Damien carried Tasha into the guest room he used to sleep in at Dale’s house. He stood and watched Mike place a sleeping DJ next to her before he covered them both. He kissed their foreheads and told them he loved them before he followed Mike out, making sure to keep the light on but dim. Dale met him at the door with a bottle of beer.
“You look like you could use this?”
Damien grabbed the bottle and spat, “What would you care?” before downing a generous amount.
“Look, I know I’ve been an ass about this but you need to understand my side in all of this. Hell, you saw it yourself when she suddenly turned into Terminator.”
Damien ignored the reference he’d used himself, infact, he chose to forget the few minutes that felt like hours where the woman he loved turned into a killing machine.
“I understand, more than you know, but you didn’t need to make a dig out of how Tasha keeps forgetting her son.”
“Ellsa—”
“Tasha,” he half yelled, “that woman in there is Tasha. Ellsa died a long time ago and it’s time you accepted that; Ellie too.”
He walked away, towards the living room, leaving Dale behind. He groaned once he got there. This didn’t need to get any more complicated.
“What are you two doing here?” he glared at Kris and Daniel.
“We heard there was one hell of a story being told here so we thought as the victims we should also get to hear it,” Kris answered, hands on her hips, chin tilted defiantly up and a sneer on her lips.
“Victims ha?” he frowned, “If I remember correctly, you were never a victim but I’m sure we can rectify that. Elaine?”
Elaine stood from where she sat, “Happy too. What would it be, bullet, blade or my hands?” she wiggled the fingers of her uninjured hand menacingly.
Kris visibly paled and dropped back onto the couch when Daniel pulled her down. “Look all we want is an explanation as to why she’s not in jail.”
Damien turned to Ellie, who was seated quietly next to the two with a guilty look on her face. “And you are the bird who called these two?”
Elaine shook her head, “And she wonders why no one tells her anything.”
“Look, they are my best friends!”
“One who already called the DA to complain about the injustice of it all and the other who took her campaign to social media,” Mike leaned against the wall with a wince, staring at the trio.
Damien felt his whole body go rigid, “Both taken care of already, right?”
“Not fast enough. I give Vladimir an hour to come for us. Two at the most,” Mike responded calmly as he touched his bruised and swollen jaw gently. It grated at Damien how calm he was.
“But not to worry, he won’t hurt any of you,” Elaine assured. A few of them had already gone pale.
“Why, because he’s obsessed with Ellsa?” Ellie asked.
Elaine’s head danced from side to side, “Yes and no.”
“What, she hold a gun to his head and threaten him?” Dale snorted.
“That… and she carved him up like Thanksgiving turkey but made sure not to make the damage irreparable. It was quite artful too.” Mike answered again with his sickening calmness.
Damien choked on his beer and Dale’s bottle hovered over his mouth for a long moment before he put the bottle down. Damien followed suit. Considering what they’d witnessed a few hours ago, he couldn’t call bullshit.
“Why don’t you start from the beginning?”
Elaine reclaimed the seat she had vacated with a groan and a wince, “Mike, the floor is yours.”
Mike’s eyes bore into Elaine like he wanted to choke her then he followed it with a sigh, “I recruited Ellsa right out of college.”
“Why?” Ellie demanded.
“Because she fit what we needed to mold her into what we wanted—orphan, glamorous, unsure of herself and suffering from an inferiority complex.”
Ellie jumped off the couch, anger radiating off her, “That a lie! Ellsa has no complex and she is more sure of herself than anyone I know, with an ego to fit.”
Mike just stared at her calmly thick arms crossed over his chest, “And yet all her boyfriends dumped her for you. You Ellie, were everything that was wrong with her.”
She flinched as if Mike had slapped her but shot back, “So you preyed on her?”
He shrugged, “Call it what you want, but we turned her into a confident woman who quit living in your shadow.”
“Oh really, then why is it all said boyfriends are dead?”
“That wasn’t her fault!” Mike pushed off the wall and shouted, completely out of character.
Damien wondered about that. Dale crossed the room in three long strides and stood in front of Ellie. But Mike went back to lean against the wall, back in his casual pose, calm like his outburst never happened.
“Long story short, we trained her, gave her everything she needed to be the most feared assassin.” Elaine coughed and Mike chuckled, “Alright, one of two of the most feared assassins.”
Damien heard Ellie gasp and Dale quickly turned to her, taking her into his arms.
He said that word again, assassin. Victoria Secret was a hired gun? Damien rubbed his temple, he was getting a headache. “VS is an assassin?”
“Was—and a damn good one for four years.”
“What happened?”
“You happened.” There was no missing the venom in his voice.
Mike blamed Damien for whatever ruined Tasha’s assassin’s perfect score. Dear lord, the woman he loved made a career out of killing people?
“What exactly did I do?”
“You knocked her up. Then all these maternal feelings made her start to question everything even more than she used to. She wouldn’t take an assignment without researching the target first. If she found nothing guilty about her target she wouldn’t do it, but what she would do was hide the target so that no other Widow could ever find them.”
“Be mad all you want Mike but you know she did the right thing,” Elaine offered, “Killing a monster is one thing, killing a kindergarten teacher who just loves to teach kids is another.”
Oh, thank God! “So your targets were bad guys?” Damien knew he sounded, hopefully, naive, but he didn’t care.
Mike cleared his throat fidgeting uncomfortably where he stood, “We called them puppet masters, the guys who pulled the strings and also untouchable. People who the authorities couldn’t touch, we killed.”
“Authorities, like the FBI?” Dale asked and Mike nodded his ascent, “That explains a lot.”
Damien could understand that, but one thing didn’t make sense, “Why would the FBI want to kill kindergarten teachers?”
“They didn’t. Vladimir was taking side jobs; spiteful rich parents who didn’t like their daughter-in-law because she wasn’t from the same social circle or a cheating spouse or high target criminals who want the cops off their back.”
“Ellsa found out and she put a stop to it, in secret at first then she started to recruit other widows and their handlers,” Elaine spoke, “By the time Vladimir caught on Ellsa had already gone into hiding.”
“Hiding? Why, was she afraid for her life?” Ellie sniffed, her eyes wet with tears.
“No,” Damien looked at Mike, “She was pregnant, wasn’t she?”
“Yes. She only told me and I helped her, pretending I didn’t know where she was. Then she went back to work and Vladimir kept her in his radar.”
Damien shook his head, “But wasn’t she already on his radar, way before me?”
“What?”
“The night we met, she was running from him. She had blood on her nightgown and none of it hers.”
Mike chuckled, “Oh that. He summoned her to Miami to discuss Ellie. Apparently Ellsa rushed a job because she didn’t want to miss saying farewell to Ellie when she left for Italy with her class. From what she told me, Vladimir threatened to have her killed in Italy and Ellsa didn’t appreciate that, hence the Thanksgiving carving.”
Damien could see what Mike found amusing about that. “But she was so scared.”
“Just because we are widows—assassins doesn’t mean we don’t get scared.” Elaine threw in drawing a startled look from Mike. What, wasn’t she ever scared? Only cold heartless people weren’t scared, probably why she was assassin number one.
Mike stared thoughtfully at Elaine as he spoke, “She took a calculated risk. She wasn’t sure it would work, but it did because he became fixated on Ellsa.”
Yup, Vladimir was a real loon if he translated attempted murder as an act of love. “Drawing the danger to herself?”
“As long as Ellie was safe. Everything to keep Ellie safe,” Mike sneered gaining Dale’s ire.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Mike uncrossed his arms and pushed off the wall to face off with Dale, “All Vladimir had to do was threaten Ellie’s safety and she would do whatever he wanted. If Ellsa had done what I told her and faked her death, cutting all ties with Ellie before she joined none of this would have happened.”
“So everything is my fault?” Ellie sobbed. She looked so broken Damien was tempted to hold her, comfort her, but that wasn’t a line he could cross. Everything might be straightened out, but he wasn’t going to risk it.
“No, it’s not your fault. It’s Ellsa’s fault… and Mike’s.” Elaine spoke, her eyes screwed on Mike and Damien noticed Mike actually tensed under them. What hadn’t been said?
“What do you mean?”
“Black Widows are women, the men are their handlers because we get into places men can’t. Handlers also do more than keep tabs on their widows.”
Damien clenched his jaw, “What do you mean?”
“Lover, friend, family, they are everything the widows need them to be to make sure they stay happy and never leave the company, and of course get the job done.”
“So Mike and Ellsa…” hell Damien couldn’t say the words.
Elaine’s lips twitched like she was fighting a smile sending his temper a notch higher, “Calm down hot shot. Ellsa wasn’t the type. Some of us don’t like to mix business with pleasure. She never slept with targets or informants either. You’ll have to be narcissistic to fuck someone before slitting their throat. Mike was a friend, nothing more even if he wanted it.”
Damien cursed. He knew it! Mike’s dedication to Ellsa was born out of more than just friendship. Mike leaned back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest to appear more uncaring.
“She considered him her best friend, trusted him enough to make him godfather to her son. Trust no one, one of the fundamental rules in the Black Widows that you had to reiterate, didn’t you Mike?”
His lips pressed in a hard white line in barely controlled anger.
Eyes still on Mike she went on, “You see, Ellsa had become unpredictable, disobedient, rebellious all things frowned upon. She’d earned a new name—the White Widow. She was the punisher of the evil and protector of the innocent, and on the company’s dime. Not good for business. Vladimir was too obsessed with her to kill her—which is protocol—so he did the next best thing. He coerced her into volunteering for a new control chip one of his crazy scientists had invented.”
Damien felt his temper flare. He already guessed how Vladimir got Ellsa to volunteer, but he was praying it wasn’t true. Lord he hoped it wasn’t true! “How?”
“Handlers deliver instructions, orders. Mike was the only one who knew where DJ was so when he disappeared, Ellsa knew it was Vladimir. Mike confirmed her fears and told her what she had to do and she did it. She let them cut into her head and implant two chips. One to control her and the other was a memory chip. No one thought she would survive the procedure, but she did, took weeks in recovery but the guinea pig survived and the tech worked. Only then did Mike tell Ellsa that DJ was safe and Vladimir knew nothing about him.”
“What?” Damien felt his body vibrate with uncontrolled anger.
“I did my job the best way I could. The other option was kidnapping Ellie and torturing her until Ellsa gave in. I got immediate results with DJ and that’s all that mattered.” Mike finished with a shrug. A shrug!