by E A Lake
"I also had no patience, in any situation." He paused and glanced at my father and me. "But that is something that Reverend Edward Reynolds has also taught me. You know, I once ordered a man hung because he took a minute too long to bring me my dinner. I know it doesn't seem possible any longer, but once, I was that man. But with help, and many prayers, I have become patient."
Shaklin seemed unimpressed by his guest. "Well, I'm not a patient man. I want my property and I want it, now."
The words had barely left Shaklin's mouth when Ed whistled and motioned his people to rise. Tony's head fell slightly.
"We're not going to do this, are we?" he moaned. "Don't piss me off." He swung a finger at the three of us. "Don't make this any harder than it needs to be."
Ed moved forward and knelt before his group, leading them in prayer. Their chants became louder and I noticed Shaklin's brow furrow as he wiped his mouth.
"Quinn," he insisted. "Give me Morgan and Charolette. Give them to me now and we can avoid any of the rough stuff that's coming if you don't. I've been a very patient man up until now, but I'm running out of patience."
Raising his hands high, Ed shouted. "Devil be gone! Leave our brother Tony Shaklin so that the Lord may come into his heart."
"Devil be gone!" his followers chanted loudly.
I had to give them credit; their fervent voices sounded both sincere and unafraid. Maybe Ed was all that and more. Perhaps my father was on to something. But given Shaklin's pissed-off expression, whatever that something was was going to be short lived.
"Billy, Bob, Trevor," Shaklin growled, staring at me like I was his worst enemy. "Go fetch my property. Use force if they put up any fight. And if anyone gets in your way..." I noticed the corner of his right lip curl into a sneer, "...shoot them."
Time was up. Either Karlos' bluff became a reality, or I was about to die.
When I looked back at Shaklin's goons, I noticed them all staring to the north. Glancing back at Shaklin, I knew he was not happy to be waiting on them. He turned left and glared over his shoulder. Man, was his face getting red.
"I said," he spit between gritted teeth, "go get Morgan and Charolette and bring them to me."
Still, the men he was talking to looked north. One of them began to shake his head slowly. He raised his left hand and pointed across the open field.
"B... B...Boss," he stuttered. "You better take a look at this."
Shaklin's fists curled into tight balls and the color drained from his hands. "I don't give a shit if Jesus himself is coming in a lightning-covered chariot. Go get me those women!"
"Tony," Carla said quietly yet firmly. "We got a problem and it's coming from the north."
Shaklin and I turned our heads at the same time and I felt my heart flutter for a moment.
"What the–" he said, rather softly for a man who'd been so forceful seconds earlier.
"Ah!" Karlos exclaimed. "My people! How wonderful. I told you, Tony Shaklin, you just needed to be patient."
"Praise God!" Ed exclaimed, echoed by the same call from his followers.
"Yes, praise God!" Karlos repeated, grinning slightly and stepping in front of Shaklin. "Tell me you are impressed, Tony Shaklin. A thousand fighters march on you from the north. Please, feel free to speak honestly. Tell me; you are impressed, no?"
Shaklin spun and jabbed a finger towards me. "I'm going to send my people out to fight them in the middle of the field. We're going to wipe them out in five minutes. You're not going to win!"
Karlos clapped and poked Shaklin in the ribs. "If you're not impressed, I understand, Tony Shaklin. However, you will be when another thousand approach from the south, followed by another thousand from the east and west. Will you send your fighters out to meet my forces still? Or is it time we talk?"
"You're bluffing," Shaklin spit out quickly. "You don't have–"
"Holy shit!" one of Shaklin's minions shouted. "Look at all the people coming down the road...and coming in from the south."
His mouth fell open and for once, Tony Shaklin was speechless. I could tell he didn't want to admit defeat, not yet at least.
"What the hell do you want?" he seethed. "I just want back what's mine, what I've paid for with years of food and shelter and protection. I'm not asking for anything I haven't already purchased."
Karlos turned, a broad smile lighting up his face, and opened his arms towards me. "I want what Sheriff Quinn Reynolds wants. Nothing more, but certainly nothing less. And there'll be no negotiation about this. What he says is law and will be law from this point forward. Do you understand that, Tony Shaklin?"
"What do you want, Quinn?" Tony asked, finally sounding truly defeated. "And remember, we're friends. We go way back."
That lie only made me want more. But I already had a list in my head and decided to stick to it.
CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE
Given the upper hand, a lesser man might have demanded that Shaklin and some of his nefarious crew be executed on the spot. I truly believed Karlos would go along with anything I said at that point. Watching my former partner – the one who had wronged me and others in so many ways – beg for his life before being executed would have been sweet revenge.
But that would have been something Tony Shaklin would have done. I was a better person than that, or him.
"No more slaves," I demanded. "You can have all the employees you want, but you can't treat them like slaves."
Shaklin shrugged and glared at me passively. "Sure thing, buddy."
"We're not friends, so quit saying that."
"Whatever, Quinn," he replied as though he was bored. "Anything else?"
"I want my friends back, and sure as hell want my sister coming with me."
The old Shaklin grin returned. "She’s married to me; legal and fair. Officiated by the judge himself."
My father stepped forward. "Consider yourself divorced in the eyes of God then."
Shaklin stalled as he thought of something else to say. Karlos was not as hesitant.
"Or I can call my people forward, if that would help?" Karlos happily added. "You still haven't told me how impressed you are with my forces, Tony Shaklin." He flicked his eyebrows several times, but Tony didn't seem to notice. "I know you want to say it. Don't be shy."
He stared at the diminutive yet powerful Hispanic. "Fine! Take Belinda with you. I don't need a turncoat amongst my ranks. Take her!"
"And I want you to take care of your people," Ed pushed onward. "Meat every day, not just on Sundays. And if they want to leave, they get to leave."
I noticed Shaklin turn and look to the east. As promised, there was a fourth battalion of fighters poised for attack at their leader’s whim.
"Sure, Ed," he sighed. "I'll treat them just like family."
"I hate to bring this up," a new voice intervened. Ed, Shaklin, Karlos and I looked left as Jack Preacher stepped forward. "I'm very sorry, but I believe you've overlooked a deal that I've already consummated with Mr. Shaklin."
"You don't say," Ed replied, stroking his beard. "Well, please tell us about this deal so we can clear up any misunderstanding here."
"I have rightly purchased something here," Preacher continued nervously. "And now it sounds as though someone else is going to take possession of my property."
Karlos had a look of great interest in the subject, leaning slightly forward to hear what was being said. Ed and I already knew what he was talking about. Shaklin's lips tightened and brow furrowed.
"Why don't you just let that lie, Jack?" Shaklin inquired. That made Preacher's head shake violently as his mouth fell open.
"You can't be serious, Tony," he pled with wide eyes. "I've gone through a lot of trouble and personal expense to procure my part of the deal. You said I could take possession today. And that's what I expect to do."
"You mean to harm this child," Ed said as he stepped forward and placed an arm over Avellyn's shoulders. "That is an abomination of mankind. ‘Though shall not covet they neighbor.�
��"
Preacher took another step forward, closer to Ed. "She's bought and paid for; she's mine. It was a fair deal and I've delivered my part. The girl comes with me."
We had a stalemate, one that I didn't want to end with violence if at all possible. Thus far, no one had been harmed in any way. I was hoping we could keep that theme moving forward.
But Preacher was unbending on the issue. He and my father argued for a few more minutes before I stepped into the fray.
"She's not coming with you," I said calmly. That turned his face a new shade of crimson. Tough shit. "She's going home with her mother to Pimento. No further discussion."
Preacher got into my face. "If you make me get Judge Lampler involved with this, you'll live to regret your actions. Either way, she's ending up with me."
"Tell me, Mr. Preacher," Ed inserted. "How is it that your lust of little girls has gone unchecked for so long? Why haven't you been strung up by your neck from the nearest tree before now? It shocks me the things I've heard you do."
Standing as erect as he could, Preacher straightened his jacket lapels. "I'm an influential man, Reverend. I have many contacts and am well respected by scores of people. I've been accepted into the inner circle of many powerful people. Though you view me as common vermin, I provide a necessary commodity for certain people with rather eclectic tastes. As such, they protect me."
Ed nodded as he listened, drawing a deep breath and releasing it slowly before he spoke again. "So these people, these protectors, are they here with you today?"
He rolled his head and scoffed at my father. "I have Mr. Shaklin's protection today. All I'm doing is completing a reasonable business transaction. I have no need for hired thugs to protect me. My reputation takes care of me just fine."
"But you'd agree that some people might not see what you do as legal or moral?" Ed asked. I wondered where the interrogation was leading. I was becoming a little bored listening to a man who was never going to get what he desired from us. I would have rather preferred to shoot him on the spot and be done with it. But my father probably wouldn't approve of that.
"I couldn't care less what common street people think of my business, Reverend Reynolds," Preacher vented. "This isn't the old days; people have to do terrible things to survive. I'm giving this girl a chance at a wonderful life in the end. Something her awful-smelling mother could never provide for her."
Ed's head waggled from side to side as he sucked on his lower lip. He had something in mind; what is was I couldn't tell.
"You're a smudge on humanity," Ed replied. "Anyone who trades little children for profit shouldn't be allowed to live on this Earth."
"And yet," Preacher replied tersely, poking my father in the shoulder, "here I am. And trust me, Mr. Shaklin will protect me until I can return to my business in Terre Haute."
"Maybe," Ed said, glancing back at me and then Karlos. "Maybe not though."
CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED THIRTY
I watched 30 people come forward and pull Preacher from Shaklin's “protection”. Tony had more sense than that, not that Preacher knew or understood what he was up against.
Led by Karlos, they placed a noose around his neck and drug him to a nearby oak tree. There, they did what should have been done years ago and removed one more sinner (Ed's words, not mine) from the world.
Shaklin shook his head and watched the man's feet thrash wildly. With arms crossed, I would have said that Tony didn't much care for the person; not that anyone probably did.
I heard a horse gallop away and noticed it to be Winston Cutler leaving rapidly. I figured he'd make it about a quarter mile before some of Karlos' people stopped him and brought him back. Knowing that Ed knew the man's history, it would only take 10 minutes before he was swinging next to Preacher on the brown-leaved oak.
I turned and faced Shaklin directly. He still didn't look nervous, or overly concerned, but that was him. He was a survivor and he knew just how to play by and bend the rules as needed.
"I want Jimmy Yelk," I said. "I want Jimmy Yelk now."
His eyes narrowed before he spoke. "You gonna hang him too, Quinn? I mean he probably deserves it, but he's a loyal person to have around."
"He hurts people, Tony. And he gets great joy from hurting people."
I noticed Yelk step forward. "Hey! You want me, come get me, big man. You won't be the first ass I've kicked this week. Probably not the last either."
I heard motion behind me and before I could turn, Morgan strode by, heading directly for Yelk. He grinned; big mistake.
"You coming over for a little loving, Morgan?" He opened his arms wide, as if inviting her in for a hug. Another big mistake I figured. "Your man can't satisfy you so you're coming to be with a real–"
His words ended the second Morgan's boot hit home. Grabbing his crotch, Jimmy fell forward onto the ground. Rolling onto his back, his low, guttural moans of agony pierced the air.
When he looked up at my wife, Jimmy Yelk got exactly what he deserved. Morgan stomped on his face once, then twice and finally a third time, probably for good measure. When she was finished, she spit on him and kicked him once in the ribs.
Returning to her horse, she stopped beside me and Shaklin first. "He got what he had coming," she said with a grin. "No need to string him up."
"Are we done, Quinn?" Shaklin asked in a bored fashion. "Because I got employees to tend to. My operation doesn't run all by itself, you know."
I stared at him for a while. Tony was a chameleon when it came to problems, always blending in with whatever environment surrounded him. I didn't trust him, but I wasn't sure how to remedy that.
I glanced at Carla and she shot me a snarky smile and flipped me off. I didn't trust her either, but there was little I could do.
"I haven't broken any laws, Quinn," Shaklin continued. "Neither has Carla or any of my family for that matter. So, if you decide to string one of us up just to prove a point, people will hunt you down and make you pay for murdering an innocent person."
"I wish there was something I could do to you," I said. He chuckled at that. "But that would make me just as rotten as you are. I think this little castration of power that went on here today just might have to do."
"And how long do you think that'll hold?" he asked with a grin. "A week, two days, maybe an hour? You've got no power over me, Quinn. Once you leave, it's my way again."
We’d see about that. I had a plan.
CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED THIRTY-ONE
Before we rode away with our friends and family all intact, Karlos helped me get the last word in. He readily agreed to leave five of his best people there to monitor Shaklin's activities for an indefinite amount of time. Actually, he picked one and 10 others volunteered. He let the new leader pick her crew.
"You have to admit it now, Tony Shaklin," Karlos cooed just before we left. "You're quite impressed with my power. Go ahead, Tony Shaklin, say it; it will make me so happy."
Tony tapped his fingers on his saddle before mounting to leave. He looked at Karlos with complete disdain.
"I'm impressed, King Karlos, both with you and your people," he said dejectedly. "It takes a hell of a man to beat me. You might just have done it today."
Carla walked her horse forward. It looked to me like she was coming to thank me for sparing her life. It wasn't really in her nature to do something like that, but maybe she'd learned a thing or two from her second husband.
"Quinn," she said plainly, looking at the ground, not me. "I have a wish for you; really more of a hope."
Okay, not the exact words I was expecting, but I was never very good at knowing what she was really up to.
She looked up with cold blue eyes. "I hope you and Morgan die in a painful way. I don't know if I want it to be a gut shot, or maybe food poisoning, or a flu where you bleed from your eyes and puke blood for weeks. I just want it to be painful and long; that's all I care about."
Yep, exactly what I should have expected.
"Did you hear that, Morga
n?" Carla called out, looking past me.
"Can you hear this, Carla?" Morgan replied gleefully, flipping Carla the bird.
Carla chuckled and gave me a sucker punch in the shoulder. That should have been expected as well. Stupid of me for letting her get that close.
"You'll always just be his whore, Morgan," Carla called out as one of Shaklin's men helped her mount up. "You know that, right?"
Morgan smiled and waved me back to my own horse. "It's so much better than being a bitch though," she called back. "Especially Shaklin's bitch...which none of us are anymore. Except you, of course."
Our ways parted as Shaklin's group headed back to his farm and our group started our journey back to Pimento. We paused as a screaming, crying Winston Cutler was strung up and left to die by a group of Karlos' people. I watched him flail and heard his death moans as I turned my horse to the west.
"His sin was murder, son," Ed said as we headed west on the crumbling blacktop. "Though shall not kill. It's the–"
"Sixth commandment," I interrupted. "I know that, Dad; I actually did pay attention in catechism. I'm just worried about all the lives I've taken."
My father raised his face to the sky and smiled. "You took none today, Quinn. For that, I am grateful and proud. The ones from before will be judged in the end, by God himself. Just go and sin no more...unless someone sends bad people after us. Then go ahead and do what needs to be done."
"Kill?" I replied. That was what he meant, after all.
Ed laughed as I'd never heard him laugh before. It took him one, maybe two minutes to compose himself before he could glance at me, wiping away tears of joy.
"No, son," he said happily. "Protect your family and your loved ones. All of them. That, I've discovered, is what you're best at. And by God, you've proven yourself worthy of His love by doing so. Many times over."
