3 years ago

Louise Allen was Lessa's mom. She was a small woman, made even smaller by the asshole of a husband she had, but with a giant heart. She'd always supported Lessa and I, and Lexie and Willow when they made it official too. Her funeral was a somber affair, with many friends there to support the family through their hard time. I wish I could have been one of them, but since I was supposed to be dead, I watched the proceedings from behind a tree as she was lowered into the earth. Willow and Lexie just held each other, sobbing, while Zac turned and walked away.

I followed the girls discreetly. There was a small reception at the old family home, but they left that after an hour to head back to their hotel. Once I knew the hotel, it was easy enough for me to call Joe and get their room number, and I made my way up to the room, standing outside of it and raising my hand to knock. That was where the hard part came. When Joe had taken me from military custody, they'd informed my uncles of my death, who then told the girls and their mother. It was all fake, obviously, but we needed everyone to believe it. My uncles knew the truth, because they were provided new identities and had moved within a month of that news. But the girls always assumed I was truly dead, which was for their own protection.

But now I was about to reappear, hoping that me coming back would maybe lessen the blow of losing Louise, but also potentially putting them in harm's way. Nothing had happened in the 2 years I'd been reported dead, so I didn't think the risk was high, but I still had to worry about their reaction to me reappearing.

But I swallowed my fear and knocked on the door.

The look on Lexie's face when she opened the door was worth it. "Jesse?" she gasped, her eyes wide as her hand flew to her mouth in astonishment.

"Hey Lexie," I replied with a small smile.

She started sobbing immediately, rushing into my arms and crushing me with a hug. She couldn't say anything, but soon started to hiccup instead. When Willow came to see what was happening, she ran to join us, and we had a little group hug in the doorway. Needless to say, there were a lot of tears between the three of us.

"How are you alive? How are you here?" Willow finally asked. I quickly pulled them into the room and sat on the bed. They both ended up on my lap since neither of them were letting go.

"I got in a lot of trouble after Lessa," I told them in a low whisper. "I killed everyone at the place she was held, and then anyone else that I could find that had anything to do with it. But I got caught. I thought I was going to jail, or I'd get the death penalty, but I was bailed out by some other people. They wanted me to work for them, but that meant being dead. They faked my death, and let everyone know, and I had to stay away from everyone to keep them safe."

"But you're here now?" Lexie asked while burrowing into me.

"Just for a bit. I can't stay, it's too dangerous to you with what I do."

"You're still doing the same thing?" Willow was wrapping herself around the two of us and it was nice to hold them. In the time immediately after Lessa's death and her funeral, we'd all grown even closer with the shared grief, and it seemed like now was more of the same. I hated that we always seemed to gather at the worst of times.

"I am. There are a lot of bad people out there, and they don't always get punished. But I make sure they do."

"Like my dad," Lexie muttered bitterly. "He deserved it."

"Right. Like him. There are a lot of others like that, some with drugs, some murderers, and some true monsters. I make sure that they pay for what they do."

"But you're safe?" Willow's eyes were full of concern.

"I'm as safe as I can be. But you never know. I tend to have the advantage of surprise and a lot more knowledge though. None of them ever know I'm coming." Those two elements made my missions much easier than they otherwise might be. Plus, I had weapon skills that most of the victims usually didn't, and the willingness to kill them, which their victims rarely did.

"We can't lose you again, Jesse!" Lexie somehow found a way to squeeze me tighter.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry about having to do that, and I'm so sorry about Louise. She was such a good person."

I spent the night with them in their bed, their bodies draped over mine as though they were afraid that I'd disappear on them again. It was comfortable, and I knew that if I allowed myself to, I'd realize I loved these girls. But love didn't have much of a place in my professional life, so I let that go.

I had a single tracking bracelet, and while it was supposed to be used by me in case I needed help and Joe could come find me, I gave it to Lexie. I hoped that if anything ever happened to them, she'd have a chance to use it, and I'd come rescue them. I was about to put that to the test.

Present day

If not for a traffic accident, I would have made it to Zac's house before he did. No, not an accident with me, but one in the median of the highway that blocked everything. As much as I wanted to drive around it on the shoulder, since I didn't want the girls alone with Zac or to be transferred to someone else and get away, I didn't because there were too many cops around and that could have slowed me even further. But it only delayed me a few minutes, and I was able to double check that the tracker was indeed at the old Allen family homestead. Putting my foot to the floor, I drove as quickly as I could through the side streets, arriving at the house about 20 minutes after the tracker stopped moving. I only hoped I wasn't too late.

I slipped out of the car, reaching behind my back, my hand on the hilt of one of my combat knives. I'd had a lot of training in all kinds of things. Have you ever heard the phrase 'Jack of all trades, master of none'? Well, that's me, to a point. Do you need some battlefield medicine? I could do that, but don't ask for open heart surgery. Fly a jet? Sure, I can get you there safely, but don't ask for combat missions. Same goes for a helicopter or a tank. But if you ask me to kill someone, that is where it stops, because that is what I am truly a master of. I don't know if it was motivation, or an innate skill, or just luck, but when it came to weapons, they just felt natural to me.

So yeah, I was going into Zac's place with no gun. I could have gotten one out of the trunk, but I was in a hurry, and I always had at least 6 knives on me at any time. 4 were always on my back, a pair of combat knives and a pair of throwing knives. I also had one in my belt buckle and another in my boot, just for emergencies.

A sharp blade placed in the right location ends a lot of arguments.

Dating Lessa had been rough. At first, her parents thought it was cute, you know the typical kid crush with their daughter and a boy. When my breasts started appearing and it became obvious that I was intersex, then it wasn't as cute. Her father hated it, but her mom was fine with it. When Lexie started dating Willow, then her father started blaming us for turning her gay. Had I known there was an organization that would pay you to sell them your kids, then I would have been terrified from the beginning, but who even thinks of such things? After a while, he let things lie, but maybe that was him coming up with the plan to sell Lessa. He didn't even argue when Willow moved in after her parents kicked her out. Just more money in the bank. Had he just been waiting for them to go off to college to sell them too? Of course, me killing him ended his plan to sell them, but I never considered Zac.

All the while, the youngest was Zac. He was the best kid, at least from their father's viewpoint, because he was straight. But he was also a spineless little weasel. He'd constantly snitch on his sisters, or pick on them, say hurtful things, and then never get in trouble because he was perfect. I thought I'd taken out that whole organization, but I guess not if Zac was trying to sell his sister and Willow. He must have someone to sell them to! I knew what I'd be doing over the next few months.

Zac was also not smart. I know I mentioned that Lessa was a little ditzy, but that was just silly things. Zac was just ignorant, lazy, and not inclined to study at all. So, while their mother died three years ago, I have little doubt that the spare key to the front door was still in the planter hanging right next to the coach light because he never thought to move it.

A few seconds of searching confirmed that, and I opened the door as silently as I could. I closed and locked it as soon as I slipped inside, and then bent down, unzipping my boots and taking them off so I would make less noise on the hardwood floors. I padded up the stairs, checking the doors as I went. The first three bedrooms, all the kids' old rooms, were empty. But when I got to the master my blood ran cold.

Tied up on the bed was Willow. Stark naked on all fours and propped up on pillows so that she would be helpless to stop anyone from taking advantage of her. She was gagged and squirming around trying to get free. But as bad as all that was, what made my heart stop was the sight of the bracelet on her wrist. The one that was supposed to be on Lexie. Was Lexie here? Fuck! I was hoping to find them both!

I saw no sign of Zac, so I walked quickly over to Willow, seeing her eyes open wide in relief as she saw me. I heard the toilet flush in the master bathroom, and I bent down to whisper in her ear. "I'm going to take care of Zac, but you're safe, I promise. Just give me a minute to deal with him."

She nodded her head as well as she could in her position, and I moved over to the wall next to the door. I heard Zac humming, though I couldn't understand the song, and he strode out of the bathroom with a raging tiny hard on and a happy smile on his face as he looked over at Willow.

"I hope you're ready Willow! Time to turn you – "

He stopped talking as soon as he felt the blade of my knife under his ball sack. "I dare you to finish that sentence, you piece of shit!"

"Jes... Jesse?" he stammered. "What are you doing here?"

***

A/N - Joe (and the person he works for) are from the book Suzie Elliot, Evil Genius? and will be in this book off and on. I'll assume that the majority of you haven't read it, so for the sake of this book, just assume that they have access to a lot of technology and money that will be very handy moving forward. On the other hand, you can always feel free to read that book and see what she might have gotten into when she was younger!