Night of Vengeance (2 page)

Chapter 3

     Randy walked around the car, showing the customer all
of the shiny features on it.

     “It has leather seats, power doors, power windows, built in GPS, you name it, it’s on here,” he said pointing everything out
in the interior. The customer was wearing a suit that looked expensive, it probably wasn’t, but it looked like it. He watched Randy, looking unimpressed with his arms crossed.

     “Yes, that’s all great, how much?”
the customer asked.

     “Well, the sticker price here says $27,995.00” Randy said.

     “Yeah, I see the sticker. How much can I buy it for?”

     “Do you have a trade in?”

     “Look, will you stop jerking me around? I know how to buy cars. I’m not stupid and I’m not playing your games. Just give me your bottom line price on this car!” the customer demanded. He was pointing and waving his arms and his voice even cracked as he spoke. Randy hated customers like this the most. The wannabe big shots who probably didn’t have all the money they pretended to have, and acted like they knew everything about the car business. Not that any of that was helpful to him, Randy needed a sale badly.

     “Sir, I’m sorry. I assure you there are no games here. If you have a trade in, that would
affect the price,” Randy explained.

     “So you don’t have a set price basically. Is that what you’re telling me? I
look like I have money so you’re gonna rip me off?”

     “No sir, I’m just saying—“

     “Whatever, you’re wasting my time,” the customer said as he turned to walk away.

     “But sir…”

     “Forget it I said!” he yelled as he left.

     “Shit
,” Randy said to himself.

     “Randy! Get in here!” Bob yelled from the showroom doorway. Bob was the sales manager and had been on Randy’s ass for the past few months. Randy knew his numbers had been down. Not that all of it had been his fault. The economy was in the toilet, people just weren’t buying anything. Then he was sick for several months. He’d had to come in to work since he was out of sick days, but he barely functioned when he was there.

     In the middle of all that, one of their cars was repoed and their house was facing foreclosure. His wife left him for a local real estate agent who was selling. He wasn’t sure how much else could go wrong.

     Randy
went inside and over to Bob’s office.

     “Hey Randy, come on in, close the door please.”

     Randy’s stomach turned to knots as he knew whatever was coming wasn’t good. You never get called to the boss’ office and told to close the door over good news.

     “Randy, I know you’ve had a lot going on this past year. You’ve really had a string of bad luck. God knows you’ve had more bad breaks than most of us see in a lifetime.  But we are still a business. You keep letting sales walk out the door, and that
affects all of us, so I’m afraid I’m going to have to let you go.”

     “What? Let me go? Was it because of this guy just now? He was a prick
. He had no intention of buying anything,” Randy protested.

     “You say that about every customer. Yet our other salesman can close these guys. You can’t. You’re just not a salesman
,” Bob said.

     “Not a salesman?
I’ve been here for ten years! It’s just been the past year or so I’ve had some problems.”

     “Randy, your numbers have never been great, just good enough to get by. Now they’re not even that. Face it, to be a salesman, you have to be tough. You have no balls. Customers walk all over you. Other sales people walk over you. Shit, your wife dumped you for that real estate salesman. He’s a total pussy. What did you do about it?”

     “My wife? You leave my wife out of this!”

     “Or what? You’ll yell? You’ll cry? Just go ok? Don’t make me call security to walk you out.” Bob said.

     “This is ridiculous. You can’t do this.”

Bob had stopped listening. He was typing on his computer.

     “Bye Randy. Good luck,” Bob said without looking up.

     Randy walked out of the office and straight to his car. He climbed into the
old Buick and turned the key but there was nothing but a clicking sound. Trying again, it did the same thing. He climbed out and popped the hood. He’d have to ask one of the other asshole salesmen for a jump. That’s what he thought until he looked under the hood. His battery cables had been cut completely. He looked up and the other salesmen were standing by the door looking at him and laughing. One of them gave him the finger while the others waved sarcastically. Assholes. Randy felt like he could kill someone or something about then. Could anything else possibly go wrong? If he’d had a gun handy, he’d have put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger right then, and taken himself out of his own misery. Instead, he removed his sport coat and began the walk home.

Chapter 4

     Chad pulled his pants on while the girl watched him dress from the bed.

     “So you’re just gonna run out on me now?”
she said with a smirk.

     “Come on Breanne, you know the deal
,” he said as he pulled his shirt on.

     “Yeah,” she said and lay onto her back. “You’re dating Melissa, little miss perfect.”

     “I don’t know if I’d say that. But you know. She has a nice family…” he began.

     “You mean a rich family.”

     “Not that rich. I mean, you’re cool and all. You’re just not the dating type. Know what I mean?”

     “Yeah, I’m the fucking type.”

     “You make it sound so bad. It’s not a bad thing. Melissa is cute, but she just seems so lost in bed.”

     Breanne sat up on the bed, letting the sheets drop away from her, exposing her naked body and sat on her knees.

     “Maybe I should have her join us. I could teach her some things.”

     “Right. I don’t think she’d go for that.” He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled his shoes on. Breanne began rubbing his shoulders.

     “So you can’t stay for a little longer? You’re just gonna leave me all alone for Valentine’s Day?” she said.

     “I’m sure you’
ll find someone to keep you company. Gotta run.” He hopped up and walked out the door without even a kiss. As he climbed into his truck, he smelled himself. Shit. He still smelled like Breanne’s pussy. He dug around in his console and found an old bottle of Old Spice. Pouring some into his palm, he rubbed it all over his neck and hands, hoping it would mask any sex smell he may be carrying.

     On his way to pick her up, he stopped to get gas. His truck was a 1995 Silverado, and rather expensive to fill up. But he had no payments on the thing and it was reliable, so he kept it. As he was pumping gas, there was another truck across from him.
The guy pumping gas was tall and ugly, with a nasty scar down the middle of his face. He was wearing a denim jacket and was smoking a cigarette.

     “Hey buddy,” Chad said. “You’re not supposed to smoke near a gas pump. You trying to blow us all up?”

     The ugly guy took a drag of his cigarette, then blew some smoke.

     “You a fire inspector?”
the man said.

     “No dude, I’m just
—-.”

     “Then how about you
just shut the fuck up. Or come and take it from me.”

     Chad’s shoulders tightened and his jaw clinched. He didn’t know who this asshole was, but no one talked to him that way. He put the pump back on the cradle and closed up the gas cap. He walked to the back of his truck and grabbed a tire iron, but before he turned around, the ugly guy was standing right there. The man grabbed his wrist and wrestled the tire iron away.

     “What were you gonna do with this friend? Doesn’t look like you got a flat to me,” the man pushed Chad up against the truck, holding him by his shirt.

     “No, I was just…I,” Chad stammered.

     “You must think you’re a tough guy. Are you a tough guy?”

     “No, no I’m not.”

     “Are you a pussy? You sure smell like pussy.”

     “No, I mean, yes…I mean.”

     “Tell you what. I’ll let this be your warning. I don’t knock all of your pretty teeth out. And you get in your truck and drive the fuck away,” the man said and then he waved the tire iron in front of Chad. “I’ll keep this as souvenir.”

     Another man came walking out of the gas station carrying a case of beer and a bag, walking toward the man’s truck.

     “There a problem Colt?” the man said.

     “No problem,” Colt said. “Just a little misunderstanding. Right boss?” Colt stepped back and patted Chad on the cheek.

     “Uh, right,” Chad said as Colt walked over to his truck and got into the passenger side. As they drove away, Chad watched them, feeling relieved but also angry he’d let himself get punked out like that. Next time he runs into that asshole, he’d be ready. He got into his truck and left the gas station, heading to Melissa’s. He pulled in to the driveway. She still lived with her parents, which didn’t bother him. He just hated going to the door and talking to them. So he sat in the driveway and honked the horn several times before she came running out. She was practically skipping out with a big dumb grin on her face.

     “Hey baby!”
she said as she climbed into the truck. He leaned over and kissed her, as she buckled in. “Mmm, you smell good!” she said.

     “Thanks! Just some cologne I found
,” he said.

     “Well I like it! So where we goin’?
”

     “Well, I thought we’d go to Burt’s Barbecue for dinner.”

     “Burt’s Barbecue?”

     “Yeah! I thought you liked Burt’s
,” he said.

     “I do, but it
’s Valentine’s day. I was hoping for somewhere nice, like the Brick House.”

     “Shit girl, that place is expensive as hell. Overpriced and they don’t give you shit either. Nah, Burt’s it is.”

     He put the truck in reverse and backed out of the driveway. As he pulled onto the road he almost got hit by a police car as it sped past them.

     “Holy shit
! You see how fast they were going?” he said.

     “Yeah, I wonder what happened.”

     “In this town, someone’s windows probably got soaped.”

Chapter 5

     Clay pulled the truck into the warehouse.
There were several other men gathered around a table. They all stood when the truck stopped. Colt and Clay hopped out as the men approached.

     “Hey guys,” Clay said. “We’re back.”

     “Took you long enough,” one of them said. He was tall and muscular, wearing a wife beater that exposed his tattooed arms and chest. “We got everything.”

     “Colt, this is J
oe. Joe, Colt,” Clay introduced them both.

     Colt put his hand out, shaking Jo
e’s hand.

     “I’ve heard good things about you. Hopefully this will be easy enough for your crew
,” Colt said.

     “It’s a unique job. That’s why we took it. I’ll show you what we got over here
,” Joe said as he turned and walked toward a stack of crates. The men followed him over as he pulled the lid off one of them. In the crate were several sticks of dynamite. He opened the crate next to it which had several hand guns.

     “It’s all here,” Jo
e said. “Just like you asked. Single sticks of dynamite, small arms and we’ve put together a few dozen Molotov cocktails.”

     “Perfect,” Colt said.

     “All this and we’re not stealing anything?”

     “You can keep anything you steal. For me, this is not about money. There are
a lot of stores in this town, plus two banks. I’m sure you can get a lot out of either.”

     “Hey, works for me man. What time
are we getting started?”

     “At dusk. Let them all be enjoying Valentine’s
Day with their honeys when it starts. Have your men set up outside of town now though. Get everything ready. They won’t know what hit them,” Colt said.

     “You’ve thought this all out haven’t you?” Jo
e asked.

     “For the last twenty years.”

     “Can’t beat a good plan,” he turned to his crew. “You heard the man. Start moving out to set up! It’s gonna be showtime soon!”

     The men scattered getting into different vehicles and heading out. Jo
e began unloading items from the crates as Clay turned to Colt.

     “It’s here brother. This is what you’ve been waiting for.”

     “That’s right. It can’t start soon enough.”

     Colt grabbed a duffel bag, and filled it with several sticks of dynamite, Molotov cocktails and one of the guns with a few boxes of ammo. The guns were Ruger SR45s. He carried a .45 when he was sheriff, so it seemed fitting that’s what he used now. Once he had everything, he threw the duffel bag into the passenger seat of the truck.

     “You need me to come with you?” Clay asked.

     “Nope. My part needs to be done alone. You stay here, make sure the rest of the crew is taken care of. Get them anything else they need.”

     “No problem.”

     Colt started the truck and headed into town. The warehouse was just on the outskirts. Peace, Texas had grown since he went away. When he was sheriff, the town’s population was just over two thousand people. The sign when he arrived earlier said they had over ten thousand now. Not a big city by any stretch, but it would definitely make things more interesting.

     He drove by the mayor’s house. He had no idea who the mayor was related to. It was some guy named Stephens, he didn’t know the first name. Briggs’ son was the sheriff. He would be taken care of as well. It was just too bad his dad was already in the ground. If Colt thought digging him up and desecrating his corpse would cause him any suffering, he’d have done it.

     He drove out to
where the high school used to be. Now it was a strip mall. There was a Buffalo Wild Wings where the football field used to be, and a Gamestop where there used to be a gymnasium. The new high school was just out past town. It would be outside of their perimeter, so it didn’t concern him. He pulled into the parking lot and shut off the engine. He looked at his watch, it was a quarter after five. Almost time.