She Will Be Mine

Chapter 10: Charlie

​As soon as Des walked through Murphy's door, I knew I had made a mistake. I could see the hurt raging in her eyes, and even as she attacked me, I forgave her. I had gone out of line, and even the chief was looking at me strangely.
​I didn't even bother to question why she was angry. Even while she lit into me, I just took it. When she stormed out of the room, it just made sense to follow her. I watched as she disappeared into her office, and she was already flying out again when I reached her. I tried to talk to her before she shouted at me. "Stay away from me," she shouted. I couldn't even follow her.
​I was snapped out of my shock when the elevator doors closed. Danny ran past me like a man on a mission, and hit the next elevator down. I don't feel like talking to anybody, I thought and turned to the stairs instead.
​When I made it outside the building, Des was zooming away in a cab. I saw her face in the rearview window, and then she was gone.
​"God!" I muttered under my breath before hailing cab of my own. Women, what am I going to do with them?!
* * *
​The man watched as Charlie raced after her in the cab, like a true gentleman. He disgusts me, the man thought as he walked down the street towards his apartment.
​Once he got there, he grabbed a shot glass and poured himself a healthy shot of Bourbon before walking out onto the deck. He watched as the hustle and bustle of the city transformed into the afternoon. A clock rang in his house, giving off a lovely 2 chimes. He had exactly 12 hours to perform his delivery, and that would be more than enough time to catch his fish.
​He finished his glass quickly and drank straight from the bottle. Returning to the inside of the apartment, the man walked over to the freezer, and towards his new toy. It lay on the countertop, black in all its glory.
​The gun was small, so it could very easily fit into his pocket. It was as smooth as glass, and the bullets were no larger than the tip of his finger.
​The machine had no name, but if you knew where to find it, it would find you. It had cost the man a pretty penny, and he intended to use it tonight. His bullets lay on the counter beside it, with the drugs next to them. He had practiced injecting the drugs into the bullets until he could do it in under a minute. Once the target had been struck, they had about 30 seconds of consciousness left. The drugs would work its way through their body, numbing the muscles as it went. The victim would fall 5 seconds after being hit, and blackout would occur 10 seconds after that. Declared the most dangerous weapon the Black Market of New York had ever seen; this thing packed a mean punch, and the man was honored to use it.
* * *
​When the cab reached Des' block, I can him a generous tip and climbed out. Walking up the steps, I tried to prepare some type of speech in which I ended with Des' lips on mine. I knew it was a long shot, but I was out of options, and I still cared about her.
​The shades were pulled shut in her apartment, and it seemed dark inside. I knocked, and when the echo rang through the building, I almost thought she wasn't home.
​Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the shades move ever so slightly. Knocking again, I could hear Des moving towards the door.
​"What do you want?" I could feel her eyes pierce the door.
​"I just want to talk to you Des," I tried to get my word to form, but my mouth seemed to dry in that nanosecond.
​"You already said all the words I needed to hear. It's that the only person I can really trust is myself. You can leave whenever," Her footsteps walked away from me.
​"Des!" I shouted at the door. "Please, just talk to me," I slumped down against the door.
​Her stomps grew loud again, and when she opened the door, she was already crying.
​"So tell me," she spoke firmly even though she was emotional. "Tell me that you were acting like a giant asshole when you went behind my back to talk to the chief? So you can tell me how unbelievably out of line you were when you didn't even ask me how I felt!" Des was right in my face, her breath flowing over my face. "How dare you think that you hold any power of me after pulling a stunt like that? And then you have the audacity to come crawling back, trying to get my forgiveness. How dare you..." Suddenly, I couldn't take it anymore. All of the emotions running through me told me what I should do, and without even thinking, I did it.
​Walking forward, I took her face in my hands, and, taking a deep breath, I kissed her right on the front porch.
​At first she struggled, trying to pull away. But as I deepened the kiss, she relaxed into to my side and let me finish. I wrapped my fingers in her hair and she sighed against my lips. She was shaking when I pulled away, and her lips were flushed brightly,
​"Um," was all I could say as she looked at me. She smiled slightly, and rubbed her lips.
​"Well, uh," Des couldn't even describe what had just happened there.
​I just stared at her, and laughed at her speechlessness.
​Without a word, she abruptly turned and walked inside her apartment. She moved to shut the door and leave me outside, but I held it firmly and looked her in the eyes. She gave up quickly, and I followed her inside.
​* * *
​The man watched the whole interaction as it took place on the porch, hands clenched at his sides. His blood boiled as he saw Charlie kiss her, and he wanted to do nothing more than shoot him right then and there. He doesn't deserve her, the man thought as they parted and walked inside.
​Sneaking around the building, the man turned to watch them in the house. They stood in the kitchen, just watching each other. Des was looking at the floor as she said nothing. The man could see the indents on her lips from where they can been kissed, and he got angrier.
​The gun was sitting in the bottom of the man's pocket, but he couldn't take it out now. That had to be saved for tonight, when he would take Charlie away from her forever.
​Turning, the man left the area, and began to change his plan so that Charlie would never walk away again.
* * *
​Des stood in her kitchen watching me. I pulled a chair out and sitting, watched her reaction. Des refused to look at me, and instead we just waited in that awkward silence.
​"Des, are you going to speak to me?" I asked her playfully, but she said nothing.
​I stood up and walked until I was face to face with her again. Taking her face between my hands, I made her look at me. "I care about you," I began, but she pushed me away and walked to the front door. "Des!" I yelled. "Will you just listen to me?"
​"No, I can't," She was starting to cry again. "I can't be with you Charlie, not like that, not right now,"
​"Why not?" I was flabbergasted. I knew she like me, she had to.
​"Because it seems that whenever I turn a corner, someone I care about is hurt. I put everyone in danger by caring about them. When I let the shields come down, then I get shot right back to where I was. Look at what happened to my parents,"
​Des slipped down to her floor and took her face in her hands. I ran up to her and kneeled. "Hey, shush, it's going to be fine," I tried to hold her, but she pushed me away. "We take care of each other, alright? I care about you Desiree, in a way that even I cannot understand. I would die if something ever happened to you, and seeing you like this now is killing me," I grabbed her face again, and she looked at me with her mascara running down her face.
​"I care about you," I said again, feeling more confident. Before she could even rebut, I kissed her first on the forehead, then on each cheek, and finally, on her lips. Des tried to turn her head, and then the fight went right out of her. She gave into my touch, and kissed me back.
​Time seemed to stop when she finally accepted what we were. A team like us never gave up on each other, and she finally seemed to get that.
​I twisted my hands into her hair, and she groaned. Lifting her in my arms, I carried her to the couch and gently sat down. Pulling away from her, I kept my hand in her hair while I watched her.
​Des sat with her legs intertwined with mine, and she moved her hand to grasp mine. "I just don't want anyone to get hurt," was all she said before I stopped her.
​"I know what I am getting myself into with you OK?" I squeezed her hand and flipped on the TV. The clock on the screen read 2:45. "We need to get a move on if we want to do this tonight," I turned to look at her and she was already moving.
​Grabbing her gun that lay on the end-table, she clicked the bullet into place. "I'm ready," was all she said, and we both stood. I grabbed the door for her, and we left, heading once more to the Empire State Building.
* * *
​The man watched as the two hailed a cab and drove away. Watching them hold hands and smile made him want to puke. Grabbing his gun in his pocket, the man hailed a cab of his own and followed them all the way to the city.
​He had the driver leave him a block away from the building, and from where he stood he could see them as they walked inside. The man walked over to a Caribou and picked up a coffee before ducking into the building after them.
* * *
​Once we reached the 50th floor, I left Des to go to her office and fill it again while I walked down to the chief's office. He was talking with Victor and Danny when I arrived, discussing possible plans for tonight. "We could try and ambush the guy when he is leaving the house," Danny was saying when I entered the room. They all stopped in surprise when I entered.
​"Whoa, man, we weren't expecting you back for hours. We thought that Des was going to keep you locked up for hours," they all began to laughing high-five each other as they watched me sit down.
​"So man," Murphy looked at me, a smirk lining his beard filled face. "Did you kiss her?"
​"Yes, yes he did," Des was leaning up against the doorway when they all jumped up in surprise. Murphy turned a lovely shade of purple as she walked up and patted his hand. "So," she said turning back to the rest of us. "Here's what we are going to do," she closed the door, and we remained locked up in that office until it was time to leave. Dressed up in black, the 5 of us looked like ninjas as we climbed into the Chief's private car. Victor took his truck and Danny ran back towards the building, grabbing pagers for all of us. I sat by Des and grabbed her hand as we drove away. "We are going to be OK Des," I looked her straight in the eyes as she smiled at me. Caressing her face, I hope to the Lord that I was right.
* * *
​The man followed them as they left the Empire State Building, gun in his hand. He was dressed in black from head to toe, and blended in with the night easily. He hailed a cab and directed him to his apartment.
​Walking inside, the man grabbed his shot of Bourbon and slung it back. He stumbled around the room as the alcohol began to affect his system.
​The freezer door opened with groans as the man hauled his package out. The body slumped in the large garbage bag that it was stuffed into. The man carried it over to his doorway, grabbing his car keys as he went.
​This would prove to be an exciting evening.
* * *
​When we pulled up to the house, it was dark and empty. Des quickly jumped out and began to walk the perimeter, looking for any place they could use as hiding cover. I walked around the other way, and spied a tree that hovered directly over the house. "Hey Des!" I yelled, and she came running over. I walked the expanse of the tree, and found little nobs leading up to the top. If I had help, I could boost someone up there to hide. "Come here for a minute Des, I want to try something." I grabbed her wrist, and she seemed to understand. I hoisted her up onto my shoulders, and while she reached for the branches above, I helped her move her feet to the nobs that lined the tree.
​"I can almost reach it," Des' hand clamped down on the last branch and pulled. Her feet left the last nob and she was in.
​"What can you see?" I asked her from below.
​Climbing all over the tree, Des tried to get in a comfortable position to look into the house. The shadows danced over her little frame, and soon, she blended in with the leaves.
​"Des?" I shouted up at her. "What's going on?"
​"I can see directly into the house," she looked down at me. "There is a window that shows everything that will happen in the main part of the house. If one of us is up here, we could really see him," I punched a hand into the air, happy to make a break through at last. "I don't want to be the one in here though," Des started to slide down the branches. She moved to jump down the last few feet, and I caught her before her feet touched the ground. "Thanks," she said, without looking at me.
​She took off running to find the other guys while I walked around the rest of the house. There were some bushes near the base of the house that maybe one of us could fit into.
​When I made it back to the rest of the guys, Des had already made plan and an order that everything was going to happen. Victor was to sit in the tree hideaway, and give the signal when the man walked into the house. Murphy was going to hide in the bush that I had spied earlier, and act as the backup man should his boxing skills be needed. Danny was going to be waiting in the car, ready to follow the man should he try and escape. Des and I were to hide in the house and trample the guy the minute he got in the house. And if that didn't work, we had a whole patrol of cops waiting around the corner in squad cars to catch the guy. He wasn't getting away so easily this time.
​"Does this make sense to everybody," Des asked and we nodded. "Ok people, let's do this." She walked away, and we all headed to the car for a last rally before the show really started
* * *
​The man laughed at the childish group lounging before him. They were all laughing by their car and had no idea what he had planned for them. He walked up to the rear of the car and snuck around until he was opposite them. With an expert flick of his wrist, he flattened two of the tires using the knife tied to his calf. They wouldn't be chasing him anywhere. He snuck out the back of the car, and when Charlie waved at him and started walking towards him, he paused.
​"Hey man," he said nonchalantly. The man was slightly nervous. "I am so ready for this," Charlie was saying. "I swear, the moment I get my hands on that guy I am going to kill him," the man mumbled a small agreement and ran off, saying his bladder needed relieving. Charlie laughed, and the man was gone again.
​Walking around the house, he jumped into the tree that he knew would be occupied that night. Taking out a clear liquid, he poured some all over the branches. The leaves absorbed it immediately, and the man smiled. Whoever touched these tonight would become extremely tired within minutes, and would promptly fall asleep on the job.
​Jumping down, the man walked over to the bush where he knew another person would be stationed. He applied some of the same liquid to the leaves, and then walked on, ready to get his delivery.
* * *