The Wicked End

Ray emptied another shot of whiskey into the glass and sat back to ponder his options.
Frank was quietly keeping him informed of the latest in the war of attrition that seemed to have broken out among his former families and it added more stress to the daily work of running a super power. In fact running a superpower was a piece of piss compared to dealing with two extremely violent factions that seemed intent on tearing the country apart.
People were whispering, his own people were worried that his ties to the murder of a senator and to the man at the centre of a massacre would harm his standing in congress, his political enemies were rubbing their hands and the international community was whispering about the anarchy seemingly about to break out in the good old US of A.
Ray found he didn’t give a shit about any of it.
“Tell me how this helps you.”
Frank’s voice on the intercom was muted but Ray recognised the brutality that surfaced whenever his friend was about to go on the rampage. It was chilling.
“I know Angel will at least think about doing a deal, all the time there is contact we can track the gps. Gerard has organised a squad to go shake down anyone Matt Sanders has been in contact with and Mikey is arming up with the latest from the new factory in China. I am going to bury the bitch.”
“This is an all out war you’re talking about, the feds will come down on you rather than her since they don’t know she exists.”
Ray swallowed the shot down as Frank explained that they had leaked considerable informations about Angel and her past to the appropriate authorities that would shed light on some very high profile unsolved murders. Once the press got wind that this woman was linked to the shoot out at the press conference it would be much harder for Angel to move around. There had been some quite clear footage.
“When are you leaving the country Ray ?”
“Monday, UN conference in Geneva so keep me informed via the hard line. Just….Frank, for gods sake be careful and try and keep the bodycount down.”
A deadpan voice broke into the conversation and Ray had to smile. Mikey had clearly been drinking and was trying Frank’s patience.
“I’m gonna break all records Rayray, gonna dance on the slut’s grave.”
“Shut up Mikes.”
“Fuck you Frank….actually yeah, let’s fuck and go find my brother.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, I told you no and I meant it.”
“You didn’t say no last night and neither did Gee…”
Ray decided to break into the conversation before they entirely lost focus. His hands shook a little as he felt around the desk for the medication his doctor had prescribed for anxiety. It was becoming more and more difficult to keep things together with any degree of success.
“FOCUS. Now, what do you do if the feds find her first ?”
“They won’t. We are feeding them other information too.”
Ray closed his eyes at the way Frank seemed intent on manipulating himself into a thirty year stretch and taking him down with him. He worked hard to keep the more enterprising of his agents well away from investigating the Iero family too closely.
“Fine. I have to go. Just be careful.”
“We will. Quit panicking Mr President.”
The line went dead and Ray sat there for another half hour in the dark. It was late, well after most of his staff had gone to bed. His wife was upstairs, they had not been speaking for a while now and she had heard enough about the current situation to threaten to leave him yet again. For a moment Ray considered using the gun in the desk before realising there was a tap at the door.
“Yes ?”
The door opened and Ray took another sharp intake of breath at the visitor. The dark suit and slicked back hair were immaculate as usual although he knew the mind within was anything but. There was going to be no way out of this situation that would end well for him, Ray knew he was going to die sooner rather than later. Synyster Gates was literally the last person you wanted standing in as your Secret Service appointed bodyguard.
“This is going to end up killing all of us.”
“Just stick to the plan Ray, you know Angel will pull this off.”
Ray rubbed his temples and looked again at the gun in the desk drawer. How had it come to this ? How had one simple bad decision as a young man caused him to betray everything he had worked to become ?
“I never wanted this ! I didn’t save her life to have her kill Frank. I wanted her to have a second chance to live. Not this.”
“You wanted her and you have her. She loves you.”
Gates smiled at the lie and the man in front of him. Frank had chosen to place his trust in an able man who had let himself love the very wrong woman. He had fed Angel with all the details she needed to break into the compound, to take Frank’s wife and now he would provide the killing blow. He just didn’t know it yet.
“The plan was to leave. To just take enough money from Frank to be retribution. I didn’t agree to kidnapping or murdering James. The kid was never involved in what happened.”
“Collateral damage, Angel needs to get this out of her system Ray and then you can disappear.”
Ray put his head in his hands and wondered if he could reach the gun before Gates had a chance to shoot him. It would mean the end of his presidency and probably drag Frank to jail with him but it was better than all of them dying because of Ray and his mistaken guilt.
Gates checked the clock on the wall and calculated the appearance of the next security detail. He didn’t have long and it was important that there was enough time for him to be on his way before anyone realised what was about to happen. He circled around behind Ray, noting how the other man hastily removed his hand from the desk drawer.
“It would be better for you if they died anyway. You know Frank won’t forgive this, what little he does know has probably buried you. If Mikey doesn’t get his hands on you first.”
“They don’t know it all. They don’t even know half of it.”
There was a dull bitterness in his tone that Ray knew was a lie. Frank never forgave and he never forgot. A lesson learned from Angel in fact, trust no one. He doubted that Frank would go so far as to kill him but there would be some form of retribution.
“So stick to the plan and let her finish it. See out your term and we can all retire rich and happy.”
“I don’t want them to die.”
Gates was in his blind spot, dark leather gloves on his hands as he drew the silenced pistol from the inner pocket of his jacket. It was Frank’s, taken when they had taken Claire and now it would be used to bury it’s former owner.
“Do you want to die ?”
“I should die, I should have left this all buried in that forest.”
“For what it’s worth, she’s sorry.”
Ray smiled, the relief at what was going to happen surprised him.
“If you’re going to do it, just get on with it.”
Gates smiled slightly, adjusting the angle before a simple squeeze of the trigger sent blood and brain flying across the room away from him. There was a thud as Ray hit the table, still twitching in the throes of a violent death that he believed he deserved. Gates didn’t particularly care one way or another, all that was important was that the angle of the bullet would indicate suicide and that the only prints on the gun would be Ray’s.
The laptop he left open despite the greyish mess leaking across the keyboard. It contained enough evidence to link Frank and Ray to several embezzlements, the murder of the senator and an amusing incident involving a sheep which was his own attempt at humour. While the feds were puzzling it out they would go after Frank in force and either kill him or remove him as a threat. Angel and her boys would simply walk in and fill in the gap.
The weapon had made little noise, the next patrol would be by in fifteen minutes. Gates straightened his tie and placed the gun in Ray’s right hand before calmly leaving the office and heading out toward the exit. It was simple, clean and quick. Just the way he wanted it and he would be out of the city before anyone thought to look for him. The fact that the President had personally hired someone that didn’t exist would fool them all.
The slowly cooling body would be found of course, the panic among government sending ripples out into the world before rigor mortis had set in. The press wouldn’t hear of it first, nor the chiefs of staff, nor even his own wife. There was an act of contrition that had been set up when Ray knew that his death was inevitable. A final act of a man who had tried to live life to a code of honour while working among thieves.
Frank would know and understand it all.

Notes