Jagger
I stand abruptly, tugging at the hair on my head. “Kayla, you will go with them and save your people. We cannot kill your uncle.”
“Kill him?” I gasp. “I’m not going to kill him. But what about us?”
She arises slowly. “Jag, I’m growing accustomed to the thought of you and I…”
“That’s not important now.” My face is dead serious. What the hell is wrong with her? Can’t she see that the end of us started with Nivean?
“Solarin, put the kidnapping on Qaaim’s charges. You have a witness now. The government was afraid to overthrow the King Regent without the rightful heir, right?”
“Well, yes, something like that…” Zane rubs the back of his neck. “Pretty much the people would refuse it without Mikayla’s words.”
“Jagger!” Mikayla presses a hand against my chest. “Everyone give us a moment. I promise to be the first with ideas of just how to put down Qaaim, but I must speak to him.”
She moves toward the hallway, wanting privacy. But I won’t allow her that. Unable to glance her way, I say, “Mikayla, you’re a princess–”
Her voice is full of longing. “We love each other.”
“You are a princess,” I begin again, tone hardening with each word, “You are sorely mistaken. You were royalty. Beautiful. I’d never had a princess.”
Finally, I’m closed off enough to glance at her. The color drains from her face. I focus on the truth, that her people will refuse to accept her if we continue what we have, I’d further batter her heart. “Did I ever say I loved you?”
Zane Solarin is staring at me as if I’m the rear end of a rhinoceros. There are so many tears in Mikayla’s eyes, if she would just wipe them away she’d know I was a liar.
“Jag,” my mom said, she was the only one who called me that. Then Mikayla started it, now Trick. “You are no longer welcome in my home while you have that masking.”
I held up my palm showing off the X Member blood oath. “Really? Mother, what happened to forgiveness? I thought your God did all the judgement?”
“True. I just cannot accept your sin.” Her lips trembled, and she dabbed tissue to her eyes.
“You and dad work at the mission. You make a meager salary and much of that goes back to tithes and giving! Take the damn money,” I found myself shouting. We were poor and I was holding more money than she’d see in a year, in salary or by the entire congregation of giving. “Open the Christian school, purchase better books.”
“Leave my house!”
Mikayla has asked if I loved her again. I stare at her with the same contempt my mother had for me. I’m blind to her beauty and the goodness that helped me overcome my anger for what my grandfather had done. My father’s family was rich. My mother’s family was poor, and they gave their last.
I am a fucking asshole. A horrible man, who doesn’t care about anyone but myself. My home on the hill, and the millions of dollars in luxury engines that I’ve taken and made better by transforming them into more efficient, useful–sometimes killing–machines are all I have. This is me. Nothing else!
Mikayla presses a hand against my chest. “You were talking to me, Jag. Opening up. I don’t care about the dynamics of how we become us! Or how short of a time we’ve been together. Jagger, we have gone through so much, and you love me.” She pounds at my chest to drill it all in.
“Mikayla, it has been a little over two weeks. What do you mean, what we’ve gone through together? You know the type of man that I am? It’s just another day in my life.” I can hardly stand the shit slinging from my mouth. “I’ve been to exotic lands, but you my dear, were my first princess. When they crown you, I’ll salute you with a beer in hand and say I’ve had my first Queen as well.”
She slaps me across my face, in much the same manner she did when we first met. Her eyes are aflame with anger that I haven’t flinched. Again, and again she slaps me.
MamLalumi and Zane Solarin are somber. They glance at me as if I’ve gone about this in the worst way possible. I can’t tell who they’re sadder for, Mikayla or me. They know I’ve lied.
Chumi nods at me. Apparently, he agrees with my tactics.
“You know what,” Mikayla says in a much more put together voice than she looks. “Jag, this is a learning lesson for me. You never cared about anything but yourself. Did you get the Lamborghini engine this morning? Is that what was so damn important to you? I hope you did.”
The invitation to the event is next week. I had no intention of attending the moment Mikayla went through the pain of making love to me the first time.
“I hope you enjoy it. Because, what did you say back in Nevada, less than a very small percent of the population will get a chance to own or touch it, well, the statistics where staggering. But I am,” she presses a hand against her chest, “I am infinitely and astonishingly more of a treasure than a fucking car.”
She turns on the heels of her tennis shoes, chin held high, and even with my heart being ripped from my chest I can almost smile. I can almost see myself scoop her into my arms and tell her she meant more to me than anything I’ve ever known. She makes me regret not leaving X Member as my mother begged of me. I could’ve returned home, had I done so.
But Mikayla is becoming the queen, and this just made her stronger.
In a business tone, she addresses everyone, “Jagger indicated that he knows how to handle what has happened to my friends. Despite he and I, I cannot have him brought to justice for what has occurred in California. This … person,” she says, as a royal wouldn’t cuss, “has saved my life and so I must pardon him. He said he has a way to weasel himself out of it, you listen to his plan. I’m going to grab my things. When I return, we will leave.”
She starts upstairs. A heavy silence falls for some time.
“He did what must be done,” Chumi is the first to speak.
“He broke her heart,” Zane scoffs.
“He broke his own heart,” MamLalumi says. “I see goodness in you, Mr. Johansson. You may not be aware of it much of the time, but you are a good man. And you didn’t have to…”
“He did what must be done,” Chumi reiterates.
“You are a foolish old man,” she frowns.
“So, we pin this all on Qaaim?,” Zane returns the conversation to something more relevant. “Jagger, to answer your question of why the government didn’t intervene. Three of the five elders also believed that Qaaim should’ve been king after Queen Makuachukwa married King Bannan. The South African government wasn’t prepared for the anarchy of a nation, as they along with the King Regent make up much of the advisory team for their country. After the death of Qaaim and Makuachukwa’s father, she was to be wed to a monarch in the Zulu nation, which has more in common with the Navieans. Bannan was a commoner who she met while in college. He is from a Malagasy group of Austronesian people in Madagascar.”
“They married for love,” the words slip from my mouth as I rub the stubble at my jaw. “Look what came of it.”
Chumi changes subjects, unwilling to let me live out my only regret. He says, “I am ashamed to admit, I belonged to the group who believed the rubbish that Mikayla and Bannan were abominations. I have gathered intel for Zane for a few years now, waiting for Qaaim’s quest to have her returned. After all that’s happened today, I remember Mikayla’s sadness as a child when people laughed behind her father’s back. We will tell her tomorrow. She’s gone through much today and you may think you’ve hurt her, and you have, but you’ve also made her stronger. Qaaim and his men will be dealt with accordingly.”
“What are their names?” I ask, ready to jot them all down. Mikayla has the rights to do with Qaaim as she pleases, but I’ll murder anyone on that list.
Zane leans forward.
“There are fifty of them. Probably a few more who sympathize now that Mikayla made her statement last week. However, each one who has followed Qaaim since the deaths of the true king and queen is going down with Qaaim, Johansson,” Zane warns. “Now that I have a pretty good picture of what you do in your leisure time, I will ask that you have no hand in this.”
“I agree with whatever Mikayla chooses,” I grit out, although I prefer painting my hands with each man’s blood. “But make sure she is kept safe during the entire process.”
When Mikayla comes downstairs with the outfit she wore the night I caught up to her at the Nivean ceremony I notice that she hasn’t packed any of her clothing.
Her eyes are puffy as she stands just at the entrance of the room. “We should all leave, Jag… Jagger has some cleaning up to do.”
Her guests get up.
Yep, I’m a fucking asshole.
She’s just taken her first life. Aside from my initial belief that this should be a moment of celebration, I just want to turn back time. I glance around at the trappings of success and it dawns on me. What my mother said about riches. You can’t bury a man with all of his valuables.
And I’m probably going to Hell.
MamLalumi is the last to exit. She grasps my hand.
“You have two lives, Jagger. Both will be assessed in time.”
Unsure how to respond, I place my hands on top of my head as they leave.
***
For some time, I stand just inside where my front door once stood. Too much of a pussy to have watched Chumi’s car and too stubborn to head upstairs for the night.
I pull my cell phone from my pocket to even more messages from Trick.
ME: she’s safe.
TRICK: good. My niece is waiting to meet her next month.
Without responding, I scroll through my contacts to find the associations clean-up crew and make the quick call.
“Oh, and it’s Sinclair,” I add at the end.
“Just her?”
“Yes.”
“I’m going to have to get further authorization.” The call goes dead.
***
Two hours later, there’s an X Member investigator at my home. They wouldn’t normally arrive since just a mark would’ve been murdered. But this is one of us so politics are taken into account. The guy is Korean, black sunglasses and suit like he’s begging to be noticed.
His shiny shoes are a fraction of an inch from Ava’s pool of blood. Her stiff body, awkwardly positioned on the floor. I hope my fish haven’t overeaten.
He snatches the sunglasses from his eyes. “You expect me to believe she fell?”
“Not at all. We got into a fight first.” Under any other circumstances I would never admit to, nor would I actually ever hit a woman, but what I intended for Ava Sinclair was worse. So I roll with the story.
“Big guy like you, I could see one hit and lights out. She was in a scuffle.”
I laugh for emphasis. “You know Ava? She liked to be slapped around.”
“I’m going to take a few photos before the team cleans up. Where are your scars?”
Fuck. I don’t have any fresh wounds….