Chapter 43: Chapter 43

Chapter 43

ASH

"Ash! Ash, please open your eyes, you're safe now."

From far away I hear my name being called.

This is it.

Judgment day has come for me.

I already know it. I'm going to hell.

"Ash! Open your eyes now, please. Come back to me."

Those words smack of female desperation.

Would an angel tell me to open my eyes and come back to her?"

So. . . .maybe I'm not dead.

Maybe.

It takes grave determination and grit before I'm finally able to pry my eyes open, although they feel like bricks are weighing them down.

That's not the only hurdle I have to face.

My vision is blurred, but after blinking like it's going out of fashion, I make out a form standing over me.

"Ash!"

That same voice calls out my name once more. A woman's voice.

I blink once again and a face comes into view. Long blonde hair and blue eyes are the first things I take in. Recognition sweeps through me and I rear back, shock making my body tense.

"Bell?"

Her eyes flash with an emotion I can only pinpoint as anger. "You don't get to call me that anymore. It's Maybelline to you now."

"What are you doing here?" I try to sit up but slump back when dizziness assails me.

The hardness in her eyes softens and she leans even closer, affording me the opportunity of taking in her vanilla scent. It swarms my mind with memories. Memories that are mostly good. I close my eyes, willing this to be just a dream, but after a few seconds of opening them, she's still standing there, leading me to the belief that this is indeed a reality I can't run away from.

Concern is tattooed all over her face as she leans even closer to inspect my face. "I know you're wondering what I'm doing here with you." She sighs as she straightens up. "It's actually a story that started years ago."

"I've been here years ago?" I'm kind of confused now.

Last time I checked, Guilang's men injected something into my system and I was supposed to be dead, instead, I'm alive and staring at my ex-girlfriend.

Actually. . .

We never broke up.

That figures why she's currently looking at me like she wants to strangle me. Well, she better join the queue.

"You were poisoned." She states matter of fact.

"No shit!" My head feels like it's about to blow, not to mention my limbs feel like molten silver.

"Lucky for you, I gave you the antidote."

I cock a brow. This story, I definitely need to hear.

"A simple thank you would suffice." She's gone back to angry mode as she puts one hand on her hip and scowls at me.

"Sorry, it's just. . . I don't understand what's going on. A little clarity would help shed some light on the darkness I'm currently in."

I pull at the needle inserted into my hand, wincing at the sting it elicits. It's attached to a long plastic cord which is connected to an IV drip hanging on a long makeshift iron rod beside me.

Her expression softens and she nods. "You're right, I'm sorry. I forgot you're still recovering from the nasty effects of Cyanide."

I nod, encouraging her to go on, but my eyes stray to a faded blue curtain which blankets the window, and then to the floor that's got a worn brown carpet on it. The mattress I'm currently lying on feels lumpy and uncomfortable.

"Let me guess. . . we're in a shabby motel in a seedy part of town."

The softness in her eyes disappears once more and is quickly replaced with the former hard glint. "Look, I understand you're used to the finer things of life, but I had to break protocol to save your ass, so excuse me if this place isn't dripping with luxury."

What I'm about to ask might piss her off further, but I'll say it anyway. "Are you a cop, or. . . something?"

My question does the opposite, actually. She seems to inflate, to stand taller as she throws me a look filled with pride as she nods. "Or something."

"So you're not a cop, but you're something more, hmm."

I close my eyes and mull over the idea of what something more could mean. She broke protocol for me, yet she says she's not just a cop, which means she's someone who chases people in my line of business.

People like me.

It suddenly clicks, and that's when I open my eyes and latch onto her face. "So you're a DEA agent."

Even as I say it, I release a chuckle because it's ludicrous at best. Maybelline can't be a DEA agent. Last time we met, she was a drug mule. I notice she doesn't laugh along with me. Her expression is deadly serious as she stares back unfazed.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me."

She sighs as she settles into a chair beside the bed. My heart sinks in my chest as I realize why she's here. I struggle to sit up and she lays a hand on my chest to stop me, but I swat it away. She actually has the gall to look offended.

"You must know - I'm not going down without a fight."

She looks at me like I just sprouted horns. "You think I'm here to arrest you?"

"Aren't you?" I fire back.

"No, Batista, I'm here to negotiate."

I wince on hearing my real name coming from her lips. "Negotiate?"

She nods and stands. "You give me Igor Ivanov and you'll never have to see me again." She shrugs. "It's that simple."

"And Guilang?" I sit up eventually, but my head is still pounding.

"He's dead. One of the DEA agents shot him while he was trying to run away. By the way, you did a good job informing the police about his whore houses. Those girls he kidnapped will be safely reunited with their parents."

"But at what cost? Their innocence is gone." I'm livid about it. No one has the right to infringe their will upon another person.

She turns towards me, and I can see part of her mask has slipped, affording me the opportunity of seeing a glimpse of the old Maybelline, the one Batista fell in love with. It prompts me to know more.

"What happened once I left, Bell?"

She stiffens, and I feel almost sorry for asking. Almost. But I need to know.

"I don't want to talk about-"

"But I do. Before I left, you were a-"

"Nobody." She says sharply. "But I had this." She points to her head and it dawns on me what really went down.

I've often heard of the DEA negotiating with someone on the inside in order to catch the big fish - the man on top - especially if that person knows a lot about him.

"So you negotiated with the DEA and they gave you immunity. They even offered you a role as an agent."

I'm not guessing here. I'm a hundred percent sure that's exactly what happened.

Question is, who did she rat out?

She see's the look on my face and puts her hands up in the air. "It wasn't your dad, I swear."

I shrug. "Frankly speaking, I don't give a flying fuck if it was him."

My father deserved worse than being thrown into jail. He deserved death. Pity he's now dead, otherwise I'd have done it myself.

I centre my attention back on the issue at hand as I look at Maybelline searchingly. "There's something I still don't understand. I died, so how did you bring me back to life, and -"

"Oh, Batista, I've been following you for awhile now, ever since you rose in rank, reinvented yourself and became Ash Thunder, as if you were trying to wipe away the past." She sighs and stands as she begins to pace. "The DEA works closely with the best scientists, and we have at our disposal, ground- breaking drugs, not yet tested, but still quite potent. It's what we use in helping targets."

"Targets like me, obviously."

"I had to take samples of your blood and test them with various antidotes to see which would work on you." I watch as she sinks her head in her hands before turning round to look at me. "It was a race against time."

As if to buttress her point, I notice a stool at the foot of the bed. On it sits a portable rectangular-shaped machine, surrounded by a test tube rack with several tube containers inside it. Many have various liquids in them, but there's just one my eyes zone in on- that one has the colour of blood inside it. My blood.

I honestly don't wanna know more. To change the topic, I ask another question.

"Did you know I would be a target?"

She stands in front of the faded curtains and looks out. "Yes! especially when you went into Guilang's last whore house with Capo." She turns round to look at me, a weird look clouding her face. "We have him in our custody, by the way."

"You've got nothing on him." I say, the words a bitter taste on my tongue. I need to handle the traitor myself but she doesn't need to know that.

"True! That's why we're letting him go as we speak." She walks away from the window and sits close to me on the bed. "Ash, please consider my- our- offer. Get meaningful info on Igor, I know you have your sources, I also know you have your unconventional ways. I don't know how you're going to do it, but know this - Igor is into illegal shipping of high-tech weapons and ammunitions that could take out a whole block of people at once. He wanted Guilang dead because he got into his territory by placing his whore houses in the West where he has Katva. That's why he wanted him dead. Now that Guilang's out of the way, Igor will consider himself the number one in the prostitution racket and will grow more ballsy. What Guilang did - kidnapping underage females from their houses - will seem like child's play to him, if he's not stopped soon."

I close my eyes remembering Tanya's words about Igor setting up romancers in various universities. For some reason, I don't divulge it to Maybelline. She probably already knows.

"I know that look, and I know you know something. It's better you tell me what it is. Does it have anything to do with Alicia?"

I stiffen on hearing Alicia's name from her lips as I open my eyes. "Don't even think of bringing her into this." My jaw ticks with repressed anger.

She leans close, so close, I'm breathing in her scent once more. "Aww! Are you scared Alicia is getting it on with someone else? Maybe she's kissing some other guy's boo-boos and making it all better, while you're here getting so twisted up in knots about her?"

My hand reaches out and coils around her neck in a vice grip.

"Don't. ever. talk. about. Hazel eyes. that. way. EVER. Comprendere?"

A vein pops up on her neck as I tighten my hold.

"P. . . please." She begs, hoping it will help me see reason. All it does is make me more angry.

It's not until her eyes begin to roll back into her head and a telltale sheen appears in her eyes that I loosen my hold around her neck. She begins to cough, and I remove my hand altogether from around her neck. Immediately I do so, she gets up and backs away from me with a mixture of fear and wariness clouding her face.

"I understand perfectly." Her words are scratchy as she nods jerkily.

"I need to get out of here. My men would be worried." I swing my feet down onto the floor.

"How laudable of you to think of your men, you didn't even mention Al. . ." A look of fear passes over her features before she schools them into a look of nonchalance. "Your many businesses." She finishes weakly, her voice scratchy from the chokehold of my hand around her neck.

I know she was about to mention Alicia but thought better of it. "My businesses will be fine without me for a few days." I reply, shrugging.

"I'll arrange transportation to take you home." She walks to the door. Once she gets to it, she grips the handle but doesn't open it. I watch as she turns round to look at me. "It's best you hurry. Something has happened with. . . Alicia."

And she walks out, leaving my whole body cold with dread.