“Boss, damn it! You know this place is under surveillance, even if Shorty did disable the actual alarms before he left. We have to get out of here.”
“In due time.”
“Due time nothing. If you want to be stupid, fine. Give me my money and you can stay here if you want. I’m not staying to be target practice for the Savage boys.”
The man at the table lets off a fake sigh, which is overly loud and heavy. He picks up the gun and aims it at me.
My body instantly breaks out in a cold sweat. I never thought about dying. How strange is that? Even with all the close calls I’ve had? Even with the way I lost my parents, I’ve been stupid and never gave myself time to think about dying. I pushed it all to the back of my mind. When there is a gun pointed at you, staring you straight in the face, there is no denying it. There just isn’t. When I die, will anyone miss me? Will anyone mourn me? There’s so much more I wanted in life. I’ll never have that now. I’ll never get another minute with Jacob. I’ll never be able to try to help him further. I’ll never have his lips on mine again. I’ll never feel his hands touch me. Just the thought of never having that hurts physically.
I hear the click of the hammer from the gun and I figure that’s it. I can’t stop the tears that fall. I wait for the shot. The bacon in my hand drops to the table, my eyes on those of my killer.
I watch as his finger presses against the trigger, as if it is in slow motion. At the last second he moves the gun up and to the right. I can feel the breeze of a bullet as it whizzes past me. I jump and scream at the sound of the blast. My ears ring so loud, I can barely hear the laughter of the madman. His face is blurry from the tears in my eyes and they only increase with the near death experience I’ve just survived. I take the back of my hand and try to wipe away the tears. I’m mad they are there, but I can’t stop them. I turn to see that he has shot the man behind me. The man falls immediately, his white t-shirt becomes soaked with blood. It’s so dark, thick and horrific that I can’t seem to look away. When I finally do, it is to see hollow eyes staring back at me. Dead. I knew he would be, but something about those eyes, so lifeless and stark, seems wrong.
“That was such fun, but alas a gun is not to be your end, Sugar.” He tells me once he stops his laughter. He tosses me a napkin from the table and I pick it up, trying to dry my eyes.
I hate crying in front of him. I hate that my hands are shaking even more, because I know he is enjoying that. I take a breath. Jacob will save me. I try to ignore the coppery odor of blood and death that have invaded the room. I go back to my original plan. I have to give Jacob enough time to rescue me. I know he will, I just have to keep this monster talking and delay whatever plan he has.
“Jacob will be back any minute. You won’t get away with this.”
“Oh but I will. He left you in the care of another to run errands for his boss. I hope he does come back soon though. To be honest I’m actually waiting on him. I just needed to make sure I had you first to hold over him.”
“Why would you…”
My voice freezes as he moves his jacket to the side and reveals a bomb. Well, I’m pretty sure it is. It looks weird compared to the way they are portrayed in the movies, but there is a small digital timer counting backwards on it. It looks like a stop watch. There are no glowing large numbers counting down my doom. No, these numbers are small and hard to see because of my tears. I strain to see. I have just a little over sixteen minutes.
“Why?” I ask again. “Why would you do this? What am I to you?”
“To me nothing, but you mean something to Mr. Blake. You mean something to him and he took away everything from me. Killing you is not the complete revenge I wished for,” he pauses, seems to think it over, and shrugs. “That damn club has frozen my assets and I have nothing. That’s just another reason I had to kill my friend over there. Thanks to the Savage Brothers I couldn’t pay anyone, even if I wanted to. No, that damn club has me by the balls. I know it’s just a matter of time before they find me. I’m a marked man. I figure if I’m going to die, I shall get revenge for my son’s death in the bargain. So you see dear Carolina, you’re all mine. Whatever shall we do?”
Dancer
S
ix came by
to pick me up on his way into work at Pussy’s. I left Crusher in charge of Carrie.
Carrie. Just her name makes things better. I hated leaving her, even temporarily. I came close to waking her up, but I hadn’t let her sleep much last night. That thought makes a smile spread on my face. Last night was near perfect. The only thing that marred the perfection was that I hadn’t slept. I am dragging ass, but I can’t take the chance of having a nightmare and talking in my sleep like I did with Dragon. I don’t know how to tackle this problem. Never sleeping is not a long term solution. Maybe I can have one of the boys watch Carrie through the day and nap at the club in my old room? The thought doesn’t make me happy, but I don’t know any other way to do it.
Six pulls into the parking lot and we say our goodbyes. I don’t know the man that well. I like him well enough I guess. It’s kind of screwed up, but I miss Irish. Part of me is glad I wasn’t around when shit went down. I don’t know how Dragon handled having to end a brother, someone we had fought beside and bled with. Irish and his betrayal is a dark cloud over the club, even now.
I get on my bike, ready to head back to the house. Maybe I can talk Carrie into getting away for the day with me. I like having her on the back of my bike. It still bugs me that she’s been on the back of Bull’s. A man is careful about who he lets on his ride. The club has pretty much adopted Carrie, but the fact that Bull cares for her puts another spin on it. I can’t help it, I do
not
like it. Carrie is mine. Last night cemented that. I can keep her happy. I just have to be careful about what I let her see. I don’t know how to hide some shit from her, but I’ll figure it out as I go along.
I go to start my bike when my phone vibrates.
Dragon. I don’t want to talk to him. It’s been a good fucking day. I don’t want his shit to ruin it. Still, I answer. If he starts his crap, I’ll hang up.
“Yeah man.”
“We got trouble, man. Freak was checking cameras for the safe house before running some routine maintenance on our system and there were two men sneaking around the garage.”
“What the hell do you mean sneaking around? What about the alarms?”
“We backed the cameras up, seems there is a third man with them. He disabled the fucking alarms.”
“What the fuck! You said that place was solid!” I growl, panic at the thought of Carrie being in danger pounding through my system.
“I don’t fucking know how they knew where the alarms were, I just know he disabled the entire fucking system. I’ll make heads roll about that later. For now we got bigger fucking fish to fry, you feel me?”
“Fuck, please tell me Crush got the sons of bitches.”
“Crush was in the garage and the two men split up and surrounded it. They both went in, and when they came back out there was no sign of Crusher.”
“Fuck!” I yell.
“We’re on our way, but you need to get Six and get your ass out there. You’re closer. Watch your back, we’ll be there as soon as we can.”
“You call Six, he’s already in the club. I’m not waiting. I’m heading out now.”
Dragon’s arguing when I hang up the phone. I don’t know what he said and I don’t care. I need to get to Carrie. I break every traffic law coming and going to get back to the house. I have one gun and I’ve been keeping it locked up in the house. I haven’t looked at it since the night I accidentally hurt Carrie. I don’t carry one, because ex-cons aren’t allowed that privilege. I’m not about to tempt fate just yet. Still, I know that Drag keeps a safe with emergency weapons hid in the garden shed out back. I turn my bike off and leave it at the bottom of the long drive. I don’t want to take the chance that I will be discovered before I make my move. I should check on Crush, but Carrie is my first concern. I can’t think past her.
I sprint to the shed, trying to stay away from direct view of the windows in the house, not an easy task. I manage somehow and make it to the shed. I breathe a sigh of relief when I find the old, bent up safe hid behind the wall of hoes, shovels, and rakes. Inside are three, thirty-eights and a box of ammo. I grab one, loading it quickly. I stuff about ten or fifteen bullets in my pocket. I’m hoping to find all of the motherfuckers together, but who the hell knows. I don’t have the best of luck.
With a deep breath, I take off for the back of the house. I’m betting that he will have Carrie either in the living room or kitchen. With that in mind, I know I don’t want to use the front door. Damn place doesn’t have a back door and that’s fucked up. I search what I know about the house and quickly decide to get in through Carrie’s bathroom window. It’s at the back of the house and the farthest away from the kitchen. I pray I can get in quietly. I need surprise on my side. I sure as hell don’t have much else.
I make it to the window and it’s locked. I figured it would be. I reach in my pocket and pull out my knife. I suppose carrying a pocket knife might be bad for an ex-con too, but I’m thankful I never worried about it. I angle the longest part of the knife’s blade where the upper and lower window meets. I attempt to trip the lock. I try ten fucking times. TEN! Way too many when my woman could be inside dying. I close my eyes, take a breath and try to steady myself. Then I try again. Finally! On the second attempt I manage to slide the lever over and it unlocks. I raise the window as quietly as I can.
Once I get it open enough to slide in, I stop and listen. When I don’t hear anyone coming towards the room, I take that as a good sign. I slide my knife back in my pocket, heft myself onto the window ledge, and pull myself up. I manage to push through the opening, but I scrape my side on the corner of a wooden chest that’s beside the window.
Fuck!
That hurt.
I can feel the sticky wet drip of blood on my skin. I don’t bother to inspect it. I have no time.
I carefully make my way through the hall. I can hear talking in the kitchen. The voices aren’t overly loud, so I can’t really hear what they’re saying, until I get closer. I hide behind the half wall that divides the kitchen and living room.
I smell the odor of gun powder mixed with the coppery scent of blood in the room and my heart stalls. I almost lose it, until I hear Carrie’s voice. She’s alive.
“You don’t have to do this.”
“Oh don’t be so naïve. We’re beyond these dramatics by now, Carolina.”
There’s a man’s body lying on the floor, on his back. His face is turned towards the kitchen, but I see enough to know that the man is dead. I turn my attention back to my woman. I can hear the terror in her voice. I want to go straight in right now, but I know I can’t. When I stand up, I have to have my gun ready and aim. I won’t get a second chance. So, I need to be careful. It kills me, but I remain where I’m at.
“Why did you kill them?” Carrie says her voice quiet and full of sadness.
“Kill who? Go on now, don’t leave me hanging now,” he says and I can hear the sick delight in his voice. I’m going to enjoy killing this motherfucker.
“Never mind, I know.”
“Enlighten me.”
“You killed my parents to get even with me,” she whispers and the guilt in her voice physically hurts me. I pray she can hold on for just a few more minutes.
“Bingo. You’re smarter than you look. Which is sad really. That means you have brains and can cook. Such a waste.”
“You’re sick.”
I hope she doesn’t cause him to lash out at her. I need her to hold on and stay safe for me. I hold my breath and peek out over the corner where the wall stops.
An older man is sitting at the table facing my way with Carrie’s back to me. He’s got a gun in his hand, motioning it around while he’s talking.
“Tell me, were your parents proud of you? Were you close?”
“What?”
“My son and I were very close. He was all I had in the world and he was taken away from me. Taken away, because of you.”
Fuck…this would be the unknown Phoenix…Dragon said he felt like things would happen soon. I wish he had been wrong.
“He tried to rape me!” Carrie defended. Just hearing that word kicks me in the gut and makes my hands shake. Now is not the time for a panic attack. I beat that shit back down. I hate feeling like this.
I hear a loud sound of a hand connecting with flesh. I peek around the corner and see that Phoenix has laid the gun down and smacked my woman. The hit was so violent, her head is thrown back and her chair scrapes backwards against the floor, almost tipping over. I don’t even think about it. I should. I would have liked to make him hurt more, for the hell he has put Carrie through—to make him suffer for touching her. I don’t, I stand up and aim my gun.
He looks at me in shock, but before he can even get a word out, I shoot the motherfucker in the head. He goes backward with a crash as Carrie screams. I walk further in the room, my gun still trained on the man. When I step to the chair Carrie is sitting in I feel her arms going around me. Her face buries into my side, muffling her cries.
I look down at my enemy. Blood is leaking from his head and it looks dark against his pale skin. His eyes are open. He’s not coming back. Still, I shoot the remaining five shots into his head. There’s probably nothing deader than dead, but it can’t hurt trying for it. Every time I shoot, Carrie jumps. I wrap my free arm around her and hold her to me. When the chamber is empty I put the gun on the table and wrap both arms around her, pulling her up to me.
“Shhh… I got you, Care Bear. I got you.”
Carrie
I
got you
Care Bear, I got you.
The words echo in my head and Jacob holds me. I’m shaking like a leaf on a tree as he subtly shuffles me so I’m hugging his front now instead of his side. I wrap my arms tight around him. I know he’s protecting me from seeing the body. I don’t really want to see it, so that’s fine with me. I hold him tighter and breathe in his scent. I want to forget everything that just happened, but something is stopping me.