Renee 3 Page 4

  Dane dropped the phone, and it landed beside Fergus’s lifeless body. Before making her exit, she slowly walked around the space, admiring her place of doom one last time. Many lives ended here, and the thoughts alone soothed her soul.

  Stepping outside the city’s eyesore, she gave it one last look. A weak smile made an appearance.

  “Blow it up!” she hollered. The wind carried her voice into the ears of her husband.

  Dane jumped inside her car, sank her head into the headrest, and closed her eyes. Life was getting to her, and she needed to regroup. Minutes later, there was a loud explosion, and the smell of smoke raided her nostrils. This was war, and her first attack was leaving Calloway without his brother and no body to bury.

  Chapter 4

  Debris and ash were the only remains from the fire. New Jersey’s eyesore was now nonexistent and had left a gap in the middle of the state. Its disappearance brought Dane’s words to life and confirmed his brother’s death. Never would the house fall unless a point was being made. This symbolized the end of an era and a business relationship made in heaven. Calloway kept a secret he should have told Dane, a secret that, when revealed, she could not overlook. His eyes bugged out and his body shook. He wanted to turn over burned wood and kick aside garbage in search of his twin, but his legs wouldn’t budge.

  The news had already informed American viewers that the only human remains discovered at the site were teeth and toes. Dane was toying with him. She had left evidence behind that Fergus had died in that very place, but she made the whereabouts of his corpse forever a mystery. Allowing Calloway to bury his brother would have been too nice, so she left him with nothing but a hole in the middle of dirt for Calloway to find comfort in.

  Looking at the destruction in awe, Calloway mumbled frivolous things until finally forming a comprehensive sentence.

  “She really did it. She really did it,” he repeated.

  Maneuvering his head from left to right, Calloway couldn’t believe what Dane had done. In the pit of his soul, he knew she killed Fergus, but still, he held on to denial. After working all those years under Dane, he had believed that he and his brother were exempt from her wrath. The guidance she supplied them was a barrier he assumed not even she could puncture.

  “She really did it.”

  The echo of footsteps kicking through rubble blared in Calloway’s ears and sent him into a deep, dark place he only visited when devastated with pain.

  “What else did he say to you?” Calloway growled. He turned his face to the side just enough for him to see cream-colored boots plunged in the snow.

  “I told you,” the voice replied with annoyance and aggression festering in every word.

  “Tell me again!” Calloway yelled. Not only was he hurt, but he was disgusted that, for the first time in life, he needed someone other than his brother. However, the person he needed to help take down Dane mirrored his own life, and that was a problem. They were too similar, and what irked him to the bone was, instead of this man fearing Calloway, he understood him.

  Silence swept over the cold and gloomy New Jersey. Breathing quickly in and out, Calloway fought to repeat himself. “Just tell me what he said.”

  After minutes of brutal silence, his new partner finally spoke. “He told me Dane knew and that if I didn’t hear from you or him within forty-eight hours, to kill them all.”

  “Now, why the fuck would he think you would listen to him? Were you two fuckin’ or something?”

  Calloway knew the answer to his question but needed to throw swords at whoever was around. He was upset with Fergus’s heart placing them in this situation and wished it died right along with his own, so for the time being, he needed a punching bag.

  “You’re funny, but you know what would be funnier? Killing you where I’m sure she gutted Fergus.”

  Five feet from where Calloway stood, his new partner in crime slammed his foot repeatedly in the ground, creating a miniature ditch. “I bet it happened right here. Come join him, Calloway,” he urged.

  Patience evaporated into the air, and snowflakes the size of cotton balls descended to earth. With cheeks beaming red and the bottom of his slacks stained with snow, Calloway rushed forward, the clutter on the ground slightly slowing him down. He flung his arms out in front of him, his hands landing inches from the disrespectful man’s neck. However, before his hands could wrap around his neck and cut off his air supply, he froze in place. His feet pushed up dirt while he stared down the barrel of a .45.

  “One day you’ll get your chance to try to kill me, but not today. Today we’ll help each other take out Dane and everyone else in Renee’s circle. That way, you get your revenge, and Renee will have no choice but to take me back once she’s alone. Stick to the plan.”

  Jared aimed the gun directly at the middle of Calloway’s temple. If it weren’t for Fergus warning him that Renee knew he was still alive, he would have died the night Tina spilled the beans. Like a cat with nine lives, he had escaped death once again and, in the process, promised himself he wouldn’t leave this earth until Renee was his. Jared still intended to capture her love and had planned to leave her with nothing in order for him to be her everything. The love he had for Renee had grown, and there was no indication that it would ever deflate.

  Calloway slapped the gun out of his face. “It makes no sense that Fergus would contact you and not me,” Calloway said. “He only texted me to say he’ll be going out of town to handle some business with Dane.” Calloway threw his hands behind his head, confusion surging through his veins.

  “That’s because he didn’t have time to contact you. He probably sent me the text seconds before being kidnapped. She knows how you two operate, so she sent that text to you as a way of holding you off. It’s a form of insurance so she could do whatever she wanted without you intervening.”

  Calloway slammed his arms down at his sides. “Then why not kill me too? Why not do it all at once?” Calloway should have known the answers to the questions rushing through his mind, but the stress and emotions filling his veins took away all knowledge of his mentor.

  “Because you’re the grand finale,” Jared enlightened him.

  “No, Renee’s bitch of a sister Carmen is, not me!” Calloway declared, his index finger inches from Jared’s face. His hand closed into a fist. He punched against his own chest. “Dane went crazy ever since that cunt killed her sister. She would still be in her right mind, and my brother would be alive if it weren’t for her!”

  Life was breaking Calloway down. He still searched for logical reasoning for Dane’s actions, but he came up short. He crumbled inside over their broken friendship.

  “I want her head. I want her gone,” Calloway emphasized. Drool slithered out of the corners of his mouth. Like a savage, he craved the blood of Carmen—the culprit behind everyone’s downfall.

  “You said you wanted help with Dane. I agreed to help you with her and only her,” Jared reminded him.

  “Now agree to help with Carmen. Like Fergus told you, you owe us. Besides, if you do this, it will only make you look good in Renee’s eyes. Carmen is a snake in need of skinning,” he said, seething.

  Staring at Calloway, Jared allowed his words to sink in and marinate. Carmen was a snake, a wannabe out for Renee’s crown. Jared never did like her, and being reminded of Reagan’s death only made the situation more intriguing. Carmen’s demise would be the icing on the cake and the icebreaker for his and Renee’s love.

  “When will we take out Dane?” Jared asked.

  “Soon, but first, we cut out the cancer.”

  Chapter 5

  Rain tap-danced on the windowsills and seeped through the open kitchen window. Water trickled on the ceramic tiles and surged together to make one big puddle. He listened to the tranquil sounds of nature and welcomed their peace, but his mind was still in disarray. The clock in his head counted down the minutes to his mental breakdown. Suddenly, a monstrous laugh escaped from his chest and punched through his lips,
the intensity of its sound matching the first bolt of lightning entering the sky.

  “You’re shittin’ me, right? Tell me you’re lying,” Julian said. The laughter continued, all while shortness of breath kicked in.

  Sitting in her chair sideways, Dane crossed her arms, and her face twisted upward. “Does it look like I’m joking?” she asked.

  Dane’s voice took on a tone of its own and clawed its way into Julian’s eardrums. However, Julian ignored her coldness. “You have to be joking, because you did not just tell me that Renee now has nothing!” Julian screamed. His voice jumped high, and his fist banged low against the table.

  Through her shades, Dane took in his act of aggression. “Bang again. I don’t think your neighbors heard,” she sarcastically replied.

  “You’re telling me Renee has nothing. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

  Julian respected Dane. She and Metro had been in his and Renee’s lives for many moons and turned them into millionaires. Yet buried somewhere deep inside, he always resented her for having a hand in the monster Renee had become. Money was nice, but the callous creature inside of Renee that Dane nurtured wasn’t worth it. And now that Renee had reached her peak, Dane was letting her go and allowing her to roam freely around the city with no leash.

  “It won’t be forever. Just until she learns to kill those emotions of hers and remember what’s important.”

  Dane looked over his place. It was a two-family Long Island home. A home Dane had a feeling belonged to Julian months before Renee kicked him out. Every necessity was available the second he moved in. Everything appeared well kept and had “home” written all over it.

  “You’re pushing her. You think you’re teaching her a lesson, but really the tables will turn and blow up in your face. Don’t test her,” Julian warned. His words were sincere yet alarming. There was no one who knew Renee better than him, so if Dane had any sense, she would push her stubbornness to the side and listen.

  “Nothing that I can’t handle will happen. She’ll come back once it’s offered to her.”

  “How can you be so sure?” Julian challenged. “Can you really guarantee that after I broke her heart and you kicked her while she was down, she’ll even want that type of life back? She’ll want your friendship back?”

  Behind the dark shades, Dane looked Julian in the eye and sat speechless, open to now acknowledging a newly created fear within her. After the death of Reagan, she was afraid of losing someone else close to her, and as a result of that fear, Dane gave Metro hell about clipping Renee’s wings until he eventually agreed to let Renee back into her position after time had passed. Never had it crossed her mind that Renee would not want to come back.

  Tight jawed, self-assured, and partly in denial, Dane replied by saying, “That won’t happen.”

  Again, Julian laughed. “Dane, would you come back?”

  His valid points and wall-cornering questions were enough to make Dane want to calm her nerves and pop a Valium. Her lack of response answered his questions and forced him to push out another.

  “Since you can’t answer that, then tell me this: what did she have to say about the note?”

  Dane turned away. She had been defeated by his questions and needed to retreat so that she could go home and lick her wounds. “I didn’t tell her.”

  Julian’s body stiffened, and the color in his face disappeared. On that day, Dane was the bearer of bad news. There was nothing she had said during their meeting that was helpful.

  “The timing was never right,” was the only explanation she gave.

  Julian had gone weeks without drinking. He needed a clear mind to figure out how he would get Renee back. However, the more he thought about fixing their relationship and repairing what was broken, the more he wondered if it was worth it. Being in a relationship with Renee wasn’t easy, and whenever things seemed to look up, they fell apart right before his eyes. Renee didn’t understand his feelings or where his faults came from, nor did she try to. So when she kicked him out the night she discovered he had slept with Carmen, Julian had a lot of time to rethink the relationship. Some days seemed dark and unbearable without her, and Julian felt himself suffocating a handful more with every morning he woke up. It had been those feelings that convinced him that their love was worth salvaging.

  After hearing that Renee knew nothing about the letter Carmen had left behind before she retreated to Miami, the letter meant to inform Renee of the additional half-sister she knew nothing about her father creating, the burning liquid started to call him. There was too much going on too soon, and Julian would be a fool if he didn’t succumb to liquor. He stood from the table and grabbed a bottle of scotch from the cabinet. He unscrewed the top, tossed it on the counter, and drank straight from the bottle. After three gulps of the warm brown, he sat back in his seat and slid the liquid over to Dane.

  Dane had dropped the ball. She now realized she’d thrown Renee out and into a world where they didn’t know whether Renee’s mystery sister was friend or foe. Had this “sister,” if she was real, been anything like Carmen, Renee would be unaware of this problem simply because Dane had failed to inform her. She grabbed the bottle without hesitation and finished it. She slammed the glass bottle down, its cracked sides threatening to pop.

  “I’ll tell her that when we went back to the house, we found the note Carmen had written.”

  Julian nodded, acknowledging everything Dane had said. Minutes turned to hours, and before Julian and Dane realized it, they were both laid out in the living room, drunk and rambling random things. Each was going through hard times and fought not to self-destruct, but it seemed like the more they fought, the harder things got.

  “There was nothing I could do to get her to even talk to you. Nothing matters to her but what you’ve done,” Dane slurred. On the floor, she spoke to Julian while looking up at the ceiling, unable to focus entirely. “You’ve fucked up.”

  Devastated and lost in a world of intoxication, Julian thought about his mistake and the damage he had caused. His days were dark, and his heart was wrenching without Renee. Memories and pain ate away at his soul. It was a constantly recurring feeling, causing him to want her back. Taking a deep breath, now sure of his next move, Julian forced himself up from the couch.

  “I want her back,” he announced.

  Dane wasn’t listening. She was lost in her own whirlwind of problems. She paid him no mind until she heard him say, “Give me her address. I need to see her.”

  Chapter 6

  People exited the double doors in a cheerful and entertained mood. Laughter was good for the soul, and it left tonight’s audiences’ faces hurting and in good spirits. Renee and Prue left the comedy club snickering while wiping the tears their laughter brought out. It was the second night that week the ladies had gone out together, and so far, all was well. Being normal looked good on Renee and kept her calm. However, there were times when her mind drifted off and reminded her she had revenge to obtain.

  “How’s the family?” Renee blurted out. The question came out rushed and shaky. Renee had no idea how to strike up a conversation with someone new. Her social interactions had been limited to her inner circle. For new people she had to converse with, once upon a time, she’d investigate and learn all there was to know about the individual. Living a dirty life required strategic planning, a skillset she’d lost once Julian broke her heart. Shortly after those secrets had come to light, Renee threw away her years of training and didn’t bother researching her new neighbors.

  Nothing mattered anymore except the mourning she was forced into. Julian had broken her, and with those shattered pieces came laziness. Now that she sat in her new position in life, she wished she’d done the work and brought fragments of her old life with her. There was nothing more awkward than conversations with strangers. She was now expected to socialize, and if there was one thing she didn’t like at all, it was communicating with others. She preferred to be antisocial. There was comfort obtained when livi
ng in your own world, unbothered by the thoughts and voices of humans.

  “Everyone’s good. Roy’s visiting family, so I’m looking forward to his return.”

  The women turned a corner, their destination the parking lot.

  “So, you hired a babysitter for your children?”

  Prue’s eyebrow rose. “Girl, my kids are grown. As much as I do believe they sometimes need a sitter every now and then to keep them from the foolishness they’re into, I have to accept that they are old enough to take care of themselves.”

  Confused, Renee’s mind shifted back to the little ones who had greeted Prue and Roy at the door. “Those kids at your house looked around eight or nine years old.”

  Prue smiled, the confusion now clarified. “Kyra and Davis are my grandkids. They’re my son’s children. I had them over for Christmas this year.”

  Renee nodded her head. “So how many kids do you have?” Renee found it easier to communicate by asking questions. It seemed to make the conversation flow and stay away from her.

  “My son is twenty-two, and my daughter is twenty-eight,” Prue answered proudly.

  “You must be a good grandmother, because I can count on my fingers the number of times my grandparents spent the holidays with me.” Renee hadn’t planned on disclosing any information about herself that night, but just like that, something spilled out.

  For the first time in a long time, Renee’s mother, Janet, came to mind. Janet’s parents were not active in Renee’s life. Her grandparents on her father’s side saw Renee as much as Janet allowed, but that ended completely when Renee’s father, Daniel, passed.

  “I love my grandbabies. I can’t imagine not being around them for the holidays. It just pissed me off that this year my son had to go out of town. All they wanted was a white Christmas with their father, and he’s still not home. The kids are with their mother now.”

  Prue became quiet. Her thoughts were focused on her kids and the fact that they were going nowhere fast. She zoned out, her eyes concentrating on what was in front of her. Renee allowed Prue to have her moment. She knew a blank stare filled with thoughts when she saw it. However, in a few minutes, her questioning would continue. From across the street, Prue always appeared to be well put together, so to see her unravel made Renee want to learn her secrets and what made her tick. Could it be, like in her own life, Prue was plagued with trouble? Slowly, Renee was easing into her comfort zone, where she was in charge and Prue was but a peasant placed in her presence for entertainment.