Damien hadn’t realized he’d launched across the room at Mike until he felt the grips on his arms. Daniel and Dale were holding him back, pissing him off even more. “I’m going to kill you!” he hissed.
Mike tipped his head in a maybe nod, “You could try, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“So the chip—all the innocent people she killed, it wasn’t her fault,” Ellie practically yelled. The hope in her voice stilled Damien. “Elaine, am I right?”
She nodded, “I was appointed to watch her, see how the chip worked. I became her second handler, a first in the company. Yes, her body wasn’t her own. It was hard to watch, even harder to watch how it ate at her. Her mind was beginning to fracture, but the last push to insanity was when she was ordered to kill Ellie. Vladimir was under the impression that if Ellie was out of the picture Ellsa might actually love him back. Stupid childlike idiot.”
“Is that why she hurt me?”
Dale let go of Damien and went back to his wife. Daniel moved to stand between him and Mike.
“She fought it as hard as she could, but she was losing. For months, she did all she could to push Ellie away without hurting her—physically that is. It was another reason she practically pushed you onto Dale. She trusted him to be your last line of defense when she finally failed… Since she wasn’t obeying the direct order, they decided to convince her into believing everything that had gone wrong in her life was Ellie’s fault. But somehow that blame was transferred to the men who’d threatened their relationship as sisters. She started to disappear and we only realized what she was up to after the fourth victim. By then she’d hidden Stacey-Ann and Ellie—and to her defense she wasn’t in her right mind when she hired those two crooks.”
She then nodded at Daniel. “We found her at his house mumbling to herself, crying and apologizing, begging for Daniel not to die. We realized then that she was completely off her rocker and we had to take her away. I called an ambulance and Mike knocked her out and carried her to the car. But we didn’t hold her for long, she escaped and the next thing we knew Ellie was in the hospital, a victim of a botched fetal abduction. I realized then that she needed that chip removed so I left to find the scientist whom she’d hidden during one of her few lucid moments.” She smiled at Mike, “only to come back and find genius here had let her go.”
“You make it sound like I uncuffed her, let her out of the house, gave her my car keys and bid her good luck on her crazy mission!”
She shrugged prompting Damien to ask, “Then how did she get out?”
“She got out of her cuffs—Black Widow one-o-one—stabbed me in the abdomen, and stole my car. Elaine found me bleeding on the floor. At least she was kind enough not to pierce any vital organs.”
“That’s when she came to the hospital and tried to steal Third?” Dale asked, holding Ellie against his side.
“Yes. Going so long without seeing DJ made her believe he’d been stolen again.” Mike shifted on his feet. “Before she jumped me I was giving her an update on DJ and I mentioned that her nephew was doing well in hospital. I asked her what she did to Ellie and she told me the voice in her head told her Ellie had stolen her son and she was hiding him inside her.”
“Dear God, she really flipped the sanity switch didn’t she?” Kris, who’d been quiet so far piped up.
Elaine shook her head, “No. When I finally found the scientist and explained to him what was happening, he told me the chip was malfunctioning. It had been far from being complete when Vladimir ordered the procedure done. He needed to remove it, volunteered for it, in fact, since Ellsa had made sure his family was safely off Vladimir’s radar. But we arrived too late and she was gone. When we got to the hospital and found the stand off, I knew there was only one way to put an end to everything.”
“You were going to kill my sister!” Ellie yelled in hysteria. She was looking close to losing her mind as well.
“I made her a promise. If she hurt anyone innocent I was to put her down, her exact words. All those men wouldn’t be dead if I’d kept my promise. But even when she shot Dale I couldn’t do it. The red head did the job for me. Once she’d recovered and was sent to the insane asylum, we broke her out when it was clear she couldn’t be helped with that chip still in her head.”
“Her doctor at the asylum, Charles Malkin, what happened to him?” Dale asked.
“He’s playing the role of her husband Tom Turner in her life as Tasha, am I right?” Damien stated earning a smile from Elaine.
“I knew you were more than just a pretty face.” Mike snorted at that.
“Why did you let him tag along?”
“He was pretty convincing on how he could help Ellsa and the idiot was in love with her.” She shrugged, “I figured what was the harm.”
“He beat her black and blue. She could barely move for a week, that was the harm!” Damien gnashed out.
Mike vaulted away from the wall, “What?”
“Where she even got the strength to drive to that motel is beyond me. That idiot is obsessed with her and probably the only reason why he keeps juicing her with that forget drug is to keep her from remembering her real family.”
Mike shook his head, “She has no memory of her past. That was taken care of when the chip that controlled her was removed. There were some complications and her memory suffered for it. Still does.”
“So she’ll never remember me?” Ellie whispered.
“No, she never will. And until we get her through all her triggers, she might just forget her current life.” After a moment of silence he added, “Considering what just happened, it would be a blessing.”
“And the nightmares? When she woke up, you asked her if she had a nightmare and she got agitated. What are the nightmares?”
“They are not actually nightmares but memories. Probably recordings of the worst times of her life post implantation. The last chip in her head is a memory chip.”
“Why wasn’t that removed too?”
Mike stared at Elaine who sighed then answered, “Because removing the first one almost killed her. We don’t want to take the risk.”
“That’s why she turned into,” Damien paused, searching for a better reference but found none. With a heavy sigh he went on, “Why she turned into Terminator?”
Elaine nodded, “We believe so, yes.”
Ellie released a desperate cry and fell into Dale, who held her tight against his chest. By the time this was over, Ellie was bound for a shrink couch.
“So now what?” Damien asked. He was still on the fence about the whole story, but he had no other choice but to believe it if his new family was to come out on the other side unscathed.
“Now it’s my turn,” Elaine stood, rubbing her hands on her hips, “I should have done this a long time ago but, better late than never.”
“I’ll go with you. I owe Ellsa this.” Mike added.
Damien didn’t know what this was, but he had his suspicions. “What do I do?”
Elaine smiled, walked up to him and playfully punched Damien’s shoulder, “Stay alive and out of jail. Killing Tom won’t solve anything. DJ and Ellsa are going to need you now more than ever. One of us will call once the deed is done. What happened today shouldn’t happen again,” she looked at Ellie, “I think we are passed that. But just in case, keep the stun gun close.”
A wistful look came over her face, “I’m going to miss them.”
Damien drew her into a hug. She was stiff against him for a moment before she relaxed enough to hug him back, “DJ and I will tell her about you—both of you. We’ll be waiting… we’ll have a family barbecue to celebrate. By the way, how does DJ know all that stuff about Ellsa and everyone else? He keeps saying his momma told him but, he must have been two when it all happened.”
Elaine patted his back then drew away from him, “Ellsa’s dairy. She started it when she found out she was pregnant. It’s actually a very long letter to DJ. She wrote down everything he needed to know about everyone who would be and were in his life. She even documented how she played cupid between Ellie and Dale.”
Dale shook his head, “She denied that.”
Elaine snorted, “Yeah, she admits to that, she’ll have to admit to how she found out you were going to that bar lounge that night.”
“Why did she pick me, not that I’m complaining?”
“Wow, was that actually a compliment to my psycho sister?” Ellie chuckled, wiping her cheeks dry with the heel of her hands.
“Don’t push it,” he growled then planted a loud kiss on Ellie’s lips.
“She picked you because of Damien. She trusted you were like Damien since you were raised together and came from the same gene pool—on your mother’s side anyway.”
Dale snorted, “Gee thanks.”
Damien gave him a wide grin, “You should be thanking me too, seeing as how your worth was measured against me.” Dale flipped him off in response.
“Why didn’t she pick Derrick?”
With a side smile and a raised brow Elaine said, “I think we know why.”
Damien and Dale exchanged a look that spoke more than actual words would.
“Time to go,” Mike’s voice thundered in the room and without another word, he stomped to the front door.
“And they said I don’t have a personality,” Elaine muttered. She turned to Ellie, “Take care of our sister.” Ellie just nodded with a slight grimace and Elaine chuckled turning to Damien. “Take care them and don’t worry about Tom. I have a feeling Mike will be making a stop over tonight.” With that she turned around and walked away, the sound of the door closing following soon after.