#achai

Pendulum

Arannek watched the pair turn onto the street, blonde hair streaming out from under Achai's helmet and Vith following close behind. The sound motors faded into the distance before he finally pushed away from the doorframe and entered the shop where Elena waited for him expectantly.

She smelled like cinnamon when he wrapped an arm around her and pulled him in against him. She smiled up at him with warm brown eyes and touched his face. "Can't let him find out the truth, baby. This can't swing back toward us."

"He won't," Arannek said. He brushed his fingers through her bangs, a thumb smoothing over the lines of age that marked her forehead. "We'll keep him in the safe house till this agent gets bored. Then it'll be business as usual."

"And if he does?"

Her eyelashes lowered briefly, eyes on his collarbone and the tattoo there of the club's symbol, the swinging pendulum. She knew what names had originally occupied that place on his skin. Marked over to never been revealed again. Her fingers brushed over it until his hand captured hers to pull it away.

"He won't." Firmly said.

She withdrew her hand, standing up on the tips of her toes to kiss his cheek and murmur, "You know what you have to do then."

_______________________________________

He waited in the garage for Agent Sandoval's car to pull into the driveway. Half a pack of cigarettes, nearly smoked back to back, was all the time he needed before the couple returned home. Sandoval and his young, pretty wife with her perky breasts and ash blonde highlights.

She died first. A shot to the head, a clean kill. Standing in the door to the garage as Sandoval tried to warn her to run. She crumpled over as he screamed. Arranek wouldn't even let him run to her, keeping the pistol trained on his head.

The daughter died second. Arannek took no pleasure in ending her life. No more than he had her mother. Might have even let her live if she hadn't the unfortunate desire to look for her parents.

The pain on Sandoval's face satisfied. Arannek tied him to a sturdy metal cabinet, wrists over his head and pinned in place by zip ties pulled so tight it probably cut off circulation. A dirty oil rag stuffed in his mouth kept him from yelling and warning the neighbors. Arannek wanted the body count minimal, and personal.

He pulled out another cigarette and lit it, taking a long drag and exhaling a stream of white smoke. "You really thought I'd never find out what happened to my old lady, didn't you."

Sandoval glared at him. So Arannek bent over and yanked the oil rag from his mouth. The agent sputtered and drew in a shaky breath. "You sonovabitch. I had nothing to do with that car bombing. That's something your sort does, not mine."

"If you hadn't been seen publicly dropping my wife off, no one woulda gotten any ideas about her loyalties. Or mine."

They stared at each other. Arannek knew precisely what the agent had done. Standard tactic to try to force a club member, or a club member's old lady, to rat on others. Make them seem shady, suspicious, like they were talking to authorities. So standard it rarely worked anymore.

"You did have a rat though. Just wasn't my old lady," Arannek said, and shoved the rag back into the agent's mouth before he could reply. "You tried to turn her, too. You used the info you had from the real rat, and made the wrong people think she was turning. And me with her."

Sandoval tried to stare back at him, but ultimately dropped toward the floor and he heaved a great sigh of resignation.

"Yeah that's right you sonovabitch. You know they had to ID my wife by her teeth? One of my kids was so badly burnt half his body turned to ash when they touched him. He was only eighteen months old. Ain't you got a couple of kids that age? Twins, right? You're lucky they're in the hospital. I read about that shit in the paper. That pretty wife of yours wringing her hands about them being sick."

Sandoval was glaring at him, tried yanking at the ties to no avail. Arannek lifted the pistol, setting it against the agen'ts forehead. He could only close his eyes. Both of them knew what was coming next.

The only thing that stayed the execution was the sudden squall of a child. Arannek glanced up, Sandoval's eyes popped wide open.

"Well I'll be damned. You got them kids home already?"

Sandoval shook his head, face gone read suddenly as he tried to spit the rag out. Arannek yanked it free just for the satisfaction of hearing the agent's desperation.

"Please, Arich's only a year old. Don't kill him, he won't even remember you being here. Just do what you have to do and leave my son alone. Haven't you gotten enough blood to satisfy your revenge already?"

Arannek set the edge of the pistol against Sandoval's forehead and leaned in close. "There ain't enough of your blood to ever satisfy me. I should wipe you and all your family off this earth for what you did to her and my boys."

Sandoval swallowed. "Please. Not Arich."

After a moment to ponder it, he nodded, pulling the pistol back and picking up the rag. "Fine. I'll be right back."

"Where are you go--mmph!"

Arannek heard the metal cabinet shake hard enough to knock some of its contents off and the muffled noises Sandoval made were music to his ears. He climbed the steps to the kitchen, toeing the wife and daughter's bodies out of his way. Carefully he side stepped the pools of blood collecting beneath them. No sense in leaving bloody boot prints behind.

He found the nursery, all done up in powder blues and yellows. Two cribs, one with a baby fussing and the other conspicuously empty.

"Well well, aren't you fucking adorable," he said and scooped the child along with the blanket under it. "You must have gotten your Mom's pretty eyes. Not the greasy gray ones your daddy has."

The baby fell silent the moment Arannek scooped him up, staring with wide blue eyes. Then one small hand reached up to touch a scruffy cheek. "Hey little man, don't even think of trying to charm me. I have your dad in the garage all tied up."

The baby, clueless, suddenly giggled.

Sandoval's eyes could have popped out of his head when Arannek returned, carrying the boy over his shoulder. He'd worked the rag out by then, spitting it to the floor. "Don't. Please. Oh god."

Arannek pulled the infant back enough to look at his face. "What, kill this guy? Nah. Unlike you, he's kind of cute."

Sandoval slumped, relieved. "Shit, oh god. What are you going to do?"

Leaning over him, Arannek set the pistol against his head again. But this time Sandoval was brave enough to stare back at him defiantly.

"I'll tell you what I'm going to do, Sandoval. I'm going to kill you. Then I'm going to take this kid with me. Blood for blood. Life for life. I kill you, your wife, your daughter. And I take this little guy and raise him as mine. He grows up in the club. He'll grow up an outlaw, just like me. And when he's old enough to talk, the first time he uses the word Daddy, he'll be asking for me."

"You sonovabi--" That was as far as Arannek let him get before pulling the trigger.

_________________________________________