Tuck's Revenge

by Rory Flannigan

  As soon as the men were gone, Tuck got on the phone and called the whole Council in for a meeting. But he didn't want to talk about the man’s offer to buy them out in Oklahoma; he wanted to talk to them about going to war, which was where they were at.

  After all the Council members were assembled, Tuck told them what transpired earlier in the day, they also noted Boots was missing, which caused a stir. When he finished, he gave them the license number of the vehicle, and told them all to get on the phones and start calling everybody they could think of who might know who these people were, and where they were located, and if they had Boots. He wanted businesses, addresses, names, and anything else they could find on these people, but most of all—he wanted the headman.

  After a couple of hours, the Council found out from their sources the complete history of that car. They found out who it was registered to, and even who the previous owner of the vehicle was. The car was now registered to a man that owned a chain of bike stores close to them; fucker was right in his back yard. And he had quite a big posse.

  Now Tuck knew he was dealing with. Steven had outdone himself—apparently being dead worked out for him. Tuck worried about Glory and wondered how he was gonna tell her about her father. Before he could deal with the situation, the phone rang and his blood ran cold.

  "You've been calling around checking on us. Don't worry yourself about the car, because it doesn't exist anymore. And my boss told me to tell you he changed his mind about buying you out, because now he's just going to take your shit, and kill you.”

  “Thought that was his plan to start,” Tuck said calmly.

  “Nah, he was gonna fuck with you some more but he is tired of it. Said he is ready whenever you are.”

  Tuck hung up the phone, walked downstairs, and told the men what was going on. He told his Enforcer to call and get him his piece. Tuck put all his men on full alert and stationed them in different watch positions throughout the warehouse and even in the Eagle’s Nest, all while he was reiterating to each one of them how dangerous these people were. Then he told Glory to pack her things fast so he could get her somewhere she would be safe. In typical woman fashion, Glory said she wasn't going anywhere and wanted to stay with Tuck. But he was even more insistent she do as he asked, and told her he needed to get to Oklahoma in a hurry because Boots might be in trouble, and he needed her safe. She relented and did as he asked. When Glory came out of her room with a bag and a few other loose articles, Tuck rushed her to the truck and as he was driving out, he told his men to stay in position and stay alert until he got back.

  Tuck’s plan was to put Glory on a plane to get her away from everything, and he was going to get on a helicopter and fly out to Oklahoma, told her to go to the new shop.

  "Glory, there is two hundred thousand dollars in this bag. Take it and buy us that cabin by the lake you told me about. When you buy it, stay there where you'll be safe. In the envelope there's a piece of paper with a post office box number. If I find your dad and he's alive, I'm going to send him to that post office box for the address to the cabin so he can come to where you are. When you find the cabin, be sure to send the address to the post office box where Boots can find it.

  "What about you?”

  “If I make it through it all I’ll go to the post office box too. If there is an address there for me, I will be there.” Tuck grabbed her by her arms and said, "Promise me you'll stay there so I won't have to worry about you.”

  "I promise I'll stay there and I promise that an address will be there waiting for you. Just as I will be.”

  Tuck leaned down and kissed her goodbye.

  Glory grabbed him around the neck and whispered in his ear, "I love you. Come back to me.”

  "I'll be back if at all possible, I promise.”

  "Tuck, how will I know where you are?”

  Tuck walked away and smiled, "If this is going to turn out like I think it will, just keep an eye on the news for the chaos and carnage, that'll be me.”

  Chapter Nine

  Punishment: the infliction or imposition of a penalty as retribution for an offense

  By the time he got back to the warehouse, his boys had been busy; they had the two assholes that were sent to chat with Tuck. Apparently, they didn’t understand if you made a threat on the club, you should get the fuck out of town instead of stopping for a beer beforehand. Idiots.

  Tuck got the name and two addresses on this guy "Archer" AKA Steven, he was satisfied the man his boys tortured was being honest, so he cut the man’s throat and walked away. Tuck got in their car and drove so it wouldn't be left on the site. He would drive the car over halfway to his next destination before pulling off on a side road and rolling it into a pond. Tuck had gotten lucky and found a couple of nice weapons on the men he killed, so he had some good weapons to carry into battle. He walked up the road about two miles from where he ditched the car and a truck driver picked him up.

  Yeah, his boys were going to be waiting right where he told them to. From where he was, it was another three-hour drive to get to his boys. Thankfully, the truck driver didn’t ask too many questions, especially when he pulled out his gun and cleaned it to calm down.

  The first address he got from the man he interrogated was where Boots was, that was the first priority. The driver dropped him off in the parking lot his boys were waiting, it was in the parking lot of a storage unit across from the address they were looking for, but it was a perfect place to hide their bikes and watch.

  “No movement,” Rat said as Tuck jumped from the cab of the truck and nodded to the driver who took off.

  “At all?” Tuck said, looking at the house; there should have seen something, especially if Boots were in there, guards or something.

  “No, fuckers are playing with us,” Rat said.

  He made the decision to sit and wait for someone to come home, so he found a vantage point where he could sit and see the driveway from across the street. His boys did the same. There was no movement.

  Tuck motioned to the boys to hang tight, he was going to go and check out the house. He was not sending in his men to a situation unknown. He went around the house and then crouched down and looked in the windows. Nothing, no one. Didn’t make sense, damn it. Then he saw it, a wire, fuckers rigged the place to blow if they went in.

  Tuck ran back to the boys and told them what was going on. “Let me get my tools,” Raven said and Tuck nodded and looked at Rat.

  “He is in there, they wouldn’t have bothered to rig the house. Question is, is he alive,” Tuck said and his Enforcer nodded.

  “Yeah,” Rat said and looked at the house. “If he’s alive and we can’t get him out?”

  “Not an option, man. We need to get him out, I am not facing my woman, and telling her I let her father die,” Tuck growled.

  “This is a message, man,” Rat said.

  “Yeah, they know what I did to Bill. Got it loud and clear,” Tuck muttered.

  “Let’s go,” Raven said to Tuck and they went back to the house.

  Tuck was sitting there quietly, watching when Raven turned to him.

  “Man, it has a timer too,” Raven whispered.

  Tuck closed his eyes. It meant that if they disengaged the trip it would set off the timer.

  “How long?” Tuck said and Raven leaned down and looked.

  “Five,” Rave said.

  Shit, five minutes in a house he didn’t know, finding a man he didn’t know what condition he was in or if he was alive. Fuck.

  “Do it,” Tuck said and looked over his shoulder. “Do it and clear out, meet you across the street.”

  The guys nodded and patted him on the shoulder, offering encouragement. Tuck looked at Raven and stood. ”Cut it.”

  He reached out his hand and gripped the doorknob.

  “Go,” Raven barked and he felt the men run rather than wasting valuable time to make sure they did what he told them to.

  It was dark and he could barely see, but as his eyes adjusted
to the darkness, he saw several boxes stacked over in the corner and some other things that didn't look like they had been there that long, and they were blocking the entrance into the next room. Fuckers, Tuck thought and kicked them and kept moving. He went through three piles before he stopped again. All of a sudden, he heard a noise, so he moved toward it, and as he came around the corner, he came upon a familiar face. It was Boots and he was gagged and tied to a post. He was pretty beat up, but other than that, he was none the worse for wear.

  After Tuck got him untied, Boots said, "How in the Hell did you find this place?”

  Tuck ignored him and told him to, “Move.”

  The two men ran, and thankfully, Rat had not listened to him, because when he went back out the backdoor he was there and grabbed ahold of Boots and together they ran across the street, right when the house behind them blew up.

  The concussion knocked them to the ground but they were alive goddammit. Alive. Those fuckers had not won yet.

  Then Boots yelled, "Fuckin’ bastards. What are we going to do, Tuck?”

  "First thing I'm going to do is get you out of here and to Glory.”

  “The fuck you say,” Boots snapped.

  “Yeah, the fuck I say,” Tuck growled and looked at the older man. “Need you to look after Glory, if they find her…”

  Boots snapped his mouth shut, he hated why Tuck was sending him away but he understood.

  Boots asked where Glory was and Tuck told him that he wasn't sure where she was at the moment, but he knew how to find her.

  "As soon as I get you to a safe place, I'm going to war with these people,” Tuck said.

  Tuck had Boots and the others into a hotel in an hour, and he came out of the bathroom with a glass of water.

  "I'm sorry, man, about being taken, did anyone else?”

  "All the guys and the entire Council are fine. They were targeting me. Fucking Steven is playing games with me. That is why I need you to get to Glory, he will try to find her.”

  Boots looked down at the floor, visibly overcome with anger. Tuck asked him, "Did they say anything?”

  Boots said, "Two men were the only ones I saw. Asked me if I knew where you were, I told them to go and fuck themselves, that was it. They tied me up, beat the shit outta me, and left.”

  "Bastards, like I said playing a game.”

  "Where is my daughter?”

  "I gave her some money and sent her away.” Tuck then reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, which only had the number 364 on it. He handed it to Boots. "This is a post office box number by the shop in Oklahoma. When I find a way for you to get out of here, I want you to go to this box and get an envelope out of it Glory is supposed to send there. It will be a letter with an address to where she'll be.”

  Boots smiled and said, "You're a smart man, Tuck, thank you for taking care of her. How in the hell did you ever find me here?”

  Tuck explained, "Tortured the bastards who took you, I believe.”

  Boots shook his head and said, "You amaze me, man. But I'm glad you are the way you are. I thought I was dead.”

  Tuck told Boots, "I need you to lay back and rest for a while. We're going to sit and wait for the guys to get here. They will have shit ready to get you outta here.”

  Tuck sat patiently staring out the window, waiting for Rat to show up, they told him it was going to take hours, but he wasn’t leaving his post. Last time Boots had been taken, not happening again. Boots asked Tuck if he wanted him to watch while he got some sleep, and Tuck said, "No, I'll sleep later.”

  To just sit there and display such endurance after so many hours was astonishing to Boots. But by now he knew how Tuck was, and knew he wouldn't give up until he got what he wanted. A car pulled in front of the motel room.

  Tuck called Boots over to the window and said, "Your ride is here?”

  "No bike?” Boots snapped and Tuck smiled and shook his head.

  “Yeah, figured you needed a car for this.”

  "Now I want you to get out of here and go find Glory.”

  "Exactly,” Tuck smiled.

  Boots said, "Well I'll have to go about eighty miles to a friendly airstrip, but I can get a plane out of here to Oklahoma, then have somebody to meet me there with a vehicle nobody will be looking for.”

  Tuck smiled and said, "Make sure you aren’t followed, old man.”

  "Tuck, they've only knocked us down for a while, but we're nowhere close to being knocked out. We still have all of our connections and our other locations they don't know about, so it's far from being over unless we want it to be.”

  "Before we go any further, this threat has to be put down where they won't come back again.

  "Tuck, just find this guy in charge and do away with him and forget the rest. He ain’t worth it.”

  "Boots, you're pretty amazing in your own right.”

  Boots laughed and said, "I have my moments.”

  Tuck held out a phone and then clapped him on the back. “Yeah, when you are done, you are ready to go. You need to take this number and call me when you get there and I'll know you're safe. As soon as you find Glory, go to an outside line and call.”

  "Alright, I need to make a call and get me a plane that's going that way.” After Boots made one quick phone call, he told Tuck that a plane would be there for him in two hours, so he needed to go.

  "I'll call you as soon as I get there. How long are you going to be with all this, Tuck?”

  Tuck said, "I don't really know, as long as it takes I guess.”

  "Thanks for coming to find me and saving my ass again and be careful doing this crazy shit.”

  "I'm always careful, you know that.” They shook hands, and then Boots walked to the car and got in. As Tuck watched Boots backing out of the driveway, he knew this part of the drama was finally over. Now Boots was going to be safe, it was time for Tuck to work toward finishing it. He wanted to get this done so he could get back to usual business.

  As soon as he closed the door, he walked over to the bed. Tuck then sat down, leaned back, and stared at the wall thinking, waiting for the phone call from Boots. Tuck sat staring. Never getting up and never taking his eyes off the wall. He would end up sitting for thirty-seven hours straight before the phone rang. He picked up the phone and said, "Yeah.”

  "I'm here with her now. She told me to tell you that she loved you, and to hurry home to her. We'll be waiting on you here when you're done.”

  Chapter Ten

  Freedom: the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint

  Tuck was at the house with Mr. Archer, he had come right here after he heard from Boots. He was the man who kidnapped Boots apparently since he confessed, but Tuck was spending a lot of time sitting looking at him in the eye, Steven fucking played him again. Archer was one of his minions, a figurehead to hide his ass. Damn it, he needed answers.

  He looked at Archer again and sighed and played his own game asking questions like, "How much pain do you think you'll be able to stand" or "Have you ever had a fingernail pulled off with pliers" or "Have you ever had ten fingernails pulled off with pliers?”

  Then he would tell Archer, "I like pulling them off slow. I like getting them and grabbing hold of them and then bending them back before I pull them off. Looks like it hurts like hell doing it that way.” Tuck did that for two days before he went to him and said, "My question to you is, are you going to talk to me willingly, or am I going to have to get nasty and all bloody again?”

  But Archer had to act like a tough guy, like the good little minion he was, so he would look at Tuck and kept saying, "Fuck you.”

  Tuck acted like that didn't faze him a bit, but it actually pissed him off. After the two days, Tuck had enough and was ready to get down to the ugly part. He walked up to the man, pulled off his shoes and socks then said, "Be back in a minute.” Tuck walked out of the room and came back with a ball peen hammer he found in a shed out back. He’d also brought in two l
arge nails.

  "Now this is going to hurt.” Tuck took a nail, drove it into the top of each foot, and nailed his feet to the floor. Then he took the ball peen hammer and came down hard on top of the big toe on the man’s left foot. If Tuck wouldn't have gagged him beforehand, they would have heard Archer scream over in the next town.

  "Archer, I can only ask you nine more times this way before I go to the knee caps and then your nuts. And trust me, you don't want me to crush one or both of your nuts with this hammer. You feel like talking yet?”

  Again, Archer just said, "Fuck you, man.”

  So, Tuck stuffed the gag back in his mouth and crushed another one. Tuck had to admit he was either tough or stubborn for tolerating it after four toes looked like spaghetti. "You want to say something besides fuck you?”

  The man said, "What do you want to know?”

  Tuck smiled and said, "That's more like it. I want to know where Steven is. You probably know him as Homeboy.”

  Archer said, "I can't tell you that.”

  "Well then I'm afraid I can't stop hurting you.” Tuck reached down and crushed number five. "Damn, we're already on the other foot.” Tuck crushed the big toe on that foot. That one was so painful, it made Archer bite the end of his tongue off.

  "Think that hurts, wait until I come down on one of your nuts with this thing. Got any addresses for me yet?”

  Archer again shook his head, "NO.”

  "I'm bored with the toes. I'm going straight for the nuts.” Then he finished slamming down on the other four toes on his right foot. By this time, Archer was wriggling like a fish from the pain, but Tuck went out the backdoor and came back with a brick in his hand. "Okay, sit up so I can put this under your nuts.”

  Archer wasn't having any of that, and he refused to comply with Tuck’s demand. Tuck didn't care. He pulled out his knife and cut his belt in half like it was made out of butter, then he grabbed his pants and pulled them down past his knees. Tuck grabbed the brick and Archer by his dick, picked him up out of the chair. Tuck put the brick under him in the seat of the chair and then just let him go. He picked up his ball peen and said, "Last chance, so what's it going to be?”