CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“I almost want to go with you just to watch this play out,” smirked Ghost at his old friend, Zulu. “You know she’ll be just fine, right?”
“In my heart I know that. In my head it’s a war zone,” he frowned.
“Look at it this way, Zulu, as much as I love your wife, an hour alone with O’Shan and she’ll drive him crazier than he is right now.”
Zulu couldn’t help but laugh at that as they boarded the jet. Along with him were two old friends, Whiskey and Skull. Two men he knew wouldn’t allow anything to happen to Gabi. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Joseph and the others, but he was closer to Whiskey and Skull.
As the jet took off, Whiskey, Skull and Zulu sat with Gabi. She was unusually quiet, staring at the men as they spoke.
“The plan is that Joseph will approach with Gabi, claiming he has found his cure. We don’t know the process by which he determines them worthy or not worthy but if he makes a move toward her, they’ll cover her with the stealth netting and get her out of there,” said Zulu.
“I’m sure it’s all going to work out,” said Whiskey. “Joseph won’t let anything happen to her and neither will we. But I do understand their need for ending this and sending him on his way. That’s a lot of dead people based on a lie from the Hungarian.”
“We’ve known men that have gone mad with anger from losing their families,” said Skull. “Hell. I nearly did. I don’t condone what this man did, is doing, but I understand where his pain is coming from.”
Losing Willa nearly destroyed Skull. The only thing that kept him from going mad, were his two boys and Mama Irene. That wasn’t true, he thought to himself. It was all of his friends. Everyone on the property. He had a tribe that kept him alive.
Finding the young man that had killed Willa, accident or not, was all he wanted. Then when faced with him, a boy, nothing more than a boy, he couldn’t kill him. He just couldn’t. That’s what separated him from madness.
Later the thing that pulled him away was Avery. Discovering her in Oklahoma, a friend of Leightyn’s, he didn’t think he’d ever be the same again. Worlds could change. They could turn upside down and then right themselves at the most inopportune moments.
He more than anyone knew that.
“Tanner said he worked up the odds of finding someone with your coloring in that time period. Blonde, blue-eyed people were popular in Europe of course, but silver hair, translucent eyes was nearly unheard of,” said Whiskey.
“Did he also mention that they typically believed them to be witches,” muttered Gabi. Zulu stared at his wife, a clenching of his gut nearly doubling him.
“Don’t worry, Mom, we won’t let them burn you at the stake.”
Gabi gasped, turning to see her sons and grandsons walking down the aisle of the jet. Wade, Patrick, Tiger, and Brix all grinned at the woman. Behind them were four very familiar ghosts. Archie, Grip, Eagle Feather, and Dr. Hezekiah Morton.
“What on earth?” she whispered in an unusual show of emotion. “Or. Not of earth?”
“We couldn’t let Dad and the boys have all the fun,” said Tiger. “We have your eyes. He might not like the color of our skin but let’s see how he feels about all these strange eyes staring at him.”
“We are here to help with this ghost,” said Eagle Feather. “When he sees us, he may well realize that Joseph is more powerful than he believed.”
“Boys, this could be very dangerous,” she said sincerely. They all chuckled, shaking their heads.
“In case you didn’t know it, Grandma, we’re all pretty dangerous,” smirked Brix.
“I’m well aware of how dangerous you all are,” said Gabi. She didn’t say anything staring at all the men.
“Gabi, no one would think lesser of you if you want to back out now. We can just turn the jet around,” said Skull.
“No. No,” she said shaking her head. “I want to do this for them. It’s doubtful he’ll hurt me and I don’t want this to continue anymore than all of you do.”
“From what I understand, he listened to Joseph. You know how he is. He’s got that calm, Zen demeanor of a Redhawk.
O’Shan seemed confused by him but didn’t try to hurt him and didn’t back away.
With any luck, he’ll be able to keep him in check and in control.
Chances are pretty good he’ll feel the same about Eagle Feather but be shocked that he’s a ghost as well,” said Whiskey.
“What are you worried about, baby?” asked Zulu. “You’ve heard what Joseph said, what we’ve all said. It’s unlikely he can touch you.”
“It’s not him I’m worried about. This man, this Hungarian, he had a lot of power over people to be able to change their minds, their perceptions of others. What if his aura or his ghost is still nearby? What if he gets to O’Shan and makes him change his mind about hurting me or hurting Joseph?”
“We know that he’s buried in Hungary,” said Whiskey.
“Mama Irene and Matthew both said that’s where he is and that’s where he’ll stay.
He had no power other than the power of persuasion and the fake power of a man of the cloth.
That was his drug. Power and control of others.
Making others feel miserable so that he wasn’t alone. ”
“I understand that kind of pain,” said Skull. “I understand the misery he must have felt losing his wife and children, yet he was chosen to go on. I didn’t lose my children and maybe if I had, God forbid, I’d be a different man sitting here today.”
“It didn’t give him the right to take the lives of others, Skull,” said Gabi. Her tone and expression were serious. Far too serious for Gabi’s usual jovial, joking self.
“Babe, it’s going to be okay. We’ll focus on O’Shan and that’s it. We go in and get out,” said Zulu kissing the backs of her fingers as he held her hand.
“I know,” she nodded, standing to go to the back of the plane. She fingered the crucifix at her neck. The same one Mama Irene had given her years ago. “But what if I can’t get out.”
Gabi walked away and Zulu stared at the men around him.
“Dad, she’ll be okay,” said Wade. “We won’t let anything hurt Mom, you know that.”
“I know that, son, but sometimes there are things we can’t fight. Hidden evil, spirits, ghosts, gremlins, whatever the fuck they are, sometimes we can’t fight them. What if this is one of those cases?”
“Zulu, brother, we’ve never not been able to catch the bad guy. Even one that was already dead. We’ll get this one too. Trust your wife and trust us.”
Zulu nodded and rose to walk to the back with his wife. Tiger stared at the others, then at his brother.
“If something happens to her, who is going to control him?”