The Golden Chalice (14 page)

His arm burned, as if acid seeped through the needle piercing his skin. A syringe lay buried halfway in, halfway out. Feeble, he swatted at it and pulled the applicator from the swollen purple bruise. Kumar coughed. He gagged and gripped his stomach. Unforgiving pain sliced through his skull.

Sasha. Sweet Sasha
.

The thought of her gave him a surge of strength.

“Sasha,” he moaned.

Her image hovered above him. Her hair, thick locks, gracefully rested upon her shoulders. She had a lovely face: oval-shaped, with a dainty nose and determined chin. His eyes fluttered and focused on her pouty lips. Sasha was his girl. Skin so beautiful, a deeper shade of brown than his own. She had chocolate irises. They glistened under long lashes as they connected with him and shone with love. He lifted a trembling hand to touch her, just once more. The image faded and he once again felt the empty loneliness of abandonment.

Sasha
.

Kumar’s vision cleared. Focus returned. Before him, a junkie lay sprawled on his back, in his own piss. Drool seeped from his mouth in a long strand and dripped off his bottom lip. The man’s empty blank stare was fixed on him. Kumar looked away. Everywhere around him was, his failure, his weakness, his sins became more apparent. Against the wall on the opposite side of the room, two addicts in soiled clothing fought over the soda can where the embers of something burned. The stronger of the two won. He snorted a poisonous drag from the can as the other squealed in frustration.

Kumar had screwed up. He had no one to blame but himself.

A bright flare of light flashed through the windows, followed by a deep bellow of thunder. Afterward, darkness returned. It slithered around his brain like a black snake, circling, clenching, squeezing so tight all thoughts of escape extinguished. Kumar’s body shook all over. He needed another fix. He would die without it.

Kumar’s lungs burned but the intake of air lessened his suffering. Slowly, he inched up the wall until he stood on two shaky legs. The exertion covered his face in sweat; he itched from the dirt clogging his pores. How long had it been since he had a bath, a shave, a solid meal? Days? It felt like months.

Soon he realized the stench wasn’t just from the room, but clung to him like another layer of skin. He suppressed his nausea. Kumar held his arm and found it useless. He staggered, stumbled, and took another step. He shook his head to clear it. It required considerable inner strength to continue on.

“Sasha?” he called out.

Kumar fell upon the open doorframe for balance. Weak. Exhausted. He had to get out of there and clear his head. If he scored, he could get something to tide him over.
No. No. No. I won’t use again
. He needed to clear his head and find Sasha. She needed rescue from Lee’s clutches.

In the hall, he tripped over another poor sap sprawled on the floor. Days had passed and he’d been unable to think correctly. Instead, the only coherent thoughts in his mind were filled with regret, and missed opportunities.

“Hey, man? What you holding, what you holding?” a teen in an oversize hoodie said, patting him down. Kumar, though weak, managed to swat the boy away. He wasn’t sure if the kid was a dealer or a junkie, but he staggered away. His only defense was to keep moving. Dragging his shoulder across the wall, he intended to.

More lightning.

He reached the door. He could hear a woman screaming somewhere behind him. Wild laughter followed. All he could think of was the normalcy he would find outside the doors of this abandoned house. Even with a storm brewing.

Kumar glanced around. His gaze bounced from car to shadow when he stumbled out into the rain.
Run
. He turned and looked behind him. Who was that? He blinked through the downpour and realized it was his own inner voice. The warning voice that kept him alive from one dive to the next. He existed now in a perpetual state of paranoia. Kumar ducked his head and pushed forward. He kept glancing up at the black sedan on the corner. It looked no different than any other dealer’s car.
You’ve never seen it parked on this corner before, have you
? Plumes of smoke drifted out of the car’s tailpipe. Kumar frowned. He paused on the sidewalk in the rain and stared at it for a moment. The windows were deeply tinted.
Go the other way, Kumar. Run
.

The pain hammering his temples, squeezing his gut, prevented the caution he should have taken. Kumar stumbled forward, allowing the downpour to wash him free of the stench of his depressing state.

Sasha
.

Did she hate him? Did she remember how much he loved her? Many would question his actions over the past weeks, but Kumar knew the truth. What he’d done he did for freedom, for them both. The thought of Lee owning her, controlling her, had consumed him after he learned the truth. Lee couldn’t have her, dammit! No smuggler could touch Lee, thanks to Chocolat stealing the Golden Chalice. Now Lee ruled with an iron fist over all their lives. So it had to be done. Maybe Sasha understood.

Sasha had said she never slept with Lee. Kumar didn’t believe her. He couldn’t. His pride and fragile heart wouldn’t allow for reason. He sure as hell wouldn’t play second fiddle, be another man’s footstool, while the bastard controlled his woman. Even if that man was Lee. What choice did he have?

The tinted window of the limo slid down and the car came to a stop.
Where did it come from
? In the darkness of the limo, a red-amber glow of a cigar flickered and extinguished. Unseen eyes were on him. He felt it.

Kumar lifted his head and staggered left, then right, down the sidewalk. Tunnel vision only gave him partial clarity. He chose
her
image to pull him forward. Sasha. He conjured her face in the moon that eased out from behind the stormy clouds. Squinting against the downpour, he smiled at her dreamy reflection.

The only good thing about being high was the escape. In his head, Sasha forgave him. She loved him still.

Doors from either side of the limo opened and Kumar lowered his gaze. Two men appeared. Kumar stumbled, walked, staggered. “Sasha, babe, forgive me,” he slurred.

Too late, Kumar. They found you
.

The effects of the drug began to seep deeper into his system and the numbness returned. He managed, somehow, to walk upright. In front of him, the dealers that were caught in the rain dove for cover. Kumar didn’t normally care for the rain.
Let the heavens open up and wash my sins away
.

The men raised their guns. Kumar ignored them. He looked once again for the moon. The night shielded it behind the dark swirls of storm clouds

“Sasha?”

The patter of rapid gunfire startled him. Confused, he fought to focus on the source. Bullets. Too many to count zipped past him, and several made their target. Kumar dove for cover. He’d been hit. His chest burned, his thigh burned, his arm burned. His skin felt as if it melted from his bones. Blood gushed from his mouth. Clarity returned and the rapid breaks of gunfire exploded around him, deafening him. His eyes stretched at the sight of fire blazing out of the Uzis, both aimed at his cover. Despite the pain, he rolled away. The drug house had a gutter underneath. He dropped into it. A car sped away. Kumar blinked through his agony, thinking himself dead. If he wasn’t dead, he’d be dead soon. The men were gone, he would certainly die, and Sasha would never fully realize how badly he wished he’d handled things differently. He coughed up more blood, closed his eyes to wait for death. It would be a welcome event. He heard the voices of men. One hand reached for him and dragged him out. He screamed and gurgled on his own blood as the pain from his open wounds sliced through him. A man spoke into a speaker box on his shoulder.

“Hold on, my friend. You aren’t dying on us. You got that? You’re too valuable.”

Kumar blinked through the daze, his body riddled with pain. “Sasha? Where is she?”

Darkness.

Chapter Eleven

Michelle looked over the top of her shades. Sasha’s head was turned toward the window, where planes landed and taxied past. Her sister hadn’t spoken a single word since Lee had announced Kumar was dead. Sasha had no reaction. She didn’t shed any tears that Michelle could see. She just sat dazed, lost.

For the trip, her sister had chosen to wear jeans and a loosely fitted shirt. Despite the warm weather, she sported Kumar’s leather jacket, something she wore constantly since the night he’d disappeared.

“She’ll be okay.” Lee stepped behind her.

Michelle turned in her chair and looked up. He smiled down at her, but his eyes betrayed his turmoil. She knew he took no pleasure in placing the hit on Kumar Suresh. Michelle rose from her seat. “Everything set?” she asked. Lee nodded. Michelle glanced at her sister. “She’ll never forgive me. Will she?”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Michelle shook her head sadly. “Betrayal is betrayal, Lee. Some things you never let go of.”

He touched her hand and took it into his. “Maybe I should come with you, help you see her off. If it weren’t for this thing with Eddie Cumminskey, I wouldn’t let you go. But I have to deal with him.”

Michelle squeezed his hand. She smiled. “That’s sweet. But this is my final goodbye with my sister. Let us have it. We agreed.”

Lee gave a reluctant nod. His gaze slipped over to Abahti, who talked on his cell phone across the room. Michelle followed his stare. She’d never shared the tape with Lee. Never told him of Abahti’s betrayal. She thought he might have listened to it when she was shot. She’d assumed when it was returned to her that he had invaded her privacy. But now, seeing the raw look of rage and hurt in his eyes she knew differently. Lee never heard Pops’ warning. He’d discovered Abahti’s betrayal all on his own. Now that she was leaving, part of her desperately wanted to protect him from the pain of more betrayal coming his way. “You still think he sold you out? If you do, Lee, you have to deal with him.”

“Never mind that.” Lee dismissed the notion with a wave of his hand. “You call me when you land. Let me know you’re okay.”

“Lee.”

He looked into her eyes.

Michelle sucked in a deep breath. “If we had met under different circumstances, if our love had been different, who would we be?”

Lee chuckled. “You’d be a doctor, and I’d be the horny patient wanting to get a look at your legs.”

Michelle laughed.

“Don’t you know, Chocolat? I wouldn’t take you any other way but the way you are.”

She smiled. “Yeah, I do know. I also know that no matter what has happened between us, I do love you, Lee. I always will.”

She kissed him softly. He held her longer and their passion grew, deepened. She squeezed him tightly. Abahti approached and cleared his throat. The moment passed. She had to let him go.

“It’s time,” he said.

“I’ll see you soon,” Lee whispered. “Real soon.”

Michelle smiled. She turned to walk away, and stopped. She looked at him once more. Every emotion she’d carried for him since she was sixteen punched her dead center in her heart. Playback of the pain and love between them overwhelmed her. She threw her arms around his neck, kissing him again and again until the air depravation forced her to break away. She released his lips but held his face. “I love you,” she replied softly, for him only to hear. “Don’t you ever forget that. It’s the truth, the only truth left between us.”

Lee frowned. Michelle wiped the lipstick from his lips and chuckled. “I just had to say it one more time.” She turned as Abahti joined them.

Abahti nodded. “I’ll take good care of her.”

“You do that.” Lee nodded. Michelle glanced up to see Lee touch his lips and stare at her with those intense eyes. She nearly gave herself away. Tears welled and she pushed down the urge to call off her plans.

“Ma’am?”

The pilot extended his hand for her to board. She made the climb up the ladder into the plane.

***

It took extreme effort to lift his weighted lids, but Kumar opened his eyes. White brightness greeted him. The vision burned and he lowered his gaze again for relief. He felt numb from the neck down. He could feel nothing. He heard someone to his left and frowned.
Is this what death is like
? He forced his eyes to open again. A man stepped to his bed and Kumar panicked. When the stranger leaned over to look into his face, some of his anxiety eased. The man wasn’t one of Lee’s. Was he from Monk’s crew, or Cumminskey’s? And where was he? Sasha.
Where the hell is Sasha
?

“The doctors said it’ll hurt like a bitch but you’ll live,” the stranger said.

Kumar tried to focus on the man’s voice. Whatever dripped in his IV made his vision blur and the man’s face fade. What he could see of the guy made no sense. He was tall, thin, with pasty white skin and shaggy brown hair. He wore a plain blue suit. It didn’t have the custom-tailored look the men he knew in the business preferred. “Who...are you?”

A badge was flashed. “Agent Barnaby, FBI. And you are Kumar Suresh. The one and only. We’ve been wanting to meet you.”

“I don’t understand. Where am I?” He tried to rise but could only lift his head. He dropped down and gasped.

“Whoa there, maverick. Slow it down. Don’t want you dying on me.” The agent chuckled. Kumar frowned. Barnaby drew a chair up to the side of the bed and sat. “We saved your life. Now you got a choice. Do you spend what’s left of it in jail, or work with us and bring down the men who tried to kill you? Think about it, Mr. Suresh. What choice do you really have?”

“I want an attorney.”

The agent brows lifted. “If that’s how you want to play it.”

The man stepped back. Kumar swung his gaze to the agent’s retreating form. “Sasha. Where is Sasha? Do you have her, too?”

The agent paused. He turned and gave Kumar a curious look. A shadow moved and Kumar realized there was another man in the room as well. His head hurt. He could only focus on Barnaby. “We can talk about Sasha Dixon and her family. First we need you to get well—oh, and get you that attorney.”