz wasn’t the traitor?”

Jo nodded again.  “I got into that flash drive that has everyone so crazy.  You know what I found?  Video files.  What kind of state secret is in a video file?”

Eliza was many things, stupid was not one of them.  She started to understand what Jo was getting at. “The video files have the real traitor on them.”

Barkley turned to Adams.  “You’re not buying this, are you?”  He looked back at Jo and Leo.  “Okay, Nancy Drew.  I think you’ve watched too many television shows.  This is not CSI Miami.  We are trained federal agents.  We don’t need to hear some wild story from the imagination of… tourists.”

Liz put her hand up to Barkley signaling him to stop talking.  “Wait, I want to hear this theory.  We haven’t come up with anything substantial and at least this seems to make sense.”  She redirected her focus back to Joe and Leo.

Jo continued to talk directly to Eliza since she was the one listening.  “He collects evidence on the actual traitor but instead of coming forward, his financial problems become too much and he decides to blackmail him.  The traitor wants no part of that and pins it all on Lentz.”

Liz shook her head.  “But that would never work once we picked him up we would have the video files and it would clear his name and expose the traitor.”

“That’s where the Russians come in.”  Leo broke in, weakly.  “The traitor leaks it to the merc’s that Lentz has secrets on him, they kill him and take the only evidence that exists proving his innocence.  To you guys it looks like a sale gone wrong and the traitor walks.”

Jo turned to Leo and smiled, falling in love with him all over again.  He smiled back and said two words. “For points.”

Jo kissed him.  “For points.”

“For points?” Liz asked, confused.

Neither turned from each other’s gaze but both said in unison.  “You wouldn’t understand.”

There was a moment of prefect silence, a moment far away from the chaos that had been this vacation so far.

It did not last.

“So how do we find the traitor?” Liz asked finally.

Jo sighed, and they turned back towards Liz.  “Look, it’s easy.  Just find out who accused Bill Lentz in the first place and that is your man.”

Eliza Adams shook her head.  “Yeah, but that was Barkley.”

Another second of silence came but this one was different.  It was a calm before the storm as everyone realized the obvious truth.  Barkley Samuels was the traitor.

Barkley finally shook his head and chuckled.  “Fucking tourists.”

He drew his firearm and Adams reached for his hand catching his wrist but she was too late.  Barkley fired three shots up into her abdomen at close range.  Liz felt her strength fade but she held onto his hand as long as he could to try and give the Deverauxs as much of a shot at surviving as possible.

Leo had only a split second to react and with his free hand, he shoved his wife backwards and knocked lose the switch that held the stretcher wheels in place.  In the next second the bed lurched forward and slammed into Barkley and the doors popped open.  Both Leo and Barkley tumbled out of the back of the ambulance and crashed to the hard pavement.

Leonard hit hard and with the injuries he already had, it hurt twice as bad.  He waited for the shots to come as the sheriffs and emergency personnel drew and emptied their clips into the sinister traitor. Instead, everyone stopped what they were doing and stared in confusion at the heap of person and metal.

Then it dawned on Leo, no one outside the ambulance knew he was the traitor yet.

Jo screamed.  “Stop him!  Stop Barkley, he is the traitor!  He just shot agent Adams!”

It was too late.  Barkley, now with madness and desperation in his eyes, used the confusion to grab the back of Leo’s head by the hair and drag him to his feet, his service pistol pressed to the wounded man’s temple.

“Nobody move!” He screamed.

The mood changed and everybody froze.  A thick tension engulfed the area.

“Nobody follow!”  Barkley yelled and backed towards the docks, dragging Leonard with him.

TO BE CONTINUED….

9- I Got This

9

I got this

Leonard had never really been in a fight before, not really.

He had plenty of scrapes and scuff ups in high school with other kids, of course.  Those had a tendency to end fast, someone broke it up or someone got hit and started crying… that was about it.  With that in mind it would be hard for Leonard to really say he had been in a true fight, one where someone was trying to hurt you, possibly even kill you, with their hands and feet.

Until now.  He also found it hard to believe that his body would ever let him forget it.  He ached from head to toe.  He was bruised and peppered with small glass cuts.  His only solace was in the fact that he had definitively won the fight, in that he was still alive.  Leo’s opponent, who he suspected might have been the bad guy in Rocky IV, was not so lucky.

Nevertheless as Leo crawled through the glass of the deck and back into the hotel room to his wife, he couldn’t help apologizing each time he touched the dead body.

“He can’t hear you.”  Jo said, using the sarcasm to contain her tears.

“Force of habit.”  Leo muttered as he reached her chair and began to undo the tape that held her to the chair.

“Habit?” She choked.  “How many people have you fought to the death before?”

“I think he should count as five.”  Leo mocked as he freed her.  “So, five.”

She dropped out of the chair and the two embraced desperately, like two people who honestly thought they would never get to touch the other again.

Like two people who loved each other.

****

The 2^nd Date was the winner…

Josephine wondered why she was giving him a second chance.

The first date had been awful and awkward and nothing special.  He had shown up in his ‘best’ outfit which had involved sandals.

A best outfit should never involve sandals.

He had taken her out on a Monday, which was pretty bad in itself but she had let that go because he seemed so eager.  He took her to a movie and then to a small, not so good restaurant in downtown Kent and the conversation had been less than special.  He had picked her up in his junker of a car, which made her wonder the whole time if this was the first date she would have to walk home from.

She had gone to high school with Leonard Deveruax so it had been nearly ten years since she had seen him.   She barely remembered him since they had run in very different circles but, through the endless magic of social media, he had found her.  He asked her out, proclaiming that he had always had a crush on her in high school which seemed more than a little crazy to Jo.

Almost like a stalker.

Jo had decided to give him a chance based on a piece of parental advice to ‘never turn down a free meal’, which was just about all she had gotten out of it.  So, she found herself wondering why she was giving him a second chance now.  As bad as the date was there had been something about him, something that gnawed at the pit of her stomach, something she could not quite put her finger on.

Her curiosity had always been her downfall, this was no different, and she had to get to the bottom of it. What was it about him that had made her say yes to a second date?  She would find out tonight and be done with it.

The doorbell rang and her big, yellow lab began barking like the cranky roommate she was.  Jo made her way to the door and yelled at her dog to stop barking which received a questioning look in return, one that said, “Really a second date?”

She opened the door and Leo smiled, his hand behind his back.  “I hope you don’t mind, I got you something.”

Jo had a momentary flash of man rushing forward, knife in hand, to kill her, skin her, and wear her like a coat.

She shook that off.  “What is it?”

He revealed a big purple potted orchid.

Josephine couldn’t help her smile.  “Wow, how did you know?”

Orchids where one of Jo’s favorite flowers but it wasn’t common knowledge.  She didn’t talk about flowers much.

He shrugged.  “When we were in high school you sat behind me in English.  You mentioned it once to one of your friends who sat next to you and I just…  Well, I hope you still like them.”

Josephine had always been very observant.  She could put the dots together like no one else and was very rarely wrong when she did.  Like some many times before, this one gesture was the piece of the puzzle she needed to put it all together and she understood the feeling in her stomach.  It was a voice telling her that he loved her.

Maybe he was a stalker, maybe it wasn’t a good idea, but she realized right then and there that Leonard Devearuax was different.

****

Barkley looked shocked.  That surprised Liz since Barkley had been on the job for over ten years and had to have seen it all but apparently there was still one thing he had no experience with.  That one thing was the Deveruaxs.

More to the point, what the Deveruaxs had done.  Somehow this chubby married couple who had originally nothing to do with the flash drive or the killing in the lobby had managed to take down a group of highly trained Russian wet work specialists.

Barkley and Liz headed to the wrecked van first and found three of the dead ‘software designers’ inside. They had called it in and made a bee-line for the hotel to find the other two Russians dead inside.  One was filled full of holes, the other impaled on a piece of glass.

“How in the hell,” was all he could mutter to himself.

It was at this point that Leonard, beaten half to a pulp and hugging Josephine noticed to two agents staring at the chaos.  “I got this…” He muttered and Jo turned to see them.

Jo had stifled her tears.  There was concern on her face for how the agents would interpret the scene.  “They held me hostage and tried to kill us.”

“Didn’t work out very well for them, did it?”  Barkley couldn’t help but mutter and Liz gave him a dirty look.

She then turned back to the couple.  “We understand.  It’s over.  There is nothing left to worry about.”

Jo was calmed by Liz’s gentle tone.  Liz could tell they were both suffering shock.  It was to be expected after such a situation.  Liz continued, “I’m going to take a look at Leo, okay?  Let’s get you both into the living room, alright?”

Liz and Jo helped Leo into the other room and onto the couch.  It was about that time that the sheriff’s department arrived in full tilt, at least half the force showed up to the reports of gunfire and violence, the likes of which the city had never seen.

****

Meet the parents…

“You can’t wear that shirt.”  She said as Leo put on a green T-Shirt that said ‘If I tell you I’m Irish will you kiss me?’ In bold letters on the front.

This caused him to stop, mid action with it only over his head.  “I can’t?”

Jo shook her head.  “No, you can’t.”

It was the first meeting of Leo and Jo’s parents and the encounter had significance.  Her family was like any other, they would smile and be nice to Leo and then inform Jo later how terrible he had been.  She needed him to make a good impression and although she had come to terms with his quirkiness, even began to fancy it, her family would not.

“I thought you loved me for who I am?”  Leo countered playfully.

Jo nodded.  “Indeed I do, but my parents just need to love you in general.”  She said as she looked for one of the nicer waffle-knit shirts he kept for rare, special occasions.

“So, when do I get to wear my shirts?” He asked, baiting her.

“How about this, when the occasion is one that you plan, with your friends you can where whatever you want, but when it’s my friends or family you have to leave the novelty shirts at home.”  She laid out the bargain and he took her in his arms and kissed her.

When they parted, she shook her head.  “You’re not kissing your way out of this.  Do we have a deal?”

Leo smirked at her. “Fair enough, but I’m going to wear you down, mark my words.”

Josephine sat in a chair in the corner of the room watching as the EMTs checked Leo out.  They were calling on their radios for a stretcher and a backboard to be brought in to transport him to the local hospital.  Jo thought that was probably a little overkill, seeing as how he was up walking around.  The officer from the Sherriff’s department and the male federal officer were standing over her asking her questions regarding the events that had led up to the gruesome scene that was laid out before them.  She didn’t even know what they were saying.  All she could think about was her husband and how close they had come to losing each other.  She answered the questions in a haze with short, quick answers while her history with Leo played through her mind like a movie.

TO BE CONTINUED.

****

8- Duality

8

Duality

How Leonard retells this part of the story…

Leonard had made his way back to the hotel fast.  He placed the small sub-machine gun under a newspaper he had found discarded in the street in order to not draw attention to himself.  Slipping in the front door, he made his way to the front desk.  The teller was a perky little twenty-something girl with blonde hair.

“Can I help you with something, sir?”  She looked up and saw the spattering of blood on his face from the van crash.  “My God!  Are you bleeding?”

Leonard shook his head and placed his free hand on her shoulder.  “Calm down, it’s not my blood.  I need you to call the police and get them here now.  Russian assassins have taken my wife hostage and are holding her against her will in Penthouse 1.  Do you understand?”

The girl nodded and picked up the phone.  Leonard began to move toward the elevators with purpose in his stride.  The girl at the desk cried out to him.  “Sir, where are you going?”

“Can’t wait for the cops, I’m going to have to do this myself.”  Leonard said, without turning back.

“Your wife is a lucky woman!”  The desk clerk called out to him as he stepped onto the elevator and pushed the button for the top floor.

“She knows.”  Leo said coolly as the door shut.

The lift began to pull him toward the top and he checked his gear.  Pulling the clip out, he saw he had half of it, sixteen bullets left. That should be enough to do what he had to do.  He jammed the clip back into the handle of the gun, then racked the slide before thumbing the safety off.

The elevator hit the top floor and dinged before opening.  Leonard stepped to the side, just in case something was waiting for him in the hallway.  When no shouts or gunfire came, he began to move through the hall, gun at the ready.

He made it to the door without a problem, then decided to knock.  “Housekeeping.”

He heard the movement inside and then the door began to open.  It was go time.

“Don’t move!” He yelled as the Russian opened the door and came face to face with the rage of a determined husband.

Leonard watched the man’s eyes go to his own machine gun hanging at his side, then back to Leo as if sizing up whether or not he could get to it before Leonard let loose with a burst.

“Go ahead.  Make my day.” Leonard said with a smile.

The Russian snapped his hand to his gun but he wasn’t nearly fast enough.  Leonard put pressure on the hair trigger of the Oozie and the gun barked, sending a stream of bullets into the target.  The Russian’s body twitched as the bullets entered it making him dance like some kind of deranged marionette.  He then fell to the floor, his blood pooling into the carpet.

“There goes my deposit” Leo quipped.

Stepping from the dining room was the biggest Russian Leonard had ever seen.

Scratch that, the biggest person Leonard hard ever seen.  A towering Goliath with short blonde hair and a hard, angled face.

Leonard pulled the Oozie open and tried to shoot him but the gun clicked in his hand.  The thing had jammed.  The gun was old and cheap and it was only a matter of time before it crapped out on him.

The big man pulled a .45 caliber pistol, pointing it and firing at the stylishly dressed American who had thrown a wrench in his plans.  Leonard tossed the useless gun away and dove into the kitchen just in time as the bullets slammed into the woodwork and carpentry around him.

The Russian followed Leo into the kitchen but Leo was already grabbing a frying pan and with one swing knocking the gun out of the Russian’s hand.  He then brought it back into the Russians face.

The monster staggered before kicking his meaty leg into Leo’s chest, staggering him back against the wall making him drop the pan.  The monster advanced, catching Leo’s throat and lifting him by it with one hand.

Leonard kept his cool knowing he would have to outsmart his opponent.  He quickly knife-hand-chopped the Russian’s throat.  The beast choked and dropped Leonard back to his feet.  Leonard leapt into the air and dropkicked the Russian with both his legs to the man’s chest, sending the beast backward through the door to the dining room.

The Russian crashed through the door breaking it off its hinges.  He hit the floor and began to bring himself to his feet.  Leonard dropped into a classic Bruce Lee pose, snapping his thumb to his nose twice to pay homage to the great warrior before charging.

Leonard’s blows were fast and many, raining down on the big Russian.  His punches seemed to strike him everywhere and all at once, stumbling him backward in to the living area in front of Josephine.

“Leonard!  I knew you’d come!”  She yelled, ecstatically.

Leo smiled, finishing his combo with a leaping karate-style jump kick.  The Russian went backward through the glass patio door and over the edge of the railing, toppling to the pavement five floors below.

A single white dove landed on the railing then flew away.

“Damn you are so good, and attractive!  What would I do without you?!” Josephine said as Leonard untied her.

“I don’t know, babe.  I am pretty awesome, aren’t I?” Leonard responded with a smile.

The ropes came lose and the two embraced, happy to be together again…

 

How Josephine retells this part of the story (how it really happened)…

Leonard burst through the front door of the hotel panicked out of his mind.  So much so, he had not thought to hide the machine gun that he was carrying while running around the city.  He turned and saw the perky woman at the counter who had yet to notice him.

“Ma’am you have to call the police there is-“ Leonard was abruptly cut off as she noticed the man in a blood covered novelty shirt waving a machine gun.

“He’s got a gun!” She screamed at the top of her lungs and dropped behind the desk.

“No, no I-“ Leonard tried to explain but was drown out by the bar patrons, continental breakfast eaters, and loungers waiting for a room, collectively screaming and panicking at the thought of being mowed down by a lunatic with an Oozie.

“Oh, come on!” Leonard yelled.  “Just call the police when I’m gone!”

Leonard ran onto the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor.  He would have to find a way to do this himself.  He had a short minute to check the gun and try to figure out how it worked or how much ammo was in it or even how to turn the safety off.

Realizing he had no idea, he would just have to rely on the threat of violence instead of violence itself.

The elevator dinged and Leonard jumped, having forgotten for a second where he was.  The doors slid open and he moved toward the room.  He knocked.  “Housekeeping!”

He heard the footsteps inside as someone came to the door, it began to open and Leonard yelled.  “Don’t move!”

Caught up in the excitement of the rescue attempt, Leonard, a man who had never held a gun much less a machine gun with a hair trigger, tensed slightly.  This was all it took and the gun began to unload.  Bullets ripped through the door and into the unknown person on the other side.  Leonard had also failed to prepare for the recoil.  The continued recoil pushed the barrel up at the ceiling and carved out a chunk of plaster which fell on Leonard who staggered before the, now empty, gun clicked.

“Jesus…” Leonard said in the sudden silence afterwards.

He pushed the bullet riddled door open and saw the dead Russian on the other side.  “I’m really sorry about that.”

“You have got to be kidding me.”  The booming Russian voice came from the inside of the hotel room and Leonard looked to see the biggest man he had ever seen shaking his head in confusion.

“All the wars and missions we have been on together and one idiot who doesn’t understand how machine guns work brings him down.” The Russian said as he lumbered toward Leonard.

Leonard tried to stay strong.  “I… I… I just want my wife.”

The big man gave him a mocking surprised look.  “Oh, is that right?  You think you are in a position to order me around?”

The big man pulled a pistol and put it to Leonard’s head.  “He deserved a better death than you.  Now I will punish you.”

The Russian tossed the gun away and grabbed Leonard by the throat hurling him sideways into the kitchen.  Leonard staggered into the stove, grabbing for anything that he could to try to get himself out of this.  He snatched a frying pan and brought it toward the beast’s head.

The Russian caught it.

He smiled and punched Leonard in the face.  The experience was unlike any other Leonard had in his life. At first when the punch connected it was like a second of nothing, as if the force of the blow had momentarily stopped his brain.  Then it came back online just in time to tell him he was falling.

Then, the waves of pain shot through his head.  He could see his noise leaking blood onto the tile floor.

The giant grasped his throat with his hand, lifting him into the air.  This cut off his air supply. Desperately, he tried to punch the hand that gripped him.  The blows had no effect other than to make the Russian grin.

The beast then hurled Leo upside down into the door to the dining room.  The top hinges gave way and Leo crashed into the floor awkwardly.  The big Russian began to kick through the rest of the door to get to his prey.

Leonard was convinced now that comic book characters were real and he was fighting an evil Hulk.  He began to crawl away.  Moving in the opposite direction of the Siberian death machine behind him was the best idea he could come up with.

He crawled because he couldn’t remember how to tell his legs how to walk.

“Leonard?” The confused voice of Josephine was to his left.  He had crawled into the living area in front of where she was taped to a chair.

“Oh.  Hey babe.  I’m here to rescue you.”  Leonard sputtered out through the blood leaking into his mouth.

“You’re going to get yourself killed!” Josephine’s concern for her husband was obvious.

“That is a distinct possibility.”  Leonard said.  He would have giggled but the giant, size fourteen boot kicked him across the face.

The Russian had caught up.

“Leave him alone!  I’ll tell you where it is!” Josephine pleaded for her husband’s life but the plea fell on deaf ears.

“Too late for that, my team must be avenged!”  The Russian dragged Leonard upright and punched him again sending him backwards through the glass patio door.  Only the railing kept Leonard from falling five stories down to the concrete pavement.

The glass had torn his shirt and cut his body in hundreds of small places.  It was over.  Leonard had failed.  He and his wife were going to be killed.

The Russian began to advance but Josephine, who had been working hard to get free, had managed to get her left leg loose.  She stuck it out and caught the Russian’s ankle.  He tripped and went forward, face-first into the remnants of the broken glass door.  A large shard driving directly through the man’s eye and into his brain.

He twitched twice and then stopped moving.

Leonard sat there breathing hard.  “Leonard to the rescue.”

“You idiot.”  Josephine spoke with tears of joy in her eyes.

TO BE CONTINUED…