Saint Or Sinner

    They were always the same... flashes in his mind. Even now he could still feel the shakes in his system, like an instinct he couldn't shake away from his mind. Even as he moved in the shadow of night, Shay stalked toward his new prisoner glaring down at the man.     He was no one special. Just another number to add on to the scoreboard for Shay. Another fool wanting to gain glory.     Another soldier in a war he has no right leaping into.     As he peeled the bound man's tape off his mouth, the captive prisoner panted heavily with wide eyes.     "Please... I don't know nothing."     "Well we know that is a lie, don't we?" Shay said sharpening his knives against the other, the sound of the blades as cold as his tone.     "Where is he?"     "I already said-"     The prisoner didn't finish as he felt the knife go into his hand, making him scream in agony as Shay twisted the blade into the joint.     "Lie again and I will make this worse. Where?" He shouted making the man whimper.    "He is being held in a bunker to the south of Dubai!"     "Alive?" Shay asked choking the man.     "Last I saw, yes!" He said to Shay who looked him in the eyes. The fear of him at that moment was stronger than anyone he followed orders from and smiled. "Good man. Now I am going to let you go. Mention you were taken by me, and we will have another meeting. You don't want that, do you boy?"     The soldier shook his head and after a full ten seconds before untying the young soldier who ran as hard as he could away.     Again, Shay bit back the sickening feeling. Fact was, he was great at his job... a fact he knew one day soon he would escape...     As he woke, Shay jumped from the landing of the plane and sighed as he realized it was another dream. Or nightmare, depending how some looked at it. He couldn't help but feel happy with being back.     After ten years away... He was finally home. First thing he felt was something he didn't really know how to describe. Relief? Nervousness? Or both.     He decided best not to think about it and just decided to walk out to find his ride. As he grabbed his duffel bags hefting both onto his shoulder, he stared around and smiled as he caught the familiar smell of his home states gumbo, gator, and shrimp. Now, in the halls of Louis Armstrong Airport, Shay truly started to feel like he was closer to home. Being in the military, he was stationed in a naval base in Virginia for three years before eventually being shipped out by sea.     Then the war became engulfed in war amid the madness of COVID-19 a fact that made him irked by his government. But he didn't stay for them... he stayed because at the end of the day, the United States of America was his home. But his Cajun-Creole roots in the State of Lousiana ran deep enough to bring a smile as he walked out to the pick up area, seeing a car drive up to him.     "You late again, Mikey." Shay grinned at the slight chubby African-American who got out the car.     "Ain't my fault, brother. Traffic is a b***h 'cause of Mardi Gras." The man smirked. Michael "Big Mike" Washington had been a friend from Shay's circle way back to the element days of the their youth.  The man was an ex-con who found a cause defending and teaching the younger generation to steer clean of the violence that festered in the streets. From what Shay remembered, in the last five years Big Mikes efforts were in the positive.     "He also had to pick up a lil' lagniappe anywho,"     As Shay looked, he smirked as he saw a familiar face exit the passenger side. Shay couldn't even hide the widening smile as he saw the girl before him. "I be a 'gator in da bayou, dat you baby cher?" He asked, his Cajun slang slipping back in at the face.     "Like you have to ask." Hana smiled at him. "I came lookin' for da man dat be mah brother, Shay Teller. Not the big mother who devoured the boy." She smirked.     Hana was Shay's joy and pride in life. His little sister, who took care of him as well as he took care of her. Not that either needed it, in the city of New Orleans, you would be stupid to cross a Teller. Shay's family, despite its small size and quiet nature, was still a family popularly known throughout its suburb town of Marais. While Shay had a future in the military though, the twenty-four year old Hana was best with the streets and tech savvy, taking odd jobs for easy money of a thousand dollars per job.     As she hugged him close in a bear hug, Shay couldn't hide his smile as he lifted her. "Missed you, baby girl."     "You too, big man." She smiled and let go.     "Well now that the first half of the reunion is done, what you say we get to stepping?" Big Mike smiled as Shay looked at the car and smiled.     "Damn bubba, you kept her just the way I left her." Shay smirked running his fingers along the purple shade of his car.     A '64 Pontiac GTO, the beauty known as "Lilith" was a car Shay and his father had put together during his early high school days. Indeed she to him was a one of a kind gal.     Only one you kept at least...     Shay bit back the thought, not wanting to get the better of himself and smirked. "Its Mardi Gras night, yeah? Whattaya say we stop by home and spend the night proper." He smiled.     "First things first bubba," Hana smirked holding up a finger, "We gotta bring you to the old man for a proper greeting,"     Shay smiled and accepted that. "I drive,"     "So how has home been since I left?" Shay asked as he drove on the highway, earning tsks from the two.     "Ah you know how it is, town is still run by the Mafia, though if you asked the local law, they ain't got no power."     Shay rolled his eyes at that. It was no secret that Marais and, for that matter, all  of New Orleans was under the control of The Mercano family. Now most knew the common knowledge that the family was one of the last strongest Italian-Sicilian mobs left in the game, some speculated that the family had ties inside the government to maintain their stance they have had from the last thirty years alone, but only a handful knew just how deep their roots went. Shay and his family was one of that handful.     He grew up around Savitar and Giorgi Mercano, both of whom treated him like he was family since Savitar was his godfather. Giorgi and Shay were only two years apart but that gap meant little tot the two. And once they went to the same private school, The Episcopal of Acadiana, no one looked out for each other more than the two, their status in the bayou of Louisiana meaning little as crap to them... both had each others back in the best and worse of times.     Savitar however, was a different kind of monster. A man of business first, everyone knew he at the end of the day, controlled all of Louisiana under his thumb. And whatever wasn't, he gladly dispatched. The only ones truly safe, were Shay and his family.     "How is Giorgi lately? Guy never answers my calls anymore." Shay smirked though Hana and Mike didn't share it, which he noted from their grim expressions.     "Lets just say Giorgi has been moving up in the underworld of late. He's already become the capo bastone to good ol' Sev." Mike said lighting a cigar.     "Giorgi is his father's Underboss?" Shay asked turning his head to Hana in the back stunned though she shrugged.     "You been gone for ten years, bubba. It was only a matter of time before Giorgi took a different career path."     Shay looked ahead and still couldn't quite believe it. All his life, all he could recall was how Savitar and his wife, Shay's Aunt Luciana wanted to get their son away from this life. Hell, he even remembered Giorgi himself saying he hated the life. "What changed?"     "You... didn't hear?" Mike asked confused looking at the ex-soldier.     "Know what?" Shay asked getting irritated.     "Shay... Aunt Lucy happened." Hana said as they pulled to a stop. "She died."     Shay paled at that. "When..?"     "About six years ago, happened when Giorgi was about to leave Louisiana."     Shay thought about it, but it didn't take long for him to piece together the timeline. It was when he moved up in the Navy and when Giorgi kept quiet.     "What did it?"     "Corona... No one saw it coming until it was too late... Savitar... he hasn't been the same since."     Shay could imagine, when his and Hana's mother passed away, Savitar and Luciana helped his father Nathan raise the two up. Luciana was strict but she was also very nurturing. She doted all of the kids to eat and keep healthy best they could... it felt sick inside to think she died in a twist of irony.     Shay could only imagine how it made Giorgi and Savitar feel. If anything happened to his father or Hana... he didn't even want to think about it. Even as he clenched the steering wheel. He told himself he would see his brother and godfather after he returned home to his family home.     Marais, while not "big" per se, was a big part of New Orleans' community. Most of the locals lived in the suburban area where they could prepare for Mardi Gras and fight events easier. It was certainly anything but dead as Shay drove in. Even after Katrina, the people of Marais still knew how to pass a good time. Marais was a raunchy haven full of booze, drugs and s*x. Heck, the only thing to the people that was as bad as the hangover was the occasional outstanding bigot trying to ruin everyone's night. The South was never quiet, but Marais tolerated none of it. Black, white, latino or yellow, if you were there to not cause problems, you could expect the city behind you.     Soon, the gang of three smiled as they approached the local riverbank connected to the Mississippi. A mechanic shop and house along the bank stood with a slur of cusses heard inside the shop as Shay resisted the big grin.     "You made sure not to tell him, right?"     "Course not! I cant wait to see his face at how big you have grown." Hana smirked ruffling her brother's hair making him roll his eyes.     "Guess I should move my fat ass out this car." Mike chuckled as he stood. "Yo, Nat! She still purs!"     "Good for Lillith! You not see me workin' on 'dis here car?" The middle aged man grumbled in the hood of a old pickup truck.     "Last I checked that was a truck, sir." Shay said making the man stop his work and turned.     To those who knew them, both were always damn near the spitting image of each other but the wary and wrinkles was clear on Nathan Teller's face. "Shay?"     "Hey... Pop." That was all Shay could get out before he was yanked into a hug by the smaller man. As the fifty year old man did so, the soldier finally let the feeling well and truly sink in.     I'm home...