Avenge Thy Brother

Chapter 8: Request Mercy

"We can confirm that he was brought here," I told him. "However, I will not tell you his condition."

"Has his family been notified? Are they inside the hospital?"

Karen snapped at him, "Look, you need to back off! I understand you're representing the voice of the unheard with your newspaper, but this is a difficult time for the loved ones of Randall Williams. Leave and come back here tomorrow to write your story."

"With all due respect, ma'am," he said with a smirk. "I have a right to free speech and I will be doing my story tonight. Excuse me." He moved in between us to enter the hospital.

Karen was about to stop him but I told her, "Let's just go."

While on the way to the hotel, I asked her, "Do you trust Detective Saunders?"

She glanced over at me for a second and answered, "Yes. Don't you?"

"Sometimes...I just don't know. I mean, why does it seem like someone is always a step ahead of us?"

When we made it to the hotel, we were surprised to learn that our superiors were moving us to separate hotels for our safety. I was being moved to the Hilton Garden Inn Downtown and she was being moved to the Westin Peachtree Plaza tower. We were also given separate unmarked cars. After packing up my things, I left the Embassy by Hilton hotel and drove myself to the Hilton Garden Inn Downtown. The room was definitely an upgrade, but I didn't care. All I could think about was having to carry a weak and barely alive Randall Williams out of that white supremacist's house. I found myself looking at the original photo I'd been given of Randall with his case file. I juxtaposed that image with how I saw him earlier that night chained up near that pipe bomb. It was heartbreaking.

"I needed to hear your voice, baby," I said to Byron over the phone as I climbed into bed. "What are you up to?"

"I just got out of the shower," he replied.

"Wow, I did, too. I'm just now getting into bed."

"It was a long day, huh?"

"Yes. So much happened, baby. I wish I could talk to you about it."

"I know. You're doing the right thing though, Cam. You know how important our line of work is to this country and to the people we protect."

"I know. So, what did you do today?"

"I went fishing at the lake through the woods finally. Remember we always said we'd go fishing there?"

I laughed and said, "Finally, one of us got to do it. Was the fish good?"

"Yes, the trout in that lake are amazing. I caught three of them, took them back to the cabin, gutted and cleaned them, and fried them up with some French fries. Baby, it was delicious."

"Damn! I can taste it right now." I laughed again and then got serious as I told him, "I really, really miss you."

"I really, really miss you, too. On late nights like this, I go outside and just listen to all of the sounds. Cam, it's beautiful out here."

"Aren't you glad you listened to me and bought it?"

He laughed and said, "Yeah, yeah; you were right. Baby, there is nothing like having this amount of privacy to yourself. When everything goes back to normal, we are going to spend a lot of time here."