The Conflict (The Eliminator Series Book 9)

by Mike Ryan

  “Tiffany.”

  A huge smile spread over Franks’ face. “Yeah, that’s the one. Tiffany. Rolls right off the tongue, don’t it?”

  “Sure.”

  “Haven’t heard you mention her the last few weeks.”

  “‘Cause there’s nothing to mention.”

  “C’mon, man. You just gonna leave her high and dry like that?”

  “Like what? We went out the one time, it was nice, that’s all there is to it.”

  “Brett, my man, you gotta get back in the saddle. You gotta put them spurs back on and giddy up on that thing.”

  “I’m not Wyatt Earp.”

  “Don’t be silly, man, you know what I’m saying.”

  “No, I don’t. That’s the trouble with talking to you. Half the time I have no idea what you’re talking about. What exactly are you saying?”

  “OK, it’s like this. Why the hell aren’t you taking that girl out again?”

  “You already know the reason.”

  “She was pretty, right?”

  Jacobs sighed. “I guess so.”

  “And she was nice?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good personality?”

  “Seemed to be.”

  “Good figure?” Jacobs gave his friend a look, not wanting to talk about it. “Just humor me, man, just go with it.”

  Jacobs sighed louder. “I guess.”

  Franks threw his arms up. “Then what’s the problem, man?”

  “The problem is that I can’t let people get close to me. Not anymore. Not with knowing where my future lies.” Jacobs closed his eyes for a second. “I just can’t let it happen.”

  “Can’t? Or afraid to?”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “The difference is in there.” Franks pointed to Jacobs’ heart. “You think you can’t go back to the man you used to be, but you’re wrong. You can. You just have to be willing to let yourself do that.”

  Jacobs shook his head and cleared his throat. “I…”

  “Listen, the only thing preventing you from having the life you used to have is you. You don’t have to do all this if you don’t want to. You can pick up and leave whenever you want. The people who killed your family are all gone.”

  “Except for one.”

  “Granted, but the rest, you got them all. Everything else is just you losing your way. But there is a path leading back to it. You just have to be strong enough to take it.”

  “When did you become such a philosopher?”

  “One of my many hidden talents.”

  “Why are you trying to steer me away from this all of a sudden?”

  “Because these last few weeks, months, I’ve seen something in you that I haven’t liked.”

  “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

  “Ambivalence.”

  “To what?”

  “Living. And that’s what scares me.”

  Jacobs looked at Gunner for a few seconds. “Well, you’re not getting rid of me just yet. I mean, someone’s gotta watch over you, right?”

  Franks smiled and nodded. He wasn’t sure if his talk did any good, but it had been building for a while, and he had to get it out. Maybe him just saying it would have an effect on his friend. It was what he hoped for, anyway.

  Jacobs left the room to go to the bathroom. As he walked away, Franks noticed he left his cell phone on the table. He didn’t even debate taking it. He just swiped it right away. He typed in the passcode to unlock it. Knowing he didn’t have much time, he quickly looked through Jacobs’ messages. He instantly found Tiffany’s name. They had talked a few times in the past few weeks, mostly with her asking to meet again, and with him mostly giving excuses as to why he couldn’t make it. Franks grinned. He was going to help his friend, whether Jacobs thought he needed it or not.

  “Come to Papa,” Franks said with a laugh.

  He quickly thought of something to say.

  “Hey Tiffany, sorry about putting you off these last few weeks. Really has been crazy with work. So busy I barely have time to sleep. But I’ve been thinking of you. Was wondering if you wanted to grab dinner soon? Maybe even a movie or something? I’d be up for anything if you wanted to meet again? Hope school’s been good.”

  A maniacal smile came over Franks’ face, happy with his sneaky efforts. He heard the toilet flush and quickly put the phone back on the table, pretending like nothing had happened. Franks picked up a few of the photos and pretended to study them. A few seconds later, Jacobs walked back into the room, assuming his former position at the table.

  “Find anything interesting?” Jacobs asked.

  “Oh, you know, just looking.”

  Jacobs also looked at a few of the pictures, trying to finalize where he was going to attack Ames’ bunch at. At the moment, without knowing how many men would be there, Jacobs was figuring on just interrupting and blowing the deal. He didn’t care as much about taking out Ames’ men on this one. He just wanted Ames to hurt financially. To let him know that Jacobs was going to continue to be a thorn in his side, and that he wasn’t going anywhere. Taking out his men would be a bonus. About half an hour had passed with no sign of a response from Tiffany. Franks was starting to worry that Jacobs had already blown it with her, but then he remembered she was probably at school and couldn’t answer.

  “What time you got?” Franks asked.

  “A little after one. Why?”

  “Oh, no reason. Just wondering. Getting hungry for lunch, you know?”

  “And I’m assuming you wanna raid my cabinets?”

  “Why, you got anything?”

  “Help yourself. You usually do.”

  “Well, if you insist.”

  Franks found himself some frozen pizza, which he put in the oven. As he waited for it to heat up, he went back over to the table and sat down. As soon as he did, Jacobs’ text ringer went off. Franks picked his head up to see if he could see who it was. Jacobs immediately picked his phone up, preventing Franks from seeing anything. Jacobs scanned the text and looked confused. Franks grinned. He knew who it was now. He was actually kind of proud of himself, even though he didn’t know what her answer was.

  “You all right there?”

  Jacobs looked at him with bewilderment. “I’m not sure.”

  “What’s the problem?”

  Jacobs scratched the top of his head. “I don’t know.”

  “Well, what’s it about?”

  Jacobs read the message again silently.

  “No problem about work. I completely understand. I’ve been thinking about you too. I would love to have dinner and a movie. Tomorrow would be great for me. I have no plans. School is… well, school. LOL. Anyway, what time works for you? Maybe 7 or 8? Just let me know. I can do whatever. Really looking forward to it.”

  Jacobs turned the phone around and showed his friend.

  “Oh, nice,” Franks said. “She’s really digging you.”

  “It sounds like she’s responding to me asking her out.”

  “You sly dog, you. And here you were talking like you weren’t interested. You really had me fooled.”

  Jacobs kept staring at Franks for a minute. He had his suspicions. “Eddie, what did you do?”

  “I didn’t do nothin’.”

  “Eddie, what did you do?”

  Franks put his hands on his chest. “Why do you think I did something?”

  “Because it’s you.”

  “I swear I didn’t do anything.”

  Jacobs went into his messages and pulled up the full conversation, seeing the message that was supposed to have been sent by him. He glanced up at Franks. “Eddie.”

  “Wow. You know, maybe I’m not so hungry after all. Maybe I’ll just pick something up on the way home.” Franks got up.

  Jacobs put his index finger in the air, then pointed to the chair. “Sit.”

  The happy expression on Franks’ face quickly faded away. He felt as though he was about to get yelled at. “So good news, huh?”r />
  “Would you like to explain yourself?”

  “About what?”

  Jacobs held his phone up. “About this!”

  “Oh. It’s a phone.”

  “I know that. Would you care to explain how she got a message from me when I wasn’t even in the room?”

  “Oh, that.”

  “Yeah. That.”

  “Well, you know, I saw the phone sitting there, and since you weren’t using it at the time, I just happened to stumble across her name and sent her an innocent little message.”

  “Innocent little message? You asked her out on a date for me!”

  “Well, I had to!”

  “Why?!”

  “‘Cause you weren’t gonna do it!”

  Jacobs looked away for a second. “How’d you even get into my phone anyway?”

  “I know the passcode.”

  “You know the passcode? How? I never gave that to you.”

  Franks shrugged. “I’ve seen you enter it a bunch of times.”

  “You snoop at my phone?”

  “Well, it’s not exactly snooping. You know, you really should be more careful when you put your code in there. You never know who might be watching when you ain’t looking. You don’t want somebody sneaking into your phone or something.”

  “You don’t say?”

  “Yeah, man, that’s kind of a big issue these days.”

  “So I’ve experienced,” Jacobs said.

  “What’s the problem?”

  “The problem is you pretended to be me.”

  “So?”

  “So what am I supposed to do now?”

  “It’s easy. Just take her out.”

  “Eddie! You specifically knew I wasn’t going to do that and went behind my back.”

  “Listen, man, I’m sorry and all, but look at her response. The girl digs you. There ain’t nothing wrong with going out and having a good time. With what you do, it’s good to take some pressure off and get some relief every now and then. You gotta do that sometimes.”

  “But that should be my call to make. Not yours.”

  “Yeah, well, time and time again you don’t make it. So I took matters into my own hands.”

  “You know, I could just cancel on her anyway. Tell her something came up. Then your plan wouldn’t work anyway.”

  “You don’t wanna do that, man.”

  “Why not?”

  “You really wanna break that girl’s heart like that?”

  “I really doubt that’d be breaking her heart.”

  “How you know? Maybe she’s been looking forward to that text from you for weeks and now her week is made. If that’s the case, you are going to cause her pain, embarrassment, and maybe even a little crying.”

  “I think you’re being a little overdramatic. I doubt I’d break her heart over cancelling a second date.”

  “How do you know? You really wanna take that chance and feel like a heel? That’s a bad move, man, a bad move. That’s a bad guy move. And you’re not a bad guy.”

  Jacobs started biting his lip to hold back from saying anything else. Franks’ words were starting to penetrate, as much as Jacobs didn’t want them to. Jacobs took a deep breath. He contemplated his options. A few images of Tiffany’s face flashed through his mind, seeing her at the park, and at the last dinner they had. He couldn’t deny it was a face he wouldn’t have minded seeing again. But he still knew it wasn’t the right thing to do for him. Or for her.

  “C’mon, man. Just do it.”

  Jacobs sighed as Franks continued jabbering on for the next few minutes, trying to break him down. Eventually it worked.

  “Fine,” Jacobs said. “Fine. I won’t cancel on her.”

  Franks tapped his friend on the knee. “My man.”

  “I’ll go on this date with her.”

  “That’s all I ask, man.”

  “But, if I do this, I want your word you will never go into my phone and pull this stunt again.”

  “All right, man, all right. You got it.”

  “I mean it. You let me handle my personal life.”

  “Done deal, man, done deal.”

  “I know how you get sometimes. From now on, let me handle what happens with Tiffany. OK?”

  “So you admit there might be future times?”

  “Eddie.”

  “All right, man, fine, just go on with yourself. I’ll back off.”

  “Fine. I’ll take her out.”

  Franks smiled and patted Jacobs on the back of the shoulder. “That’s my man. You put them spurs on and start kicking it.”

  “What?”

  “Never mind, man, forget it. Just go have a good time.”

  “Yeah, sure. We got other things to attend to first, remember?”

  “We do?”

  “Remember?”

  “Oh, yeah. That.”

  “There’s a party I gotta crash.”

  3

  Jacobs got to the warehouse well ahead of when the supposed meeting was scheduled to take place. He figured he would need time to get in and find a good spot to set up. Without knowing all the details or exactly which players were showing up, he wanted to be there before everyone else arrived so he could get a better idea of what was happening.

  He arrived at the facility roughly two hours before the scheduled meeting. The warehouse had long since closed by then. Jacobs looked at the perimeter of the building; there was a tall chain-link fence that surrounded it. There were security cameras on each corner of the fence as well as a few on the building. Jacobs got the feeling they’d been turned off, though. Nobody would pick that place as a meeting spot if they knew the cameras were working and that they’d be filmed. Still, just to be safe in case he was wrong, he looked for a soft spot in the coverage zone, which looked like right in the middle of the fence on the backside of the property. He took out his cutters and sliced through a small portion of the fence. It only needed to be big enough to allow himself and Gunner to get through.

  Once they got through the fence, they immediately ran toward the back door of the building. While Jacobs stood there, though, he got a bad feeling about his initial plan. He suddenly didn’t like it. Originally, he was just going to break into the building, then head for a window with a clear view of whatever transpired on the outside with the meeting. But if it wound up being a big contingency on either side and things went haywire, there was a chance he’d wind up getting trapped in there. He looked up to the roof, thinking maybe he could set up on there, but that largely represented the same problems. Not to mention the difficulty in getting Gunner up and down from there.

  The biggest problem for Jacobs from the start was that he was wishy-washy on a plan. He had never settled on one that he was completely on board with. It was unlike him. He almost always had a plan that he was completely comfortable with no matter what happened. This was almost the exact reverse.

  “Eddie was right. I should’ve backed off on this.”

  Gunner looked up at him and tilted his head, letting out a small whine.

  “Don’t tell him I said that. He’ll never let go of it.”

  Though he didn’t want to go through with a plan that he wasn’t sure of in his own mind, he also didn’t want to give up the opportunity of either learning something here, or taking out a few of the people who were undoubtedly looking for him to do the same. As he stood there contemplating what to do, a vision of Tiffany’s face flashed in his mind. He quickly shook the vision out of his head.

  “Why am I thinking of her?”

  Gunner let out a small growl.

  “Of course not. We only went out the one time.”

  Gunner growled again.

  “No, that can’t be it.”

  Gunner whimpered.

  “I’m not falling for her. I’ve only seen her once.”

  Gunner growled again.

  “The time at the park doesn’t count.”

  Gunner let out a louder growl.

  “OK, OK, it coun
ts. But I’m not falling for her. I can’t be.”

  Gunner let out a mixture of a whine and growl.

  “Because I can’t. I’m not ready.”

  Gunner continued his growl, though this one was short and to the point.

  “But… I can’t be.”

  Gunner finally let his growl roll right into a small bark.

  “Shh. OK. You’re right. We need to get out.”

  Gunner growled and nudged his nose on Jacobs’ leg.

  “No, not for good. We can just take up a position on the outside of the fence to the side. We should still be able to see what they’re doing. And, if things go haywire, we won’t be boxed in.”

  Gunner started panting, looking as if he was in agreement with the new plan.

  “All right, let’s go.”

  Jacobs and Gunner bolted from the back of the building, going back to the hole they just created in the chain-link fence. They crawled through it and quickly ran along the fence, setting up in position on the side of it. Jacobs looked at the time. They still had a little while to wait.

  “Might as well settle in, bud.” Jacobs pet Gunner on the head and nose. “It’s gonna be a while.”

  Both Jacobs and Gunner lay down on their stomachs as they waited. And it would feel every minute like an even longer wait than it actually was. Roughly two hours from when they first got there, the meeting finally began. As the front gates opened, Jacobs reached down and pet Gunner on the head again to wake him up.

  “Time to go to work, buddy.”

  Gunner’s eyes slowly opened, though he quickly moved to an alert position as he saw activity going on near the building.

  “Wait for my signal.”

  Several cars drove in through the gate, eventually stopping once they got to the front of the building. Three black cars parked in front, though nobody got out yet. A few minutes passed without a sign of any further activity. Finally, a few of the car doors opened. One man got out of each of them. Another stood by the cars and looked around, while the other two each went around one side of the building. Jacobs assumed they were looking for uninvited guests like him. Once the men came back and gave the clear signal, a few more men got out of the car. In total, there were six of them standing out there. They were all looking at the gate, presumably waiting for their guests.