Surge (109 page)

Olivia final reaches Cole’s chair, and he grips her hair, to pull her face up to look at him. I can’t hear what he says, but I see Olivia throw daggers with her eyes at him. When she doesn’t respond, or do what he wanted her to, he grips her cheeks and digs his fingers into her flesh. Olivia again refuses to do whatever he wants, so he raises his hand to backhand her. Before his hand makes contact, Olivia’s hand comes up and she does some assaulting of her own. I see a flash of her meticulously painted red polish come up and drag across his hand. When Cole’s hand retreats in surprise, Olivia grips the chain and jumps to her feet. Moving quickly, she dashes around to the back of Cole’s chair, wraps the chain around his neck, and pulls tight. That catches some attention.

The men sitting at the table immediately jump to their feet, and move to intercept. Olivia boots one in the stomach, another in the balls, all the while choking the shit out of her tormentor. It’s when Four men move at once that they’re able to remove her. One of them pries the chain from her Kung Fu grip, two of them grab her elbows and twist, while the last one wraps his arms around her waist and pulls backward. Olivia fights them with everything she’s got, wild arms, controlled kicks and head butts are no match to the endless streams of men and women that jump in as one goes down; which is about three more that she manages to drop, before they get another set of men to grab various places of her body and haul her toward the door.

“Basement!” A strained male voice shouts. “Have it your way, Livi! I tried being nice, but you like to do things the hard w...!”

Cole’s voice fails as he starts coughing. The man that was sitting to his right, pounds a fist on his back. Cole waves him off and throws himself back against his chair. The three women all flock to him, each with a cup held out in offering, to which he ignores, before they abandon that and the fawning begins.

“Are you alright, Boss?” The blonde woman asks.

“I can’t believe she did that,” the brunette one says.

“I’ll fucking kill her!” The last one shouts. Cole’s eyes, which were closed, snap open and he glares at the last one. Reaching forward, he grabs a handful of black hair, and pulls the woman toward him.

“You will not touch her,” he hisses through his teeth. Curly black hair bobs, before he continues. “She’s mine, and eventually she’ll know it too.”

“Y-yes, B-boss,” she says shakily. Cole throws her aside and waves the other women away.

“Out with you all,” Cole orders. “I’ve had enough of you this evening.” All of the people in the room move to exit, but Cole calls one back. “Tim, you stay.” The one that pounded a fist on his back, scurries back to his seat, and if I’m not mistaken, the numbskull bites back an arrogant smile at the special treatment. Once the men and women have left the room, Cole looks at Tim. “Why must I deal with such incompetence?”

“I don’t know, Boss,” Tim replies. Or should I say
‘The Don’
? Olivia was spot on in her description of this dude, since him and Brando could have been mistaken for twins once upon a time. Too bad Brando was a kickass actor, and this dude’s a pansy mother fucker. Such a waste.

“Neither do I, Timothy,” he says. Oh my god, who the fuck names their kid Timothy? And how ridiculous is it that he’s Timothy? If he were even remotely like his lookalike’s mafia persona, no one would be able to take him seriously with a name like that. “All I want is a little loyalty, and some of the respect that is my birthright. Is that really so much to ask?”

“No, Boss, that’s not much at all.” Kiss ass. While he’s at it, why doesn’t he just get down on his knees and suck his cock for him?

“And then there’s Livi,” Cole continues. He pauses as he closes his eyes and lick his lips. My skin crawls as his hand caresses the arm of his chair while he’s lost in his memories. Finally getting back to where he left off, Cole opens his eyes. “I give her shelter, clothing, my protection. Anything a woman could ask for, but is that enough?” He doesn’t wait to hear the reply that Tim is nearly bouncing on his seat to give. “No, it’s not. She still fights me.” Cole smiles at that, and rubs the red marks on his neck and the claws on his face reverently. “But I do so love a fighter. It makes their surrender, all the sweeter.”

“Sick fucker,” John mutters.

“What will you do after she surrenders to you, Boss?” Tim asks. “Find a new one, like before?”

“Oh no,” Cole answers. “I like this one too much for that, I think I’ll keep her.”

“Yeah, that so ain’t happening,” Ace announces.

<~~~<~~~
~~~>~~~>

“Asshole, why the fuck did he get to go in, and I didn’t?” I ask John. John’s mouth is gaping at Ace, whose glaring at Cole with murder in his eyes. I elbow John to get his attention. Finally coming to, John reaches down onto his belt loop, coming up with a walkie.

“They were supposed to call,” John replies.

“Well, they didn’t,” I retort.

“That’s because he’s our distraction,” Wally announces from behind us. I jump a little, but scowl when I see his teeth flash in the dark. “He said he was tired of waiting, so I sent him in.”

“Then what’re we doing out here?” I demand.

“We’re going in,” Wally says. “But we need to find where Ollie is, before we go in with guns a-blazing. A stray bullet could take her out.” I swallow hard at that possibility, before I nod. “Since you’re so gung-ho about going in, and I don’t feel confident in restraining you for another second, how about you take Patsy and find a way into the basement?”

“Fuck yeah,” I agree.

“That’s what I thought,” Wally says dryly. “Alright, Patsy was scouting around to find a way in, so I’ll take you to him.” Wally turns his light on to show me his serious face. “But you listen to him, and do it quietly. We’re still outnumbered and surprise is all we’ve got going for us.”

“Got it,” I say. Wally stares me down, before nodding.

“Good. John, stay here and wait for the call to move,” Wally says. “Jared, come with me.”

I move quickly to follow at Wally, diving under branches and fighting the urge to push his back to hurry him along. Finally, after four and a half years of jungle cutting, we emerge from the lilac bush that I was using as cover. Wally turns right and hugs the building’s wall as he continues on. I follow his example, staying tight and crouching low, as I match my pace to his at a mild jog. At the end of the building, Wally stops and peers around the corner, before stepping forward.

“You got a way in?” Wally asks. I turn the corner, and see that the question was directed at Patsy.

“Yeah, old wine cellar,” Patsy answers and jerks his chin down toward the left. “I opened it, so it’s ready for whenever you want me to go in.”

“You aren’t going in alone,” Wally says and hikes a thumb at me. “If I don’t make him do something, he’ll wind up getting himself killed.”

“Alright, so I got the suicide bomber, just great,” Patsy mutters. I flip him off. “Fine, but you toe the line, or I’m knocking you out.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I say with a wave at him. “Let’s get moving, before I decide to drive the van through the French doors.”

Patsy gets moving, with me directly on his heels. I’ve had enough of this waiting shit, and the longer Olivia stays chained away in a basement like some rabid animal, the more my blood boils. I’m approaching nuclear levels by the time Patsy reaches for the door handle. I can see that the padlock has been set aside on the ground, but I can’t tell if it was picked or chopped off, no matter, it gains us entry and that’s all I care about. Patsy stares at me and mouths a three count, before pulling the door up, so that it swings toward us. It’s one of those horizontal doors that leads to rickety steps, which I can see the planks of when the moonlight streams in. Thankfully, no bullets come flying our way; which is probably what Patsy expected, since he had his gun trained in the tunnel, but draws back when no one fires in our direction.

“Stay behind me,” he orders.

I nod for him to go ahead, and he makes his way down the stairs. I tense when I hear one of the planks creak. Patsy pauses, and we both listen for any footsteps indicating that we’ve been caught. When we hear nothing but a leaky pipe, Patsy continues on. Because I know which stair makes noise, I skip it and keep my step as light as possible just in case; since I outweigh Patsy by about fifteen pounds, so what might creak for me, might not have been disturbed by him. I don’t know if it was wasted effort or not, on account of no noise emerging from the rickety steps, but we reach the bottom without any hiccups.

Patsy points at me, and then hugs the walls, showing me to stay close to the shadows. I jerk my chin, before doing as he said. The further we move in the dreary cellar, the less moonlight is there to guide our way. It’s a strain on the eyes, but I can deal with it, especially when we come to the end of the narrow hallway, and I see light flickering off to the right. Patsy’s head turns and observes it too, before turning in that direction. There’s an opened door down that way which the light is streaming out of, casting a warped rectangular shape on the dirty cement floor on the cellar. We continue following it like a beacon, until we see a shape pass by the door, a decidedly human shape that’s too large to be Olivia.

“So, you like it rough then?” A male voice asks, making my whole body seize up. “I can do rough.”

“So can I,” Olivia replies. I hear the sound of something crash, and flesh hitting flesh, prompting me to try and push past Patsy.

“Wait,” he hisses.

“No fucking way,” I snap back, and shove him more firmly this time.

My extra inches in height and pounds allow me to physically remove the pesky barrier in front of me, and eliminate the distance between me and the door. The door’s already open, so I turn with a knife in one hand, and my 9mm locked and loaded in the other; to find one guy bleeding from his head on the floor beside a busted lamp, and another that Olivia’s straddling the neck of with her bare thighs. I hear an audible crack, before the body underneath her stops moving and goes limp. She must’ve heard mine and Patsy’s footsteps, because she immediately turns and lunges with a fork in her hand. When she sees who it is, her hand freezes mid-stab about a fraction of an inch from my eye, and adopts a confused expression as she looks back and forth between Patsy and me.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Olivia demands.

“Hello, to you too, Ollie,” Patsy says.

“Spider,” Olivia says. Patsy looks around wildly, before scowling at the chuckling Olivia. “Seriously, what the fuck are you doing here?” In answer, I reach into my coat and pull off my necklace. Olivia eyes it, as I unclasp the chain and slide her ring off of it. I slip the whistle back around my neck, before stepping toward her and grasping her hand. I look up to meet her eyes as I restore her ring back to its proper place.

“Returning what’s yours,” I say.

Olivia goes to open her mouth, so I slide my hand to the back of her neck, and pull her halfway to me. My lips descend on hers, just as she gets the
‘W’
out on whatever question she was about to ask. Olivia’s lips remain immobile with shock for a second or two, before her hands grip the sleeves of my jacket and she responds. She’s tentative at first, with a barely there amount of pressure; but when I take her arm and wrap it around my neck, she goes up on tip toe and responds in kind. That’s when I hear a throat clear behind me, so I pull back slightly and meet her eyes.

“And I’m doing what makes me happy,” I continue. “You make me happy.” Olivia’s grey eyes search my face, for I don’t know what, before they come back to meet mine.

“You deserve more,” she says. I shake my head and cup her cheek.

“I don’t, and I’d want you regardless.”

“But I’ll always love Travis,” Olivia whispers, and her eyes get pained.

“That’s fine with me, I don’t want to evict him from here,” I say and place my hand over her heart. “I’m just asking for him to make some room. Your heart is so big, Travis may have a chunk, but Cory has a spot, Morris does, Ally, Sammy, Webby, the guys. All of these people have a place, do you think that I could steal a corner somewhere? That’s all I need.”

“What if that’s not enough?”

“It will be more than enough,” I say and place her hand on the pounding heart in my chest. “Do you feel that?” Olivia nods. “It felt like I was stabbed in the here when I hurt you. And when I found you gone?” I shake my head. “I don’t want to feel that way ever again.”

“As touching as this all is,” Patsy comments from behind me. “We still have some raiders upstairs, so do you think that you can save the mushy shit for later? Preferably when I don’t have to see it? All this commitment crap, is giving me the heebie jeebies.” Olivia ignores him, and keeps her eyes locked with mine.

“I can try,” she whispers. Brushing her hand across my scabbed brow, she says the next part more firmly. “I
want
to try, and I want to try with you.”

“That’s all I can ask,” I say and ghost my fingers over her bruised cheekbone. “Now, let’s go kill the fuckers who did this, so we can go home.”

“I like the sound of that,” Olivia says with a smile as she slides back down to her flat feet, which I see are bare, along with most of the rest of her. Her skimpy nightie is a light pink, and transparent; so I can see every goose bump and scar on her flesh. I quickly slide my leather jacket off and around her shoulders.