The Beasts of Juarez, R.B. Schow [books to read for self improvement .txt] 📗

“I heard about all that crap,” he said, “but my little girl doesn’t care about that.”

“That’s why I’m calling to tell you that I’m putting my detective on the job. Cira doesn’t need to remind me of our agreement, nor do you. I made you a promise and I intend to see it through until we find her.”

“I don’t want an ‘hours worked’ basis anymore, Leopold,” Atlas said. “I want your detective working on a ‘results oriented’ basis. You say you have the best detective in the game, well, I want more than just a picture this time.”

“You and I both want that. But as I said last time, if any of this was easy, you would have already found her.”

“I expect more from you.”

“Maybe she’s dug in somewhere off the grid, living in a commune or something, or maybe the people who have her are mountain people, or hill people, meaning no one sees them. This isn’t easy but I’m not phoning it in and neither is my detective.”

“St. Petersburg and Ukraine weren’t easy either, but I delivered.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I’m at your disposal, and I’ll deliver, but I want my daughter back, Leo.”

“I know that.”

“So, your detective needs to do better. He can’t just be some guy who rolls out of bed, scratches his ass then moseys off to work.”

“My guy is not like that.”

“We’ll see.”

“So we’re good then?” Leopold asked.

“We’ll see when the job is over,” Atlas replied. “But I will tell you this, the more I get pissed off at everything happening, the more of a mess I’m going to create.”

“I didn’t bring you and Kiera on to keep things clean,” Leopold said. “I brought you on because of your ability to get things done the messy, bloody way.”

“Is Kiera on this job, too?” he asked, perking up.

“She’s sitting next to me,” he replied.

“Finally, you’re telling me something that eases my mind. Tell her I said hello, and then tell her I feel her smiling.”

“Will do,” Leopold said. “Put Cira back on the phone please.”

“Hey,” Cira said after a second.

“How does he look?” Leopold asked.

“Like a Neanderthal. A little skinny and homeless-looking, but okay otherwise. Oh, and he’s bruised to hell from whatever dog shit sandwich Dicampli is making him eat.”

“Is it really that bad?” he asked.

“It looks like he stood in front of a pitching machine and took about a dozen baseballs to the body.”

“At least I won’t have to worry about you two hooking up again.”

“That all depends on how he looks when he’s cleaned up,” she said suggestively, “and how much private time we have together.”

“Well, this is interesting,” Leopold said. He’d been joking when he teased her about being with Atlas, but he didn’t think that was still on the table.

He looked at Kiera and she was a stone-faced statue, barely even blinking. He waved a hand in front of her face and she didn’t respond. Was she asleep…with her eyes open?

“What do you even see in him?” Leopold finally asked. “The guy is a means to an end, a hammer, someone we call in to kill things.”

“Atlas and I both have something in common, Leopold,” she said. “We’re both tired of waiting for you. Unless there’s something else, we’re about to take off for El Paso. Be sure to text me a rendezvous point.”

“I’ll do that right away,” he said. “And Cira?”

“Yes?”

“If you and I weren’t working together, if I didn’t value who you are and what you do for me and those people we help, it would be different between us.”

“It could be better because of that, Leopold. That’s what you don’t understand. Strong bonds unite, they don’t divide.”

“I’ll see you in El Paso,” he said.

“Roger that,” she mumbled, instantly detached from the warmth and emotion of just a moment ago.

He hit the END button and frowned, facing forward. He hated keeping Cira at arm’s length when she clearly liked him, but he didn’t need more women around him. He needed hardened warriors. Being part of a vigilante assassination squad was a lonely life because other needs had to come before his personal needs, and in this case, today’s need was to rescue four innocents who were snatched up in broad daylight.

He turned to Kiera and she hadn’t moved. He looked at her a long time then he reached out and snapped his fingers in front of her face. Slowly, she turned and looked right at him. He shuddered inside, almost as if her gaze brought with it a sheet of ice that left him cold inside and nervous.

“Atlas said to tell you hello,” Leopold said. He waited for some emotion, anything to indicate that she registered what he was saying. She showed him nothing. “He said he can see you smiling inside.”

And that’s when she twitched. It was ever so small, just a little jump of the skin above her cheek. She blinked then turned away.

“You’re going to be ready to go when it’s go time, right?” he asked, suddenly worried that whatever they did to her, whatever Dr. Holland injected her with, had somehow rendered her into a detached state of being.

Slowly, she nodded her head, and then she closed her eyes and went to sleep, almost as if she was waiting to see if Atlas would be joining them or not.

“You’re so damn strange I don’t know what to do with you,” he said. She didn’t even move.

He finally felt the pressures of this entire op starting to weigh on him. His sleep schedule was a bit messed up, he was slightly hung-over, and now he was about to head into the field with his team, something he hadn’t done before. If he didn’t get his hands dirty, if he was one of those guys who pulled