Page 53 of Unchained
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The black Mercedes sat across the street, the same young woman waiting inside. I told her to get the hell out and to go find something to do. Veronica and I climbed in the back. Stephanie took the wheel.
“There’s no need for all the drama,” Veronica said. “Your wife and son are completely safe, and they have been since the day she arrived.” Veronica stared out the window as we made our way north, heading out of the city.
“You fucking held my son in prison for five fucking years.” I held the gun in my left hand and considered putting a bullet in Veronica’s head. “All that shit you put me through, that’s what you used to change people.”
She continued looking out the window.
“You brainwash people. Treat them to a delicious dish of sexual desires, and they are yours.” I couldn’t even imagine what words I would have for Suzanne and my son. I’d searched for her killer for so long I never considered that she may still be alive. “And what about the other two women who were with her?”
Stephanie looked at us through the rearview mirror, and for the first time, I thought maybe she was involved.
“One other woman,” Veronica said.
“No, I spoke to Suzanne before she got on the boat. There were two women—both business partners.”
“The other woman was Rebecca Johns,” Veronica said. “She jumped into the water and drown.”
“What the hell, Veronica? You were the other woman on the boat? Un-fucking-believable! How did you manage that?”
“I arranged for the other woman to have something to do. Then I showed up at the dock to get on my boat. It was dark out, and no one was around. I told her who I was and that I would be interested in learning more about her business and that I had the money to invest.”
“She brought you on board,” I said flatly. If Suzanne ever had one flaw, it was trusting people too much. That would change.”
“Does she know I’m coming to get her and my son?”
Stephanie eyed Veronica through the mirror.
“Suzanne thinks you’re dead.” Veronica turned her head toward me. “She was told the whole thing was a hit on you and that the people who boarded her boat were there to protect her. She was told there was a safe house in Brazil for her and that she and her baby would be safe there. She came along willfully.”
“All fucking lies because of your father.”
“You can keep saying that, Deacon, but you overstepped your bounds. You broke the law by making sure he died in prison. You are to blame for some of this.”
“You’re fucking amazing. Anyone in my position would have done the same fucking thing. You can’t handle your father was a murdering, drug-dealing psychopath.” I lowered the window once we were out of the city. “I’m at peace with what I did because I was trying to protect the public.”
“You at peace with being a killer yourself?” she asked. “Who made you prosecutor, judge, and jury. You had no right to kill the men you did.”
“Same goes for those low-lives. They made shitty choices and paid the price.”
“No second chances with you,” she scoffed. There was a long silence in the car as we reached the forest on the edge of the city. “I made sure she was well taken care of. And this so-called safe house is actually a five thousand square foot mansion surrounded by a wall. Guards are stationed at the front gate. There has never been a threat to her life. ”She laughed sarcastically. “She’s been safer down here than she would have been in Miami.”
“I doubt that.” We turned onto a bumpy road, and the going was dark and slow. Despite the number of times I’d been to Brazil, I’d never had a chance to make it to the rural areas, the forests. Or the Amazon Jungle. The Amazon had been on my bucket list, but no more. I wanted the hell out of the country with my wife and son.
“What if she doesn’t want to leave?” Veronica asked. She stared at me, the question serious.
“Why the fuck would she do that? You’ve held her prisoner.”
“I’ve kept her and her child safe, Deacon. More than you did.”
“You should watch what you say, Veronica. I’m on the verge of putting a bullet in your head and not feeling a bit bad about it.”
I thought about our deal and what it meant. If I got Suzanne and my son safely into the United States, we could go into hiding. I believed I could block the charges that would come from killing bad guys. I’d developed a story in my head along the way as I ended their lives. I was just investigating on my own, and that led to altercations. I could claim that mentally I had checked out, and all the killings were because I’d lost my shit due to Suzanne’s death. Even finding her in Brazil would prove I never stopped trying to figure out what happened. I loved my wife and did what any man would do.
Stephanie slowed and took a left. The road remained bumpy, but the trees were thinning, providing daylight a way through. “I’m sorry, Deacon,” Stephanie said. “I had no idea this woman was your wife. Otherwise, I would have told you and helped you.”
I needed to be mad at Stephanie, but I couldn’t find the heart to do so. She’d been used by Veronica just like everyone else in Veronica’s circle. Money begets power, and power produces money and mindless followers. That’s the way the world worked.
