Todd's Saga 2: Shadows

        Crossroads had turned into a dive after his sister’s husband Ben had died.  Easy to figure, since Max Holden had never proven to be a very good businessman.  Max had dumped the bar quickly when he couldn’t make a profit.  Now it catered to bikers and riffraff. The fact that the place was also out of the way, suited Todd just fine.  

He sat in the darkened booth and kept an eye on the front door.  As he drank his scotch, he recalled the events of the night that had torn him away from Blair.  She had been keeping him company while they waited for word from his man.  Then his phone had rung and the body that was to be Victor, had been pulled from the river, and the police were going to be notified. As Blair hugged him, he had seen it.   It was lying on the floor just inside the door.   Everything had changed in that one moment with that note.  After the initial shock, he and Blair had pulled themselves together and gone to work figuring out their next step.  As much as they hated it, he would have to disappear.   In order to protect his family, he had to follow the demands in the note, but that was all they would get from him.  He was done playing their game.

        He had said his goodbye to Viki and had felt overwhelmed.  She had just broken up with Clint and was struggling with her paper and it had been difficult to leave her.  He had finally been in the position to be a good brother to her and help her like she had helped him for so many years, but the organization had ruined that too.  Once again he was forced to lie to her to keep her and Natalie safe.  

        His goodbye to Jack and Sam had been tough.  Sam had been his usual friendly self and had told him he’d be missed.  The little guy had always treated him like a friend.  On the other hand, Jack had been almost pleased he was leaving and had expressed his concern for his mother being hurt all over again.  He had managed to convince Jack that he had no intentions of hurting Blair and Jack had condescended to give him a handshake and then had left the room.  It hadn’t been the goodbye he would have liked, but it was a step in the right direction.

        The toughest part of the whole day had been leaving Blair.  The marriage had gone off without a hitch, and they had been able to get lost in each other for some time after but then the time had come to separate.  He couldn’t forget the heart-wrenching sobs coming from the other side of the door to his suite when he left her.  It had taken every bit of strength he had, not to open the door and take her back into his arms and hold her.  Todd shook his head to shake away the memories and gulped the remainder of his drink. The smooth heat of the liquor flowed down his throat lighting a fire deep within.

        He looked down at the table at the two papers residing there.  For the last month, he had been trying to get a handle on the organization as well as stay ahead of his shadows. One of the papers had an address on it and the words “Don’t fail us again.”  Getting that note had been maddening.  They had just ordered him to leave his family and had claimed they had Victor.  Now they were ordering him to go to some strange address and essentially telling him to kill Victor again.  None of it made sense.  Who were these damn people? He had located five different locations for the address on the note and had been to all, but the last.  The first one he had checked out had been in Compton, California.  It was too close to Starr in Los Angeles, and he had been anxious to make sure she was still unharmed.  The address in Compton turned out to be an empty lot.  Then he stopped to see Starr.  He sat there remembering the conversation that had followed.

        “Dad, what are you doing here?  When we last talked you said you had decided to stay in Llanview for a while.”  

        Starr opened the door, looking as fresh and as beautiful as he remembered, but he had this sense that someone was watching.  He looked around for a moment, then turned back to his daughter.  “Um Hi, I’m headed out of the country on business and had the urge to check on you and make sure everything was going okay here.  Can’t a father do that? Check up on his daughter?”

         Starr laughed.  “Of course.  It’s just a surprise.”

         “Are you alone?”

 Starr looked at him puzzled.  “Well, yeah. Langston and Marco are at the studio working right now.  Dad, what’s wrong?”

 “Let me in Shorty, a lot’s happened since we talked last.”  Starr stood back and Todd entered her apartment.  He turned to her.  “I’m not sure where to start.  Sit down.”  

 “What’s this all about?  I thought you just came to check up on  me, but it’s more than that isn’t it?”  She sat down.

 After pacing for a little bit. Todd sat down abruptly in front of her.  “Look, there’s no way to sugarcoat this.  Victor’s alive and he’s messed up in something that affects all of us.  I promised myself I’d never lie to you again so I’m here to tell you everything that’s gone down and to warn you.”

“Dad, are you sure you’re alright?  Victor’s been dead for almost two years.  What would make you think otherwise?”  Starr watched as her father began pacing again.

         “I saw him.   We all did, the night Dani overdosed.”  As soon as he said the words he knew he had made a mistake.  They had kept Starr out of the loop with regards to Dani because they had wanted her not to worry.  Starr was shocked.

“Wait, Dani overdosed.   Why didn’t you call me?”

“Because you would have hopped the first flight home.  She‘s alright, but this is where things began to get complicated.”  He sat back down and looked her straight in the eyes. “ Victor showed up out of the blue.  No explanation, no nothing.  It was a shock.  We all tried to get back on track.  I was doing everything I could to get somewhere with Dani and Jack.  I even went to Victor and tried to call a truce, and then he up and decided to leave again.  Starr, he’s not the same man you knew.  He’s changed.  He tried to kill me and then he disappeared.  The people, he’s been involved with, in the last year, are dangerous, and they want him dead.  To make matters worse they want me to kill him.  If I don’t, they’ll hurt all of you: You, your mother, Jack, Sam, Tea, Dani, even Viki, and Natalie.  I can’t let that happen.” Todd stopped talking and waited for it all to sink in for Starr.  He clasped his hands together to keep them from shaking, blurting it all out like that sounded crazy.  Would Starr believe him?

Starr didn’t know what to say.  She had been all set to call him a liar and then he had met her eyes.  She remembered the morning after Victor died and her father had come to the house and had sworn he didn’t kill Victor.  She had believed him, then John had arrested him and he told her he hadn’t remembered it until after he was shot by Irene.  “Dad, if Victor’s alive, why did you think you killed him?”

Todd sat back, he hadn’t expected that particular question.  “I’ve been asking myself that question since he turned up.  None of what’s happened recently makes any sense.  I mean obviously, I didn’t kill him, but he wouldn’t tell us anything."  He stopped and ran his fingers through his hair, pausing to rub his forehead where the pain started to throb.  Shaking his head he looked back at Starr.   "It doesn’t matter anymore.  To these people I have to finish the job I started.  Starr, Dani’s overdose wasn’t an accident, and someone tried to shoot your mother.  When Victor disappeared again, we thought we could make it look like he was dead, but two days ago all of that changed.”  Todd reached into his pocket and pulled out the last note he had.  “This is the last of several notes I’ve received since dropping you off here.” He handed her the note. “I need you to be careful.  I know I’m being followed.  If anything happened to you I’d never forgive myself.”

Starr looked at the note.  She struggled to understand what it all meant. “What are you going to  do?”

“I don’t know.  I’ve made a lot of promises lately.  I’m not sure which ones I’ll be able to keep.  One of the locations for that address was close to here.  I had to know you were okay.  I need to go.” His voice cracked, and he steeled himself for what was to come. Taking the note back,  he stood up.   “I’m a danger to you just being here.”  He pulled a picture from his pocket.  “This man has been hired to keep an eye on you.  Don’t be alarmed if you see him.  His name is on the back.  If you see anyone else following you, tell him.  I love you, Shorty, stay safe.”  He dropped the picture and headed for the door.

Starr got up quickly and intercepted her father as he went to leave.  She hugged him fiercely. “Dad, I don’t want you to go.   Go to Uncle Bo.  Get his help.  Don’t do this yourself?”

“I have to Starr.  It’s the only way to keep you all safe.” He returned her hug, kissing her on the head.  “It’s going to be alright.  I promise.” He tenderly unlinked her arms from around him and walked to the door stopping once to turn and look at her.  He closed the door behind him, and for the second time in several days, he heard sobbing on the other side of the door.   Once again he walked away.

        Todd poured himself another drink.   He looked at the second paper sitting on the table in front of him. The names of seven men were written there; Carlo Hesser, R.J. Gannon, Patrick Thornhart, Tomas Delgado, Kevin Buchanan, and two names were crossed off; Powell Lord and Mitch Laurence.  Seven enemies, five were still around, but which one was capable of leading an organization this large.   Todd wrote five question marks next to the last name and underlined them.  If it wasn’t any of the five, then who? Who else had it in for Victor and why had he been picked as the one to kill his brother?  Whoever was behind this was going to pay.  He swallowed his drink and left the bar. There was one more destination he had to look into.   From the corner of his eye, he caught a movement.  His shadow had found him again. 



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