Sabra sat at the desk, staring out the window. Never had she been in the position she was right now. A position to be able to end something like this; decades of massacre, deceit, manipulation and pain. Heaven knows she had longed for the opportunity to turn evil into good. To change the course their fathers and grandfathers had laid out all those years ago. Talk about the sins of the fathers.

If the men in her family were alive, they would take a different route; she knew they would, and there would be more violence, death and destruction. She would have never gotten away with what she had if there was any say from them, nor would Sabra have been able to take the "family business" in the direction she had.

Looking around her current surroundings, she felt out of place. She was used to the opulence of the mountains and the open spaces the mountain compound retreat held. A short time later, she was in a cosy country home with a river running by and a bodyguard from a generation that scorned what they did. Looking at where Bevis sat cross-legged on the floor, Sabra sighed. Who would have guessed?

What Bevis had accomplished, she had done when her parents were officially alive, so could she do it now?

She hadn't been in training for years. Still, somehow, she remembered things, was in places where she was needed, and defended her parents in very unconventional ways.

"Bevis, will you be ready for this?" Sabra asked.

Silently, a thumb was raised as Bevis continued breathing deeply with her eyes closed, and Sabra smiled and shook her head, "When are we going to the sight?"

Bevis opened her eyes and turned to look at Sabra. "When I get the call from Chelsea and Jake that the mission has been accomplished," she said.

Nodding, Sabra sighed, "Then I just have to wait here doing...?"

"Anything you want, but leave," Bevis said as she inhaled, closed her eyes and resumed her meditative position.

Sabra pushed to her feet, "That is what I'm having a problem with ..." she muttered, moving toward the view outside the nearest window but stopping far enough away that she was not seen from the outside, "... I'm not the kind of person who sits around waiting."

"You'll be in the thick of the action in no time," Bevis said, her eyes snapping open and her head turning sharply at a sound from the kitchen. Rolling to her feet, Bevis waited, frowning as a shocked Candy wandered into the space. "What is it? Candy, are you okay?"

Candy blinked rapidly before looking around the room. "Ah ... yes, I'm... okay," she whispered, clearing her throat. "The...ah... mission is accomplished," she said, nodding as her eyes gazed at things no one could see.

"That is fantastic," Bevis said, glancing around before staring at her again, "then why are you so pale?"

"What?" Candy murmured absently, leaning against the wall as though she had difficulty standing, "Oh... not everyone came through unscathed."

"Who is injured?" Sabra asked, moving toward Candy.

"Etiane," Candy whispered, glancing at Sabra as she staggered, "the son ... not the father."

Sabra sucked in air, "Oh ..." she exhaled hard, "... how badly?"

"Apparently, he took a bullet to the back of his body armour that was meant from his father or perhaps his team ...or perhaps both," Candy said, shaking her head, "then he insisted on being the last up the ladder to the roof where the helicopters were waiting and took out three attackers while everyone else was boarding. One of the attackers shot him in the leg before dying ... he is said to have lost a lot of blood."

Sabra sank onto a sofa, "That is bad, but he will live?"

"Yes, he will," Candy said, absently nodding, "his father refuses to leave him ... something about a promise to be with him every step of the way."

"That is understandable," Sabra whispered as she slowly nodded, "having just found him, it makes sense he will not want to lose him now."

"Where are the escapees now?" Bevis asked, watching Candy closely as she moved toward Sabra's seat and sank into a chair.

"They ... they are being settled on the other side of the river," Candy whispered. "Apparently, her guards were filling the area with water," Candy shook her head. "They were going to drown everyone."

"Oh well ... that sounds about right," Sabra nodded, "The Calderone no longer needs them, so they are dispensable."

Candy shook her head, "She didn't have any remorse in ordering those people drowned," she whispered, "and the men carrying out those orders simply did it."

Bevis stared intently at Candy for a long while, "Candy, those men are as heartless as The Calderone is; otherwise, they wouldn't be working for her."

"Yeah," Candy nodded, "I keep telling myself that, but somehow, it doesn't make what they were doing any better."

Sabra nodded. "Nothing like that is better." She sighed, "If the mission is accomplished, what are we waiting for?"

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Bevis froze as a phone rang.

"Is that yours?" she asked, looking at the two women.

"I have mine here," Candy said, raising her hand and checking it, "and it's not ringing."

"Mine's on the table," Sabra said, "it's not vibrating, so it's not my phone."

Looking around, Bevis tracked the sound to a pocket in her backpack. Pulling it out, she frowned.

"Where did this come from? It's not mine."

"Answer it," Sabra said, rising from the chair, "let's see who is on the other side."

Bevis pressed the connect icon on the screen, "Hello."

Silence followed for four heartbeats before a man spoke, "The violets are purple with speckled red and grey ... come out, come out, come out and play."

Bevis sucked in a deep breath, closing her eyes as the cold, grating voice scraped across her skin, pushing into her mind and invoking an explosion of pain-racked memories, pleading voices and chaotic scenarios of a past time and place. She felt overwhelmed with so much information from memories successfully compartmentalised. Amid the cacophony bouncing around her mind, Bevis focused on the sudden visual of deep purple violets in her memories in a window box, dark grey clouds outside, and the windowpane speckled with blood. Oh, how she had wanted to hurt the man who had caused all that pain to so many female children, young and older women. She couldn't then, but she could now.

"Where do you want to meet?" she asked, anger rising through her body and pulsing in her mind.

"Half an hour .... and why not make our meeting place where it all started? " the man's voice said. "If you don't know, why not ask the family coddling you right now?"

The line went dead. Bevis curled her empty hand into a tight ball, inhaling until her lungs couldn't hold any more oxygen, and held it for a few counts before exhaling.

"Care to tell us what that was all about?" Sabra asked, frowning at Bevis' reaction.

"Bev ... violets speckled red and grey ..." Candy whispered, "Tell me ... it's not him." Swallowing hard, Candy shook her head, "It's not him... is it?"

"Who exactly?" Sabra asked.

Candy shook her head, her face pale, her scared eyes filled with worry and tears, "It can't be."

Sabra looked from one furious woman to the other, a scared shell of her confident self, "Will someone tell me why a confident woman like Candy becomes a blubbering wreck and you..." she turned to Bevis, "... self-controlled until it scares even me becomes so angry you could probably crush a rock. Who is that person?"

"I'll tell you, but I've got to get Candy back on track," Bevis said, shoving the phone into her pocket and crouching in front of Candy. "Hey..." she clicked her fingers until Candy's gaze snapped to hers. "Look around..." she waited until Candy had skimmed the room. "Where are you?"

"I'm..." Candy sniffed, dashing away the sudden tears, "... I'm at home."

"Right," Bevis said, "at home where you are safe, protected and loved."

"How did he get that phone to you?" Candy whispered.

"I don't know," Bevis said, "I haven't looked in that particular pocket for years, so it could have been lying there waiting for any moment he wanted to derail us. So ... why are you behaving like he's standing over you with a knife about to hack you to death?"

"Vivid imagery," Sabra muttered, shaking her head.

"It's the voice," Candy whispered, "the terror and pain were just there at the sound of his voice."

"Huh, so you were there," Bevis whispered, "were you part of the caged women or the basement horrors?"

Candy's gaze snapped to Bevis' calm, watchful eyes, "You were there."

Bevis nodded, "I was part of the extraction ... team ... for want of a better word. How did you end up there?"

"I was with friends at a club," Candy said, straightening her shoulders and wiping her wet cheeks, "one minute, I was dancing, and the next, I was waking up in a cage."

"And your friends?" Bevis whispered the question.

"I ... don't know," Candy said, shaking her head. I never saw or heard from them again, which was odd even now when I think of the situation. We communicated all the time. I don't know if they set me up or were also taken by that butcher and didn't live to tell their tale."

"Huh, right now, you need to focus on ending all of this," Bevis said. "When taking down The Calderone is over, we can finish the idiot off."

Nodding, Candy inhaled and stood, "You're on. Let's end this."

Nodding, Bevis watched as Candy moved toward the desk, slipped into the chair, and started to work. Not happy for another task to get on her plate, Bevis sighed as she glanced at Sabra.

"What is it?" Bevis asked, finding Sabra frowning at Candy.

"Candy was taken before," Sabra whispered as her angry gaze moved from one woman to the other. "You were part of the team that extracted her."

"My company vehicles were used to transport women and girls to a safe haven," Bevis said. "The event Candy speaks of is when my company first started. Why? What significance does it have?"

"Many years ago, The Calderone used to outsource her projects to someone else," Sabra said, "I didn't know if he was still alive; I assumed he wasn't since she had taken to doing her own dirty work. But what if he isn't and they're both coming to the ..." Sabra waved her hand vaguely, ".... um ... party."

"Then we'll end it, and we'll do it well," Bevis said, "there is going to be nothing more to hold over everyone living on this planet. Enough is enough."

"Oh, I agree with that," Sabra said, looking at Bevis' phone vibrating on the table, "I take it that is yours."

Bevis nodded, "Yes, it's Chelsea. We're good to go. The compound has been ..." Bevis shook her head, "... flattened."

Pulling up the attachment, she showed Sabra a picture with nothing but white and grey rubble seen for the expanse of at least four blocks.

"When they mean business, they mean business," Sabra said, "what now?"

"Now we head to the encampment and get to work," Bevis said. "Are you ready to go?"

Swinging her backpack onto her shoulders, Sabra smiled coldly, "Aren't I always? But what about your appointment in half an hour?"

"Hmmm ... surprisingly, yes, you are always ready to go," Bevis chuckled, "I'm tackling one project at a time ... he will have to wait his turn or join the party. Candy, we're moving out."

Candy glanced over her shoulder, nodding and giving a quick smile, "Copy that ... enjoying kicking ass."

"Thanks," Bevis said, grinning, "see you on the other side."

The two women moved toward the descending stairs into the garage, the cars and the next leg of this journey toward a freedom few knew was needed.