Vengeance in Blood (Book 2): Tribulations Read online

  “Yes, it has the best of both worlds without getting into ridiculous prices,” Kenneth said, closing the door, then helped Besseta in the passenger door. “Seems the withdrawals have started.” He smiled and closed the door.

  Kenneth walked around the car and climbed in, looking over his shoulder to see Tiffany pouting. Besseta turned around in her seat and handed a bottle to Tiffany. “Here, before we get on the plane.”

  Snatching the bottle as Kenneth started the car, she announced, “That plane better haul ass.” Pulling out of the garage, Kenneth looked in the rearview mirror, shocked to see Tiffany lowering the empty bottle.

  “Hope she’s a happy drunk,” he mumbled. When he reached the road, Kenneth stepped on the gas, hoping the sound of the roaring engine would satisfy Tiffany. It seemed to have the effect Kenneth wanted, and Tiffany settled back.

  The sun was just peeking over the horizon as Kenneth led them into the small airport. They were soon on the small airplane, and Kenneth found out why Tiffany needed some liquid courage. “This plane is too small and vibrates too much,” Tiffany announced as they rolled down the runway.

  ***

  When they landed in Chicago, Kenneth headed to the duty store and bought another bottle of Vodka that Tiffany promptly drained. Seeing the plane taking them to Boston was much bigger, she let Besseta lead her down the ramp. “Oh yeah, first class.” Tiffany smiled, dropping into the big seat.

  “I have to say I agree with Tiffany on this,” Kenneth said as he sat down beside her. Keeping Tiffany in the middle, Besseta sat down.

  “Yes, I don’t know how you fly coach if the seats are uncomfortable to me,” Besseta told him.

  “Well, the doubling of price has something to do with that,” Kenneth said as the plane pulled away.

  Tiffany reached over, grabbed his chin, and turned his face until he was looking at her. Letting his chin go, Tiffany put the tip of her index finger on the end of Kenneth’s nose. “You need to quit worrying about money, or I’ll kick your ass,” she slurred.

  Besseta busted out laughing, and Kenneth couldn’t understand why. He had a drunken vampire threating to kick his ass. “I’m trying, Tiffany,” was all he could think to say.

  Dropping her hand, Tiffany rolled her head to look at Besseta and slurred, “I say you jump his bones until he forgets about money. He forgets everything looking at you, and I’m sure doing the nasty, he would forget anything.”

  Bouncing in her seat, Besseta just laughed. “You tell him, Tiffany.”

  “You shouldn’t encourage her,” Kenneth warned.

  Tiffany grabbed Besseta’s hand. “Girlfriend, let’s get in that Jag and kick somebody’s ass.” Besseta couldn’t answer because she was laughing too hard.

  As the plane lifted off, Tiffany continued to tell everyone just what she thought of the world. It wasn’t long until Kenneth was laughing along with Besseta. How long will she be like this? Kenneth thought, wiping his eyes.

  By the time we land, it will be wearing off. Alcohol doesn’t last long for us, Besseta’s voice sounded in Kenneth’s mind.

  As the plane landed, Tiffany gripped the armrest, and Kenneth saw Besseta was right. I’ll buy more Vodka on the return flight, Kenneth thought.

  That would be very wise, Besseta answered.

  “You guys are talking without me again,” Tiffany said with her eyes closed.

  Kenneth looked over at Besseta, who shrugged. “How did you know? You’ve had your eyes closed.”

  “Your heart beats faster, and you breathe shallower when Besseta talks to you. I’m not telling you how I know with Besseta.”

  Kenneth huffed, “Now that’s not fair.” He sat pouting as the plane pulled up to the ramp. As they got off, Kenneth led them to the car rental counter, and they grabbed the keys and went looking for the car.

  When they got to the little Ford Focus, Tiffany shook her head. “This isn’t a car; it’s a shoebox with wheels.”

  Opening the doors for them, Kenneth hated to admit it, but he agreed with her. When Kenneth climbed in, he saw Besseta putting the address to the lawyer’s office in the navigation system.

  Following the directions, Kenneth soon pulled in a parking garage some distance from the law office. “Why are you parking so far away?” Besseta asked.

  Taking a ticket from the machine, he said, “So our steps can’t easily be traced if someone tries.”

  “How?” Besseta asked, looking around, and Kenneth tapped the navigation system and OnStar button.

  “Using those, someone could track where we went. That’s why we are going to walk a mile or so,” Kenneth told her, pulling into a spot.

  When Kenneth opened his door, Besseta and Tiffany got out, and Besseta was waiting on him by the time he climbed out. “Are you sure?” she asked.

  “Used it myself many times to track people,” Kenneth said, holding out his hand. “That’s why every vehicle we have, I disconnected them.”

  Kenneth had never before seen the reception Besseta got when they walked into the law office. Two lawyers were waiting on them and led them to the back to a conference room.

  On the table were several food trays and drinks. They shook Kenneth’s hand and guided him to a chair. They took his picture and scanned his thumb. When the two left, he looked at Besseta. “How do they know it’s you? You don’t have prints,” he asked.

  “They’ve met me,” she told him. “Before both of them retire, I’ll come back and meet the next ones.”

  Kenneth jerked back. “Don’t they ask questions?”

  “No, I just tell them I’m the next in line. They have my dental records on file for verification if needed.”

  The lawyers came in carrying folders and started spreading out papers in front of Kenneth. Kenneth looked at the estate value and jumped up. “Four point two billion?!” he shouted.

  The lawyers looked at him in shock. “I assure you it’s correct, sir,” one said. “As well as the escrow and off-shore accounts,” he said, sliding more paper over.

  Kenneth stepped closer, looking at the balance sheets. “I didn’t know numbers could go that high regarding money,” he confessed. One of the lawyers got up and guided Kenneth back to his chair.

  After signing a stack of papers, one of the lawyers gave him a card with two numbers to memorize to contact them day or night. As Kenneth memorized the numbers, the lawyers moved over to Tiffany, and she started signing stacks of papers. Before the three left, they took the card with the phone numbers from Kenneth.

  When the three walked out, Besseta smiled and looked at Kenneth. “Feel better?” she asked.

  “I don’t know what I feel right now to be honest,” Kenneth said, putting his arm over her shoulders. “But I have you with me, so it doesn’t matter.”

  Wrapping her arm around his waist, they walked back to the garage. “The plane doesn’t leave for five hours; let’s eat,” Kenneth suggested.

  “Okay.” Besseta continued smiling as he opened the doors for them.

  Kenneth drove them to the waterfront, and they ate; well, Kenneth ate as they sipped water. After eating, they headed outside and walked along the waterfront. “I still can’t get over how big Boston has gotten,” Besseta said, looking around.

  “Yeah, it’s much bigger than it was the last time I was here,” Tiffany agreed.

  Pulling Tiffany to his other side, Kenneth wove his arm through Tiffany’s. “When was that?” he asked.

  “A few years after the war was over,” Tiffany told him.

  “Which war?”

  “The War of Independence.”

  Kenneth smiled. “One day, I want you two so sit down and tell me about what you’ve seen.”

  Tiffany sighed, “A lot of hardship.”

  Besseta nodded. “Yes, a lot of hardship.”

  They stopped in a park, watching a boy throw a Frisbee, and his dog would run and catch it. “I wonder if Jack and Jill could do that?” Tiffany asked.

  Shrugging, Kenneth casually loo
ked around and said, “If you have the patience.”

  Watching the dog jump up and catch the Frisbee, Besseta shook her head. “Bonnie and Clyde aren’t learning that; they may get hurt.”

  “Oh, I didn’t think of that,” Tiffany said as Kenneth guided them away. “I want to watch,” Tiffany protested.

  “Let’s walk some,” Kenneth said, leading them to the sidewalk. Besseta looked up at him, and Kenneth’s eyes were looking everywhere, but his head wasn’t moving. She couldn’t hear his thoughts because they roared in her mind as Kenneth’s mind darted around. Suddenly, Kenneth stopped in front of a store window.

  “You’re looking at cameras?” Tiffany asked.

  “Yeah,” Kenneth said in a distracted voice and Besseta looked back up and saw what Kenneth was doing. He was using the window like a mirror. “Shit,” he mumbled.

  “Damn it, Kenneth, calm your mind. I can’t hear shit,” Besseta huffed. “You’re thinking a hundred thoughts at the same time.”

  Almost knocking Tiffany over and yanking Besseta’s arm off, Kenneth headed for the door of the store. Walking inside, Besseta found it was a small, family-owned drugstore. Kenneth let them go, grabbed a blue basket, and took off down the aisles.

  They followed as Kenneth seemingly grabbed items at random and threw them in the basket. “Kenneth, I’m getting pissed,” Besseta said, following him thinking she had been patient enough.

  “Saw a man out there following us from the restaurant,” he said in a low voice, heading down another aisle and grabbing a backpack. “I’ve just had a feeling since we got to the restaurant I was being watched.”

  Besseta grabbed his arm and stopped him. “Baby, I can’t hear anything except normal thoughts around us. You, I hear roaring. I don’t know how anyone can remain sane thinking that much at once.”

  “Every time we changed direction, he phoned someone,” Kenneth said, turning around and grabbing more stuff. He led them to the window with the cameras and pointed at one. “Don’t look right up; bring your head up enough that you can see outside, but look like you’re looking at the cameras,” Kenneth told her, and Tiffany stepped up and did the same.

  “On the bench second to the right,” Kenneth said.

  “The one with black hair?” Besseta asked. “I don’t hear anything but the old woman beside him.”

  “Yeah, the fucker that looks like a Hollywood model,” Kenneth said, picking up a camera.

  Leading them away, Tiffany stopped and put her hands on her knees. “Oh shit.”

  “Act normal, Tiffany,” Kenneth said, grabbing her arm and pulling her to the front of the store. “When we get outside, smile and act normal like we don’t know shit.”

  “What the fuck is an incubus doing here?” Besseta whispered.

  “Following us,” Kenneth replied.

  Besseta looked up. “The odds of him just being here are astronomical.”

  “They somehow tracked us,” Kenneth said in a low voice, walking to the register. He put the stuff down as an old man walked up behind the counter. Kenneth pulled out his wallet. “Sir, we are in a hurry. Is the stuff I have here worth more than five hundred dollars?” Kenneth asked.

  The old man laughed. “My goodness, no, son.”

  Kenneth pulled out five one-hundred-dollar bills. “Here, sir, keep the change,” Kenneth said and dumped the contents of his basket into his backpack. He closed it and put one arm through a strap then tossed it on his back, pulling the girls outside.

  “Are we going to the car?” Tiffany asked, smiling.

  “No, they are probably set up there by now,” Kenneth said, walking along the sidewalk. He stopped at a bench, pulling off the pack, and pulled out a bottle of water. “Drink,” he said, pulling out the camera.

  Stepping back, the girls smiled at him as he took pictures. Laughing, Kenneth stepped back over. “There’s more following further back,” he said, throwing the camera in the pack.

  “They know I can read thoughts,” Besseta mumbled with a smile.

  “Seems that way,” Kenneth smiled.

  Tiffany put her arm around Kenneth’s. “You think it was the lawyers?”

  “Hell no,” Kenneth said. “They don’t want to lose that much money. I didn’t feel like I was being watched until we were inside the restaurant.”

  Throwing her head back, Tiffany laughed and looked up at Kenneth. “Then how the hell did they find us?”

  “Don’t know, but I’ve got some theories,” he said.

  “Is that what the hundred thoughts blaring in your mind are about?” Besseta asked.

  “Some,” Kenneth admitted. “The rest are trying to outthink them.”

  “Well—” Besseta stopped as Kenneth almost pulled her off her feet.

  “Taxi!” Kenneth shouted, stepping out in the road. A taxi stopped, and Kenneth opened the door, letting them get in first. When he climbed in, he pulled out his wallet and handed the driver a hundred as he said, “We’re just sightseeing; just drive us along.”

  “Sure thing, pal,” the driver said, taking the money, then pulled out in traffic.

  Besseta looked up at him. “I know I’m little, but quit tossing me around like a rag doll.”

  “Sorry, but someone stepped out in front of us several blocks down.” With his hands in his lap, Kenneth pointed at the window.

  Cutting her eyes, Besseta saw two men on the sidewalk looking at them with one on a cellphone as they passed by. “How in the hell did you know? They had to be like four blocks away.”

  “They were out of place,” he said, digging stuff out of the pack. He ripped items out of their packages open and put them in his pockets. Then Kenneth pulled out a map of Boston and looked it over. He leaned up to the glass. “Can you take us to this museum?” he asked the driver.

  “Hey, bud, you pay, I’ll take you to the pyramids,” the driver laughed. Kenneth passed him another hundred. “Have you there in ten minutes,” the driver said, stomping on the gas.

  Closing the backpack, Kenneth sat back, looking at the glass between them and the driver. “Shit, it’s Homeland,” Kenneth mumbled. Seeing Besseta look up at him out of the corner of his eye, Kenneth nodded toward the glass separating them from the driver. “Look at the reflection in the glass behind us. Three cars back, a black SUV with two men up front and one in the back. Six cars back, blue car with two men in it,” Kenneth told her.

  “What the hell,” Besseta mumbled and grabbed Kenneth’s hand.

  “How fast can you run now?” Kenneth asked.

  Besseta looked outside at the clear blue sky and bright sunlight. “Not far without feeding several times or fast enough to get out of Boston carrying you.”

  “Without me,” Kenneth corrected. Besseta squeezed his hand hard, making him wince.

  “I’m not leaving you,” she growled in a low voice.

  Kenneth looked down at her. “I can get out; this is my game now. It would be easier alone, but I can get us out.”

  Sighing, Besseta said, “Tiffany wouldn’t make it as far as I could.”

  “Okay, now I want your promise to listen to me,” Kenneth said as the driver took a sharp turn. Kenneth laughed, seeing neither of the cars following them make it. “You stay behind me and follow my lead.”

  “I’m the one that can’t get hurt, remember?” Besseta snapped.

  “If it was night, I would let you take the lead in a second, but it’s not. Now, are you going to let me lead?” he asked, hearing horns behind them. Looking in the reflection, Kenneth saw another SUV pull out into traffic from a side street. “Shit, they’re converging.”

  “Baby, I’ll follow you anywhere,” Besseta told him, wishing Kenneth’s mind would quiet down some.

  Nodding, Kenneth pulled the pack up his arm. “That means stay behind me close enough to touch my back. If something happens, follow my lead,” he said and turned to Tiffany. “You up for this?”

  “Shit yeah,” she said with a weak smile. “Just get me home to Jack and Jill.”
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  “Consider it done,” Kenneth said as the driver stopped. Kenneth opened the door with the two hot on his heels. Walking in the museum, Kenneth handed the cashier a hundred. “Keep the change for the fine work.” He smiled, leading the two through the turnstiles.

  The girls moved up behind Kenneth as he slowed his pace and stopped at a display with a map of the museum. Studying for a minute, Kenneth walked off at a leisurely pace. “Tell me if either of you hear someone demand entrance using a badge,” Kenneth said in a low voice, walking along.

  “Vampire,” Besseta mumbled, and Kenneth slowed his walk. “I smell one off to our right,” she whispered.

  “They used the east entrance,” Kenneth said, returning to a steady walk among the displays. When he walked past the displays into a corridor that said Employees Only, the girls hesitated for a second then moved up close to him.

  Kenneth walked to a door that read Not for Public Use, Employees Only. Opening the door like he belonged there, Kenneth led them into a long hallway. Tiffany looked around, not liking the white walls of the long hall. Looking ahead, she saw the hall ended in a T intersection. When they were just about to the end of the hallway, four men rounded the corner from the left, blocking the hall. Kenneth didn’t slow as the two men on the outside raised large flashlights and the two in the middle lifted pistols.

  “Freeze,” one of the men with a pistol said. The two men on the outside turned on the flashlights, and Kenneth’s face felt like it was burning. Behind him, Kenneth heard two moans and thumps on the floor. Stopping a few feet from the two men holding pistols, Kenneth smiled, letting the backpack slide off his arm and hit the floor, distracting the gunmen for a second.

  His right foot shot out, kicking the man on the right at the wrist. Hearing the bone snap as the pistol fell out of his hand, Kenneth changed targets. Lunging to his left, Kenneth brought his left hand down just behind the wrist, striking the radial nerve and making the man’s hand go numb and release the pistol.

  Swinging his arm around, Kenneth flipped his hand up, exposing the end of a screwdriver he then buried into the man’s skull and shoved him back into the flashlight holder beside him. Spinning around, Kenneth lashed out with his foot, reengaging the man on the right. Kenneth’s foot hit above the knee, and he used his weight to push the knee sideways until he heard it pop, making the man fall into the flashlight holder beside him. Bringing the screwdriver around, Kenneth buried it into the man’s temple. Shaking the screwdriver to destroy as much brain matter as he could, Kenneth glanced around and quickly determined which of the two left was the greatest threat.