Chapter 3: When I Get Through Throwin' It On You

"Are you sure, Tavi?" Diana asked. April waited by the black SUV. Elis watched Diana and me through a back window. There was something unsure about the way Diana looked at me.

"Are you siding with April?" I asked. "Gonna stash me somewhere safe."

She stared at me.

"This is bullshit," I said. "You know the best thing that could happen is the Russians come here."

She nodded slowly. Looking back at the SUV, Diana's features hardened. She reached out and stroked my face from temple to chin. Her eyes met mine as I absorbed the new best and worst of Special Agent Diana LaDon's life.

"The Vice President is dead, Tavi," she said. "Director Meril is fighting a losing battle with cancer, dying an inch at a time."

"That psychologist is alive." I saw it all, no wonder she never let me touch her.

"She's in a hole," Diana replied.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" I said. "Elis was right--there's more than people are telling us. You weren't supposed to touch me until I made the first move. They have to consider that you would do it anyway."

"Not until you forgive me for what happened to Ahmo and your dad," she said. "Even then, it's not like they have a choice."

"Candice," I said.

"She won't let them use her," Diana said.

"There's more about her," I said.

"Candice knows how to hide her tracks even from you," Diana said. "Right now, we're all playing her game."

"Why?" I asked. "It doesn't make sense for you people to play it this way."

"They need you," Diana said. "Enough to see if you'll work with me or one of those two. They'll wait for Morgan if that's what it takes, Tavi."

"My dad is dead," I said. "My sister is gone. You were there, you were a part of it!"

"I know," Diana replied. "I have to pay. It's what you are. It's what they expected from me."

I slammed the door shut before she could say anything else.

It was almost dark when Morgan walked into my bedroom. I had been staring out of my window since touching Diana.

"They got Elis," Morgan said.

I turned around slowly. There was fear on Morgan's face but no despair. "I don't understand."

"The Russians worked faster than the FBI expected," she replied. "They caught Elis after the handoff."

"Handoff?"

"From Diana's team to the Marshals."

"Why did it take you so long to come here?"

Her eyes focused completely on me, "We needed a place to start looking. There's a restaurant a few towns over; the local boss owns it."

"Do the Russians call them bosses?"

"I don't give a fuck what the they call themselves!" Morgan's voice dropped a few octaves. "You were right."

"What?"

"I shouldn't have sent you out at the comic shop," she said. "You're not a toy."

"I'm the one who gave Elis credit."

"No, Tavi," she said. "This is on me."

"Between Candice and you, I may never to grow up," I replied. "Both of you take responsibility for all the bad shit that happens around me."

"I need you to fix it, Tavi." I couldn't look into Morgan's eyes as she said the words. "I can't be a good person without Elis. I don't even know if I can breathe without him!"

"Did you know about Ahmo and my dad?"

"Diana told me you touched her," Morgan replied. "And what you saw."

"You didn't know?" I studied her face.

"We fuck!" Morgan said. "I couldn't have hidden that from you."

"It doesn't answer the question."

"Yes, it does."

"Did you suspect?"

"Elis did."

"Do you think Candice knows?"

"Absolutely, Tavi," she replied. "But that bitch has liquid nitrogen for blood, and..."

"And?"

"Diana knows you want to break her neck."

"Something like that."

"She knows they won't push the issue if it gets nasty but leaving is the end of her career. This is the real deal, Tavi! A conspiracy going up to the highest office of power. They killed your father," Morgan said.

"That isn't helping the break-her-neck thing, Morgan."

"I don't have time for this with Elis out there," she said. "Diana would never have been a part of what happened to your father or Ahmo if she weren't distracted by you. Take her!"

"Take her?"

"You're thinking about it already, like Erin," she said. "They betrayed Diana too, Tavi. She's ripe for the taking, in more ways than shoving your cock in her whenever you want."

"Elis might not be alive," I said, staring out the window.

"Fix it, Tavi! Please!"

"Do you have a gun?" I asked as Morgan brought her car to a stop in front of a building with wide, wooden doors. I stepped out before she answered. A big, shorthaired, blonde man stared at us. He took a step towards the car; his intent was not to ask for the keys so he could park it.

"No," Morgan said, coming around the car.

"You can't..." The guy put his hand on my chest to punctuate whatever he was going to say.

I broke his arm at the elbow. "Only one guard, I'm disappointed."

After slamming his head into the car door, I flipped the guy over. He was out cold. I directed Morgan to him. She reached into his jacket and came out with a gun.

"Good enough?" I asked.

"Why do I need a gun?" she asked.

"I can't watch you every second," I replied. She nodded and leaned over the Russian again. Showing me the extra magazines, she pushed them under her belt.

"Diana and her people are not going to like it if I shoot someone, Tavi."

"They have to bigger things to worry about."

Expecting someone behind the doors, I kicked them off the hinges and into the restaurant. Someone tried to crawl out from under the doors. I slammed my foot down on the door until he stopped moving.

"That guy!"

I tracked on Morgan's gun and jumped over the dining tables, landing in front of the largest table in the restaurant.

"Down, boy!" I ordered, punching the guy on my right. The Russian on the left barely cleared the gun from his jacket before I slammed him face first through the table. The third guy managed to bring his weapon around and pull the trigger, but his success was lost in the sound of Morgan opening fire at the liquor bottles behind the bar.

"I will kill every one of you!" she shouted.

I grabbed the forearm of the third Russian and flipped his arm around. "Gun."

Morgan took the weapon out of the guy's hand. She put a bullet next to the head of the first guy, who was coming around. "He said down!"

I frowned at the first Russian as I broke the third one's arm at the wrist, elbow and shoulder.

Morgan was making angry eyes at the Russian boss.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked. The accent was thick but the words clear enough. "I will kill your family."

"Duck," I said. Morgan knelt; I threw the table backwards over her head. A few people screamed; no one in pain. Morgan had more fun with liquor bottles.

"I will ki..." My hand on his throat stopped whatever he planned to say. I lifted him straight up and looked into his eyes.

"The order didn't originate from him. He was the middle man though," I told Morgan.

"Kill him," she said. "Let's get the guy who did."

The Russian's flickered with fear for a second. No fear about what I had done or might do though; his boss was a different matter.

"He tried to keep his hands clean in case it went south, but he had to use some of his guys for the job," I said. "I have a better way, maybe safer."

"Do it!"

I brought the Russian down and grabbed him by the throat with both hands. Placing my index fingers along his jaw line, I squeezed inward. "You can't hide pain, friend. You either feel it or you don't."

"See," I continued, grinding his jaw up and in. "In your world, showing pain probably means losing face and losing face probably means someone will find the balls to put a few bullets in your back."

Morgan shot something again. I turned my head to look at her.

"Maybe they're actually Polish," she said with a shrug.

"That's racist," I replied.

"Nationalist."

"Isn't nationalist being all about your own country?"

"How about you get Elis back and we ask him?"

"She's feeling bitchy," I told the Russian boss. "You'd think it would be hard to tell with how bitchy she is normally."

I studied the boss, still no fear. Not really anyway.

"Do you understand my message?" I asked him. He tried to stare holes through me.

"Use smaller words," Morgan suggested.

I lifted the Russian up higher and bore down on his jaw to the breaking point. "How easy was it to take my friend?"

Even through the pain, his eyes sought something in my face. I moved his head around so that he could take in the damage to his place. I set him on his feet when his eyes flashed with real fear. Straightening up his clothes, I smiled at my new buddy.

"Yeah! Your boss is going to be very unhappy with this little fuck up," I said. "The thing is you have two problems. Three really."

"I'm going to..."

I slapped his forehead, banging the back of his head against the wall. "I'm getting bored, asshole!"

Morgan took a couple of steps back from me.

"Fuck this," I said losing my patience. I slapped the boss from left to right and then back. People in the restaurant gasped. Chairs and tables fell over as people tried to find places to hide.

"Your boss gave you a job," I said, slapping him again. "Bringing him the wrong guy is something he is sure to qualify as a fuck up. That's the rock. I'm the hard place. If you've hurt my friend, I'm going to hurt you. That doesn't sound too bad and to be honest, I don't have the patience for torture. I'll pull out your spinal cord and drop you off at the nearest hospital to see if they can save you."

I moved his head so he could look at Morgan.

"If you've killed him, you belong to her and she's the bad place." Morgan's eyes raged. "You have a daughter and grandchildren. Morgan is the type to tie you down on a table and make your daughter chew off and eat your testicles to save her children's lives. You'll be alive for the whole thing."

I had to give him credit; he glared at me. His anger and fear were enough to spark a new vision from him. The Russian was quite imaginative in possible ways to kill me.

"I'm done here," I told Morgan.

"When we leave, you should post some of your men outside," she said to the Russian. "There are a people coming who would love to claim exigent circumstances."

Morgan handed me the guns. I followed her towards the restaurant front doors; a little shocked no one took a shot my back. Tossing the guns behind me, I walked out.

Someone was having a black SUV sale outside the restaurant.

"Freeze!" a bunch of people yelled. A whole lot of weapons insisted Morgan and I obey.

Diana grimaced as she walked toward us. A man grabbed her arm; she pulled it out his grip and kept coming.

"Agent LaDon!" The man said loudly, walking behind her until she came to a stop in front of me.

"My people died, Agent LaDon," the man gritted out between his teeth. "To protect the wrong witness and you knew about it. I'm going to end your career!"

The doors behind us were stood up and placed as if back on their hinges. I looked--two large men and a smaller, dapperly dressed one did their best to close the doors and faced the SUVs.

I decided to cut any thought of going inside off at the pass. "I was taking Morgan out to lunch, but they're having a party. Very loud! Lots of balloons popping. It's like a Russian party thing to pop these huge balloons, almost sounds like gunshots."

"Hello," I called to April and Alexx. They came out of an SUV to join the powwow.

"What's going on in there?" the man asked.

"That's Marshal James," Morgan said. "He was in charge of getting Elis to a safehouse."

"Oh!" I looked Marshal James up and down. "I want to talk to you."

"Who the fuck are you?" he yelled. "What the fuck is going on in there?"

"Is private celebration," one of the Russian goons said.

"That guy is probably a lawyer," I said pointing at the nicely dressed man between the two goons. "I think they're going to insist on a warrant before you go in."