Fragrance of Revenge (31 page)

Chapter 95

She watched blood spraying everywhere from his sliced neck. His eyes told the whole story of disbelief.

“Chris, if you can still hear me that is for coming into my bedroom and reading my private diary. You had no right to read that. You and the doctor now can enjoy your time together in hell. I wanted my family. He kept me from it and you took them away.”

Tears were cascading down her face. She reached out and slashed his face with the razor. She tried to stop, but she couldn’t stop hitting him with the razor. Seconds later, she could no longer recognize him.

She was covered in his blood. She realized he really didn’t deserve what she did to him, but she had Scott to herself now. There was only one member of her family left and she now had a way to get to her too.

The razor was still in her hand when she left the room and headed quickly to Scott’s bedroom.

It was obvious by the look on Scott’s face he knew what had happened to Chris. Chris’ screams and the blood covering her body were a dead giveaway.

She moved quickly to the side of his bed and studied the two arrows pointing at her target. Her twin was dead, but she had managed to pick up where she left off. It was just Scott and her now and she was anxious for him.

She watched his eyes travel the length of her naked body and then fixate on the bloody razor in her bloody hand.

“I hope you’re happy to see me, but I can tell by how deflated you are that you’re not. We can fix that.” She climbed onto his body and sat on his thighs. She ran her free hand across his face and slowly downward. “I read in my sister’s diary that you tried harder than any of the men to resist her attention. However even you eventually gave in to her. I have all the time in the world, and like her, I will get what I’m after.”

She moved the razor to her sister’s arrow and traced the scar with the back of the blade. She looked at Scott’s eyes and smiled. Then she moved the back of the blade to her own arrow, which was showing the first signs of healing. The razor was leaving traces of Chris’ blood on his body.

“This isn’t acceptable.” She moved the razor to Scott’s mouth. “Lick it clean or I will put your own blood on it.”

She watched as he carefully licked the razor. She moved her free hand down further between his legs. “That’s clean enough.”

There was a loud crash downstairs and she realized that somehow they had been found. She wanted Scott to see what happened next and cut all four of his ropes freeing him from the bed. She climbed off Scott when she heard the pounding of footsteps on the stairs.

Chapter 96

Mike had crawled under the house and both of them were waiting for him to come back to let them know whether there was anyone in the house.

The early morning calm was split wide open with a man’s tormented screams. They all had their answer and someone was being killed. She looked at Paddy and he was in shock. “Paddy, my God you’re having a heart attack.”

“I’ll be fine with one of my pills. Go, Mike may need some help.”

She jumped out of their cover, pulled the gun out of her waist band and ran to the camp and onto the porch.

She thought of Scott being killed by her sister which was enough adrenaline to give her the strength to kick the door and shatter the frame. The door banged off the wall and she ran to the stairs leading upstairs.

She reached the top of the stairs and caught sight of the blood on the floor. When she entered the bedroom she saw what was left of Scott on the bed. He had been cut apart and his face was a bloody pile of mush.

There was a loud thump and the sound of someone rushing down the hall. She didn’t care about her sister or the guy with her. She moved away from the bed and slipped on the floor falling to her knees and dropping her gun. She leaned her head down and felt her insides coming up. She heard the noise beside her and looked up to see a naked woman about to swing a razor at the back of her neck.

She was covered in blood but the blade was shiny. It was all slow motion.

Then she thought she saw Scott behind her. However, it was too late. The razor was behind her sister’s head and in one quick motion she was going to be killed.

Scott reached out and grabbed her wrist, but her wrist was covered in blood and he couldn’t hold onto it. She saw Alexis spin and kick Scott between his legs and he immediately doubled over. Alexis turned and rushed towards her again with the razor raised.

The room exploded and Alexis fell over her onto the bed. She looked at the bedroom door and it was Mike standing there, pistol pointed where Alexis had been.

*.*.*

The area was swarming with police as the medic was treating Scott. She thanked God he was still alive. Minutes ago she thought her life was over in many different aspects. If had been a tough few days, but it was over now. She wanted so much to yank the blanket covering Scott and show him how much she loves him. However, there were too many people around.

“Scott, I thought the body on the bed was yours and one of my sisters had finally taken you away from me. I’m so thankful you’re safe. I’m so sorry we had the disagreement on the phone and I doubted you.”

“Mercy, I love you and want to be with you for the rest of my life. I promise I’m never going to do another investigation.”

“Well I accept all of those commitments. I have given my notice with the FBI. More importantly, I want you with me for the rest of my life too.”

“Do you like the sound of Mrs. Scott Tucker?”

“Do I detect a proposal?”

“You really would make a good detective you know.”

“That is all behind me now. If you are serious about never doing another investigation, I like the sound of being your wife.”

“What will you do?”

“I think the first thing to do right now is to start practicing on how to make a family.”

“I’m up for it right now.”

The medic had already finished tending to his wounds. She pulled the blanket open and looked at his body. “I can see you are working on it, but you look like you need a little more assistance. How about we get out of here and start practicing?”

They watched Mike come over to them. “You two look like you’ve made up.”

“Mike, am I needed here any longer?” Scott asked.

“No, we have your preliminary statement, but they will need a more detailed statement later.”

“Is tomorrow okay?”  

Chapter 97

It was Mercedes’ final day at the FBI. A meeting had been set up for the end of the day, but she wasn’t told what it was about. She figured it was going to be a goodbye session.

Ralph was back at work for a week and he took her out for lunch. “Mercedes you were incredible to work with, but I would like to still be friends. Would you mind having lunch with me every once in a while?”

“Ralph you are a great agent. You will have a great career with the FBI. We can still be friends and I would like very much to enjoy lunch with you once in a while. I have to thank you for respecting me…you could have made it more awkward.”

Later that afternoon they both headed to the large conference room. The door was already closed and Mercedes knocked. The door opened and Max was standing at the front of the room.

“Welcome you two. The attractive young lady is Mercedes Strong. The young man with her is Ralph Reynolds. Please have a seat over here.”

He waited for them to take their seats near the front of the room. “Today is a sad day as we are saying goodbye to one of our agents, Mercedes. She has been an asset to our agency and we will miss her very much. However, the rumor has it that she is going to be married very shortly. Congratulations Mercedes. It is also a special day as we are welcoming Ralph back to our agency and he is now a Special Agent. Congratulations Ralph.”

Max continued after the polite applause. “We have some special guests in the room that I would like to introduce to both of you. We have two very thankful young ladies, Marie Quinlan and Helen Scott. They and many others were rescued from their abductors.”

There was polite applause as well for them.

“Next to them is Richard Damelio who was also rescued. Because of his excellent record keeping we located all of the US citizens and with the help of the Venezuelan military rescued
all
of them
and all
of the other abducted women from other countries.”

Once again the room filled with applause.

“Seated beside him is Robert Damelio, Richard’s brother. None of you knew about him. Mercedes, you mentioned that you must have had a guardian angel watching over you…I’d like you to meet him in person. Rob, and a former member of the Venezuelan military, were the key investigators in Venezuela. Through their combined efforts they discovered where his brother was, but more importantly who was behind the abductions. They also stayed with it long enough to pinpoint the leaders behind the slave trade.”

She got up and went over and hugged him. “I have my life thanks to you.”

Max resumed, adding, “Rob, as I mentioned in the invite, many people are free today because of your investigation.”

There was a loud applause.

“This envelope contains an offer of employment with the agency, and I would be very happy to have you on our team. You can read the details later, but Mercedes and Ralph were more than just agents here…they were friends. Thank you.”

The room erupted again.

“The rest of the story is that Captain Chavez was the leader of the gang, along with Jose and Hector Hernandez. Chevez was killed when he resisted arrest while attempting to board a flight to Boston. Mercedes introduced Hector to her elbow and his body was returned to his native country. Jose and the other members of his gang were arrested in a large number of coordinated raids by the Venezuelan military. The military has since learned the names of the people associated with similar gangs operating in other parts of Venezuela.”

“In addition, the president has sent a communiqué to the Venezuelan president thanking him for the excellent work of the Venezuelan military in rescuing our kidnapped citizens. There is still an investigation now being conducted by the Venezuelan government to recover the vessels that were taken illegally.”

She watched as Max picked up a small gold-wrapped package on the far credenza. “Mercedes this is just a small token of our appreciation for your years of service.”

She stood and opened the package. She read the inscription on the plaque-

‘In Recognition of Your Excellent Service

Thank You Mercedes Strong!

From Your FBI Family’

*.*.*

It had been a busy two weeks. There was the funeral for Mercedes family members including Alexis. Mercedes was waiting until after she left the FBI to deal with all of her parents’ personal affairs. She was considering managing her father’s real estate entity. There was a right hand person handling the development side of his business, and she was planning on giving him the reigns.

I was making us a shrimp scampi dinner when I heard the door open to her former apartment which was now our apartment. I had suggested we go out to dinner to celebrate her last day at the agency, but she wanted to celebrate privately.

I saw her smiling face first and then the box she was carrying. I went over to greet her and smelled the sweet scent of Gardenia. “Welcome home honey.”

“It’s nice to hear that when I come through the door.”

“You look like you had a good day today. Did they give you a nice sendoff?”

“Yes they did, and I was quite surprised by it.”

“Would you care for a drink?”

“A glass of white wine would be nice.” She sat on one of the counter stools. “My guardian angel came to a meeting at the end of the day.”

I handed her the glass of wine and touched my small glass of bourbon to hers. “Cheers.”

“Cheers.”

“I don’t fully understand…guardian angel?”

“Well the ‘Readers Digest’ version is this…when we were in Venezuela both Ralph and I seemed to be rescued before anything serious happened to us. It was like we had a guardian angel watching over us. I met him.”

“Him?”

“Yes, him.”

I listened to her explain what happened at the meeting. The more excited and animated, the more I detected the scent of Gardenia. Although she had lost her parents she seemed to have the weight of the world lifted off her shoulders. I stirred the scampi, but wanted to turn it off. I couldn’t wait to get something off her shoulders and elsewhere for that matter.

Right in the middle of her telling the story, she stopped. “Are you listening to what I’m saying?”

“Every word of it.”

“Then why do you have that expression?”

“Can’t you guess?”

“Are the Indians getting their bows and arrows ready?”

“I don’t know about the Indians and the bows, but the arrows should be pointing at something.”

“That’s not the only thing that’s pointing.”

As we passed by the stove I turned the scampi off and followed this beautiful creature. She was easy to follow, leaving a trail of clothes along the way. When we reached the bedroom she was on the bed totally nude and holding her arms out to me. I had one last article of clothing left to remove and saw her big smile. “Let me do that for you.” She slowly pulled down my briefs. “Do you have anything to say for yourself Mr. Tucker?”

“If you ever get lost there should be enough road signs along the way.”

“Cute, but I don’t plan to get lost.”

“I think the more we practice this…the better we will get.”

“Promises…promises. They say that practice does make perfect.”

“Oh, wait Scott this is important. I talked with Maggie today and she is thrilled to death that she is going to be my maid of honor. However, we both agreed that she would bring a date to the wedding. I told her about this nice guy named Ralph at work. I think they will get on famously, don’t you?”

“I’m sure they will. I talked to Mike and he’s consented to be my best man.”

“He might be your best man…but you’re mine.”