Gunslinger

Ana walked back into chaos.
Charlotte was cowering on the floor in the living room behind Zacky’s legs as he argued violently with an angry Johnny. Matt and Jimmy were trying to put themselves in between the two men and all that could be heard was raised voices. Dani and Danielle were online, already looking for clues from CCTV around the site and for a moment Ana was content to lean back and collect her thoughts as she listened to the furore.
“Get out the way Zack.”
“No fucking way until you tell me what the fuck is going on. You scared her half to death grabbing her like that. Why the fuck would she know what’s going on ?”
Johnny’s voice rose an octave as there were sounds of a scuffle.
“She fucking admitted to once working for Mysenko and now he grabs Syn ? What the fuck have you and Ana got us into ?”
Ana herself winced a little as she heard the anger in his tone. Johnny might only be short but the guy was lethal and she had seen the results of his handiwork often enough. Getting out of this in one piece would be difficult enough but his reaction to her betrayal might not help her with getting Syn back. She listened again as Charlie spoke up from the floor, a flashback to the violence in the brothel making her voice strained and tearful.
“I…I swear we had nothing to do with that. It was nothing like that.”
Ana swore under her breath, knowing Johnny would hear that as a confession and decided that now was probably a good time for the truth. She ran her tongue over her fat lip and stepped into the room, noting that Jimmy’s gaze was not exactly friendly as he tapped Johnny and Matt on the shoulder. Zacky stared at her, a thousand questions in his head. He too now had the sinking feeling that the woman who had walked into his life and his bed had not exactly been truthful.
“She’s right, the last thing either of us wanted was this.”
Everything seemed to stop. All of them looking at Ana, the slightly twisted smile on her face accentuated by the new bruises and the sheer venom in her eyes. She walked past the men to give Charlie her hand and pull her up. They stood shoulder to shoulder and Zacky saw a little of the act fall away, a new strength in Charlotte’s gaze that turned to apology when she met his eyes. Ana stared straight at Johnny, neither of them looking away.
“So what did you want ?”
“Vengeance. Pure and simple. I told Hicks about the cache, I told the Russian government about the cache via Denisoff and they got Charlie the job in Moscow. I found out about it from Mysenko and I was using you all to destroy him. Leaving us with the money.”
Johnny shook his head as the others stared at her in disbelief. Zacky’s face darkened and he stared at the two girls with a venom that worried Ana. She stood her ground as she tried to work out their reactions, Dani and Danielle had linked arms and looked concerned. Matt and Jimmy merely looked stunned. Johnny folded his arms, a new coldness in his voice.
“You were going to sell us out…”
Ana shrugged as Zacky leant against Johnny, the brief animosity between the two men forgotten as they now faced this new threat. It had always been this way, the boys might fight and tease between themselves but nobody else would come between them and now it pained Ana to be looking at this from the outside in. Zacky’s voice was as cold as he expression as he addressed Charlie.
“And you ?”
The girl swallowed hard, she was embarrassed to feel turned on by that look. He was angry yes but she could still feel the desire radiating off him and she wanted him. Charlie wanted this man in her life more than any other man she had ever known and now her response to his question might make that hope or shatter it into a million pieces.
“What I told Johnny was the truth. I came to St Petersburg as a grad student and took the job waitressing in one of Mysenko’s clubs to help pay the bills. Then he kidnaps me and I end up in a brothel…they hooked me on drugs and..”
Her voice gave out into sobs and Ana pulled her into a hug, her eyes desperately sad as Zacky looked away. Johnny sighed, pissed off that they had been pulled into a trap but now understanding why. When Ana had first left Moscow she had vanished and it had taken a lot of time and effort for any of them to find her again. Even at the beginning of the mission he had been forced to hold her to ransom almost. What mattered now was the motive that had got them here.
“Falling for me was a gimmick ?”
Charlotte shook her head at Zacky’s words, her reply desperate and pleading causing him to look back at her tear stained face. He too could understand that getting out of that place would make you do just about anything and thought back to all the damage one simple bad decision had caused. The other two girls were reserving judgement, neither liked to be played but it was clear that Charlie’s tears were genuine.
“No ! That’s what changed things. I don’t care about the fucking money now. Please Zacky, everything between us has been real.”
Dani tucked herself under Matt’s arms, the comforting feel of him holding her always helped her to think as Danielle finally gave up with the crutches and sat in Jimmy’s lap. The tall man’s face was grave but when he spoke the words were well considered and confident.
“All of this can wait. We are in this up to our necks now and that bastard has Syn.”
“He’s right Johnny, we get Gates back and get the fucking money and get the fuck out.”
Matt didn’t like being set up and knew that was what had got Johnny mad more than anything. He liked control and he liked to be ahead of the game and now it seemed they had blundered into something else. Dani nodded too, it hardly mattered if the game was changing, they still needed to win. Johnny stared at his friends before turning back to Ana.
“What about you ? Charlie may have changed her mind but you….were you just playing with him to get some sick revenge because you two really looked to have worked things out.”
Ana leant back against the wall, her eyes closing as she remembered all the times she had cursed all of them and wished for burning death to consume them all. Circumstance had made her hard, the lessons she had learnt from Syn mixing with those of her father to form the original plan. Now though, all she could think about was turning that rage on the man that now kept him from her.
“The plan changed the minute I saw him again. He’s in my blood and always will be. You guys are the closest thing I have to family so we get the money and Mysenko dies That means a payday and Charlie and I get revenge.”
Matt grabbed her into a hug, Dani joining in. Johnny still looked unsure as Danielle grabbed that laptop and went back to searching with Jimmy at her side. Only Zacky still looked angry, heading to the stairs without looking back as Charlie trailed up behind him. Clearly they still needed to talk and now Ana felt that she and Johnny did too. He accepted the piece of paper from her with the mobsters number and she wandered out onto the balcony as he gave it to Matt to run a trace before setting up a meeting. Jimmy had been right, first priority was to get his boy back home. Johnny considered everything for a moment before going after her, the frigid air a shook to his superheated skin as he pulled the door shut behind them.
“Ana, why ?”
They both leant against the rail, the few inches between them could have been a mile as the snow gently fell around them. He was more hurt than he would let on, the anger at being pulled into this was less than her betrayal of him. Johnny had always known that she couldn’t love him like he loved her but Ana had never been anything less than honest with him. She didn’t turn, just continued to look at the skyline.
“You never came. None of you. I waited for you Johnny and you never came.”
“We had to run, we would all have ended up in that damn prison. I was always coming back for you.”
His voice broke a little and she turned back, one hand cupping his cheek. The bitterness had burned Ana for too long for it to leave her but it had been no lie, the unit were her family and that was why being abandoned had hurt no matter what Johnny’s motives. Sh smiled, a little crooked but he could at least see his Ana underneath the façade.
“You always save me in the end huh ?”
Johnny couldn’t resist a dry laugh at that, her acknowledgement of his and Jimmy’s efforts to help Syn keep her clean from the coke amused him and despite himself he wanted to believe her. She hugged him then, her arms gripping him tightly as he hesitated before holding her close. An inner battle raged, she was content to wait until he decided which way it was going to go and when he didn’t pull away she knew she had won.
“We get him back and we get the payday.”
Ana kissed him, the merest brush of her lips against his that turned a little deeper before his hand wound into her hair and he pulled her back sharply. They really looked at each other then, a deep intense gaze that burned them both before the familiar smirk lit up his face.
“We get him back and we get the payday but if I even get a hint that you’re trying to fuck with me and I will kill you myself.”

Notes

ooooooooh.....now who do we trust.....