Page 72 of Pocus
He glances at Abigail and back at me with a defeated expression. “Okay,” he says with a resigned sigh. “But you have to let go the moment it gets difficult.”
I nod my head and give him a reassuring smile. “Of course.”
* * *
Pocus
Iclasp a hand over Knix’s shoulder, wordlessly expressing my gratitude. He’d endured Anderson’s torture for days and returned with the information to take him down – and my woman. It would have been a total mess without him.
“Thank you, mon ami,” I say quietly. “You’ve worked hard.”
“I’m just glad to be of service,” Knix replies with an easy smile.
I gesture to my room's sitting area, and Knix lowers himself gingerly onto one of the couches. I take the seat opposite his and gesture to the jar of moonshine on the center table. “Help yourself.”
Knix chuckles and pours himself a shot. He tilts his head backward and downs the whole thing. “Yeah!” he exclaims, dropping the empty glass on the table with excited laughter. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
I couldn’t help a smile watching him as he poured himself another shot. Knix really was a different kind of stock. I wondered how he was still so high-spirited despite the torture he had to endure at Anderson’s hand. But I guess he’d gone through worse as a mercenary. Maybe it’s why he always stayed so optimistic; his own way of not being swallowed by the darkness around him. Watching Knix made me realize that we all fight the same battle. We are all trying to stay afloat despite the shit that life keeps throwing at us at every turn.
“How’s Abby?” Knix asks after his third shot of Moonshine.
I shrug. “Still…sleeping,” I reply with a small sigh. “Her vitals are better, and she’s off the machines. Graveyard says it’s a miracle.”
The real miracle is Evanesce – and that’s just one more person I can’t stop being grateful to. She’d risked her life for my happiness. Abigail surely wouldn’t have made it without a good portion of Evanesce’s energy. Sharing her energy had taken its toll on Evanesce. She’d been listless and stayed in bed for days. She’s better now, though – and so is Abigail. I’m impatiently waiting for the day that I can look into those magical hazel orbs of hers again and tell her how sorry I am. If I hadn’t doubted her and wasted time wallowing in self-pity, maybe I would have gotten to her faster….
The door is pushed open, and Seer walks into the room with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I’m late. I had to sort out a scuffle between Blight and Frenchie. It’s a madhouse down there.”
Knix chuckles. “VP duties,” he says with a mock cringe. “Sit down and have some moonshine, my friend.”
Seer lowers himself to the space beside Knix with a tired sigh. “Are you sure it’s okay with just us three, Prez?”
“It’s the safest bet,” I reply quietly. “I can’t risk a leak after everything that’s happened with Anderson. It’s not that I don’t trust my men; it’s just that I’ve experienced Anderson’s ruthlessness firsthand. I know just how far he can go.”
“I also think it’s better this way,” Knix says. “We could wrap the whole thing up without getting the others involved. They are safer that way.”
Seer looks from me to Knix and back to me with a resigned sigh. “Okay, then. Shall we begin?”
Knix sits up and rubs his palms together. “Okay, so I know that it’s a known fact, but I’m just going to put it out here again; Anderson Grey is the biggest scum on earth. The guy lords a whole underworld of crime. I picked up bits and pieces of information from discussions between the guards and Anderson’s phone calls whenever he was in range. He sneaks little girls into the country and makes them into whatever suits him; drug traffickers, prostitutes, killers, and criminals. He raises these little girls into women, integrates them into society after training, and makes them work for him. He controls them with… it sounds crazy to say it but sorcery so they are unable to divulge his secrets to the world, even under torture. He uses these women to get dirty jobs done for the higher-ups and curry favor with them. Anyway, I think he just shipped in another batch of girls. I was captured when I followed the truck that brought them into the warehouse where they were initially delivered.”
“What a scumbag,” Seer scoffs loudly. “I can’t believe a man like that is walking around freely posing himself as an upright citizen of New Orleans. He should be rotting in jail with no hope of seeing the skies ever again. Wait,” Seer says with a small gasp. “Do you think that Abigail was raised like those girls too?”
“It can’t be,” Knix says, shaking his head. “Buffy tells me she has a sister here in NOLA.”
“But she’s lived exactly like the girls you described,” Seer counters. “Hexed and forced into a life of crime. Besides, I remember she once told me that she doesn’t remember much about her family and childhood, just some vague story about how they used to be happy. What if it was all made up?”
I feel my heart break all over again for Abigail. She’s led such a heart-wrenching life. The only way I can only make it up to her is to ensure that Anderson pays for everything he’s done to her and loves her right. But, if not for anything, I’m glad that I got a second chance with her.
This time, I’m going to love her without fear and restrictions. I’m going to wait until she can love me the same, and even if she never does…I’ll keep loving her anyway.
“For now, let’s get back to the issue at hand,” I say to Seer and Knix. “Did you perhaps lay your hands on any hard evidence, something that can pin Anderson down for sure? It may be the date of his next human shipment, a drug deal, direct evidence of murder, or something like that.”
Knix rubs his palms together like he has something good. “Now, I have the good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first?” he asks, looking from me to Seer.
“Let’s get the bad news out of the way,” Seer says with a shrug. He looks to me for confirmation. “Right, Prez?”
“Sure,” I reply with a small nod. I really don’t care in what order Knix relays his information as long as I get something useful out of it.
“The bad news is that I couldn’t figure out the location of Anderson’s base of operation,” Knix says, looking from Seer to me. “I was unconscious when I was taken there with the new arrivals on the night I was captured. I spent a few days in an underground cell until Anderson ordered me to be moved. I was knocked out while being transferred to another location. He was going to kill me the very night Prez invaded his home. He was just about to pull the trigger when he got a call that you’d been sighted in the vicinity.”