Lethal Liaisons (Willful Women Assassins Series) (5 page)

“Thanks, lover. I
think I'd like another,” she replied. “Damn, that tall
one just got through a downstairs window!”

The fellow caught Karlee by
surprise and the two ended up in a life-or-death struggle. Her years
of martial arts training made the cuss look like a piker as his neck
snapped and he fell dead.

The combat seemed to last
for an eternity, but the tide of the battle slowly shifted to the
English and the Americans. Silence eventually overtook the scene as
all the attackers became still.

“Is everyone okay?”
Alexei shouted out, attempting to see who had survived.

The interns had been the
only ones lost, and all the others emerged with superficial wounds,
mostly from hand grenade shrapnel. It was a gruesome scene, bodies
and blood everywhere, broken-out windows, newly-ventilated walls, and
everyone limping and nursing their fresh wounds as they regrouped in
the basement.

“I'm going to miss
the girls. They were the best nieces ever,” pined Alexei.

“What do we do now?”
asked Kris. “Call the police?”

“No, we make it look
as though this never happened. The nearest neighbor is too far away
to have heard anything. We'll bury the bodies, cover them with lye so
they'll rot away faster, repair the outside structure, and go on as
if we are on holiday. So Karlee and Kristie, do you both still want
to pursue this line of work?” Alexei asked.

They both smiled and said,
“More than ever!” They were hooked on the adrenaline
high.

“I could use a new
pair of nieces if you two are interested. Janine can tell you it's
the best training place in the free world,” he said.

“That's true,”
Janine added. “You girls should seriously consider it. It's a
great offer! Alexei trained me.”

“I'll think about
it,” said Karlee.

“No thanks,”
chimed in Kristie. “I don't want to be away from Randolph, and
I need to get back to my acting career. We start filming for our new
season in a few months.”

“It's all a question
of priorities, I guess,” said Randolph.

“Well, there's one
more reason, too. I hadn't planned on announcing it like this, but
now is as good a time as any I suppose. I'm pregnant!” Kris
announced to everyone's shock.

“You're what?!”
responded both her fiancé and her sister.

“I just found out
last week.”

“Did you stop taking
precautions just because you are engaged, sis? You can't count on
Randolph staying around. You should have used protection!”

“Hey, I'm not going
anywhere, and I'm happy. I'm going to be a dad!” he said with a
grin. “Let's set an early wedding date, my love.”

“I'm not like you,
Karlee! I don't believe in abortions or euthanasia like you do. Life
is God's most precious gift to us. If mom had felt like you do, you
wouldn't even be here. She told me you were an accident!” Kris
snarled.

“The world has over
seven billion people; that's about three billion too many, sis! I
also believe in assisted-suicides. As a society, we treat our pets
better than we treat our sick and elderly! Drinking water will be to
the next century what oil is to this one. These terrorists will
destroy our environment! The world's surroundings won't be tolerable
for humans living in the future! I would never want to subject my
kids to any of that, so I'll never have any!”

“Alright, alright,
ladies! Let's stop the bickering!” insisted Alexei. “We're
all upset and not thinking straight. The world now has a dozen less
bad people in it, so we all can be thankful for that. Let's be even
more thankful that those of us who are still here have survived the
night!”

They all promptly agreed as
they gathered up the bodies and mopped up the scene, finishing off a
few whose wounds had not yet been fatal, and scrubbed the blood
stains from their skin. Randolph and Kris chatted as they stacked
some of the corpses.

“What's with your
sister, Kris? Why's she so upset we're gonna have a kid?”

“She's had some bad
experiences in her life that she's never been willing to talk about.
We're alike in some ways, yet so different in others. My life is like
an open book, hers is closed.”

“I'm just glad you're
you and so not her. Still, with things the way they are, you
shouldn't be so much an open book anymore, hon.”

“Randolph, who are we
inviting to the wedding?”

“I hadn't thought
about thought that; your parents maybe. You never talk about them.”

“What about your
parents? You never talk about them either.” There was a
pregnant pause as they finished stacking the bodies.

“That's kinda weird,
huh? Maybe we should talk about it,” she said.

“Yeah, maybe. When?”

“Later?”

“Later is good. Maybe
we could just fly to Vegas and do one of the those quickie weddings,”
he suggested.

“I hate to say it,
but actually that might be a good idea, honey.”

Once the bodies had been
buried and some basic repairs had been made, the group reconvened at
the pool and they shared their wedding plans.

“If we can go there
right from here, I could be your maid of honor and family witness,”
said Janine. “After this week, my schedule is full.”

“The money from this
gig is being wire transferred to all your accounts tonight,”
added Alexei. “In the meantime, here's ten thousand in
walking-around-money for each of you, along with a profound thank you
from Kristov.”

Karlee opted to stay with
Alexei at the castle for the promised training. Janine, Kris and
Randolph all headed for Las Vegas the next morning.

“Wow, I've never seen
so many neon lights before. This place is awesome!” Kristie
exclaimed.

“We used to come here
for weekend leaves when I was in the army. Do you even know how to
gamble, Kris?”

“No. I just want to
see some shows and play some quarter slots.”

“Ten thousand dollars
in your pocket and all you want to do is play some quarter slots?”

“Hey, I'm just a
conservative girl from the heartland's cornbelt, buddy. Have you ever
been lost in a field of full-grown corn?”

“No, can't say as I
have, babe. How about you, Janine?”

“Nope.”

“Karlee and I used to
work on our uncle's farm in the summers when we were young. There was
a clique of a dozen or so of us kids, both boys and girls. We were
all barely into puberty at the time. The large field of eight foot
high cornstalks provided us privacy we couldn't find anywhere else.”

“Privacy for what?”

“We were just a bunch
of rambunctious, curious junior high school kids. We'd play strip
poker hidden in the middle of the big cornfield Saturday afternoons,
and then run off in different directions wearing just our tennis
shoes, playing a game that was a combination of tag, hide-and-seek,
and spin-the-bottle. When you found or caught someone, you got a
kiss, then they'd get to chase after you and do the same if they
caught you. It wasn't anything more sexual than that, just innocent
fun.”

“I guess we city-kids
led deprived lives,” chuckled Janine.

“One time my friend
Denny and I got distracted a little more than usual and before we
realized the time, it was starting to get dark. We couldn't find our
clothes! We called out for our friends, but they had already gotten
theirs and left. I got up on his shoulders to look around, but it was
a big field.”

“So, no clothes?”
Janine inquired with a snicker.

“Nope. It got totally
dark out really quick after that and we had to each get home by
dinnertime.”

“So what happened?”

“We had to sneak home
naked. Fortunately it was a rural area, but it was nearly half a
mile! No one ever found out. We went back in the morning and
retrieved the clothes, not wanting anyone else to discover our
routine. It was the last time we ever did that!”

They all laughed.

The next few days were
spent going to shows, having the wedding ceremony, and gambling.
Randolph played poker and blackjack, the ladies played the slots. The
time came to get packed and return to Chicago. As they were walking
out of the hotel casino, Kris pulled out a handful of silver dollars
left over from her slot play.

“Oh, I don't want to
have to take these through airport security. Let me have one last
pull on that big machine by the door. Please, guys!” It was
kind of an ugly thing, looking too large and shaped like a volcano.
The word 'PROGRESSIVE' was written across the top.

“Sure, babe. My
wife's wish is my command,” Randolph said as he lifted her up
to reach the top of the huge lever.

“Thank you, husband,”
she said as she inserted each of the big coins into the slot, then
used her weight to pull down the heavy handle.

The trio watched as a “7”
appeared, then another, and another. Lucky sevens lined up all across
the wide screen. Smoke spewed from the top of the volcano and a fire
alarm started clanging. Bells rang! Lights flashed! Onlookers
screamed and shouted.

“Oh My God! What did
I do wrong? Did I break it?” she asked in a brief moment of
alarm.

The casino security guards
were on the scene in a flash. It was as though they had appeared out
of nowhere. “Who did that?” asked a menacing looking
employee.

Everyone pointed at
Kristie. His expression turned from a scowl to a big grin as he
reached out his hand.

“Congratulations,
miss. You just won over ten million dollars!!”

She fainted into Randolph’s
ready and waiting arms.

The morning newspapers
said, “Actress Gets Ten Million Dollar Wedding Gift!”
They spent the next month honeymooning in the Fiji Islands.

During the following year,
Karlee resigned her position at the law firm to spend full time
training with Alexei. Kristie shared her winnings with her after the
IRS took its cut, bought a two million dollar home in the Chicago
suburbs, and put the rest in the bank. Her TV career came to halt
when the producers learned of her pregnancy. A few months later she
suffered a miscarriage.

Just back from her year
with Alexei, Karlee stopped by for a visit with the couple.

“Nice digs, sis.
Congrats again on the big slot win and thanks again for the check.
You didn't need to do that, Kristie!”

“I know, Karlee, but
I felt it was the right thing to do and Randolph said it was fine
with him if that's what I wanted to do with it.”

“I'm sorry for what I
said earlier about abortions. I feel just sick about your loss.”

“That's okay. I cried
for a long time, but I'm ready to get on with my life now. What was
it like spending a year with Alexei?”

“It was great. He's
nice, but there was no relationship-type of chemistry. We tried it
for awhile, but decided it best not to mix business and pleasure. I
had to agree to work for him for a year in exchange for his tutelage.
I told him I'll only take on the bad guys of the world and he said
okay. You'd be surprised how many ways there are to kill someone, and
Alexei has taught me a lot of them. He's trained over a hundred
people that now take contract assignments from him. He hired two new
'nieces' and he let me interview for a pool-boy. It turns out he's
into having sex parties. I only watched at first.”

“At first? Tell us
more!” she insisted, as both she and Randolph became engrossed
in listening.

“Oh, it's nothing
that interesting, mostly what you'd expect,” she responded a
bit dismissively.

“What would we
expect?” asked Randolph with a chuckle.

“What about that
pool-boy?” added Kris inquisitively.

“Now that was fun.
It's nice having access to deep pockets and getting obedient staff.
Guys would come by for an interview. Some I merely told that I'd get
back to them, but if they were cute, I'd tell them to take off their
clothes.”

“You did? Did they?”

“Most did. It was so
much fun that I kept interviewing for two weeks!”

They all laughed.

“Then one day I met
Andre. He looked like he was right off a magazine cover and was just
the right size, if you know what I mean.”

“I know you; I know
what you mean,” laughed Kris.

“I told him that I'd
pay him well, but that he had to do whatever I told him to do.”

“And?”

“And he agreed. Then
I told him his uniform would consist of a set of knee pads. He didn't
get it. He wasn't that bright, but that wasn't what I was hiring him
for anyway.”

“I don't get it
either, sis,” confessed Kris.

Randolph leaned over and
whispered into her ear.

“Oh my God, Karlee.
You wicked skank!” she said chidingly. “Well, my life
hasn't been so interesting. I've been helping out Randolph with his
dad's business, doing some more modeling and a few commercials. In
fact, I just heard from my agent. They're going to be making a major
film up at Lake Geneva and there might be a walk-on role for me! I
still have my Screen Actors Guild membership, so that could help get
me picked for the part.”

“I still have mine,
too, from the time I appeared on that twins episode with you,”
Karlee said.

“Oh yeah, I'd
forgotten about that. You should come down to the agency with me
tomorrow. It would be so much fun if we were in a movie together,
even if we don't get any lines!”

She readily agreed and
accompanied her to the audition in the morning. The same big
flat-screen was still on the wall when they entered the interview
room, but it was different people conducting the session.

“Thanks for coming
in, ladies. My name is Howard and this is my associate Marie. We're
familiar with your work, Kristie, and would like you to appear in a
minor role. Karlee, we saw the episode in which you two appeared as
twins and think we may want you to appear also, but we need to see a
little more as we're not as familiar with your ability.”