by Nye, Laine
“Yes. I believe it was totally necessary.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“Of-course I do. I have shared with you many intimate details of my life.”
“But not this.”
“Nancy, I would have told you eventually. I wanted to wait until we were married. I thought I would put a little demonstration on for you, maybe on our wedding night.”
She smiled a little. “Well that would have been a surprise.” Then she thought about it some more. “Probably as big as a surprise as today was.” She said grimly.
“Well now that you know, what is so terrible about this? I mean it doesn’t affect us negatively. It’s just the way things are.”
She stayed silent for a time. He waited for her.
“I tried to reach you on your cell phone.”
“Yeah. It’s shut off for now.”
She had been looking at the floor studiously. Now she looked at him.
“I guess I can understand that.”
“We are afraid that the wrong people could come knocking. Our whole lives could be turned upside down, ruined.”
“Like you were today?” She asked trying to be a little playful.
He smirked. “Yeah, like today.”
“That was Gorilla’s group after you, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. Guns and all. They were trying to shoot me. Maybe my mom too. I had to get us out of there. There were a lot of guns going off.”
“It must have been very frightening.”
“It was.” He assured her.
“Where do we go from here, Steve?”
“The same way we have been going. You just know a little more about me now. Nancy, I don’t want to lose you over this. I don’t want any fallout over this. I was just trying to protect my mom and me. My whole family is nervous right now. We don’t know what to expect.”
Nancy was quiet again for a time. Then; “I can understand that.” She said quietly. Then; “Wait a minute, you said married. The night we get married. You mean that?”
“I will propose to you as soon as I can support you in a decent way.”
“I’d like that. I’ll say ‘yes’ when you do Steve Collins. Just want you to know that.”
There was a soft knock at the bedroom door.
“Steve?” Charlene called out softly.
“Come in Mom.” Steve said readily. He did not want his mom to ever think that he and Nancy had anything to hide from her. His room was always open to his parents. His mom stepped in and looked at Nancy.
At this point Nancy had started to cry quietly. She was overwhelmed with her emotions.
Charlene walked over to her and gently pulled her up from the chair. She wrapped her arms around Nancy and hugged her close.
“It’s a little overwhelming isn’t it?” She spoke quietly.
Nancy nodded her head.
“It doesn’t change who we are or how we feel about you. Nancy you are part of us now. We all want you to feel comfortable in our home at any time.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Collins.”
“Uh-uh. That will never do. You have to call me Charlene. Later on, you can call me mom if you’d like.”
Nancy pulled her head back in surprise. “What? We haven’t even talked about getting married yet, well, until a minute ago. How did you know?”
“Doesn’t matter. When you do, I can be mom.”
Nancy burst out crying even harder. “Thank you for your kindness. This thing I learned today is hard though.”
“What? You don’t want a husband that is a super-hero?”
Nancy’s cry turned to a laugh.
“Well, I guess that wouldn’t be so bad.” She sniffed.
“No, it wouldn’t.” Charlene said. “And it wouldn’t be so bad having you for a daughter-in-law when you two are ready for it.”
“Thanks, Mrs…I mean Charlene.”
“I’m going to go now. Steve you be very kind. Very tender with her. She has had a big shock.”
“I will mom. Thanks.”
Charlene smiled at her son and left the room, shutting the door back again. She was showing Steve how much she trusted him with Nancy and giving them some conversation privacy.
“Well?” Steve asked her with eyebrows raised above an expectant face.
“Steve Collins, I love you. I’m here for you. Whatever you need.” It was the first time she had said ‘I love you’ to him. They had been restrained in their closeness all along.
Steve was surprised at her words. It made his stomach feel a little funny in the most satisfying way possible.
“I love you too Nancy.”
They stood there hugging for a long time just like the day he had come into the store where she worked. They just couldn’t seem to pull away. Conversation had ceased. She wanted comfort. Physical comfort. Reassurance. He wanted her loving arms to stay right where they were.
Chapter Five
Two weeks had gone by since the store incident. There was a rental they were going to take until they could sell their home and buy a new one. Brad was at work. Almost ready to go home for the day. Charlene was at home with Steve trying to get things organized for the movers who would be coming on Friday morning. Steve had not had the chance to tell Nancy the bad news yet. So much had been going on. He planned to tell her before they moved. They were taking a place over in Fair Oaks which meant they wouldn’t be as close by, but they could still get together.
It was Wednesday afternoon. Jeff Rowley had arrived in California with five more men. All there to ensure a smooth operation to kidnap Brad’s family. Once the name of Seth Collins had been uncovered, Jeff was able to do some internet research and saw a picture of his once upon a time friend. He knew he had found Brad Shaw.
Jeff had driven out to California in a full-sized van which included an extended three feet on the rear. There was plenty of room for the passengers and still enough more room for two adults to lay down in the rear. They would be unconscious and rolled up in a rug.
Jeff’s older brother Dan had come with the group. He still had limited use of his left arm since his confrontation with Brad so many years ago. When Dan had been thrown into the library window along with the others by Brad’s gravity control it was the equivalent of being hit by a semi-truck at about thirty miles per hour. What, with the bookshelves colliding with them from inside the library as they were slammed into the glass entry and meeting the bookshelves at the point of contact. There were multiple cuts, bruises, abrasions and breaks. Dan suffered the worst of it. He wanted revenge. He too blamed Brad for everything that had gone wrong in his family since Brad had first dated Sherry; Dan and Jeff’s sister. They feared Brad’s power. Yet with all the intervening years. Their memories had diminished somewhat. They seemed to forget in their desire for revenge just how dangerous Brad could be if he was pushed into a corner.
Another individual Jeff had enlisted was a man from Egypt named Adele Iskandar. Not a large man by any means but he was tougher and stronger than he looked. He came over from Egypt three years ago, met Jeff in Orlando Florida and they hit it off so Jeff brought him onboard as his muscle along with Tim Mann. Together, they were a force to be reckoned with.
There was also Jack Roper; One of Jeff’s favorite drug dealers. He knew how to move the product better than anyone and he was also good as a gopher. Jeff often called on him to go for this and go for that. In fact, he was nicknamed gopher.
Josh’s friend Bob Stout was accompanying them. He was in it just for the money. Didn’t feel any particular loyalty toward Jeff. But he sure liked Jeff’s money. Jeff tolerated him for now because of his friendship with Josh and Frank.
The last person in the deal was Lance Elliot. He was known as Lancelot because of the close name resemblance. He had dated Sherry Rowley for a few months but walked away after her alcohol induced fights with him. He remained friends with Jeff and usually wanted to be wherever the mischief was at. Jeff usually had something going on for a little action. He was looki
ng forward to the kidnapping. That would be a new one for him in working with Jeff Rowley.
Timothy Mann arrived at the Collins residence just before the van did. He had Frank and Josh with him. Everyone else was in the van. Once the van arrived, they all got out of the vehicles. They opened the back doors of the van and pulled out a thick rug. The side of their van had the logo Jeff’s Rugs and Carpet. Jeff had a side business selling rugs mostly as a cover. They laid two rolled up rugs out on the grass, then walked up to the front door. Jeff knocked.
Steve was in the living room where the front door was at. Charlene was down the hall working in a walk-in closet at the end of the hall. The knock at the front door beckoned Steve to answer it. As soon as he unlocked the door, Jeff pushed his way into the house with the rest following close behind. Jeff hit Steve on the side of his head. Steve instantly retaliated hitting Jeff back. Frank stepped up and swung at Steve but missed as Steve dodged the blow. Steve stepped back then unleashed his gravity control on Frank. He was thrown all the way across the living room and slammed into a table and a picture on the wall. His head struck the picture which caused the glass to break and cut him in several places. He fell on top of the table unconscious for a brief time.
Timothy ‘The Manster’ Mann stepped up to Steve with an insolent look on his face and back handed Steve. The blow staggered Steve and stunned him. It hurt bad. It was a humiliating smack. Steve threw gravity behind Mann to pull him into the wall. Mann, being very powerful withstood the gravity control by leaning toward Steve flexing all his muscles to resist the gravity pull. He smiled at Steve a derisive smile then poked Steve in the chest with one finger. Pain shot through Steve’s ribs harshly. It felt like two of his ribs had been forced too far apart. Then Mann punched him in the chest and that blow almost dropped him where he stood. “You don’t push me around like that little poopsie. I know about your magic and it won’t work on me.” Timothy said with disdain. Then he grabbed Steve’s chin, pulled him forward and spit in his face.
Everyone in the room laughed at Steve. Then Jeff said, “Two of you go get his mother.”
That was the moment when Steve went from defensive and frightened to an attitude of all out war. He began his counter assault.
Charlene had been hurrying down the hall to see what the commotion was. That was all it took, knowing his mother was endangered. With Mann’s attack, Steve had a bleeding lip and his cheek was torn. His chest was throbbing in two places. He was infuriated. Steve did three things with gravity control simultaneously. He put gravity in the walk-in closet where he knew his mom was working. He removed the gravity in the hall out from under her. She was picked up and pulled back down the hall and into the closet. She slammed into the back wall a little harder than Steve would have liked but he had a lot going on. The door was slammed shut after she went in.
Steve put immense gravity into the closet to hold the door shut from the inside. She felt a lot of pressure pulling her tighter against the wall as Steve put the gravity control into the wall behind her to hold the door shut. She slid down onto her rear then forced herself to the left until she was laying down under the gravity field. Josh was standing near the doorway to the hallway and saw her get pulled into the closet. He ran down the hall to pull the door open. Nothing. He tried again. He felt a powerful force pulling him up against the closet door. He was having a hard time pushing himself away from the door so he slid off to the side to get away from the gravity pull.
The second thing Steve did at the same time was throw the remaining men into the wall that was behind them about 6 feet away. This happened at the same moment that he sheltered his mom. He slammed all of them into the wall. All except Mann. The group staggered away from him forcefully and slammed into the wall. He made them fall in a tangle of limbs to the floor.
The third thing he did in the same instant was to attack Timothy. He threw him into the wall to Steve’s left side next to the doorway into the hall with a lot more power and control than he had used on Mann the first time. This time, Mann could not resist. As soon as Mann slammed into the wall, he was thrown up and to the center of the nine-foot ceiling above Steve’s head. It was him that Steve was the most-angry about after the way he was treated by the giant. Not only was it humiliating, but he was hurt a lot worse than when Jeff hit him.
Mann was then sent flying over to the wall the front door was on to Steve’s right, then he was slammed onto the floor with even greater force. It didn’t stop there. Steve’s immense gravity control made it possible to do all kinds of amazing things. He didn’t even need to see the place he was using gravity control like his father did. That was how he could shield his mom in the closet though he could not see her. As soon as Mann hit the floor he was thrown back into the wall on Steve’s left again while he grabbed at Steve but missed and then back to the ceiling, then opposite wall, then the harder impact with the floor.
Steve was regulating how much gravity control he would use on Mann while modulating the sequence so that it was like Mann was in a washing machine. Floor, wall, ceiling, other-wall, floor again over and over. Then Steve sped up the cycle so that Mann was thrown harder and faster from one location to the next. His arms and legs were flailing around while he tried to find something to grab to stop his tumbling. All his immense strength was useless. He was being battered on every part of his body, legs, arms, head. The bouncing was becoming more violent. He could find nothing to grab to stop the cycle. The walls and ceiling were taking a beating and were starting to give but not enough to lessen the multiple impacts that Mann was enduring.
When at first Steve had started the process against the giant he had stepped back further to stay away from the four points of contact of Mann’s body.
Jeff and the others got off the floor. Frank woke up behind Steve and got to his feet shakily from the table he had been draped over. Adele Iskandar ran down the hall to help Josh grab Charlene which was impossible. The door she was behind would not budge. Frank started toward Steve again which got Steve’s attention. While Steve was distracted by Frank, Jeff stepped toward Steve with a look of sheer rage on his face. Jeff saw his brother Dan holding his nearly useless arm with pain in his face. Jeff jumped through the spot where Mann was still making his four points of contact.
Jeff timed it to miss getting hit by the giant and not be pulled into the modulating gravity field. Stepping past the impact area, he took another swing at Steve who had turned back and easily ducked under the blow while he threw Frank back against the wall again. This time he picked up the table that Frank landed on again and had it slam against Frank and pin him to the wall.
Then he lifted Jeff up to the ceiling where he struck as if he had fallen to the ground from ten feet up. Steve left him there near his tumbling friend. Mann looked like he was in a rock tumbler getting his edges smoothed off. He was nearly unconscious now and could not block against the multiple impacts he was enduring through the four-point cycle as he was tumbling mercilessly. His body flopping around like a rag doll.
Dan started forward menacingly. Steve pointed his finger at him and said. “You want to join this bean bag?” Referring to Mann. Dan stopped. It should have been a complete stand-off at that time, but Jeff wasn’t ready to accept defeat. While still pinned against the ceiling, he reached into his pocket and struggled to pull out a capped syringe. One of two he had in his pocket. One for Charlene, and one for Brad.
“We can’t get her out of this closet. It is wedged shut too tight.” Josh yelled from down the hall to Jeff who was still stuck above the floor; Above Steve’s head. “I think the kid has her blockaded in there. What is going on here?” Jeff ignored him while he uncapped one of the syringes. He knew what was going on. It was that gravity thing that Brad could do. Yet he would not relent or give up. Not now. He was too close to his revenge.
Steve was filled with outrage that these men would attack him and his mom. His anger was like nothing he had ever experienced. He picked up Dan and threw him out the front door onto t
he grass and when Dan got up to rush back into the house, the front door was slammed literally in his face with terrific force as he was running forward to re-enter the house. He staggered back and fell holding his broken, bleeding nose and his forehead with both hands.
∆∆∆
Brad felt something was very wrong. He could feel a high-energy output coming from his son. It was just like Albert Belasco had been able to detect when Brad had been using elevated levels of gravity control and Albert knew it was weakening Brad. That had been when the group of gunmen had been chasing Brad and his friends up the mountain. So, Albert had stopped his car to concentrate and send Brad some more energy from himself. It was that kind of thing happening right now. He wondered what could be happening that his son would be using so much forced gravity. Brad concentrated and sent his son a lot of extra energy, After-all, Brad certainly had more than enough and to spare with the pent-up energy in his body. Sometimes his hands would shake and sometimes his vision blurred. He knew it was because of the overload that he was carrying.
The shaking and blurred vision had been happening ever since he had been at Albert’s grave site and received a load of energy emitted from the casket in a powerful burst. Adding that intrusion onto what had happened to him in The Philippines had been a constant pressure inside of Brad. He was more than glad to send some of his energy to Steve. Since the amount of gravity force that he felt his son giving off was a considerable amount, he decided to send his son an amount of energy commensurate with what Steve had used up. Then he knew it was time to hurry home. That was where his son was, he could tell the location of the energy loss from his son just like he could detect the hole in The Philippines, In Utah and now in New Zealand. He ran to his car and tore out of the parking lot breaking many traffic laws to get home to help his son.
∆∆∆
Jeff reached down to an unsuspecting Steve and stabbed the syringe into the base of his neck above the shoulder and pushed the plunger all the way in. Steve ducked down as he grimaced with pain, then turning his head to look up at Jeff he stepped aside and drove Jeff face down to the floor. Jeff grunted loudly as his breath was knocked out of him. Then back to the top and back to the floor two more times.
