Dead Center, page 13
part #2 of Nemesis Series
August kept staring at Scott.
Noticing August’s glare, Scott disappeared into the shadows as fast as he’d emerged.
“I’ll do whatever you need. Just please let me live,” the man begged.
“Why? I need to know why?” August asked. He squatted down to face the man. “Just tell me why, Sean.”
Still afraid to make eye contact with August, Sean answered honestly, “’Cause I needed to get medicine for my son. He needed some antibiotics.”
“Okay, and why didn’t you just come to me?” August asked. “If you had just come to me I could’ve done something for you.”
Finally lifting his head, Sean asked, “I did ask. I asked Deshaun, and he told me it wouldn’t happen.”
“So Deshaun told you no?” August asked.
“Yeah, he said I couldn’t have it, that the medicine was scarce, and I just had to deal with it.”
“Tell me again what medicine were you looking for?” August asked. He fully knew what it was but wanted to hear Sean say it.
“My son cut his leg really bad. I’ve tried some natural medicines, but it got infected and he quickly got sepsis. I then decided to take matters into my own hands.”
“So all you need is antibiotics? That’s it?” August asked. “If I gave you antibiotics, all would be fine, you think?”
“Not anymore. He died, my boy died.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” August said then stood and called out, “Deshaun, where are you?”
A tall black man stepped out of the shadows and up to August. “Yes, boss.”
“Did you tell Sean here he couldn’t get antibiotics?” August asked, looking up to Deshaun, who towered over August, who was himself a tall man.
“We’re low on supplies,” Deshaun replied, his trunk-like arms crossed over his body.
“But we have some, right?” August asked. Again he was asking questions he already knew the answer to.
“Yes, boss.”
“Why do we do what we do?” he asked Deshaun.
“Ah…I’m not sure what you’re asking.”
“Why do we do what we do? Why do we store all the food, water, medicine, etc.? Why?”
Deshaun looked around, hoping the others lingering in the darkness would help him answer what he thought now was a trick question.
“Don’t you know?” August asked.
“To, um, to control it?”
“No, no, no, we do it to help. Imagine if we weren’t here, you’d have chaos. Some with, some without. What we’ve done is leveled the playing field. We’ve stockpiled everything so that we can assure everyone gets what they need, and poor Sean here needed medicine for his boy,” August preached. He turned to Sean and continued, “Sean, remind me what you do for us?”
“I repair electronics. I’m, I mean, I was an electrical engineer before.”
“And you’re still an electrical engineer,” August said. He put his attention back on DeShaun. “Sean here is needed, he’s important to what we do, yet you didn’t want to give him the medicine we store because you decided it was to scarce to give away, and now his boy is dead.”
Seeing the conversation was turning against him, Deshaun grew nervous. “But, boss, I thought we should hold onto supplies like that for leadership or—”
“We can always find more! We need Sean; in fact, we need everyone with skill sets! We do what we do to bring stability to the region. Even the damn governor of Nevada recognizes this, but you don’t understand, and now Sean here had to go renegade to try to save his boy by holding up one of our supply depots. Now he wasn’t successful, because we protect what we have for the people.” August walked closer to Deshaun and barked, “Come here, come close.”
Terror was written all across Deshaun’s face. He lowered himself down and asked, “Yes, boss?”
August slapped him and said, “You don’t make decisions like that, do you hear me?”
“I do, boss, forgive me.”
August looked into the darkness to the dozens of men assembled and shouted, “We do what we do for the people. If we don’t have the people, we have chaos. We are the order, the stability that’s needed. Do I make myself clear?”
In unison a chorus of voices rang out. “Yes, sir.”
“What we don’t need is people who aren’t team players or those who think they know better,” August said. He pulled out his pistol and held it firmly in his hand.
August turned to Sean and shouted, “And we don’t need people who will act out on their own, thinking they can do what they want without regard to everything we’ve built.”
“Please, no, don’t,” Sean begged, his hands clasped again.
August turned the pistol on Sean, pointed it at him and said, “Ava, come here, girl.”
Ava stepped out of the shadows. She had grown to be tall and lanky. Her hair was still blond and cut short.
“Come here,” August ordered.
Sheepishly she moved just to within a foot of August, her head down and hands clasped together and fidgeting with her untucked T-shirt.
“Take this,” he said holding out the pistol.
She turned ashen and her eyes widened. “Take the gun?”
“Yes, take the gun,” he barked.
With hesitation she slowly reached out and took the pistol from him. She held it using both hands and kept it low as if the weapon weighed a ton.
“Look at me,” he ordered her.
Doing as he said, she lifted her gaze to meet his.
“I’ve taken care of you since you were little. You’re like a daughter to me. I’ve tried to impart my wisdom on you as well as train you to fight for what is yours. One day this operation could be yours, and in order to run it, you’ll have to be strong, be decisive; and if you’re going to pass judgment, be the one who carries it out if there is a penalty.”
“What do you want me to do?” she asked, fearing his answer was what she suspected and that was to kill Sean. Poor Ava had grown up to be a timid girl. Living under August’s harsh rules, she’d not found structure on which to build a strong character; on the contrary she’d become fearful any wrong move she’d make would be dealt with by his frequent use of corporal punishment.
“I want you to point the pistol at Deshaun,” August ordered.
Shocked by the order, she asked, “Deshaun?”
Immediately, Deshaun backed up, but before he could go three steps, two men came up behind him with weapons drawn and pushed him back into the light. “Listen, boss, I’m sorry, I won’t make any mistakes again.”
“Deshaun, you’re not a bad man, you’re just a stupid man. Sean here is smart and he’s proven he’ll do anything to save his own blood. I can appreciate that. But like I said, Sean is important to us; he has a skillset we need. What do you have? Huh?”
“I’m loyal,” Deshaun answered.
“Are you? Maybe you are, but your actions caused the death of Sean’s son,” August blared in anger. “We need Sean. We don’t need another muscle head like you. You’re a dime a dozen.”
“Boss, please, give me a second chance.”
Ava had done what August asked and was now pointing the pistol at Deshaun. “Now what do you want me to do?”
He walked up behind her, leaned in, and softly whispered into her left ear, “Pull the trigger.”
Her arms began to shake, not out of exhaustion but fear. She was being asked to kill a man who hadn’t done anything to her. She somewhat understood the lesson August was giving but didn’t understand why Deshaun had to die. “Why don’t you give him a second chance?”
Ignoring her question, he spoke louder. “Pull the trigger.”
Her shaking increased and tears welled in her eyes.
“Please, boss, don’t do this. I’ll be a better, please,” Deshaun pleaded.
“Can you not do it? Can you not take a life?” August asked her.
She lowered the pistol, faced him and answered, “No, I can’t.”
“Very well,” he said, taking the pistol from her hand. “If you’re not able to take a life, how will you deal with that woman if we ever catch her?”
“That’s different, Uncle, she did something to hurt me; Deshaun hasn’t. I’ve only known him as nice,” she replied.
“He may be nice, but he’s stupid, and we don’t need stupid people. Stupid people get others killed,” August declared.
“I’m sorry,” Ava said, her head hung low.
“Looks like she won’t be killing you,” August said to Deshaun.
“Thank you, boss,” Deshaun said. A sense of relief swept over him.
August put the pistol back in his shoulder holster and hollered, “Open the doors, that’s it for today.”
Seconds later two large pull-up doors opened. Daylight washed over the warehouse and the group began to disperse.
“Go home. I’ll see you later for dinner,” August said to Ava.
She nodded and scurried off, her tall slender frame hunched over.
Deshaun turned to leave, but August snapped, “You stay here.”
“Yes, boss,” he said.
August looked at the men holding him and said, “He’s fine. You can go.” He then turned to Sean, smiled and walked over to him. He offered a hand, which Sean took. August helped him stand, leaned in, and whispered something unintelligible into his right ear.
Sean’s eyes widened.
“Can you do that?” August asked.
“I…um…I’d rather not,” Sean answered.
“It would mean a lot to me,” August said, patting him on the shoulder.
Deshaun couldn’t hear what was being said and tried his best to listen. Sean was constantly shifting his gaze to him, which in turn made Deshaun wary. “Boss, can I go now?” he asked.
Without turning around, August said, “No, you need to stay.” He faced Sean again. “What he did resulted in your son dying. That man behind me killed your son. If you want, you have the option.”
Sean again looked over August’s shoulder. The second he and Deshaun locked gazes, he turned away. “I don’t know.”
“He was the man responsible for your son’s death and you’re fine with him walking?”
“You’re putting me in a desperate place here,” Sean said.
“I’ll ask you one more time, do you want justice?” August asked.
“So I can just take that,” he said, pointing to the pistol in August’s holster, “and shoot him? You’ll do nothing?”
“I don’t have any more time to wait around. One the count of three, if you don’t do it, you’ll never be allowed to do it again without facing the consequences,” August warned.
“I don’t feel right,” Sean said, sweat poured from his brow and down his cheeks.
“One, two…”
Before August got to three, Sean grabbed the pistol, stepped around August, took aim at Deshaun and fired. The single round smashed into Deshaun’s right cheek, passed through and exited out the back of his head. The hulking man dropped to the ground dead.
A smile creased August’s face. “Now doesn’t it feel good?”
Sean dropped the pistol, turned away from August and vomited.
With his patience at a breaking point, August picked up his pistol holstered it and patted Sean on the back. “Your supervisor will be expecting you back to work tomorrow. Make sure you’re there.” He strode towards the open bay doors, happy he’d delegated the proper punishment. Seeing Scott, he called out, “Make the call to the governor.”
◆◆◆
With her knees tucked in close to her body and her arms wrapped around them, Ava sat on her bed, thinking about what had happened earlier in the day. The only light was small table lamp on the nightstand, powered from a series of generators in the back of the house, their rattle and hum making for a white noise she no longer noticed.
A tap on the door. “Ava, open up,” August said.
“It’s open,” Ava replied and shifted on the bed so her back faced the door.
August threw open the door and walked in just a few steps. “What happened today?”
“I don’t want to talk,” Ava said, her head now buried in between her knobby knees.
Taking a few long strides across the room, avoiding dirty clothes and dirty plates, August stopped just in front of Ava. “We need to talk about this as well as some other things.”
Not lifting her head to reply, she said, “Can we start with the other things?”
“Look at me,” August ordered.
She ignored him.
“Look at me!” he barked.
She reluctantly raised her head. “What?”
“You’re a Clancy, and I, for the longest time, thought you could be the future of this family going forward; but what I’ve been seeing for a while now is…disappointing.”
“I’m sorry, am I upsetting you?” she snarled.
With a raised and furrowed brow, he shot back, “Do you realize what I’ve done for you? Do you? All I’ve created is so that you can have the life you have?”
She looked away and caught her reflection in a long mirror on the wall. She could only look at herself for a moment before she was repulsed by what she saw.
“Look at me, damn it!” he growled in anger.
She snapped her head, widened her eyes and said, “I’m looking.”
“Do you not want to be a part of this family?”
She remained silent.
“Well?”
“Yes, I do, but isn’t there another way?”
“Another way? What are you talking about?”
“Did you have to kill Deshaun? He might have made a mistake, but his punishment didn’t fit his crime. He was a good guy.”
“He might have been a good guy, but this is about sending a message far and wide. The world is a dangerous place, even for me. People are ready to take us out at any time. They can never presume we’re weak, ever. If we were to ever project weakness, we’d be dead by morning.”
“Killing him was weak, it was easy,” Ava countered.
He shook his head and paced a couple of times around the room. “I made a mistake. I’ve messed up. If your father could hear you now.”
“My father? You talk about him all the time, but you know something, Uncle Auggie, I don’t remember him, nope, not even my mother or my brother. Sure, you tell me stories and I imagine those times or their faces, but I don’t really have a memory. Those aren’t mine, those are yours. So please stop using my father as a way to make me feel bad about myself.”
August sighed.
“I do want to be a part of this family, but I’m not a killer; it’s not me,” she said with confidence, a trait she so rarely displayed.
“And what will you do if you ever meet the woman who murdered your family?” he asked. “Will you just let her go? Will you not seek the justice you’ve wanted for so long?”
“What is justice anymore? You called what you did today justice, but that was just murder. You murdered a man who was loyal to you,” Ava said.
“You’re impossible anymore to deal with.”
“You think I’m impossible, have you ever looked in the mirror at yourself, huh?”
Shocked by her tone, he grew in anger and took a step towards her, his fists clenched.
“What are you going to do, hit me?” she asked.
Her words stopped him cold. He leered at her, his nostrils flared.
“I’ve wondered for a long time since I’ve seen how my family does things and have to ask. The woman who killed my family, why was she even here?”
“I’ve told you, she first killed your uncle Michael.”
“I heard that, but why did she kill Uncle Michael? What prompted her? People operate from motive. What was hers? I heard she was pregnant at the time? What causes a pregnant woman to go on a murder spree?”
He scrunched his face and turned away from her. “I can’t presume to know why people do the things they do. She had a motive, but I fear it’s lost to time now. We’ll never know why, but what we do know is she did murder all those people, including your own family, your flesh and blood. So I ask again, what will you do if you ever find her?”
Like many times before, she pondered the very question. She had often thought about what her life could have been if her parents hadn’t been killed and did feel an anger towards Lexi, towards a person she’d never met. She didn’t even know what she looked like. But there was a deep-seated spite and rage that sat inside her for Lexi. It ran counter to her personality, and for a while she had fought it. Yet, when she was left to her own thoughts about what her life could have been, she imagined that if she ever encountered Lexi, she’d let go of all those years of pent-up anger, sorrow and pain. But could she kill her? Yes, she could.
“Would you just forgive her for what she did, do nothing to this woman?” August asked, as he continued to pepper her with questions.
“I would kill her,” Ava answered. She cut her eyes at him. “Is that what you want to hear?”
“It’s not about what I should hear, though I like your answer; this has to be what you’re capable of doing. I need you strong. You’re my daughter now, and for the longest time I have wanted you to take over for me when I step down. But this Ava, the one who pouts and cowers, that Ava I’ve seen for a couple of years now doesn’t have the strength to lead the clan. I need to know you’re able and have the mindset needed to see our family continue to succeed into the next generation.”
“So you need me to kill random people, is that it?” she sneered.
“I need you to start standing tall. I need you to look at people when you talk, and not look down. I need you to step up and do what’s necessary when I ask you to. What you don’t see when your eyes are staring at the ground is everyone else’s eyes are on you. They see a meek and weak girl, not a woman who in a number of years could be tasked with leading the family.”
“And how could I lead this family? Why would I? There’s Uncle Avery and Uncle Scott.”
Again he sighed. He stepped closer and knelt in front of her. “My brothers while strong aren’t smart like you. I’ve seen that you have the brains to run this operation. I saw it when you were little. You’re wicked smart; you have an intelligence and an eye for detail. Even though you challenged me about Deshaun, you were thinking, calculating. Scott has somewhat of a brain, but he’s led more by his…let’s just say he allows women to rule over him.”
