The Shepherd's Crook Pt. 01

"Fuck that noise!" she laughed as she skipped back to grab hold of the push broom's handle. Some delinquent construction worker left it for her, leaning it up against the wall. She gripped the pole tightly and drove her heel against the spot it screwed into the bristle head. Wood cracked and split.

Suddenly, she had herself a makeshift quarterstaff.

His eyes flashed wide then the blunt end of the broom handle connected with his Adam's apple in a sharp jab. He choked and stumbled back.

Darius tried to fend off the pole with one hand as the other went to his throat. He attempted to call out but only managed a weak croak.

Trish spun and whipped the staff against the fingers of his outstretched hand, breaking three. He squeaked and yanked his broken hand back as his good one reached for the darting broom handle. His croaking got louder, so Trish struck his throat once more with the blunt end of her weapon.

He gasped and finally caught the end of the pole with his uninjured hand. Trish used his grip to brace herself while she dropped and spun in to deliver a vicious heel strike to the side of the knee on his planted leg. As it was carrying his weight, it gave with a sharp, tearing pop. He staggered and lost his grip on the broom handle.

Trish spun the shaft and jabbed the jagged, splintered end into his right eye. She was rewarded with a high pitched wheeze as the orb popped.

Blinded and in intense pain, Darius staggered forward, and she threw herself down and under his sweeping grab. She rolled behind him and thrust the blunt end of the stick back towards Darius. It struck his inner thigh and quickly slid upwards to catch him in the balls.

With a pained grunt, he collapsed to his knees and fell forward, bouncing once on the dusty concrete. He slipped under the 2 x 4 boards bolted across the opening of an elevator shaft. His forward momentum made him begin to slide into the opening. At the last second, he frantically hooked his arm around the wall next to the opening, as the rest of his body slipped over the lip. He clung to the wall with all his strength.

Trish climbed to her feet as she looked to Darius struggling to keep from falling into the shaft. "Shit," she sighed. She'd intended on beating him unconscious, but now she was stuck. He was too heavy for her to pull up and if she called for the guard, he'd shoot her.

"Help me..." Milonas croaked. The arm he'd braced against the wall was the one without broken fingers, but his leg on that side had torn knee ligaments. He couldn't use it to pull himself up. When he tried, he loosened his arm's precarious grip. He was gasping and sputtering as his grip began to slip in the dust.

She looked down into his desperate eye and thought of the lives he'd probably destroyed. He was no longer her primary concern. "No."

Trish sprinted back to the table and pulled the gun from the pocket of his jacket. She knew how to shoot, but she wasn't a crack shot like Catherine. She wished the tall blonde was here with her. She ducked down behind the chair covered by the jacket. It blocked the view of her from the opening in the plastic sheeting. She looked over to where Darius struggled to climb out of the shaft. She could see the desperation and terror in his remaining eye.

With a sudden puff of dust, his grip on the floor slipped, and his head disappeared as he dropped away.

His scream was surprisingly high pitched, but it cut off suddenly.

Trish watched the opening in the plastic with the gun held out before her in both hands. The guard slipped through the gap, his machine gun clutched tightly in his hands.

Her shot was deafening from under the table, but the guard dropped bonelessly as the bullet punched through his heart.

Trish waited a second then rushed forward to collect the machine gun.

This was a first for her. She'd actually killed a man, two if she counted Milonas. She knew she'd beaten Eli Sturn unconscious, but the blow that killed him hadn't come from her hand. Maybe she could consider Milonas the same as Sturn, but looking down at the dead guard's body, she couldn't deny this guy was her first deliberate kill. She didn't want to do anymore. That said, she didn't want the others to come to investigate but how could she stop them?

-=-

When the guard's lifeless body hit the sidewalk like a bag of wet cement, the goons standing by the cars jumped for cover. When no further bodies fell, they slowly came out and stared at the broken and twisted thing.

Then they looked up.

The crazy redhead with the big tits was waving at them with the guard's weapon in her hand. They ran for cover again. A quick discussion behind the vehicle and they all agreed. Darius must be dead. The scream they'd heard earlier must have been him, not the redhead as they'd all assumed.

It was time to leave.

-=-

Trish watched the cars quickly head for the gate and collect their colleague before driving away. She walked back to Darius' jacket and found his cell. It was locked, but she'd be able to make an emergency call. She wasn't going to put Ben at risk as he still had at least one gunman and the blonde bitch watching him. She'd trust Ben to take care of himself.

She couldn't tell the police where Ben had gone so she'd have to play dumb. She unzipped her top a little more and tugged down her sports bra to make her girls bulge upwards.

Now she was ready.

She hoped Ben was safe.

-=-

The bank's architecture was imposing, and Ben was finding himself distracted by the arches, high ceilings, and antique moldings. The vault was huge, and his engineering instincts were tingling like mad. He was also nervous for Trish, but he had to trust that she could take care of herself and keep out of trouble until he could return to her.

When they'd arrived at the bank, only Liliya and Ben had gone inside. The silver SUV with its driver and armed escort would wait to take them back. As they'd walked, Ben glanced over at Liliya, trying to get a read on the tall blonde. Undeniably lovely, she moved... like Trish; like power held in check. This didn't detract too much from the image of elegance she was striving to portray; most people would end their assessment at her beauty. Ben, however, was surrounded by beauty and looked closer. Her long red leather coat and tall boots hid her body, but her movements suggested her svelte form was all muscle. He wondered if the circumstances were different, would she and Trish share enough interests to find some common ground.

Once inside, he introduced himself and Liliya to the clerk responsible for managing the safe deposit boxes. Ben showed his documentation as Walter instructed. After a tedious period of reading and signing documents, the clerk finally escorted them into the vault. Now, they used their keys to open the locks, and the clerk pulled a long box from the compartment and handed it to Ben.

Liliya shared a glance with Ben then followed the clerk to a private room to view the contents. Once they were alone, they looked at the long metal box on the table before them. Ben saw the slightest tremble run through Liliya's body. She reached for the lid, but he pressed a big hand down on it as his eyes caught hers.

"Is Trish going to be safe when we bring back the ledger?" he asked.

Something flashed in her eyes and his gut clenched. She was afraid. Not of Ben, but for Trish.

"We should return, soon," she answered quietly. Ben heard the warning and lifted his hand. She reached for the lid again. "Rainor did not like paper. Will be memory stick," she said. Her accent was getting thicker with her tension.

"How well did you know Rainor?" Ben asked.

She paused, looking at the tension in Ben's jaw. "Well enough to know how he worked... and how he fucked. Not well enough to know he had wife. Darius say stay close to him. He wanted to be sure Rainor would not do what he did do. I read him wrong. I... paid for mistake. So many mistakes." Her expression was bleak before she caught herself and forced the stiff smile back in place.

Ben sighed. Damn, she was another woman in distress. For Trish's sake, he was going to have to look the other way. Trish was his only priority.

Liliya lifted the lid and reached in to pull out some rolled bundles of paper. After a cursory glance, she handed them to Ben.

He looked closer and saw they were deeds. He accepted the last of them from Liliya's hands as she went back to searching the box. He read the titles of the papers, and there were seven separate deeds for property in Germany, France, Hong Kong, Singapore, Russia, England, and the US. He'd have to do a little research on the addresses, but he was likely looking at a sizable fortune in real estate.

Liliya made a sound of relief. She pulled her hand out of the box holding a tiny silver object. It had a USB connector so she'd found the memory stick.

"Is that it? Can we go?" he asked, conscious of how long they'd been away from Trish.

Liliya pulled a small tablet from an inner pocket of her jacket. She turned it on, and once it was booted, she connected the memory stick.

When the folder opened, it showed a series of image file icons. There was nothing else on the stick.

"Images? Shouldn't a digital ledger be a spreadsheet or a document file?" Ben asked.

Liliya glanced nervously at Ben and nodded stiffly. She tentatively double tapped on the first icon, and the tablet opened the image file.

She gasped as she stared at the screen in shock.

Ben saw the image was of an older man with a stocky build and close-cropped grey hair. His barrel chest was matted with grey curls. He was standing at the foot of a large bed, taking his clothes off. The camera must have been positioned on the headboard aiming down the bed. On the mattress was a dark-skinned young man with long, wavy black hair. He was naked and quite erect. Liliya swept her finger across the picture to the left, and the next image file appeared. The older man was naked now, and the young man had taken his cock in his mouth. The older man's head was thrown back in bliss. She flipped through the images faster and faster, and Ben saw the young man had performed a number of sexual acts for his lover. The photos were quite clear and explicit. Their faces were clearly visible if these images were for blackmail purposes which Ben suspected.

In the last few, the activity on the bed took a dark turn. The older man was choking his partner then broke his neck.

Ben's eyes caught sight of something familiar in the background of the last image. It was so distinct and jarring it took a few minutes for him to place it.

On the wall next to the door to the bedroom, hung a painting. A clown's sad face watching the activities on the bed.

"Geezus! That's Rainor's bedroom in his Berlin condo!" Ben exclaimed as he pointed to the painting. He saw the room's layout matched as well. The bed's footboard, too.

Liliya's pale skin had gone pasty, and her face held a stricken expression. "We should not have looked at these," she mumbled to herself. She shut down the tablet and pulled the memory stick. These went into the inner pocket of her coat. Then she turned a fierce gaze at Ben. "Tell no one what you saw." He nodded.

"What about the ledger?" Ben asked tensely.

"Is not there."

"What does that mean for Trish?" Ben growled, and her eyes told him it wouldn't be good. "If the ledger data was on a memory stick, Rainor might have kept it with him. His key ring is somewhere in Sydney Harbor." Her expression didn't improve.

In desperation, Ben tipped the container up and thumped its end. A rolled black velvet cloth, stuck at the far end of the box, slid into view. He carefully tugged it free and noted it was tied closed with two satin ribbons. He shoved the empty container aside and placed the rolled cloth on the table surface. Undoing the ribbon bows, he unrolled the velvet to display a fortune in fairly large diamonds, ranging from one to ten carats. While there were fewer of the larger ones, there had to be close to three hundred of the pretty stones. All were cut beautifully, and the light they reflected was dazzling.

But no memory stick. FUCK!

Ben looked to Liliya, and saw her eyes were trapped by the vast fortune in glittering stones. He saw an intense hunger there.

His current situation was a nightmare. He had to go back to that monster and extract Trish from his clutches. He had a fortune in diamonds he could use as a bargaining tool. The properties were potentially worth more. There was a memory stick with blackmail images on it. Maybe that was worth something, but he was reluctant to give him the stick. He saw the beginnings of a plan to get out of this alive if he could get Liliya's cooperation.

"Give me your cell phone," he said.

She blinked at him as she tore her gaze away from the diamonds. "What?"

"Your cell phone, I need its camera." He held his hand out expectantly with a determined look.

Liliya found herself handing it over after she launched its camera app.

Ben took several shots of the diamonds to capture the sheer quantity and their brightness. He took one shot of the deeds lined up in a row then handed the cell back to her and rolled the black velvet to protect the stones again. Once the bundle was tied closed, he pushed it into the back of the safe deposit box once more.

"What!?! What are you doing?" she cried.

He ignored her and put the deeds back into the box as well, closing the lid.

"We're going back to get Trish. If you help me extract her, half the diamonds are yours." He thought the diamonds were likely tainted with the crime Rainor had to be involved in to get them. If she wanted to deal with the fallout that was her business but the remaining diamonds were going to the authorities.

Cold eyes held his. "I could take them." She suddenly reached into her jacket for her gun but found herself folded backward and slammed to the surface of the small table. She was dazed for a few seconds. She stared up at Ben with wide, frightened eyes and saw him flinch but his grip remained firm. She hadn't seen him move! He held her throat in his left hand as his right eased the small but deadly gun from her jacket. Once he tucked it into his jacket pocket, he collected the memory stick from her too. He released her and stood back, but he never took his eyes off hers. Liliya sat up and rubbed her throat. She eased herself off the table and watched him cautiously.

He sighed. "You have no leverage. I could see in your eyes that you don't think Trish and I are going to get out of this alive. What you were supposed to collect isn't here, so you've failed Milonas once more. You may be in as much danger as we are. Now that I know what's in the box and you have the proof on your cell, I have something to bargain with for our safety."

Shaken, she opened the door at his gesture and walked back out to meet the clerk once more. Ben put the safe deposit box back into the vault and followed the clerk back upstairs. As Ben sat with the clerk renewing its lease for another year, she racked her brain to find a way to get herself out of this situation and get her hands on those diamonds. They would assure her future.

Ben finally rejoined her, and they made their way from the bank to the side street where their ride would pick them up.

"You must give me memory stick," she quietly said as they waited for the SUV.

"Not until we get away from Milonas," he growled. She frowned and looked away.

The vehicle arrived, and they climbed in. The SUV headed back to the edge of the city in silence.

As they approached the industrial complex, they began to see an abundance of emergency vehicles. An ambulance went by followed by a police car. Ben was shocked to see Trish sitting in the back seat. A huge wave of relief crashed through his body, and he sighed.

"Pull into the parking lot on right," Liliya snapped at the driver.

He did, and goon number three sitting in the front passenger seat looked back to see her pointing her deadly little gun between his eyes.

"You two, get out, leave keys, walk away. Milonas is dead or captured if redhead is with police. You need to disappear. Look for a new job," she suggested with a calm voice. The two men in front shared a look, stepped from the car, and walked away without a backward glance.

Ben looked at her in surprise as she must have noticed Trish in the police car as well. Then he saw the gun in her hand was the one he'd collected from her. She must have picked his pocket while he was distracted, looking out the window. He frowned at his stupidity.

The gun was aimed at him now, and her back was to the door. She watched him very carefully.

"Memory stick, please. Slow and easy."

Ben made no move to give it to her. "You said it yourself. Your boss is dead or in jail. You don't need to do this anymore," Ben replied.

"Weak minded fool was not my boss," she snapped in frustration.

Ben's eyebrows went up in surprise.

Liliya softly sighed as she looked at Ben. "I work for man you saw on memory stick. I infiltrated Milonas' operation to keep eye on him. He was working with Rainor. When Rainor disappeared with ledger, my employer made me stay close to Milonas who hunted Rainor. Tracked him to Australia but then Rainor died. That news made my employer very upset, but he made me stay with Darius to ensure he only got ledger. I- I was not told what he was truly after."

She shuddered, and Ben felt uneasy that the man frightened the woman so much.

Liliya looked him in the eye. "He knows about you. He knows you had access to Rainor's safe deposit box. You need to give me memory stick. Police must never see it as he will kill everyone you love for revenge. We all know who you love," Liliya softly said as she recalled the stories on TV about Ben and his ladies.

Ben growled as his fame was showing yet another side of its pervasive evil.

"It contains proof that he murdered the young man. That could put him behind bars and set you free from him," Ben suggested.

Liliya smiled sadly. "Murder charge means nothing to him. If was proven he was homosexual, he would lose contracts with Russian government, especially military." She paused as she thought about her next move. "We go to bank. You get me diamonds. I must have them. And stick."

Ben tilted his head as he examined the woman before him. "Why are you working for this man if he terrifies you?"

Eyes flashing angrily, she lifted the gun and pointed it between his eyes.

"That won't get you the diamonds," he said, watching her calmly.

Liliya's emotions surged, and uncertainty flared in her eyes for the first time. "You must! I- it is only way." She went silent as Ben waited. Rage flared then desperation, and finally, resignation. The hand with the gun dropped to her lap. "He has my daughter, Rose," she whispered.

"Shit!" Ben raged internally. Outwardly, he struggled to appear calm. "Who is he?" Ben asked gently.

She was looking at her hands in her lap as she answered. "Yuri Gruzinsky. He is very powerful industrialist and will kill to ensure those images never get out. I might have signed our death warrant by seeing them. He will suspect."

"When's the next time you have to contact him?" Ben asked.

"Tonight. If Milonas is dead or captured by police, will be on news. Yuri will want update. He will tell me to return. Tomorrow. I need diamonds!" She raised the gun once more.

He ignored the threat. "Give me your cell. I need to send a text."

Steaming in frustration, she held his eyes but finally gave in. She handed him the phone, and he banged out a quick text.

"Trish will head back to the hotel once she frees herself from the police. Her cell is there as is mine. I'm having her meet me where we ate dinner last night. The police won't know the location. We won't involve them. We'll head to the bank now," he told her, and she sighed.