Tomahawk (3 page)

"I need to know everything; I mean everything on a Tonya Janea Irvine.  Her finances, guilty pleasures, who and what bed she's been laying in the last five years."  I was sick finding out anything about her.  "I want to know everything."

"Well, boss you made that clear, but why?  Who is she?"  Melissa wasn't my height; she stood 5'11". Tall for a woman.  She should have been a model.  Long blonde hair that was kept neat in a bun. She was slim with a waistline that women would kill for.

"Just get me what I need, Mel.  It's important."  I turned my back.

"I'll set up in the kitchen."

I heard the shower turn off and prayed that Tonya didn't come down the stairs.  I didn't need her to ask questions.  I just wanted her to be comfortable and rest the short time that I would have her here with me.  "Where's the rest of the guys."  Melissa yelled.  "Shouldn't everybody be here?"

Everyone else knew Tonya; they were too close to this.  I had to play this cool. Tonya would die knowing that all my friends and all of her old ones knew what happened.  "I just need intel for right now.  I will let them know if and when I want them to."  She shrugged and started putting together a mini-command post on my kitchen table.  "Coffee?"

"I stay away from that crap-water. Water would be good."  Not looking at me, completely submerged in her task.

"Get it yourself you know where it is."  She cursed at me--our usual banter, and I went upstairs.

Knocking lightly, I entered my bedroom.  Tonya sat on the bed crossed legged on top of the covers.  "Why aren't you resting?"  Still keeping a small distance between the both of us.

"I'm not tired.  I have been sleeping forever."  I hadn't even noticed that the TV was on.

"Tonya, I...I'm sorry."

"You've already said that and I told you it wasn't your fault."  She looked down at her hands in her lap.

I wanted to tell her everything in that moment.  Tell her that it was my fault on a certain level and that I was sorry and let me make it up to her.  That I promise never to let anything happen to her and that I still loved her and that I never stopped.  I walked over to her and sat at the far end of the bed.  Her posture stiffened.  "I don't want you to be afraid of me."  I reached out my hand, an offer I guess to her.  She looked it over fighting a war in her head.  She really didn't have a reason to trust me. I made sure of that.  "Tonya, please I'm trying."

"I didn't ask you to try.  Vic, day after tomorrow, I will be back home and out of your life.  I'm sorry for the inconvenience.  Believe me this is not how I thought I would see you again."  She looked down at herself.  Looking at the dark hand prints on her wrist.

"How did you think it would be?"  She looked back up at me as if I had grown another head.  "You know if you were to see me out somewhere, what would you have done or said?"

She shrugged her small shoulders.  "I don't know. I guess I would be cordial towards you."

The reason that I was going to kill this man for hurting her had now shifted.  Before it was because he hurt the woman that I loved, who I wanted to build a future with.  Now I was going to kill him because he hurt the woman that I loved that no longer loved me in return.  "Call me if you need anything. I'll be downstairs."  I walked back to the door.

"What would you have done if you saw me?" she asked in a whisper.

"I would have treated you cordially." 

She nodded and my heart broke in two.

"Hey, boss man. Could you have picked a more boring individual.  This girl is Miss Goody Two Shoes.  She pretty though--" Melissa said running up the stairs.  Taking one look at Vic and the woman in his bed.  "And she is sitting in your bed.  Shit."

"Yeah, shit.  Go back downstairs."  Melissa turned on her heels and ran back down the stairs.  I looked at Tonya who pretended not to notice and watched TV without the sound.

My mouth opened.  "Why are you looking into me?" she asked. 

"Tonya, I want to help you. Try to find out who did this to you...”

"Vic, go back downstairs and do what you do best.  Keeping me in the dark."  She got under the covers and lay on the pillow.

"What the hell?  Do you just go to people's house and barge into their bedrooms?"

"Didn't know you had her upstairs. You should have told me."  She took a swig of bottled water. 

"So what do you got?"

Melissa shifted in her seat.  "Not a lot.  It looks like she been a teacher at Woodmont Elementary School for the last 9 years.  Teaches kindergarten."  I nodded.  "Nothing sketchy with finances. She’s current with all of her bills nothing outstanding.  Dull ass social life. No wild parties or men for that matter.  Just one guy."  My spine tensed.  "Wow, she was dating Brian Battle, the football player."  Mel's fingers moved like lighting.  "Um, says here that the retired football player has been in a very low key relationship with your girl for the last few months."  I walked over to look at the screen and there they were.  Hugged up.  The caption under the picture says that it was just a few months ago at a gala for some charity event.  He was tall and broad, like any defensive linemen would look.  She was gorgeous; she wore a navy blue formal dress with a plunging neck line. Brian looked down at her with an expression that showed he was happy that she was all his.  That smile she gave him was so familiar. She was happy.  And I hated him.  Melissa was still talking.  "She's a good girl, and why is she here?"

It was too long of a story to tell, nothing I wanted to get into right now with Mel.  "Look, she was hurt and I wanted to help. That's all."

Mel smiled up at me.  Leaning back in the chair crossing her arms.  "Don't lie to me.  We just don't go freelance for a beat up chick.  Tell me what she means to you, Vic, and why the team isn’t here.  You know we can cover more ground with Ryan and Drew.  What's going on?"

I had realized that I hadn't slept at all and my nerves were unraveling at the seams.  "I will contact Ryan and Drew if I think it is necessary.  For now it's just me and you, kid."

"And the girl upstairs." 

I rolled my eyes at her.

The front door of my house opened.  Mel looked up at me and before I could speak, she had her gun trained at the kitchen entrance.  I reached into my waistband and remembered my piece was upstairs. Crouching down, I pulled out my weapon in my ankle holster, praying that there wasn't more than two men in the house.  "Dude, really?  Guns. It's not even 7 am," my younger brother Ryan said.

Drew had his own firearm showing in his shoulder holster.  "Where is she?"

Drew had always been the more direct out of the group.  His wide chest strained against his t-shirt. Deep set eyes made him look even more menacing as he rounded the kitchen island.  "Where is she, Vic?”

"Heard a woman was attacked right outside of Tony's school.  I looked into it. It's her isn’t it?”  Ryan came closer to me.  His face mixed with determination and pain.  She loved him too.  They had been close; same with Drew.  My people were hers and vice versa, but I destroyed those relationships too.  Left my guys with an order not to reach out to her, and I hated that they followed it. 

"Man, screw this."  Drew said as he rumbled up the stairs.  I knew I couldn't stop him.  They all were going to find out sooner or later.

Ryan just stared at me.  This is the second time that my little brother ever challenged me; both times have been connected to Tonya.  The first was the two weeks after her and I broke up.  "So where is your better half?" he asked me with a smile. "Did she finally wise up and leave your sorry ass?”  He said laughing but I didn't.  He and I argued into the wee hours of the night because of her.  A yelling match with my brother had left me exhausted and furious.  He was right. Beg, crawl, and then beg some more to get her back.

Pushing his blonde hair back, he said, "Were you going to tell us?  I mean, she was good to us too." 

I wasn't in the mood to go to war with my brother. "She's upstairs. Don't press her." 

Ryan was taking the stairs two by two.

"Who was she to you, Vic?  I know that Ryan and Drew don't get too excited on a chick."  Melissa's face showed disappointment.

"Wait here."  I went up the stairs and saw my other half of my crew gathered around her.  Drew held her in his arms.  She smiled softly into the crook of her neck, Ryan rubbing her back.  I should be the one consoling her.

I stood in the door, the three unaware of me being there.  I felt like a stranger in my own house watching exchange between the people that I love. It seemed cruel. I was left out. I deserved this.

"We will catch him; Vic has Mel are working on it right now.  Don't worry, baby solider," Ryan said.

She turned to him and grabbed his large hand.  "This is DC. Whoever did this is probably in the wind by now.  I just want to get myself together and move on.  But thank you guys."

"Don't just stand there asshole go to her."  Mel had crept up behind.  "Go to her."  She gave me a shove in my back.  My stumbling drew the attention to the occupants in the room.  Both men snarled. Tonya eased herself off of Drew’s lap and sat on the bed with her feet dangling off the side.

"Get some rest darling. We’ll be checking on you."  Drew kissed her forehead and they walked out the room pass me.

"Downstairs. NOW!"  Ryan growled.

Gathered around my kitchen table were the people that I went to war with.  Drew and I worked with the Secret Service together.  Mel and Ryan worked together in a black ops thing a few years ago and now we formed a legal, but not so by the book team of mercenaries.  I would die for them and they would for me.

Drew parked his big ass on my kitchen island.  "What happened to her?"  He did not want to look at me.

Mel went back to her seat in front of her computer screen. Ryan was circling the kitchen like a big cat ready to pounce.

"I was going to tell you, but I wanted to get some things in motion before I called you.  You know that I would never hide this from you."  I had gotten defensive. I was going crazy.

"What do you got?"  Drew said turning to Mel.

"Nothing, she's clean.  Nothing at all. She’s a good one," she said still battling confusion.

"Her face man. Nobody just beats a woman up and leaves her in a field.  Was she robbed?"  Drew said giving me a mean stare.

"No."

"Victor, I swear to God, if you don't tell us everything that happened.  We--" Ryan looked everyone else in the face.  "--will hurt you."

I knew saying everything that happened to her would hurt her all over again.  I figured that I would pick the right time.  "From what I got from the doctor and the cops was she left the school, stop to get groceries, and a man came up from behind.  Beat her and dumped her on field at the school."  I hated lying to them.

Ryan gave me a long hard look.  "So she wasn't robbed?"

"No, her car is still at the grocery store.  Mel and Drew could you pick it up?"  They both nodded.  "Ryan and I have to have a conversation."

The two left without a word. I was sure that Drew would tell Mel everything about the relationship that Tonya and I once shared. 

"What?  I know there's more to it.  Have you checked old boyfriends? Maybe she has a stalker."

I closed my eyes.  "I didn't want the rest of the group to know.  Bro, Tonya was raped and left to die out there last night."  Saying the words made it real. The truth started to twist me. Ryan’s blue eyes began to dart around the room, his breathing became rapid.  "You have to calm down. You start going crazy and she will know that I told you."

"You want me to calm down?"  He hissed.  "Better question, why the hell are you so calm?  It's Tony, our Tony.  We have to do something."

"What the hell do you think I'm doing here?  I got Mel working on background. I want to take it easy on Tony.  I can't just interrogate the hell out of her.  We will find whoever did this."  I put my hand on his shoulder and he nearly collapsed.

"You know that we have to kill this guy.  He can't just walk around on the streets anymore; he lost the privilege when he hurt her.  Jesus."  The last tears I saw fall from my brother's eyes was at our father's funeral.  "I will get every source, call in some favors."  Ryan turned and walked out of the room pulling out his cell phone.

A hard knock at the door broke me from the spell.  "Come in."

Rounding the corner was Detective Stone and his partner.  "Mr. Moore."  He said shaking my hand and a hard nod from his partner.

"You found anything?"  I prayed that he hadn't. We wanted to deal with this guy ourselves.

"I'm sorry, no we haven't. But we did a little digging into you." Shit.  His partner handed him a rather large file and he began to thumb through it.  "I see Mr. Moore that you are ex-military, worked for the Secret Service for years, and then all of a sudden just up and quit a few years ago.  Why?"

"Wanted something new I guess."  What all did he know?

"Decorated soldier and high position with the Secret Service and you just threw it all away.  It doesn't sound right."

"We aren't here about me. Just trying to find out about Tonya."

He looked over to the table with the computer set up.  “It looks like you are doing your own finding out.  Mr. Moore, you said that she is a friend. And with the contacts that you possess, you will be the best friend she has ever had.  But let us do our job. We will find this man and bring him to justice."