Venta looked back at the road and realized that he could barely make it out through the trees. It also sat below a small hill, and so no one on the other side of the lake would even know that a robbery occurred.
“I like it, if the guards fall for the phony rocket, the rest should work, but what happens to the guards?”
“Tear gas to the face and plastic cuffs on the wrists and ankles, which should put them out of commission.”
“And what about cops?”
“After she cuts the phone lines at the Cineplex on the other side of the fairgrounds, Shay will be making a call saying that someone is shooting at people inside one of the theaters. That should draw every cop in the area over there and away from us.”
After leaving the riverbank, Avery took Venta up to Destination Lake and showed him the mine.
Venta rubbed his palms together as he thought things over.
“I have to say, it’s not a bad plan, some flaws, but little risk if it goes wrong.”
Avery smiled.
“And when it’s over, we’ll both be rich.”
Venta smiled back at Avery, as he imagined putting a bullet in his traitorous face.
CHAPTER 35
Mary was so nervous that she had to take a deep breath and slowly release it, before she opened her front door for Clay.
She had called and asked him to come by the house, knowing that Bobby wouldn’t be with him, as Clay’s mother had come to stay for the week and spend time with her grandson, and so it would be just the two of them, alone.
When the truth of that struck Mary, she realized that it was the first time that she’d ever been alone with Clay.
Clay greeted her with a smile, and then noticed that she was wearing a new dress.
“Wow, Mary you look great; are you going out later?”
Mary smiled nervously.
“I hope so, but please come inside; I need to talk to you.”
Clay was in his uniform, and as he stepped inside, he removed his hat. After following Mary into the living room, he sat beside her on the sofa.
“I ah, I drove to Boston today and saw Brady.”
“I see,” Clay said, as he searched her face and saw that she was nervous.
“Yes and... I broke up with him.”
Clay grinned; he couldn’t help it.
Mary giggled.
“I see that pleases you, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile so wide.”
“It does please me,” Clay said, then he lowered his lips towards Mary, who met him halfway, and soon they were in each other’s arms.
“I’ve wanted to do that for some time now,” Clay said.
Mary laughed.
“You’re not alone, but I needed to come to terms with my feelings towards Brady first, and today I did that.”
“Was the break up difficult?”
“No, not really, and I even think that there’s a part of him that’s relieved. We weren’t right for each other, not for the long haul.”
“The long haul,” Clay said. “I like the sound of that.”
They kissed again, and when it grew more passionate, Mary pulled away.
“I want to be with you, but, this is sort of like our first date. Do you know what I mean?”
Clay caressed her cheek.
“Whenever you’re ready, and I feel more alive than I have in months.”
“I was thinking that we could go out to dinner after you get off work; what do you think?”
“Oh, I’d love to, but I promised Bobby that I’d take him to the movies later.”
Mary lit up in a smile.
“That sounds even better; we’ll go to the movies and then have dinner out. I just have to throw on some jeans and I’ll be ready to go.”
“You won’t mind Bobby coming along?”
“Of course not, you know I love him.”
Clay kissed her and then he stared into her eyes.
“Mary, my gal, Mary, I promise to make you happy, honey, I swear I do.”
Mary giggled.
“Gal? Oh how I love the way you talk.”
Clay sent her a wink.
“Aw-shucks,”
***
Not too far away, another new couple was forming, as Eva left the diner after her shift to find Harry getting out of his car.
“Hey there, handsome, are you back here for me or the food?”
“For you of course,” Harry said. He was staying in the area until he could grab the money away from Brady and his gang, and figured that he might as well mix business with pleasure.
Eva walked over to him.
“I never eat the food here, but I could go for a steak dinner.”
“Whatever you want,”
Eva pointed at an old green Chevy.
“That’s my car. You follow me home and after I shower and clean up, we’ll go out and have those steaks.”
Harry smiled.
“Sounds good to me,”
Twenty minutes later, Harry was in Eva’s shower and scrubbing her back.
CHAPTER 36
Memorial Day weekend
“What a jerk!”
Rob Henson looked over at his partner and saw that he was getting upset by the huge red moving truck in front of their armored car. In the rear of the vehicle was another guard named Sam, along with the money they picked up at the County Fair.
Rob had been daydreaming about bringing his two kids back to the fair later, when the driver broke him from his reverie.
“Relax, Billy, we’ll be on the freeway in a couple of miles and then we can pass him.”
“I just hate working holidays, that’s all, but I can use the overtime.”
“Same here and I also need to start a college fund for—look out!”
The moving truck in front of them was slowing rapidly and the driver of the armored car followed suit just in time to avoid slamming into the rear of the truck, as the car behind them nearly collided with them.
“What an asshole! Why the hell did he... oh man, oh hell no.”
The back doors of the moving truck had opened and a figure stood at the rear and pointed what looked like a rocket launcher at the windshield.
An instant later, two other men appeared wielding shotguns, and all three men were dressed in black, wearing ski masks, and shouting for them to raise their hands and step out of the vehicle.
Sam, the guard riding in the back, made an observation.
“There are no cars coming from the other way; whoever these dudes are, I don’t think they’re screwing around.”
The driver, Billy, turned and spoke to Rob.
“You’re the senior man; what’s your call?”
***
Fifty-two seconds later, they were laying on their sides atop the road with their wrists and ankles bound by plastic cuffs, and choking on pepper spray.
Rob wasn’t taking a chance on getting his men killed, and the money could always be replaced.
As tears washed away the spray from his rapidly swelling eyes, Rob saw the “rocket launcher” lying on the ground beside him. It had cracked when Brady dropped it, and the papier-mâché beneath the green paint was clear to see.
More tears fell from his eyes, and not all of them were caused by the pepper spray.
***
Avery shouted, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!” as they ran down to the riverbank, where Craig, wearing a mask of his own, waited with the powerboat.
“Calm down, kid,” Brady said. “We’re not home free yet.”
There were seven canvas bags full of banded cash, and they had left nearly a dozen bags of coins behind. The coins totaled almost twenty grand, but they were too damn heavy to lug along.
As they were loading the money into the boat, Craig pointed behind them.
“We have a hero.”
Brady spun around, dropped to one knee and shot a civilian in the chest with the shotgun. The man had been carrying a revolver, but when the bean bag round struck him in the chest, h
e fell onto his back and moaned.
“Let’s go! Let’s go!” Jake yelled.
Brady jumped aboard the boat, and seconds later, they were speeding over the water.
***
On the other side of the river, Venta saw the boat growing closer.
He smiled when one of the figures raised both arms in the air. It was the signal he had worked out with Avery, to let him know they had the money.
He got into position behind one of the portable bathrooms on site, and looked about at the cars parked along the scenic spot.
At night, the area became a notorious lovers’ lane, but in the light of day, only a few cars were around, and most of those belonged to the elderly fishermen sitting along the bank.
There was a van, however, and judging by the way it was rocking, Venta supposed that not all lovers waited until dark to visit the area.
The boat’s motor was loud as it neared the shore and the fishermen grumbled and cursed. However, they fell silent when they saw the masks on the men in the boat, and the smartest of the bunch left his gear, ran to his old station wagon, and peeled out of the gravel lot like he was on fire.
Venta pulled the bandana he was wearing around his neck up high enough to cover his mouth and nose. He needed this score, needed all of it, because his employer, Carlito, had been killed two nights ago, and as one of his agents, he was now a marked man back in Boston.
Venta gripped his gun tighter and prepared to commit murder.
***
Brady was smiling beneath the mask he wore. The job was going smooth as silk and they would be home free once they parked the car inside the mine.
Despite the smile, his head was pounding from a hangover, because he had been drinking hard ever since Mary broke up with him.
As the boat reached the riverbank, several old men with fishing poles shrank back from them, and Brady felt the rush and excitement of being an outlaw, of taking what you wanted by outsmarting those who had it, and he knew that he would never go straight. Let Craig and Jake settle down, but not him, not ever.
They had just finished loading the money in the trunk of the stolen car when he saw the man walk out from behind the portable bathroom and fire off three rounds.
One struck the lid of the trunk and ricocheted past Brady’s right ear, while another hit Jake on the wrist, and the third buried itself into Craig’s left leg.
Brady brought up the shotgun to return fire and felt something slam into his back. He went down, and when he looked up, he saw Avery’s masked face staring at him, and the kid was holding a shotgun by its barrel like a baseball bat.
“Oh, you double-crossing son of a bitch.”
“Just stay down and you won’t get hurt.”
Brady brought out the pepper spray and shot Avery in the eyes, and when he dropped the shotgun, Brady caught it, rolled onto his stomach, and blasted Venta’s right ankle with a bean bag.
The blast knocked Venta off his feet just in time, as he was about to shoot Jake in the chest, and when Venta landed on his stomach near Jake, the big man took out a knife and jammed it into Venta’s back.
The mob enforcer let out a scream and the gun still gripped in his hand let off another three rounds. One of the bullets flattened a rear tire of the car, while the others hit Avery, ruptured his heart and left lung, and killed him before his body hit the ground.
One slug also passed through Avery and found its way to a second victim, because as Brady stood and looked around at the carnage, he saw that one of the old men at the shore was face down in the water. Brady cursed; the water around the man was turning red with blood.
Venta was moaning, as was Craig, whose pant leg was crimson from blood loss, while his face was nearly white.
“We have to get the hell out of here!” Jake yelled.
Brady saw that Venta was down and that both he and Craig were writhing in agony from their wounds.
After picking up Venta’s gun, Brady pointed out the flat tire on the car to Jake, and that’s when a boy poked his head from the rear of the van parked beside them.
Brady aimed Venta’s gun at the kid’s face and told him to get out.
The kid, who was muscular and looked like a college student, practically tumbled from the van, and he was naked.
Brady looked inside the van and saw a blond girl who was also nude.
“Get out!”
The girl screamed, snatched up a pile of clothes, then scrambled from the van and over to the boy.
Meanwhile, Jake had Craig up on his good leg and was helping him limp over to the van, and once they had Craig lying atop the mattress in the back, they transferred the money from the trunk of the car, and Brady climbed into the driver’s seat.
Craig was crying from the agony in his leg, but some of his tears were fueled by the pain of betrayal.
“Why did Avery turn on us? And who the hell was that guy with the gun?”
Jake gave Craig’s shoulder a squeeze.
“It’ll be all right, it’ll be all right.”
As they drove off, Brady looked in the side view mirror at the scene they left behind and wondered if anything would ever be right again.
CHAPTER 37
Steve was laying back in bed in a motel room with Toni between his legs, when his wife called.
He gestured for Toni to be quiet, and when he answered the call, he heard his wife screaming at him.
“Tyler was carjacked!”
“What?”
“The men who robbed the armored car stole Tyler’s van.”
“Armored car?”
“It’s on the news. Don’t you have the radio on in the shop?”
“Yeah, but I was ah, I was painting with the sprayer; is Tyler alright?”
“Yes, thank God, but Steve, two men died.”
“Wow, hey listen, I’ll be home later and tell Tyler that I’m glad he’s okay.”
“Alright honey, and hurry home, those men are still on the loose.”
“Make sure everything is locked up tight and get the gun out of the closet. I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
“I love you, Steve.”
“I love you too, Donna, bye.”
When he ended the call, he saw Toni looking up at him.
“What was that all about? It sounded serious.”
“It was. Some guys robbed an armored car and then carjacked Tyler’s van.”
Toni pulled herself up and sat next to Steve. They were both naked, and had been celebrating having made more money from their porn business.
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah,”
Toni reached down and snatched her laptop from where it lay atop the foot of the bed.
“What are you doing?” Steve asked.
“I’m pulling up the footage of the carjacking.”
“Holy crap, you mean we caught that on video?”
“Of course, the cameras activate whenever there’s motion.”
Steve placed his head beside Toni’s and saw that she had video of Tyler with a girl in the back of the van, and the time and date stamp told him that it was filmed only a short while ago.
When Toni fast-forwarded the video until Brady’s masked face appeared, she and Steve both let out a gasp.
After watching the carjacking, Toni switched over to another camera, and Steve saw a view that was filmed just behind Brady’s right ear, and showed the scenery through the windshield as he drove. It also showed Brady’s face whenever he turned his head.
“Get dressed, Steve. We’ll watch this in the car, and when we find out where they’re going, we’ll sneak in and take the money away.”
“Are you crazy? Those guys have shotguns.”
Toni grabbed her purse from where it lay on the floor beside the bed, after reaching into it, she brought out a Colt Python.
“Crap, you carry a gun?”
“It’s that kind of world; look what happened to Tyler. Now get dressed, we’re going to get that money.”
***
“He’s lost a lot of blood, Brady,” Jake said, as he leaned over Craig and applied pressure to his leg wound.
He was doing a poor job of it because of his own wound, an injury to his left wrist where a bullet had grazed the carpel bones and broken one of them.
“We have to get him to a doctor, a hospital,” Brady said.
“No,” Craig said in a weak voice. “They’ll lock me up; they’ll lock all of us up.”
Jake looked sick with worry for his friend, but the big man was not willing to jeopardize his freedom for anyone, and if he went to prison, it would destroy his family as well, but then he brightened, as an idea came to him.
“Mary, we’ll go to Mary’s house. She lives up here, right?”
“Yeah, but she’s a nurse; not a doctor, and she doesn’t owe me a thing. She dumped me, remember?”
“She’s an RN; she’ll know how to stop the bleeding. How far away is she?”
Brady sighed.
“Six blocks.”
“Go there, Brady, we’re talking about Craig’s life.”
Brady headed the van towards Mary while cursing Avery’s soul for his treachery.
***
Harry was standing just inside the mine entrance, as he waited for the gang to appear, and was beginning to wonder if something went wrong.
He checked his phone for news of the robbery and saw that they were reporting on the chaos at the river, and the carjacking of the van.
When a new report appeared claiming that one of the robbers was injured, Harry assumed that they had changed their plans and that he had lost his chance at the money.
That was when he remembered that Mary was a nurse, but his file on her was back at his office.
However, he still had her number on his phone, and after doing a reverse lookup of the phone number, he had Mary’s address and was soon on his way there, playing a long shot, but hoping to win.
CHAPTER 38
“They’re carrying the guy with the leg wound into the house through the back door,” Toni said, as she watch video of Brady, Jake, and Craig. “They also left the doors of the van open, and the money is just sitting there, oh Steve, this is going to be easier than I thought.”
There was no sound on the video, but the picture was sharp and clear.
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