by Samuel Fires
NEMESIS
The Crimson Rage Prequel
By Sam J Fires
Copyright 2021 by Samuel Fires Publications. All Rights Reserved
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, organizations, or person, whether living or dead, is entirely coincidental. This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment
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BAD BOYS MAKE BROKEN MEN
Cole Denvers is a bouncer at the hottest nightclub in town, The Ballroom, when he’s approached by Gino Scanelli, Mob Boss and owner of the club, to be an enforcer for his gang. The big times are calling, and Cole wants to be a part of the big game.
He doesn’t mind hitting people, but it goes against his moral upbringing to kill anyone. He builds a reputation on the streets as being a hard-handed enforcer. But with each beating that he lays down, the voice of his dead brother calls out from the grave, forcing Cole to face his past, and relive the horror of his brother’s death when he was callously run down in the street by a hit-and-run perpetrator.
Sure, everyone has hardships, but as Cole’s about to find out the hard way... On the mean streets of New York City, Bad Boys Make Broken Men.
GET YOUR FREE COPY OF BAD BOYS MAKE BROKEN MEN HERE
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
Other books by Sam Fires
About the author
CHAPTER 1
February 4th, 2009
Scott Chapman’s life was going to pieces. “You don’t understand,” he had said only half an hour ago. “I need this job.”
The recipient of Scott’s protest – a burly man named Hooper – simply shook his head, failing to meet Scott’s eyes. “None of this is personal, Scott. I like you. Hell, all the boys like you. There’s nothing personal here. Everyone everywhere is making cuts. I don’t know how long we’re going to be dealing with this crash.”
“I’ve got a wife and kid to provide for,” he had protested.
“Yeah, you and every other poor bastard I’ve had to let go,” said Hooper, his patience clearly at a limit. “If there was anything I could do, believe me, I would do it.”
“Well, what do I do now?” Scott was petrified at the prospect of an uncertain future.
Hooper shrugged. “I don’t know. Find another job, I guess.”
That’s easy for him to say, sitting up there in his fucking ivory tower, thought Scott as he crossed the road. There was a bar on the opposite side of the road and Scott’s first thought was to drink himself into a stupor until the sting of bitter disappointment was but a distant memory. Thankfully, saner thoughts prevailed, and Scott realized that he would probably need to be saving all the money he had.
Instead, he walked around the streets where he had lived his entire life, trying to think of how he could navigate this crossroad in his life.
He wondered how he would break the news to Andrea. Eventually, after running through a number of scenarios in his head, Scott realized that he couldn’t do it. He and Andrea shared everything and in all the years they had been married, they’d never hidden anything from one another.
Until now.
He told himself he was withholding the information for noble reasons, but he also knew he had selfish motives too. His son Milo had just turned eight and looked up to him with a strong sense of hero worship. His friends at work had already told him that all parents let their kids down eventually, but he didn’t want to lose that trusting look in Milo’s eyes.
I’ll be able to find another job, he thought. I’m a qualified engineer. Even when the world goes to shit, people will always need engineers.
A MONTH OF FRUITLESS searching, Scott had been unable to land another job. And he still hadn’t told Andrea about any of it. He just headed out at 7:30 in the morning every day as though he was heading out to work as usual. He knew that at some point he would have to tell her that she was now the main breadwinner, but the longer he left it, the harder it got.
No one seemed to be hiring. All the companies he tried were having a hard enough time trying to keep hold of the employees they already had rather than taking on new blood.
Just when it looked like the situation couldn’t get any more hopeless, Scott received a call from his old boss, Hooper. “Hello?” he asked, his heart skipping a beat, holding out for the faint hope that he could have his job back.
“Hi, Scott. Just wondering, have you managed to find anything else yet?”
“No, I haven’t,” said Scott, unintentionally playing up the despondence in his voice.
“Well, I just wanted to tell you that someone has called my office asking for your contact details. Said they had a job you might be interested in.”
Scott’s ears pricked up.
EVERYTHING ABOUT THE meeting just sounded so wrong. The instructions had been to head to a trainyard at night and to come alone. Every red flag that Scott had been trained to recognize throughout his life was being raised, telling him that he should go straight home to Andrea and Milo.
But Hooper had made it clear that the pay for the job involved a ‘lot of zeros’ so Scott figured he had to at least hear out the guy.
He arrived at the abandoned train carriage, the night wind lapping at the bare skin on his neck. He had told one of his friends where he was headed on the off chance that he didn’t come back.
It was only now he realized what a foolhardy decision this had been. If by some chance the meeting turned fatal, he’d be leaving Andrea a widow and Milo without a father. It wasn’t too late to turn back. He could just call it off, head home, come clean to Andrea ...
“Scott Chapman?”
Scott jumped, trying to put himself into a defensive position, conscious that he had no weapon on him.
A man emerged from the darkness. His immaculate suit and slick hair made him seem out of place in the desolate yard. He smiled an inviting smile, clearly about to switch into salesman mode.
“Thank you for taking the time to come down here,” the man said. “I know that life has been kicking you down for the last few weeks, which is why I’m willing to offer you a job.”
“And you couldn’t have done it in an office with a proper interview?” Scott, quickly regretted the impulsive sarcasm in his voice.
Luckily for him, the man didn’t seem at all fazed. “The type of work I’m in is best done under the radar.”
Scott raised an eyebrow. “You mean illegal?”
The man waved a hand impatiently. “Let’s not get into semantics. I’m offering you a job that will bring in more than enough money for you and your family. And if you’re not interested...” he shrugged. “...well, the good thing about the recession is there’s no shortage of people who will take up this kind of work.”
“Does it involve... killing anyone?”
“Christ, no! We’re not the mafia. We’re not asking you to run off and become Scarface. We just want some cargo transported for us. Making sure it gets to the right people.”
“What exactly is the cargo?”
“Do you really want to know?”
Scott decided he didn’t. “What do I call you?”
The man smiled a white smile. “Just call me Gideon.”
CHAPTER 2
Gideon had been as good as his word.
Shortly after the meeting, Scott went home, wondering if the whole thing had really happened or if he had just dreamed it.<
br />
But two days later, he received a letter in the post containing a set of car keys and an address.
The address was a barren patch of land on the outskirts of Los Angeles. At the address, Scott found a brand new Porsche waiting for him. Getting inside, Scott stroked the soft leather and inhaled the new car scent. Since he was a boy, he had fantasised about owning a car like this, but figured he would never find the job that would pay for such an expense.
Of course, the joy was short lived as he began wondering what he might be expected to do to earn such a prize.
The answer came in the form of a folded sheet of paper left on the dashboard. It contained a set of instructions telling Scott to take the car to an address where he would be met by two men who would take the contents of the boot – which he was forbidden from opening – off his hands.
What kind of world am I entering?
A few days later, Scott was astounded by the amount of money that was now in his bank account. He blinked, wanting to make sure that he was not seeing things, that this wasn’t some cruel trick.
But no. His bank account now held more money than he had ever possessed in his entire life.
After the first trip, Scott’s life settled into a structured routine. Get up and pretend he was going to work but instead he’d go to the park, or the library or just sit somewhere in his car waiting for the next destination. Each time, he would be behind the wheel of an immaculate car and drive it to the designated location. The people who greeted him never exchanged words with him, didn’t even look him in the eye. They just opened the trunk and took their packages.
There were times when curiosity almost got the better of him and he tried to sneak a peek at what was in the trunk. But he decided against it. He already knew what he was doing was illegal, but he didn’t know what it was he was supposed to be doing. He wondered whether knowing the full extent of his duties would even make any difference.
But Scott quickly came to the conclusion that it was better if he didn’t know, relying on the ‘ignorance is bliss’ mentality. It was just a job at the end of the day. It didn’t have to be who he was.
And it was easier to cast aside his niggling misgivings with the money that was coming in. He was able to afford nice things for Andrea and Milo, and finally get the roof fixed. It made Scott realize that beforehand, he had only been existing, making enough money to get by, but now he was in a position to really enjoy life.
He never heard from Gideon beyond that one meeting. The only correspondence he received after the meeting were the notes left on the dashboards of each car.
What am I supposed to do if I run into any kind of trouble? How do I contact him? He couldn’t even be sure if Gideon was his real name.
One Saturday Scott and Andrea decided to have a few friends around for a barbecue. He cooked the meat while Milo ran around the garden playing with the other children. It was as though all the hopes and dreams he had forged over his lifetime were finally coming together.
“You know,” said Andrea, taking Scott to one side once the gathering started to die down and the guests made their excuses to leave. “I’m wondering if it is a good idea to start thinking about that holiday we planned.”
Scott smiled at the flood of memories that came rushing back.
SCOTT AND ANDREA HAD met in a geography class in high school. Andrea had recently transferred to the school and Scott, taking pity on the new attendee, offered her his notes as a gesture of goodwill. Of course, Scott had been blissfully unaware of his own shortcomings when it came to geography. To this day, Andrea had never let him forget how he had once believed that Russia was part of the Czech Republic.
Fortunately, Andrea had picked up on some of the errors and had saved both herself and Scott from a public humiliation. “One day, I’m going to have to take you to some of these places to set you straight,” Andrea had teased.
That little faux pas had bonded them. Since she was the new girl at school and Scott was the only person she really knew, they took the time to get to know each other, turning to each other for comfort during turbulent times. One thing that attracted Andrea to Scott was the fact that he was unafraid of taking risks for anything, as though consequences were an afterthought.
By the time they were about to finish high school, it was clear that the end of school wouldn’t separate them. Shortly after their prom, which saw them crowned Homecoming King and Queen, Scott had proposed to Andrea, and she had gleefully accepted. Everyone had told them that they were too young to get married, that they needed to be able to enjoy life before settling down, but they both were adamant that wherever life took them, they wanted to experience it together, the good and the bad.
And then when little Milo came along, they couldn’t have been happier. It was just the three of them. They didn’t need anyone else in their world.
Scott losing his job was the first time he had ever lied to Andrea. It was this lie that sent them on separate trajectories. And now, even though he was making good money and he was able to spend more quality time with his wife and son, it felt like a gap had developed between them which was getting wider and wider. But Andrea was none the wiser.
They had been talking about going on a holiday for years. But it had always been something that was pushed into the background, their focus being on getting enough money to live comfortably. It finally looked like they were going to get that holiday, go and travel around Europe, even taking Milo out of school for a few months.
Scott took one look at Andrea’s face, smiled at her and held her in his arms as though he had only just discovered the joy of having her in his life. Milo saw his mom and dad hugging and instantly ran over to join in, almost knocking the pair over in the process.
Looking back, Scott would see how it was a hug full of lasts. The last time he held his wife and son. The last time he felt he had a future. The last time he could say he was happy.
CHAPTER 3
Scott couldn’t shake off his concerns about this latest meet-up.
For starters, all of the others had taken place during the day. This one required his presence in the dead of night. Secondly, he was told that he would be meeting two other people at the pick-up point. He couldn’t see why three people were needed to drive one car. And finally, in the set of instructions, he was told the exact price he could expect from the job. His eyes widened as he quickly counted how many zeros were on the paper. With money like that, neither he nor Andrea would ever have to worry about working ever again.
The world around him felt like a completely different place at night, as though Los Angeles was no longer afraid to show its underbelly. This burst of unfamiliarity should have warned Scott about the little known world he was veering into, but he just focused on the task at hand.
He greeted the two men at the designated area.
“All right, lads?” he asked, uncertain as to what else he could say. They simply grunted and nodded. So much for small talk.
They all piled into the car; the two men sitting in the back seat. They sat in silence for the bulk of the journey, despite Scott’s occasional attempts to make conversation. “So, did Gideon set you up with this gig?”
The first man didn’t say anything, he simply looked ahead. But the second man had a quizzical look on his face, shuffling in his seat as if he couldn’t get comfortable. “Who’s Gideon?”
His response sent a chill down Scott’s spine. But he dismissed it and pressed on.
They arrived at their location in just under an hour. It was a large warehouse with boarded-up windows and even in the dark, Scott could see signs of neglect and abandonment. The lights shining overhead were the only things that gave it any sign of life.
The two men exited the car and Scott sat back, waiting for them to remove the cargo from the trunk. But then one of them tapped his knuckles against the door. Scott wound the window down. “You going to give us a hand?”
“What?” On every other job, Scott had left the physical handlin
g to the people he met before driving away, leaving it all behind him.
“It’s a heavy fucker back here,” the man explained. “You don’t seriously expect us to carry it all by ourselves, do you?”
“I...” Scott wanted to protest, wanting to hold onto the fact that he could honestly say he didn’t know what he was transporting. But one look at the man standing against the car told him that this was a guy who wasn’t used to being told ‘no’.
“Just give us a hand, okay?” he repeated, speaking as though he was asking a buddy to lend him some money for a beer.
Feeling as though he couldn’t say no, Scott exited the car and moved to help them with the package.
It was surprisingly heavy. Scott felt as though he was going to tear his arms out of their sockets. The three lifted it into the warehouse with the now defunct doors.
Inside, Scott felt a rush of cold air sweep over them from a building that had long since lost its central heating.
He was shocked to see a set of tables that had been pushed together in the centre of the warehouse, surrounded by a group of men, with the exception of one woman, who kept her eyes on the ground. One man who was wearing a leather jacket, sat at the far end of one of the tables, his eyes boring into Scott’s. “Bring it over here, then.” he shouted. The others in the group went back to inspecting the boxes on the tables. Boxes much like the one they had brought in.
“Well, we haven’t got all night,” the apparent leader shouted.
Scott and the other two men carried it over, setting it heavily on the tables. Now that his job was done and he had technically gone beyond the call of duty, he wondered if he could make his exit.
“Well, let’s get it open. Check the merchandise.”
“What?” asked Scott, dumbfounded.
“We need to make sure it’s all there,” said the leader as he approached Scott.
