Ungoverned

by Shawn Raiford

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Killed The Cops

  He put his phone back in his pocket, gleaming at the information he just received.

  In his business, Lukas had to put up with all kinds of want-to-be gangsters. Rich sissy businessmen like Norman surfaced every now and then.

  Lukas had been threatened hundreds of times over the years, nobody ever got close. No one ever got that close.

  Once he killed Rose and the two cops, he would find Norman and make him a special project. No one spoke to him that way and lived.

  Eddy called him earlier to tell him they almost captured Rose, but she got away after killing Archie and two other men.

  He was sure the woman with the two cops Norman cried about, was Rose, and she had found him. She was good at her job, he just didn’t understand why Norman wasn’t dead yet.

  He grabbed his phone and called Eddy back.

  “Sup boss?” Eddy said.

  Lukas gave him Rose’s location, and told him to kill the cops and bring Rose to him. He even told Eddy if he and his crew killed the cops, Lukas would personally give Eddy twenty-thousand bucks for each cop and fifty grand if he brought Rose to him alive.

  Eddy promised they would finish the job.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Killing Anyone That Comes

  “We need to search the house, but do you want to call it in first partner?”

  “No, let’s wait to call it in. His lawyer is going to say the girl is a stranger to him,” Henry stopped and glanced over at Bradley. “And that some guy came here and ran when we came in and started shooting up the place.”

  “You fucking idiots! My lawyers are going to have a field day with this! You’ll be lucky if you are allowed to write parking tickets after they get through with you,” Bradley said, full of fake outrage and indignation.

  Walking up to the pedophile, I looked at Mitch. He looked at Henry who shrugged. “Go ahead, just don’t kill him.”

  Bradley smiled. “Oh, you big bad police need a woman to do your dirty work? You know they will take pictures of me, of my face?”

  Mitch said, “You had already sustained injuries before we entered the premises.”

  Wearing my gloves, I reared back, and punched him in the nose, hearing a crunch. His head catapulted backwards, then he leaned forward as his blood gushed.

  “You bitch!” He spit blood. “You two saw that! Arrest this cop bitch!”

  Mitch chuckled.

  “I want to press charges against this woman who hit me when my hands were cuffed!”

  Mitch calmly sat down next to him.

  Leaning over, I moved closer to his ear. “I’m not a cop.”

  Henry pointed at him. “You are looking at child rape and murder charges. You’re headed to prison.”

  Bradley scoffed. “Me in prison? Please!”

  Mitch sighed. “Do you understand that you’re going to prison for many years? It’s a place where you’ll be considered the lowest form of filth. You will be considered trash among trash and you’ll be lucky if you’re treated like a pet.”

  Henry frowned. “That’s if they allow you to live.”

  I glanced at my brother and smiled.

  Bradley didn’t respond.

  Henry and Mitch spent the next half hour going through Bradley’s office where there were physical and computer files, but they couldn’t find anything.

  I checked the bedrooms of the house. There was a girl’s bedroom, but Bradley said it was for his future daughter he hoped to adopt one, one day. He said he hadn’t started the paperwork yet, but was planning on doing so very soon.

  I wasn’t sure if single men were allowed to adopt little girls, but I guessed he needed a story to tell.

  Mitch and Henry stood in the living room with me.

  “There has to be something linking him to Samantha,” Mitch said.

  Looking at the window, I saw movement. I checked. “Guys, we have company.”

  They joined me at the window.

  Six armed men exited two black sedans in front of Bradley’s house. Lukas’s men. I recognized some of them. Shaking my head, I said angrily, “Fuck! Uncle must’ve called Lukas and told him we were here!”

  “Lukas’s men! They’re here to kill me,” I said, pulling out my pistol. “You two also.”

  “What?” Mitch asked.

  “They are here to kill me for something I did earlier, and to finish the contract on you two.”

  Mitch stared outside the window. “Fuck! We need to call this in!”

  “There isn’t enough time for that, Mitch. You and Henry stay in here and protect her.”

  He pointed at me. “Wait a minute, Chloe. We are the cops here,” Henry said. “We can handle this.”

  I didn’t have time to argue.

  “If you just do your job and protect her. Don’t get in my way and we all might just get out of here alive.”

  “Chloe…” Mitch said

  I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something changed in Mitch’s demeanor.

  “What?”

  He looked at the girl and pointed at her, and then glanced back at me, concern filling his eyes. “We can’t let this little girl get hurt. I will die protecting her.”

  My eyes meeting his, I needed him focused. “Don’t think about protecting her, just concentrate on killing anyone who comes in here who’s not me.”

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  In Cold Blood

  The sound of glass breaking echoed throughout the house.

  The back window.

  Mitch and Henry unholstered their sidearms.

  I looked at the girl. “I’ll take care of these thugs, you protect her.”

  I knelt and told her in Spanish, “Don’t worry, I’m going to stop these bad men and then you will go home.”

  The girl said, “Gracias.”

  Looking down at me, he shook his head, thinning his lips. “We can handle this.”

  I stood. “You think those guys coming in here are going to put down their guns because your badges are shiny and they respect your laws? They don’t give a shit about you being a cop. They were told to kill us, and that’s all they want to do.”

  Henry’s mouth opened as if he wanted to say something but didn’t.

  Mitch nodded.

  “Alright, stay in here, I’ll take care of this.”

  “Hey, Chloe …” Henry stopped.

  Nodding at him, letting him know I understood. “Don’t worry, Little Brother, you and Julie owe me dinner with my niece and nephew.”

  He breathed in, his eyes growing in diameter as if I had just inflated his confidence. “You got it, Sis.”

  I winked at him and left the living room.

  Six assholes wanted to kill everyone, but I wasn’t going to let that happen.

  I made my way to the back room, a laundry room, saw the back door, and a broken window to the right.

  A thug poked his head up, holding a shotgun. He reached inside, through the broken window for the door lock.

  I raised my pistol slowly. His fingers found the lock and unlocked it. I aimed and squeezed the trigger.

  BANG!

  A direct hit. Threads of red erupted from his face, his body fell backward, out of view.

  The door was unlocked now, but no one opened it. I repositioned my body when a Glock 9mm emerged through the glassless window, and began firing aimlessly. I ducked into the connecting hallway, behind the wall, bullets hitting the other side of the wall.

  None of the bullets went through the wall. Good construction.

  I didn’t want to trade shots with these guys, they would win. The plan, the one I just came up with, was to let them come in, one at a time.

  I peeked at the back window. A thug held a pistol through it. I moved out of the way when he noticed my arrival.

  BANG!

  BANG!

  BANG!

  The wall held up to the barrage of bullets.

  Then back door smashed open, a
nd a couple of voices sounded.

  Lying on the floor, to the side of the kitchen island, I had a perfect spot to pick off whoever showed his face. I didn’t have to wait long. A thug entered the kitchen. The guy I just saw in the window. He tiptoed through the entrance of the kitchen like an overgrown ballerina who needed lessons. He didn’t bother looking down, eyes up. I could’ve shot him right then, but I waited a second longer, wanted to see if there was another thug close behind him.

  No other man presented himself, so I squeezed the trigger, sending a hollow-point bullet into this one’s head. Blood sprayed in a crimson arc from the back of his head; his body falling like a bag of broken bricks.

  Quickly moving to the other side of the island, I aimed at the doorway. Standing, I headed towards the wall, and put my back up against it in the dining room.

  I didn’t hear anything, but figured they hovered in the hallway, just waiting. I saw a candle in a candleholder, sitting on the dining table. I grabbed the candle, and put my back against the wall again.

  I didn’t move, listening but heard nothing.

  I inched closer to the doorway, and with my left hand, threw the candle into the hallway. A second after the candle thudded on the floor, bullets sprayed the floor of the hallway.

  Quickly dropping to the floor, I expected a barrage of bullets after the shooter didn’t hit anything but air in the hallway.

  The wall burped bullets at a height above my current position, wrecking the chairs and dining table behind my head. I laid on the floor, aiming my pistol at the doorway, waiting.

  A thug came through the doorway fast, rolling on the floor like a crippled Rambo.

  Then a second thug came through the door, an AR-15 in his hands, firing wildly like a drunk jihadi. I didn’t flinch when his bullets landed close to my head. Returning the favor, I aimed, and fired twice into his chest, he was dead before his body hit the floor.

  Before the Crippled Rambo understood what had happened to the jihadi, I shot him in his ear.

  Entering the hallway they just came through, gunfire erupted in the front part of the house.

  Ah shit! I moved quickly.

  Approaching the living room, stopping short of the entrance, I stayed behind the wall. “Hey! It’s me! What happened?”

  “Two of them came at us, Mitch got one of them and I wounded the other one,” Henry said.

  Good. “Is it clear to go in?”

  “Yeah, come on,” he said.

  My gun hand was raised as I walked around into the living room. A thug on the floor with a bloodied chest, and his eyes closed. I nudged the body with my foot, but no reaction. Dead.

  Another man sat on the floor, but wasn’t dead. He held onto his knee. I have been told that being shot in the knee was excruciating. His face expressed extreme pain, but he only moaned, his knee bleeding profusely.

  He said, “I need a doctor!”

  Not responding, I glared at Mitch and Henry with surprise. “Why didn’t you kill him?” I submitted, holstering my gun, pulling out my knife, and moving towards the injured thug.

  “No! Stop, Chloe!” Mitch yelled, aiming his handgun at me.

  Breathing in slowly, my eye twitched.

  My head tilted to the left. “Mitch, I swear on my life I will kill you if you don’t stop aiming that at me.”

  Wincing, Henry stood and holstered his sidearm. “What are you doing, Mitch?”

  He dropped his gun hand. “Look, Chloe, I’m sorry but you can’t kill that man in cold blood! It would be murder!” he said, turning to Henry. “Help me out here, partner?”

  “Mitch, these men are only here to kill us, that’s it,” I said. “They don’t deserve mercy.”

  Henry nodded in agreement. “I don’t see anything wrong here, Mitch,” he said plainly “They are here only to kill us, because Uncle sent them. I could care less what happens to these animals.”

  I looked at Henry and he nodded.

  “Mitch, look, that guy is a threat to us. We are trying to save this young girl’s life, not to mention ours! This piece of shit came into this house to kill Chloe then kill us to finish the contract. We can’t worry about him while there are some potential threats outside this house waiting to kill us. This little girl,” Henry pointed at her, “would have been Bradley’s next victim of rape, and he probably would kill her like he killed Samantha!”

  Mitch closed his eyes and exhaled.

  “You two fucking idiots better arrest this psycho bitch!” Bradley said, staring at me.

  I was about to stab the pedophile in the knee when Mitch stepped in my way.

  “Chloe, give me the knife, please,” he said, something in his eyes told me that it was okay.

  I handed my knife over to Mitch. I knew I could always get either of these men later. “Okay, here you go.”

  Henry winked at me.

  “You see, bitch? You can’t hurt me!” Bradley shouted, grinning and chuckling.

  Bradley’s eyes sliced to something behind me.

  “Rose!” a man yelled from behind me.

  Damn it! A seventh thug? The voice was familiar.

  I raised my hands and turned around.

  Eddy’s eyes bulged to the size of hard-boiled eggs. Well, only one of them, because the other eye swelled shut. His nose looked like a squished tomato, and he couldn’t stand up straight. His pistol’s barrel pointed at my chest.

  He must’ve arrived when I was using his buddies as target practice. Eddy used his good eye to aim the pistol.

  I didn’t want to die this way, but I couldn’t stop it. I wouldn’t beg this pig rapist for anything.

  BANG!

  BANG!

  The shots were quick, his body twisting with each impact. As Eddy’s chest spat blood, he dropped his gun hand to the side, squeezing the trigger.

  BANG!

  Then he fell, landing on his back, his pistol thudding away from his body.

  My head swiveled. Henry stood with his arm raised, pistol in hand. He lowered his weapon, looked at me, and smiled.

  Mitch cackled with laughter.

  My brother and I looked at him, amused.

  Mitch pointed. “We don’t have to worry about that guy.”

  I saw what he meant.

  The thug who Henry had shot in the knee and Mitch wouldn’t let me shoot, leaned back against the wall with a dark red spot just under his left eye on his cheek. Dead.

  Mitch pointed. “Because he’s dead!”

  I chuckled. “Good job, Little Brother!”

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  An Espresso Machine

  Bradley squirmed in the chair and yelled, “Your career is over!”

  “You killed a little girl, what do you think they are going to do to you in prison, Bradley? Seriously, have you thought about that?” I asked, a big smile creeped across my face.

  “How many Black Guerrillas and Aryan Nation members are going to rape you daily?” Mitch asked.

  Bradley went quiet, his smugness gone from his face, replaced by worry.

  “You realize I need to take care of Lukas, soon. I’ve taken care of a lot of his crew today.”

  Henry shook his head. “Chloe, as cops, Mitch and I can’t be aware of anything you do to Lukas. You have our blessing, but you have to make him disappear or relocate him to China, I don’t care.”

  Smirking, I sighed. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him.” I stared at a spot on the floor. “What about Uncle?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not. Once word about what happened here gets out, he might run to the place he was hiding for the last twenty years and won’t ever come back.”

  Mitch walked over, flicking a look over his shoulder at the girl, then back at Henry and smiled. “Now maybe it’s time we do some police work and help Chloe out here with finding the scum who put the contract out on us. What do we need to look for?”

  “If he’s still here, Houston’s a big city, it won’t be easy finding that piece of shit,” Henry said.

 
“We can start by looking through Bradley’s things, before the cavalry arrives.”

  He left, and came back in a few minutes.

  “Hey, look at this.” He held up some Polaroids.

  My brother grabbed and studied them. His eyebrows came together and he said, “I can’t believe it.”

  I moved over to my brother’s side and my jaw dropped when I saw it.

  “Wow! Is that her?”

  Henry nodded. “Show him.”

  I nodded, and walked over to Bradley. “You don’t know who Samantha is correct?”

  Bradley turned away. “No.”

  I showed him the Polaroid. “Who’s this with you?”

  Studying the Polaroid, Bradley didn’t say anything, turning away.

  Pulling out a knife from the pocket on my thigh, I shoved it into his right thigh, leaving it in.

  His forehead wrinkled like an old rug. “Ouch! You bitch! Why did you stab me?”

  Mitch grumbled but didn’t move to remove the knife.

  I handed the Polaroid to Mitch.

  “God, it hurts, please pull it out!”

  He walked over to Bradley. “The lady asked you a question, you piece of shit!” Mitch twisted the knife clockwise.

  “OUCH!”

  Henry grabbed the Polaroid from me. “You sick piece of shit, this is you with Samantha. It’s proof positive you had her!”

  Bradley’s face became red. “I want my lawyer! I’m not saying shit to you corrupt cops!”

  I positioned myself closer to the child murderer. “So where did you kidnap the girl from, you sicko?”

  “I want my lawyer!”

  With his head slightly tilted upward, Mitch’s eyes were shut, and his hands rested on his hips.

  Was Mitch losing his nerve about my method of obtaining information from this man? “Mitch, don’t start on about what we can and can’t do to this pedophile, he’s a monster and doesn’t deserve any mercy.”

  He sighed. “Chloe…”

  My finger went up. “Your justice system has no place here! How many other girls do you think this animal has killed? How many has he raped? We need some names. Who is the Hispanic guy who shot at us?” The rage bottled up inside me wanted to escape and unleash incredible violence.