Laughing Eyes: Bittersweet Familia (3) (20 page)

Danny

Yellow.

It was my new most hated color. I hated it even more when they painted the petals of flowers. What was once a beautiful creation birthed by nature, now was nothing more than a symbol of putrid hatred and gut-wrenching heartache. Yet here we all stood, surrounding the oak coffin covered in yellow flowers Anna’s bereft mother and father had so carefully chosen for their daughter’s funeral.

The sky was suitably moody with its dark clouds and impending storm forming off in the distance. The minister spoke in humble tones, reading from some pre-fucking scripted diatribe justifying the actions of “God” and how one’s life should be lived in servitude. What he failed to mention was how this supposed god could be as destructive as any psychopathic man.

She had many friends. People who loved Anna turned out to farewell the woman who was brutally taken from the world. The vice-like grip around my throat held me at ransom the entire time. While those closest to Anna were inconsolable, I was filled with a potent mix of grief and guilt.

I had only known Anna for a short time. The hardest part to stomach was the plans we had made together for our return to the States. We weren’t too young or naive. It wasn’t love at first sight. It was more than that. It was the knowledge that I wouldn’t have to look any further. She was the one.

Now the women who I had planned to make my bride, was being lowered in the ground as if she had never existed.

“It is with final and regretful words that we farewell this young woman. This woman who had given so much to world and expected so little in return. A woman who should never have met her end the way she did,” the minster continued. Aiden stood next to me, his arm draped comfortingly across Luiza’s shoulders. Just like it had back at Nicolas’s when the knife had sliced through her slender neck, my world crumbled around me. The tears I had long held at bay streamed down my cheeks.

I couldn’t breathe, my suit constricting me, palms dripping in sweat.

Aiden’s reassuring hand wrapped itself around the back of my neck, a gesture from a friend who knew all too well the pain when evil sucks away your loved ones. When he was only a small child, Aiden’s mother and father were taken from him in such a tragic way, it was a surprise he wasn’t fucked up over it. His mother was gang raped before they were both shot in the head and killed. He had seen it all, watching from the balcony above. He understood the pain.

I watched as Anna’s own mother and father moved forward and collected a handful of dirt.  The sky was beginning to open up, hard droplets of rain falling and spattering onto the unforgiving ground. As the brown earth was sprinkled over the coffin, Anna’s mother broke down, falling into the arms of her distraught husband. As the line proceeded, some moving quietly, others pausing to say their final farewells, I took a few steps back. Sucking in some air, my chest hurt like I had been repeatedly punched. A small cold hand wrapped itself around mine. Anna’s sweet mother looked up at me with warm, red-rimmed and swollen eyes.

“Thank you for doing all you could to keep her safe,” she said, sincerely.

“I’m so sorry ma’am.”

“Please, don’t apologize. She told me about you. That you were trying to send her home. She believed everything you said and spoke very highly of you.” Her bottom lip began to tremble as she looked away trying to gather her emotions, “I would have loved to have seen her happy. To have seen you two together. You are a good man, Danny Peters.” Her words were broken, a part of her that could never be healed. She wrapped her arms around my waist drawing me against her frail defeated body. I returned the gesture while we both mourned. The rain was falling hard, the droplets mixing in with our tears.

After a few minutes, she pulled away from me, her arms gently rubbing my arms.

“Go,” she said, nodding to the coffin.

Giving a grim nod, I took the steps I had been dreading. The line had long gone, the area quiet. I was alone and lost in my thoughts. Instead of a handful of dirt, I pulled the flower from my suit pocket and rolled the stem between my fingers. It was a soft pink rose, the color of her sweet lips.

Streams of water were running off the wooden coffin, the yellow flowers taking a battering from the rain. Placing the rose on top, I closed my eyes and imagined her smiling face.

“Anna Bonita,” I began, taking a deep breath. “I will see you soon my beautiful girl.”

Danny

“I’m out, bro.”

“Out of what?”

“I’m leaving the marines.”

There was a pause as he absorbed my words. We sat at a quiet bar after the funeral unable to handle the wake, six empty glasses already lining the counter. “Why would you do that?” Aiden asked.

“Both Anna and Tomas died because of me.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it.”

“I’m sorry, Aiden, but you weren’t there. You didn’t see what happened.”

“I don’t need to have seen what happened. I know you. You are like a brother to me and I also know that you are one of the best, if not the best.”

I looked at him square on, “I shot Tomas. That was my bullet, not Nicolas’s. When I fired my gun, it was my ammo that shot through that young boy. If I was so good, I wouldn’t have missed.”

“I’m sorry for what I am about to say, bro, but you had just witnessed Anna being killed. That shit is not so easy to forget. You did the best you could given the situation and hating on yourself is not going to help anyone.”

“I made a promise to Anna.”

“What?”

“She said that the day I take an innocent life, is the day that I hang up my sniper rifle. That moment came only a few days ago.”

Aiden indicated to the bartender for another round, “I think you should rest on it and maybe give it some more thought after a bit of time passes. Our time is up anyway,” he continued, “You need to make the decision soon as to whether you want to sign up for another tour. I’m fairly sure the sarge will keep you on private work, if you pass the psych test.”

“You’re not signing up?” I asked, somehow knowing that Aiden would be needed elsewhere.

“I have to go back home and take over security detail.”

“Man, you are too talented to waste your life at Hector’s, bro. How long are you going to feel like you owe him? Your whole life? Cos, that’s seriously fucked up if you do.” Hector had taken Aiden in straight after his parents had been killed. An act of generosity or grooming for his drug trafficking, I wasn’t sure, and Aiden seldom mentioned it. I knew he didn’t agree with how Hector had made his fortune, but for some reason Aiden still felt indebted to the man.

“Apparently, some changes have been made to the running of things while I have been gone and the stakes are raised, whatever that means.”

I contemplated what he was saying, “You’re lucky the sarge doesn’t know about your real home life otherwise I would be visiting you behind bars.”

“That’s why I have to get out now. I’ve done my training so it only makes sense. You though, you can’t let your demons get the better of you. This is what you excel at. This is what you have worked so hard to achieve. Don’t piss it all away.”

***

A week later I farewelled my friend, a mix of elation and worry on his face. Two days after that I found myself under the venomous gaze of the sarge who clearly did not share my disposition.

“You what, Peters?”

“Careful sarge, the more you make me say it, the less convincing I need.”

“You can say it as much as you damn well like, but it’s not happening. You’re the best we’ve got and just because you allowed your personal life to interfere with your professional one does not mean that I am going to grant you what you want. What it does mean however, is that if I hear those words being uttered again I will clip you around the ear before dishonourably discharging you. Have I made myself abundantly clear, Peters?”

“With all due respect, sir, the situation was fucked from the beginning. We should never have been sent on that mission. It was two people against a whole army with a psychopath as their leader. We also had innocent civilians to protect; fellow Americans, who suffered because we weren’t able to give them the protection they really needed against a monster who was watching their every move.”

“There was nothing more we could do to change our course of action. According to their government, we had no business being there. End of story.”

“Then we shouldn’t have been there. Not for that reason.”

“And let all those innocent people die? Hundreds of them, Peters!”

“Was it really about the people or more about the fact that Nicolas was selling arms through the US? Let’s get it right because I really am over this whole story about doing it for the people when really it is nothing more than another government agenda.”

“Watch it, Peters. You are treading on some very thin ice right now. If I didn’t hold so much respect for you I would throw you away for treason. You are a soldier. Start acting like it.”

“No, I’m not. As of today I retire from being a scout sniper.” Placing my badge and gun on the table, I stare at him squarely in the eyes, “I’m done.”

Sucking in a deep breath through his nose, I watched as the hardness from his face faded, replaced by genuine concern. “I’m not losing you, Peters. I want you to consider another position within the force.”

“I’m done with the killing.”

“Then do the opposite.”

Danny

The phone call came late one night.

It had been over four years since I had last seen Aiden. A few weeks after the burial, he left for Mexico to join Hector. Not ready to go back to normal life where my demons would find me, I opted to travel before heading back into the marines. Instead of destroying people, I learned how to heal.

I still had the itch.

There were just some people that deserved to be taken out. People like Nicolas Blanco. 

Aiden and I had spoken regularly, our bond as brothers as strong as ever. But this time something was different. This time, something was happening in Aiden’s life that threatened to dredge up a whole lot of unwanted and unforgiving memories.

There was a girl.

A girl, who just like Anna, needed to be rescued. The problem was, the enemy was Aiden’s very own adopted family.

“I need your help, Danny.”

“What is it?” The concern in his voice was undeniable.

“I’m sorry that I have to ask this of you.”

“Bro, don’t apologize. Just tell me what it is and for fucks sake, don’t sugar-coat anything.”

There was pause before he continued, “Hector is trading women.”

“Fucking hell. For real? I thought he was just involved with the drug side of things.”

“He had me trained so that I could come back and protect the men and women who travel here to buy their girls.”

“Are you saying this has been happening since you returned?”

Another pause. “Yes.”

“Jesus, Aiden. What the fuck?”

“I know! It’s not what you think. The girls come to us directly wanting a better life.”

“So you feel like you still owe this man? Like you need to lower your moral values in order to please him.”

“None of the above. This young kid, Ethan, started working for us under my guidance delivering a few parcels here and there while working his way up. A few weeks back Hector procured two girls; a special order from a regular client. Underage and kidnapped from their parents. Ethan was to deliver them to their new owner. We didn’t know they were underage until it was too late. I organized a staged disappearance for the three of them on route.”

“Then what?”

“Then the sister turned up.”

“Fuck!”

“Yep. She’s gorgeous, Danny. Juan found her in San Diego. She came looking for Ethan and just fell straight into Juan’s lap. He drugged her and brought her to the mansion. I don’t know how long I can protect her from him in this house. Already she has suffered enough and if I am not careful, Hector and Juan will see straight through me.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“What you do best.”