Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
AUDRY
I just wanted to see Amy's photo. That's all.
Careful what you wish for.
Now I was standing at her grave, the stark reality of her loss staring at me in the face, and it was almost more than I could handle. I couldn't understand the feelings suffusing me. Why was I feeling something like grief ? Why was I getting a lump in my throat hearing about her demise? It was as if I too, had lost someone.
I could barely stand still or look at Marco with all those alien feelings coursing through my body but at the same time, I was hungry to hear more about Amy. Who she was, what she liked, everything.
Listening to Marco talk about her filled me with a mixture of hunger and jealousy. Yet, I did not know who it was I was jealous of - him or her. Him for having gotten the chance to know her, and to be loved by her; or her, for having experienced such unconditional love.
Nobody had ever loved me like that.
It made me hungry to experience it, hungry for that connection. Which scared the fuck out of me. I couldn't afford to be in my feelings like this.
Eyes on the prize, Audry.
Soon my plan would be complete and I needed to think about exit strategies. I didn't need to be thinking about a dead girl, her fiancé or love. That shit was not for people like me.
I took a deep breath and got to my feet, crossing my arms as we both gazed quietly at the headstone. I had been so focused on what she looked like, I had not read the words beneath.
Amy Mercer
Born 1 st of March 1993
Died 11 th April 2012
I blinked at the dates, shaking my head in wonder. “We were born on the same day?”
Marco looked from me to the headstone in surprise. “You were?”
I slowly nodded. “At least… well, it fits with the records the orphanage had.”
“Records? Like a birth certificate?”
I shook my head. “No, they didn’t have that – at least not ones with names on it. But apparently whoever dropped me there gave that as my date of birth and Audry as my name.”
His brow furrowed. “Someone dropped you off there? Someone you know?”
I shrugged. “They didn’t leave a name.”
“Huh.” Marco looked intrigued. I raised an eyebrow at him in inquiry.
“Well, you have to admit it’s an interesting development.”
I nodded. “Yeah.” I looked back at the headstone. “Do you mind telling me exactly what happened on the 11 th of April?”
He turned back to the headstone with a sigh. “Yegerov and I, we had our issues even before I met Amy. He was, and is, an ambitious and impatient man. He wanted to take over our routes all over California. We weren’t having it.” He glanced at me as if assessing my ability to stomach what he was going to say next.
“I’m a transporter and I’m not usually precious about what I transport, but I don’t traffic in humans, or allow my routes that I pay for to be used for that. That pisses Yegerov off.”
I nodded firmly. It was why I went after Yegerov in the first place. There was a girl we found on one of our reconnaissance missions for my father. Beaten almost to death, her mind practically gone from the abuse she’d suffered. She died in my arms and I’d vowed to avenge her.
Getting to Yegerov wasn’t hard for a young attractive woman. He’d underestimated me from the jump. I’d used that, hating every second of our interactions, but I’d still played into the stereotype he’d cast me in. Party girl, air head, easy… I couldn’t quite bring myself to fuck him though. Had to spike his drinks a time or two so he couldn’t get it up. I took him for a large chunk of change and sent most of it to Natalia’s family in Poland. They had sent their daughter to America seeking a better life and she was now dead. I didn’t want them to have to send Natalia’s younger sister to suffer the same fate. It was the very last thing she’d whispered to me. “Look after my sister.”
“So he’s trying to take your routes to smuggle in his girls?”
“And boys.” Marco said sardonically. “There’s no homophobia when it comes to human trafficking.”
“Or really any sort of boundaries.” I said bitterly. Natalia had only been sixteen.
“Yeah. It sucks but the man has powerful allies. Why do you think it’s been so hard for me to get revenge?” Marco said bitterly.
I put my hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “I know you’ll get it done. For Amy.”
He looked down at the grave and nodded. “For Amy.”
My heart twisted in pain for them both and that was disconcerting.
Danger. A voice whispered to me, as the cold hand of fear trailed down my spine. I had to leave. Escape. Go. I was becoming way too attached for my own good. I closed my eyes, making the decision to come up with an exit strategy, even as the pain in my heart increased at the thought of doing that.
To never see Marco again.
Why did that hurt so much?
It wasn’t just losing Marco that bothered me. Having inadvertently spent time with his sister, I couldn’t help feeling that we were becoming friends. Going with her on her business mission - which consisted in doing background checks on a new customer - had been fun. We followed him around all day and took pictures of him with all the people he met. Then we went to his house, broke into his office and copied all the files on his computer.
“This is just preliminary work. Just making sure he is who he says he is.” Lucia told me.
“How long do you watch him for?”
“Oh, we’ve been watching him since the day he approached us. Today he was supposed to deliver his first shipment of goods to us. Instead, he called with excuses and postponed it. I’m just trying to find out why.” She told me as we drove away from the man’s house.
“What could be some bad reasons?”
She shrugged, “He’s a plant, he’s a cop, he’s looking to sabotage us… lots of things.”
“And what we did today will help you find out?”
“Sure. Hopefully. We’ll see.”
I nodded slowly as she flicked me a glance.
“I’m hungry. Wanna go for some burgers?”
I blinked in surprise. “Uh yeah. Sure.”
“Cool. We can eat while we try to identify all the guys he spoke to.”
“How?”
“I have a program George developed. Facial recognition. Did you watch the Fast and Furious movies?”
I was a bit breathless at the twists this conversation was taking. “Um,” I nodded, “I did.”
“Okay so you know God’s Eye, right? That software Ramsay developed to find anyone?”
“Don’t tell me you have something like that!”
She laughed. “Not quite, but George used that as a template to make his own much less impressive version.”
I just gawped at her, genuinely impressed. “Should you be telling me this?”
She grinned. “Probably not. But I trust you. You’re my friend, right?”
I blinked again, my chest squeezing with the unexpectedness of her words. “Of course I am.” I rasped.
“Good.” She gave me a pleased smile.
And now here I was, about to walk out on them all.
“Come on, let’s go home,” Marco said.
I opened my eyes and forced a smile. “Yeah… home. Let’s go.”