3. Alisha “Kitty” Quinn
ALISHA “KITTY” QUINN
Tha’lab wasn’t what I expected.
She stood at about five foot four with big brown eyes neatly traced with eyeliner to match her tanned skin.
She didn’t walk into the room.
No, walking was a human condition.
Tha’lab floated in like a breath of air with curves deep enough to make kingdoms fall.
Her body was cloaked in black fitted jeans, black combat boots neatly laced with a deep blue hijab covering her hair. The gleaming badge and black gun sat on her hip making her look like some kind of goddess—protector—superhero.
I shrunk in my seat, feeling small in her presence as she sat with us mere mortals.
Suddenly the Tim Hortons was a space of peasants and I was unworthy.
Though I kept my thoughts to myself, in her presence, I felt less than. That was a sensation I couldn’t silence, no matter how hard I tried.
“That’s the plan.” Exodus told her.
“I’m in.” Tha’lab sipped from her iced cappuccino.
Her name was actually Noor Mohammad.
“My badge could come in handy.” She told us. “When did you want to do this?”
“Today.” Exodus replied. “I want to figure this out soon.”
The plan was simple.
It all boils down to me staying in the car.
I frowned silently in the backseat of the car, feeling invisible to everyone including to myself.
Exodus and Tha’lab were in a muttered conversation, in their own little world. I hid my sorrow, my feeling of unworthiness, and looked out the window.
The scenery was familiar, but not warm.
When Bambam’s face appeared on the GPS screen, I felt as if I was no longer invisible.
“How did you do that?” I asked then thought better of it. “Never mind. I probably don’t want to know.”
I slouched back in the seat.
It wasn’t as heavy if I tuned them out.
Tha’lab unclipped her gun as we pulled to a stop and the plan was put into action.
Exodus left the truck and Tha’lab followed.
I scrambled behind the wheel, closed the door and watched the way Exodus moved with this woman as if he was a guardian.
A guardian for her—not for me.
Swallowing the thought, I gripped the wheel so tightly, my knuckles turned white. This was no time for jealousy or what-ever-the-fuck these feelings were.
Tha’lab unclipped her badge while Exodus approached on one side as she knocked on the driver side window with it.
They tried driving away, I blinked and Exodus was standing in front of the car, a gun hefted toward the vehicle.
Wait, where did he get a gun—when did he get a gun?
Tha’lab dragged a struggling man from the vehicle and slammed him into the ground. A second man scrambled from the passenger side and went for Exodus.
Quickly, Exodus put away his gun and accepted the attack by bodying his attacker into the ground like a sumo wrestler.
He rushed toward the man, palmed his throat and hoisted him in the air.
I blinked and the man was in the dirt, his body writhing in pain as Exodus pushed to his feet.
Exodus wasn’t even breathing hard. He looked more annoyed than anything else.
One attacker went into Exodus’ trunk. The other went into cuffs and we waited for a squad car for the other.
My heart was in my throat.
Tha’lab stepped in close to Exodus and took the gun from his hand. She shoved it into the back of her jeans and pulled her shirt down over it.
I said nothing.
“I’ll let you know if he talks.” Tha’lab spoke when everything was settled. “I don’t know how easy that’ll be. As for that other one, try not to kill him. It’s hard to explain a body.”
“You’ll only have to explain the body if they find it.” Exodus growled.
“No one is dying.” I offered.
Tha’lab gave him a knowing look, the kind of look that was a conversation between them. Exodus’s expression didn’t change.
Tha’lab blew him a kiss which made my chest hurt.
“Stand down, Bam.” Exodus told the hacker once we were back in the vehicle.
She nodded and disappeared from the screen.
We’d been driving for a while, but I couldn’t find the words to figure anything out. My hands were shaking as my thoughts swirled around in my head.
We arrived at a house, and Exodus dragged our captive inside. I would have gone with him but I didn’t trust my knees to hold me up, keep me standing. When he returned, I was still in my seatbelt frozen and ashamed.
“You can’t break yet.” Exodus opened my door then helped with the belt. “We have more work to do, got it?”
I said nothing.
“Alisha Qinn.”
The hardness of his voice tore through what I was feeling forcing me to look up into his face.
His handsome face.
Those hard, brown eyes that belonged to another woman.
That thought sobered me up—I nodded.
When I managed to take his hand and stood out of the SUV, I took a moment to steal some time by tugging my top in place and smoothing my palms down my sides.
Exodus then walked ahead of me, his larger frame keeping me in the shadow that I didn’t suppose anyone inside could see me unless he stepped to the side.
“Well, you wanted her attention.” Exodus spoke up, his voice echoing slightly off the bare minimum of broken things around us. “You got it. But somehow, I don’t think you’re her type.”
He stepped out of the way for the man who was strapped to a chair to see me.
While inside, I still felt feeble, jittery, I lifted my chin, relaxed my shoulders and cocked a determined hip.
He was definitely not my type.
The man said nothing.
He struggled at his restraints.
“Looks like he doesn’t want to talk.” I stepped closer. “I like the strong, silent type but he isn’t cute enough.”
“Bitch!” The man spat.
“Oh!” I cooed. “Spicy. But you need to work on your vocabulary, though. I love a man who’s well spoken.”
“Teachers.” Exodus shrugged. “They can never turn it off.”
Frowning, I ignored that and stared at the strange man with the dark eyes.
“What do you want?” I snapped.
Nothing.
Looking around the room, I ripped off the leg of an already broken-down chair.
“Kitty?” Exodus called, calmly.
But I was over being careful or mousy. I could feel my body splintering, and it made me mad that I might show more weakness in front of Exodus.
Hefting the leg above my head, I brought it down into the man’s left thigh —with my entire back.
The sound of the connection echoed through the dusty room. I brought it down in the other leg after bracing myself, steeling my spine and inhalin deeply.
He screamed.
I didn’t care.
I brought it down across his chest and hefted it again while he gasped for breath, struggling to grab at his throat.
“Alisha!” Exodus called for me.
I ignored him and used the broken leg to connect with one of the man’s shoulders.
He was still croaking.
Exodus grabbed me from behind.
“Bastard!” I shrieked. “He doesn’t get to walk into my life and wreck it, throw me off my game! They don’t get to do this to me. I’ll see all of them dead first!”
“If you kill him now, we get nothing.” Exodus told me,
I struggled against his strong hold, swinging my weapon towards our captive.
“He’s not telling us anything anyway.” I pointed out. “Beating him to death will make me feel better.”
“Trust me, it won’t.” He told me.
“Why don’t we find out?” I tried again to escape Exodus’ arms. “I mean, we won’t be sure until he’s dead, right? Okay—Let’s do that.”
I swiped the piece of wood toward the captive again.
The tied-up man gasped louder, twitching.
“He can’t breathe.” Exodus told me. “Maybe we should take a break?”
I frowned deeper but didn’t speak.
“Are you calm now? I need to check on him.”
“Fucker!” I yelled. “Let him die.”
But I calmed enough for Exodus to release me to check on him.
We waited a little while for him to learn to breathe again before I dropped the tip of my weapon to my shoulder and met the man’s eyes.
“My—our job was to bring you to them and leave.” The man started on a shaky breath. “Don’t get me involved in anything beyond that.”
“Too late, brother.” Exodus spoke. “You’re all the way in. Who hired you?”
“I don’t know.” He sobbed.
“He’s lying.” I muttered, stepping up to Exodus’ side.
“I really don’t know! We can do these things virtually now—no meeting necessary as long as the money is good. And the money was good.”
“I don’t care anymore—hand him over to Tha’lab.” I told Exodus. “It’s either he gets arrested or I kill him.”
“No!” The man panicked. “I can’t go to jail!”
“Do I look like I care?” I snapped, leaning heavily to Exodus’ side. “Tell me what about my face tells you I give a fuck. Jail or death. Those are your choices.”
Not waiting for his answer, I turned for the door, not caring if Exodus wanted to follow or not.
At the vehicle, I leaned my entire weight against it, feeling my body kind of vibrating. Exodus’ heavy footsteps filled my ears, but I couldn’t manage to stand up straight.
“Don’t rest yet. A little longer.”
I lifted my head, having a little bit of breathing issues.
“What does this all mean?” I wanted to know.
“It means somewhere, somehow you created an enemy.” He replied.
“With enough money to hire people to make me think I’m losing my mind—to kidnap me.”
“Are you kidding?” He turned to look at the house, now shrouded by shade as the sun drifted across the sky. “These idiots would have done all that for a view of half a nipple.
“Eww.”
He shrugged. “It’s the way things are, it seems.”
Shaking my head, I let myself into the car.
“In the meantime.” He fell into the seat beside me, grunting. “I have a lead.”
“You do?” I brightened. “What?”
“Some ink.” He replied around a cough.
* * *
The sign above the door read The Mark of Cain.
The dark door was propped open by the body of a very large bouncer as Cher’s voice was demanding to know if we believed in life after love.
A line dragged along the side of the club then wrapped slightly around the back of it. The movement of the line was slow as the same bouncer inspect identification with a flashlight while Ubers and other taxi services zoomed in and out.
“Where are we?” I wanted to know.
“The dark side of the moon.” Exodus told me. “Stay close to me. Keep your head down and let me do all the talking.”
“Um—”
But Exodus didn’t give me much space to speak as he was halfway out of the truck.
“Hey—wait?—”