-1-
Alan Gray
I hang up with Sara and dress in the mono color dark suit and slim fitting white medical coat Kian had given me. The pocket held the nicest pair of gold plated surgical tools I’d
ever seen. The outfit wasn't practical for an actual ripper doc and looks more like a movie costume.
Kian himself is in a fitted burgundy suit, a gold chain glittering around his neck and two shining obsidian Shy Cartel rings on his middle and pointer finger. The fucker must have taken them off Charlotte and Rias’ bodies.
Kian’s men are dressed in all black and we follow a long processional of them as they walk down to the hotel's ballroom. He has me walk directly behind him, with his new street samurai following behind me. I was almost proud of the grotesque work we’d done, embedding blades and other weapons into their flesh. It had been a while since I’d done that kind of work.
There’s a murmuring audience gathered in the ballroom. I recognize a few faces from interactions over the years. They were leaders of smaller cartels and gangs. I try not to look at the audience but I do a double take when I spot Ivy Donnelly sitting primly with a row of redheaded young women who must be the other Donnellys. The generation of matriarchs before Ivy had passed away and with Ivy out of the family there were only a few younger, disconnected women left behind. And Kian.
I snap my eyes away from Ivy to look at the small platform stage we’re walking towards. In the center of the stage are three chairs with their backs pushed together. Sitting in the chairs are the girls.
I can’t see their faces but I know it’s them. They’re barefoot and dressed in tiny school girl uniforms with cloths sacks over their faces, their exposed legs and arms tied to the chair with rough rope. Two of the tied up girls are shaking, their legs moving up and down while the third one was sitting perfectly still. Two of them had to be Atsumi and Angel but the third must be a woman Kian had made stand in El's place.
This was why he’d let the girls live that night. He wanted to make sure he was Rayne’s last heir.
And he was going to make a show of it.
“Wait, Kian--” I whisper and attempt to grab his shirt. But he walks ahead, taking his place center stage.
I stop walking and look for an exit. There was no way Sara could know he was planning this. But before I can make a break the other guards move me along so I’m standing at Kian’s left hand and the line of street samurai are bordering his grim tableau on either side.
“I’ve invited you all to witness the end of an era,” Kenji’s voice booms through the ballroom
He lifts a gleaming black obsidian
revolver, I recognize it as belonging to Rayne. Rias had kept in a fireproof chest at the mansion.
“A century ago…we were all kings of the city. Until it became Shy territory,” Kian announces to nervous applause from the crowd. “We were forced to watch the Washington’s wealth grow to obscene levels while we scraped a street corner to call ours. But I shouldn’t disparage the Washington name too much. As it turns out, and as many of you suspected for years…I am one.”
He projects a set of DNA results confirming him as Rayne’s son and his birth certificate. He’d been born just three months before Rias.
“I’m taking what is mine,” Kian continues. “The power and more importantly; the money. But to do that we must deal with the issue of Zacharias Washington’s worthless progeny. It’s dirty but necessary work. Work I am willing to do for you. Today you will witness the ending of the Washington line and the beginning of a Donnelly one.”
I have to stop this. I know I have to. As his first bullet falls into the revolver's chamber I make a move to push Kian down. But before I can a tight zip pierces the air.
The proud street samurai standing sentry in front of me fall, slumping as if they are taking a knee. Each one is dead before he hits the ground; an identical burning hole the size of a thumbtack sizzling in the center of their heads. The slight bullet is so quick the glass window it came through shatters after the bullet has already hit it’s marks.
People in the audience scream and head for the ballroom doors but they’re bolted shut from outside.
Another zip sounds and I hit the floor as the rest of Kian’s guards fall in a row, the coated glass window tinkling to the floor on top of them.
I look up, adjusting my contacts to zoom but I can't spot Luce Grace or his sniper rifle on any roof ledge. And I know it’s him up there somewhere because no one else could make that kind of shot.
Kian follows my gaze upward before grunting and stumbling. A pinpoint of red blossoms on his thigh and he falls to one knee.
“Everybody quiet! Nobody move!” Ivy’s voice booms. I expect to see Ivy holding a gun but she’s unarmed.
Then the young woman beside her stands, her red wig cascading off her shoulders. El.
The scattering crowd only briefly quiets and I watch El Washington, dressed in a pin stripe black skirt, crisp white shirt and sky high leather platform heels emerge from the crowd. She walks up the stage and towards Kian’s kneeling form.
She looks a little unsteady but strong.
Without any preamble she picks up the obsidian revolver and shoots a
bullet into Kian Donnelly’s skull.
Then another.
And another.
And another.
A man from the audience screams and pulls out a pocket knife. He charges towards her but he’s taken out by Luce’s sniper fire. There had to be more weapons in a crowd like this but they takes that as a warning and they all finally stop moving.
El bends at the knee and pulls her parent’s rings of Kian’s finger and holds them out.
“My name is Eloise Washington,” El says, stepping gingerly through the growing pool of blood from Kian and his men. “This man killed my parents. So I killed him. And I want his to be the only death on my hands. He tried to take what was mine—ours—by force.”
She looks at her sisters and I can see it’s hurting her to see them tied up like that but she can’t look weak.
“Some of you knew my family and you think you know me,” El continues. “But I’m not my father or my grandfather. I’m a girl who just lost a lot and never wants to lose again. Kian said he brought you here to see the end of something. He was right about that. This is an ending. I’m ending the violence and thr madness.”
She drops the cartel rings into the pooling blood
“I’m dissolving the Shy Cartel,” she says. “I’m breaking up MBC’s power. If you have grievances or think you deserve reparations you can file them with Ivy and she’ll see to it. You can have your cartels and fights but they will no longer be with me or my family. You can agree… or you can stand in line to receive your bullet.”
***
Eloise Washington
My speech and wasn’t entirely my own. It has been a team effort—hastily put together by Ivy, Jean and Grandma Sara overnight and rehearsed by me a dozen times on the train ride over. Aunt Twyla and Colette had an outfit waiting for me. Luce had taken care of Kian’s guards.
It isn’t entirely me but I mean every word I say. Because if anyone thinks they can hurt my sisters or my grandparents or any of my relatives ever again I will kill them.
I stand in the middle of the chaotic ballroom at a loss, adrenaline seeping from my body. On one side Alan is using a scalpel to free my sisters from their bonds and on the other side Ivy is presenting legal documents for everyone in the room to sign. I don’t care what we have to give them or what they want to keep this quiet and leave us alone.
They can have it all for all I care. I know I can’t stop the cartels from existing but I can end ours.
My eyes wander to the ballroom door.
Grandad, Aunt Twyla and Colette barrel through the ballroom door and without even a word rush to help Alan untie my sisters. They’d all been on the other side of the ballroom door this whole time, barring it closed and acting as backup in the off chance one of Luce’s bullets missed.
Isaac had carried Luce and his chair up to the roof of the abandoned apartment complex across the street. They should be back down by now.
I hear Angel whimper and my attention snaps back to the stage. Grandad is kneeling in the tide of blood and has Atsumi’s face buried in his chest.
“Don’t look, Kitten,” Grandad says gently. “You’re safe, love. You’re okay. I’ve got you.”
“El! We thought he got you,” Angel cries, standing as I run to hug her.
“I’m sorry I left,” I whisper. “I’m so, so, sorry.”
She just hugs me tighter and I feel Grandad and Atsumi join our hug.
“El…the Inferno West VP just left with Alan. Time to change,” Aunt Twyla says me putting a hand to my back. “We have to go.”
I nod and pull away from my sisters.
“No. Where are you going ?,” Angel cries.
“We're all going. We have to make our re-appearance to the rest of the world.”
“Right now ?,” Angel asks.
“Yes,” I nod. “I know it’s fast but we have to. Don’t worry we’ll be together the whole time.”
-2-
My sister’s bodies are bruised and battered and I try not to stare as we change into pajamas similar to the ones we were wearing the night of the bombing. The clothes had been distressed and dirtied by Aunt Twyla this morning.
We walk out of the hotel and
Colette is waiting for us at the entrance. The cobbled streets around her are lined with shimmering black low rider Ducatis, their
riders sporting Daughter of Fury MC cuts from every charter. They'd cleared and blocked the streets so we could make our escape unhindered.
“Would you be okay if I hugged you ?,” Colette asks my sisters. When they nod she takes them both into a brief hug. “I’m so sorry this shit happened to you. You’re going to be alright, girls.”
After releasing them she comes over to me and hugs me, her embrace is tight and warm.
“You did good, girl,” Colette tells me and it stirs something in me.
“Thanks. I’m just ready for this to be over.”
“It will be,” she says and then shouts over at Aunt Twyla. “Ready to ride, mama ?”
Aunt Twyla nods and ushers my
sister towards the dusty manual pick up truck parked in the middle of the
motorcycle lined street. I follow behind and slide in the backseat. As we get
secured inside, Colette straddles the sporty black bike that is going to lead our
little cavalcade of Furies off the island.
Aunt Twyla’s swinging herself into the front seat of the truck when I spot Isaac. He’s staggering out of an alley, struggling under the weight of Luce who looks completely unresponsive as he carries him across the street.
“Aunt Twyla--,” I say pointing out the window.
Aunt Twyla sends a message to Colette and at her direction two of the Furies jump off their bikes to help pull Luce into another truck.
I’d hoped to talk to Isaac before
we had to do this but he still had work to do. He needed to find and free Aunt
Minnow, Haley and Grayson. Luce would hate not being part of that like he wanted but he needed
to be treated.
“Ready to go?,” Aunt Twyla asks.
I nod and she leans half her body out the window, tapping the hood of the truck. Colette turns to nod at her signal and then guns her bike. In a split second it roars down the road, leading our motorcade across the bridge and back towards the desert. Once the bikes in front of us have taken off Aunt Twyla starts the truck and we fall in procession.
The story we created for the public would be simple. My stalwart aunt from the East refused to believe we were dead with no bodies. A search party composed of my Aunt’s girlfriend’s motorcycle club found us girls unconscious and near death wandering in the nearby desert.
Aunt Twyla would call our “discovery” into emergency services as the Furies motorcade escorted us to our family’s hospital. There, Alan Gray would be waiting to admit us into our private wing before any of the other medical staff could see us.
He’d also tell the hospital staff that I requested a fully equipped medical helicopter sent to get my grandmother from Arkham Academy where she was waiting on standby with Kenji.
“What’s going to happen ?,” Atsumi asks me as Aunt Twyla speeds down the road, motorcycles roaring on either side of her. “Now that Mom and Dad are gone ?”
“I’ll run everything until you guys are ready,” I explain. “And we’ll take care of each other. Just like Mom and Dad would have wanted.”
***
We'd had no way of getting the details of our plan to Alan and it had been pointed out by Grandad during our planning that he’d hate the idea of having to leave Catalina without Aunt Minnow. But my sisters needed medical attention and we needed a doctor we could trust. Luce had grumbled that Alan would know that Aunt Minnow would want him to help us first and he does.
Alan is waiting for us in our family wing at Ft. Perch Medical Center. He also managed to find an older female nurse named Audrina who he says we can trust. Audrina takes my sisters in a private examination room as Alan starts replacement surgery on Grandma Sara’s heart.
My sisters don’t want me in the exam room with them and when I try to argue Aunt Twyla puts a gentle hand on my shoulder. Alan told me that after my sisters were treated he was going to put them on a mixture of painkillers and anti-anxiety meds that would give them a restful nights sleep. He gave me the choice to have some too but I wanted to see this through until the end.
I find myself sitting in the waiting room with Kenji—who’d flown in on the helicopter with Grandma Sara.
“Are you okay ?,” he asks me.
“It’s weird. I still feel this adrenaline..like I should still be doing something.”
“You’ll have plenty to do,” he tells me. “You should rest while you can.”
I sprawl out on the waiting room couch to close my eyes for a moment but I end up falling asleep.I’m woken up in the middle of the night by the waiting room door barreling open and Luce rolling past, his chair moving on it’s own and the color back in his face.
I follow after him into Grandma Sara’s hospital suite. It was the same one my Dad used to use when he had his yearly brain surgery. It looked less like a hospital room and more like a 5 star hotel room.
To my surprise Grandma Sara was awake and she was using a tablet. They’d wheeled my sister’s beds into the suite at some point and Angel and Atsumi were sleeping peacefully on the other side of the room.
“You’re okay!” I smile at Luce, resisting the urge to hug him. “That was amazing what you did back there.”
I knew he hadn’t shot a sniper rifle in years but he’d hit every mark--including the one we hadn’t planned for when the man tried to charge me.
“Muscle memory,” he says grimly. “What you did…I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“I…I wonder if he didn’t have his gun on Atsumi and Angel…I don’t think I could have done it,” I admit.
“You did it ?,” Grandma Sara asks, putting the tablet down.
She tries to sit up but winces and puts her hand on the new stitches going up her chest.
“Take it easy, Ma,” Luce says, helping her lie back down and picking up the tablet. “Are you seriously working ?,\"
“No I--,” she seems to notice my sisters sleeping across from her. “Are Atsumi and Angel…”
“They’re here and alive,” Is all I can say because it’s all I know.
We sit in silence for the next few hours, watching the sun
comes up.
The last weight on my chest falls away when a knock sounds at the door and Haley and Aunt Minnie walk in. They're followed by a nervous looking Isaac who hovers at the door and then walks away back to the waiting room where I was sure Kenji was still waiting.
Aunt Minnie looks like
she went a few rounds in a prize fight but she’s walking like she won. Her face is bruised and her arm is in a sling but she’s wearing her
favorite 4-inch spiked heeled Burberry boots under her cargo pants and an oversized white
shirt. Haley is wearing a pair of leggings under one of Aunt Minnie’s silk designer camisoles and they both have damp hair. They must have showered and spent the night at one of Aunt Minnie's condos.
Luce speeds across the suite to meet them halfway and Haley falls into Luce’s lap, hugging him and crying into his shoulder.
“I killed the bastard who did that to you. I killed him with my bare hands,” Luce says in a soft, careful tone. “And I’m sorry I fucked up--”
“You didn’t--”
“I did.” Luce says. “I didn’t watch Grayson like I should have. I couldn't stop you from getting hurt I-- tell me what you need. I'll do anything.”
“I--,” Haley starts holding him tighter. “I just need you right now.”
“I know. I love you,” Luce says gently kissing his cheek. “You’re so fucking brave, do you know that ?”
Haley just shakes his head.
“Where's the kid ? He's okay, right ?,” Luce asks, his voice breaking.
My uncle is crying. I suddenly realize this probably wasn’t a moment any of us should be witnessing
“It was bad, Luce. It was so bad. I-I…I was fucking awful,” Haley sobs his voice hitching on every other word. “I was so mean to him…I was afraid they might...I didn’t know what to do and I-I-I-.”
“Lex...Where is he ?,”
Haley traces the fine lines of Luce’s face with his fingers, their eyes locked on each other.
“He’s…In Alan’s clinic in Mojave.”
“Why ?,” Luce frowns and I frown too.
I knew Alan’s clinic in Mojave was where he did most of his cybernetic work. It was also where he took failed projects when he needed to dispose of them.
“Alan is…,” Haley glances at Grandma Sara and then back at Luce. “Alan is going to take away Grayson’s memories of the past few days--”
“No. You can’t just do that,” Luce says through his teeth.
“He saw things he shouldn’t have seen. They almost killed him..I don’t want him to live with that trauma---I can't allow that--,”
“Lex--,”
“Luce, I can barely deal with my own shit. He's so scared and he’s so young. He doesn’t deserve this. He should keep his innocence a little while longer... I want my happy little boy back. I don't want his life to be like mine--”
“I know...but it seems rash--,”
“We discussed it,” Grandma Sara says hoarsely. “If he feels it’s right I think he should do it.”
Luce frowns and looks down at the
tablet Grandma Sara had been using when we came in last night. I'd thought she was working but she must have been chatting with Haley.
“Ma, how can you say that ?”
“Luce, I regret a lot but I don’t regret attempting to erase your memory of your father committing suicide and trying to take you with him.” she says. “Blackbird did a shit job of erasing that memory back then but you know Alan will do it right. Grayson’s young, his mind will be resilient.”
“Please, Luce,” Haley says. “…Alan says it will take a week or two to fully erase them…I think I need that time without him.”
“I don’t like this,” Luce says. “But I won’t stop you.”
***
- 3 -
Even after Ivy pays off every rival cartel family with a grievance and Minnow gives a generous pension to the former Shy Cartel members spread across the Sprawl my sisters and I are still multi-millionaires.
I put all of the resources I can get my hands on into the funeral. I make Grandad’s vision come alive and more. My parent's lives were big and grand and their final goodbye would be that way too.
I want a fucking spectacle and I get it.
We shut down the entire city of Mojave for the funeral procession. I hire a live 70 person orchestra and fill the mausoleum with 100 dozen Le Fleur Marche roses imported from Europe. The funeral services are public and hundreds of people attend.
After the service my family and I walk into the Washington Family mausoleum itself. We keep the final internment private. Just me, my grandparents, sisters, aunts and uncle. My parent’s ashes are put into 24 karat gold urns, Mom’s urn has her favorite little pink diamonds on it. All of Dad’s remains are interred alongside his father in the family mausoleum. We put some of Mom’s ashes in with his and the rest go to Grandad.
When it’s over we toast to their lives with a thousand dollar bottle of Dom Perignon vintage.
The Shy Cartel didn’t exist anymore but all of it’s former members had come out and they had expectations for the afterparty. We’d rented out the top floor of the high roller casino on the strip. Aunt Minnow—who had come back from what happened more determined than ever—had helped me plan it. I doubted I’d go the the afterpafrty, it had only been two weeks since I’d rescued my sisters and none of us felt much like partying.
As the family starts to file out
the mausoleum I notice Grandma Sara stays back, staring at the brass plaques
marking the burial chambers for the Washington men. Luce and Haley wait
patiently behind her, Grayson sleeping curled up in Luce’s lap. He'd just gotten out of Alan's lab yesterday and his shaved head was just beginning to grow back a soft down.
Grandma Sara finally turns away from the internment chambers and gives us a soft smile.
“Are you going to the after party
?,” I ask Grandma Sara as she walks over to me and takes my hands.
“I don’t think so,” she says. “Haley says he found some affordable apartments in the Sprawl for us to look at today.”
Everything had been hectic with funeral planning and making sure everyone who had been hurt was healed that we’d all been splitting time sleeping at the hospital, Aunt Minnie’s condo or Aunt Twyla’s hotel room
“You don’t have to get your own place,” I tell her. “You can all live at the Hydra for free. And I’m going to rebuild the mansion with room for everyone--”
“You should rebuild.” she says. “But all of that is for you and your sisters. I belong in the Sprawl. Luce and I are self-sufficient--we always have been since leaving the cartel…but I promise to do a better job of keeping in touch.”
I look at Luce to see if he’s going to talk some sense in her but he just nods his head.
“All this,” Luce says gesturing around at all the grand luxury of the Washington mausoleum. “It isn’t Ma and I’s world anymore. Never really was.”
“But,” I sputter. “But who’s going to help me--,”
“Ivy and her board will help you with MBC and managing the money,” Grandma Sara says. “Minnow and Jean have agreed to look after Virtue until they can promote someone within. You’ll all do amazing things. I know it. And we’ll be there…just from the side lines.”
They hug me and I know it’s no where near goodbye but it hurts seeing them all walk away after everything we’ve been through. I turn back to my sisters and we light a final candle before walking out of the mausoleum, arm and arm , and out into the mostly empty cemetery.
Angel and Atsumi stop in their tracks at the mausoleum door and I look up to see Kenji and Isaac waiting for us at the door.They both look impressive in their nearly identical dark suits. Isaac’s gold tie pin shined brightly against his black shirt and even darker black tie.
They’d both stuck around after we’d freed my sisters and helped any way they could. Isaac had left me his hotel key for me if I needed a place to decompress or just rest but I’d never gotten around to seeing him.
He looks nervous as I approach and I break the tension by hugging him.
-4-
“I need a minute. Can you wait for me in the car ?” I ask my sisters.
They both give me a “you’ve been hiding something” look but don’t call me on it as they head for the waiting bulletproof burgundy Aston Martin limousine. The Daughters of Fury volunteered to be our security for the funeral. Francesca, the Inferno West sergeant-at-arms was our driver for the day and another older Fury sat shotgun with a firearm.
“I…I think I’m going to finally pay my Uncle and grandfather a visit,” Kenji says and walks awkwardly into the mausoleum so Isaac and I could be alone.
“Kenji and I are heading back to Arkham this evening--”
“Oh.” I say, unable to hide my disappointment at him leaving before we could get any time together.
“—so I can close things out.” he adds quickly. “I’d like to come back here with you. I know the cartel threat is gone but you might still need a bodyguard or I could work with your security team or--”
“Why would you do that ?,” I ask. “I mean, I'd love it, I mean, um.... you said you hate the city-”
“I don’t hate it.” he says and takes a deep breath. “My job has always been to protect the Washington Family…you’re a Washington. It feels like my duty. And…I’d also like to get to know you better.”
“Didn’t I tell you I tired the bodyguard thing ?”
“Not with me,” he smiles. "I promise I'm better than the fantasy....or I'll try to be."
It’s the first time I’ve seen
him smile. It’s an infectious, brilliant smile I will be teasing out of him any chance I can get.
I hug him and get on my toes to kiss him. His hands wrap around my waist and his lips slide against mine. This time the only explosions that go off are the ones in my head telling me I’d like to do this kissing Isaac Prior thing again.
There was a long road ahead of me. If I was going to make my parents legacy proud I needed to make sure my sisters were taken care of and make the family company so legit no one could ever smear their names. And I was going to need all the allies I could get.