Inherent Danger

by Matt Lincoln

  Rosa was already driving and signed briefly but carefully. Okay with me.

  “Rosa’s having to function as a chauffeur for us today, as well,” Doc chimed in. “We’re going to go look at some places by the school I found for Zaid. I hope that we can get something settled soon. I really detest living in a hotel.”

  “I can understand that,” I nodded. “The novelty wears off really quickly once you don’t have any other options. Good luck with it. I hope you find something that works out for you both.” I looked back at Zaid and smiled. He looked a little terrified, but I couldn’t blame him. I was just one more new adult that had been forced on him. I wished it could have been easier for him.

  Rosa arrived at the destination with three minutes to spare. I got out of the Outback once I saw someone waiting for me beside a dark red Blazer.

  “Give me a few minutes,” I requested. “I’ll know right away if I’m interested enough or not.” I already was. That vehicle looked perfect.

  I stepped out and walked over to a guy who was watching me cautiously.

  “Mr. Header?” he asked tentatively. He was young, maybe in his early twenties, and he had dressed smartly. His hair was cut close to the scalp, and his jeans and tank looked brand new.

  “Guilty as charged. That makes you Manny, right?” He’d not given me a last name over the phone. I reached out and shook his hand as he nodded. I glanced over at the Blazer. “Looks nice. Do you mind if I ask why you’re selling it so soon after buying it?”

  “Not at all,” he assured me. “I’m getting deployed, and I just don’t want the hassle of leaving it behind.”

  So, he was military or privately contracted. I liked this deal better every minute. “It’s not as new as it looks, either. I just had it repainted. The original color was like a safety orange, and it was hideous, but the price was right. I took over payments from a buddy, and now, it looks like it’s my turn.”

  Within half an hour, I had the deal done, and the money paid. I thanked Rosa, Doc, and Zaid for their patience and told them they could go off to their next errand if they wanted. I planned to head straight to the DMV to get this registered and get everything squared away. I just couldn’t wait to be in charge of my own transportation again.

  By late afternoon, I was driving out to the marina in my “new to me” Blazer. It certainly had been used before, but Manny had taken great care to clean and vacuum it out. It had a decked out stereo system in it and some new, more fancy accouterments that I’d never taken much interest in. I knew Xavier would love it, though. He’d probably offer to upgrade the GPS and install wi-fi if I gave him half the chance.

  The inside had a tan interior and power everything. Within the first few miles, I could tell that it drove well. It already felt like my car, and I couldn’t have been more pleased. I stopped by to order some drive-thru burgers as an apology and “thanks for all that you do, sorry I’ve been out of touch for so long” for Lael. I felt kind of bad at not being in contact or out to the marina in a few days, but I couldn’t help that.

  I’d texted him about the situation, and all I got back was, “glad you’re okay.” I knew Lael to be a man of few words, but even that seemed a little… awkward. I pulled into the parking lot as the sun set and looked around to see who else was there. Rosa must have still had Xavier’s Outback because it wasn’t here in the lot. I also noticed the lights in the office were out, as were the ones in Lael’s second-story studio apartment.

  I headed for the barn first to check on Wraith, feeling a little separation anxiety. I punched in the combination and heard that satisfying clink that opened the bolted side door. The lights came on as soon as I stepped inside, and I got to see my baby.

  Just the simple act of seeing her again with my own two eyes did me a world of good. I felt a wave of relief, joy, and peace, and there was nothing else like that rush. I walked all around her, checking the smooth, black surface to reassure myself that things were going to get back to normal. I still had the burger bag in my hands, and I didn’t want them to get cold, but I just had to see Wraith first. That now taken care of, I could find Lael.

  I locked the barn back up and glanced over at Xavier’s yacht. He was probably there, studying up on the Speirs mission or some other things that would come in handy for the team later on. I’d leave him to it and maybe go stop by after I’d spoken to Lael.

  12

  Jake

  I headed over to the North fuel dock, which was the furthest spot at the marina. I hadn’t seen anyone else around, which did strike me as sort of odd. As I got closer to the area, I heard the pump for the fuel running. There wasn’t a boat parked there, so that meant that the fuel was either leaking or being pumped by hand. I immediately got suspicious.

  I cautiously maneuvered to the nearest side of the fuel shed and listened. I didn’t have a gun on me, and I needed to know how many people I could be dealing with if this wasn’t just a leak. I found out very quickly when I heard a voice laughing about something on the other side of the small building. So, I set down the bag of burgers on the grass and moved in closer.

  I knew there was a kill switch on the east side of this shed. The concrete building was built to hold up to severe storms and protect the pump supply from damage in those cases. It was also beneficial to stop thieves from helping themselves or in case of a leaking pump or fixture. I looked out over to the South fuel dock, and from this angle, I could finally see Lael. He was talking to a couple of other people. It was too far away for me to read lips, but I could tell by his body language that something unpleasant was up.

  Lael was motioning with his arm and shaking his head at the duo, a man and a woman. From where he was, there was no way he could have seen the people at this shed stealing fuel. I made a mental note that I was going to need to change that for the future.

  I snuck around the side and made it to the kill switch without the thieves hearing me. I carried duplicates of all the keys here at the marina, so I found the color-coded correct one and silently locked the pump down. I heard the slow hiss of the hydraulics stopping, and then the pump clicked, meaning that it was now completely off.

  The guys on just the other side of the shed noticed this too.

  “Hey, something’s wrong.” That one had a lazy, slurred speech pattern, and it wouldn’t have surprised me if he was drunk.

  I could hear the other thief arguing. “Stupid thing is probably busted. Did you touch anything?”

  “No, I didn’t touch anything! It just stopped. Maybe it's out of fuel?” The slurry guy offered this explanation to his friend, and I couldn’t help but smirk as I listened to them.

  I moved back around to the other side of the shed to check on Lael in his position at the South fuel shed when I saw his fist connect poetically with the man’s jaw. The man went down as if his feet had been knocked out from under him. It got me wondering just how strong and furious Lael had to be to enact that kind of punch. In the next moment, though, the woman jumped in and attempted to tackle Lael. He flung himself around, sending her flying and crashing to the ground, landing in a heap with the guy trying to get up and continue to fight with Lael.

  Crap. These thieves had just taken it to the next level. I had to act fast, which meant I had to think faster. The fuel here was stopped, and these two might get away with what they could carry. I was prepared for that eventuality. I could stop them from running away and leave Lael to fend for himself, but I was pretty far away, and even running at full speed, both sets of thieves might get away. It had been smart of them to split up, to divide and conquer. I glanced back over at Lael one more time, and I made my choice. These two were too much of a threat for me to ignore. And from the looks of what I’d just seen, Lael would be able to handle his two assailants.

  I stepped out from behind the fuel shed and punched at the first face I saw. This guy was about as dumb-looking as they came. He had on a sports jersey, a matching ball cap, and cutoffs. My fist connected nicely and smoothly with his jaw a
s my sudden appearance startled him enough to look right at me in stunned silence.

  There wasn’t a lot of room to move here, and the previous owner had built it that way on purpose. The design allowed only one person to do the pumping, so the space had already been tight with those two before I showed up. Luckily, this meant the sports fan had nowhere to go once my hit made him lose his balance, and he fell into the water.

  This gave the other guy a little time to react. He was a little more stylish than his friend, wearing an expensive pair of Ray-Bans and some shoes with a brand name endorsement all over them. I stepped in close to force a reaction. If he turned and headed for the side of the shed with the kill switch, he might lose his footing at the narrow walkway. I was hoping he would, but I’d take punching this idiot into the water, as well. Why be picky?

  “Watch your step,” I nodded behind him, and instinctively, he turned. I went for a change-up and kicked the guy right in the stomach instead. He doubled over, stumbled backward, and managed to fall just perfectly to bust half of his back on the wooden pier before clumsily dropping into the water. I was a little impressed with how that had worked out so well.

  It was rather humorous to see the guy flailing. And it gave me time to pull out my new cell. I then snapped a photo of their stunned faces, however blurry, to show to the cops when I called them. As they were trying to reach for the pier and pull themselves up out of the water, I checked on what they’d been trying to steal within those few seconds.

  There were four red plastic gas cans sitting there, half of which were already full. Next to them were a pair of bolt cutters and some makeshift valve releases. The grated slide door that folded up in the top of the shed was only pulled up enough to give them the access that they’d quickly needed. It didn’t look damaged.

  Every time those idiots touched the pier, I stepped on their hands and fingers to keep them in pain and in the water. One time, I kicked the stylish one in the face, right in the nose, to get him to stop trying. There was a gruesome sounding crack as blood poured from his nose. He screamed and stopped trying to escape in that way again. I dialed up the police and reported a robbery in progress. I gave them the address and thanked them kindly for their help.

  My idiot friends in the water blamed one another, and the sports fan swam over to another area of the dock. Unfortunately for them, Lael had made it over and was ready for them both.

  I called out once I saw him. “Lael? You okay?”

  One look at him told me that he was not okay. His face was bleeding, and there was a large gash on his left leg. He limped a bit when he walked toward me. I moved closer when he pointed out the stylish idiot trying to come out of the water again, feet from where I was.

  I kicked him hard in the jaw this time, and he screamed out in pain once more. I think he might have been a glutton for punishment. Blood flowed from his mouth as well as from his nose, thanks to my prior kick to his face. Through mumbled words, he yelled about his tongue. It seemed that he’d bitten into it with that last kick of mine.

  I didn’t want the guy to choke to death, so I told him, “Lean forward and spit the blood out. You don’t want to drown that way.”

  Lael kept the sports fan at bay in the water, and it dawned on me that these two weren’t the brightest bulbs in the package. They could have swum away at any time, and I most likely wouldn’t have gone after them. I had their pictures and their tools. Maybe they really wanted that fuel, or maybe they were just too stupid to know that they could have gotten away from the crime scene.

  “What happened to the other two you were with?” I asked Lael once I heard the sirens headed our way.

  “The woman kicked me in the short and curlies, and after that, I don’t know.” His speech was somewhat garbled, like he had some broken teeth or a jaw injury. “The guy had a little pocket knife on him. Gouged me in the leg once I got him down, though.” He glanced down at the injury, which was pretty nasty looking.

  I noticed now that his temple was bleeding, and the blood was running down his face freely. “Lael, sit down on the dock. Get off your feet.”

  He didn’t argue. “Yeah, I think I’ll do that.”

  He started to sit and then fell over onto his back. The sports fan laughed at him, and I really wanted to punch him again. I heard a couple of people running toward this position on the wooden docks and looked over to see three officers coming my way. I waved them over.

  “Hello, officers,” I called out. “I’m Jake Header, owner of this marina. My friend and employee there is Lael Szabo, and he’s going to need medical attention.”

  I proceeded to tell the police the whole story as they called in an ambulance, and a few other officers pulled in to see what was happening. I guessed that there wasn’t much going on in town at the moment and that this was the most exciting show around.

  As it turned out, the two idiots I’d detained were local creeps, known for petty theft, and they’d been in and out of trouble for the better part of their lives. The two that got away, the ones that Lael had been working on, were all in on this together and would be picked up at the woman’s mother’s house out on the highway. They were all well-known around here. I gave my statement as clearly as I knew how and watched them take Lael away for treatment.

  Once that was all cleared up, I spotted my burgers left forgotten in the grass. So much for dinner. With all the people in custody and the evidence packed up, I filtered the fuel back in as Lael had shown me to do. I broke up the burgers and fed them to the waiting gulls and birds that showed up.

  It was getting late, and my head hurt a bit. It could have been from hunger, or exertion, or something else entirely. I thought about heading over to Xavier’s yacht, but after all this, I really needed to just go home and sleep the day off. Once I saw that shiny new red Blazer, all my trouble melted away, temporarily, anyway.

  I climbed inside of the vehicle just as a text came through from Lael. “I’m okay. Thanks.” Yeah, he really was a man of few words.

  As I drove back home to the condo, I thought about how things had been going for me. Miami hadn’t been the easy, relaxing settled-down place I had imagined when I’d first decided to stay. Sure, there was a lot to do, and work was keeping the team and me busy enough, but I found my mind wandering over to other stuff.

  So far, I’d been hit with a car, had a friend’s car burned down, been shot at least once, been exposed to dangerous chemicals and life-threatening drugs, and experienced a car crash/murder attempt. Now, my marina had almost been robbed. This was all on top of what had happened to my team, along with other friends and colleagues of mine.

  Maybe Miami hadn’t been such a suitable place to hang my hat, as the saying went. I took my time getting home, stopping by for another round of carryout as I wasn’t in any mood to cook. By the time I got back to my condo, I was feeling pretty lousy. My body ached, but that was to be expected. The doctors had warned me about that after the crash. I’d take something for that after I ate.

  My mother had always told me to do that. Never take any pain medication on an empty stomach. I could even hear her voice in my head as the memory made me smile. I grabbed a bottled water from the fridge, sat down on the sofa with my takeout, and stared out through the windows of my living room down onto the beach below.

  It was busy enough for a weeknight. I saw couples walking and making out, people strolling with their dogs, and even something that was probably a drug deal. It was all part and parcel of Miami life. I checked my cell and thought about calling up someone, but who? I wasn’t really in the mood to go hang out anywhere, plus there was the whole being wounded and in pain thing that I was dealing with. But it felt a bit like a wasted night to just be sitting here by myself with nothing better to do.

  Maybe I just needed to make sure that everything was alright for the rest of my team and friends. And that could be done with a text from the comfort of this chair. Besides, some of them might have been busy, and I didn’t want to be a nuisance in the
slightest.

  I thumb-scrolled through my contacts, realizing that I hadn’t been staying connected with as many people as I should have been lately. I no doubt had dozens of emails that needed replies or attention. Some might even have been interesting. I watched the names scroll up, and my eyes stopped at a few of them. But before I could dial any number, I heard a soft knock at my front door.

  Reluctantly, I got off the sofa and went for it. I opened the door to see Eve standing there with a six-pack of longneck bottles of my favorite beer, a Styrofoam kettle of gumbo, and some kind of wrapped package tucked under her arm. She was smiling at me, and she looked just about as fantastic as one woman could get.

  “I heard that you’ve been busy.” She handed me the beer, which I took out of her hands.

  I gestured for her to come in, which she did.

  “Just the usual,” I teased. “Nothing to write home about.” I watched Eve put the gumbo kettle on the kitchen counter and place whatever was in the wrapped package next to it. I closed the door and walked after her. “So, to what do I owe this late-night visit?” I placed the case of beer next to the kettle, within easy reach.

  She scoffed at that. “It’s not that late. And I heard some rumors about you that I wanted to check up on for myself.” Eve turned to me and looked over my features. She reached up and gently touched one side of my face. “I wish that you would have called to let me know that you were alright.”

  “I should have, I know.” I didn’t need the reminder.

  “So, I’m taking the initiative and checking up on you whether you like it or not.” She stopped mid-task of dishing up the gumbo. “Oh, you don’t have any other company over, do you? I only asked for two to-go bowls.”

  “Just you and me.” I reached up and pulled back a strand of her dark hair that had come loose from her ponytail. I tucked it behind her ear, leaving my fingers on her neck afterward.