Page 18 of Dirty Daria
I take a deep breath again, because what I will tell him next is a decision I made, a bad one, that will haunt me for the rest of my life.
“But I made a mistake. A big one. Instead of doing anything right then, instead of rescuing my sister from the man, I waited and followed them. Back to a home in a regular neighborhood. And for two days, I watched the place not taking a break to sleep or eat.”
“My god, Daria.”
I wave my hand at him dismissively, not pausing to tell him how easy that was.
“Then I left to get weapons and ammunition, returning within a few hours. Ready to kill all the men and free my sister. But I was too late. Not with the men, I killed them all. Every last one of those assholes. But by the time I reached the room where my sister was being held, she was dead.”
I start to cry now openly. Not caring that we are in public, or that anyone can see me, or even that Mack is witnessing my emotions. Katya deserves so much more than just my embarrassment over showing weakness. She deserves to be alive. And she never will be again because I was stupid.
I blow my nose in the cloth napkin provided by the restaurant, feeling only mildly ashamed for whoever will have to touch it next. Then pat at my face to dry my tears.
Squaring my shoulders, I continue, “She’d overdosed. The needle still stuck in her arm as though she was mid-shot. Her body was still warm, but I was too late to save her.”
Mack sighs and sits back in his seat, knowing not to touch me, but also not knowing what else to do. I finish the rest of my cocktail before resuming my tale.
“I set the rest of the women free—seven aside from my sister. Not knowing what else to do for them. Not having a plan. It was a small operation, only four men. Easy enough for me to do on my own. Now, most times I have one of my girls with me. And we have set up multiple safe houses where we help the women either to be well enough to return to family or to rehabilitate or both. Whatever they need. Because I won’t let what happened to Katya happen to anyone else.”
“You did this all by yourself? How did I not know?” Mack asks.
“You were gone,” I tell him. “A longer trip, a few weeks I think.”
“What about your family, why didn’t they come?”
I laugh at that. “Remember how I said that my family is not exactly ‘above board’ with what they do?”
Mack nods.
“Well, had I told my father at any time before that, he would have sent an army to come and rain fire down on the city. Which would have resulted in a war—most likely against Ronan Sinclair—from which I do not believe my father would emerge a victor. So I waited until I took my vengeance and somehow convinced my father that it was too late for him to do anything.
“However, I don’t believe the men I killed that day were responsible for Katya, I think they were just, how do you say, caught in the cross fires?”
Mack nods.
“So, my father and I agreed that I would stay here and continue to hunt the men responsible. But to get to them, I must continue to take out the little guys. I’m waiting for the one who will lead me to the man in charge. Until then, I continue to kill.”
Mack looks shell shocked. Not that I blame him. But the look on his face is nothing compared to what I feel after his next sentence.
“Beautiful, I hate to tell you this, but I’m an agent with the criminal investigative sector of the FBI.”
10
Reed – Present Day
It’s been two days since I’ve seen Mack or David. But now I’m on my way to meet up with Mack so that we can tail David, making today the first time I’ll see them both since the engagement party. While seeing Mack won’t bother me much, it will be all I can do to control myself around David and not beat the shit out of him again.
I’ve let David know that we plan to surveil as well as plant a listening device on his person so that we know everything that is going on. We have a few guys who will be stationed around the restaurant and others on the street nearby. Additional eyes and back up if we need it.
I pull into the lot where I’m meeting Mack just in time to see him punch the side of the SUV, leaving a dent in the driver’s side door.
“Everything okay?” I ask as I exit my vehicle.
“No.”
I wait for him to continue. One thing I’ve learned from working so long with Mack is that he wants to communicate, it just has to be on his terms. So if he’s pissed and you push him, he’ll clam up. But at the risk of sounding trite for using an idiom, if you give him a little breathing room he’ll sing like a canary.
Sure enough . . .
