Frank Castle didn’t like being there. In fact, there were a few other places he’d rather be in that moment that didn’t involve the fancy household, full of expensive and patterned houses. New York had its perks, after all.
He knew that, if he checked his phone, he would be finding a few missing calls from Curtis, who by the way things happened, should know where Frank was headed into. And he didn’t like it, so Frank could only imagine he would be pissed off from not being able to leave the hospital to go after Frank.
When he found the house he was looking for, he didn’t bother knocking. He knew all the codes to enter, and he was under the impression the person he was looking for, wouldn’t be so keen to pick up the door.
Frank was, in fact, surprised at how easy was to go there, pass by the securities in the neighborhood and arrive in his final destination. Maybe because Billy Russo didn’t expect someone to try to reach it, but Frank had his doubts. He suspected it had something to do with the stubbornness of the person he saw carrying a glass of water to the living room, once he was inside the house.
- Ari – he called, not doing any alarm, but loud enough so the woman could hear him.
Although Ari Keller was not in the military or had specific training, except for the one her close friends had taught her, Frank knew the woman could react to try to escape from him if she wanted. She was not match for the Punisher, but her skills and intelligence would make her put up a good fight.
She didn’t.
Instead, she slowly turned to the direction the man was and Frank couldn’t help but notice that, even though she didn’t let the glass fall, her hands started trembling. The way her face seemed to become paler, and her eyes began to water were another indication the girl was terrified.
Ari didn’t move, though. Frank didn’t know if this was her major reaction, being paralyzed, but his suspicions of that fade away when he took a step forward to the girl and she, instinctively, took a step back.
- Will you make it quick? – her voice was uneven and she seemed to be making all the efforts in the world not to falter.
- Ari – another step that Frank gave forward, and another step back the girl did.
- I am not gonna run Frank – she seemed to take a deep breath – But could you make it quick?
- Ari, come on – Frank’s anger was ready to take part in his body, but not for the reasons the girl was expecting – I am not here to kill you.
Crude confusion passed to the girl’s face, and she scanned Frank’s entire posture as if to look for something that indicated him lying.
- You’re not?
- Do I have a reason to? – Frank frowned his eyebrows, tentatively approaching the girl and he was relieved she didn’t try to go away this time – Can I sit to we can talk? – he appointed to the major sofa in the living room.
She nodded with her head, the only action she could muster, and Frank directed towards the couch, looking at the ambient around him.
It had been a while since Frank Castle was in Ari Keller’s house. The last time Maria and the kids were still alive and some things in the world still seemed right. Billy Russo hadn’t been trying to kill him at that time, that’s what he thought at least, or he wouldn’t take Frank to see where the girl he liked lived. He wouldn’t be that careless.
At those times, Lisa had joked about the way Billy looked to Ari, saying her “uncle” was making himself a fool in front of her. Billy had laughed and said that she didn’t knew nothing about romantism.
The first time Billy introduced Ari to them, months prior to that dinner, Frank couldn’t help but be suspicious. The man was a womanizer, and the girl didn’t look like she had anything special on her to make Billy fall for her. She wasn’t ugly, of course not, Frank recognized this, with her blond her falling like a cascade in her back, her glow-y blue eyes matching the happy smiles she shot everyone.
Frank reached the point where he and Curtis investigated the woman but, having received a dead end with no more than a few of library fines, he summed up to be happy for his brother. Billy Russo deserved someone who loved him.
But Frank was pretty sure he didn’t deserve Ari. He could even accept Curtis telling him they should try to see the good in everyone and people wore worthy of love, even in their worse states but he couldn’t accept neither comprehend someone as Billy Russo being worthy of Ari Keller. The girl had one of the kindest hearts he ever knew.
Maria once confessed to him she was afraid what being around of someone as Frank and Billy, who had so many dark experiences in their lives, could do with Ari’s structure.
Frank laughed at the time, saying she was putting too much paranoia over the matter, and said that if it were like that, she and the kids would be also damned. Maria didn’t seem to think it was fun and told him it was different, and he knew it. She was right, Frank realized, then. Maria was much mature and had a more realistic way of seeing things. Ari lacked it.
He didn’t stress much over it in that moment, but now, sitting in front of Ari after the events the days prior, for a moment he thought to himself, if it already happened? What if the girl had absorbed all Billy Russo was irradiating and was deep down with him in that shit? He really wasn’t there to kill her, but the Punisher never hesitated, not for those he deemed as deserving of his gun.
- Have you watched the news? – he asked facing her, who was still standing close to the sofa, a good distance between them.
- Yeah – she said, running her hand through her hair and taking a deep breath – Never been found of it, but the last days had made them a little hard to ignore.
- A lot of things had been hard to ignore those last days.
- Like you coming back from the dead huh?
- Yeah – Frank chuckled – and our boy Billy having his shit exposed on national media – he said, expressionless and the girl seemed to tense again.
- Frank… - she started to say
- Is he here? – he interrupted her
- No – she said. True, he noticed.
- Do you know where he is? – he asked, never letting his eyes leave her, receiving only a head denial from the girl.
- Would you tell me if you knew?
- No – the answer came immediately. Not a shake, not a falter in her expression or posture. Frank only nodded. He wouldn’t share sympathy over it or said he understood the girl, but he appreciated the honesty.
- Why are you here Frank? – she said to him – You know I’m the last person Billy would look for. I’m leaving the house in the next week, the feds are already taking it down everything in his property, he is not coming.
Another chuckle coming from Frank.
- He will – he said with a serious tone to her – not today or tomorrow, but he will come for you. He won’t leave you behind. And I’m not here to kill you in advance so you don’t choose to go with him. And I am not asking either if you’d go
- But – he continued - I’m here to look inside your eyes and ask you if you knew any of the craps he’s been pulling. And if you did, I will kill you. I can make it quick for you, but I’ll do it. And if you lie to me Ari, you can be sure I will find out.
- You’re asking me if I knew the man I love had something to do with the organization that killed Lisa and Frank Jr? – it was a rhetoric question and although hearing that, still hurt Frank, he didn’t lose his posture. The girl, on the other side, had already tears coming out of her eyes – Because I don’t Frank.
He didn’t say anything. He believed her. And it seemed she needed to put things out more than him.
- I thought I knew him Frank. I thought we were going to marry someday, I thought, even with all that shit he had to face, he had come back stronger and I admired him for taking the best out of the situations. But I never, and I repeat, never – she was crying on full extent now – thought he was capable of doing something like that. I thought he loved me Frank. I thought he loved your kids. And now I don’t even know if he is capable of feeling love.
- So no, Frank, I didn’t know about it all, but you know what? – she took a deep breath to calm down – I wish I knew. I wish I knew it all before, because I think maybe I could have fixed things. Lisa would be alive, Frank Jr. would be alive and Maria… - he could hear her sobbing with this last part – And maybe, maybe I deserve to be on your kill list, because if Billy Russo was in front of me right now, I wouldn’t dial the police number, much less yours – she confessed.
He realized she had finished, when the only things he heard were her sobs, that were starting to fade. Neither of them said anything else for a few moments till Frank broke the silence.
- You’d go with him – Frank said. It wasn’t a question. He told her he wasn’t going to ask. It was an affirmative. The Punisher knew Billy Russo would come for Ari Keller because Frank Castle knew Billy. He may have discovered that Billy liked only few things in his life, but he knew there was something the man loved, and Ari was this thing.
It wasn’t a question, so Ari didn’t answer. Whether she felt shame for the answer or fear for what he would do to her, Frank didn’t know.
He also knew he could take her. Lock her long enough to make Billy leave wherever he was hiding. But he wasn’t Billy Russo neither William Rawlins. He would not use someone as a way to get to his target like that.
And maybe he’d always lose because of that. Maybe that was his weakness. Maybe Karen Page was right, and Frank was a good man. And because of the people who thought this of him, he carefully got up and directed himself to the exit of the house.
- Take care Ari – he said while opening the door.
- You too Frank – he heard the woman answering to him, not detecting any movement on her side.
Frank Castle had weakness. But leaving the house in that fancy neighborhood, having absolutely sure he was being observed from one of those rooftops, he realized Billy Russo had some too.