Motown Showdown (26 page)

You win, Gadget
.
I’m done
.

To protect myself the only way I knew how, I severed our bond. I did this so quickly, completely and harshly; I thought I was dying. Doubled over in agony, the pain was like being lanced in the chest with a hot blade, but it was done; he was officially free of me. Forcing my feet forward, I turned away and do not look back. Once I was far enough away, I scaled the nearest tree headed straight for the top and screamed my fucking head off. I did this for quite some time.

Once I exhausted myself, I climbed down and began the slow jog back to get to my car. But plans changed when Pilgrim called to tell me he had his sights on Bobo. Letting out another scream, this one a battle cry, I switched directions, and I ran for his life.

The nightmares were always the same. Camo on top of me, getting herself off on my cock and just as we locked eyes, right when I told her that I loved her, she was shot in the chest. I didn’t believe in premonition, but I did believe odds were good she’d die saving me. Thing was, a good man would quit her.

I was not a good man.

Therefore, she needed to quit me.

Even after breaking her heart, she followed.

Camo put her pain aside to keep me safe.
She’s done this for six fucking years
…

What’d I do? I paid the drunk broad in my truck fifty bucks to act interested. Instead of her paying for cab fare she didn’t have, I offered her some cash to do me a favor in return for a ride home. No matter what I said or did she’d keep coming back. Therefore I had to resort to this. I needed Camo to break from me, and when I kissed the woman, it wasn’t a break that I felt. I felt the shatter like a God damn volcanic eruption inside my chest. Her pain dropped me where I stood. Hot searing pain engulfed me. I rolled around on the concrete with it. Not even the broad screaming for help mattered to me. What mattered to me, what I’ve relied on for six years was gone.

She severed our connection.

Disappeared like it had never been.

The pain in my chest was the only proof she existed.

This was proof there was no me without her. God dammit, if she felt even a fraction of that, then there was no her without me either. Still, it was done, and I knew deep down one day she’d find someone who’d do right by her. I had to trust that, I fucking had to.

Then I heard the screaming.

The sound hurt worse than my chest did. It hurt so bad I covered my ears, but it was too late. I would never forget the sound of Camo in agony, it was branded on my soul forever. Coming to my feet, I kick the broad out of truck tossing a few bills before I pulled away. Not too many people will ever have the privilege of having a woman risk her own life for theirs. I loved it as much as I hated it, but she saw the bigger picture whereas, I chose not to see anything.

Knowing who she really was, why she sacrificed for me woke me up to the subtle hints Pilgrim would drop. Asking about her, personal shit no one but I knew. Sending me out on bullshit jobs hoping I’d die there. But I never died because she was always there to rescue me. And then he ordered me to kill her. Still Camo took on her own men to protect the lone wolf who played by his own rules. Having someone believe in you absolutely was a gift I couldn’t keep. Guilt settled into the pit of my stomach making it queasy. Something felt off. Not just the loss of our connection, of losing her, but something sinister. Fuck, I could feel it. Something was coming.

Making a u-turn, I started to haul ass until I was stuck in construction traffic on Woodward. When my phone rings, I don’t even look I just answer. I assumed it was her calling to tell me she hated me but it wasn’t.

“Camo is gone, Gage,” says Kandace like she’s either out of breath or crying. “She packed her bags and took off running after you and hasn’t come back! She’s not answering her phone, something’s wrong!”

“Fuck!”

“She overheard you tell Rome you didn’t love someone like her,” she growls. My sister never growls. “And she still stayed for you and us! That shit you pulled tonight most people could never forgive. I’m your sister, and I don’t forgive you for it! Who says shit like that, Gage? Especially when you lied to her face! If something happens to her, I hope you can live with yourself. If harm comes to her, I don’t know that I can forgive you.
Who are you
?” She finishes on a whimper.

“Kandace, I couldn’t keep her. I had to let her go so she could live.”

“I,” she whispers through her tears. “I love her, Gage.”

“That makes two of us,” I mumble.

“Then why break her heart like that?” she asks then says, “That’s weird, the power went out.”

My blood turned to ice. “Kandace,” I try.

“Rome,” she calls out ignoring me. “Do the neighbors have power?”

There was a pause, and he says, “Yeah.”

“Kandace!” I yell into the phone.

“Wh--?” she tries but it replaces with a scream. I know why it was because I heard it through the phone.

“Get down!” I order her and then she screams again for Rome who takes the phone and says, “We’re under fire! What do I do?” Giving him orders where to take my sister and hide, I go around traffic ignorant of the honking and the law. I had to get home,
now
.

Camo wasn’t answering her phone. Not like I expected her to but fuck, I needed her help. Desperate, I even call Bobo, but shit went straight to voicemail too. So when Pilgrim called, I was not in the mood for his bullshit, not at all.

“What?”

“She’ll never find me,” he says smugly. “She can disable the wire, call in favors and have her handler dig until his hands hurt, and he won’t find me either.“

“You better hope she finds you before I do,” I warn him. “You bit off more than you can chew, partner.”

“Did you know that months ago a man came to me professing his love of the infamous Camo. Only she didn’t love him back. But he assumed that by killing you, she’d fall for him. This is silly of course but I found myself in an interesting position. With you gone, she’d fall apart. Then I’d kill her and having her off my fucking back would finally open up some doors. Only you wouldn’t die so I had to get creative.” He laughs like he’s already won, and I was concerned that he had. “But somehow she knew, Gadget. I hate to admit this but, she’s always one step ahead. Or she was until you fucked with her head. You should have listened to her warnings about me. But like always, you do whatever the fuck you want which worked out very well for me.”

“All this to take over the wire? She disabled it, asshole, it no longer exists!”

“So short sided,” he laughs again. “Of course she disabled it. She did that to save your ungrateful ass. And because of that, there are dozens upon dozens of operators that need a new home. They’ll require a handler, and when she dies, their loyalty dies with her. And she will die, Gadget, she has to.”

“Not if I kill you first!”

“Then you better hurry partner,” he whispers low, too low. “Because she’s got a head start.”

Hanging up, I refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing he hit home. Again, Camo was right. I was easily distracted because right now all I could think about was finding her, keeping her safe. Most of all, I needed to find Pilgrim before she did.

And without her guidance, I had no fucking clue where to start.

“Don’t you ever get down?”

“Pssh,” I say. “All the time, especially when my jam comes on.”

“I meant… forget it. You’re a fucking trip, woman.”

“Twenty bucks says when we finally hang out, I’ll dance better than you.”

“You think you can out dance a black man?”

“I know for a fact you’ve got some white in you. Plus, I think my third uncle was a quarter Jamaican. My odds are pretty good.” I was lying, but whatever.

“I’ll say this, since the day you found me, life ain’t been boring.”

“Gadget?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for being my friend.”

“Fuck,” he whispers. “I don’t know where I’d be without you, Camo.”

Dead was the answer but, I didn’t want to ruin the moment by bragging. Instead, I hung up.

Ignoring the whispers in my head of
kill, kill, kill
… I hauled ass to my car, surprised but pleased to find it in one piece. Next stop, the loft to tie up loose ends.
Kill, kill, kill
…

Shutting the wire down was done by the push of a button. A stock message was sent to the players letting them know to lay low, to move on and to forget this life existed. Pilgrim would receive the same message as the others only I tacked on a personal message for him at the bottom.
Get off the babysitter, mommy’s coming home
.

Knowing him, he’d totally appreciate my humor.

Packing what I needed didn’t take long considering I was prepared for this eventuality. I promised Bobo and myself I’d never get too big for the game that I wouldn’t stay in it for the attention. But it had happened, and I was too focused on Gadget to notice.
This is my fault
… It wasn’t the wire he was after, but I was too full of myself to consider he may have a bigger agenda
. It was the players I coached, protected and trusted that he wanted. The men that followed me absolutely. If I fell, to continue the game they needed to put their trust in someone else. Pilgrim
, the rat bastard, assumed the men loyal to me, would be loyal to him by default. Not one of them, after this shit show would ever consider it, but he’s convinced himself otherwise.

When they refused (and they would) he would threaten them, using whatever tools available to ensure compliance. He would even turn them against each other, thinning out the herd. Jesus, it wasn’t about me, Gadget or the wire.

It was about a hostile takeover.

Saving the people I loved included every last one of my players who had trusted me with their lives. The same men who trusted me to keep them alive, house their secrets. Secrets like which contracts we held with police departments and government sectors. Knowledge that would get a lot of innocent people killed. He could not obtain that kind of power. No fucking way was I letting Pilgrim show this hand.

He can’t show his hand if you blow it off
…

Flushing Pilgrim out would be tricky. He was a lot of things, but he was not dumb enough to show himself. Odds are when the others shot him down; he threw the offer out to randoms. I had to take unknowns into account now; this did not make me happy. Unknown players willing to sacrifice themselves for the promise of money they would never see. But they did not know that.

Humans and their greed
…

Using my handler was an effective play because it rattled me, it even had me sweating. Leaving the lovebirds behind rattled me too. There were too many loose ends, and I was starting to panic. I never panicked. I was fucking panicking because I didn’t have control. I also couldn’t be in two places at once. Add to that, fucking Gadget is probably balls deep into some bar bitch, and I was close to snapping.

No answer again. Shit.

Bobo always answers. I couldn’t think about him not answering because he was suffering. Because I didn’t make it in time to save him. I also couldn’t think about all the things I would do to torture Pilgrim for having the balls to go after my family.
My only family
. Bobo was a bad motherfucker but he also didn’t have the element of surprise, the enemy did. First things first, secure my grandpa by any means necessary and
breathe
. Parking two blocks over, I hop fences and was lucky when neither yard had dogs. My building had no trees or ground cover; Bobo’s did. On the outskirts of town, he was close to Ferndale and nestled in a nice neighborhood. Here they had trees everywhere.

Eco-conscious neighborhoods never looked so good.
God bless the hipsters
…

Taking post in the oak in his backyard, I assemble my Dragunov SVD and adjust my scope. This bad boy was the best thing to come out of the Soviet Union and has never let me down. It wouldn’t be letting me down today either. Slowing my breathing, counting my breaths, I calmed myself. The only time I could ever achieve total calm was when I had a weapon in my hands. If my hands were full, the world could be exploding around me, and I wouldn’t notice.