Agon (7 page)

“
I do not believe this was
just sex. It was much too wonderful to have such a lazy term
attached to it.” She giggled, and he tightened his grip on her back
to bring her closer to him. “As for Boss? I am not sure He will hit
the roof either. He will be most displeased with me, yes, but He is
not one to have fits of anger. At least not in a long while He has
not.”

She sat up and rested her chin on her
fist as she looked at him. “I’m not…we can’t do this again. First
of all, we didn’t use any protection and I don’t do that sort of
sex. And…and this is really important for you to understand. I
don’t want you in my life. I have things just the way I want them,
and having you here will mess them up.”

He tried his best not to be hurt by
her words, but he was. He knew that he’d been saying the same to
her, but for some reason, he felt as if things were changed now.
Instead of telling her he was not leaving her, not after this, he
pulled her back to his chest and held her. He knew the moment she
was asleep, and he pulled her tighter to his heart, a place he was
sure she was always meant to be.

Agon reached for Michael to tell him
what he’d done. The man laughed for so long that Agon wanted to go
to the realm and hit him. When he finally calmed enough for Agon to
continue, Michael laughed again.

I do not think this is
funny. You have put her before me. What did you think would happen
when you did this?
He pulled Judith closer
to his body when she shivered.
I would
think you’d be happy but not find this humorous. You are making a
fool of yourself. Are you aware of that?

That I am, but I find that
I do not care. I am happy, my good man, but I didn’t think it…well,
I thought she would hold out longer. You must have used some
powerful magic on her to get her—

I did no such thing. I
was…she was doing things to herself that…I will not discuss this
with you if you continue to laugh.
Michael’s laughter was something that was often heard but
rarely directed at anyone but himself. To be laughed at by this
man, this great man, had Agon both pleased and embarrassed. When
Michael stopped laughing again, he spoke, but with a great deal of
humor still bubbling forth.

Boss will need to speak to
you both before long. I will set it up with Him to have a meeting.
He will be pleased that you are happy
.
Agon wasn’t sure he was happy so much as he was sated, and said as
much to the man.
You are happy. I would
imagine that you have her wrapped in your wings now and have her
safely cocooned close to you.

He did. And he had not realized he’d
done so until Michael mentioned it. To have her wrapped into his
wings and feel so good about it made his heart sing with newfound
happiness. He pulled them tighter around them as he spoke to
Michael.

I will be watching her
now. I do not want others to be near her.
Michael agreed
. And we must work
hard to find out who would try to harm her. The men with the
bullets gave no clue as to why they came for her.

She knows.
Agon looked at Judith. She knew? He started to
ask Michael what she knew when he spoke first.
I must go. I have two meetings that I cannot miss. There are
still things that must be covered and I have to go to the training
area at noon. I would like to see you both there as
well.

Agon laid there for several hours
before sleep claimed him as well. He had many questions to ask
Judith when she woke, and he wanted to tell her that he was not
leaving her. Agon also wondered if he would be able to taste her
once again before he left her bed.

Chapter 4

“
You should have seen it.
Wings. I fucking tell you, that man had wings.” Jerry tried to
ignore the man who had been babbling in front of him for the past
hour, but it was becoming more and more difficult. He had to be
high as well. A man with wings indeed.

“
And you say that he saved
her. While three of my best men were shot to death, a winged man
leapt in and saved her. And shall we discuss again how I said to
bring her in, not shoot her up full of holes to the point where I
cannot use her? What is it you’re smoking? Whatever it is, I want
to market it. There is no fucking way you are simply high on the
shit I sell.”

Chad sat down and glared, but he
didn’t mention the winged man again. “I have another crew going out
there again today. I also have one that works with her. She said
the woman just works at the house and makes jelly and
shit.”

Jerry knew that more than anyone. He’d
been trying to get her to come to him for years and she simply
wouldn’t let go of her little piece of property and come and work
for him, giving it all to him. He didn’t need it, but the nice
little building she’d put up would have a nice little operation in
it before she was settled in her room…a locked room. It was in a
prime neighborhood, and he wanted that little corner more than he
wanted anything else. Not to mention the girl who lived
there.

Judith Craft was his niece. Very few
people knew about their relationship, and fewer still knew that his
brother and he had gone to great lengths to try and get the little
bitch to help them out on a few deals. Now that his brother was
filling the belly of a few worms, he felt it was his duty to go and
bring the girl into his fold, so to speak. Judith had a gift he was
planning to capitalize on, and very nicely, too…the fact that she
could touch a man and tell them where he had been and what he’d
been up to. And, well, Jerry was going to be very, very wealthy
when it was all said and done.

“
Find a way to bring her
to me, and unharmed. If she has so much as a hair out of place, I
will make sure that you pay for it. I’m not shitting you when I
tell you I do not want her harmed in any way.” Chad mumbled
something, and Jerry picked up his gun and pointed it at him.
“Repeat yourself.”

“
I said I told them not to
shoot the place up, only to make her go out the back so we could
nab her back there. But we couldn’t get in. That damned fence she
had running around her property has enough juice running through it
that it damned near took off Jobs hand when he touched it.” Chad
sat up more in his chair. “That guy we walked in on while we was
there, he never said a word about no electric fencing. And it
wasn’t what we’d meant to do by killing him. Jobs thought he was
reaching for a gun.”

“
Walked in on?” Chad
nodded. “You killed a man? When? And why wasn’t I made aware of
this before now?”

“
Some dude was picking up
some of her jelly or some shit. He was putting the boxes in his car
and we startled him like. I never knew a man as big as he was could
scoot like that. Startled Jobs enough that he drew and fired before
we could hide out.” Jerry washed his hand over his face and looked
at his gun. The temptation to shoot this man was overwhelming, and
if he didn’t need him, he might just have done it. Putting the gun
down, he stared at Chad.

“
You are, by and large,
the stupidest man I’ve ever known. No. Stop that. You are the
stupidest man ever born. Why are you going into the house, shooting
a man, and not coming out with the girl I want?” Chad shrugged.
“That is not an answer. Tell me.”

“
I got the hell outta
there before we was caught. Turns out I was right. The rest of them
are dead and I’m not.” Jerry eyed the gun again but left it while
Chad continued. “I’ll get her tomorrow. I swear it. Or the next
day.”

After he left, Jerry picked up the gun
and put it back in his drawer. He was never sure when he might need
it, and didn’t want to take the chance of someone knowing it was
there and taking it from him. As much time as he’d spent in prison,
he was not going back because someone had gotten a burr up their
ass about him owning a gun.

Prison. He rarely thought of it
anymore. He’d been there for nearly twelve years before he was able
to work the system in his favor. Not that he wasn’t still working
the system, but now he was doing it from the comfort of his own
home and not behind bars. And he had his pretty little niece to
thank for his confinement.

“
Sir, there’s a call for
you on line three. It’s the commissioner.” Jerry rolled his eyes,
wondering what the hell the man wanted now. If he asked him for
another dime, Jerry was going to take him out of the office he had
coveted so badly and put him next to his brother, Lindale. Enough
was enough, for Christ’s sake.

“
I’ve just been informed
that it was your hoods that shot up the jelly house on Third.”
Jerry sat up, wondering how the hell the dots had connected to him.
“Next time you send in idiots to kill someone, make sure they don’t
have your fucking business cards in their pockets. The fucking feds
are all over this one now.”

“
Make it go away.”
Commissioner Bonds snorted, then started speaking about how he had
no way of doing this and blah blah blah. “I don’t want to hear why
you can’t do it. I said to make it go away. I have more important
things to do than to babysit you. And if I have to, then I might as
well put someone in your place.”

“
You wouldn’t.” Jerry
didn’t bother answering because he most certainly would and Bonds
knew it. “I’ll do what I can. But I’m telling you now, they want
your ass more than you do your next breath.”

After he hung up on the man, Jerry
leaned back in his seat. It was time to put the man out to pasture.
Commissioner Bonds had outlived his usefulness as of that moment.
After a few more phone calls, it was settled. Peter Bonds was going
to contract an unfortunate illness that he’d never recover
from.

Jerry smiled as he made his way to his
car at the end of his workday. All four hours of it. Soon now he’d
have Judith in his hands, and all her information was going to be
his. And he planned to make good use of her, too. He’d bet any
amount of money the girl would fetch a high price from some of his
buddies to get the chance to fuck the little piece of ass. Even a
few women he knew, as well. But it was her talent that he wanted
first and foremost.

His brother had told him that his
daughter was a freak when she’d been a child. He’d never really
taken it very seriously, as Lindale was forever calling someone a
freak. But the first time he’d seen her do her thing, he knew that
his brother didn’t see the big picture of things. Judith and her
ability were going to make them rich, at least until he could have
figured out a way to get Judith into his hands. Then it would have
been all his. But he’d killed Lindale before he had a plan for
someone else to take the fall.

Judith had been sitting at the table
when he’d been visiting one morning, and he sat beside her. Judith
had never taken to him. When he’d figured out why, he would go out
of his way to crowd her, going so far as to hug her to him when he
was near enough to touch her. But on that particular day, she’d
turned to him and spoken of things he’d long since
forgotten.

“
There are seven men
buried on your property. Five of them you shot yourself. The others
by men who work for you. Not that it matters. You were the one who
ordered the trigger to be pulled, so it’s all you. Each of them
owed you something. Not money, because you think you have more than
you can spend, but they had territories that you wanted. Drug land,
you call it, because it sounds so much like an amusement park.
Three of the men are buried near the pool, one under the pool
house, and two out in a pasture where you have cows that you never
look at.” He looked around the room and stared at his brother as
Judith continued. “You want to kill my dad because you think he
won’t give me to you. You think he wastes my talent, as you call
it, and you want to profit from me. But I have news for you. I’d
rather die than help you. And you will die, too. Would you like to
know when?”

“
She’s lying.” As Jerry
denied what she said, Lindale shook his head and moved back from
his daughter as if she were something he should be afraid of.
Perhaps he was afraid of his little monster. The gun in his hand
hung limply by his side, but he had his finger in the trigger
guard. “Lindale, you have to know that I’d never kill you. And what
nonsense is she talking about, using her for her talent? What have
you been telling her?”

“
He doesn’t have to tell
me anything you do with every part of yourself. You touched me and
opened your lies to me.” He backhanded her off the couch and looked
at his brother as she lay there limp as a rug.

“
Lindale, I’d never—” To
this day, Jerry wasn’t sure who had fired first. But when it was
over, he’d gone to prison for killing his brother. Judith testified
against him and he’d wanted to exact his revenge on her since then.
Prison had not been anything he felt he deserved for defending
himself. But the girl was going to work for him, and then he was
going to bury her in the fucking fields without so much as a marker
to show she’d ever been a part of this earth.

~~~

Boss stood up when Judith entered the
room. She stilled for several seconds before she moved into the
room and headed for the refrigerator. He waited until she sat down
before He spoke.

“
I would like to talk to
you.” She looked up from her bowl of colorful cereal before
dropping her head back down to her chore. “It’s important that you
understand what is—”