For Love and Vengeance (13 page)

Pulling his Tonfa
from his waistband, he met his opponents head on, his arms crossed protectively
before his chest, ready to deflect any weapons aimed at his areas of
vulnerabilities. Taking in each of their faces at a glance, Jake assessed which
of the men were most unsure of themselves. Honing in on one man, who looked to
be no more than twenty, he knew he would be the one to throw his knife, not
wanting to engage in close combat. Nearly as soon as the thought entered his
head, the young man threw his knife.

With at least one
of his brothers somewhere behind him, Jake could take no chances in allowing
the blade to fly past him and endanger one of them. He made the quick decision
to take his eyes of the other four men to concentrate on the potentially deadly
missile. He knew his timing was crucial. Swirling the Tonfa, he watched until
the blade was nearly upon him. Shifting to the side, he extended his hand and
knocked the knife to the ground. Snapping his attention forwards and not a
moment too soon. His opponents were almost upon him. With a loud cry, Jake
rushed in, meeting them head on.

~~~~~~~~~~

Josh, unlike his
brothers, fought with a running commentary. He had withdrawn his staff, snapped
it open and was twirling it before him at lightning speed, running his mouth as
quickly as the ‘Rod of Correction.’

“Okay, you
pussies, who wants a taste first? I hear you like messing with little boys and
women? Let’s see how you deal with men…real men!”

His opponents all
stood back, eyes transfixed at the speed at which the staff was spinning. This
had been Josh’s intent. Distract them with his words and movement. While they
watched his actions, he had them off guard. He was moving in and they didn’t
even realize it. Reaching the first of the men, he struck so hard, the man went
down with a thud. Josh cried, “Okay, now that had to hurt…so who’s next?”

Not expecting or
waiting for a reply, Josh kept moving forward, deadly intent imprinted in his
eyes. He saw a glance pass between the four remaining men and readied himself
for their onslaught. He knew they were going to rush him as a single force and
threw the thought back at them before it had even been fully realized by the
last man.

“That’s it. I’m
ready. You all want some…come get some!”

His opponents
took up the formation of standing side to side. That was their error. It gave
him room to differentiate between them. Rushing him as a mass would have put
the R.O.C. at a disadvantage. But they were too stupid to figure that out, and
Josh used their lack of thought against them. Dropping to his knees, and so
shifting his center of gravity, Josh reached out and swiped at their feet. They
all went down, arms and legs flaying in the air.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Jason arched his
back as a blade whooshed past his face. Repositioning his body, he grabbed hold
of the man's arm, pulled him in and delivered an uppercut to the underside of
his chin, dropping him with the force of the blow. At the same time, he
extended his right leg, kicking another man in the arm, snapping it. With a
fast retraction and flick with the same leg, Jason kicked him in the face,
shattering his nose in the process. His legs folded beneath him.

Spinning, he saw
five men sizing him up. They had obviously decided not to take the chance at
rushing him. Jason was amused at their action and laughed out loud.

“Come on…come and
piss on me, you sons of bitches.” He couldn’t help but to taunt them.

The five men
remained where they were, glancing surreptitiously at each other, waiting to
see who would be brave enough to make the first move.

A big bald headed
man, who was only a few inches shorter than Jason but way fatter, moved first,
the other four followed a split second later. Dropping to the ground, Jason
balanced his weight on his palms, swept out his leg and took down two of the
men. They landed hard on their backs, their heads banging loudly against the
concrete floor. Jason saw that they had both lost consciousness. The fools
hadn't even had enough sense to attempt to break their fall.

Jumping onto his feet,
he again took up his fighting stance, facing off against his three remaining
opponents. He wanted this to be over. These men weren't even giving him a good
workout, and he was through toying with them. Spinning around, Jason offloaded
a roundhouse kick to the face the man closest to him, and shattered his jaw.
Feigning backwards, he avoided a punch to the side of his head and spun,
grabbing his opponent by the back of his neck, and pulled him down. Raising his
knee, Jason connected with the man's chin, shattering it then he flung him
away. One remained.

The room had gone
eerily quiet. The sounds of his brothers fighting was at an end. Jason knew
this last man had some form of training. He could see it in the way he stood,
his weight balanced and equally distributed.

“Come on then, ya
wanker. Did ya little black bitch tell ya it was me who pissed on'er? It was
the funniest thing I ever done!”

Jason didn't know
if he spoke the truth nor did he care. For just allowing the words to leave his
mouth, he was going to make sure he would be pissing through a bag for the rest
of his life.

Jason stood up
straight, dropping his arms to his sides as he stared at the man, his eyes
black with fury. He realized the man goaded him in the hopes of him losing his
temper. That was playground shit, and he had no time for it.

“This is your
lucky day and I'm gonna tell you why. I made a promise to the woman you
disrespected which I intend to keep. Otherwise...I'd cut off your dick and make
you suck on it. Then I'd kill you...slowly.”

“Piss off, ya
tossa. When ya ready, come and get some!”

“You got a mama,
little boy? Of course, you’ve got a mama, and I bet she's a street whore who
gets down on her knees for a dollar, or should I say pound?”

“Don't talk about
my mavva!” The cockney man shouted, his agitation showing.

“Ah, a mama's
boy
.
Well,
boy...
I'm about to make you cry for your mama...so why don't
you
come and get some.”

Jason’s younger
opponent fell into a dismissive fighting stance, his arms down by his sides,
walking back and forth in front of him. Then he started bouncing from side to
side on his toes. Jason folded his arms, widened his stance and watched the
shorter man and his antics. As soon as the man came within his reach, Jason
offloaded four quick jabs to his stomach. The idiot, who had moments before
been so filled with bravado, crumpled like a paper bag. As he landed, Jason had
already dismissed him.

“Is he here?”
Jason asked his brothers.

“He's here,” Jake
replied

“Where?”

“Hiding inside
that room,” Jake said, nodding to the second of two doors at the far end of the
room.

“Is he alone?”

“Don't know.” Was
Jake's honest answer.

“Okay. We don't
know if he's armed, and I don't want any guns going off in this quiet
neighborhood.”

His brothers
nodded their understanding as they all moved on silent feet towards the door.
Jake and Josh took up positions on one side of the door, Jason on the other.
Using a fist, Jason thumped on the door. Immediately, shots rang out, passing
through the wooden structure.

Jason readied
himself to kick in the door but Jake beat him to it. The lock shattered and the
door hung from its hinges. Jake dropped, prone on the floor and Josh released
two throwing stars exactly as Jason had done earlier. They both embedded
themselves in the man's gun hand.

A sweeping glance
around the room assured Jason the room had only two occupants, the disabled
man, and Malcolm Alexander.

“It’s been a
while, Malcolm,” Jason said, looking the older man up and down. He was dressed
in an immaculate three piece suit, a crisp white shirt, a dark silver tie and a
pair of lace up oxfords.

Jason laughed in
Alexander’s face. “What, you going to a business meeting or something?”

“What are you
going to do to me?”

“Now that's a
question unbecoming to you,
Mr. Alexander.
The last time we spoke I told
you that if you hurt one hair on my woman's head, you were a dead man. Now you
answer a question for me. Do you think I came all this way because I've changed
my mind?”

“We can talk
about this. Tell me what you want and it's yours.”

“The only thing
you have that I want is your life.”

“Jason, be
reasonable. Let’s talk about this.”

“You're an
opportunistic predator who preys on the young and anyone weaker than you. You
hurt the woman I love, even though I warned you not to. Now you want to bargain
with me?” Jason finished with a backhanded slap to his face, splitting
Alexander's lip.

“Catch,” Jake
said as he tossed two objects in Jason's direction.

~~~~~~~~~~

Malcolm Alexander
was in no doubt about what was going to happen. He watched as Jason reached out
his hand, catching a lighter and a cylindrical tube from the air.

“I believe this
make is your cigar of choice. I remember how much you used to like them when I
was a child. I'm not sure if your tastes have changed, well in cigars anyway,
but I deduced that men like you are creatures of habit, so I took a chance. You
used my woman's palm to extinguish one of these,” Jason said, indicating the
cigar he held in his hand. “I believe, at the time, your actions were for my
benefit. Well, everything I'm about to do is entirely for your benefit. I hope
you appreciate my reciprocation in the vein in which it’s intended.”

“For God sake,
Jason, what are you going to do? Please, don't do this, I beg you!”

“Shut up, and sit
down,” Jason said, disgust dripping from his voice.

Alexander didn't
move. Jason could see he was visibly shaking with fear, his body making odd,
jerky movements. The very sight of him turned Jason's stomach. The man was one
of the biggest cowards he ever had the misfortune to meet. He was an abuser of
children and women; who had stayed hidden in a room while he paid others to do
his dirty work, too frightened to carry out the threat of his pompous words
himself.

Jason looked at
his brothers and almost imperceptibly moved his head toward Alexander. Josh
strolled in the shaking man’s direction and grabbed him by the lapels of his
suit, lifting him clean off his feet. He then slammed him down in a chair and
held him in place by his hair.

His movements
slow and deliberate. Jason opened the tube containing the cigar and slipped the
empty cylinder into his pocket. He then placed the cigar to his lips, flicked
open the lighter and held it to the tip, puffing until it glowed red with smoke
bellowing up around him. Removing the offensive object from his lips, he looked
at it and then lifted his eyes to meet Alexander’s.

~~~~~~~~~~

Malcolm Alexander
knew all about the mighty Kingdoms. He had even gone to school with Jackson. He
was two years older than Jackson, but because of his extreme intellect, Jackson
had been moved up a couple of grades. In the beginning, Alexander tried to
befriend him, as Jackson had been a good looking kid. Even back then, he liked
a good looking boy. But Jackson, for some reason, disliked him almost on sight and
had dismissed him, refusing to have anything to do with him. From then on, he
had made it his personal quest to make Jackson’s school life a living hell.

He applied every
underhanded stroke he possessed in his young armory to punish the young
Jackson. Yet nothing he did phased him. He would sometimes find Jackson
watching him with a small smile lifting the corners of his mouth. It was as
though he knew a secret Malcolm wasn't privy to, and it angered him.

His father had
also hated Jackson Sr. because he married the woman he'd wanted for himself.
Suzette had been a statuesque, red haired beauty that was the catch of the
season. All the young men had been vying for her attention, and Jackson Sr.
emerged victorious over all the others.

When Malcolm
first met Jason all those years ago, his looks had pulled at something buried
deep in his memory. Clarity of thought came when another of his fellow trustees
had shown him photographs of two little boys they had invited to attend their
school. Their father was Jackson Kingdom, his long ago school mate and nemesis,
and now those two little boys stood before him, having grown into two of the
most powerful looking men he had ever seen.

He remembered his
feelings of euphoria when he had first seen the images of those boys, with
their identities written below. He was also glad he was a newly appointed
trustee, and his name had yet to be added to the school's letterhead and
official documentation. Over the preceding months, he had visited the school
often, and it had taken months for him to pass all the clearances the other
trustees had insisted on. It was during this time that he first met the young
Jason.

Their familial
attachment was obvious, yet Jackson obviously knew nothing of Jason's existence
and he had immediately seen the situation for what it was; the perfect
opportunity to exact his revenge. It had all fallen into place wonderfully, or
so he had thought. With Jason looming over him, he now realized he had
miscalculated.

He had an idea of
how Aviva had managed to escape his clutches, but her accomplice had also
disappeared. The men he sent out to look for them all returned without the
information he sought. His survival instincts had told him to run once Aviva
escaped him, but he ignored that inner voice, wrongly thinking that his guards
would be protection enough. How very wrong he had been. Now it would seem his
time was up.

~~~~~~~~~~

Jason looked down
at the pathetic looking man sitting before him. He felt a hatred boiling up
inside of him that he had difficulty suppressing. Throughout his childhood,
this man had literally been his nightmare. He had visited him in his dreams
only for him to realize that he wasn't asleep. It was real, very, very real and
that Alexander was actually sitting beside him in the dark. He couldn't even
escape him during his waking moments.

He would walk
down a corridor and there he’d be. In his desperation, Jason tried to run away,
escape, but someone was always there. They watched him, reporting his every
movement.

Pulling himself
back to the present, Jason’s eyes again focused on Alexander. He looked so
shrunken. Was this really the man who had terrorized him all those years ago?
Back then, he had seemed unconquerable. Now he knew he could break him in two
without even exerting himself.

Jason wanted this
whole sordid business finished with. He was sick of the sight of the man, his
very existence left a foul taste in his mouth.

“Hold out your
hand.”

Alexander, didn’t
move, his fear holding him immobile.

Jason didn't
repeat himself. He pushed the red hot end of the cigar into Alexander's cheek
and held it there. The first sound of his scream of pain was quieted by Josh
clamping a large hand over his mouth to silence it.

“Now, are you
going to hold out your hand, or do I need to do this again on the other side of
your face?”

Alexander, was in
terrible pain. The aftermath of the cigar’s contact still seared along his
nerve endings. His narcissistic tendencies kicked into play, not having the
capacity to feel remorse for the terrible deeds he had committed. Rather his
feelings were fixed solely on his pain and why he was being treated that way.
He held out his hand, he had no other choice.

Jason watched his
compliance, devoid of any visible emotion. Looking back to the end of the
cigar, he saw that by pressing it against Alexander's face, the tip had lost
most of its heat. He was unwilling for this to be the case. Flicking open the
lighter once again, he raised the cigar to his lips and puffed, releasing smoke
until it again glowed red hot.

Passing the lit
end back and forth under Alexander's nose, he lowered it in slow motion, his
gaze never leaving the petrified man's face. He wanted to see his reaction. He
wanted to bear witness to his pain, because even it were tenfold, it would
never begin to approach what he and Aviva had suffered at his hands. Jason
wasn't really a man to make comparisons, but in this case he felt it was
warranted. Pressing the cigar into Alexander’s palm, he held it there as the
stench of burning flesh began to rise into the air.

The tears in
Alexander’s eyes began running down his cheeks as his pain intensified. Jason
lifted the cigar and dropped it into the crying man's lap. Alexander stiffened,
attempting to get away from the heat. He needn’t have worried. Jason had extinguished
it in his hand. But in a perverse way, it gave him pleasure to see that
Alexander was completely unaware of this. Without another glance, Jason turned
away in disgust.

“Josh, secure him
and then come help us.”

With a nod, Josh
released the sobbing older man and reached into this coat pocket, removing two
plastic restraints. He handcuffed Alexander to the armrest of his chair. The
man was crying so loudly he began to get on Josh's nerves.
Oh yes
, he
thought,
you can dish it out but you can't take it
. Looking around, he
spotted a sheet of writing paper. Josh grabbed it and stuffed in into
Alexander's mouth so he wouldn't have to listen to him cry like a baby.

Joining his
brothers, Josh saw they still had quite a few unconscious bodies to move. Jason
had surmised that if Aviva had been held on these premises, there should be a
room that had a lock and key. Fortunately, he found it.

Once he and his
brothers finished dragging all the bodies into the small room, Jason looked
down at the little cot shoved into a corner and images of Aviva sprang into his
mind. He saw her laying there helpless, scared and hurt, and he had to look
away as a red haze began to seep into his vision. Pushing away those thoughts,
he again set to the task at hand, knowing it was essential that he remain
focused.

He and his
brothers had positioned the unconscious men in a very specific way. They had
been placed in a circle, their backs bracing each other up in a sitting
formation.

Josh had the task
of tearing up an old sheet into strips, while Jason unwound the length of rope
he had coiled around his body for just this purpose. Tossing one end to Jake,
they secured it around the men. They wound the rope using over and under loops,
strapping their arms closely to their torsos, rendering their upper bodies
immobile. When the twins met at the end of their task, Jake handed his end to
Jason who wove the rope into a constrictor knot and finished with a reef knot.
Accepting some of the rags from Josh, he helped his brothers gag their captives.

Next, Jason
squatted down before the cockney, who ironically held his mother in such high
esteem, but was prepared to be party to the kidnapping and humiliation of
another woman. Slapping him none too gently across the face, Jason attempted to
wake him up. He had to slap him four more times before the man started to come
around, his eyes opening slowly from his daze. Jason held up a key and waved it
before the man’s unfocused eyes.

Once he had the
man’s attention, he began to speak. “See this? This is the key to this room.
I'm locking the door and taking it with me. Once you get those gags off, you
tell your friends of the benevolence of a
lady
called, Aviva Johnson.
But for her, you would all be dead men. This way, if at least one brain cell
exists between you, you'll find a way out of this room. If not...I don't need
to spell it out to you,” Jason said with a show of his dimples and deadly cold
eyes.

Rising to their
full height, they all walked to the door and exited the room, never glancing
behind them. As promised, he turned the key in the lock and deposited it in his
pocket.