CHAPTER 12: CONSEQUENCES

            Still clinging to the inside of Angel’s robe, I couldn’t help but steal a glance at Angel’s majestic derriere as she marched through the basement.  I climbed closer to it, realizing that I might be visible on this virtually transparent garment.  She walked up the stairs, and every other step I would bump unceremoniously into the left side of her ass.  I reached and grabbed her panties, tired of the robe.  But I shimmied my way over towards her hip.  I wanted to see my client again.  That double-crossing little…

            “Angel!” Leila called.  “I heard the snatch was successful.”

            Well, that could mean more than one thing, I thought, somehow amused at myself.

            “Indeed,” Angel said.  “Have a seat.”

            Apparently the hip was a grand idea, because Angel sat, too.  We were in the room where the council was held earlier.  I ventured a little further forward, and there she was.  Leila.  My client.  She was beautiful, too, by the way.  I suppose being at the mercy of ugly giantesses would have made for an even worse night.  A pacific islander of some kind, maybe Hawaiian, I wasn’t sure, she had short brown hair that stopped just above her shoulders.  Her eyes were a remarkably soft (and large) brown.  And though not so tall in stature, her curves rivaled even Nicole’s.  I had been professional with her, but I did take privately take note of her general attractiveness.

            “What’s up?” Leila asked.

            “Where were you today?” Angel asked bluntly.

            “I went home for the weekend.  I told you,” Leila answered, a perfectly innocent look of confusion on her face.

            I sensed Angel’s thigh flex involuntarily.  She knows, I realized.  Angel knows.

            “Were you, love? “ Angel asked.  “It’s funny.  Because I was worried about you, after what happened between you and Jayne.  Yes, I know about that.  Jayne was quite upset, you know.”

            Leila looked solemn.  “Kyle is… was my brother.  I am just as upset.  I didn’t know you knew.”

Brother.  So it wasn’t all lies.

            “Of course I know.  But Jayne drew the rights to him.  And you killed him before she could have her play.  I don’t have to tell you what a violation of our code that is, do I?” Angel asked.

            “I… you know what Jayne does to them.  He deserved a quick finish.  He is my bro-“

            “Was,” Angel said.

            “What?”

            “Was.  You said, ‘he is my brother.’  I assumed you meant ‘was,’ right?” Angel studied Leila carefully.  Leila nodded, a little too emphatically, I noticed.

            “Yes.  ‘Was.’ I just… I wanted to make it up to her.  To Jayne.  I knew it was a violation.  So I wanted to make it up to her,” Leila explained.

            “By sending a private investigator to the bar,” Angel said plainly.

            Well, shit.  I didn’t see that one coming.

            “I… she told you?” Leila asked glancing up towards Jayne’s room.  I looked up as well, and saw Jayne standing at the banister.  Jayne shook her head as if to say, “It wasn’t me.”

            “I had you followed,” Angel said.  “I already knew about the Kyle incident.  So I had you followed, just to make sure you were… okay.  He was your brother after all.”

            Leila now looked very nervous.

            “Tell me about the investigator,” Angel said.  “Where is he now?”  If she only knew…

            “He’s… nobody… I sent him to the bar to get snatched with the rest.  I figured if I could get Jayne an extra… we’d be square again.  For the Kyle situation.  He was an extra.  A bonus.  Nothing more.  He ate right out of my hands,” Leila said.  I wished I could argue otherwise, but I was clinging to a giant witch’s panties in a house full of enormous homicidal women, so I conceded the point.

            “How did you convince him?  What did you say?” Angel asked.  This was an interrogation.

            “I… said my brother was missing.  That’s all,” Leila was beginning to lose her composure.  “Angel.  It was a cover story.  To get him to the bar.  That’s all.  You said stragglers get snatched, too.  So I just figured… you know… to make it up to Jayne…”

            Angel looked at her carefully.

            “Why wasn’t he there then?  Your investigator?  He wasn’t at the bar,” Angel pressed.

            “Maybe he got cold feet…?”

            Angel sighed.  “Okay, enough lies.  Nicole, bring him please.”

            Nicole approached us from across the room.  She looked on Leila was what might have been pity.  Her hand clamped around something, or someone.  Leila seemed to be dreading each step Nicole took towards us.  Angel held out her hand.  Nicole dropped another miniature man into Angel’s palm.  I knew that face from a photograph Leila had given me.  That… was Kyle.  Kyle looked at his sister Leila, then at Nicole, then turned back to look at Angel.  Then… he looked right at me.  I shook my head at him.  He looked at me for another moment, and then turned back to his sister.  I heard Jayne’s voice holler from above us.

            “You sneaky bitch!” Jayne was almost laughing from the top of the stairs.

            “Angel, please… I can explain.  I only wanted to save-“

            Angel grasped the amulet suddenly.  I instinctively shut my eyes again.  When I opened my eyes again, Leila was two inches tall standing on the middle of a couch cushion.  Angel held Kyle and lowered him close enough for Leila to see.

            “No more talking.  You’re done lying,” Angel hissed.  “I didn’t know about you investigator until we got back tonight.  I wish he was there; I would have had something special planned for him.  But he wasn’t.  If he finds his way here, we’ll deal with him then.  But you broke another code.  You didn’t even kill Kyle.  You kept him... you were going to restore him, weren’t you?  Set him free?”

The now miniature Leila pleaded to Angel.  Tears streaked down her face.

Angel leaned closer:  “One more thing.  You were right.  Kyle was your brother.”

            Almost within her reach, she watched Angel’s hand close with brutal speed and strength.  Kyle barely had time to open his mouth, much less scream.  He was dead almost instantly, his spine and neck and everything else snapping in Angel’s bare hand all at once.  Leila shrieked and fell to her knees.

            “You’re going to come with me now,” Angel wiped the man’s remains off with a tissue, and plucked a weeping Leila off of the sofa cushion.  I glanced at Nicole who still stood there, motionless.  Her face was troubled, but she said nothing.  Off to Angel’s lair again.  Despite Leila’s treachery that got me into this mess, and her intention of delivering me to Jayne’s brutality… I felt sorry for her.