Mae smiled. The gesture was one of discovery instead of agreement. “I have a sister Evangela and she was never you.”
“This isn’t you talking, Mae, it’s them!” Eva’s expression was pure grit. With a sudden jerk, she faked to one side, clearing her aim for Tammy and Persephone.
Persephone was wrenching her mother behind
her in the same instant that Eva engaged and fired the weapon
several times to release a rapid flurry of bullets. Persephone went
down with Tammy as Mae rushed to them.
~~~
“Try and calm yourself, man.”
“Uh-huh, tell me how that’s working for you,” Hill spared a sidelong glance to Bashir who occupied the passenger seat of the rented Jeep they’d taken from the airport.
“Try calling again,” Hill nodded toward his phone. He’d tossed it to Bashir before taking the wheel.
They’d cut short their trip to Mexico when Caiphus received word of the salvage team’s preliminary report on the wreckage at the Wyoming retreat. Eva had not yet been discovered and the team found evidence of a 4wheel drive leaving the lower level. A woman’s sweater was left on the ground there.
“Anything?” Hill weaved in and out of the light traffic leading to the road of Persephone’s estate.
“Not a goddamn thing,” Bashir snarled, “no answer at the house or the security gate and straight to voicemail on Persephone’s cell.”
Hill resisted beating the dash again. His earlier loss of temper had already resulted in a slight dent along the dashboard’s woodgrain finish.
“Don’t do this to me, Sef,” he breathed. Approaching the turn off, he took a hard left that had tires screeching in his wake.
“Maybe Evangela’s not there,” Bashir hypothesized. “She’s got tons of places she could go.”
Hill didn’t look away from the wide, dirt
road lined by towering palms swaying violently against a raging
wind. “This is the only place she’ll want to be.”
~~~
“No! No...no, no, no…”
Eva was moaning. Going to her knees, she crawled to where Mae lay in a widening puddle of blood. She put her face to the back of her sister’s head and sobbed, the sound was choppy and brash.
“Mama?” Persephone whispered to Tammy who was raising up to brace her weight on her palms. She was checking her mother for injuries when she heard the crack of a single shot and scrambled around to shield Tammy behind her once again.
Shock tensed Evangela’s face and she jerked away from Mae. Tumbling back on her ass, she tried to comprehend the fact that she had been shot. In horrified wonder, she gazed up at Marcella Cannon. Eva opened her mouth in a useless attempt at speech. Shakily, she reached for Mae hoping to take comfort in the fact that they would meet death together. Satisfaction began to meld with pain, until she saw that Mae had been tugged out of her reach. Persephone was already examining her wound.
“I guess the bullets went through my wall, Mae. This is all through and through. You’re gonna be fine,” Persephone soothed.
Fresh rage arrowed up through Evangela. It speared fast and deep, causing her wounded arm to sizzle in torment. She wanted to rant and rave over the unfairness of it all. She wanted to demand to know what Mae had done to earn a life of reward and family love. There would be no time for demands or to rant and rave. The time for talking was, at last, done.
Marci pulled back on the gun’s trigger. That time, she released a round of bullets that tore through the flesh and bone of Eva’s arm.
“If only there were enough bullets here for everyone who's had the misfortune of meeting you.” Marci was calm, her finger didn’t as much as shake where it hovered over the trigger.
The disbelief in Eva’s eyes had, at last, glossed over to terror-filled acceptance. The only things she had left, were her screams.
Marci repeated the flurry of gunfire until Eva’s other arm and both legs were irreparably shattered. The woman lay in a whimpering bloody mess, made messier when Marci’s final flurry put a hole through her chest. The shock claiming Evangela Leer’s exquisite face was matched only by the weight of it swelling inside the room.
Persephone sat speechless and in utter disbelief. Eva was...over. Despite the fact that she lay spread eagled and emaciated in the corner of her den, Persephone still couldn’t quite grasp the truth of it. She needed to say something-needed to speak to break shock’s spell. Speaking seemed impossible.
Not so for Marcella, who sank to her knees once the gun locked to signal the empty magazine and chamber. She looked to Persephone.
“I never realized she talked so much.” Awareness glowed amidst undeniable relief in Marci’s voice and expression. A hint of regret crept into her eyes and she scanned the room. “Sorry about your den,” she said.
It was the shove that Persephone needed.
Speech didn’t return, not just then. Instead, it was uninhibited
roaring laughter that stirred from somewhere deep and honest as it
flowed up and out of Persephone until she was crying from a mix of
giddy and outraged elation.
~~~
Hill and Bashir arrived to the whine of sirens and a dazzling display of flashing red and blue lights.
Hill stopped the Jeep a few yards behind a local police car and took in the scene. Estate security cars cluttered the front yard of the house as well.
Bashir breathed an oath and dazedly pushed open the passenger door.
Hill couldn’t move just then. Resignation shaded his features as he tried to latch onto something akin to acceptance. He couldn’t seem to locate it. He heard Bashir call to Marci and saw the man skirting cars and police personnel in the mad dash he made to his sister.
Closing his eyes, Hill rested his head to the steering wheel and then ordered himself from the Jeep. The scene was confusion at its height, but he made an effective scan of the yard and saw Maeva Leer on a gurney and being pushed toward a waiting ambulance.
He recognized Tamara James rushing along behind the EMTs and renewed despair lanced his heart. He knew the woman would never leave Persephone behind unless...she didn't need her anymore. He saw a second gurney being pushed from the den’s retracted wall. The gurney carried remains in a zipped body bag,
He didn’t want to see-didn’t need to, but he
had to. He had to see what was left of her before he went to find
Eva and rip her spine out through her throat. Fists drawn with
resolve, he took a step forward, frowned and turned at the sound
that caught his ears.
~~~
“I know it’s short notice Jose, but I think you’ve made enough money off me to know this’ll be worth your time and worth backing out of any other jobs you’ve got right now. The place is a mess, but it’s only the den that needs your attention. My staff can make it passable before the girls get back, but I need it redone.”
Persephone was speaking to the contractor responsible for the exotic appeal of her home. Though the images of the bloody evening were horrific, for Persephone, they held a beauty she’d never want to forget. Still, they were images she didn’t want to see every time she stepped into her den.
