Read Story: SEASON 2 EPISODE 71

Movement in my peripheral vision caught my attention. Tanaka had taken a moment to recover. He stared in shocked disbelief at Goon One’s corpse, and then started to whip his gun around and aim it at Chloe.

Doing the only thing I could in that moment, I kicked at his shins and ankles, managing to hook my foot around one. I gave it a fierce yank and was rewarded with the sight of Ryo’s eyes going wide seconds before he dropped on his back. I rolled across the floor at the wiry man and managed to pin his gun arm under my body as I stopped beside him, close enough that our faces were inches from each other.

His breath reeked.

“Fucker!” He screamed as he drove his fist into my shoulder. Then my jaw.

With my hands tied behind my back, I yelled wordlessly in pain and did the only thing I could. I raised my head and then drove it into the man’s face. Something crunched satisfyingly under my forehead.

My ear erupted in pain as Ryo struck it with his fist and I retaliated with another headbutt, my forehead becoming very intimate with his nose.

There was a gurgling, liquid gasp from somewhere behind me, and a body fell across me, pinning me on Tanaka. I could feel fresh, warm blood spill across my hands and soak my back. My heart skipped a beat, afraid that it was my bodyguard’s corpse that had fallen on top of me.

“I got this, Marcus.”

Chloe’s voice sounded from just behind me—cold, sharp, and determined.

I struggled to roll onto my back while underneath the corpse of Goon Two. A large knife—the one Chloe had been using for the last several days—protruded from the man’s throat. With Ryo’s arm still pinned underneath me, I looked up to see Chloe standing over both of us like the Angel of Death. She crouched over Tanaka and placed the barrel of his own pistol against the man’s forehead.

Ryo’s face was a mask of blood coming primarily from his broken nose, which was already swelling. His face was in such a wreck that it was hard to make out his expression, but there was no mistaking the abject terror in his eyes as he stared at the woman who suddenly held his life in her hands. The scent of ammonia filled the air, cutting through the strong smell of iron as he let out an almost animalistic bleat.

“Please,” Ryo whimpered.

“Chloe!” I panted, trying hard to ignore the taste of blood in my mouth that probably wasn’t mine.

She didn't respond.

Another whimper from Ryo. “Please…”

“Chloe!” I said again. “I want him alive!”

“Tough,” Chloe growled as she glared at the younger Tanaka. Her beautiful face was emotionless. Pittiless.

“Hey! It’s over! We’re safe, now!”

I squirmed a little more, trying to get my bodyguard to look at me. It was difficult to do with Goon Two’s corpse lying pinning me down while my hands were tied behind my back.

“Shea’s safe,” I continued. “The hostages are good. I’m good. You don’t have to do this!”

She didn’t respond.

Another wordless whimper from Tanaka.

An eternity passed with nothing but Ryo’s pitiful whining to fill the silence.

Then there was a snap as Chloe engaged the safety on the pistol.

Tanaka started to speak. “Wh—what are—”

Whatever he was going to say was cut off as Chloe drove the butt of the gun between his eyes hard enough to knock the man out.

“Not worth the bullet,” Chloe muttered.

I stopped struggling and collapsed to the floor, panting in blessed silence—aside from Chloe’s heavy breathing just behind me.

“Figured you’d try to do something stupid,” she muttered.

I managed a weak laugh. “Was I right, at least?”

“Barely,” she huffed. “You’re lucky I know you so well.”

______

Wednesday, September 11th, early evening

You’ve heard that expression, ‘It all flew by so fast.’

It’s usually said to describe moments of extreme excitement or trauma. When someone is in a car accident… or sometimes when they make love to someone for the first time. They’ll recount those events, but in pieces—broken and disjoined.

That’s how I remembered Vegas. My time in captivity could only be recalled in fragments and glimpses. Long stretches of time were blotted out, leaving me with a disjointed mess.

This time, it was the opposite.

I vividly recalled long swaths of my time in the forest, which lasted minutes at a time. I could replay every moment of the struggle on the helicopter. I remembered the smell of Ryo’s breath and the taste of blood in my mouth.

My journey back from the helicopter to the cabin? I couldn’t remember it at all. I only recalled a few fleeting looks from Chloe, grim as ever. Apparently Psalter showed up a few minutes after the fight, but it could have been hours, for all I knew. Time broke for a little bit. I guess I just spent the entire thing going over what had happened and marveling that I wasn’t halfway to Japan by now.

At the cabin, I remembered one of the staff crying as he talked to someone on the phone… a family member or something.

I remember Chloe and Shea seeing each other again, and Shea hugging her tight, looking over her shoulder at me with gratitude in her eyes.

I don’t remember anything else inside the cabin. I think Psalter had ordered a cleanup and investigation in case Tanaka had stashed something useful there, but I left all that behind. I didn’t care. Couldn’t care. It was all just too claustrophobic in there.

So I went outside to quiet myself and figure out what was going on.

Everything I had worked for over the last few days, I’d gotten. I just thought I would feel relief after all of it.

Maybe I needed time to process. Fight and flight had been my only options for so long that my adrenal glands had to be fried.

That was it. I was just tired.

I remembered hearing the thud of my shoes on the porch steps. Each one sounded like a slow, steady heartbeat… the exact opposite of what was happening in my chest.

It was over.

The bad guy was gone.

The good guy had won.

Raising my hand, I stared at the blood smeared across my fingers, surprised at how much someone could bleed. Looking at it… I should feel something, right?

I needed to feel something.

“They’re telling me they have Astrid cut free of the wreckage. She’ll be ready for transport soon,” Henry said.

I hadn’t even heard him approach. Maybe I was in shock.

I leaned against the cabin wall, dropped to my ass, and ran my bloody fingers through my hair, barely noticing the slick, sticky mess.

“Psalter,” I said.

“Yes?”

“Let’s go home.”

______

Thursday, September 12th, 4:17 pm

I put down my phone and glanced at Erin. She was fast asleep, looking completely content, curled under my arm. I reached up and brushed a strand of silver hair from her face and ran my fingertips along her forehead, allowing myself a moment to just be in awe of the beautiful, playful, loyal creature cuddled up against me. She was perfect, and in light of everything I’d just gone through, I was eternally grateful for whatever stroke of luck had put her in my path.

I felt a lump at the back of my throat beginning to form and had to work to make it go away.

Trust the women in my life to make me feel again. Who needed counseling or therapy when I had Erin and Helen?

That was healthy, right?

I kissed the top of her head, and a small smile graced her lips. Then I slowly extracted myself from her and stood up. That little smile turned into a frown, and I did my best to placate her by wrapping a blanket around her and giving her a chaste kiss on the lips. Then I left my sleeping beauty to see someone I owed a visit.

Normally, I would pass Shea while on a flight. The tiny Pacific woman was always just a few feet away, trying to anticipate my needs. This time, there was no flight attendant. No accidentally bumping into Shea and having her ask me what I needed..

Instead, I found her on a couch, wrapped up similarly and sleeping peacefully. The bruise had darkened on her face, but other than that, she’d been physically unharmed. Mentally, she seemed fine, but after what Natashya had been through, I was going to make sure Shea got the best psychological help possible before Shea ended up having night terrors… or dating my mom.

She must have sensed me approaching, because as I stopped beside the couch, she opened her eyes and smiled at me. “Hi,” she said sleepily.

“Hey,” I said, crouching beside her. I ran my fingers through her hair. My heart didn’t swell with an overabundance of feelings like it had with Erin, but I certainly had strong feelings for the woman I’d helped rescue from Tanaka. She’d risked her life for me in Vegas, and we had shared several tender moments together.

“You know, you don’t have to stay on this couch, right? We have several bedrooms.”

“I just fell asleep here earlier while talking to Tara.” She glanced around. “I guess she abandoned me.”

“You doing okay?”

Her full lips stretched in a broad smile. “A lot better than I was a few days ago.”

“You and me both,” I said. “Just let me know if you need anything.”

“I probably know where everything is on this plane better than you. Thank you, though,” she said.

That she could push back a little like that made me smile. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so concerned about her recovery. She did have some tactical training, after all.

“Okay. Get some sleep,” I said and stood up. Shea closed her eyes again, and I left her to her dreams.

There was one more conversation I needed to have.

Walking down the corridor, I stopped at a room, rapped on the door, and waited for a response.

“Marcus?” Chloe asked.

“Yeah,” I said through the door.

“I just got out of the shower.”

“Okay,” I said. “I just… I need a few minutes.”

“For what?”

“I want to talk.”

“About what?”

I rolled my eyes. “You know what.”

Seconds ticked by without a response, and I leaned against the door frame as I waited impatiently.

A lock clicked, and the door opened about six inches. No face in the opening invited me in, and no one told me to go away—just an open door and an implied message.

I glanced left to right to make sure no one was in sight and then slipped inside, quietly shutting the door behind me.

I wasn’t sure if I was walking into an argument, a confession, or a farewell.

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To Be Continued..