Joseph
My head felt like it was going to explode. It happened again. These black outs…or more like transferal of personalities. It used to happen a lot while I was in the military. And even a few times in the field.
God…Journey had to witness it!
She looked at me as if I was a monster. She was so afraid of me. I would do anything to turn back time so that she never had to see that side of me. I didn’t even know how to begin to explain it to her.
Hell…I really didn’t understand exactly what happens myself.
One minute I’m in control and if I sense real danger, it’s like I step aside so that a more lethal version of myself can step in place. It’s still me…sort of.
All feeling disappears, my emotions shut off so that I can do what needs to be done. During that time, I don’t feel love, or anger or pain. I feel absolutely nothing. And when my emotions come back on I’m generally surrounded by a pile of bodies.
I pulled up to my lonely penthouse and just killed the engine. I did not want to go in there. I wanted to go back to the cottage where the warmth was. Where my heart was.
Damn, she asked me to let her go…
Of course, I said yes, I’d f***** up, what else could I say? But I had no intentions of honoring that. There was no way. I needed her like I needed air. She did something for me that has never been done. She made me feel love. She breathed warmth into my cold heart. There was no way I could give that up. I’d rather go back to the Navy and enlist for another forty years.
Getting her to agree to stay in D.C. was the first step. She’d gotten out of my car confident that she would be able to be this close to me and resist my pull on her. I chuckled, she actually thought I would behave. I don’t know if that spoke more about the purity of her spirit or the absolute scoundrel in me. I would unapologetically do anything to keep her.
Lie, kill or steal….
That was the last thing I remembered thinking before I woke up, or rather came through to consciousness in handcuffs. I still could not open my eyes. Without a shadow of a doubt I had been drugged.
My father and the strange man that sounded so familiar continued to argue. Were they talking about me?
“You do your part and I’ll do mine. If anyone even suspects that one of the Law brothers is becoming aware, they are going to start making sacrifices to save their own asses and guess who are the lowest men on the totem pole and just right to become the scapegoat.”
“Speak for yourself, senator. This is not my first rodeo. I know how these bastards work, and I’ve prepared for it. If this thing goes south I am a ghost.” The man my father spoke to had a very calm voice, it was so familiar, yet…distant
The memory of that voice seemed just out of reach. I racked my brain causing more pain in trying to place it.
“What about the oldest brother, has he been found?”
“No. I believe he’s dead.”
“What makes you believe that?”
“I have trained them to always come back to me, no matter what. If he was alive I would know.”
“And what about his handler?”
“Also dead.” The man paused for a moment. “Speaking of handlers, when you cut the ties, you’ve got to get rid of the old man, they’ve become too close.”
My father exhaled. “I’ll cut the ties…you regain control of him. If he doesn’t announce his candidacy soon, Jeff is going to come for my head. Macon Technologies paid for a president and a president they’re going to get.”
God dammit!
They were talking about me. I balled up my fists, using all my strength to open my f****** eyes. What the hell was going on? Who was this man my father was talking to? And who the hell was the Law brothers? Where had I heard that name before?
Rome!
He’d asked me if I knew a man named James Bennet Law…my eyes opened.
“Ahhh!” I yelled as a piercing alarm went off inside my head. The pain was blinding. A door opened and my father and a man dressed in a lab coat stepped into the room. I went to look at the man’s face, but the alarm got louder in my head.
“Ahhh!” Gritting down on my teeth I tried not to pass out from the pain.
“F***, do you think he heard us?” My father asked.
“It doesn’t matter, when he awakes from this he will not remember a thing he’s heard.”
I cursed when I felt the sharp prick of a needle. Seconds later everything went black.
***********
When I came to, it was to see Albert’s ugly mug staring down in my face with concern. I frowned.
“Why the hell are you staring at me like I’m dying?”
He visibly exhaled. “You were in a car crash, kid.”
What?!
It was then I noticed the beeping of a heart monitor. I was lying in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm.
What the hell?
“How did I get here?” I asked sitting up in the bed.
“Ahhh!” My damn head was killing me.
“Take it easy, man. What part of you was in a car crash didn’t you understand?” Clutching my head, I turned so that my legs hung over the side of the bed. Confused I looked around.
“How in the hell did I get to the hospital? And what is this nonsense about a car crash?” Albert picked up the remote and turned up the news.
“Breaking News…Authorities say a drunk driver coming down the one way in the wrong direction crashed head on into newly retired Senior Special Agent Joseph Warren’s car doing over thirty miles per hour. We are told that he was
