Battle-Hardened, War Weary Ch. 08B

He watched the two women pranced across the living room and to the entrance. He watched the women walked through the threshold. He walked over to the entrance and focused his attention on the two. He watched Carlo's friends walked through the foyer to the front door. They opened the door and trotted out of the mansion. They didn't bother to close the door.

"Come on, man!" protested Carlo.

Ryan stared at his former friend. He snarled at him.

"What-the-fuck, man?!" Carlo yelled at him. "You just scared off prime pieces of trim! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Carlo—

"What's the matter with you?" Carlo walked further into the living room. He walked over to the coffee table and picked up his glass. He had brought the rim of the glass to his lips. As he drank, his eyes had gone wide. "Mmmm," he hummed. He snapped his fingers. He pulled the glass away from his lips and placed the glass back on the table. "I know your problem!" He turned to face Ryan. "You want a black bitch, don't you?" He walked over to where Ryan stood. "Why don't you call up that Kali chick?" Carlo laughed and slapped Ryan once again on his arm. "Yeah, call up that segnato fino bitch!"

Ryan was livid. He felt his body's temperature rise exponentially. His breathing was broken up in pants. His mind was full of thoughts of carnage.

His anger was undetected by the shorter man. Unbeknownst to the trouble that he was in, Carlo continued to speak. "... You need to get over that burnt-up slut, man!" he proclaimed as he stood in front of Ryan. He gave Ryan another slap on his bicep. He chuckled. "If you want a black woman, then you should get you one of those model types. I think we should go—

Ryan didn't give Carlo Rossi another chance to speak. His fist reached out and connected with Carlo's mouth. His thick fingers and hard knots that were his knuckles stung upon impact. Ryan watched Carlo's head snap back, a millisecond later. Ryan's heart beaten wildly while adrenaline ran through his veins. The dark side of his soul craved more violence. He charged at his prey. With his large left foot, he kicked Carlo square in the middle of his chest.

"OOOOOMMMPPHHHFFFFFF," was the noise that Carlo's body made as he staggered backwards. His body made a few steps before he lost his balance and fell on the wooden floor. He grunted in pain after his body made impacted. He glared at Ryan.

Ryan stared at the smaller man. He was a predator and Carlo was his prey. He wanted to maim, torture and then kill his prey. He wanted to eviscerate this pathetic, drugged up swine. He wanted to tear into his flesh, muscles and his bones. He desired to rip the flesh from this putrid bastard's body, so he could take it upstairs to his queen. He wanted to offer the hide to her as a form of an apology for allowing this man to disrespect her. He also wanted to reassure to her that he would never harm her again.

Before Carlo made another motion, Ryan attacked. He pounced on the smaller man and placed his right knee on his collarbone. He applied pressure in order to keep Carlo's struggling body stationary. He grabbed onto Carlo's hair with his left hand. His right hand formed a fist. Once he made his first strike, his mouth let out a roar. He slammed the back of Carlo's hair and flesh-covered skull against the wooden floor. There was a thud sound and it caused Ryan's heart to race. Ryan's fist collided with Carlo's soft face several times. His need for blood and mayhem intensified. With every punch, Ryan felt his member thickened in his sweatpants. His eyes focused on Carlo's bloodied face. He stared at the blubbering mess for a few seconds. Then, he wrapped his hands around Carlo's neck and squeezed. His ears picked up the sounds of Carlo wheezing and gasping. His prey's hands clasped onto his wrists. They tried to pry Ryan's hands off of his neck. Ryan's right hand unraveled and then formed a fist. He doled out a few more punches before choking Carlo again.

"DON'T YOU EVER SAY ANYTHING ABOUT HER, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" shouted into Carlo's crying face. "I WILL KILL YOU! I WILL GUT YOU—

Ryan felt a strong force wrap around his torso. The entity yanked on his upper body and caused him to lift off of Carlo's battered body. His nose picked up on the scent of Old Spice cologne. He growled in frustration after he realized who had him in a strong hold. He struggled against the hold and tried to attack Carlo again. He managed to grab Carlo's left ankle. He held on for a few seconds before he was pulled away.

"NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO--

"RYAN, STOP IT, GOT-DAMN IT! YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HIM!" It was Ignatius, his butler and longtime friend. "RYAN, CALM DOWN, SIR!"

"NO," roared Ryan. He continued to struggle against Ignatius. "LET ME KILL HIM—

"NO, RYAN, YOU CAN'T HURT HIM..."

Ryan leaned against the crib's railing. As he told Kali's "uncles" the details, he felt the anger re-surfaced. His chest burned while the urge of hunting Carlo down lingered in his spirit. He felt eight pairs of eyes on him as he told his account of that night. He tried to ignore the heat that accompanied those glares, as they blasted him on his face.

"What happened next, Ryan?" questioned Jack.

"Ignatius dragged my ass out of the living room and he tossed me into a nearby coat closet—

There was some snickering from the other officers. Officer Red scoffed and Ryan leveled a heated glare at him.

Red tossed Ryan his own heated gaze. He sucked his teeth. "If I was there, I would've done a lot worse than that," he boasted, before he reached into his denim's pocket and produced a toothpick.

"What would you expected the kid to do, Palmer?" Officer Yellow said to his friend. "If the Kid killed that asshole, then what? He would've gone to jail and Kali would've been stuck raising their kids by herself."

Red switched the toothpick to the other side of his mouth. "So we're using out real names now?" the officer said to Officer Yellow. "Why didn't I receive that memo...Sam?" Yellow just glared at Red, in response. "In case you have forgotten, this kid here is loaded. He has more money than God and has the ability to buy himself out of trouble. Hell, he has more money than all of us combined! I'm sure that he can buy himself a fancy lawyer and he can—

"Palmer, my eight year-old daughter has more money in her piggy bank than you have in your bank account," stated Officer Green.

The nursery was full of laughter from the other cops.

"Sam is right," Officer Green declared. "The Kid couldn't kill the twerp!"

Ryan stared over at Officer Green. The cop glared at Ryan.

"We need to..." Ryan and Green broke their eye contact to stare at Officer Orange, who was talking. "...keep an eye out on that Carlo person," suggested Officer Orange. "Someone like that..." the cop sucked his teeth. "He's a mad dog. He is not going to stay down for long." All of the cops agreed to Orange Orange's suggestion.

"Ryan, do you have Carlo's address and his telephone number?" asked Jack.

Ryan turned around to face Jack, who remained in front of the nursery's door. "I have his phone number. It's 9175552309."

"Thierry?" Ryan heard Sam, also known as Officer Yellow, say.

Ryan heard Officer Orange say, "Got it."

The groom turned his attention to Officer Orange. "I don't have his address. But I know that he lives with his grandmother and his girlfriend. He lives in East Elmhurst, Queens."

"As long..." It was Jack speaking. Ryan glanced at Jack from over his left shoulder. "...as we have a telephone number for him, we're good."

"Oh," he mumbled. "Okay."

Then a blanket of silence had fallen over the nursery. The moment lasted for five minutes. It made Ryan nervous. For every second that passed, to Ryan it felt like an hour had gone by. It was Davis who ended the silent streak. When it happened, Ryan was relieved.

"Are we done here because we are missing out on some fun downstairs?" Davis said to his colleagues as he rocked himself in the rocking chair. "While we're up here asking questions, my wife is downstairs and she is wearing a dress that makes me think that she wants more children!"

The nursery was filled with laughter. For Ryan, the jovial nature had lessen the tension that was in the room.

"So, is this meeting over and done with, gentlemen? Do anybody else have something to say?" Jack asked. His questions were met with silence. "All right men, the meeting's adjourned."

Soon the nursery was filled with the sounds of feet shuffling out of the room. Ryan remained in the same spot, which was beside the crib. He watched every man leave the bedroom. As he stood there, Ryan was greeted with either a stare or someone would pat on his shoulders as they passed. Ryan believed that the glares served as a warning to him while the pats on his shoulders were their way of saying 'Congratulations'.

Eventually Ryan and Jack were left alone in the nursery. At first, the men spent an entire minute and thirty-nine seconds just staring at each other. During this time, Ryan's green eyes scanned Jack's stature and demeanor. Then he wondered about the thoughts that were running through Jack's mind.

"You look relieved," stated Jack as he stood in the doorway.

"Huh?" Ryan grunted, while being caught off-guard.

Jack grinned. "I said that you look relieved."

"Oh," whimpered Ryan. "I am!" he blurted out.

Jack released a hearty laugh. Then, he shuffled a bit for a few seconds. "I don't blame you for being relieved..." Jack began to pace in the doorway. Every so often, he would make a glimpse at Ryan. "If I was in your shoes, I would've pissed on myself, to be quite honest."

'Mmm, so I am not the only one,' Ryan admitted to himself.

"I..." Ryan paused. He made a few steps towards Jack. "I actually thought that you guys were going to threaten me..." He stared at the door. "...or do something to me," he confessed.

Jack stopped pacing. He faced Ryan. "We don't have to threaten you, Ryan. You already know what type of people that we are..."

Ryan knew. A strong chill struck his core and it caused him to shiver. In his mind, there were snippets of memories from that night. He grew embarrassed and then angry. He was embarrassed because he knew that on that terrible night, his weakness and vulnerability was exposed. He was embarrassed because he was a victim to that degrading act that was forced on him by Davis. Coincidentally, it was the same type of degradation that his grandfather used to threaten him with. More importantly, Ryan also felt angry at himself.

"... Ryan, you and I can agree on one thing and that's the fact that we both love Kali. We both want to see her happy. When I heard the news that she was marrying you, I was not happy. I wanted to shake some sense into her. I felt like that for some time. Her grandmother tried to convince me that she was happy and that she was safe, but I didn't believe her. Shit, even Sam told me the same thing. And Sam is one of those types of people that has great instinct, when it comes to judging someone's character. But, things didn't sit well with me. So, to have my fears assuaged, I had some people follow you and keep an eye out for Kali..."

Ryan's eyes widened in surprise. 'He... He had me followed? I don't...' Ryan proceeded to think about if he caught anybody following him. He realized that he didn't see any strange person following him.

"...and what I saw was surprising. My fears were finally assuaged."

"You were surprised?"

Jack nodded his head. "Yes, I was surprised." He leaned against the doorway. He crossed his arms. He gazed at Ryan with mirth. "The way that you have been taking care of Kali and the babies is the way that she should be treated. I loved seeing that. On the day of that street festival—

"How do you know? You only seen us for about a minute."

Jack smiled and then glanced at the floor. He stared at Ryan. "Are you sure about that one?"

'So...' Ryan shuffled for a few seconds. He continued to stare at Jack. "Wait a minute, you were there because we were—

"Yes," said Jack. "A few days before the festival, Kali had told Joey, Davis' wife that she was going to the festival and then Davis had told me, so I decided to go there to observe. What I didn't expect was for Mare to unexpectedly show up on the day before and wanting to go to the same festival."

"Well, ain't that something," mumbled Ryan.

"You didn't leave her side for more than two minutes, which I like seeing. You had taken care of her..." Jack pushed his body off of the doorway. "...and you still do."

The nursery was subjected to silence. It washed over the room. Ryan took the time to reflect on the events that just occurred. After a while, he spoke again. "Jack, I want to let you know that I love Kali with every part of my soul—

"I know, Ryan."

"I know that I am a screwed-up man."

Jack chuckled. "I know that one too."

Ryan did a few head nods. "I am working on that as well. I have been attending therapy sessions and next week, Kali and me will be attending couples therapy. Kali's therapist suggested it..."

"Ryan, I understand."

"... We are going to..." Ryan continued to list all of the therapeutic activities that he was doing, as an effort to prove to Jack that he was changing for the better. For some strange reason, he wanted the older man's approval. Unbeknownst to the red-haired, father-to-be, it was mission accomplished.

Jack strolled up to the younger man and clasped his shoulders. With his dark blue eyes, he focused on Ryan. "Ryan, you don't need to prove anything to me. The three people that you need to show are Kali and your two daughters. In regards to everyone else, forget about them. If you are a changed man, then we will all see it, sooner than later. We will all see it eventually..." Jack gave Ryan a gentle pat on his left cheek. "Now let's go downstairs and give you back to your bride before she thinks that I killed you." The police detective took a series of steps backwards and towards the door.

"Jack..." Ryan watched the older man stop walking. He stared at Ryan. "I need to ask you a question and it is about Kali's mom."

The older man sighed. Ryan knew that this subject was a sore one for him. "Okay Kid, what's the question?"

Ryan swallowed and then sighed. "Why doesn't Kali's mom want to see her? She's told me that you visit her mom from time to time and you told her that her mom doesn't want to see her. I just want to know why. You don't have to worry about Kali knowing about this. I am asking this question because of my personal interest."

Jack shoved his hands in the pockets of his slacks. "Kali's mom doesn't want to see her because she feels guilty about everything. She feels that she is responsible—

"She is responsible, in my opinion," commented Ryan.

Jack grunted. "Ryan, I have been a cop for over thirty years. I have come across many sexual abuse cases that regarded children. All of those cases involved a sick bastard who sought out single mothers who were experiencing tough times. They are considered to be the perfect ones because these women need help, love and support. Once they meet these bastards, they believe that they have met their own 'Prince Charming'. They believed that they struck gold because they have met a man who loves them, wants to be around them and wants to be a father to their children. Kali's mother had fitted that bill. She was an eighteen year-old kid, who was a mom and she was also sick as well. Did Kali tell you that her mom is schizophrenic?"

Ryan nodded his head.

"Jackson knew what he was doing. He met Reba and pulled her into his web. To make sure that she was complacent, he also introduced Reba to heroin. Once she was hooked, she was in the position that Jackson wanted her to be," Jack explained.

"Jack, what happened on the day that you found Kali? Officer Yellow told me some things about that day. I know what happened when you guys found Kali and saw the bodies. I want to know what happened to Kali's mother. Why did she kill those people? Where was she during that whole time?"

Jack stared at him. He pulled his hands from out of his pockets. "Are you sure that you want to hear this story? It is pretty heavy."

Ryan nodded his head. "Yes, I want to know."

"All right," sighed Jack. "But I don't want to tell you the story in here..." Jack's eyes stared at the contents that were in the bedroom. "This is the last place that I would tell you this. Do you have another room that we can...?"

Ryan nodded his head. "Sure, we can talk in a spare bedroom."

Jack stepped to the side. "Lead the way, Kid."

Ryan exited the bedroom and entered the hallway. He knew that Jack was following. The younger man walked up to the plastic tarp that hung from the ceiling. He pushed it aside and entered the other side. He held the tarp, so Jack could enter the other side of the hallway. Both men proceeded to stroll down the hallway. They walked twenty-eight feet down the corridor. He came to a halt in front of an entrance that was covered with a plastic tarp.

"We can use this bedroom. Please excuse the mess that is in here. This room is being renovated. Kali and I felt uncomfortable with the idea of sleeping upstairs while the nursery was down here..." Ryan moved the plastic covering to the side and stepped into the darkened room while Jack stood in the doorway. He searched out the light switch and flicked it on. The bedroom was filled with light. "So, I decided to renovate this room and we can have this room."

He surveyed the room. The bedroom was in the final stages of renovation. The walls were painted. The light fixtures were already installed and was working. The hardwood floors was bare and needed to be varnished and then waxed. The floor was littered with saw mill. Ryan walked further into the large room and traveled to the center of the room.

Jack let out a whistle. He strolled into the bedroom and surveyed the décor. "This bedroom is bigger than my entire apartment!" he declared as he ogled the vaulted ceilings.

"Well, I wanted everything to be perfect for her," Ryan explained as he dragged two yellow plastic bins across the unfinished floor.

"I'm sure that she will love the room, Kid."

Ryan silently asked the veteran NYPD officer to have a seat on one of the bins. The officer complied. The younger man sat on the top of the other bin. Both men sat across from each other. They exchanged glances for a moment.

Jack sucked his teeth and folded his thick arms across his broad chest. "On April 28th, 1977" Jack sighed. "My partner, Lewis, and I responded to a call. It was a 'disturbing the peace' call. The offender was a woman. Based off of what was told to us, the woman was five-foot-three, a black woman, she wore a white dress slip and a full-length fur coat over it. We was told that she was covered in blood. The person who reported the woman said that the woman claimed that she was attacked as well as her baby. She was walking down Jamaica Avenue towards 180th Street, shouting that she needed help. A few good Samaritans managed to get the woman to stop walking and they tried to console the woman. When my partner and I arrived to the scene, she managed to simmer down somewhat. We tried to interview her but she couldn't give us any straight answers. I knew there was something wrong with her. I thought that she was on something. I assumed that she must've dropped acid or something like that. She became aggressive and angry later on, when we tried to get her to ride inside of our squad car. Eventually, she was restrained and..." Jack paused.

Ryan was staring at his hands while he listened to Jack tell his story. With every statement that was spoken, he imagined that he experienced what Jack saw and experienced on that fateful day. When he noticed that the older man stopped talking, he lifted his vision off of his hands and then stared at Jack. He noticed that the old detective was looking down at the floor.