Kyle ran his fingers through his blonde hair as he watched Jillian sleeping in his bed. It had taken over an hour after they returned from the police station for her to stop crying, and took until nearly midnight before she fell asleep.
He kept him fingers in his hair and leaned back, sighing as the scene from the bathroom ran through his mind again. His gaze went to the small table by the bed, and he leaned over, opened the drawer, and pulled a weapon out. Grabbing a small notepad, he quickly typed out a message for Jillian, then got up and slipped out of the house.
The moon gave him enough light to quickly make his way across the rocky beach as he headed for the cottage near the end; the one that Chalmers had asked about only a couple days earlier. Kyle had called the owner, who told him that a British couple had rented it for the fall. He dismissed it from his mind until he realized that he should have actually checked it out himself.
Within minutes, he was standing in the trees between two cottages, looking at one closely for some hint that would make him approach closer. He moved further back as a car with rental plates pulled in to the driveway, pulling a small trailer filled with various vacation equipment. He could see two shapes inside, and didn’t recognize either as the interior light came on.
Not wanting to be seen snooping around, Kyle melted back into the shadows and was soon making his way back along the beach, partially relieved that he had been wrong in checking.
~~~~~~~
Keren watched silently from the window of the supposedly empty cottage a few feet from where Kyle had been standing. She had set up sensors on the beach to detect anyone coming, and after they had gone off, she waited. Thinking that he had somehow found out her hiding spot, she was ready to kill him, until she realized that his attention was focused on the cottage that she had been watching them from a few nights ago. She knew that if she was ever spotted, then it could be passed off as one of the tourists.
She held her breath as he walked ever so close to where she was, and then continued on to the beach. Deciding it was time to step things up another notch, she pulled out her phone and made a few calls.
~~~~~~~
Kyle stopped as his foot landed on the bottom step of his veranda. He didn't want to go in and sit around doing nothing but think. Thinking always had a way of fucking with his brain when he was feeling like this. The drugs for his aches still made his mind wander, and he tried to stop himself from thinking of certain things, but they came anyway.
He tried to ignore the thought as he finally entered the cottage, grabbed a case from the locked hall closet, and went back to the veranda. Sitting, he took the guitar out and stared. It had been an anniversary present from his wife, and he could feel her close to him when he played it. He just wished he had the will to play it since she died, but he didn't.
He leaned back to stare at the moon reflecting off the bay, his gaze travelling to the cottage near the end a few times, wondering if he had been right to just leave without checking further. An image of Chalmers slammed into him suddenly, and he gasped as he tried to breathe. The one thing he hated most was the feeling that came after he fucked up and sent someone to their death. It would haunt him until he either broke, or punished someone unmercifully.
That was what he liked about the armed services. When this feeling hit him, there were always missions to pull where he could funnel the energy into destroying someone. It had also, unfortunately, earned him that reputation of being unpredictable and unrelenting in getting a mission completed. He only hoped he could find Keren in time so that his energies didn't accidentally erupt at the wrong time.
He slowly reached out to the guitar to pluck a string, grimacing at the twang. Picking it up before he changed his mind, he quickly tuned it, grateful that the task took just enough concentration to keep at bay the images that threatened to take over his tired mind. He doubted he would do much playing since his fingers hadn’t played in over four years. Finished tuning, he exhaled as another method of keeping the images away surfaced, taunting and teasing him to try.
~~~~~~~~
Jillian woke around five in the morning to the sounds of music playing, and it took her a few minutes to realize that it was coming from the veranda. She got up and walked out, surprised to find Kyle sitting on the top step, playing a guitar. His fingers flew across the strings as rapid notes surrounded him.
He had a look of complete concentration on his face, but she recognized anger and pain in his eyes. The music stopped for a second as the song ended and Kyle flex his fingers, then he launched into a Spanish sounding song. His fingers plucked the strings hard, stepping up the beat with each pull. Jillian noticed that the strings would slap back against his fingers, sometimes leaving small white marks that soon vanished. The song stopped mid-way as he flexed his fingers again, and she could see red on the tips.
Kyle tried to find some solace in the music, either through the tunes or the pain that was in his fingers with each note, but it was eluding him. After a four plus year absence, his fingers were not used to the feel of the strings on them, although the knowledge of playing them never seemed to leave.
He plucked harder, determined to numb the emotional pain with physical. He knew that Jillian was sitting slightly behind him, but he wasn't in the mood to look at her. Gritting his teeth, he cursed himself for his selfish attitude. She had a man killed in her office space, killed by someone wanting to send a message. By all rights, he should be comforting her now, but he was too wrapped up in his own pathetic world to want to.
Jill sat, worried as the strumming took on a frenzied pace, and jumped slightly as Kyle stopped and pushed the guitar off his lap. It landed on the ground as he stared into the darkness, flexing his fingers in and out. She recognized blood on the tips, and wondered why he was harming himself.
Kyle clenched and unclenched his hands, trying to hang on to the sanity he could feel slipping. He wanted to blame it on the painkillers that he had been given, since they gave him a feeling like he was running in circles, but he knew they weren't entirely to blame. Although he had been deemed medically sane, there had been moments that made him wonder.
"Fuck!" he screamed, causing Jillian to jump in surprise. He put his head in his hands for a moment, wanting to get the sight of Chalmers out of his vision. Another kid sent to fucking death by me... "Fuck," he whispered. He never got used to that feeling, and he hoped he never would.
He inhaled deeply as he pulled his thoughts in. Save it... save it until Keren is in my sights, then kill the fucking bitch..... He exhaled, letting the emotions temporarily leave.
"I'm okay, Jill," he whispered and glanced over his shoulder at her.
"Do you want to talk?"
"No."
She took his hand, frowning at the blood on his fingers. "Kyle... I wish you would talk to me..."
He thought about it for a few moments, then shrugged. He knew she was hiding behind her professionalism, and he couldn’t begrudge her that. "It's been a long fucking day," he sighed and closed his eyes as the scene resurfaced. "Fuck. I knew how green he was, but I sent him with you anyway, and..." he closed his eyes and put the palm of his left hand over his left eye and pushed in, trying to erase the image. "I keep sending kids to get killed..." His eyes grew wide as realization seemed to slam into him, and he physically jerked slightly as a result.
"What?" Jillian asked, her professionalism taking over.
"Huh?" Kyle shook himself. "I…I don't know," he said in a confused voice. "Just something Keren said about being in Halifax five years ago."
"Oh, no," Jillian whispered as she caught on to his line of thinking.
"It crossed my mind after the call, but I didn't really think about it." He put an arm around her, needing to feel her. "She could just be messing with me but hinting that she was responsible for my…for the accident."
"What if she did?"
"Then there is no place in the universe that she could hid from me." His voice was as cold as she had ever heard, and he had a grim resolve in his eyes.
~~~~~~~~~
"…work from here today," Kyle said into the phone. "Yeah. Three sounds good…if you two could re-follow up on the information that we have so far, that would be great." He listened for a minute. "I’m going to check with a few of the sources that I think I still have, and then copy the information over and have it ready for you at three."
Jillian watched as he continued to touch base with his remaining team members. She turned away and looked out the window, not wanting to listen to something that reminded her of the events of yesterday. Not that she needed anything to help remind her. The events were well etched into her brain. She hadn’t gotten much sleep, and what she had had been filled with dreams that made her wish to be awake. She didn’t feel much like anything at the moment, and wished she could get away from things for a little while to think.
She jumped as Kyle came up behind and put an arm around her.
"Whoa," he said as he removed his arm. "Sorry."
"Me too," she whispered as she took a step away from him and walked out of the cottage.
~~~~~~~~
Senator Plow walked through the monthly ‘Media Luncheon’ at the local governmental building, smiling at the people around her, and basking in the well wishes from those who were glad she was still alive. She knew how to handle each and every one of these people, and did so now with an ease and poise that proved once again that she would be the one that people voted for in the up-coming election.
She glanced up at a crowd across the room, smiling politely as Senator Wellian looked at her. The other Senator returned the rehearsed smile, then effectively ignored her.
"Find me Directeur Bermen," Wellian whispered to an aide, then turned to field a question as the man hurried off to do her bidding. She wanted the Head of the Country’s Security Service at her side during this important Luncheon since it would be a subconscious message to all that he preferred one Senator over the other.
With the assassination a scrub, and the event at the Promenade in three days, she needed all the help she could get.
~~~~~~~
Keren Pelgrew leaned back on the patio of the penthouse suite, breathing in the crisp Atlantic air as she looked out at the city. She hadn’t wanted to leave the cottage and it’s ideal vantage point, but Kyle had come too close to discovering her.
After he had left, she picked back up on her idea of having his team roughed up a bit, and made a few phone calls. Money changed hands, and she soon had some rather large individuals on her non-existent payroll.
~~~~~~~~
Celia and Ceilidh looked around as the wind gently teased their hair. Sighing in annoyance, Ceilidh turned slightly and stopped.
They were standing on the roof of the office building where their team member had been killed, looking for something that might indicated that Keren Pelgrew had been here. It was a long shot, but it was one of the only things they had.
"Cel?"
"Yeah?" Celia looked up from inspecting a fresh scrape on the roof.
Ceilidh pointed in the distance. "I can see part of the promenade from here."
Getting to her feet, the other woman looked. "Interesting." She handed over a small device. "Get some footage of it, along with every possible angle from the roof."
"Why me?"
"Because I’m co-lead on this team, and that makes me in charge up here."
"Yes, ma’am."
Celia sighed at the patronizing humor in her voice. She leaned against the railing that ran along the perimeter of the roof, and looked out. She still couldn’t believe that Chalmers was dead, and even though she had known him for less than a week, she knew she was going to miss him. If this was what it felt like when one of your people were killed, then it was no wonder Kyle Suene seemed jaded at times.
Speaking of which, Celia checked her watch. "Let’s wrap this up. We have to be a the Commander’s pace by three."
~~~~~~~~
He could feel his side pulling where his ribs had been bruised in the explosion, and used that pain to funnel more energy into beating the hell out of the post in front of him. He gave it a rapid succession of punches, then turned for a quick kick, and spotted Jillian walking across the yard to him. She looked unimpressed, which didn't surprise him since she'd been in a bitchy mood all morning.
She hadn't talked to him as he worked on the veranda instead of going to the base, looking through computer information, and completely ignored him as she went for a long walk around the bay. He watched her the entire time, worrying that something would happen to her, stopping only when she called his cell phone and snapped at him to stop watching her.
Kyle punched the post almost savagely as she watched.
"Stop!"
Kyle gave the post a spinning kick, then faced her. "What?"
"Why are you doing this?"
"I'm working out, Jill," he nodded towards the post behind him. "Thought it was kind of obvious." He didn't mean to sound as rude as he had, and smiled a quick apology at her.
"Where's your equipment?" she asked, ignoring his charm. "Gloves..."
"Don't need 'em."
"Why are you trying to hurt yourself?"
He gave her a confused look. "I'm working out so I won't get hurt."
She sighed," never mind," then turned and walked away.
What the fuck? He shrugged, then went back to attacking the helpless post. He got two good shots in before sighing in aggravation, turning, and hurrying after her.1 Jillian stopped as Kyle scurried around and stood in front of her. He ran a hand through his blond hair as he regarded her. She simply stared back.
"Okay... what?" he asked, trying, but not quite, to hid his annoyance.
"Kyle," she sighed, "never mind."
"Nonono," he said. "All morning, I've been getting these side glances from you, and I get the feeling that you're studying me, waiting for me to..." He paused. "I don't know..."
"Why do you hurt yourself?"
"Is-a-wha?" he asked in confusion. "Whoa, wait." he held his hands out in front of himself. "What?"
Jillian sighed. She really didn't want to have this discussion, and wished she hadn't said anything. But, to her, and what she had seen, she knew that something was wrong. "You're a masochist."
He stared at her, not sure what her point was. "You knew that when we started seeing each other."
"I don't mean in bed," she sighed. That part she liked. "I mean lately, you've been..... well... it seems like you're punishing yourself."
Kyle stared at her while a dozen responses lashed through his brain. He saw himself turning and walking away, or getting angry, or slapping her. That thought stooped him, suddenly scared. How he could ever think to hurt her was beyond him. He ran his hands over his face to scrub away tension. He took his hands away, exhaled, and looked into her eyes. "Can we go inside and talk about this?"
~~~~~~~
Jillian started to sit in the chair across from him, but a raise of his eyebrow made her change her mind. She didn't want to give him any reason to think that she was treating him as anything but a lover whom she was concerned about.
He turned to face her, leaned over and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips, then leaned back. "Could you explain, please?"
"You like pain."
"At times," he admitted with a nod. "It has its uses."
"But you seem to be using pain lately to deal with other things."
"Such as?" he asked, more curious than angry. He hadn't noticed any times, beyond intentionally playing the guitar wrong.
"Well...the guitar playing," she said, "and working out without protection, and..."
"Sweetie," he said, "I fully admit to the guitar one." He paused, not wanting to tell her the reasons behind wanting physical pain to overshadow emotional pain. "As for working out... I don't get protection in the real world," he tried to explain. "I need to get used to the pain so that it won't bother me later."
With that line, her eyes widened slightly. She was about to say something when she noticed a smirk on his lips. "What?"
"You have that 'about to say a doctor thing' look on your face," he chided. Kyle sighed. "Look…Yes, sometimes I use it as an escape from something I'd rather not face at the moment...I don't intentionally set out to hurt myself. If it happens, it happens. I'm not going to dwell on it, and start to worry why I'm doing it."
She forced herself to keep her mouth shut as she looked at him. He seemed to have a grasp on things, but she knew that it could be a facade. Although, she'd never really seen anything to show her otherwise in the time she had known him.
~~~~~~
Kyle put an elbow on the table, and placed his head in his hand as he listened to the report. He never even thought to consider that Keren had been on the roof of the building, and was impressed that the other two had.
"Could be a coincidence," he said, not really believing it. "Or, it could be her and another one of her sick games." He glanced to the side as Jillian walked out of the cottage and started towards her car.
She stopped when she reached the car and turned back, surprised that Kyle hadn’t said anything or tried to stop her. She opened the door and paused, waiting.
Kyle watched her out of the corner of his eye, and sighed to himself. He could tell her to stay, and deal with the issues that would cause, or he could not say a thing, and hope that she would be safe. Sighing, he got up and walked over to her.
Jillian turned as she heard him approach from behind. "I have to go into the city," she stated, nearly daring him to say something.
He nodded gently and closed his eyes for a moment. "I know."
"You’re not going to tell me to stay?"
"No." He reached out to take her hand in his.
"Why not?"
He tamped down on the annoyance that threatened to surface. He didn’t have time for her power trip games. "Because if something is going to happen to you, then it’s going to happen. There’s nothing I can do to stop that bitch if she’s determined to do some damage. All I can hope for is that nothing will happen to you."
Well, that was romantic, she thought sarcastically. "I really have errands to do."
"I know." He leaned forward to give her a kiss, then turned and walked back to his team–mates.
"Now what?" Celia asked as the car drove away.
"I want to take another look at the promenade setup, and a map of the area," he replied, forcing himself to not turn around to watch Jillian leave. He couldn’t keep her locked up in the cottage, and knew that if Keren wanted to kill her, then there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to stop her. He leaned back against the railing. "The office building is a bit too far away for standard issue…" he trailed off as he thought of something.
"Commander?"
"Uh…straight line, how far is the office building from where the podium will be?" He stared at some unseen spot high up on the wall. He listened to the reply and nodded. "A Mark Three-Fifteen-Ell snipers rifle could handle that distance with ease." He pulled his gaze away. "And has the bonus of not containing a single metal part."
"Lovely."
~~~~~~
Kyle walked to the window and peeked out when he heard a car approach, then quickly moved so that he couldn’t be seen. He grabbed a book and sat on the couch to read. He opened the book, blinked, then turned it over so that it was right side up.
The door to the cottage opened, revealing Jillian as she carried about ten shopping bags in each hand. Kyle looked up, made a point of putting his book down, and stood. "Need a hand?"
Jillian put the bags on the counter near the door. "The rest are in the car."
"Rest?" He walked over and gave her a kiss. "I’ll grab them for you."
"Thank you." She watched as he walked out, and wondered why he was being so…calm. Had she been him, she would have spent the afternoon pacing back and forth, worrying about her.
"I think you cleaned out the downtown Halifax," Kyle said as he entered loaded down with shopping bags.
"What’s going on?"
"Pardon?" he asked as he added the bags to the pile on the counter.
Sighing, she glanced away. "Never mind."
Kyle stared at her openly. "Jill…" he stopped, not wanted to get into an argument. "I’m going to go work out for a bit…"
"Okay," she whispered, smiling as he stopped to grab his gloves.
~~~~~~~~~~
Kyle was still awake at four in the morning, staring into the darkness as Jillian slept beside him. His mind kept drifting back to the conversation earlier after he worked out without benefit of protection. He kept turning their words through his mind, not sure what to make of them. He knew that he liked pain. He needed it at times to prove to himself that he was still alive. Although, the guitar had gone farther than he usually went. He never intentionally hurt himself, instead usually he would push himself enough to cause strains, and the occasional bruise. To cause bleeding was something that he surprised himself with, and disturbed himself by.
He looked to the side as a light flickered through the window, indicating that someone was driving to his cottage. He slipped out of bed as he heard a vehicle, and quickly got dressed as a door was gently closed. He grabbed a weapon as he put a hand over Jillian's mouth.
"What?" she asked, jumping.
"Someone's here," he whispered as he handed her his robe. "Go in the closet, and stay there" he motioned with his head, and then gave her scared features a kiss. "Don't come out until I tell you to. " He handed her a spare weapon. "Shoot them if it's not me, or one of the 'kids'."
"Kyle..."
"Jill.... go...now...please." He got off the bed, glancing as she scurried to the closet and closed the door, then he grabbed her clothes and shoved them under the blankets as he pulled them up slightly. Not wanting it to look like anyone else was there, he put the pillow together. A creak sounded on the veranda, causing him to whip his head around and he quietly slipped out of his bedroom and into the living room.
He hid in the shadows as the doorknob started to move, and grabbed his cell phone off the counter, dialed 9-1-1, waited until someone answered, then muted the volume, and put the phone behind the counter out of view. With luck, it would only take a few minutes for the police to arrive. Without luck, he'd be dead in those few minutes.
He inhaled quietly as the predatorily instincts started to surface again and he felt the same as he did when in the armed services. He didn't even flinch when the door was kicked in, and two people entered.
He let them get in, and they didn't look as they walked right past where he was standing. He was about to move when a third person entered, and he grimaced in annoyance. Two he could handle...three was stretching it. He was too old for a drawn out fight, so he'd have to kill them quickly.
"Check all the rooms," one person said. "If he's here, kill him."
They spread out and Kyle hoped that Jillian would stay very still and very quiet. Two of the men went to different parts of the house, while one walked right past him. Without making a sound, he reached out, put a hand over his mouth, and an arm on his next, and twisted sharply. He held the body as it started to slide, and quietly lowered the dead body into the shadows.
~~~~~~~~~
Jillian tried not to call out as he heard someone enter the bedroom. She had heard a noise in the main area, and squished herself further back in the closet. She hid behind a few long suit bags, thankful for their length, and she didn't think she could be seen. She kept the gun trained on the door, but her finger off the trigger.
The door opened, and she bit her hand to keep from yelling. A head stuck in, then pulled out and the door closed. She didn't allow herself to relax in relief, and remained where she stood, gun pointed at door.
~~~~~~~~~
"Where is he?" a man said... two of them stood in the living room.
"Where's Rick?" They both looked around. Sirens could be heard, and turned for the door. They stopped at the sight of Kyle standing by the door. He slowly closed it, as he looked at him.
"Who are you?" he demanded as he pointed his weapon at them.
One of the men made a move to raise his weapon, and without even blinking, Kyle pulled the trigger on his. The man fell back over a chair and landed on the coffee table, breaking it beneath his weight.
The other man raised his hands slightly. "Take it easy..."
"Fuck you," Kyle said calmly. "Who are you?" He could hear the sirens coming closer. Not bad, he thought, less than three minutes.
"We're just hired to do a job, man."
"How much Keren paying you?"
"Obviously not enough."
Kyle tried to hide the smile at the admission of Keren hiring them. "Anything you want to say?"
"Not to you."
Kyle kept his gun on the man, reached beside him to his wallet on the small table by the door, opened the door and held his wallet, Military ID showing out the door. A police car sped up, and an officer jumped out.
"I live here," Kyle announced, officially and calmly. "I am holding my ID at the door. I have a weapon in the other hand, trained on an individual who broke into my house and tried to kill me. There are two more individuals here, both dead."
"Put your weapon away, sir" the officer said.
Kyle waited until he saw the officer in the door, then lowered his weapon.
"I'll take it from here."
For a moment, Kyle thought he was talking to him, until he noticed more sirens in the distance getting closer. He looked, slightly confused as the police pointed his weapon at him.
"Aw, fuck."
~~~~~~~
Jillian slowly opened the closet door when she heard the police siren stop outside, and slowly crept out, relieved to see lights spinning. She was ready to go in to the main are when she heard Kyle say 'Aw, fuck,' followed by "Give me the gun, Commander, or I'll kill you."
Jillian stopped... that can't be right.... She peeked out the door, shocked to see a man take the gun from Kyle as the police officer watched. Then , she realized she heard sirens coming. The police that was here now was obviously a fake. She bit her lip as the man who took Kyle's gun punched him in the stomach, then kneed him in the face when he doubled over. Kyle slumped to the floor, coughing and gasping as he tried to get back to his feet.
Kyle tried to block another kick as he was on the ground, and only succeeded in getting kicked three more times for his troubles. He stared at the blood pooling on the floor below him, and wondered why Jillian though that he enjoyed pain. He was in a hell of a lot of it at the moment, and he found it not the least bit pleasing. In fact, it was immensely pissing him off. He noticed his bedroom door open slightly, and prayed that it was just his imagination. If she came out, she would be dead, and he couldn't let that happen.
He grabbed the foot as it went to kick him in the face again, and pulled down, bringing the man to the floor. The police officer tried to pull them apart, not wanting to risk shooting in case it hit the wrong person, and ended up with a kick to the chest that sent him stumbling out the door. Kyle took that moment to completely let loose, and grabbed the man by the head, smashing it against the floor as hard as he could before whirling to confront the mock officer. He stopped, blood dripping down his face as the officers gun was trained on him.
Jillian watched as Kyle raised his hands in defeat, and didn't even think as she pulled the door open and stepped out. She raised the gun Kyle gave her and fired.
Kyle heard the bedroom door open, and saw the surprise in the officer's eyes, then dove to the side at the same time the gun fired behind him. He felt it go by his left hip, then he was on the floor. Jumping to his feet, he went to the officer who was slumped against he wall, and hole in his shoulder. He took the gun out of the man's hand as he stared at him in pain.
Kyle whirled on Jillian to make sure she was okay, then kept spinning back to the officer. He looked up as two more men came running up the walk, and raised the gun to stop them.
"Police," one yelled his gun out. "Put the gun down!"
"Badges!" Kyle ordered. "Let's see them."
"Sir, put the gun down."
Kyle felt like he was in some bad movie, or a nightmare. "I am Kyle Suene, Commandeer with the CAA. This man," he motioned to the officer on the floor, "claimed to be responding to my 9-1-1, and then tried to kill me." He swallowed. "So let's see those badges, now, or you can go to fucking hell."
The officers looked at each other, and slowly took their badges out. "Detective Franks," one said, then nodded to the partner, "Detective Luceno." Kyle noticed his wallet on the floor and kicked it out the door. The officer picked it up.
"Put the weapon down, Commander," he said calmly. "We're the real deal."
Kyle held one hand up and he crouched down to put the weapon on the floor. "Put the weapon down, Jill," he called out, then looked at the police. "My girlfriend is in the house." He heard Jillian putting the gun on the floor, then heard her sit. It sounded like a good idea, and he lowered himself to the floor. "Don't suppose and ambulance is on the way?"2
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