Jack Kursed (34 page)

Jack sighed.

"I tried. I really did. Mark, call
your daughter."

Mark flinched, ever so
slightly. Jack read the fear in his eyes.

"What?"

"I said, call your daughter. And
please, don't make me repeat myself again."

The new Jack was
gone, at least for now. The one who cooked breakfast for a little
girl, argued with her over music on the iPhone, laughed at the
ridiculous cartoons on TV, entertained the possibility of a
something more
with a
comely schoolteacher. That man was on vacation.

The old Jack was back. The man who
felt no remorse as he burned people alive.

"Hannah? She's not even in
the damn state. She's in some cheerleading tournament-"

"Just humor me, and put it on
speakerphone. This will be fun."

Jack dropped his briefcase and
whistled.

Mark looked shaken as he pulled out
his phone and dialed a number. Jack tried not to laugh.

The worst night of Mark's
life was just beginning. The ringing phone finally gave way to a
click.

"Hannah, are you okay? It's me,
Dad-"

Mark nearly dropped the phone as he
heard the terror in his daughter's voice.

"Daddy! Help me! I don't
know what they want! Please-"

The phone went dead.

Jack said nothing. He kept whistling
while letting Mark reflect on what he just heard. Stretching his
arms, he enjoyed the cool breeze as it blew through his coat. He
picked up his briefcase and walked slowly toward Mark.

"Do I have your attention
now?"

Mark had been staring at the silent
phone. Now he looked up at Jack. The confidence, the arrogance, all
gone, replaced only by barely-controlled horror.

"What-what have you done?"

"I haven't done anything
yet. I'm just getting warmed up. Let's have a seat."

He gestured to a nearby bench, still
in range of Mark's laptop and camera. Mark fell hard on the seat,
his face getting paler by the second. Jack sat next to him and set
the briefcase on the ground.

"Poor Mark. You did your
homework, huh? You must have sucked in school, because you know
nothing about me. You have no idea what you've gotten yourself in
to."

"So, I guess, my little girl for
yours? Is that where you're taking this?"

"Oh, no," Jack said,
laughing. "You're not thinking big enough."

He opened his briefcase just enough to
pull out an iPad. He touched the app he already had set up, and
passed the tablet to Mark.

It took nearly ten seconds for him to
understand what he was seeing.

Mark was looking at a
collection of camera views. Four by four, sixteen cameras on a
page. The cameras were pointing at his family and friends, all
being held against their will.

His brother was tied to a
chair on camera thirteen. His sister, who lived in Ireland, was
cowering in a corner on camera eight. His uncle, who apparently had
put up a fight, lay bloody and beaten in his bathroom, as a man
threatened him with a knife. His only daughter, who he'd just
talked to on the phone, cried in a dark room. She still wore her
cheerleading uniform.

"Are you starting to understand now,
Mark?" Jack said. "You took my Tiffany. Well, I didn't know who you
cared about, so I figured, fuck it, why not just take them
all?"

A tear ran down Mark's
cheek as he stared at his family. He touched the camera image of
his daughter, like it would bring him closer to her.

"Don't think this little page is all
I've got, too. Slide your finger to the right there. Plenty to look
at."

A cry caught in Mark's
throat as Jack leaned over and scrolled to the second page, then
the third, and pointed at different cameras.

"That's your aunt, right there. And
your poker buddy who lives down the street. There's your favorite
prostitute. I know you've paid for her at least four
times."

"My God-"

"No, little police officer. God can't
help you. You get to deal with me."

"What do you want?"

"Tiffany, of course. Get her here,
right now. For every hour that she's not at my side, someone you
see there will die."

"How...did you do this?
You knew it was me, the whole time. You must have. You couldn't
have set all this up-"

"I told you, I had six
people I was keeping my eye on, including you. This little
adventure we're in to tonight, I planned the same thing with all of
them. I've been planning this for a while. One little text message,
and off we go. I love technology. There are a lot of people who
work for me-"

Mark let out a quiet sob, and looked
at the ground. Jack lost his composure, only for a
moment.

"Look at me when I'm
talking to you!"

Grabbing Mark by the jaw, he stared
into the cop's fearful eyes. He forced his voice to stay even, to
remain calm.

"There is no limit to the number of
people I will kill to protect those I care about. Women, children,
I simply don't care."

Mark could barely speak.
"You-You're a fuckin' monster."

Jack rolled his eyes. "The clock is
ticking, and you've wasted enough time."

The corrupt cop summoned
one last ounce of courage and jumped to his feet. Still holding the
iPad, he pointed an accusing finger at Jack.

"No. No! This is all just one big
trick. You're bluffing."

"They always want proof," he muttered
to himself. "Take a peek at camera thirty-nine."

"That's...that's my wife!"

"Yup." Jack stood up,
grabbed his briefcase, and set it on the bench. "You know, I almost
spared her. I mean, to be honest, I didn't think you cared about
her. You've certainly screwed enough women behind her back. But
then I thought...if most of her family was gonna die tonight, would
she want to survive that? Eh, I'm not a shrink, and I'm getting off
the subject."

Mark stared at camera
thirty-nine. His wife was sitting on their living room couch. Every
light in the room was off. The only light came from the soft glow
of the TV. A man stood in the corner near the door, his arms
crossed. She rocked back and forth, and he thought he saw a gag
tied around her mouth.

She cradled her arm.

"What's wrong with her-"

"Here. Catch."

Jack tossed the
disembodied hand. Mark instinctively caught it, and then dropped it
when he realized what it was. He fell to the ground along with it,
crawling backwards as fast as he could.

He recognized the wedding
ring, the scar under her knuckles from a childhood accident. The
hand was severed just below the wrist, and he could see tissue and
bone.

"Sonya-"

"This is the last time I'll say this,"
Jack said. He grabbed the bag of bread crumbs Mark had on the bench
and tossed some in the lake, watching the geese enjoy their snack.
"Bring Tiffany here. Now."

Mark was reaching for his phone before
Jack even completed his sentence.

"Dom. It's me. Listen, plans have
changed. Get the kid here. Don't argue with me, just
drive."

"Now, was that really that
hard? If Dom drives fast enough, maybe you can save your wife's
hand. Modern medicine is amazing."

"Listen to me," Mark said.
"It’s not just the girl we’re leaning on. We couldn't pry that
teacher out of the Jeep, so we just took the kid. I have a few
friends on the way to the hospital now to get her. One of them
isn’t...normal. I know it sounds weird, but he’s a vampire, right
out of the movies. That little girl of yours, she saw us in that
alley."

Jack left the phone on speaker as he
called Victoria. She answered on the first ring.

"Yeah?"

"You’ve got some trouble
heading your way."

"The
normal
kind?"

"Nope. The supernatural
kind."

"On it."

He hung up and looked down
at Mark. The cop sat on the bench now, holding his wife’s hand in
his lap. Mark stared at Jack with a look of shock on his
face.

"I think you’re gonna find
that my friends are better than yours."

Jack sat next to him on the bench,
leaning on his knees.

"You know, I’ve
killed a lot of people in my day. I mean a
lot
, and I don’t have any limits. I
killed a pregnant scientist back in World War II who tried to cut
my throat. I’ve always killed in anger. I never killed anyone out
of love before. So this is new to me."

Mark was quiet a moment as
he glanced at the iPad. "Please don’t hold the teacher thing
against me."

"Shut up. My friend
is more than capable of killing anyone you send at her. You’ve got
another twenty minutes before
I
start killing. But if Tiffany is
hurt-"

"She’s not. She might have
a scratch or two from the accident, but she’s okay."

"For the sake of those
fifty people,” Jack nodded toward the iPad. “you’d better be
right."

They sat in silence for nearly five
minutes. Mark stood and paced in front of Jack, looking at the iPad
and time on his phone.

"So Tiffany witnessed a
murder, I’m guessing."

"Being a cop doesn’t pay
as much as you’d think," Mark said. "My friend helps me keep my
people in line, and I get him all the fresh blood he wants. Your
kid caught us."

Jack laughed. "Your
vampire must be an idiot. They can smell a kid a mile
away."

Mark stopped and
stared at Jack. "Who
are
you?"

"Right now, I'm the man who controls
your life."

A car pulled up into the
parking lot. A haggard-looking man with unkempt hair and scruffy
beard pulled Tiffany out of the car. Jack’s heart skipped a beat in
his chest as he rose to his feet.

He made out details as
they drew closer. Tiffany had a small cut on her forehead, but
wasn’t hurt beyond that. She tried to run to Jack when she saw him,
but Dom held onto her arm. She'd been crying, and for that reason
alone Jack decided Dom and Mark would die. Maybe not in the next
five minutes, but their fates were sealed.

"Fifteen minutes to
spare," he said. "I’m impressed. How did you put it before,
something about the right motivation?"

"Call your people off.
Please."

"I will...in ten minutes,
when we’re far away."

Dom and Tiffany were within earshot.
She tried to break away again, but Dom held fast.

"Let her go," Jack ordered.

Dom looked to Mark for
approval, who nodded. Tiffany broke free from his grasp and ran to
Jack. He scooped her up and held her close, clenching his eyes shut
to hold in the tears. Tiffany sobbed openly as her little body
shook.

"We’re leaving," he
said.

Tiffany didn’t budge as he
carried her away from Mark and Dom. She kept her arms wrapped
around his neck.

"That’s the man I saw in
the alley. The one with the monster."

"I know, honey."

Mark and Dom argued as Jack walked
away.

"What the fuck is going
on? Where’s our money?"

"Just shut up. Like I
said, plans have changed."

"I don’t give a shit what
you said. You said you had this whole thing planned out. Now
they’re walking away? Fuck this."

Jack knew trouble was
coming.

"Listen to me," he
whispered. "I’m gonna put you in the truck. I want you to duck down
in front of the seat as far as you can."

"Don’t leave
me."

"I’ll only be gone a
minute."

"I don’t want you to get
hurt."

He once again had to
stifle emotion. Tiffany had been in a car accident and kidnapped,
and she was worried about him.

"I can’t be hurt, sweetie.
I’ll explain it all to you someday. Right now, just do what I
say."

He opened the passenger’s
side door and set Tiffany in front of the seat. Their eyes met
before he shut the door, hers full of fear. He simply smiled and
winked at her. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Dom approaching,
gun in hand. Mark jogged behind him.

"Hey!" Dom called. "Hey
you! I think you’ve got some money that belongs to me."

"Dom, I said fuckin’
stop!" Mark shouted.

Jack ran toward Dom,
catching the henchman completely by surprise. His eyes shot open as
he raised his gun and fired, catching Jack in the shoulder and
stomach. Jack didn’t slow down as he lowered his shoulder and
tackled Dom around the waist. The air rushed out of Dom’s lungs as
they fell to the ground. Dom tried to fight back, which only made
Jack angrier. He drove his elbow three times into Dom's nose,
breaking it. Mark tried to grab Jack under the arms, but Jack
shoved him away.