Right of Retribution Page 3

  “Yeah, sweetie, I’m here,” Warner said with a slight catch in his voice. Grinning from ear to ear, he took her right hand between his.

  “Mom?” Maya asked, looking at Althea.

  Where Maya was of an Asian background, Althea was more of an islander. There were quite a few similarities, but they were just as many differences.

  Even though Althea was more of a handsome-type of pretty compared to Asa’s delicate beauty.

  “Ah,” Althea said, looking completely unsure. She looked from Warner then back to Maya.

  “Oh, you’re not Mom,” Maya said, her eyes opening wider as she focused on Althea. “Who are you?”

  “That’s Althea,” Warner said, squeezing Maya’s hand. “She’s a friend of mine. She was just checking in on us.”

  “Okay,” Maya said, turning her head toward him. “Everything hurts.”

  “Yeah… I bet. You tried to shoulder tackle a car. You didn’t win,” Warner said, doing his best to make light of it. Maya always responded best to his wisecracking.

  “I did? Damn,” Maya said, closing her eyes. “I thought I was good at that. Coach said so.”

  “Well, cars are a lot heavier than little preteen girls your size,” Warner said.

  Chuckling softly, Maya let out a slow breath.

  “Yeah,” Maya murmured. “How long have you been dating your ‘friend’?”

  “Uh,” Warner said, then shook his head with a grin. “Not dating her. She really was just checking in on us. Besides, you have guy friends. Why can’t I have girls who are friends?”

  “Because I don’t want to date them,” Maya said, her voice drifting off at the end. Then she started to snore softly.

  Taking in a quick breath, Warner let it out with a much better feeling than he’d had for quite a while.

  Maya had woken up and had been coherent. It’d been brief, but it’d been far more than he’d been expecting out of today.

  “Well, that’s good news,” Althea said, coming to stand next to Warner.

  “Yeah, it really is,” he said, nodding his head. “Really good news. Made my day. Best day I’ve had in awhile, in fact.”

  “Mm, I can certainly understand,” Althea said.

  “On top of that… on top of that, pretty sure I can use this entire incident to get full custody,” Warner said. He’d been in contact with his divorce lawyer. Documenting everything as it came in and making sure to get statements from everyone involved with the situation.

  With Asa being nowhere to be found, Maya being in her care during the time of the accident, and Asa’s lack of response, it was going to be an easy slam dunk.

  “Ah, your ex-wife never turned up?” Althea asked.

  “No. She didn’t,” Warner said, shaking his head. “But that doesn’t matter anymore. Maya’s awake, and that means I can probably take her home soon enough.”

  He could feel the phone in his pocket vibrating against his leg.

  Pulling it out, he already had an idea who it was.

  Glancing at the number, he saw it was restricted.

  “And that’s probably the DA,” Warner muttered. Not doing anything with the call, he simply locked the screen and put it back in his pocket. He’d let it go to voicemail for now. He didn’t want to tarnish this moment.

  The injustice of that call would probably make him seethe with anger all over again.

  Thoughts of everything that had happened yesterday—from the point that he’d gotten angry over the DA’s likely position—flooded his mind before he could stop it.

  He relived pulling the trigger on the young man and ending his life.

  Catching his reflection in the mirror over the nearby handwashing station, Warner saw himself staring back.

  His brown hair—cut short and parted at the middle— along with his gray eyes and clean-shaven face finished off the “customer service” persona he had to keep cultivated. He couldn’t always work at home, which meant he had to remain presentable.

  There was something different though. He swore he could see a faint yellow glow in his eyes. Around his pupils.

  The face he saw in the mirror was and wasn’t his anymore. It was someone else.

  Behind him, a pair of golden wings spread out slowly as his eyes gradually became brighter and brighter.

  Then it was all gone, and it was just Warner in the mirror again.

  Three

  Warner laughed under his breath and shook his head.

  “Maybe the car hit you harder than I thought. That’s just nonsense.”

  Tapping the send button, Warner looked back to his laptop screen and started to rapidly fill in the information the customer was requesting.

  He was doing his best to not think about the fact that nothing was going to happen to Travis Pattin. Of course, the fact that the DA had called him six times now in the last week made that harder to do.

  He knew that it was a call to discuss the case. To talk to Warner directly before the DA said anything publicly about the case.

  And just as likely, he doesn’t want to leave a voicemail because that’d be considerably harder to backtrack. It’d be a recorded statement.

  Then again… do I live in a single-party consent state? I could probably record him without ever letting on that I am.

  With Maya at home, though, it was easier to pretend the DA wasn’t hounding him or that Pattin was going to get off the hook without even a slap on the wrist.

  Since she’d gotten back home, his home, she’d done a lot of texting, reading, and watching TV.

  Being bedridden meant that she couldn’t really do a whole lot. Even going to the bathroom was more or less out of the picture. Warner had to empty a bedpan first thing every morning, when he got back from work, and again before he went to bed.

  The danger to her life was over now though. In spite of the grievousness of her injury, the hospital had saved her life.

  Now it was time for her to recover. Or at least, do her best to recover. A number of doctors had already talked to him about what their expectations were. She’d likely be able to walk eventually, but they expected it to be with a limp.

  Pins, rods, plates, and screws would be an ever constant companion for her for the rest of her life. Doctor visits with insurance-covered orderlies carrying her to and from the vehicle would be the norm for a while.

  But at least she was at home now with him. Safe, and home.

  Asa still hadn’t showed up. Maya seemed completely unperturbed by that, nor even surprised. Warner’s mind had gone straight to the idea that it wasn’t the first time Asa had vanished.

  By this point though, she’d had to have come back. However knowing his ex-wife, she’d come back, realized she was probably in trouble, and then vanished again.

  Depending on how long she thought she needed to be gone, they might not see her for months.

  In the meantime, he’d move forward with his full custody hearing.

  His phone blipped again and Warner glanced down.

  It was another text message from Maya.

  “It’s not nonsense, it’s my opinion. She wouldn’t have come to check on me just for my sake. She doesn’t know me. She came to see you. Gave you her cell phone number, too.

  “You should call her. Ask her out to dinner.”

  Rolling his eyes, Warner responded quickly. He knew he shouldn’t have his phone out on the call floor. Especially on his first real day back at the office.

  But he didn’t think anyone would care much. Everyone knew what’d happened to Maya. It’d made the news after all.

  “Ha-ha, no. She probably has a boyfriend and I really don’t want to date anyone.”

  Setting his phone back down, Warner took another ticket from the queue and began reading it over.

  “Hey, Warner,” said a female voice.

  Looking up from his screen, he found his co-worker, Alice, standing there. She’d always gotten on his nerves, but he could never pinpoint why. There was just something about her that aggravated him whenever he saw her.

  Right now though, he actually understood it.

  He recognized it this time. The last time he’d felt it was right before he’d killed a young man with a revolver.

  Injustice.

  There was a sense of injustice coming from her. Not an overly strong sense of it, but definitely something.

  “Hey, Alice,” Warner said, not really sure what she wanted. She’d never dropped by to talk to him before. They rarely talked at all, in fact.

  “You remember when I told you about that accident a few years back? Before I started working here?” Alice asked.

  He didn’t.

  “Yup,” Warner said.

  “The lawyer I used could probably really get you a good settlement with the state and the guy who did it, or his insurance at least,” Alice said.

  As if someone had pulled back a curtain, Warner knew what injustice she was guilty of.

  Alice was scamming someone from the accident she’d been involved in. They were receiving unfair treatment. Their rights were being violated through her direct actions.

  Except it was against a company, not a person.

  I can… sense… it. Just like the man. Both men.

  Except hers isn’t… very much. It doesn’t have the same feeling that I need to address it.

  It just annoys me.

  What’s… what’s going on? Am I drunk? Am I going crazy?

  His mind flashed back to the hospital, when he’d seen himself with yellow eyes and wings in the mirror. Nothing odd had happened since then, but he really hadn’t been out much. He’d been spending all his time with Maya.

  “I think I’ll be okay,” Warner said. The legal counsel he’d hired assured him they’d make sure he got everything Maya des
erved out of this. Regardless of what the DA, the Fletcher Police Department, or the state wanted. “Thanks though, Alice. I appreciate it.”

  “Of course, think nothing of it. I’ll let you go,” Alice said, waving a hand at him with a smile.

  Nodding his head with a smile, Warner waved back at her. “See you later, Alice.”

  His phone started buzzing again, the screen lighting up.

  An unlisted number was calling him. There was also a missed text from Maya.

  Ignoring the call, he tapped the message.

  “Stu-pid. We need to talk about this.” There was a pair of hands clapping punctuating the break in stupid.

  The hell is she calling from that makes it unlisted.

  Picking up the phone as he locked his computer, Warner accepted the call, and began walking away to the break room.

  Texting on the floor was one thing, taking a personal call was altogether something different.

  “Hey,” Warner said into the line. “I don—”

  “Mr. James, I’m so glad you picked up,” said a voice Warner didn’t know.

  “Uh, who’s this?” Warner asked, stopping dead in his tracks. He didn’t want to talk to anyone at all right now.

  “This is District Attorney Jim Goff,” replied the man.

  Closing his eyes, Warner winced.

  If there was a contest to determine the least likely person Warner would want to talk to right now, Jim Goff would be the runner-up.

  “Ah… hello, Mr. Goff,” Warner said, starting to walk again. “I’ve been looking forward to talking to you. When can we move forward with criminal charges against Mr. Pattin?

  “Fleeing the scene of a crime is a felony after all.”

  “Ah…” Jim said, clearly not expecting that. “I’m afraid we won’t be pressing charges.”

  “What?” Warner asked. He didn’t have to feign his anger. In fact, he was having problems not crushing his phone. “Why the hell not? A witness identified his vehicle. Even the license plate. I know for a fact that there’s a camera at the intersection up ahead which probably caught him fleeing the scene of the crime.”

  Jim didn’t respond to that. Neither of those things were anything that Althea had told him. Both those items were something he’d dug up all on his own.

  He wasn’t going to let Jim go without explaining his actions, even if Warner didn’t think he’d win.

  He’d at least try.

  “I just don’t feel like we have a case,” Jim said.

  “I think you’re not pushing this because he’s a cop,” Warner growled, marching through the lobby of his office building and straight outside.

  “That’s not it at all,” Jim countered.

  “That’s exactly what it is. There’s more than enough proof to get a jury to vote against him. Especially because he’s a cop who fled the scene of a crime,” Warner said. “Even though we both know a judge would probably give him a lenient sentence.”

  “I don’t think this conversation is going very well,” Jim said.

  “Oh? Why’s that? Because you’re giving a cop a break for running over a little girl? Is that why?” Warner shouted into his phone. “Because that’s what it feels like on this end. I can’t wait to talk to the press about this, the camera, and the license plate.”

  “I don’t think that’d be wise,” Jim offered, sounding considerably more unsure now.

  “Coming from the guy who doesn’t want to press a clearly guilty man into a court case, I don’t think you’re qualified to tell me what is and isn’t wise, Jim,” Warner said.

  “Look, we just don’t—”

  “You just don’t want to push on a cop,” Warner said interrupting the weasel. “And that’s all it comes down to. You can tell me you’re changing your mind and pressing charges, or we can end this call and I go straight to the local news outlets.

  “What’s it going to be?”

  Jim didn’t answer.

  He hung up instead.

  Closing his eyes, Warner turned toward the wall and quivered with rage. His entire body shook from head to toe. The cell phone in his hand creaked softly at the sheer force he was exerting on it.

  Vibrating softly, it started to ring again.

  Glaring at the screen, he was more than happy to talk to Jim again so he could yell at him.

  Instead, it was Maya.

  Choking on his own breath, Warner gasped and then coughed several times.

  Tapping the accept button after getting his breath under control, he held it up to his ear.

  “Hey there,” he said.

  “Hi, Dad. So, seriously. You’re being stupid,” Maya said. “You can’t honestly tell me you don’t think she’s interested in you.”

  Shaking his head, Warner pressed his forehead to the wall and then laughed.

  “I think she felt sorry for me if I had to answer you directly,” Warner said.

  He was still a ball of ugly violent rage. One that wanted to find Jim and the injustice he’d put on Maya and seek out retribution.

  With a revolver.

  But he couldn’t let Maya ever know that. She’d come out of this mess optimistic and bright.

  He’d never seen her cry or bemoan her situation.

  “No, she clearly had a thing for you,” Maya said. “I mean, she visited me twice after I met her that first time. Both times when you were there. She’s got white-boy fever. Wants herself a man who’s a daddy.”

  “The hell did—I’m seriously turning off the internet and bricking your phone,” Warner said, trying hard not to laugh at her comments. “The car hit you so hard you’re talking way above your age level. I need to make you watch a whole bunch of Clubhouse.”

  “Ugh, dad, seriously? I’m a teenager. I’ve had Sex Ed and everything. I—”

  “Nope! I don’t want to hear it. La-la-la-la, my precious daughter is an innocent, la-la-la,” Warner declared.

  “Oh my god, for reals, Dad?” Maya asked as she laughed on the other end of the line.

  ***

  Driving through traffic, Warner couldn’t help but wish he could work at home. Sighing for perhaps the tenth time, he leaned his head against the cool glass of his window.

  The rain pattered down unendingly and was more than likely the cause of his misery.

  “Everyone forgets how to drive the moment it starts to rain,” Warner grumbled.

  Easing forward, the car directly in front of him started to move again.

  Following suit, Warner rolled along, figuring he’d stop in a few feet again.

  Except he didn’t. He rolled by what appeared to be a pretty bad accident. A number of firemen were working at prying a door loose from the frame of a squashed-looking sedan. An ambulance was nearby and someone was being loaded into it even as he watched.

  “Damn, that’s pretty bad,” Warner muttered. His mind flinched away from the thoughts that inevitably came. Of Pattin causing a similar scene for his daughter.

  Out of nowhere, a long older car slammed into the already wrecked sedan. Blasting through the crowd, sending the firemen tumbling to the ground, the car bounced over a curb and kept going.

  It smashed over a sign, jumping off the far side of the curb, and then the car turned back onto the street and sped away.

  Vanishing into the heavy downpour.

  The police were nowhere near their vehicles and were far more concerned with the new victims than chasing after the car.

  In that single moment, Warner slammed his steering wheel to the right, mashed his gas pedal, and did just that.

  Chased after a vehicle that had just carried out the same crime which had happened to his daughter. A hit and run.

  Warner almost crashed within seconds though, cars appearing practically out of the gloom of the evening without a warning.

  Dodging to one side, he found a lane he could fly through.

  And better yet, the car of the individual up ahead.

  What am I doing?

  His blood was racing in his veins, his mind swimming with the delicious possibility of punishing someone who deserved it.

  Vibrating in his seat, it felt like his very soul was aflame with the idea. That all he had to do was catch up to this person and end their life.

  A mere thought of doing such a thing sparked his desire for it all. His mind cast his memory back to the moment when he’d killed that young thug.

  The absolute sweet joy of ridding the world of something that evil.