Agent for a Cause (The Agents for Good) (15 page)

“I do have to admit Tyre that there is one thing that I really do like about your house’s location.”

“And what’s that my love?”

She turned to me her eyes sparkling as her fingers moved to the buttons of my shirt, “All my life I’ve been a city girl. I find it very freeing to enjoy the life and privacy of the country with you anywhere I want to.”

I sat up panting hard the nightmare still real in my memories. I hadn’t had one in a while and I had enjoyed their absence. They weren’t so much as nightmares as they were bad memories.

The nightmare was that in the midst of a dream I was left with the impression that life had never passed beyond that time of hardship that my bad memories were based out of. It had been an intolerable time to go through let alone be stuck in.

“Oh honey! You’re drenched!” Anna exclaimed, as I felt her hand touch my back and then my head.

I lifted a shaking hand to brush the sweat off my forehead. Her cool hands pulled my head down against her warm chest and she hugged me to her.

This was a level of comforting that I had never had before and I soaked up every moment of it. I pressed my face harder against her feeling myself begin to relax, as her hands rubbed my upper back and neck.

“I’m hopelessly in love with you and would do anything for you, but it bothers me that I know so little about you in regards to the time before I met you Tyre.” Anna said softly.

“What do you want to know?”

“What gives you nightmares?”

“My whole childhood was a nightmare and sometimes I dream that I never left it.”

I was quiet for a little while and so was she.

“I suppose you want to know more?”

“Yes.” Was her soft response.

I reluctantly pulled myself up to sit back against the headboard leaving the comforting softness of her chest behind. Thankfully she followed with her comfort, as she turned halfway into me, as she lay her head on my shoulder and her hand rubbed over the muscles of my chest and belly.

“Were you an orphan?” She asked prompting me.

“Yes and no. I had a mother. I never knew my father.”

“You were born in Russia?”

“Yes, Kiev to be exact.”

“That must’ve been hard for a single mother in Russia to raise a child alone.”

“She wasn’t like you Anna. You’re a wonderful mother and I’ve seen few people equal you in terms of the amount of self-sacrifice that you’re willing to go through for your own child, and even for me. In a word, you’re amazing!”

Her lips kissed the base of my neck, “Thanks!” She whispered before she asked, “Your mother wasn’t amazing I take it?”

“She was a drug addict and did anything she had to in order to get a fix.”

Anna’s words were cautious as she asked, “Was she on drugs while she was pregnant with you?”

“Most likely.”

I squeezed an arm around her back, “Come on out with it honey. You think I’m slightly autistic don’t you Anna?”

“No I don’t think your autistic Tyre, but you do have some processing disorders and emotional hang-ups. Your mother being on drugs could explain that. You cope very well with them though, but it shows at times if you know what to look for like I do. That doesn’t make you any less of a man Tyre! It just makes you who you are, which is the man I love above all others!”

“You’re sweet you know that! You’re the sweetest, kindest most loving influence that I’ve ever had in my life!” I said emotionally.

She nuzzled her face against my neck and pressed her body closer to mine. “I’m glad you think that.” She whispered softly against my neck.

“Your mother she didn’t care for you at all?” Anna asked.

“No, I cared for her instead. I stole food and picked pockets and whatever else I had to do to survive. A lot of times we ate other people’s garbage. At times, especially in the winter rats and mice can become a delicacy let me tell you.

I managed to get a small job cleaning up at a chess club that paid enough to get some better food for a while.”

“How old were you?”

“About eight I think.” I said in response.

“What happened to your mother?”

“She was doing sexual favors one night in order to get the money for a fix and I guess she didn’t do the job well enough or she asked too much money for it and the guy slapped her so hard he broke her neck.”

Anna cringed against me and I felt her tears on my skin, “Then what did you do Tyre?”

“The authorities got a hold of me and threw me into an orphanage, which was essentially a sweatshop. I was there till I was 11, when a rich American couple adopted me.”

“Did things get better then?” Anna asked hopefully.

“The food did, but nothing else. They were rich New York socialites. The wife had lost a bet with another couple and the conditions of the bet had been that the loser had to adopt a Russian orphan.”

“That’s terrible!” Anna exclaimed.

“Actually it wouldn’t have been that bad, if her husband hadn’t had a fondness for boys.”

Anna’s head came up off my shoulder and I could see the look of outrage on her face in the semi light of the moon reflecting off the snow outside.

“He molested you?” She cried out in anger.

“Molest would be a small word for it.” I said before looking away.

Her hand brought my face back around, “Oh honey!” She whispered out before hugging me hard as her tears pressed into my skin.

I relished her comfort, but I knew she might not give it so freely after she heard all of it. I started to speak, but her fingers closed over my mouth. “Tyre you don’t have to go on! I understand if you don’t want to talk about this stuff!”

I kissed her fingers, but pulled them away, “You need to hear all of it Anna.”

She looked uncertain but said, “Okay.”

I started back into the story, “The authorities found out about my adopted fathers activities with me from a maid, who felt sorry for me. They shipped him off to jail and the inmates made short work of him within a couple months, when they found out what he was there for.

I stayed on with the wife until I was fourteen and then I ran away. I started stealing stuff again. It was easy really. Growing up in a Russian ghetto had been survival, but making it alone on the streets of New York City was child’s play in comparison.

I killed my first man when I was sixteen. It was the easiest money I ever made, more followed after. I educated myself with the money I made. I even went to college under an assumed identity with the money I made off of killing people on the side.

I was in every way as cold and dispassionately out for my own gain as the man who injected you with that acid was.”

“What made you change?” Anna asked, her words slightly muffled against my chest.

In some ways I couldn’t believe she was still against me. Let alone in the same room with me. “It was a couple of years later after college, when I came up against the wall.

I was given a target to take out and offered a lot of money to do it. Much more than usual. I inquired why that was and was told that I could expect resistance from other interested parties. Well, the interested parties got the better of me or I should say one of them did, an old man.

I was full of bullet holes and bleeding out on the concrete floor of an old warehouse building. As I lay there dying I reflected on how glad I was that life was almost over.

The older man that had outfoxed me came up to me. I thought he’d come to finish the job, but he just stared at me for a while and I at him. He stopped the bleeding then and somehow I survived.

He took me to his estate and I started the long process of recovery. It took a while. When I was to the point that I could’ve walked off under my own power I went to him and asked him why he had saved me. He didn’t answer my question directly at first.

He looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘You work for me from now on boy. You’re good at killing, but you only kill those from now on that need killing, and you won’t do it for money anymore, but rather for the greater good. I’ll see that you have the money you need to live comfortably, while not on assignment and in return I expect absolute loyalty from you.’ He started to leave me then and I grabbed his arm to stop him as I asked again, ‘Why?’ He looked at me for a long moment, ‘Because I thought I saw something worth saving in you. Now don’t disappoint me or I swear that I’ll put a bullet between your eyes myself, so help me and finish the job I started!’ And that was that. I started working for him and the agency he runs. It hasn’t all been killing, but there has been a lot of it. He paired me up with Flint and Galloway. Flint you know. Galloway doesn’t have a serious bone in his body and gets on my nerves a lot, but he is still very capable in his own right. His effervescent mood is in some ways a cover that helps put others to sleep in regards to his true threat to them. It took me a while to realize that the dumb ox wasn’t so stupid after all. Flint is the consummate man in almost every aspect and if given the chance in another life I would very much like to have been a lot more like him. He’s even got me half convinced that forgiveness and a ticket to heaven are still options left open to even someone like me.”

“And why not?” Anna said cutting in.

“You’ve been a perfect angel with me and Kevin! Sure you’ve done enough to be in hell, but so have we all. Why shouldn’t forgiveness be an option open for you to? Whatever you once were and as bad as that may have been, you’ve changed! You’re a wonderful man! You shown me nothing but a caring heart and youth melted mine in how you’ve been a father to Kevin and a tender caretaker over my own needs and desires. You’ve been nothing but an answer to prayers that I thought were long forgotten! Knowing you has given me back my faith Tyre and I won’t stand for any nonsense about how you think you’re such a bad guy!” She said passionately into my face.

“I don’t deserve you Anna!” I said with emotion equal to hers.

“Tough because you’re stuck with me!” She said as she slid over straddling my lap. I watched her wipe away tears as her resolute smile came back out.

“Now I’ve heard all your deep dark secrets and I’m still here and I love you! Now you want to know what I think your problem is?”

“What?”

“I think you just haven’t had enough good memories in life yet to wipe out all those bad ones.” She said as she kissed me.

“That could take a lifetime of work on your part don’t you think?” I asked teasingly, as the entire mood of the bedroom’s atmosphere shifted down another avenue, thanks to this amazing woman.

I laughed as she held up one hand and said, “Ready willing and able Sir!”

She made it so good to be alive.

Her eyes turned smoky with passion, as she ran a finger down my face to my lips, “Now there’s something I want to know!”

“What?” I asked completely captivated by her.

“Since we’re in the spirit of you laying everything out in the light of day, I thought you could be persuaded.”

She kissed me.

“To reveal.”

She kissed me again.

“Yourself.”

“What in particular are you referring to?” I asked cautiously.

She smiled predatorily at me as her arms closed around my neck. “You spent hours and hours stalking me with your eyes in that bar in Philadelphia. For thirty two nights I felt the heat of your gaze on me and now I want you to tell me every single fantasy you dreamed up while you were watching me, because honey I’m going to make them all come true!”

I felt beads of sweat pop out of my forehead and I laughed nervously. “Do you think you can handle that, honey?”

I hated the nervous sounding quality of my own voice, as I tried to deflect her question.

Her smile was full of promise and her voice deepened as she said, “Oh you know I can honey! I have a few of my own as well, but I want to hear yours first. Now start spilling the beans Nikolai and don’t leave anything out!”

It was easy to sleep in this house. It was always so quiet in the shelter of the caldera. There were no traffic sounds or freight trains; in fact there was little chance of running into another person at all. Peaceful and quiet, but I had already started saying goodbye to my first real home.

I wasn’t going to keep someone like Anna all boxed up and isolated away from the world in this lonely little volcano in the middle of nowhere. She needed interaction with others and I could tolerate it, so I didn’t mind sacrificing my cherished peace to make her happy.

Truth be told since I had met her I had noticed a marked willingness on my part to partake, so to speak, in the daily goings-on around me in the world. I suppose they would say she was pulling me out of my shell. If she was I had to admit that I was going altogether willingly.

I looked around the rumpled bed with its sheets tossed everywhere and smiled. Last night had been wild! I didn’t do wild, but last night I had. I did it all the time now actually.

I smiled kind of sappily to myself with the realization of how much I had already changed because of Anna’s influence in my life. I threw some clothes on and ambled down the hall into the kitchen area.

Anna was industriously hard at work with breakfast, but she looked up and gave me a quick smile followed by a wink. I smiled in return and looked around for Kevin. I found him as usual sitting at the kitchen table with the chessboard all laid out and ready to go.

I sighed audibly. It was time for my morning beat down as usual.

Anna’s arms came around my middle from behind and her voice was all laughter as she chortled into my ear, “You’ll always be a winner in my book honey!” And then she shoved me lightly towards the table and Kevin.

I sat down and gazed up from the chessboard to meet Kevin’s implacable gaze. One day I swore to myself I’d beat this kid, but today wasn’t likely going to be the day. Give me about a thousand years and I might manage it.

Anna saved me from having to witness the final death throes of my two remaining pieces by announcing that it was breakfast and the time for playing was over. Kevin didn’t look pleased. The kid was competitive as all get out. In many ways I admired his killer instinct and thirst for victory.