The cousin walks towards me and extends his hand for a handshake. “Pleasure to meet you, Sarah.” I take his hand and shake it. As soon as I do it, I feel like my hand is burning and I need to remove it fast. I guess I can’t stand the touch from a stranger. Bruno notices it and grins slightly, leading me to believe he’s satisfied with my reaction.
Carter’s face looks familiar. My brain is trying to remember where from, to no avail. So, I just ask him. “Your face looks familiar….”
“I do porn.” Carter shoots back with a serious look on his face.
“Carter!” Bruno snaps.
I ignore him and ask, “Really? So, you’re like a porn star.”
“If you want my profession’s official name, I’m an adult performer. You need to take acting classes to be an actual actor.”
“Carter cut the shit!” Carter laughs. “He was at the hospital where you were.”
“Oh. So… then, you’re a cop?” I ask, and Carter looks at me like I’ve just insulted his mother.
“Not by a long shot, Snow White. I was just doing my cousin a favor. Right, Bruno?” I know I’m missing something here— a joke, a code between them. Bruno just glares at him.
“He gave you a new nickname— Snow White. Hmmm, I will add it to my list, but I will keep calling you stupid.”Life is here. That’s obvious, no way she was going to miss this.
“Carter came to share some info regarding our situation, but he was leaving…” For some reason, Bruno wants him out of my sight. But I don’t want to play along. I feel the need to annoy him today.
“Info? About what, exactly?” I ask Carter directly, cutting Bruno out of the conversation.
Carter catches up with my intentions and pulls up a chair beside me. The way he walks catches my eye— his legs and arms move as if he’s listening to some funky music which gives him some sort of arrogance. Judging by his smile, I guess he’s doing all this to humor me and to spite Bruno, and it’s clearly working.
It’s good to be in sync with someone who looks like a Calvin Klein model.
“Well, we were just assessing last week’s situation… And by the way, I’m sorry for your loss, Snow White.” Bruno bangs his cup on the table and starts tightening his grip on it. I can see his knuckles going whiter.
“Thank you. And how is that assessment going…?” I carry on with the conversation, still ignoring Bruno.
“Okay. There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just be blunt and say it— your mom was beheaded.” He slides his index finger across his throat. Bruno’s about to lose it. “We know of a group of people that does that, and they fit right in the picture…” He looks at Bruno waiting for approval to keep going. Bruno sighs loudly and nods. This is an interesting interaction between them— it looks like Bruno is the boss here. “They tend to use other beheading techniques, and always leave a message to take ownership of the act. You know, something like ‘all infidels will suffer and die.’ Very heavy, very religious kind of shit. They all act like they are the toughest kids in the block.”
“What did the message say this time?” I’m really interested— I need to know my enemy.
“That’s the thing, darling— they didn’t leave one,” he says as he steals food from my plate. “Which leads us to believe that this isn’t tied to the group itself, but was done as something personal. The man who posed as a friend of yours vanished into thin air. We’ve been looking from him non-stop since then, but we can’t find a clue on his whereabouts. Bruno here thinks this is no coincidence, that something bigger is being schemed.” I’m troubled by the way Carter addresses me. I’m used to being treated like expensive china. This is refreshing in a way, and I can clearly tell that Bruno doesn’t like it at all.
“A terrorist never acts alone,” Bruno intercedes. He’s sitting far away from me. “He must be getting some help from his friends, whoever they are.”
“So, what are we thinking here?” I ask without a clue.
“Revenge.”
Chapter Eighteen
The darkest night.
Bruno
That’s exactly what it is— our reports show that he was missing from the scene. There’s a bounty on his head and that will flush him out. He’ll turn up sooner rather than later. It doesn’t matter how much security he gets, nothing can protect him from this. But he knows it and that’s what makes him so fucking dangerous— right now, that asshole has nothing to lose.” I continue to make my point but can’t help noticing Sarah’s expression. She looks lost. “He’s prowling and waiting to pounce right where it will hurt the most, to strike me down and fuck my life for good.”
“That means you’re next.” Carter winks and points a finger gun at Sarah with his right hand.
“I… I don’t understand. What does he mean?” Sarah asks me, completely dazzled.
I sigh. “I guess there’s no way around it. I’ll start from where it all began.”
Abdel, the organization leader, was always a fan of my work— and when I say fan I mean a twisted piece of shit who has no regard for human life whatsoever. I guess you can sum it all up in a single word: fanatic. He was always at the facility in good spirits. He even felt close enough to me to share that in his intimacy he’d touch himself while thinking about my sessions with Sarah.
