Bad Dad

by Sloane Howell

  The announcer took a card from someone and stared at it for a minute.

  The whole place was standing at attention, leaning in to hear the results.

  “Judges scored the fight!”

  The place went dead silent.

  “Judge One, 27-26, Lane.”

  The place erupted. Joe shook me by the shoulder with a huge smile on his face.

  Waiting between score announcements seemed longer than being in the ring with Sid. Edmon’s face heated up bright pink. He started to pace. One more judge in my favor and I was a free man. My heart thumped at a punishing rhythm.

  “Judge Two, 28-26, Kayzo.”

  Boos riddled the arena. It was clear who the crowd wanted to win. It all came down to the last judge. My fate. My family’s future. All decided by some random person in a suit at a table. They’d probably never thrown a punch, yet my life teetered on the balance of their scorecard.

  “Judge Three, 27-26.” He paused.

  I wanted to beat him over the head with the microphone. You could’ve heard a pin drop in the middle of the packed arena. Time slowed down until it was almost non-existent. One word. My name or his. My entire life hinged on it. My family’s freedom.

  It was insane. I knew I hit him before the time ran out. I could’ve sworn it. What if I’d been a little faster? A little less powerful? Maybe we wouldn’t even be standing there right then. I glanced over at Logan. His bottom lip trembled. I pulled him in close to me. His whole future depended on this. How could he grow up without a father? What would happen to him if they took me away?

  This couldn’t be happening.

  The announcer had the microphone in front of his mouth. Logan’s small fingers gripped my hand.

  The man’s lips began to move in slow motion. His words were deep and heavy like a slowed down record.

  Every bit of oxygen left my lungs.

  “Kayzo!”

  Edmon punched the air and whooped.

  Acid crept into my throat and a cold sweat broke out on my forehead. I thought I might vomit. The whole world crashed back down on me a million times heavier than it was before.

  I’d failed.

  I dropped my face into my palms. This couldn’t be real.

  The walls shook from all the jeers. They echoed off the rafters and rumbled through the ground.

  Joe grabbed me by the arm and stared right at me. He already had Logan hoisted up on his waist. “Run!”

  CHAPTER 47

  Landon Lane

  I SNAGGED LOGAN FROM JOE and he grabbed hold of Janet. I hollered at Cora, “Go!” She took off behind Joe and Janet with her arm bouncing in her sling. It had to hurt like hell, but she did it without even thinking.

  The press went crazy in the confusion and the crowd all stared with wide eyes.

  I followed through the gate with Logan on my hip. Joe led the way and blasted reporters and anyone else out of the way. Edmon screamed behind us.

  “Get behind me! Stay low!” Joe hollered. His voice had morphed into full-blown soldier mode.

  We went in a straight line.

  Joe glanced back. “They won’t shoot into a crowd. No way. Too many cameras.”

  I looked up. The two men in suits up the ramp held their guns at their side, but they both glanced around like they weren’t sure what to do.

  One of them spoke into his collar. Presumably a microphone. They looked like Secret Service agents, but we both knew they didn’t work for the U.S.

  When we neared, they holstered their guns, but stepped in the way.

  Joe had my equipment bag in one hand. He shoved it at me. I took it.

  One of the agents stepped up to block us and Joe hammered him with a vicious elbow. He crashed into a barrier and contorted on the ground. The other guy tried to run but Joe snagged him by the collar of his jacket.

  It happened so quickly I barely saw it, but he ripped the guy’s jacket off and the ear piece out of his ear. All in one smooth motion.

  He crushed the guy’s throat with a vicious chop and knocked him out with a left hook.

  Joe grabbed the bag from me, and we eased through the curtain. He took the lead again.

  He held a hand up to us. Looked inside and peeked around.

  “Clear!”

  I gripped Logan tight to me. My ribs were on fire, but I wouldn’t have let him go in a million years. He squeezed my neck and buried his face in my shoulder.

  Cora was next to me and I had my eyes fixed on her. We stepped over the last guard.

  Joe already had the guy’s ear piece wrapped around his ear and the unit clipped to his pants. He held a finger up to us and listened in to see if there was any information dispersed over the airwaves.

  Joe moved like he knew where he was going. I trusted him completely to make the right call for us. My head was still in a haze from the fight, and my main focus was keeping Logan and Cora safe and sheltered from danger.

  He went right, and I heard footsteps pounding behind us from the other end of the hallway.

  Joe must’ve heard them too. “Let’s go!” He took off and we ran after him. “They won’t be afraid to shoot in a hallway.”

  He was right. We rounded a tight corner just as bullets pounded into the wall where we’d just been. Hadn’t even heard them fire. “Subsonic rounds with silencers.”

  Joe nodded ahead of me. I pushed Cora and Janet ahead and wrapped Logan around the front of me and shoved his head down into my chest. Their bullets moved slower than the speed of sound and lost even more velocity with their suppressors. It was the cost of firing a semi-silent weapon. No muzzle blast, but slow-moving rounds.

  Chances were they wouldn’t go all the way through me if they hit. I wanted everyone in front of me so that I’d take one in the back if anyone was shot. The rounds would lodge inside of me but not go through and through and risk hitting one of them.

  We weaved through a few more hallways and into a room.

  “Come on! Come on!” A familiar voice.

  “Baby!” Janet wrapped the man in a huge hug.

  The man squeezed her and then shoved her along. “No time!”

  I knew the voice.

  Gus.

  “About time you showed up,” I said.

  “Sorry, had to alter plans.”

  We all took off. Gus led the way.

  We came out of a door into the middle of the casino. The stench of stale cigarette smoke and day-old alcohol assaulted my nostrils. Bells and all kinds of ringing echoed off the walls. Noises from all the slot machines.

  I glanced around. “We need off the floor.” A casino was the worst place we could possibly be. Casinos had more surveillance than any other kind of building in the country. Probably more than the White House.

  The eye in the sky saw everything. I’d have bet good money that Edmon had people watching.

  Gus led us along between machines. Joe cleared a path like an F5 tornado. Anyone that was in the way wasn’t after he passed through.

  We cut across to another set of doors and down a long corridor.

  “Landon, give us eyes in the back.”

  “I don’t hear anything, but they’re probably on us. I’m sure they’re watching the cameras.”

  I squeezed Logan tighter to let him know I had him. “You’re doing great, Cora. We’re almost out of here. Hear that, big man? We’ll be out in a minute, okay?”

  Logan trembled against me, but nodded against my chest.

  Thank God I conserved my legs during the bout. A fifteen-minute fight with a machine took it out of you worse than sprinting a marathon.

  “Just up here,” said Gus.

  We ran up within twenty feet of some metal bars on a gate that ran floor to ceiling. Guards in casino uniforms stalked back and forth on the other side of them. The vault?

  Right before we got to the gate, Gus veered us into a closet. It was a large maintenance room. There was no way out of it. What the hell?

  I sat Logan down and pushed him in ahead of me. Ab
out that time, I looked up and saw four men rounding the corner, guns drawn and aimed right at me.

  CHAPTER 48

  Landon Lane

  “GUYS, WE NEED TO HURRY. WE have company.” I shoved them into the closet and pushed in behind. I reached out to slam the door shut and three bullets blasted the door off its hinges.

  I stared down at it lying on the ground. “Looks like .45 hollow points and they know how to use them.”

  “Shit, it’s right in here somewhere.” Gus fumbled around, running his palms along the wall. He grabbed hold of something in the paneling.

  “You need to hurry.” I glared.

  Footsteps.

  Louder.

  “Less than a hundred feet away.” My heart kicked up a notch.

  “There we go.” A latch clicked, and a temporary wall slid out of the way. A tunnel opened up.

  What in the hell?

  We took off into it. I scooped Logan back up in my arms, but worried about our pace. The men couldn’t outrun Joe or me, but they were faster than everyone else. Definitely faster than Janet and Cora.

  “Where the hell are we going? What is this place?”

  We sprinted through the tunnel. It snaked back and forth, and it felt like we were running slightly downhill.

  The curved path and tight turns helped things. It wouldn’t give the guys a clean line of fire.

  “It was used to rob the casino a long time ago. Some guys spent two years tunneling in. I sneak my guys out of it all the time to avoid the press after fights.” Gus kept everyone moving at a good clip while hollering over his shoulder.

  The snaking made sense. If they were chased out it would obscure them from being shot at. I silently thanked the criminals for being smart.

  We ran for what had to be at least three hundred yards. The footsteps grew louder.

  It played in our favor though. If they caught up to us beforehand, I could take them out in the tunnel with close-quarters combat. Their guns would be useless.

  Gus and Joe kept glancing at one another. Joe pressed the earpiece to his head and fell back behind us. “There’s only four of them. They’re reporting where we are.” He tapped on the ear piece. “I’m going to put a stop to it.”

  He slid back to the rear.

  It made me feel better. If he could get rid of them, it would buy us a lot of time and give us a better shot at getting away undetected.

  Joe disappeared behind us.

  The footsteps stopped about ten seconds later.

  We ran up into a wide clearing and I could see daylight. Heard cars rushing by. Freedom was in our sights and it was like warm sunshine in the middle of a dark blizzard.

  When we got to the end, Gus stopped and held a large circular gate with iron bars open. Another smart move by the criminals. If they were chased, they could get out and lock up the tunnel to prevent being followed out. I wondered if they’d gotten away with it. I’d never heard of anyone robbing the MGM, but that didn’t mean it didn’t happen. It wouldn’t have been something the casino would want to broadcast.

  Once Janet, Cora, and I were through, Gus slammed the gate shut with him and Joe still inside. “I’m sorry, babe.” He latched a padlock on it and Joe came hauling ass up through the tunnel with the equipment bag. Neither one of them would look at any of us. They just talked to each other like we weren’t there.

  “What the hell are you two doing? Come on! We have to go!” I screamed at both of them through the gate.

  Gus reached into the gym bag and pulled out another padlock. He double-locked the gate. “In case you try to break the other one.”

  Janet ran up to him. “Baby, what the hell are you doing?” Her face was pale.

  Joe glared in our direction. “We don’t have time for this shit! Go! Now!” He tossed a set of keys through the iron bars. They landed on the dirt.

  “Go a hundred yards up. Silver Honda Accord in the parking lot. Take it and get them the hell out of here.”

  Joe stripped down to his underwear and pulled a pair of shorts out of the gym bag. They were identical to mine. He slid them on.

  I beat my fist on the gate. “No! We all go together! Unlock this gate now!”

  Joe reached through the gate and grabbed the back of my neck. He pulled my face a few inches from his. All that separated us were the iron bars. “Go, asshole. Save your family.”

  “What are you doing?”

  He waggled his eyebrows at me. “Roll to your rifle.”

  My veins turned to ice. It was a line from an old Rudyard Kipling poem. For soldiers when they were about to be captured. “Roll to your rifle and go to your God like a soldier.” It meant you’d rather die than be captured by the enemy. My head was spinning. I couldn’t process everything at once.

  Janet was about to lose it. “Gus, please, baby! Please! You’re scaring me!”

  He leaned up to the gate and slammed his mouth into hers with a furious kiss, then pushed her away. “We have to do this. I’m sorry. I love you, sweetheart!” He turned to me.

  Janet clearly wouldn’t leave without being forced into it.

  “Get her out of here! I’m counting on you.” He scowled.

  I nodded.

  I shouldn’t have done it, but I did.

  Only because I realized what Joe was doing. It all made sense. All at once. A light bulb went off when my brain connected the dots. He had on my shorts. He was taping up his hands just like mine. My legs numbed. Logan sobbed behind me. He didn’t know why they were on the other side of the gate with the bad guys coming. He loved Gus. Loved his Uncle Joe. He’d bought him a Batman toy and they’d built things and played in the backyard. Cora was nearly catatonic. She just stared into the tunnel.

  “Daddy, let’s go. Please! I’m scared!”

  Joe finished taping his hands up and put a pair of gloves on. We looked almost identical. “Get my nephew out of here, now!”

  “You don’t have to do this. I can’t let you.”

  He saw that I knew what he had planned. Saw it all make sense in my eyes and he nodded at me and smiled. “Oh yeah, asshole. It’s happening.”

  “What’s happening?” Cora asked.

  Joe leaned back and gripped two of the bars. “You guys might not wanna watch this.” He leaned all the way back with his arms extended and then surged forward with a ridiculous burst of speed and rammed his face straight into the iron. It split his forehead all the way across. A river of blood flowed down his face. He did it again, and again. Grunted over and over, growling as he slammed his jaw against the gate and crushed it until the side of his face drooped.

  He stepped back and pounded the iron with his fists for good measure. Joe was beating himself up so they’d think he was me.

  “Go now!” He roared out of the side of his mouth at all of us.

  It was too much to watch. I shook my head at him. “You don’t have to do this.”

  He nodded. “I do.”

  I stared at Logan and Cora and Janet and then back at Joe. I mouthed “thank you” at him.

  He gave me another nod and a half-smile. “You’re welcome, asshole.”

  I reached down for the keys and grabbed them. Had to wrestle Janet around the shoulders and drag her through the dirt. She kicked wildly. So much that I had to set Logan down and throw her over my shoulder, then pick him back up. She beat at my back and clawed into my flesh, howling wildly.

  I made it about fifty yards away and turned around. Gus pulled two guns from the bag and they each took one in their hands. They bolted back down the tunnel.

  A few seconds later there was a hail of gunfire. I watched their silhouettes drop dead, lifeless on the ground in the distance. I knew they hadn’t made it. They ran straight into it on purpose.

  Joe knew they’d never stop coming for me. Knew Edmon was obsessed. His DNA would be a match for mine if they tested it.

  We got in the car, dumped our cell phones, and took off on the highway.

  CHAPTER 49

  Landon Lane


  I KNEW IT’D WORKED TWO days later when I saw my name all over the newspapers.

  The paper said my death was ruled a suicide. I’d taken so many anabolic steroids it’d made me irrational and delusional. That, coupled with the blows to the head in the arena and losing the fight, had turned me crazy. According to the news, I shot myself in the head in a hallway of the MGM.

  Sid retired, and Sam was still the champion. All of it was ridiculous. It made no sense.

  In the rental car on the front seat had been a passport with my picture. It was legit. Gus had to have done it. Joe wouldn’t have known anyone that could get documents like that.

  Joe must’ve thought up his alternate plans weeks before. I could picture him mapping it all out in the shed. Everything was a decoy. I must’ve shocked the hell out of him when I actually knocked Sid out.

  More details kept coming back to me. When he’d told me to run after the second round—that had to have been the plan all along. Get me to take off and get us to safety. It was only supposed to be me in the arena. They’d get me out of there and then I’d rendezvous with the others in Phoenix.

  He had to adjust it all on the fly when Cora brought everyone to the fight.

  Joe was a smart guy. And I missed him. Missed him a lot.

  We sat in the hotel in Phoenix. It was a Days Inn a few miles off the interstate, a far cry from the two suites at the MGM.

  Cora and Janet got me cleaned up the best they could. We decided to spend a week in Phoenix, laying low. Let me heal up a bit. Then we’d get on a plane and hit a remote island somewhere. Wait it out for a while until it was safe to come back.

  Surely there was another home out there as good as Montana had been.

  Logan walked up to me. “Daddy?”

  “Yeah, big man?”

  “I miss Uncle Joe.”

  He climbed into my lap for one of our usual hugs and I scrubbed a hand through his hair.

  I rested my chin on his head while Cora jammed an ice pack under my shirt on my back. “I know. I miss him too.”