Chapter Five
Finishing his story, Boomer looked around at the Marauders.
Bouncer laughed. “And this all really happened?”
“Hell yeah,” Boomer replied. “In essence, Ms. Maudie brought down an entire army with that smoke and you will not believe the different colors it comes in.”
“Like she was adding her own flair to it.” Lily nodded.
“I heard about this weapon from some of my father’s contacts.
Most of the cartels have a rumor mill of sorts.
They said a voodoo witch made it. Joel was bragging about it once and he was pissed when he couldn’t get his hands on any of it.
He said he wanted some to increase his power. ”
“Ms. Maudie isn’t a witch per say but more of a healer that uses the secrets of the swamps to help the swamps and the people who live there,” Boomer explained.
“She is sort of a local legend. But she would have never sold that stuff to anyone. And despite what he thought about himself, Joel never would have fooled her. She would have seen right through him if they ever met.” He shook his head.
“No, she would never sell it to any of your family either. No matter how much money they were willing to pay her for it.”
Lily nodded. “I wouldn’t sell it to them either. I know what liars and thieves they were in life. I didn’t trust them at all. And I grew up with them. They weren’t very good people.”
Boomer looked around and admitted, “But I can say if anyone stays under the effects of it too long, something happens that well...” He reached up to scratch his head. “It created El Bette, they called her. Or for better clarity, the She Beast.”
Bouncer laughed. “Ok baby brother, I thought you were making this up and it seems you are.”
Boomer shook his head firmly. “I would swear this on a stack of bibles bro. Cameros’ wife was worse than him in the field of ruthlessness and she was tied to a pole after we got in there and we forgot about her.
Then the next day we found the pole all bent to hell and she was gone.
Seems it turned her into...” He shrugged and shivered. “Something not human.”
“You need to write a book about this shit,” Bouncer teased him.
He shook his head. “Go ahead and be that way, but I saw what I saw.” He turned to look around. “We only have a few issues delivering as these men are attacking us so we need to lob these little silly bombs at them.” Boomer nodded at his boys. “Come on brothers, we got some bombs to get ready.”
His two sons and several of his men followed him out of the room.
Ironman had settled in next to Lily in a chair and commented, “I sure hope this works like Boomer says.”
Bouncer nodded. “I teased him like I usually do but I imagine he is telling us what he saw. Boomer has won many battles. He knows his stuff, so it will be just like he says. He used to call me when they were after the dangerous Thorn groups. That was a harrowing war that lasted months.” He looked down at Lily and said, “Anything else you can tell us would be a help.” He raised his hands in the air to add, “I know those guys coming in are your family. But when they get here, I’d rather it be them that died than us. ”
“What happens to me after the battle?” Lily asked him quietly.
“No one here is going to bother you or hurt you in any way,” he replied.
“You can stay as long as you like or need to heal then you can walk out the front door if you want. You’ve given us a pretty good picture of the type of men in your family and that will at least give us a chance to beat them at their own game.
Hell’s bells girl, you took a bullet to keep one of our men from getting killed.
That tells us what kind of woman you are, right there.
” Shaking his head, he told her, “We don’t hurt women here, never have, never will. That’s just not how we roll.”
“What if I want to help you with the actual takedown?” Lily asked.
“You can’t...” Ironman paused at the determined look on her face. She was injured and not up to it.
“I can. I want to be up on the roof with you guys when the shooting starts,” Lily told the men.
“I know them and I know how they operate. I came here because I was ordered to, not because I wanted to come. My father thought he had me under his thumb and I knew this was my chance to walk away if I had the courage to do it.” She shrugged.
“It was easier than I thought it would be. Turning my back on the whole lot of them. All I did was walk away. I never knew it would be that easy. And as soon as I did I felt more freedom than I thought I could ever feel. Like Canto said, when we were growing up after training under my father, I used to go to my bedroom, lock the door and puke all night. He trained me to fight and he told people about me, saying I killed many and was lethal and deadly. Just so people would fear my skills. I’ve got the skills all right but I hated the thought that I needed them to survive.
What my father never understood was, yes I could shoot someone, but I had to go to a space in my head that I hated in order to do it.
I could fight with a blade in hand to hand combat but I found it harder and harder to go to that place.
I hated doing it almost as much as I hated him.
I think it’s time for the evil in my family to die, once and for all.
And I think someone with my last name needs to be there to see it finally end. ” Her words drifted into silence.
“I think it should be the both of us to see the last of them go,” a voice came from the doorway.
They all looked over.
Canto stood there with Titus. “I’m better on the ground. Lily is the sharpshooter.”
Bouncer stared at him then looked over at Lily.
Nodding, she gave him the answer he sought, “Canto wants them gone too. That is why he stays with me. We are perhaps the only two that really wanted out.”
No one in that room said a word for the longest time then Bouncer nodded. “If that’s what you want and you know the odds of survival, then you can go to the roof when the fighting starts.”
Ironman looked angry as he believed she should heal up.
Bouncer held his hand up at him. “Hell brother, I know how you feel. I don’t want to let her up there either, but you know she has a point.
Her family needs to be stopped or they sure as hell will stop us.
He looked over at Canto. “You can man a window in the main room.” He then turned to address Titus, “You trust him, son?”
Titus nodded. “Maybe I don’t know him well enough to say that for sure, but they want him and Lily dead just as badly as they want us to be six feet under, so there is that.”
Bouncer agreed, “Yes, that’s exactly what they hope to do when they get here.
It’s us or them and I sure as hell don’t want them to win this battle.
There is going to be bloodshed and funny enough I don’t want it to be ours.
I want us to live. Hell, we didn’t bring this battle to our doorstep...
the Sanchez family did that. And she's right, the evil needs to stop.” He now looked down at Lily.
“May God have mercy on all of us.” Then he walked out of the Infirmary.
The others drifted away too.
Canto walked over and set Lily’s backpack down on the bed then gave her a nod and went with them.
Soon, only five were left in the room. Lily, Ironman, Ulysses, Aisha and Pyrite.
Ironman looked at Pyrite and asked, “Can she go with me for the night?”
Pyrite looked at him in surprise and then nodded.
Ironman looped her pack around his arm then gathered her up and carried her out of the infirmary.
Ulysses looked at Aisha and gently gathered her into his arms then he too turned toward the door.
Pyrite was stunned but before they left he told him, “Just be careful with her and don’t let her bleed again.”
Ulysses nodded. “I know doc. I just need to hold her tonight.” In silence, he carried her to his room.
When they got there, he carefully placed her on the bed and covered her up with the blankets.
He locked his door and shut off the lights.
He headed over to the other side of the bed and undressed in the dark then got under the blankets.
Gathering her in his arms, he gently kissed her forehead and told her, “Hush honey, you need to rest tonight. I just want to hold you.”
Aisha closed her eyes and breathed in his scent for a moment then she whispered as she cracked her eyes open again, “Why do I feel safe in your arms when I never felt safe with anyone in my life?”
“I don’t know but when I hold you in my arms it feels like that’s right where you belong. You belong right here beside me and that sounds crazy I know since I just found you,” he whispered in the dark.
“No, I feel like somehow it is not so crazy. “Aisha smiled faintly and settled in. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.