Chapter Twelve

 

“Is he breathing?” Sal kept asking Yvette every five minutes. “Damn it if he wasn’t I would tell you.” Yvette snapped back. Her hands and clothes were soaked in Antony’s blood, the blood looked different than the dying men she saw earlier. Antony’s blood was bright red. It wasn’t the same as the dark, almost black blood she saw coming out of the dead men. She assured herself this was a good sign. She kept pressure on the wound. “How much further do we have to go before we get to wherever you are trying to go?” Yvette asked.

“About fifteen minutes.” Sal said.

“And there’s a medical team or something there?” Yvette asked as the panic she had somehow wrangled control of earlier was beginning to rise again.

“Yes.”

“Good,” she lowered her body over Antony’s, and tried not to put too much pressure on his wound. When she was close enough to him she began to whisper words of encouragement. “Just hold on Antony. Sal said we are almost there and someone will be there to help you, just hold on.” Yvette didn’t know if she said these things to soothe herself, or Antony. It didn’t matter, she had to keep him grounded. Yvette thought her voice would keep him grounded to the present. “Please don’t do anything stupid, like die,” she whispered.

“I wouldn’t dream of it Bella.” Antony said

“Oh, oh,” Yvette said in shocked surprise, Antony was conscious, and talking. The sound of his voice was coarse, as if he hadn’t drank water in days. That worried Yvette, but she couldn’t stop the relief that coursed through her body. Yvette smiled ear to ear, she didn’t think about the threat to her life in that moment, she only thought about Antony, she only cared about Antony, relief surged through her body.

Antony woke to Yvette’s body straddling his. Her hair and eyes were wild, her voice held a touch of panic, but even with all of that, Antony thought she was the most beautiful sight he had seen.

“Sal what’s our location?” Antony could barely get the words out because his throat was on fire. Sal turned around, his relief was visible in his eyes.

“Five minutes away from the safe house on the Upper West Side.” Sal turned to the driver. “Damn it, go faster!” he said and hit the dashboard.

The driver sped up, he dashed dangerously between cars, the driver had long ago lost the other cars that followed them out of the hospital parking lot. The car swerved hard to the right and Yvette landed on top of Antony. She immediately pushed herself up and fretted over him, “I am so sorry,” she said.

Sal’s phone rang, “Yeah, we are almost out front, have the doors open, we are coming in hot.” The car took a sharp left and sped through a residential street, then came to a screeching stop in front of an attractive brownstone. Antony’s door opened as soon as they stopped, and he was carried into the house. Yvette was left alone in the car. Now was her chance to run. Nobody was with her, everyone was distracted with Antony. Yvette could run now, and nobody would notice she was gone until much later. She opened her door and slid out of the car. She tried to be quiet when she slipped out of the car. She bent down on her hands and knees, and crawled up the side walk. She was hidden from view by the cars to her side. She needed to stay hidden for as long as possible. Up ahead she saw a black car, she could use as a cover, and a blue car after that. Once she moved to the blue car, she slowly began to rise. She didn’t look back as she made her way up the Manhattan street.

Yvette had no money, no friends and nowhere to go. She knew her apartment would be the first place anyone would check once they figured out she was gone, she couldn’t go there. She felt the first stirrings of doubt, but she couldn’t go back, she had nothing left to lose. She had lost everything in a matter of hours. Finally, Yvette made it to the corner, without thought, she turned right. She didn’t know where she was going but she knew she had to get away from the Carbonaro Family, before they killed her.

***

The sun was shining high in the sky when she left the Carbonaro’s. She looked up to see the sun losing it’s fight with the moon from the bench where she sat. So much time had past, she walked a long way, but she still didn’t feel safe. She still felt like she had to keep moving, but her feet were hurting. She had to sit down and take her shoes off. She rubbed each foot, before she resolved to stand and began walking again. She had no idea where she was going, she just wandered until she felt like she was in the safest place. She stayed on well populated streets. Many people moved away from her when she walked next to them. She didn’t care. They had no idea what she just survived. She stood and hobbled up a narrow street.

She passed a store front with a large glass window. Yvette stopped, she was drawn to the men inside. It was a martial arts studio, the men where in line moving together, with synchronized punches and kicks. She was entranced by the strength in their movements. Yvette coveted their strength and ability to defend themselves. She stood watching them for a long time. The reflection on the glass shone with the orange background of the setting sun. Suddenly, the light was muted by a large body. She stood still, was this one of Antony’s men? She waited for him to grab her. She jumped at the sound of his deep voice behind her.

“You look interested?”

Slowly she turned and surveyed the stranger. Impulsively she answered, “I am interested.”

The man jerked his head toward the store front, “You want to protect yourself, or someone else?” he asked.

To her horror, more words fell out of her mouth. “Myself, I don’t want to be helpless anymore.” She cringed at the undisguised vulnerability in her voice.

The man nodded and ran a hand down his chin. It wasn’t until he brought attention to his face that Yvette truly noticed him. He wasn’t what you called handsome. He was something else, something between attractive and plain. His body on the other hand was packed with muscles. He held a bag of food in his arms. The smell of it made Yvette’s stomach growl. She hadn’t ate anything all day. She wrapped her arms around her stomach in embarrassment.

“I am Daemon McKinley, the owner of this place.” He adjusted his burden to point toward the sign over the storefront window that read Daemon Securities. The name was familiar, but she couldn’t remember why, then all at once recognition slammed into her battered body. This was the self defense studio she found on Google last night.

His deep voice pulled her back to the conversation, “Do you have any martial arts experience?”

Yvette gave him a small smile and shook her head. “I wish. Are you taking new students?” the man didn’t answer, his eyes traveled over her body, head to toe. When he met her eyes again he pointed to her hands.

“Is that your blood?” he asked.

“No, it isn’t mine.” Yvette said.

“Is it from someone who will come after you?” he asked.

That wasn’t easy to answer, she assumed someone was after her but she didn’t know for sure. Then again, he looked like depending on her answer, he might be willing to help her. She didn’t want to downplay her situation and miss an opportunity for help, so she said, “Yes.”

He must have already come to that conclusion, because he gave her a nod. “Come with me. Let me show you around.”

Daemon used his shoulders to push the doors open. When he walked into the studio, everyone stopped and bowed. He nodded his head but kept walking toward the back. Yvette trailed behind him, like an abandoned child. They walked through a long hallway, they were going further away from the front, where there were people. They were far enough that if she screamed, nobody would hear her. An intense desire to runaway washed over her, leaving her anxious in it’s wake. What was she thinking, she thought. Had she just put herself into another kidnapping situation? A sudden need to run came over her and she stopped.

“I just remembered that I have something on the stove at home. I should probably go check on that.” Yvette smiled nervously. That was a terrible lie, but she wasn’t that great of a liar to began with, and that was all she could think of at the moment.

“It’s a little too late for you to come to your senses now, isn’t it?” he asked.

“Pardon?” she asked.

He opened a door at the end of the hall, he motioned for her to enter. Yvette eyed the door. Hell no, she had already done enough stupid shit this week to last a lifetime.

The man rolled his eyes and rested his large body against the door frame. “Do you want help or not?” the man asked. His body language said, no shirt off my back if you come or not, but instinctively, Yvette knew she was at a crossroads in her life. This was an important moment in her life, and the wrong decision now, would make or break her. Her choices were clear. She could walk through that door and hear what Daemon had to say. Or go out the front door and face the Carbonaro Family alone, weak and afraid. Her choices weren’t great, but one offered her hope and one offered her death. She chose hope and walked into Daemon’s office, as she walked past him, Yvette heard his approving rumble. “Intelligence, and a will to survive. I can work with that.”

“Sit,” he said and pointed to an old wooden chair in front of a large oak desk. Yvette sat, Daemon’s office had concrete walls, that were obviously painted white, one picture of dogs playing poker and a desk and chair. The office was sparsely decorated, she could tell he didn’t put stock into the details of decorum.

The man opened his arms wide and said, “This,” he dropped his hands and dropped into an old chair behind his desk. The chair made a distressed sound when he sat. “Is where we live. It isn’t much but we don’t like standing out. It is sort of what makes us good at what we do.”

Yvette wondered, who comprised the we? Why should she care? Her questions must have written themselves on her face.

“We are the men you passed outside, they work for me and live here with me. Above the studio is living space. We are a security firm but not in the traditional sense, we protect people, but it is probably the same types of people you find yourself running from.”

Yvette’s body stiffened. His words hit far too close to home. She shook it off, she was being paranoid. “I don’t understand. So you are bodyguards to criminals? When you aren’t busy killing them?” she asked genuinely intrigued.

“Yes and no, we aren’t an average company some small time drug dealer could employ. We would work for the person at the core of the operation. Although we have standards, anyone smuggling women and children, dealing drugs to children, selling pedophilic porn etcetera, is more likely to be killed by us than protected. We aren’t the avengers, but we certainly aren’t the bad guys either.”

“So you protect the bad guys, and kill the bad guys, but only certain ones?” Yvette asked genuinely confused.

“You’re getting closer, there are times when certain operations shouldn’t exist. Terrorist groups, sex trade, or your murderous bastard that needs to be put down. We do that, we use our resources to find these groups before the police are involved and take them out. Most of the time we are hired by…for lack of better words, criminals. Who else would know where to find people who don’t want to be found, better than other people, who don’t want to be found? So it’s a give and take, they provide information and at times we provide protection.”

“Do you work with the authorities?” Yvette asked. Daemon laughed.

“Our victims aren’t seen again. There’s no waiting on the judicial system, we get the Intel, verify the Intel, and eliminate the threat.”

Yvette’s mind was blown, how the hell did she fall into this shit? What were the chances? Then again, was it fate pushing her to follow a different path. She wanted to be stronger to protect herself, but wouldn’t it be nice to do both, protect herself and others? She couldn’t fully understand what was happening around her, changes were happening so frequently, and with such intensity she couldn’t grab a hold of a decision, or direction. There were too many moving pieces, too many impossible things happening to her at once.

“Why are you telling me all of this, I could get up and go straight to the police and tell them all about your operation.” Yvette said.

“You could but you aren’t, at least, not until you wash the blood off your hands.” Daemon said.

Yvette wasn’t stupid, she understood the double meaning of his words, but the blood on her hands was from saving a life, not taking one. But he didn’t know that, and he would never know that. She didn’t plan to ever say the name Carbonaro again.

Yvette was quiet for a moment as she absorbed the information. She still didn’t understand why Daemon was telling her about his business. She needed to know what he was planning, and how she fit into his plans.

“How do I fit into your plans? There must be a reason you told me all of this.” Yvette said.

Daemon smiled. “I thought you would never ask. I need to replace the last female on our team. She was married recently, and her husband is strongly suggesting she quit.” He shrugged, “Who am I to go against love?”

“But why me? I can barely protect myself, in fact, I can’t protect myself at all. What good would I be to you?”

Daemon kicked his large legs up on his desk, “I am a good teacher to the right student,” he grinned at her.

“Can you give me some time to think about it? A day or two maybe, and show me how to do a few punches and kicks? Then we can see if I am coordinated enough to learn.” Yvette wrung her hands in her lap, she needed a place to stay while she thought things over, and usually she would be too proud to ask, but she didn’t have any pride left. Her life’s pendulum swung far too fast. She couldn’t wrap her mind around everything. She probably shouldn’t take time to think about any one thing, if she thought about all of the danger and violence she went through, she would break. She needed to compartmentalize. She would deal with issues as they came. Her current and most pressing issues were food and shelter, but unknowingly Daemon was giving her an opportunity to solve those issues, and her safety issue as well. “Did your female employee live here too?” Yvette asked.

“Yes, she had her own room.” Daemon’s eyes narrowed.

Yvette was undeterred, “Can I stay in the abandoned room while I think things over?” she asked.

Daemon’s eyes locked with hers, she felt as if he was looking into her soul, searching for something but she wasn’t hiding anything. Yvette was being honest, she wasn’t saying no, but she wasn’t saying yes. Three days ago her biggest concern was avoiding dick pics and text messages from Donato, now she was on the run from a Crime Family. And she was currently sitting in the office of a vigilante crime protection agency. Who could handle those types of swings without needing to catch their breath?

“Alright, let’s give it a four week trial, and at the end of the four weeks, you and I will sit in this office again and have a similar discussion. How’s that?”

Yvette thought he would give her a few days, she could handle free loading for a few days, but four weeks, there was no way she would get away with it for that long. “I don’t have any money to pay for room and board,” she said honestly.

He waved his big hand dismissing her statement, “You don’t need any.” He dropped his legs, and opened a drawer, and pulled out a set of keys. “Come on, let me show you to your room and introduce you to the team.” He looked at her and grimaced, “After we get you cleaned up.”

Daemon stood and walked out of his office. Yvette walked behind him. She couldn’t stop herself from asking the question. “You didn’t ask me the story behind the blood on my hands.”

Daemon stopped and turned to look at her, “And I won’t. If you want to tell me one day, I will listen, but until then, as long as your secrets don’t interfere with my business, I don’t need to know.”