SUNSHINE [Frank Castle]

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - A KISS, A DEATH, AND A DOMINATRIX

Before he died, Gunner Henderson told Frank that a man called Colonel Morty Bennet would know the identity of Agent Orange. And so, Charlotte, Frank and David decided that they would pay him a visit. Though, Lieberman and Frank got into a disagreement about Frank's tendency to be violent.

Frank agreed though, that it would be hard for him to kill soldiers who thought that they were just serving their country, as he was in their position once.

When he asked Charlotte what he should do, she only told him to do what he felt was right, and that she would be beside him in whatever decision he made.

They knew that Bennett would be home that night. He always was, for 'entertaining.' They found out exactly what that meant when they got there. Charlotte and Frank entered the room that contained Bennett and his dominatrix at about the point where she had him gagged and was spanking him.

"Oh, for fucks sake," Charlotte muttered when she saw it. Frank, however, didn't seem too bothered by it. So, of course, she teased him about it while he shooed the woman away and shoved Bennett to the floor. "See something you're interested in?"

"Help me with this, Romanoff?"

"What, interrogating him? Sure." They didn't need him, really, they just needed to buy a few minutes so that Lieberman could hack his phone.

Charlotte knelt in front of a cowering Bennett, but before she could say a word, she froze.

"What?" Frank said.

"Be quiet. Listen." There were people coming, she could hear them. "Do you hear that?"

"Yeah, I do. You got my back?"

"Always."

Frank had a smoke grenade on him, and one by one, the two of them pulled the four men into the smoke and rendered them unconscious. They made their way into an underground escape tunnel, where they ran into a young soldier pointing a gun at them.

"Hey, just put the gun down, okay?" Charlotte said, softly. "We won't hurt you. Just put it down and let us go."

"I know you think you're just serving your country, I know that. I thought that, when I served. I'm not gonna kill you, just please, put the gun down and let us go," Frank said.

For a moment, Charlotte thought that he might have convinced him. The gun lowered. But then it raised again, and so did Frank's. Frank killed the soldier, and kept walking. Charlotte followed without a word. The sound of the single gunshot echoed loud in her ears.

She couldn't imagine how loud it must have been for Frank.

When they got back to the van, Frank only said that sometimes it was easier to just kill people.

Bennett's phone lead them to Agent Orange's home, where Frank told Charlotte he'd rather go alone. She told him that she was going with him whether he liked it or not. So they went, and Charlotte laid on her stomach next to Frank, whose gun was pointed directly at the house in front of them.