Page 44 of Unchained
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The sound of another boat passing by woke me from a deep sleep, however temporary it had been. I stole a look out the narrow window and could see the city lights of Rio in the distance. Christ the Redeemer could also be seen, the 98-foot tall statue lit up for all to see. Knowing what went on in Rio at night, it always surprised me the figure even existed. Or maybe that’s why it did, to protect the almost seven million people from themselves.
In the open closet, I found another casual suit, tee, and nice sandals. Veronica wasn’t kidding when she said she wanted to be around nice looking men.
I smelled of sex and sweat and made a beeline for the shower. I was also hungry and wanted it all to end. I’d decided, as I fell asleep, I would return to Miami and do what everyone had been telling me to do for years—find a nice woman and settle down, maybe have a few kids.
I closed the bathroom door and locked it. I needed a Veronica break to figure out what the hell was happening to me. After all she’d done, I’d let her fuck me last night. Fuck.
The shower did little to settle my mind or my worries. I’d gone down a road that literally had a dead-end for me. What was next? Things couldn't possibly get any worse. And then they did.
I met Veronica out on the back of the boat and noticed the captain had returned to his perch in the cockpit. He waved, and I nodded. I looked around for the guard before joining Veronica at the table that was topped with a variety of food.
“Only the captain returned,” she said. “And he knows nothing about what went on last night.”
“Yeah, about that.” I grabbed one of the sandwiches stacked on a plate and ate it as if I’d not eaten in a week.
“I know about all the men you have killed in the name of justice.” Veronica nursed her wine for a moment and placed the glass on the table. She looked smugly at me. “I think we both have issues that need to be sorted out.”
“You have no proof of anything I’ve done.”
“But I do, Deacon. I have enough that the new D.A. could put you away fro years.”
I shrugged. My give a shit meter was slowly heading to zero. “You could have just done that and skipped all this drama.”
“It wouldn’t have been much fun.” She finished the sandwich on her plate and finished her wine. “But I get it. You want revenge for whatever happened to Suzanne.”
“Like you want revenge for what happened to your father,” I said. I didn’t plead guilty to her charges just in case she didn’t really have any evidence. “You know all this shit about me, but I don’t even fucking know who you really are.”
“Not long before you put my father away, I supposedly disappeared.”
“Shit.”
“I returned to Brazil, where I created a new identity, and with the money my father gave me, I started the cosmetics busy to eventually use it to launder drug money.”
“I could have you put away a long time for that.”
“I stayed out of the public eye for the first year as I, with the help of a few friends in Rio, began changing myself.” She ignored my statement, unconcerned about any information I had on her. This was all about what she had on me. “Once I was happy with the change, that’s when I moved to the United States with my new identity.”
“It was a lie about your mother.”
“A lie I’ve told myself so many times that I started to believe it. That way, others would believe it as well. And if the authorities ever look to see if it were a lie, I’ve made sure all the documentation is in place to prove the lie is true—sort of.”
“None of this makes any fucking sense to me. It seems like you’re going through a whole lot of trouble for nothing. Why not just kill me and get it over with?”
“Because that’s not my style. I don’t kill people. I’m not my father.”
“So now you have morals?”
“I make sure I’m not taken advantage of, and I make sure to right any wrong I can. What you did to my father was wrong. It was intentional abuse of your power. You could have left him away from the prison’s general population, and yet you went out of your way to make sure that didn’t happen. So, I took matters into my own hands after his death.”
“We’re heading into the harbor,” the captain said. “Anything you need me to do.” He glanced at me, meaning did Veronica want him to throw me overboard.
“No. Once we port, the two of us will be heading into the city for a few days.” She looked at me, knowing I would have no intention of staying that long. “I will be fine.”
“The games continue.” I opened a bottle of water on the table and took a long drink, not realizing just how thirsty I was. “I guess the question I have, are these friends of yours like you?”
“They absolutely are and will be thrilled to see you. I’ve told them a lot about you.”
