18. Alisha “Kitty” Quinn
ALISHA “KITTY” QUINN
Yang was standing at the front window, watching the street. Sam had accepted one of the chairs, but we all declined something to drink. As I sat across from her, Exodus took a spot behind me, and I knew this was my show now.
“Your son doesn’t need to hear any of this.” I told her. “Maybe take him to his room.”
Meredith ushered her son to his room with some cookies and milk before retaking her seat.
“Moses is my father.” I explained.
“That can’t be right.” She shook her head. “On our first date, I asked him about children from other relationships. He said he didn’t have anything.”
“What a surprise! He’s a man and men lie.”
She looked sick to her stomach.
Sighing, I told her the entire story of my life with that man. The gambling, the abuse to my mother, the abandonment, him trying to kill me.
“I don’t know why he wants me dead.” I pointed out.
“Maybe he was afraid I’d come after his perfect family.
The thing is, before some guy try grabbing me at a restaurant, I’d pretty much forgotten about Moses.
He hurt my mother and I can’t forgive that.
If he’d stayed away from me, I wouldn’t have known about you and your son. ”
Meredith blinked.
“And honestly, I don’t care.” I continued. “I’d wanted nothing to do with him. But he wanted my attention and now he’s got it.”
“What are you planning?”
“I’m going to wait until he gets home.” I leaned back in my chair. “And we’re going to have a nice little reunion. What happens with that is all up to daddy dearest.”
The evening grew darker faster so close to winter. And by the time Moses pulled into the driveway, Meredith had already put little Michael to bed. She’d been seething all night, just waiting.
“Mere, I’m home.” Moses called from the door.
His footsteps carried in along the hall, pass where Exodus and Yang were hiding then into the living room to find Meredith, Sam and myself.
He jerked back a step.
“Who are you?” He demanded.
“Remove the gun on your right hip and set it on the table.” Sam spoke softly, calmly.
“What gun?” Moses asked.
Sam sighed.
“He wants to do this the hard way, I see.” Sam muttered.
Exodus and Yang approached Moses from behind. Yang grabbed him by the back of the neck and shoved him hard into the doorframe.
In the meantime, Exodus removed one gun from Moses’ hip, another from a holster at his ankle and a knife from a holster on his back. Yang then shoved Moses forward and into one of the empty chairs.
“Hello, dad.” I greeted him, bitterly. “I know you remember me because I look exactly like my mother.”
Moses glanced over at Meredith.
I slammed my palm into the table.
“Hey!” I yelled. “Don’t look at her. She has nothing to do with any of this. You’ll be dealing with her wrath later. Let’s have a talk.”
“You call this talking?” Moses finally grew some balls. “Bringing men to my home to shake me down.”
“I can leave—but the cops will take my place. If you’d rather deal with them.”
He clamped his mouth shut.
“You walked out on my mother and didn’t even look back.” I began. “Now, imagine my surprise when I find out that all the bad luck I’ve been having lately had something to do with you. You want to tell me why after twenty odd years, you’re fucking with me?”
Moses said nothing.
“It couldn’t be because you’re afraid my mother would come after you for child support.” I continued. “For one, she’s dead and two I’ve aged out of that system eons ago. So, let me ask you this, what do you want?”
When he still said nothing, I picked up one of the guns they’d taken from him and placed it on the table in front of me. Meredith gasped and eased away, slightly.
“No?” I asked. “Okay.”
I walked into the kitchen and picked up the largest knife I could find, then sat with them again.
“Meredith is right.” I shrugged. “Getting blood on her floor would cause a major headache.”
“Especially getting it out of the crevices.” Meredith folded her arms across her head and lifted her chin in defiance.
“Let’s play a game. For every question I ask you that you refuse to answer, I’ll chop off a finger.” I shrugged. “Deal? Deal—let’s try this. Why are you trying to kill me?”
“You’re bluffing.” He laughed.
I hefted the knife high above my head and brought it down hard. I got a piece of his right middle finger.
“Fuck!” Moses screamed as his finger bled.
“Well, damn.” I groaned. “My aim was a little high.”
Exodus tilted his head. “Maybe a little to the left.”
“What?” My father sobbed.
“Why are you trying to kill me!” I shouted.
“You’re crazy!” Moses began favouring his arm.
I slashed at him again, this time down one arm before the tip of the knife wedged itself into his thigh.
“Isn’t this a fun game?” I demanded. “I’m having fun!”
When he tried running from the chair, Exodus caught him by the back of the neck and plopped him back to his chair.
“The lady asked you a question.” Yang growled.
Sam and Meredith were too shocked to speak—they were both watching with their mouths agape, eyes wide.
“The order wasn’t to kill you!” Moses blurted out while trying to stop his finger from bleeding.
“What were their orders?” Sam pulled it together to ask.
“They were only supposed to grab you.” Moses replied. “We need your blood.”
The room went quiet.
It was the kind of quiet that came with blowing tumbleweed.
The kind that meant death.
“My blood?” I asked after glancing over at Exodus then back to Moses. “What’s my blood got to do with anything.”
“You have rhnull blood.” Moses stammered. “I needed you to?—”
Moses once again looked over to Meredith.
I impatiently tapped the knife at on the table.
“What’d I say about looking at her?” I demanded.
“Your blood type is rare.” Exodus picked up. “You may be the only person in this province with that blood-type—hell, the whole country for that matter.”
“It’s called the golden blood.” Yang picked up. “There’s only about fifty confirmed cases in the world.”
I blinked.
“It’s for my kid.” Moses admitted.
“Michael is fine.” Meredith pointed out. “What are you talking about?”
Moses hung his head. His finger had stopped squirting, but it was still trickling a little.
“I take it you didn’t know.”
“No!” Meredith growled. “I didn’t even know about you!”
I laughed. “This slut has another kid—how many of us are there?”
“You mean you were with someone else?” Meredith asked. “Who?”
“Not now.” Sam growled. “So, you had one kid who you abandoned and if that doesn’t make you a shit human already, you have another with a wife then cheats on her and have another kid—someone should neuter you.”
“Don’t judge me!” Moses snapped.
“Judging you?” I shook my head. “That’s the least of your problems.”
“Then, instead of asking your daughter for help,” Meredith said. “You decided that you were going to, what? Kidnap her and make her? Who the fuck did I marry?”
“You’re going to call off this hit you have on Alisha.” Exodus told him. “Or you and I are going to get real familiar.”
“My kid?—”
“You think this is a suggestion?” Yang wanted to know.
“I don’t care what happens to your child.” I fought to hold back my tears.
The colour drained from his face.
“Isn’t it funny?” I asked. “Asking the kid you hate to save the kid you love?”
“I thought you were better than me!” Moses tried again.
“I am—better than you, that is.” I spat. “A life for a life—don’t you think that’s fair? You made my mother work herself into an early grave—I tried helping her, you know? The second I was old enough…it wasn’t enough.”
He said nothing.
“I had to watch her die.” I paused to let that sink in for him. “Now you get to experience the joy of that.”
“Baby…” Exxodus’ voice was soft, unsure.
“After everything I’ve gone through with you, after all the things you’ve done to me and my mother.” I paused to stop the tears that welled in my eyes. “All the things you’ve done to Michael—this is your karma.”
“Don’t be like this!” Moses pleaded. “She just needs a little blood for?—”
“If you’d come to me and ask like a regular person, I would have been pissed at you, but I would have been more inclined to help. Now—you’re on your own.”
“I’m your father!” He screeched.
“No!” I snapped. “You’re just the mother-fucker who killed my mother!”
“What do you want us to do with him?” Sam asked.
Turning, I looked at Meredith.
“You need some time to get you and your kid out of here?” I wanted to know. “Or are you going to forgive him?”
“Do whatever you want with him.” Meredith stood. “I’m going to go make sure Mickey didn’t wake up through all of this. I’ll stay in his room until you all leave. Then I’ll figure things out.”
Moses lunged at her, but Yang stopped him.
“Now, now, Moses.” Yang cooed. “Putting your hands on a woman—we don’t do that here.”
“You can’t do that!” Moses screamed while struggling against the Twins’ hold. “That’s my kid! I own you! You hear me! I own you!”
Meredith slapped Moses across the face once then twice—hard.
“I’d give up on relationship, put the thought of having kids to bed.” Meredith pushed. “But because of you, I changed my mind and decided to marry you. This is what you think of me and our family.”
“Meredith, I swear to God?—”
“If I see you again.” Meredith hissed. “They’ll be picking up your body parts all over this fucking city. Don’t test me!”
Moses’ eyes went from anger, to shock to fear.
“I swear to God—” He began again.
“Can you shut him up?” I asked Yang.
I wasn’t sure what Yang did at Moses’ neck, but the grown man went unconscious.
Yang smirked.
I pointed an accusatory finger at him.
“You said to shut him up?” Yang shrugged a massive shoulder. “You didn’t say how.”
In the end, we tossed Moses into the backseat of Exodus’ truck and thanks to Bambam, we found a place to hold him until I could figure out what I wanted to do with him. Tha’lab wasn’t one hundred percent okay with that plan.
She pressed her lips into a thin line, patted my shoulder and walked back to her car.
“If my blood was so rare, what are the chances that two siblings will have it?” I finally asked as we drove through the downtown core.