Janie Crouch - Daddy Defender

“Dude...”

Damien had found in his years of experience that nothing intelligent ever followed the word dude.

“Dude,” Harper said again, “I’m not interested in no revolution. I just want to get revenge on the man who killed my father.”

Red Tie stared at Harper, his arms crossing over his chest. Everyone stood in silence for a long time.

“Damien.” Red Tie turned to him. “I’m not sure we’re all on the same page he—”

Damien held out a hand to stop the man’s words. He didn’t want Red Tie to scare Harper away. Harper served an important purpose.

An important, disposable purpose.

Damien walked over to Harper, putting a friendly arm around his shoulders. He led him away from Red Tie, toward the door of the warehouse. “Mr. Harper, you want revenge. Rightfully so.”

“Damn straight.” Harper nodded and moved his jaw strangely. Damien realized he had chewing tobacco in his mouth.

The urge to snap the man’s neck right now rushed through Damien’s body. He could feel the tingling need zip through his arms and fingertips. He’d be doing everyone a service by killing this uneducated, woe-is-me bigot right now. But Damien resisted the urge.

Barely.

“I understand,” he said instead, keeping his hand around the man’s shoulder. “And I want to help you get that revenge against Ashton Fitzgerald.”

Harper’s eyes narrowed. “That bastard killed my daddy. Murdered him in cold blood.”

Damien doubted very seriously that the Omega SWAT team sharpshooter had murdered anyone in cold blood, but he knew not to say as much. “Indeed. And he deserves to pay.”

“I should just grab my .45 and blow his brains out.”

If Harper had the backbone to do that, he would’ve done it in the four years since his father had died. Damien just squeezed the man’s shoulder. “You could, of course. I know you’ve got the guts. But why don’t you make Fitzgerald suffer a little beforehand? The way you’ve had to suffer.”

Curtis Harper lived every day of his life—before and after his father’s death—with a victim’s mentality. That’s how Damien had found him. How he’d been able to draw him into his scheme.

It was how he would use Harper to chip away at a little piece of Omega Sector. To kill off just one member, that, when it was said and done, would seem like an isolated event from a lone redneck bent on revenge.

Damien wondered how many isolated events Omega Sector would endure before they realized the events weren’t isolated at all, but carefully orchestrated by a great puppet master.

And now who was waxing poetic?

“Curtis, you go on home now and get ready.” Damien put just a bit of a Southern accent—totally fake—into his words. He wanted Harper to think they were cut from the same cloth. “I’ll be in touch soon with a plan I’ve got in place that will make Ashton Fitzgerald pay. It involves hurting Ashton Fitzgerald not only physically, but through the people he cares about as well. The worst kind of pain.”

Harper wasn’t worthy of knowing Damien’s entire design, his blueprint. Harper wouldn’t comprehend its enormity even if Damien told him. But Harper didn’t need to grasp or appreciate it in order to be useful.

Curtis Harper wouldn’t understand the plan, but he would help make the members of Omega Sector understand it.

Harper nodded. “Okay, Damien. Thanks.”

The man turned and spit to the side. By the time he looked back at Damien, Damien had managed to wipe the sneer from his face.

Curtis Harper was a means to an end, nothing more. Omega Sector agent Ashton Fitzgerald wouldn’t survive the next week, but then again, neither would Harper.

They shook hands and Harper left. Damien turned and walked back into the building.

“Curtis Harper is not the type of person we’re looking for to further the revolution,” Red Tie said. “He’s filthy and sloppy.”

Damien shrugged. “Not everybody can be a general in the war. You need foot soldiers also. Expendable foot soldiers.”

That seemed to appease the other man.

“Attacking one person isn’t going to bring Omega down.” Red Tie began his pacing again. “It’s not going to change the status quo within law enforcement. I’ve got no beef with Fitzgerald in particular.”

“No.” Damien held himself perfectly still in direct opposition to the other man’s pacing. “But attacking one person will split Omega’s focus. Then the next hit will split their focus more. And the one after that, et cetera, et cetera.”

Red Tie stopped his pacing. “But eventually we have to hit them hard. Not little hits. One giant strike with great force. I’ve already got something in the beginning stages.”

Damien smiled, showing just the right amount of teeth to make it look authentic. “To begin the revolution.”

“Exactly.”

“Be patient. We’ll make our most deadly strike once everything is in place. Until then, we just continue to wound them—both people inside Omega and those connected to them—without them realizing how much they’re bleeding out. Omega will limp along until it’s time for you to make your move. Bring the whole organization down for good.”

A huge grin spread over Red Tie’s face. “They’ve always underestimated me. They’ll never see it coming.”

So Red Tie wasn’t truly about the revolution after all. He’d been slighted and wanted personal revenge. Of course, he probably couldn’t see that in himself, had convinced himself of his visionary status.

Damien didn’t care either way. He would use whatever tools became available to him in his fight to take apart Omega Sector. Whether they thought of themselves as visionaries or just wanted payback, Damien didn’t care.

He would use them all. And when they were no longer useful to him, he would discard them all.

“Are you going to tell me your name?” Damien finally asked the man.

He tilted his head in suspicion. “I don’t think so. I’m not sure I can trust you.”

The first intelligent thing that had been said all day.

“Shall I just address you as ‘hey you’?” Damien crossed his arms over his chest. He didn’t really need the man’s name. Honestly, at this point he didn’t care.

“You can call me Fawkes.”

Damien gave a short bark of laughter. “As in, Guy Fawkes, the man who tried to blow up the British Parliament? Okay, Mr. Fawkes, let me know when you want to meet again.” Damien turned to leave.

“Wait, that’s it? What about planning the attack? The big one.”

Damien turned back around. “It’s not time yet. If we strike now, we’ll fail. We weaken Omega Sector one little piece at a time. And when they’re hollowed out? That’s when we strike.”

Damien was nothing if not a master planner. He’d always excelled at chess because he played four moves ahead of where the pieces currently sat on the table.

Fawkes didn’t looked pleased. “Maybe you’re afraid. Maybe I’ve come to the wrong person.”

Damien didn’t rise to the bait. Wasn’t even tempted. He walked closer to Fawkes and touched his tie, waiting to see if the action would spur Fawkes to violence. Fawkes tensed but didn’t do anything.

Good. More self-control than Damien had given him credit for. Fawkes would need it in the weeks ahead.

“You’ll have your revolution when the time is right, Mr. Fawkes. Be patient. Continue gathering your intel, both on those inside the organization and those connected to it. Finding vulnerable spots we can stab quickly, retreating before they know they’re wounded. Never knowing the largest wound is yet to come.”

The younger man still didn’t like it. But he nodded. Damien smiled and slapped him on his shoulder. “Good. Then, until we meet again, Mr. Fawkes.”