Veil (48 page)

Through some deep breaths, she was finally
able to manage out, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over
me.”

“I’m sorry I slapped ya ass.”

They recovered from
lightheadedness
,
and after their mutual
struggle for air subsided, she adjusted her clothes and told him,
“That’s your one slap. Got it? Your
one slap
.”

He raised an index finger, pointed at her and
responded, “That’s the last time your crazy ass gets in my front
seat.” He switched fingers to point at the backseat with his thumb
and added, “Now put yourself in the back where you belong, Ms.
Suren.”

She smiled graciously. She put her hat back
on, opened her purse, took out her sunglasses and covered her
raccoon eyes. She leaned into him with her hand raised some and he
jerked a bit, not sure what was going to happen next and if he
really was going to have to slap a bitch again. However, she slowly
and gently placed her hand on his right cheek, pulled his face to
hers, and kissed him softly on his left. The only other time she
kissed him on the cheek was when his wife passed.

He knew what she was saying and responded
quietly as she backed away, “It’s ok Ms. Suren. No harm, no foul.”
She opened her door, got out
,
and
reentered in the back.

After taking her seat, she instructed him, “I
need to go see Dr. Ken. Now.”

“Ms. Suren, he’s probably asleep.” He
gestured toward the digital clock in the dashboard.

“Oh, I know he’s not. I know for a fact that
bastard is not asleep, Mr. Carter.” She fell back onto the
headrest, closed her eyes
,
and hugged her
purse tightly against her chest.

Wish I knew the Asian word for bat
shit
, Carter mused as he pulled away from the curb.

“What? … Who … who is it?” asked an annoyed
voice through the intercom.

“It’s Suren.”

“Suren? What … what are you doing here?”

“Let me in.”

“Ummm … ok, ok … it’s just that things are a
bit crazy right now.”

Through the intercom, Suren could hear what
sounded like screams of rage in the background.

“Maybe now isn’t such a good time
,
” the voice added.

“Hunter,” she scolded, “buzz me in goddamnit.
I’m not leaving.”

“Ok, ok…” he groaned, followed by the sound
of the buzzer that controlled the towering iron gates, which
blocked the long road leading to the estate. They opened
slowly.

“Drop me off out front, Mr. Carter,” she
instructed her driver. “I have a feeling I’ll either be staying
here tonight or in a holding cell somewhere.”

“You sure, Ms. Suren?”

“I’m sure. I’ll have their driver bring me
back in the morning. Go home, get some sleep. It’s late.”

He pulled up outside the stately manor and
parked between the two massive stone pillars that framed the main
entrance.

As she got out of the car he told her,
“Night, Ms. Suren. If you need anything, at all … you know.”

“I know. Thank you. Goodnight Mr. Carter,”
she sighed and closed the door.

As he pulled off to drive back the same way
they entered, he could hear the screams of rage coming from inside
the manor. It took everything in him to leave her there, but he
knew if she was safe anywhere at all, she was safe with the
doctors. Ms. Suren was safe with the doctors.

“You knew about this?” she screamed as she
pushed her way past him and headed toward the howls coming from
Ken’s office
,
without so much as a
pause.

“Wait … wait!” Hunter yelled after her. He
closed the large front door; he tried to catch up with her.

When she got to the end of the long hallway,
she turned around and faced Hunter. She lifted up her arm and
pointed her finger at him. He stopped about ten feet from her.

“This is between me and him. You stay the
fuck out. I will deal with you later.” She turned around, grabbed
the two large brass knobs, and yanked open the doors to Ken’s
office
.

“Suren! The pills still haven’t kicked in
yet!” Hunter yelled after her.

Suren ignored his plea and walked inside the
office. She turned to close the door and glared at
Hunter
.
She glared directly at him through
the crack as the doors closed. She glared with fury he’d never
seen, even from the “Great Widow Tsay” Suren.

She stared at him until the two doors met and
he could no longer see her eyes. Although he couldn’t see the
outrage on her face anymore, he knew she really was going to deal
with him later. Hunter retreated to the kitchen to pour himself a
few hundred drinks. Hunter wasn’t happy with the return of scary
ass Lucy Liu. No, Hunter didn’t like
Kill Bill
Suren. Hunter
didn’t like that Suren one little bit.

Suren took a deep breath before she turned
around.

Ken was kneeling in the middle of his office
and facing away from the tall windows. His hands clenched and
pulled large clumps of his hair. He was screaming. Ken was kneeling
there screaming at the top of his lungs. Kneeling and screaming,
pulling his hair
,
and rocking forward and
backward.

Suren placed her purse and hat in the chair
next to the door; she unbuttoned her white jacket and draped it
neatly across the chair’s arms. She walked slowly to where Ken was
kneeling. She positioned herself directly in front of him and
looked down at his face.

He knelt, eyes wide open but totally
undisturbed by her presence, and continued to scream. Without the
slightest twinge of guilt, she slapped Ken across the face as hard
as she could. She slapped him so hard that she flattened the bottom
of her wedding band against his cheekbone.

He stopped screaming and let go of his hair.
His right hand immediately went to his cheek. He looked up at her.
He was dazed, but he was aware.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” she
hissed
.

“Suren,” he whispered and lowered his head,
still cradling his cheek in his hand. He stared at the carpet and
tears streamed down his face. “Suren,” he whispered again.

She knelt down in front of him and said his
name. He lifted his head and looked up at her again. He could see
the anger in her eyes as tears welled up in them. She slapped him
again, as hard as she could, with her right hand that time. She
slapped him so hard that it turned his head almost all the way to
the right, and it remained there.

“Who the fuck do you think you are? Huh?” she
roared. “Who the fuck? Who the fuck?” she yelled and beat on his
shoulders. She yelled and punched until she became weak and fell
forward into his chest. She rested in that position and sobbed,
asking over and over, “Who the fuck?”

Ken put his arms around Suren and held her
while she cried. He cried with her
.
Ken
was also shaking all over. Trembling. His skin was burning up.

Suren calmed down
,
but as her tears subsided, her anger quickly swelled back up.

“Get the hell off me, I need some water,” she
growled at Ken and pushed him away.

“How long?” she interrogated as Ken walked
through the office doors carrying a glass of water with one hand
and holding a bag of ice against his cheek with the other. The
glass was shaking in his hand. He wasn’t able to open the doors on
his own, so she saw Hunter’s worried face looking at her through
the crack as the doors closed.

She took the opportunity and yelled over
Ken’s shoulder, “Yeah, don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about you,
asshole!”

“It’s not his fault, Suren.” He handed her
the shaking glass. He trembled so badly he spilled some of the
water. She was sitting at his desk, so he took a seat in the chair
in front of it.

“He knew?”

“Yes, of course he knew. He had to be here
when … when … well, you know. You saw.”

“Every time? That happens every time?” she
asked and sipped water.

“Yes. Every time. Four times now. It happens
every time. Each time is worse than the last. It’s like I remember
more. Each time, I remember more. Until the pills start to
work.”

“Good!” she yelled. “Good! I hope you
remember every fucking thing! I wish you didn’t have pills to take!
I hope you remember the look in Jin’s eyes!”

Ken’s head fell forward and he let out a
deep, guttural groan, as if her saying the words conjured up the
image in his head and brought it all back. The groan turned into a
scream as tears rolled down his face.

Suren sat there and watched.

“Finished yet?” she asked flatly after he
stopped screaming. His head was still bowed. She took another drink
of water.

“Suren,” he tried to say, “let me—”

“No. Oh no. You don’t get to. No, you don’t
get to talk. No Ken, you get to sit there and shut your mouth and
listen. And you get to answer questions. Like the one I asked a
minute ago. How long?”

Ken sat there, kept his head down, and didn’t
answer.

“How long, Ken?” she demanded.

“Si—six years,” he stuttered. “Six years,” he
repeated and looked up at her, tears still streaming down his
face.

“So, coincidentally then,” she slammed the
thick crystal glass onto the desk in front of her, “about the same
time as your first little nervous breakdown. The nervous breakdown
you tried to blame on your relationship with … with
him
,”
she barked and contemptuously flicked her hand at the office
doors.

“Yeah, same time.”

“And each of the times you landed in the
hospital since then, which coincidentally also happens to be three
times. Three fucking times, Ken. Those little nervous breakdowns.
Those, too, right?”

“Yeah … well, two of them, yeah.”

“You sold the memory of my husband’s murder
to those people! You sold the memory of Jin’s killer. So they could
get some sick kicks out of it. Out of experiencing The Great Jin
Tsay get murdered. You sold the memory of him putting a bullet in
my husband’s head. Your friend’s head.”

Suren spat in Ken’s face and then leaned back
in the chair. She watched with a smile as it dripped down. He
didn’t move to wipe it off.

“Two years, do you know that?” she asked
him.

“Yes, I know,” he whispered.

“Two years, Ken
.
Two
years I’ve been hunting down rumors that this memory was floating
around out there. That the bastard sold it. Two years. And
now—”

“Suren…”

“No!” She slapped the desk hard. “No! Because
now you tell me. Now! You’ve had it for six years. You’ve been
carrying it around for six years. Selling it. To the highest
bidder. My God.” She ran her fingers through her hair and grabbed
it, pulling at it the same way Ken pulled his earlier. “Six fucking
years.” She shook her head in disbelief while she stared down at
the desk. “What, did you think you were protecting me? Did you
think you had the right? Is that what you thought? You were saving
me?” she laughed.