Redemption, p.4
Redemption, page 4
I’d been stunned by the question. If anything, I should’ve been asking her what happened to her face.
Still, she had a light voice. “Who hit you?”
“My. . .uh. . .husband. We’re. . .” Discomfort took my words. “I’m just trying to pay for my gas. We’ll be out of here soon.”
“He hit you a lot.” She rose from her seat and gave me a better view of her face.
It was ungodly, but I didn’t want to be disrespectful and look away. On the left side, her face was smooth and beautiful with red hair outlining that side and curling under her chin. On the right, the scaly scars shone, and no hair grew on three inches of the scalp. Rough tufts blended into red hair that fell back and curled. Gray hair teased the scalp suggesting her age, but nothing more.
She studied me and shook her head. “He hit you good.”
I looked down at the floor in embarrassment. “Yeah. We’re trying to get away from him.”
The burned side of her face didn’t move. “That storm won’t let you get away from him tonight.”
“Are there any hotels around here?”
“There’s several past the road, but it’s a good hike.” She pointed to the ceiling. “You could stay with me for a few days, but you got to hide that car in the back. I don’t need any trouble.”
“Oh, no. We’ll be fine. I can make it to the hotels.”
“I hope you can.”
“Thank you. I appreciate the offer.”
I dug my hands in my pocketbook.
She waved. “Save your money. I don’t need it as much as you do.”
I opened my mouth in shock.
“Take as much gas as you need. And let the kids get whatever they want.”
A tear left my eye. I tried my best not to break down, but there it came. I hurried to wipe my tears away. “I’m sorry. I just. . .”
“You’re having a rough time. That’s all.” She sat back down. “That don’t mean that next week or next year will be this bad.”
I rubbed at my hurt eye. “Thank you so much.”
“Just pay it forward, when you have the money.”
“I will.”
“I know you will.”
She gestured toward the bathroom to where the kids had disappeared. “And take care of those babies.”
“I’m trying.”
“You are.” She nodded. “Best thing you can do is run away. If my mama had, maybe I would be a whole lot prettier.”
My eyes burned but I refused to let more tears come. “I’m sorry.”
She grinned. “He’s sorrier now. Thanks to a good friend.”
The kids hurried back, before I could ask what she meant. Thankfully, when they saw her face, no one commented. The woman told them to get what they wanted. Their eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning.
Minutes later, we returned to the car with snacks.
I gassed up and headed away.
When we got five blocks from the gas station, a fork stood in the road.
“Shit,” I muttered.
“What’s wrong?” Kia munched on chips.
“The woman said the hotels were up the road, but I don’t know which road to take.”
The windshield wipers glided snow from side to side. I tapped the steering wheel. “Left or right.”
Jalen yelled out, “Right.”
Kia shrugged. “Right has to be right.”
Jalen giggled. “Right doesn’t have to be right.”
“It’s right.” Kia ate another chip. “Right is right.”
“Okay. Okay.” I shook my head. “Then, right it is. If it isn’t, then we’ll turn around and go left.”
God, please let this be the way.
We headed down the road. No streetlights hovered ahead. I shook my head, knowing I must’ve gone the wrong way. The other problem was that it was a hilly dirt road. With places like that, it might’ve been some deep ditches on the sides. If I tried to do a U-turn, I didn’t want to fall in and have us stuck there.
“Okay, everybody.” I turned my high beams on. “I need those young eyes.”
“We’re here.” Jalen put his candy bar down and went to the window. “What are we looking for, Mommy?”
“A driveway or road where I can do a U-turn.”
“I think we passed one house,” Kia offered.
I gripped the steering wheel hard. “Let’s see if we’ll pass another one.”
Come on, God. I know you love us.
The road took a sharp turn. The car shuddered as I rounded the curve, almost gliding on the slippery surface.
“There’s a house up there.” Jalen pointed ahead.
“Good job.” I headed that way.
“That place looks creepy,” Kia said.
“Hey, we just need to use the road. No worries.” I kept the car at a steady pace.
Once we got to the house’s driveway, I slowed and turned into it. Too bad a wooden and wire gate outlined the road, making it difficult to do an easy turn.
I have to drive up a little more.
The house must’ve been about forty to fifty feet further up. From what I could see, the property was a wild, secluded spot nestled amid tall evergreens. Perhaps, it appeared more welcoming in the daylight. Not that I planned to see it then.
Gritting my teeth, I drove us further.
The car bumped and bounced over the terrain.
“We can go up a little more and then try to do a turn there.” My heart boomed.
Twenty feet up, I hit a patch of ice and the car swerved from side to side and did some sort of turn. Shit. I fought to gain control, finally did, and then the car came to a sudden stop in the middle of the road.
I checked the kids.
They just looked frozen in fear.
“We’re good?”
Kia let out a long breath. “Yes, but I can’t wait to get to the hotel.”
“Me too.”
Jalen grinned. “Not me. This is like the beginning of a horror movie.”
“Thanks, Jalen.” I shook my head.
I took few deep breaths, looked around, and had no idea which direction I was facing. At this point, the snow had become a white blanket in front of me. It didn’t help that my headlights were the only light in the area.
“Do you all see the house? Is it behind or in front of us?”
Jalen admitted, “I can’t see anything, Mommy.”
Kia’s voice held nervousness. “We should get off these people’s property.”
“Trust me, sweetie. I’m trying.”
Jalen chimed in. “What if they’re cannibals?”
“Not helping, baby.” I decided to keep heading in the direction I was pointed and prayed it would take me back to the road.
I put my foot on the gas.
“Wait, Mommy!” Kia shouted.
I jerked the wheel like I was flinching from a punch. It was too much action. The car swerved. The tires screeched on what must’ve been ice. I almost slammed into a gate. I yanked the wheel to the right, fighting hard to get control of the car again.
But this time I wasn’t so lucky.
Five long seconds felt like five hours of terror.
I screamed.
The kids too.
The vehicle turned into a circle, spinning and skidding. The SUV’s back rammed into something. I slammed into the wheel. The kids shrieked.
Before I could check to make sure they were okay, we fell into what must’ve been a shallow ditch. The SUV’s underbody crashed, banged, and scraped.
We tilted forward. The front must’ve been in the small ditch. The engine stalled out and there was no sound beyond hot components hissing against the snow, and the air brake gently exhaling, and my kids screaming, gasping, and then going silent.
All I could do was sit there.
Frozen.
Angry.
And utterly giving up.
“Mommy. . .I’m sorry,” Kia whispered in the cold darkness. “I was just trying to tell you that we were going toward the house.”
Jalen mumbled, “Doesn’t matter now.”
“Shh. Give Mommy a minute to think.” I tried to regain my breath and think of the next plan. The car had to be totaled. It was cold and snowing outside. Only God knew who’s property we’d crashed onto this evening.
And then loud barking ensued somewhere far off in the distance.
Chapter 3
Unexpected Guests
Yoshiro
In the nightmare, my wife bled to death in my arms. My newborn son lay dead on the ground in front of us—full of bullets. I screamed until my voice went raw.
Seymore walked over to me. “You’ve should’ve killed the family. Now yours is gone. Next time, you’ll listen, when I—”
“There won’t be a next time.” I set my wife down and rose.
“Yo-yo, if there won’t be a next time, then there’s no need to keep you alive.”
Seymore’s hand came up. He held a gun. A dull black automatic.
But he was too close, and I had nothing to lose anymore.
I slammed into him, took the gun, and shot him in the head. The bullet crashed into his skull. The sound roared with a deafening zip.
And I shot at all of his men. Blood and bone and brain sprayed everywhere. The few that froze in terror, died immediately. The ones that raced away, got bullets in their backs and heads. For others, I dropped the gun to shallow angles and fired. Bullets went through the back of their knees.
Dogs barking mingled with the sound of the men’s cries of pain.
And then the barking rose and rose until it was all I could hear.
I opened my eyes.
Sweat streamed down my face.
I wiped it away.
Fuck.
I wished it was only a dream, but it had been my reality five years ago.
Seymore had been the crime boss in Chicago for many years. He had his hand in everything—gambling, drugs, and human trafficking.
He was also my sole employee.
For that man, I had done the most unspeakable things. Once I’d shot his own brothers in a graveyard, forcing them to kneel in front of their father’s headstone before putting bullets in their brains.
Five years ago Seymore had arranged the murder of his longtime heroin supplier, Bolo. The only problem was that he’d ordered me to kill Bolo, his wife, and four kids—all under ten years old. My son had just been born. I could not take a child’s life no matter who wanted it. While I killed Bolo, I let his family live.
Seymore hadn’t been pleased. They took my family, since I didn’t destroy Bolo’s.
After killing Seymore and his men five years ago, I fled with Kevin to Washington and never looked back.
For the first two years, I hid out on the property, constantly in fear that the mob was searching for me. The only thing that helped was that I had a lot of money from all my work with the mob. Kevin found some companies for me to privately invest in—including some new cryptocurrency firm. By the third year, my investments tripled, and I learned that Seymore’s crime family had been taken by the feds. They’d been monitoring his operation. In one night, the Feds made 130 arrests, confiscated 200 pounds of heroin, and seized $25 million in assets, including $15 million in cash, as well as homes, boats, apartment buildings, jewelry stores, and even the restaurants Seymore used to launder their money in.
I was able to rest after that, but still I remained to myself—a recluse out in a small town, never talking to anybody or seeking companionship.
Why can’t I stop dreaming about that night?
My dogs Salt and Pepa barked on my side. So far away from civilization, they never had cause to make noise.
What’s up, ladies? What’s going on?
Salt and Pepa barked louder and jumped by the window.
Pain shot through my head.
“Alright. I hear you.” I sank back down on the mattress. “I’m coming. Give me a minute, girls.”
The image of my wife appeared in my head. I pushed it away. They’d killed her five years ago. I wasn’t sure, if I still had the right facial features in my head, even though pictures of her sat on the shrine downstairs. When she was alive, I would paint her all the time. Now I couldn’t lift a paintbrush to create her face.
She was gone along with my son. It would hurt too much to see that beautiful face on canvas and know that I would never see her alive again.
Pepa remained by the window and barked.
Salt hurried to me and nudged her wet nose against my palm.
“I got the message.” Kicking the blanket off me, I rose from the bed, grabbed my shotgun from the side, and went to the window. “What’s the matters, girls? What do you hear?”
Looking through the window, I squinted. Ice had thickened on the glass. A cold wind rattled against the window. I could barely see, but there was something definitely out there. A black SUV had crashed into the side of the private road leading up to my house. The only reason I could figure that out was all the white snow around it and the blinking light.
“Looks like some drunk basterd stumbled onto our property.” I yawned, put the shotgun down, slung on my clothes, and boots. With my jacket on, I picked up the shotgun and headed downstairs.
It took me a few minutes to get to the door. When I did, I grabbed a hat off the table and slung it on.
Wagging their tails, Salt and Pepa stayed by my side, eager to go on a night adventure. The huskies had a thick coat and preferred the snowy season over any other.
“Okay. Here we go.” I shut on the property’s lights, opened the door, and left the warmth of my big house. “Let’s see who the dumbass is.”
Outside, the snow fell faster and heavier. White powder blanketed the space. Large flakes covered the trees, which glistened like diamonds in the night. A soft stillness descended around the place. Yet, the wind raged and howled through the trees, bringing blasts of bone-chilling air.
The lights helped. I had several of them on poles surrounding the place and a few in the trees.
What am I going to do with this idiot?
Flakes swirled along my face. A freezing fog blanketed the front of my eyes. Had I not already known the property; I might’ve turned around.
Salt and Pepa raced ahead of me and disappeared into the blinding snow.
“Hold on, girls.” Little puffs of smoke left my lips. “Slow down!”
Ignoring me, they raced away and barked off in the distance.
Several more feet of trudging through at least three feet of snow, the outline of the SUV appeared.
Salt and Pepa raced around it, barking and even howling.
“Hey there.” I patted Salt’s head. Jealous as always, Pepa hurried over to get rubbed too and forget all about the vehicle. “Okay. Relax both of you.”
They sat down but wagged their tails with an extreme immediacy.
I assessed the idiot’s damage.
The SUV had crashed into the fence. Steam rose from the crumbled front. The hood had wrinkled back a few feet. Snow coated the windows.
I walked over and wiped away some of it on the driver’s window. Movement came from inside. I knocked. “Hey, are you alright in there?”
The door opened.
I backed up and pointed my shotgun just in case.
Staying where they were, Salt and Pepa barked.
I yelled at them. “Quiet!”
They went silent.
And then a small woman stepped out. My property’s light glowed around her. She had dark brown skin and beautiful brown eyes. Long, black dreadlocks outlined her face, fell past her shoulders, and candy curled at the end. A few snowflakes had already sprinkled the top of her head.
Stunned, I lowered the shotgun. I’d been prepared for some drunken idiot, but not a soft pretty woman on these roads, alone this stormy evening.
“I’m sorry.” A soft voice left those full lips as she held her hands up. “I was trying to go to a hotel and made the wrong turn, so I went down your pathway to—”
Pepa howled, ending the woman’s explanation.
With her hands still in the air, the woman stepped back. “Are those wolves?”
“No. They just look like it. They’re huskies, and Pepa didn’t howl because she was mad. She wants me to let her go up and sniff you.” I lowered my shotgun, pointing it towards the ground for safety. “What hotel were you trying to get to?”
“I don’t know.” She stared at the weapon and then at the dogs. “A woman at the gas station told me there were some hotels up the road.”
“That was Mabel.” I shook my head. “And up the road is a different term here. Hotels are still a good ten miles away from her gas station.”
Her face shifted to sadness. “Oh.”
She glanced back at the SUV’s crushed front. “I’ll. . .be off your property soon. I’m trying to call AAP, but—”
“They’re not answering. No one’s coming out in this storm.” I stepped forward.
She inched back.
She’s scared. I guess the shotgun freaked her out. It would do that to most.
I stopped and stayed where I was. “I just want to check your vehicle and see if we can get it out of the ditch. Maybe pull it over to the side of the house.”
“My. . .” She bit her lip as if unsure of how to proceed. “My kids are inside.”
“That’s fine. They can go in the house and get out of the cold.”
She squinted her eyes and looked behind me.
“I live alone.”
She turned her attention to me.
“I’m harmless.”
She glanced at the shotgun.
“Well, I have to protect myself.”
Her voice lowered. “I’m sorry. If you can just help us out of the ditch, maybe I can get the car to—”
“That cars not moving anywhere more than ten or twenty feet. And even if your vehicle was in top shape, you can’t drive in this weather tonight.” I shrugged. “You all just have to stay here tonight. I have plenty of room.”
“Oh, no.” She waved her hands. “We can’t stay here. Thank you so much for the offer, but I. . .don’t know you, and we’ve been through enough. I’m just going to—”
“I can’t let you drive that in this storm. You all will be dead by the morning.”
I have enough guilt that I’m dealing with. I don’t need this too.
