Scarlet Vendetta (Book #4)

As Tulip hugged Callie, Jones produced a folding knife. She used it to slice through Jade and Poppy's bonds. Poppy was crying, her face screwed up in distress. Jones touched her but she jerked away violently.

"Poppy?"

Her name called, Poppy looked at the speaker. Wolfe stood in the doorway, holding her arms out. Poppy ran and jumped into Wolfe's embrace. Wolfe staggered at the impact but kept her feet.

"Oof, what a big girl you are." Wolfe exclaimed as Poppy's arms and legs wrapped around Wolfe's body tightly. Poppy hid her face.

"I wanna go home!"

Wolfe squeezed her. "Ok. Let's see if Erik can give us a ride home. I bet he can. What do you think?"

Poppy nodded but kept her face tucked into Wolfe's shoulder.

"Steven? Can you help us down the stairs so I don't fall? She's really heavy." Wolfe bounced Poppy's weight to settle her more firmly.

Howell nodded after a look at Jones. He disappeared with both of them down the steps.

Jones looked around at the carnage. She looked at Callie, still holding on to Tulip. Tulip was covered in blood spatter.

"All of them? You killed all of them? How?"

"Jade?" Karen's voice interrupted from where she still cradled Chasandra. "Could you help get Tulip cleaned up? Being dirty isn't good for her."

Jade looked at Karen then transferred her gaze to Tulip. She nodded her understanding. Tulip didn't need to be named as the one who'd killed Rusk.

"C'mon Girlfriend, lets go wash our hands." Jade held out her hand to Tulip.

Tulip looked at Jade from Callie's arms. She smiled. "Clean is good girl."

"Yes. Clean is good. Let's go wash up. Ok?"

Jade took Tulip's hand and lead her into her tiny kitchen. She ran the water in the sink for the both of them.

"That's evidence." Jones tried to stop them.

"Pamela!" Karen's single pain filled word made her halt. "She's brain damaged. She doesn't need to be the center of a circus."

"Did she?" Jones indicated Rusk's body.

"No. I did it." Callie lied. "I took him out first after he shot Doctor Moetz. He had the only gun so was the most dangerous. I needed to stop the most dangerous threat."

Callie pointed. "Tulip was trying to untie Jade and Poppy. She saw him shoot her. She went ballistic on his face but he was already dead by then. He'd planned to kill us all. You know that already, he was going to kill all of us."

"Then what happened?" Howell's question came from the doorway. He'd returned from seeing that Wolfe and Poppy got to the car safely.

Callie pointed and explained the sequence. Howell nodded. Jones looked skeptical.

"You doubt what the witnesses say, Jones?" Howell asked her.

Jones pointed to where Tulip and Jade were drying their hands.

"She looks clean to me." Howell denied the blood still spattered on Tulip's clothes. You can test her, but I'll bet there's no GSR on her."

Jones looked around and started to open her mouth.

"She's a victim, Jones." Howell pulled out his phone. "Remember that. Don't make her a pariah. Not for that scumbag."

Jade and Tulip came back into the room. Jade looking distressed at the blood and smell of her ruined apartment. Karen looked up. Tulip grabbed Jade's hand in hers.

"My. No touching."

"Where am I going to live now?" Jade's question made Karen focus on her. Tulip stepped between them, blocking Karen.

"Don't worry Jade, I'll take care of it. For both of you because I don't think she's going to let you go anytime soon." Karen lightly caressed Chasandra's face as her tears continued to flow.

Afterward

The memorial ceremony was small. Violet and Fox had done a good job organizing it. The tiny private chapel was draped in black and quiet. Chasandra's personal friends and co-workers had already been allowed to pay their respects earlier. Now, Chasandra's family from Scarlet was there doing the same. In private.

Karen stood near the casket, listening as good wishes, tears, soft words about how she'd left them alone too soon and other assorted homilies were spoken. She kept her own sense of loss to herself even after giving the eulogy.

She'd stood in the same spot she now still occupied and talked about how Chasandra was her friend. How she'd extended herself to help Karen through her own troubles. How she'd gone beyond the limits of what was necessary to what was truly needed. So Karen could become the person she was today. So both Karen and Scarlet could be greater than they were. Both as a club and as individuals. Scarlet and Karen were a part of her legacies.

It was because of this legacy that Chasandra belonged to them all. Not just because she was a member of Scarlet. She'd belonged to each and every one of them individually. As their friend, her strength and generosity had been nearly boundless. As their counselor, she'd given them stability and hope. As their Maitre, she'd been there to guide and guard them.

Her sacrifice for Karen had gone beyond even that. She'd stepped between Karen and danger, positioning herself to take the death intended for another. She'd given so much for them, then still found a way to give more. She'd been one of the bravest woman Karen had ever known and Karen missed her intensely.

It had been eleven days. Over a week of interviews, meetings, discussions, and being hounded by the media. Except for Callie, the police had fared the worst. One of their own had been complicit in the murders and attacks. Karen didn't care, she'd lost something precious and irreplaceable and all the news media could talk about, cared about, was how Peters had worn a badge. Fuck you, Peters, she thought fiercely yet again. Rot in Hell you bastard.

Callie couldn't go out in public. Her part in the kidnaping and attempted assassination, along with the deaths from the attack at the mall, had been used by the media to paint her as a barely restrained serial killer. Whole shops in the Mall cleared if she and Karen went inside. Even Gloria had hesitated for a moment before giving Callie a hug in sympathy.

The only person who seemed to understand was Devon. He and Callie had talked privately out in the garage at her parent's house one afternoon. They'd talked while Callie worked out and kicked her heavy bag. Callie had come away from that conversation a bit less dark but most people still got out of her way. Her current Karate class was cancelled indefinitely. Karen didn't think she'd ever teach another.

Yesterday, Jones and Howell had been given commendations by the Mayor. They'd giggled together over some private joke between them afterward. Now they sat with Callie at the side of the room. Pamela had her short hair up high. Curled tightly and piled on top of her head, she'd darkened it with a gel so it looked almost black. With her makeup in place, she looked totally different. No one would recognize her.

Which, Karen supposed, was the point. A disguise of sorts. She looked very wicked and powerfully strong. And very desirable in a sinful, sort of way. Karen believed she and her Nicholas would be fine as members once they got through their orientation and training. They'd clicked right in almost immediately, some of the Subs automatically giving her the respect and deference due a Mistress and making friends with very soft spoken Nikko.

Karen had moved Jade into a new apartment, in a nicer neighborhood, as she'd said she would. Jade had only needed to stay at the Inn for two days before Karen found a new place for her. Two bedrooms, because Tulip had taken to staying with her at the Inn. Karen thought she'd do the same elsewhere so she'd looked for someplace large enough for them both. Wolfe's real estate broker was a huge help in the search.

Tulip had looked and pronounced it good. She'd retrieved her chains from her room at the clinic, bolting them, with her father's help, to the floor of her bedroom in the new apartment. Jade hadn't objected to her new houseguest, she just played her music as loud as she could until the neighbors complained. Fuck them! was Karen's only thought. They had no idea what an irreplaceable gem the world had lost last week. Nor did they care.

Poppy, as resilient as only children could be, seemed no worse for wear. She'd gone home with Wolfe, her mother nearly fainting with relief as her youngest and most precious cried herself to sleep in her lap.

On Wednesday, a probate lawyer had read Chasandra's will. For some unknown reason, she'd made Tulip her heir. Karen hadn't even been aware of how she'd actually felt toward Tulip, so the announcement had been a total surprise. As Chasandra's heir Tulip had been left everything, though there was a guardian to oversee things for her. A guardian who had marching orders and a step by step plan to implement them. Chasandra had been nothing other than thorough in her plans for her ward.

Secretly, Karen was pleased at the development. Now she could step aside and not worry. Tulip had, for some unknown reason, taken an active dislike to her. She was openly hostile and not even her sisters or her mother could talk her out of it.

There was a disturbance at the rear of the room as the doors opened. Jade came in, Tulip right behind her.

"Tulip . . ." Karen tried again from where she still stood by the casket. Somehow, she felt she needed to heal the breach that had opened between them. Chasandra would have wanted it.

"My!" Tulip's grief laden words were angry. "Am chose! Take from my. No like take from my."

Karen didn't know what to say. Her own sense of loss would have blocked her words anyway.

"No know enough. No strong enough. Am come back. Am take Scarlet. So know how feels!"

As Tulip spoke, she got angrier. Her words got even slower and more broken than normal. And more simple sounding. Jade reached out to take her hand, murmuring; "Control Tulip, control. Good girl."

Jade had begun to emulate how Callie treated Karen. Lots of touching and hand holding, though no kissing. That wasn't how she and Tulip interacted. Tulip didn't want that. Nor did Jade. Karen had no idea how much the events had changed Jade, but she was sure that the change wasn't over yet. Jade's sassy attitude now had a darker side, a more careful and cautious element. Because what she did, Tulip did. Karen could only hope that eventually she healed enough to recover some of her former full bore, flat out, to hell with everyone, zest for life.

Tulip's words also made those in attendance gather between Tulip and Karen. Coalescing to form a barrier between them. Callie appeared at Karen's side like magic.

"You cannot take them from me." Karen tried to make her words persuasive. "If they choose you, then I will give them to you. But it is their choice."

Karen slowly raised her arms to hold them out from her sides, palms up. As she did, the people in the room went to their knees.

"Choose." Karen spoke only the single word.

As one, those on the floor held up their crossed wrists. To Karen.

"They are mine. Until they choose another, they belong to me."

Epilog

Rose stood in the center of the living room of her new apartment. She looked around. Wolfe had said she'd made some changes, Rose liked them. She'd changed the color of the cabinetry and counters to go with the new wall colors. There were leaded and etched glass doors on some of the upper cabinets now so she could see into the interiors. The carpeting had been replaced with tile, no more fuel for another fire. The door was steel set in a steel frame. Rose suspected the wall was just as impenetrable.

Other than that, there wasn't much change. It was still beautiful. And all hers now. Brian bounced on the couch testing the seating. They'd come together after she signed the paperwork and gotten the key. True to her word, Wolfe had sold it to her. GreenWood had done the financing, just like they'd done for her bakery startup.

She didn't even have to worry about how she would pay them back. Devon had paid a visit to her supplier after they didn't deliver her flour. He'd come back, followed by a delivery truck. Her orders were processed and delivered much faster now. She'd been being squeezed out of business and hadn't even known it. But, not anymore.

Rose suspected Devon had threatened someone. She didn't ask, she didn't care. Business had picked up now that she had sufficient bulk goods to make enough desserts and breads again to satisfy her clients and then some. Devon was managing the production line, while she had time to open a tiny retail store in the front. Brian helped and ran the register. It wasn't much, but it was something. The retail shop was even growing as word of mouth spread the news about how wonderfully special her baked goods really were.

Brian had finally met Tulip. He'd been surprised to see her. Recognizing her, he explained that he'd been there, on the sidewalk and had actually talked to her moments before the accident. He'd gotten his face broken trying to stop the fleeing hit and run driver. For his efforts at trying to help, his girlfriend had thrown him out and he'd lost his job. Tulip didn't remember him or the accident. Rose didn't care, Brian had a heart large enough that he was willing to risk himself for a stranger. A stranger who, as it turned out, was her sister. Her Brian was a hero.

Rose had finally admitted it to herself. He was her Brian. In her heart and mind. Now she needed him to know it too.

"The health department sent me a letter." Rose began. "They said it's illegal for me to let someone live in the bakery. I could lose my license and have to pay a fine."

Brian stopped bouncing.

Rose looked at him. "You can't stay there any more."

Brian looked at his feet. He'd known that eventually he was going to be in this position again. "I kinda like it there. I don't want to go."

"You could stay here." Rose made the offer, holding up her new key. "This is my place now."

"I guess I can sleep on the couch if you don't mind." Brian bounced some more.

Rose pulled him up and into her arms. Brushing his hair out of his eyes before locking her hands behind his head to drag his face down to her level.

"If you try, I'll sell that damn couch."

Brian looked into her eyes. He flicked a glance to the couch and then back again. Rose released him to slide her arms around his neck, pressing her body into his. She kissed him gently.

"Take me to bed Brian. I'm not sleepy, but take me to bed anyway."

Brian looked at the couch one more time before lifting Rose into his arms and heading for the bedroom.

"Yes ma'am. My pleasure ma'am."

"Remember those words Brian. Remember them and it always will be."