Chapter 85

* Elena *

What in the world is going on? Am I having an episode, or is this really happening right now? Things seem to be moving very fast one moment, only to slow way down the next, and everything is all out of place. My head was still spinning from my earlier rush of anger, and I could tell that any second now, I was going to lose my breath or have a total meltdown.

Ryder looked just as confused as I was, and the hand that I’d used to slug her with stung as he held it gripped tightly in his. There was way too much to unpack here, not least of all the things Janie had revealed in the video we’d all just watched.

My chest felt tight as I fought the urge to attack her again, but I knew as much anger as I felt, she was not the only one to blame here. I could lay it all at her feet for sure since she was the idiot who couldn’t take no for an answer. But I have to ask myself, had it not been her, would they have found someone else? From what I see, they would’ve used anyone to serve their purpose; she just made herself available.

I don’t want to feel anything for her, and I’m not dumb enough to let my heart soften to the point of stupidity, but it was hard not to look at the mess in front of me and feel some type of pity. She’s a mess both physically and mentally, and I probably wouldn’t have hit her so hard had I known what she had done to her face.

I can only blame the piss poor lighting in the old warehouse for keeping it so well hidden, but now I felt like crap for adding to her obvious misery; go figure. I was thinking of any and everything so as not to focus on the elephant in the room, and that is what had just been revealed.

I thought I knew most of what they had done, but I didn’t know the half of it still. That we had been targeted by such evil leaves me breathless and just a little bit shaky to think about what else is out there. With all that had been done to me, I hadn’t seen them as the evil people she had described, but now I know better because she didn’t just talk about Ryder and me and her part and theirs in our demise.

She spoke about things that my mind had never even imagined someone like Mary as awful as she was being a part of. Her mention of the church and the things that went on there made my skin crawl, and I felt a shiver go down my spine at the thought of how close I came to being snared and caught up with them.

I’d left when I got a bad feeling about Matt and some of the people around him and tried to take Ryder with me, but I never in my wildest dreams could’ve foreseen this. At least now I know why he hated me so much, why he went out of his way to take Ryder away from me.

On the one hand, if I had gone along with their program Ryder and I would’ve been married by now, but then I’d be a running candidate for a front-row seat in hell. I’ll take the hell I’d already suffered here instead of the real one; thank you very much.

My confusion, though, stemmed from the question of whether or not these people were even human. Mary Hudson was either crazy or diabolical as hell, and her daughters don’t seem to be much different. I guess they will be the next generation of monsters who will pick up where she left off unless someone stops them.

The kid that was talking while keeping her face hidden seemed to have an agenda in place to deal with that, if I’m not mistaken, and that was the other thing messing with my mind. Her voice sounded like that of an elementary school girl or even younger, but the things she was saying and the way the two grown men in the room seemed to comply with her orders left me with more than a few questions.

She’d stumped Janie with her last statement, pretty much telling her that her only options right now were to live on the streets or live in the house she had grown up in, which would be anyone’s first choice, but it was the caveat that was going to be hard for Janie or anyone else to deal with.

Last night there were a few people from her childhood who had chimed in on the type of person she was back in her school days. From what was said, most of them still lived in the area, an area where Janie and her family were not well-liked. Now she had to face the prospect of living in the midst of the people she had wronged when she believed she would never have to live there again.

Even so, me being me, I still felt a bit sorry for Janie when it was all said and done, and she just sat there on the floor weeping bitterly. As a woman, it was hard to watch. I tried to hold onto the memory of all that she had done, but a part of me still felt for her.

“Let’s get out of here,” Ryder spoke into the silence that had fallen. I looked towards Janie, not quite knowing what to say, but he made the decision for me. “Oh no, you’re not doing that. Some snakes strike twice.”

We left to the sound of her voice calling after him, and the thing that I thought would give me the most joy left me feeling hollow and tired to the bone. Maybe she’ll leave us alone and get on with her life. But I get the feeling that little girl is not going to let her rest for a very long time.

***

* Lyon *

“Flanagan, swear to fuck if you pace in front of me one more time.” He glared at me the way he’s been glaring at everyone for the last day or so. Mengele wasn’t answering the phone, so we still had no leads on where his wife was, and for once, Mancini seemed to be as much in the dark as the rest of us.

“Listen, I’d like to help you, okay, but the kid has gone dark. She’s not answering, and nobody on the island is talking.” Of course, only the women were left because Mengele had somehow got all her uncles off the fucking island. Even the kids from Cali were in the wind.

“Let me ask you something; how did three little girls get the jump on you?”

“Hey, your kid is numbered in that bunch, don’t look at me like that.”

“My kid was an innocent until she met yours.”

“Fuck outta here; with a mother like that, I’m calling bullshit.”

This is my life, arguing with another grown-ass man about whose daughter is more or less headed to the electric chair. I’m not too upset about Mengele playing hide and seek because I don’t want to talk to her any damn way. At this point, I’m just waiting for reports from my men wherever the hell she has them scattered.

Jared, her asshole of a Godfather, was only too happy to call me a few minutes ago to fill me in on her doings in New York. His pride and joy was giving me agita, and I was tired of reminding him and everyone else around here that the kid was ten.

Mancini, that fuck hasn’t stopped grinning since we got the report. “What dafuq are you so happy about?”

“What’s not to be happy about? Her mind is fucking gold. I knew she had it in her, but I’m still impressed. Imagine what she will be capable of in a few years, all of them. Flanagan stop stressing; if something was wrong with your wife, the kids would’ve let us know.”

“Do you hear yourself?”

“Oho, the Midwest capo dei capi is about to face off with the east coast don; I’m here for this shit.”

“Shut the fuck up, Lyon.”

“Hey, I’m just saying.” I held my hands up in surrender and grinned at Flanagan, who looked like he wanted to rip my head off. If I have to be stressed over my kid, I might as well have company, and he looked about as miserable as a human being could get.

Serves his fucking ass right. I warned all of them, and he, along with the others, was always quick to tell me to leave those kids alone. Now those same kids have him catching his ass, dafuq, I care. “I don’t see why you’re so worried; just listen out for the next news report about some human pinned to something with an arrow through their head.” If he could kill me, he would.

“Don’t mind him, Flanagan; he’s just screwing with you to take his mind off of what his kid is up to.” Just then, my phone rang before I could light into Mancini.

“Lyon, I’m returning your call.”

“Track, where are you guys? What’s up?”

“We’re in the desert.”

“What fucking desert?”

“Sahara.”

“What dafuq! What are you doing there?”

“We came to pick up a plant for the girls.”

“What plant?” My eye started twitching.

“Calotropis Procera.”

“Cali, who what? What dafuq does she want with that?”

“I’m not sure, but I’m almost certain it’s illegal in the US, but since we’re on the island….”

“It’s a plant? You went all the way to the Sahara Desert for a plant, and you don’t see a problem?”

“Look, she looked at me, okay.”

“She what?”

“You know, that look.”

“Mengele gave you puppy eyes and sent you halfway around the world. What about the others?”

“Jace and Little Jared are in Mexico, and Alex and Little Shane are somewhere in Northeast Africa.”

“Doing what exactly?”

“Plants, we’re all getting plants. They went after Oleander and something called Datura.”

“And what pray tell are these plants for?”

“Beats me; she said they would look nice in the garden she’s planning.” I hung up the phone on him because what dafuq.

“Mancini, what is Hitler’s youth up to with these plants, and don’t tell me you don’t know.”

“Plants? What plants?”

“Oleander is the only one that sounds familiar. Something called Datura and Cali, something or the other.”

“Calotropis Procera?” He looked spooked.

“Yeah, sounds about right.”

“Oh shit!”

“Oh shit, what? What is that?”

“Um, let me get back to you on that.”

“It’s poison, you fuck; get back to me on what? What the hell is she up to? First, the snakes, then the spiders that she swore were for silk, my ass, the poison fuck fish, and now this. Is this why you talked me into moving to the island? Because she couldn’t get her shit in the US?”

“Really, Colton? You think some customs drone on a line somewhere could’ve stopped her?”

“What dafuq are you people raising?”

“Uh, she’s your daughter Lyon.” Flanagan found his first laugh of the day.

“Oh yeah? Did you forget that your kid is one of her best buds?” Laugh at that, you ass.

I turned on my computer and headed to Google to see what the hell Kat’s spawn was cooking up to make my life more of a living hell than her mother already had. Desert? They’re in the desert? I should’ve left Kat’s ass in the desert in Arizona years ago and spared myself this shit.

“What’re you mumbling over there?”

“None of your damn business Hanky. And when dafuq are we getting out of here? I’m done with this place.”

“We’re not leaving here without my wife.”

“Oh, I forgot.”

“Speaking of wives, yours still not answering?”

“Nope!” And it’s going to be her ass when I get back on that island. I guess their little spy crew didn’t realize that we were back online, at least visually, and could see them even if we still couldn’t hear them. The only man left on the island was the Pothead, which is like saying there were twenty kids instead of nineteen.

Right now, he was playing with my youngest on the terrace while the women were in a huddle inside, planning who dafuq knew what.

Mengele and her crew were in the lab looking innocent as pie, their little legs not even touching the floor as they sat on their stools around the little table they used to do their experiments. “Mancini, what dafuq is she doing? What’s in that vial?” He came over to peer at the screen and tried to read whatever was written on the label, which was hard to see.

“I think it’s a mixture of poisons.” Just as he said it, each of the girls dipped their fingers and tasted whatever was in there. Flanagan walked over to look over our shoulders.

“Lily wouldn’t taste poison; she’s not stupid.”

“They’re very smart, actually; that’s the best way to immunize yourself from toxins.”

“Mancini, did you know about this?”

“C0lt kill the shit, okay, you knew all along that every time she poisoned her brothers, she was inoculating them.”

“What about when she gave them the runs for fucking with her.”

“Well, she’s still a kid, after all. Anyway, two birds with one stone.”

I’m not staying here, and I’m not going back to the island. I’m heading back to my shop and my life as I knew it before these fucks came into it. I have no kid… fuck, then there would be no Kat. Fuck my life.