by David Archer
Philip’s grip tightened on the girl’s arm. “Ain’t none of us stupid,” Philip said. “You know, maybe you and your daddy got the whole town scared, but you don’t scare us. Y’all hurt one of us, there’s twenty more gonna come back on your ass for it.”
Ralph shook his head. “Philip, you don’t have enough friends to give us any problem. And your friends that are standing there with you right now? I’m looking at their faces, and what I see is some guys who really wish they were somewhere else.” He looked at each of those men in turn, and the man holding the girl’s other arm suddenly let it go.
“Phil,” the young man said, “let’s just let this go, okay? Ralphie, I’m sorry, man, we didn’t know she was one of your girls. We thought she was somebody new, because your girls don’t never act like that.”
Ralph looked at him for a moment. “Okay, Billy,” he said. “I’ll make this easy. The only one who actually did any damage here was Philip. The rest of you can leave, or you can stay and take the same punishment he gets. Better make up your mind right now, though, ’cause time has already run out.”
Noah saw several of Morgan’s men slowly start to rise to their feet, but then he caught a furtive movement out of the corner of his right eye. The young men surrounding the girl were facing Ralph, so their backs were to Noah. The one farthest in the back was reaching up under the back of his shirt, and Noah saw him wrap his hand around the grip of a small pistol.
No one else in the bar could have seen it, though Noah was sure there were security cameras that would catch it. Noah’s mind raced at incredible speed, predicting the outcome of several different choices he might make in the next three to five seconds.
He could easily take the boy down and remove the pistol, but even though he would be attacking in defense of Ralph Morgan, it was highly probable that the others would immediately start swinging at anyone within reach. That would start the very sight Ralph Morgan seemed to be trying to avoid.
He could wait until the gun was being brandished and then attack, take the boy down to the floor and disarm him. That would paint him as a bit of a hero, but it could also result in someone innocent being killed or wounded if the gun were to go off. That could seriously affect his ability to infiltrate the organization.
He could simply sit still and wait until the boy actually fired a shot and then move in. There would be other guns in play, so it would be risky. If the boy managed to kill or wound Ralph Morgan, then taking down his shooter would probably help Noah when the decision was made on whether to use him.
Throughout all of his thinking, Noah had kept his eyes focused mostly on Ralph. When they examined the security cameras later, it would appear that he couldn’t have seen the gun being drawn, and if it weren’t for his extraordinary peripheral vision, he might have missed it completely.
The gun came out of the back waistband of the boy’s pants and was held low for a moment, behind one of his friends in front of him, but then the boy started shaking and simply pushed through between two of the others. His gun came up instantly and pointed directly at Ralph’s face for a split second, and Noah lunged. The gun went off just as Noah’s hands grabbed the boy by the neck and yanked him back.
Noah spun and threw the boy to the ground, as gunshots rang out in the bar. Noah crouched low over the shooter, his knee in the boy’s back and his right hand holding his wrist. He squeezed as hard as he could and the boy screamed, and the gun fell out of his hand without firing again. Noah grabbed it and slid it along the floor until it was out of reach.
Something hit Noah in the back, and he realized that it was one of the other young men, who’d been shot through the chest and had fallen backward. Noah looked around and saw that Philip and all of his friends were on the floor, but he focused on the scene just in front of them.
The bullet had hit Ralph, but Noah couldn’t tell where. Five men were crouched over him, and one of them was Jimmy Morgan himself. The shock and tears on his face told Noah that the situation was serious, and the sobbing of the girl kneeling on the other side only served to confirm that opinion.
Noah suddenly felt himself yanked away. He rolled onto his back on the floor and looked up at Scott Forney, who was holding a pistol pointed at his face.
“You in on this?”
Noah shook his head, keeping his hands in plain sight. “No,” he said. “When I saw that kid aim his gun, I thought I could take him down before he could fire. That other boy, is he…”
“It ain’t good,” Forney said. He turned his attention to the boy Noah had taken down, who was trying to turn over and get to his feet. “That’s Benny Smoot. Benny, he’s a tweaker. A meth head, know what I mean?”
Forney’s gun had shifted over to Benny, so Noah got up onto his haunches and yanked Benny back down to the floor. “I know what a tweaker is,” Noah said. “That’s the gun over there. What do you want me to do with him?”
Forney walked carefully around Noah and Benny, then picked up the gun and looked at it. “A freaking little Ruger 22,” he said as he popped out the magazine. It was loaded with hollow-point rounds. “Makes a little bitty hole in your forehead, but then it can make one hell of a mess in your brain.”
Noah grabbed Benny by the front of his shirt and shook him. “What was this all about? You got some grudge against that boy?”
Then he looked scared, but he was trying desperately to hold on to his bravado. “Screw you,” he said.
Noah looked at him for a second, then reached out and caught the skin on the back of his upper arm between three fingers. He pinched the skin tightly and twisted as hard as he could. Benny let out a scream, and when Noah dragged his face up close again and asked the same question once more, he started nodding frantically. “I got paid, I got paid, man,” he said. “Dude gave me two grand, said he’d give me five more if I get a bullet into Ralphie’s brain.”
Forney stood looking on as Noah held on to Benny. “Who was it?” Noah asked. “Who paid you to try to kill him?”
“I don’t know, man,” Bennie said. “Big dude, like a pro football player. He handed me the two grand and promised five grand more once it was done.”
Noah shook his head. “Sounds like you got sent on a suicide mission,” he said. “Why would you be that stupid?”
Benny looked at him for a moment with resignation in his eyes, then turned them down to the floor. “Didn’t think,” he said. “Just didn’t think it through, and I needed the money.”
Noah looked around at where Ralph had fallen and saw Jimmy turn his head toward Forney. Forney pointed downward at Benny, as Jimmy got to his feet and started walking toward them.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
A siren could be heard in the distance, but it was rapidly getting closer. Jimmy stood and stared down at Benny for a long couple of minutes, then turned his attention to Noah.
“What happened?” Jimmy asked bluntly.
“Benny says somebody paid him to try to kill Ralphie,” Forney said. “He might have gotten it done, if it wasn’t for Rex, here. He saw the gun come out and tried to stop it.”
Morgan turned to Noah. “Is that true?”
“Yes, sir, and I’m so sorry,” Noah said. “I didn’t see the gun until it was pointed at that boy, and I thought I could get him before he could pull the trigger. If I’d seen it just a split second sooner…”
“Can’t worry about the what-ifs in life,” Jimmy said. “Just tell me what you saw.”
Noah looked down at Benny for a second, then turned his eyes back to Jimmy as he got to his feet. “I was just watching what was going on,” he said, “and then all of a sudden I saw this guy raise a gun and point it at the one who was talking to them. I jumped then, to see if I could get him down before he hurt anybody. I wasn’t quite fast enough; I heard the gun go off. That boy—how bad is it? Is that your kid?”
Jimmy stared at Noah’s face for a moment, then looked down at Benny again. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “He got it along the side of his head, like it
took a crease out of the skin just over his left ear, but he’s not dead. He just don’t have any idea who he is, at the moment. Ain’t making any sense.”
The sirens had gotten closer, and Noah heard cars screeching to a halt outside the bar. Several officers, including the deputy he had met earlier, came rushing through the door with guns drawn. At a wave from Jimmy Morgan, however, they stood down and put their weapons away as three teams of paramedics came racing through the door. One of them hurried over to where Ralph was lying, and a woman began barking out orders. The others began checking the rest of the bodies on the floor.
A couple of the deputies gathered around Jimmy, but Billy Martin took one look at Noah’s face and beckoned him off to the side, while Forney stood over Benny.
“Are you in the middle of this somehow?” Martin asked.
“Kinda. I was sitting at the bar when this boy”—he pointed at Benny—“suddenly had a gun and pointed it at that boy who was shot. I jumped and tried to get him before he could pull the trigger, but I was a split second too late. Damn gun went off as I grabbed him, and I couldn’t reach it to try to make it deflect upwards.”
Martin looked into his face for a moment, then slowly nodded. “Who shot you?”
Noah looked confused for a moment, but then Martin pointed to his left shoulder. Noah looked and suddenly realized he had been nicked by one of the flying bullets. There was a hole through the fabric of his shirt, but a quick glance inside showed him that the blood leaking out of it was from a simple flesh wound.
He looked back at the deputy. “No clue,” he said. “It ain’t as bad as it looks, though. I didn’t even feel it until you pointed it out.”
“Yeah, probably nothing compared to what happened to you in that last big riot at Beaumont, right? Yeah, don’t look so surprised. I checked your story out, and you’re telling the truth. According to your records, you were one of the inmates who got shot up by accident when the federal marshals went in. That right?”
“Wrong place, wrong time,” he said, remembering what he’d been trained to say. “I wasn’t in one of the gangs; I rolled solo. Me and a bunch of other independents were just trying to stay down and out of the line of fire, but one of the marshals got a little trigger-happy. It was touch and go for a little while there, but I made it. Some of the others didn’t.”
Martin nodded, then looked over to where the other deputies were talking with Morgan for a moment. He turned back to Noah. “Listen, Rex,” he began, “this could go about either way for you. That’s Jimmy Morgan’s boy, Ralph, laying there. Just a little while ago, Jimmy was talking to him about taking over some of their operation. If his mind is all messed up, Jimmy could blame some of it on you, or he might respect the fact you tried to stop it. Just keep your cool, no matter what happens, all right?”
Noah looked over at Jimmy, who was standing over the paramedics. He could catch snatches of the conversation, just enough to know that the paramedics were saying Ralph had a chance of recovery. They got him onto a stretcher and wheeled him past Noah on the way to the door, and Noah saw that the boy’s eyes were moving wildly around. Jimmy Morgan was clutching his left hand as he hurried along beside him. The girl that had started it all was holding on to his right.
The bandage on his head told Noah that the bullet had grazed the right side of his cranium. That meant it had probably not penetrated or damaged the frontal lobes, but there was no way to be certain of that. That area of the brain controlled planning, social interactions, and logical thought. If he suffered any serious damage there, there was no way he was ever going to be capable of stepping into his father’s shoes.
Noah considered for a moment the incredible possibility that one of his targets might have been taken off the list on the very evening that he made his first attempt at contact. The odds against something like this had to be unbelievably high, and yet it had happened. Ralph might survive and recover, but there was a possibility he would no longer be part of the organization, in which case there was no longer any reason for Noah to terminate him. All Noah could do was wait and see.
He had gone through all of those thoughts in a matter of seconds but suddenly returned to the present. “All I know,” Noah said, “is I tried. I didn’t know who any of these boys were, but when I saw a gun come out, I figured I should do what I could to stop it.” He shrugged. “All a man can do is try, right?”
Deputy Martin had taken out a notepad and was scribbling down notes to remind himself of Noah’s statements. He’d have to write it up later, but the notes would also serve to help when he spoke with Morgan. He personally thought Morgan ought to be grateful to this new guy, because it was very possible that his interference is what kept the shot from being fatal.
That was how he planned to pitch it, anyway. While it wasn’t officially known, Billy Martin was one of Jimmy Morgan’s people, and he had built himself a position that was strong and enduring. All of the deputies working under the already corrupt sheriff were useful to Morgan, but Billy had taken things a few steps further. With careful thought and planning, and by making sure he often brought news to Morgan before anybody else could, he had gradually risen to a position of trust and delegated authority.
Billy Martin would enforce the laws, but he wouldn’t hesitate to break them, as well. Billy was one of the lieutenants in the Morgan Mafia, and he personally thought this new guy might have potential.
“Okay,” he said after a minute, “just stay here. The sheriff is on his way here now, and he’ll probably want to talk to you.”
Noah pointed at Benny, who was still sitting on the floor. “What about this scumbag? Is somebody going to arrest him?”
Martin looked down at Benny, and his face became a grimace. He looked back up at Noah, and it didn’t improve.
“Rex, you’re in a different world now. You need to understand that the things you saw here tonight may not be quite the way you hear about it tomorrow on the news. Don’t make waves, man—that’s the most important thing to remember right now. Do not argue with anybody about what happened here tonight. Got it?”
Noah made his eyes go wide. “Hell, you’re going to kill him?”
Martin breathed out a sigh and shook his head. “You ever heard of something called the Morgan Mafia?”
Noah nodded. “Yeah, Katie told me about it. I gather that’s the Morgan?”
“That’s him. Now, imagine for a moment that you run your own little, oh, let’s call it a syndicate, right? Somebody, some punk kid hopped up on meth, shoots your son. How would you feel about letting the cops haul him off to jail, where it’s always possible he’ll end up walking away with probation or an order to spend some time in drug rehab?”
Noah grinned. “I’d feel like I didn’t want him to get that kind of opportunity.”
Martin grinned back. “It was a pity all these boys got killed in a shootout with a rival gang, wasn’t it? Poor old Ralph—did you hear about him getting caught in the crossfire?”
Noah nodded once again. “I sure did. Damn shame, that.”
Martin patted him on the shoulder. “I think you might end up doing well, here. You seem to have a real ability to grasp what’s going on around you and adapt to it.”
“How do you think I survived Beaumont?” Noah asked. “When you’re a kid growing up on the street in a two-bit city like Zanesville, Ohio, you have to learn how to make yourself fit in. A guy can get anything he wants if he knows how to ask for it.”
“That’s true,” Martin said. “Okay, just wait right here. I’ll get back with you in just a bit.”
Noah sat down at the bar and picked up the beer bottle he had been drinking from. There were still a couple of swallows in the bottom, so he tipped it up and drank them down. He turned around on the bar stool and leaned his back against the bar.
A noise behind him made him glance around, and he saw the bartender standing there. She had just set another beer beside his elbow.
“On the house,” she said. “I saw what y
ou did. You tried to stop this, and I appreciate that.”
Noah picked up the beer and saluted her with it, then took a long pull. “I just did what I thought I had to do. Hope that kid lives.”
“Yeah, don’t we all,” she said. “Morgan’s bad enough when he’s in a good mood. God only knows what things are going to be like around here for the next few weeks.”
“I was just hearing a little bit about Mr. Morgan,” Noah said. “I guess he pretty much runs the show around here?”
“More than you can imagine. I’m Amber, by the way.”
“Rex,” Noah said. “Rex Madison. Kate Madison, the one on the radio? She’s my sister.”
“I know Kate,” Amber said. “She comes in here every now and then and usually sits up here so we can talk. She never mentioned having a brother, though.”
Noah shrugged. “I guess I’m the black sheep of the family,” he said. “I just got out of federal prison a few weeks ago. Katie wasn’t ever very happy about that, and we never were really close. I just got to talking to her a couple weeks ago, and for some reason she suggested I come here and try to get a job and settle down.”
“And how does your wife feel about that?” Amber asked. She grinned when Noah looked up at her. “Hey, when a good-looking man walks into a bar, every woman in the place checks out his left hand. You got a wedding ring on.”
Noah smiled at her. “It’s so new that I almost forget it’s there. Angie and I were high school sweethearts, and it just carried on. She must really love me, because she waited the whole five years I was gone. We got married not long after I got out, and she’ll be coming here next week. I just came ahead to find us a place to live.”
