Chapter Twenty-One Shaken Not Stirred
Liberty
Yeah, I finally got it. The tea…I turned to Fate and explained, “She means the story.”
He paused then chuckled. “Oh… See, Ma always fixed tea when she was about to tell you what is what. But I didn”t think of it like that.”
“Your ma?” Briget asked.
“No, no. She’s like everyone”s ma…” I told her. “Ma Walker.”
Briget’s eyes went round as she asked, “You know Ma Walker?”
I stared at her. “Do you?”
Shrugging, Briget replied, “Everyone knows Ma. She’s been a fixture in Ramton for a long time. Though no one has seen her for a while.”
“That’s because she and her family are in hiding,” Belle stated flatly.
“Oh, yeah.” Belle nodded. “The war on the Walkers, yes.”
“You know about that?” Fate asked her.
“Of course, most everyone knows about that psycho woman, Ophelia. Running our town into the ground and going after the Walkers.”
“The man in the suit,” Belle said. “He’s her son. And that really nice woman that was with him? We think she’s O’s daughter.”
“Oh, wow. So you got caught up in that mess?” Briget stared at Belle. “I mean, most everyone in town that hasn’t moved away knows that it ain’t safe to be a Walker or to be anywhere near one either.”
The room went quiet.
Looking around at our stoic faces, she then turned to ask Belle, “What?”
Belle let out a long breath and motioned to me. “Meet Liberty Walker.” Nodding, she pointed at Fate. “And his brother, Fate Walker.”
Briget looked lost. “No, no. There’s Olivia, Talon, Raven, Rip, Dagger and Hawk…No Liberty or Fate.”
“We are their cousins from Sugarland Texas,” I told her.
Raising her brows at me, she slapped her hand over her mouth. Then dropping it, she told me, “Get a fake last name or something. Do not tell anyone that you are a Walker. People are scared here. I’m not sure what they would do.”
“Well, we didn”t plan to make it public,” Fate said.
I nodded. “In fact, we would just rather not be noticed.”
Briget laughed and pointed at us. “You and your brother stick out like red haired clowns in a clown car that has been set on fire!”
Fate stared at her then looked over at me. “I can’t figure out if that’s an insult or…?”
Belle laughed. “Nah, it’s probably a compliment. But I was thinking the same thing. You two won’t blend in. Big, muscle bound…”
“...and good looking,” Briget added with a nod of her head.
Fate wiggled his eyebrows as he glanced over at me. “Did you hear that?”
I shook my head then stared at Belle. “We still have a job to do.”
“What job?” Briget asked.
“See now, that is all a part of the tea, B,” Belle told her. “Let’s get some paper plates and napkins ready for the pizza.”
“I got soda and beer.” Fate raised the pack of coke and beer up.
“I’ll take a Michelob,” Briget said.
Fate leaned closer to me and whispered, “I like this girl.”
“Easy does it, you just met her.” I shook my head. “And unless you’re serious…just don’t.”
“What?” he asked. “Why?”
“She’s my woman’s best friend, that’s why,” I whispered back. “You fuck it up and I will then have issues.”
Fate paused as he watched Briget talking to Belle. “We’ll see.”
“No, you won’t see,” I snapped. “Lay off. You are here to watch out for us. Not to watch her.”
The little dog yapped loudly.
I looked around for the animal. “You wanna get cuddly? Befriend little Daisy.”
Fate scoffed and flipped me off as a knock sounded on the door. He made his way over and reached up to unhook the latch.
“Wait!” Briget called to him. “You can’t just open the door like that! Use the peephole and find out who it is first.”
Fate shook his head then peeped one eye to the little glass hole on the door. “Guy holding Pizza boxes, wearing a blue hat with a domino on it.”
“Ok.” Briget nodded.
Fate undid the latch then the chain and turned the heavy lock. Finally, he swung the door open. “It’s like being in fucking Fort Knoxx or something.”
“Hey, single women gotta be safe,” Briget said.
Fate took the Pizza from the man then dug into his pocket. “All I got is a fifty.” He handed it to the guy.
“I don’t carry change, mister,” the pizza guy replied.
“Don’t matter, just keep it.” Fate closed the door and turned around.
Briget stood there with her mouth popped open.
He halted when he saw her. “What?”
“You just tipped the guy what the meal cost.” She stared at him.
He shrugged as he handed her the boxes.
Taking them from him, she still looked shocked. “That”s like 100 percent gratuity.”
Turning back to the door, he did up the three locks. “Did I do something wrong?” he asked. “I mean that”s a good gratuity, right?”
Baffled, she slowly shook her head. “Someone needs to watch out for you.”
I laughed. “I’ve been saying that since he was six!”
“Yeah, ha-ha.” Fate snorted at me. “You are just sooo funny, aren’t ya?”
“Ok, boys. You need to get along now,” Belle said as she grinned at me and at him. “Bring the pizza over and let’s get this tea started.”
Briget and Fate came over.
We all sat down and got our slices.
“You need to start after Mr. Suit took you away.” Briget took a bite of her pizza.
“Well, that’s the thing,” Belle replied as she raised her pizza slice up. “Mr. Suit is Ophelia’s son.”
Briget coughed on her pizza.
Fate looked concerned as he patted her on the back.
Grabbing a napkin, Belle swiped at her lip and said, “The hell you say?”
Belle nodded. “He was FBI but ex I think. He made it all up.”
“Made what up?” Briget asked.
“He told me that Scar was being held against her will. Then he talked me into luring the Walkers out. I wanted Scarlet back, so I went along with it.”
I kept eating and didn’t plan to add anything as my opinion on this was well known to Belle. No need to go there again. We’d had too many arguments in the past about this very subject.
“Oh, wow!” Briget exclaimed excitedly and took a quick sip of her beer. “So, what happened?”
“Scarlet showed up with her ex-boyfriend.”
Briget again coughed a little. “Which one? Freddy Freakazoid or Paul Pathetic?”
Fate burst out with laughter as he nearly blew beer out of his nose.
“Dude, watch it!” I chided him as I grabbed a napkin and wiped beer from my arm.
He was chuckling while grabbing a napkin too.
“Freakazoid and that was when it all unraveled,” Belle explained. “This FBI guy Mr. Suit got him out of prison to help in this scheme. And Mr. Freak thought he was going to walk away with Scarlet. Well, he never walked anywhere because Mr. FBI shot him right between the eyes.”
Briget stared at Belle as she paled a little. “And you witnessed that?”
Belle nodded. “Then Mr. FBI let me and Scarlet go. He said it was to prove that he meant no harm.” She looked over at me. “Babe, tell her what his real reason was.”
I swallowed my pizza bite then took a swig of beer. “You sure you want me in this telling or spilling of the tea, Belle?”
Nodding, she smiled at me. “Tell her just what you had said at the time.”
“He let them go, so they would lead him to where the Walker family was living, so he could drop bombs on us all.”
Briget’s jaw went slack as she almost dropped her beer. “You”re shitting me!”
Fate chuckled at her verbiage and handed her another napkin for her sloshed beer.
I shook my head and explained, “Justice was the one who’d figured it out. So, we went somewhere else instead and sure enough, we had a huge battle with an army coming at us and then he bombed the shit out of that house and land.”
With a gasp, Briget slammed her beer bottle onto the table. “You were there when this war happened, Belle?”
She nodded. “Well, Liberty and Justice took me and Scarlet as far from the place as we could get in five minute’s time...pretty much. But we still saw the fallout.”
Briget slowly shook her head.
“Then after they finally found Mr. FBI’s satellite, we were stuck with the Walker family in hiding. They said it wouldn’t be safe for me. But I have a life here.”
“So that”s why I never heard back from you!” Briget said.
“My phone had Mr. FBI’s tracker in it. Then we weren’t allowed to make calls to Ramton really.”
“So, how did you get set free?” Briget asked. Then it seemed to dawn on her. “Oh! Liberty and Fate are here to protect you!” She jumped up and down in her seat and actually clapped like a little kid. “That”s so exciting! My gosh, girl!! You just lived in a James Bond movie!”
We all stared at her.
Fate chuckled as he swirled his beer bottle and dropped his voice to say, “Shaken, not stirred.”
Briget looked over at him. “You’ve watched the old ones?”
“Heck yeah,” he said. “Goldfinger, Dr. No…”
“Thunderball and You Only Live Twice!” Briget gushed.
I rolled my eyes and looked over at Belle. “She’s a movie buff?”
Belle bit at her lip to keep her grin back and said, “Lifetime Movie Queen, Netflix Netty, married to HBO. Literally, a card carrying Movie Classic channel member.”
I slowly shook my head and looked back over at Fate.
He kept staring at Briget with stars in his eyes.
“Well, fuck,” I swore under my breath.
Belle giggled. “I think it’s cute.”
“If it doesn’t work out,” I told her. “You won’t think it’s so cute then.”
Belle took my hand and laced her fingers through mine. “You can’t control what other people think or do, Liberty. You just got through telling me that a couple of hours ago.”
“I can’t believe this!” I exclaimed.
“What?” she asked me.
“You actually listened to me?” I teased her.
She laughed and smacked my arm. “When you aren”t talking like a big jock oaf then yes, I listen to you.”
I squinted my eyes at her and said, “Well, when you relax a bit and stop being such a know-it-all control freak, I feel like I’m not wasting my time.”
“Oh wow, I am so turned on,” she said as she leaned forward and kissed me.
Like always, we fell into it deeply as we scooted closer together and kissed like it was again our first time.
Finally, after I don’t know how long, we broke apart breathlessly.
Looking over at the other two at the table, we could see the utter shock on their faces.
“Wow!” Briget said. “That was…” She shook her head as her face went pink.
“ReDick-U-Lous,” Fate said. “I mean geez people, have some grace and dignity, will ya?”
I laughed. “Like you even know what that is, Fate.”
A knock sounded on the door.
“I’ll get it,” Fate said as he rose up and headed over to peep into the hole. Pausing, he pulled his head back. “It’s some old lady.”
Briget got up and rushed over. Pushing at his arm, she made Fate step over to the side. Peeping through, she gasped a little. “It’s Mrs. Argyle!”
Belle let out a sigh. “No, no.”
“Who’s Mrs. Argyle?” Fate asked.
“She is the biggest gossip in this building,” Briget said.
“Oh, I thought you were gonna say the inventor of socks, maybe?”
I tisked. “Don’t quit your day job of being a jerkwad ok? Cause you won’t make it in comedy.”
“Just let her in and we will get this over with,” Belle said. “I”m gonna just meet this head on.”
“Thatta girl!” I nodded at her.
Getting up, Belle squared her shoulders and went over to the door.
Fate unhooked the chain, slid the bolt back and undid the third lock. Then he moved away from the door.
Belle stepped up and opened it.
The old lady stood there, looking scared with her grey hair askew.
Belle gave her a slight smile. “Mrs. Ar—”
The old woman seemed to be pushed in through the door as she screamed. She flew up against the wall and then slid down as she fainted.
Next, a burst of long blonde hair seemed to obscure my view of Belle.
Then suddenly, I saw the glint of a gun as it rose up and planted itself at Belle’s temple.
Scrambling from my chair, I raced over to the door.
“STOP!” a woman shouted.
I skidded a few steps and stood facing Belle.
Her eyes were wide and terrified as she stared at me.
“Any wrong moves and she is dead,” the woman with the gun to my girl’s temple warned.
I stared at a beautiful face that held a vicious twisted mouth and bloodshot sky blue eyes.
“I finally found you,” the woman spoke.
I stared at her and whispered, “Sierra?”
Nodding, she laughed coldly. “I am sooo glad you remembered me.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked her.
“I followed Legend from your MC’s compound in Texas to this town, then I lost him at a stupid car wash of all things. That was days ago, then today, there you were in the parking lot of the local grocery store. I just couldn’t believe it when I saw you with this girl.” She tugged Belle”s head back by her hair.
“Why do you have a gun?” I asked her.
“Cause you weren’t gonna talk to me unless I had one, were you? No, you had me put into an institution the last time I tried to talk to you!”
Suddenly, the little dog started yapping and nipping at Sierra’s feet. Looking down, she stomped her foot. The gun wavered away from Belle’s head.
I reached over and grabbed Sierra”s hand, tilting the gun upward. It went off and tore a hole in the ceiling as debris rained down. All the while, Daisy was viciously attacking her legs. The old lady screamed, as Belle dropped to the floor covering her head. A small baseball bat came outta nowhere and it swung right upside Sierra”s blonde head…her eyes went cross eyed and she dropped to the floor.
Daisy jumped on top of her and began attacking her long blonde hair.
I grabbed Belle and carried her away from the door. Looking up, I saw Briget holding the blood stained bat.
She was breathing heavily. “Crazy bitch! We got her though didn’t we, Miss Daisy?” She dropped the bat and scooped the little dog up.
Fate stared at her in awe.
Belle broke away from me and rushed over to the old woman. “Are you okay, Mrs Argyle?”
“I-I think so.” The older woman stood from the floor with Belle’s help.
“Ok, I’m gonna call my cousin, Nicky,” Briget said. “He’s a cop and he’ll know what to do.”
Mrs Argyle took a step toward her with a business card in her hand. “No, no. You need to call this guy. He’s FBI.”
Belle gasped and I paused.
Briget took the card and silently read the name. Then she looked at Belle and I as she gave us a slow nod of her head. Looking over at Mrs. Argyle, she asked, “W-when did he give you this card?”
The old lady smiled at her as she tried to smooth her hair back into place. “Three days ago. He said to call him if Belle came back, cause her life was in danger. That was why I came over here then that crazy woman pointed a gun at me and dragged me over to the door.”
“Holy shit,” Fate muttered.