The Jig #3
“You think you’re so special. First Richard and now that agent. What’s so special about you that has men constantly fawning all over you?”
I shrugged delicately knowing it would piss her off. “Just lucky, I guess.”
“Luck. That’s such bullshit. Women like you and your sister all think that the world is for you because you’re beautiful.
That you can have anything you want because men desire you and will do whatever you need to just because of how you look.
” She flung her hand toward me dramatically as she paced in front of her chair.
“Who thinks that? After all this time of knowing me, you truly believe that’s how I see the world? That I’m some type of siren that is luring men to me?”
She balled her fist in front of her face exasperated with my truth. “It’s what you do! Everyone is always going after you. At work. On two separate continents. You got the agent to marry you without knowing him at all!”
“You’re fucking mental.”
“Maybe I am. But what does that make you? Some whore that has been passed around by anyone that would have you. You go to that club I’m sure more people than I could even count have taken you for a ride.”
I chuckled wondering how much of my life had been monitored by this crazy woman.
I thought of the times she’d copy something I’d wear and when I made a note of it would feign ignorance of it.
When she styled her hair the way I did and temporarily started to wear glasses.
All a softer form of trying to plagiarize and colonize my life because she felt constantly rejected in hers.
“You can say what you want and believe what you want but it’s not true.
You, of course, couldn’t get in because you didn’t have the connections.
Not that it matters, but the only person I ever slept with there I married.
” I flashed the enormous sapphire ring that I refused to take off even though it had been months since I lost him.
Since she knew so much about jewelry she knew exactly how much was spent on this ring and I could see the jealousy yet again in her eyes.
“You made a terrible mistake, Asha.”
“Oh? And what is that?”
“Brandt isn’t here to keep me off you. He won’t keep me from carving you up. Tying you up. Tasting you again. Do you know how divine your fear tastes on my tongue?” She flicked her tongue like a snake thinking it would rile me but it only fortified my convictions.
I was done playing with her and since I had my answers; she was no more use to me.
I pulled out the gun that had been carefully hidden at the small of my back. The fitted athletic jacket combined with my hair being down concealed the fact that I was armed. A knife would’ve been so much better but I needed to be neat with this kill.
“What are you going to do with that?”
Margo’s eyes were trained on the gun and I smiled sweetly as I watched her panic increase.
“This? This is how I’m going to take your life. I would want a far more dramatic means to an end but alas, enough of my life has been unknowingly based on you. I’m far more efficient in this murder than I’ve been with the others.”
“Others? What do you mean?”
I laughed, wanting to gloat at my subject matter expertise over hers yet again.
“You think that Brandt is the only man I’ve killed?
Silly Margo. We’ve always debated the proliferation of female serial killers who are not given their due because of their sex.
You were speaking from observation while I was speaking from hands-on experience.
Brandt, a pesky little earl who was a serial rapist and then a hedge fund manager who couldn’t keep his hands to himself.
You convinced someone else to do your dirty work undermining the agency of female murderers everywhere by lying on your back to achieve your goals.
I put in the work myself and no one has ever been the wiser.
Christ, Margo, you’re too lazy to even commit your own murders!
No wonder Brandt didn’t want to keep you around. ”
The final insult had her forgetting about her safety and coming toward me only to be stopped abruptly.
“Asha! Put the gun down!”
I didn’t turn my head to look at the person behind me because I knew he couldn’t really be here. There was no way that he was speaking to me right now so I stared at Margo, watching as her eyes shifted between the gun and an apparition.
“If this is my mind’s way of trying to stop me from doing what needs to be done, I’m not listening.
Asha can’t come to the phone right now. Please leave a message and when she returns, she might answer it.
” I was grinning watching the way that Margo was trying to keep her eyes on me but also glancing behind me.
It had to be a trick to get me to stop being locked on her but that wasn’t going to happen.
“Asha, there’s actually someone there.” Margo swallowed so hard I could hear it over the blood rushing through my ears.
“What are you about, Margo? Oh really? There’s someone there? Shame, another body to get rid of. No matter, I’ll just burn this place down.”
“Asha, please, I need you to let me handle this.”
“I’m not going to let anyone handle my business for me.
I wasn’t raised that way and being a weak bitch has never been something to strive for.
My father would be ashamed, my sister would be appalled and my husband will scold me when I meet him in the afterlife.
I don’t want my first words to him after such a long time to be words of disappointment.
I will never disappoint the only man I’ve ever chosen to love. ”
“Asha, I don’t want to put a bullet in you to stop you but I will.” The threat was laughable because we both knew he would never hurt me.
I sighed, his dramatics irritating me when all I wanted was to check this off my to-do list for the day. “No, you won’t, Alec. Because then I’d have to shoot you. And you wouldn’t want to lose out on her chance to woo Jemma Marie. And if you want a chance in hell of getting with her, I’m your in.”
He chuckled, and I could hear him coming closer but I still refused to put the gun down. “You’d choose bribery at a time like this?”
“I’ve always used whatever I needed to in my arsenal to ensure that I’m able to achieve success in any situation. Choose wisely.” My threat was apparent and he could only laugh.
Margo looked between the two of us surprised at our banter. “Are you really arguing with him over this?”
“Margo, I will put a bullet in your head right now and go home to sleep like a baby knowing that the person who’s haunted me and apparently stalked me for years is gone. Do not underestimate the extensive lengths I will go through in order to have my vengeance.”
“We’ve been watching her, Asha. The FBI knows that she’s involved. More information has come to our attention and we’ve got this handled.” Alec’s voice was almost pleading but I didn’t care how sincere he sounded.
“The bloody FBI? You think I’m going to trust you lot?
Are you dense? You all couldn’t save my husband but you’re trying to get me to believe you’re here to save me?
I’m sure you’d sooner put a bullet in the back of my head before you let me walk away from this.
” I trusted Alec but he was no longer beholden to me.
Ori was gone, the tether of our mutual connection now strictly business that he could handle through Pappy.
Relying on him and his word wasn’t something I was willing to chance.
“I’m not asking you to trust them. I’m asking you to trust me. Ori was one of my closest friends. My partner. If anyone is going to walk with you to get justice for him it’s me. He told you a word to use whenever you needed to trust someone. Tell me that word.”
“Why? So you can agree you already knew it and then I’m the one in a shitty situation? No, thank you,” Margo’s eyes had to be strained by the back shifting they kept doing to watch Alec and me go back and forth.
“Fine. Palekana. Does that sound right?”
I hesitated. Thinking of the night that Ori and I discussed a safe word.
One that was different from when we played.
One that was the promise he always gave me.
Palekana: to feel secure from danger. I felt like he was trying to get me to open up and trust Alec but I almost didn’t want to. I wanted to end this myself.
“I don’t want to.” My face was scowled my furrow so deep my eyes narrowed as I watched her looked relieved that Alec was taking control of the situation.
“I know you don’t. You’re so much like your husband that you want to handle your kills for yourself.
But think of how badly she’s going to have it in jail.
Her being dead is too good for her. She needs to be completely embarrassed.
For the victims of the girls overseas, she needs to be brought to justice there too.
Your name can be kept out of it but you can have the satisfaction of knowing that everything her family built on the blood of people that look like us will be returned to the victims of her and Brandt. ”
“I will only put this gun down on one condition.”
“And what’s that? Your anonymity—”
I scoffed and almost took my eyes off Margo but I caught myself.
“I could give a fuck less about that. I want to hurt her. To be able to visit her periodically and beat her ass the way she’d done me while I was locked up and helpless.
I know you can make that happen here and my father can across the pond but I want your word. ”
It was then that I relented and turned to him. He was in a black, loose athletic shirt and basketball shorts but he had his gun trained on Margo the same way I had.
Unblinkingly, he gave me a nod as he promised. “You have it.”
“Good. It starts now.”