Enforcer

by Black, Selena

  “Then a heart-to-heart is called for, don’t you think?” Sarah advised. “You need to get in touch with him.”

  Brigitte sucked in a deep breath as she contemplated that. Conflicting emotions made her unsure of what to do, but deep down she knew her friend was right. There was no point getting herself worked up about what might happen, when it was in her own hands to take action and do something.

  “I’ll call him,” she said and looked at her watch to see that it was now after one. “I’ll make the call tonight.”

  The conversation carried on as they finished eating and they eventually walked out of the cafe at around one thirty.

  “Call and let me know what happens,” Sarah said.

  “Sure,” Brigitte agreed. “Thanks for listening.”

  “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” Sarah teased and her last comment came over her shoulder as she turned to leave. “And here was me thinking I would be the one that ended up in trouble with boys.”

  “You and me both,” Brigitte said after her departing friend and heard the cheeky laughter that came back to her.

  She went to catch a ride to work and arrived at her desk at five minutes before two. Mr. Brody said nothing as he sat working and she got on with what she needed to do. Her mind returned to the conversation with Sarah at points during the afternoon and the closer it got to her finishing time, the more nervous she could feel herself getting. There were so many thoughts running through her head that she struggled to make sense of them and eventually gave up trying. All she could do was make the call that evening, but the thought of actually going through with it unsettled her.

  It was stupid really because she got on so easily with Matt on the Sunday after they made love but suddenly, the prospect of talking to him was giving her palpitations. She walked out of the building with Mr. Brody as usual at five o’clock and said goodnight when she got to her bus stop. It was almost six in the evening when she arrived home and she went to have a shower first, so she could get changed out of her business suit.

  She decided to make herself something to eat when she went downstairs and knew she was simply looking for excuses to put off making the call. There was no getting the thought of doing it out of her mind as she cooked herself a meal. When the food was ready, she set the plate down on the table and decided that some wine might be a good idea. Moving to the small wine rack on the counter in the corner of the kitchen, she chose a bottle of red wine and went in search of the corkscrew to open it. She then poured herself a glass and went to sit at the table.

  It was only when she finished washing the dishes that she really contemplated making the call. She took the bottle and glass through to the lounge and drank some more wine as she sat on the sofa staring at her phone. It was easy to bring Matt’s number up on it, but more difficult to go through with making the call.

  “Do it,” she urged herself and finally touched the screen to dial the number.

  She brought the phone up to her ear and listened to the ringing. That’s all she heard though and her call wasn’t picked up. It was the same for the next half an hour as she carried on trying to get in touch with Matt to speak to him. He wasn’t answering though and she eventually threw her phone down on the sofa.

  “Where the hell are you?” she let out under her breath, but it looked as if speaking to him would need to wait.

  Chapter 12

  “Stop here,” Matt ordered when he turned from staring out the window of the vehicle to look towards the man in the driving seat.

  “But the address you gave me…,”

  “I know what I said,” Matt interrupted. “Stop here.”

  The driver signaled that he was pulling over then put his foot on the brake to bring the cab to a halt at the side of the street. Matt checked the fare showing on the meter and handed over a twenty when the man in front turned. He waited for his change and nothing more passed between the two of them when it was given to him. Opening the door, he got out and watched as the taxi rejoined the flow of evening traffic to disappear from view.

  He knew exactly where he was and that meant only a couple of streets separated him from his destination. His mind went back to getting out of the prison van on his first day of freedom and gazing around the sights of a new neighborhood. That was only a few weeks previously, when four years of being locked up came to an end. Unfortunately for him, there was nothing new about what he was looking at now. He was on familiar territory and let out a frustrated sigh as he glanced either way along the street. There were a few people around, but none that he recognized and that suited him fine.

  A glance at his watch showed it was twenty minutes before seven in the evening, so there was no rush to get moving. It would only take a few more minutes to reach the home of Eddie Millar. He reached in his pocket to bring out his phone and switched it on. The missed calls showed up on the screen straight away and he lifted a hand to rub his chin before letting out a curse. All of them were from Brigitte and she’d tried to get in touch five times in the previous half an hour. The worry that something happened to her flashed through his mind. On the other hand, they hadn’t talked since he left her home on Sunday evening and she might simply be phoning to say hello.

  He debated whether he should return her calls, but in the end decided not to. There was little he could do at that moment anyway and his hunch was that Eddie hadn’t made a move against her. It would make no sense, since the get together he was ordered to attend by Lincoln Holt wasn’t due to start for another fifteen minutes or so. He suspected that his former boss’s ire would only come crashing down on him and Brigitte if he didn’t turn up and go along with whatever was proposed.

  “Switch it off,” he told himself and promptly did it.

  He started walking after returning the phone to his pocket and approached the huge, wrought iron gates that were the entrance to Eddie’s home a little over five minutes later.

  “Well, well, well,” the guard that moved forward said in a surprised voice. “Look who it isn’t.”

  A second guard caught the comment and moved forward to look through the bars.

  “Who’s that?” he asked his colleague.

  “I’ll tell you who it is,” the first guard replied, “That, my young friend, is Matt Harris.”

  “Who?”

  The first guard shook his head and laughed as he turned his attention to the man outside the gates.

  “It seems a few years out of the picture have diminished your notoriety,” he joked.

  “If only,” Matt said and let out a harsh laugh that was devoid of any humor. “I’d be happy if my notoriety was flushed down the toilet and never found again.”

  “Are the young guns still coming after you to try and make a name for themselves?” the guard asked.

  Matt let out another harsh, barking laugh. The comment made him sound like an ageing gunslinger from a western movie, with the truth of the matter being that he was only twenty nine and not exactly old himself. In reality, it wasn’t funny at all and he remembered the fight with the muscular man a few days before he was released from prison. It was the last confrontation he encountered because of his name and reputation. He’d kept his head down in the weeks since his release, but it wasn’t enough. His past caught up with him and he was about to arrive slap, bang in the middle of it again when he walked through the gates he was standing at.

  “Is Lincoln Holt here?” he asked to avoid answering the guard’s question.

  “He got here a couple of hours ago.”

  “What about the boss man?” Matt went on.

  “Returned home from his trip late this morning,” the guard went on.

  Matt inhaled deeply as he contemplated what he was about to do. Returning to the property was the last thing he wanted or expected, but it turned out that making a break from his previous life was more difficult than he anticipated.

  “You better let me in then,” he said.

  The guard moved to the pillar at the side of
the gates and seconds later, the creaking of the rollers sounded out. Matt waited until the gap was wide enough then moved forward to step through. He started to walk towards the door of the property, but the second guard moved in front of him.

  “Spread your legs and stretch your arms out to the side.”

  “Is this really necessary?” Matt complained.

  “We can’t have you walking in there with a gun now, can we?” the first guard said.

  “Yeah, like I would be stupid enough to do that,” Matt commented.

  There was no point in arguing, so he complied with the request and stood still as he was frisked. It only took a few seconds and he dropped his arms to his sides afterwards.

  “OK, you can go,” the guard said and stepped to the side.

  “So kind of you,” Matt let out sarcastically and started walking towards the door of the property. It opened as he got to it and he found himself staring at a familiar face.

  “Should I be welcoming you home?” the man said and grinned.

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” Matt said. "I never expected to be here and if it was up to me, I wouldn't be."

  The pair of them shook hands when he stepped inside. The door was closed as he looked around to see nothing much had changed in four years and the place looked like he remembered. There was something depressing about that and he shook his head as he stared at sights that were all too familiar to him. It suddenly felt as if he'd never been away.

  “You can go straight on up. They’re waiting on you.”

  Matt brought his gaze to the other man when the words were spoken and nodded his head. He moved towards the stairs to make the climb up to the first floor, then walked along to the end of the corridor. It got him to Eddie's office and he stopped for a few seconds to gather his composure.

  "Here goes," he muttered under his breath and knocked. The gazes of the two men sitting at the desk came to him when he entered the room.

  “Come in, come in,” Eddie said. “Sit yourself down and let me have a look at you.”

  The almost jovial tone of the voice was somewhat unnerving, but Matt said nothing in response as he moved across to the empty chair opposite his former boss and sat down. He knew enough to remain quiet and wait as Eddie’s gaze roamed over him. The silence stretched out to make things even more unsettling, but he kept his mouth shut.

  “You’re looking remarkably well,” Eddie said. “Four years in prison didn’t grind you down then.”

  “It wasn’t much fun, but I survived it,” Matt replied.

  Eddie let out a raucous guffaw as he leaned forward to place his elbows on the desk.

  “I always did like your style,” he said when he stopped laughing. “Only you could describe four years locked up in the slammer as not much fun.”

  The thought that went through Matt’s head was the man opposite could have helped make his prison sentence a lot shorter, but he wasn’t about to get things off to a bad start by verbalizing it.

  “So, why am I here?” he asked instead. It was intended to get the ball rolling towards the reason he'd been ordered back into the fold, but his question didn't get him an answer.

  “Have some patience,” Eddie said and turned to the cabinet behind him to get a glass. He put it in front of Matt and picked up the bottle of bourbon on the desk to pour a shot. “Let’s have a drink to celebrate your freedom.”

  Matt looked to his left to see Lincoln pick up his drink and did the same. It made sense to swim with the tide for the moment and see where it got him. The three men brought their glasses together and the sound of the clink preceded the alcohol being knocked back. Eddie lifted the bourbon to give them a refill straight after.

  “So, how long is it that you’ve been a free man?” the gangster boss said as he set the bottle down on the desk.

  It was a loaded question and one that Matt knew would come up. The query was really why he hadn’t visited since his release and he’d wondered how he should answer it over the previous couple of days. In the end, he’d decided to go with the truth.

  “I’ve been out for around five weeks or so now,” he said.

  Eddie picked up his glass to drink another shot of bourbon then refilled it once more before speaking again.

  “That long, huh,” he commented. “And you never thought to come by and say hello?”

  “Things move on and prison life isn’t a walk in the park,” Matt responded and stuck with the truth. “It gave me plenty of time to think and I wasn’t planning to return to the life I left behind, so saw no reason to visit. I’m sure you didn’t have any problems finding someone to fill the vacancy my going to prison opened up in your organization.”

  “I didn’t,” Eddie replied. “But that doesn’t mean you weren’t missed. There’s not many with your particular range of skills. You're a useful man to have around.”

  Matt saw the opportunity to deviate from his intentions of sticking to the truth and threw out a lie.

  “Yeah, well maybe those skills have been dulled by the passing of four years of incarceration. If they’re not used, you lose them. That’s the way of the world, isn’t it? Time marches on as the old steps aside to let the new move in and take over.”

  A smile flashed across Eddie’s face.

  “You intend to retire and sit in your rocking chair then?” he said.

  “Not quite,” Matt replied. “But my plan is to move on to something new.”

  “It’s true that you joined some bullshit rehabilitation scheme then?”

  “Why don’t you ask him?” Matt went on and motioned his head towards Lincoln. “He seemed to have every intimate detail of my life when we chatted the other evening.”

  “He’s told me everything he knows,” Eddie said.

  “Then you’re already aware that I’m signed up to a government program, without me having to confirm if for you,” Matt said.

  He knew he was taking a risk by being argumentative, but couldn't help himself and saw he'd got away with it when the next comment was aimed at him.

  “For the perks of what it gets you?” Eddie went on.

  Matt shrugged his shoulders.

  “Sure, that was part of it,” he admitted. “It seemed like too much of a good thing to pass up on. But I also did it for the chance to move on.”

  Eddie brought a hand up to stroke fingers on his chin and laughed.

  “Get this guy,” he said when he turned his attention to Lincoln. “Can you believe him sitting here and coming out with this crock of shit?” He brought his gaze back to Matt. “You haven’t known anything other than a life of crime since you were what…, twelve years old?”

  “I thought it was time for a change,” Matt said.

  “Yeah, well the change can wait,” Eddie went on in a harsher voice and his expression hardened.

  “So, why am I here?” Matt asked to bring the conversation back to the question he originally asked.

  “I thought you would be the perfect candidate for a job,” Eddie told him.

  “Which is?”

  Eddie nodded towards Lincoln and it was him that took over the conversation.

  “Have you ever heard of someone called Brett Collins?”

  Matt sat thinking for a few seconds, but the name didn’t ring a bell and he eventually shook his head.

  “Nope,” he said. “But then, if you remember, I’ve been out of circulation for a while.”

  “I’m sure the word of what’s happening on the outside gets around the state penitentiary,” Lincoln commented.

  “Well, word of this guy you’re talking about didn’t,” Matt said. “At least it didn’t get to me. I’ve never heard of him. What’s his deal?”

  “A newcomer to town that’s trying to move in on our business by all accounts,” Lincoln went on.

  “So, take him out,” Matt said and looked towards Eddie. “What the hell do you need me for? You’ve got plenty of people who can easily deal with this type of situation and it includes the one sitti
ng in this room.”

  "And I'm the one they call a Neanderthal," Eddie mocked as he leaned forward. "I don't want to take him out..., at least not yet."

  "Then what is it you want to do?"

  "I want to send him a message about who the real power in this town is," Eddie replied. "I run the drugs trade and if he wants a piece of the action, then he needs to fucking do it through me."

  "Why let him get involved at all?" Matt queried.

  "I'm not against expanding my markets to areas outside the town," Eddie went on and settled back in his seat. "Maybe this is an opportunity for me to do that and I can use this guy to get what I want. I won't know unless I try, will I?"