Vendetta - Part ElevenFinding Tom, it turned out, was harder than I'd first expected. He didn't leave a clear trail behind him, no obvious patterns in his day, and there was little proof that he even lived in the city at all. I'd given Lucy a call, to see what she could find, but it came up another dead end, they didn't have any information bout him on file except money transfers. If Lucy couldn't find him it looked like I was going to have to do this the hard way. Just follow him home one night. Brilliant. At least the footwork would do me some good. But the first step was finding him.I'd figured my best shot at that would be staking out my father's building an
Vendetta - Part One"Put that down you fool!" Sean barked at me. I dropped the beretta back on the desk and caught his searing gaze. He stepped slowly towards me with a purposeful stride. I looked away from his fierce face and put a hand on the desk."I, uh, I'm sorr-" He struck me sharply with the back of his hand and I shut my mouth."Sit down Michael." His voice was calmer now, but it lost none of its authority. My cheek still stinging and my face burning with contained rage, I slumped into the wooden chair. Sean pointed to the beretta, a black one with silver dragons on the grips."Is that your gun?" Overcome with a wave of shame, I lowered my head and st
Vendetta - Part TwoThe small garden separating my room from Sean's was a true masterpiece of nature. He tended to it as religiously as he did as his training, and it showed. It was this dedicated love for his garden that compelled him to practice his Tai Chi on the grass every morning, before the sun came up. I often wondered if his routine lifestyle would become a danger, but then I thought that if there's anything out there more dangerous than he is, he would already be halfway to finding a hundred ways to kill it. It was here that I found him this morning, his movements as powerful as they were graceful. And as usual, the beretta was holstered tightly un
Vendetta - Part ThreeDeciding to walk the last few blocks back to my apartment had been a good idea. The fresh air, or as fresh as it was going to get here, helped me get a grip on all that had happened. I still couldn't believe it. Sean was dead. The man that had taught me so much, not just about killing, but about myself too, was gone. And I knew that no matter how many bullets I fired, or how much blood was spilt; nothing was going to change that. But some primal bloodlust in me demanded that someone, anyone, everyone had to pay. I had thought the walk would calm that, but all it did was get me more focused on what I was going to do. Maybe it hadn't been such
Vendetta - Part FourteenWith Jessica gone and my wounds preventing me from going very far, I was more or less confined to my own company. Not that I wasn't used to that.Sick of trying to wrap my head around all the recent events, I tried to busy myself with the little things that I never got around to doing. Now seemed as good a time as any, and besides, it wasn't like I had something else to be doing.Finding myself at a lack of any real chores to be doing, I set to tidying the kitchen, taking my time with the task. I couldn't remember the last time I'd spent this much time in my apartment without something in particular to occupy myself with, and the place seem
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