Savage Reckoning

by C. Hoyt Caldwell

  “Where’re you going?”

  “You get that girl out of here, Kenny! That’s what you do! I’ll take care of the rest.”

  Chapter 76

  From their vantage point, Dani couldn’t see anything but the back of the barn. She and Bones knelt behind a row of trees, waiting for something to happen. They heard the plane come to a stop. They heard the sound of the prop slow and sputter. They heard the sound of voices, at least one female among them. But now nothing.

  Bones looked the deputy up and down. “You’re the law?”

  Dani nodded.

  “You know Kenny?”

  “I do.” The deputy stood, careful to keep herself concealed behind the tree.

  Bones scanned the woods and then looked back at the house. “What is this place?”

  Dani ignored her question. “What are you doing here?”

  Bones shrugged. “Last I remember I was in the club. Now I’m here, some old woman’s calling me a whore, can’t find Step nowhere, you show up, can’t find my stuff…”

  Dani eyeballed her. “Stuff?”

  Bones looked away. “I need to find Step. He can help me. He knows what I need.”

  Dani watched as Bones hugged her legs to her chest and rocked back and forth. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re kind of in the middle of something.”

  “I just need my stuff!”

  Dani put her hand over Bones’s mouth. “Shhhh.”

  Bones tried to pry the deputy’s hand away.

  “I will get your stuff,” Dani said, “but you have to be quiet. Do you understand?”

  Bones calmed.

  “Tell me you understand.”

  Bones nodded.

  Dani sighed anxiously. “Ima take my hand away, but you say anything above a whisper, I will find your stuff and flush it down the first toilet I can find. Do you hear me?”

  Bones nodded again.

  The deputy slowly pulled her hand away from Bones’s mouth. To her surprise, the frail girl remained silent. “Now, Ima go back to the barn. Okay? You stay here and keep quiet, and I will bring back Step with your stuff.”

  “Promise?”

  Dani stood. “Yes, but only if you stay quiet.”

  Bones mimed zipping her mouth shut.

  Dani took little comfort in the gesture, but she had no choice but to trust her. She slinked past the tree, expecting Bones to break her word at any second.

  Chapter 77

  Armstrong and her partner headed for the back door when they entered the barn, while Boss and his men made their way to the tunnel opening. He directed his two goons to descend the staircase. “Looks like this is where we split up.”

  Armstrong turned to him. “Wait! You can’t just go down there. You could be walking into a trap.”

  Boss dismissed her concerns. “You’re overthinking things, sweetheart. You and your partner do your thing, and we’ll do ours.”

  The corporal shook her head as she watched Boss’s men enter the tunnel. “Knock yourself out.” She motioned for her partner to join her.

  Chapter 78

  Step wasn’t thinking, he wasn’t planning, he wasn’t doing anything other than what he instinctively knew how to do: closeouts. The first of Boss’s goons wasn’t even off the bottom rung of the stairs when Step shot him square in the chest. He fell forward, unable to right himself before he smacked his head into the concrete wall.

  The second goon tripped over the first and managed to miss being shot in the process. Had he had the wherewithal to return fire once he hit the floor, he may have managed to avoid being hit by a third round from Step’s pistol. The bullet entered the small of his back, and exited his left ass cheek.

  The man took another bullet in the back of the head as Step passed him in the corridor.

  Boss fell away from the trapdoor upon hearing the first gunshot. He quickly crawled behind a small tractor to his right.

  “Hold your fire!” Boss yelled.

  Step stood at the bottom of the stairs. “Don’t see the point in that.”

  “Step? That you?”

  “You surprised?”

  “Disappointed.”

  “Yeah, well I ain’t feeling too good about myself, neither.”

  “You had potential, Step. Ain’t never met someone who took to closeouts like you.”

  “I will admit, I do have a skill for it. I’ll give you that.”

  “And now you’re just gonna piss all that away.”

  Step chuckled. “I aim to keep up the practice. I’m just gonna be closing out a different sort.” He climbed halfway up the stairs.

  “I got the high ground, boy. You ain’t climbing out of that hole alive.”

  “I expect you’re right about that, Boss, but how I make it out of this situation don’t concern me near as much as how you make it out of this situation. I may not leave this tunnel alive, but I’m counting on you having the same kind of luck leaving the barn.”

  Boss laughed. “You may think too highly of yourself, Step. I got the drop on you.”

  “No doubt,” Step said, “but I’m guessing you got yourself hid behind that tractor.”

  Boss furrowed his brow. “Suppose I do. What then?”

  “You using that old Amigo of yours?”

  Boss looked at his gun. “I might be, yeah.”

  Step nodded with a grin. “I thought so.”

  “Don’t see what difference it makes.”

  “You ain’t got nothing but cheap firing range ammo for that piece of shit gun.”

  “So?”

  “So, that ammo sparks out something awful.”

  “Still gets the job done.”

  “It’ll do more than that. Take a whiff.”

  Boss hesitated and then sniffed the air. The smell of fuel assaulted his nostrils.

  “You’re about five feet from that fuel tank, if I remember right. You fire a shot, you’ll blow yourself six feet past the tree line.”

  Boss looked at the tank and sniffed the air several more times. He chuckled nervously. “You’re full of shit, Step.”

  Step moved up the narrow staircase. “Well, we’ll find out soon enough. Ima stick my head out this hole in a second or two. You fire off a shot and see what happens.”

  Boss cocked his weapon and took aim at the opened trapdoor.

  Chapter 79

  Dani froze after hearing the three gunshots from the barn. She listened intently as two men shouted back and forth at each other. She could only make out a few words. They appeared to be arguing over a fuel tank. She stuck her head past the tree and watched two people exit the back of the barn. She narrowed her eyes and focused on the smaller figure in front. Leaning in closer, she recognized the long blond hair pulled back in a ponytail. A smile spread across her face. “Maggie!”

  The state police officer stopped in her tracks and scanned the woods in front of her.

  Dani stepped out from behind the tree. “It’s me, Deputy Savage.”

  Corporal Armstrong lowered her weapon. “Dani?”

  The deputy picked up her pace. “My uncle, is he all right?”

  Armstrong considered her question.

  “You went to the station, right? He needed your help.”

  “We went,” Armstrong said. “He’s in the barn.”

  Dani stopped dead in her tracks and took a moment to compose herself. To get confirmation that her uncle was alive and well was almost too much for her to take. She had to fight back a flood of tears. She gathered her wits and continued toward the state police officer. “The girl, Sarah Campbell, she was abducted. She’s on the property somewhere—”

  “In the tunnel,” the corporal answered. “We found her. She’s safe.”

  Bones watched the deputy approach the stout woman coming out of the barn, growing more and more restless with each passing moment. Her patience ran dry, and she darted to the left to circle back around the house.

  Armstrong’s partner saw the movement beyond the tree line and instinctivel
y fired off two quick rounds.

  Dani ducked and then held up her hands. “Wait! Wait! Don’t shoot! She’s with me!”

  “Who’s with you?” Armstrong asked.

  The deputy turned to the woods. “A woman…she’s a friend…”

  Armstrong motioned to her partner. “Get her.”

  He nodded and ran toward the woods.

  Dani watched him until he disappeared behind the first row of trees. “She’s harmless.”

  “Not to worry,” Armstrong said. “He’ll find her and make sure she’s safe. Let’s reunite you with your uncle.”

  Dani hesitated briefly as something grabbed ahold of her. Had she been a seasoned police officer, she would have recognized that something as mistrust, but instead she mistook it for a growing eagerness to confirm with her own eyes that her uncle was alive and well.

  Chapter 80

  Boss did not fire when he saw Step’s head emerge from the tunnel. He kept his gun trained on the skinny closeout king, but the possibility that firing his weapon could produce a spark that would blow him to kingdom come kept his finger off the trigger.

  Once Step was standing on the barn floor, he stared daggers at Boss without saying a word.

  “Well ain’t this some shit?” Boss said.

  “You knew she was my baby girl,” Step said calmly.

  Boss raised an eyebrow. “What the hell you talking about?”

  Step shifted his gaze to the gun in his hand. “My wife, she made a deal with you?”

  Boss’s expression changed to a smirk. “Your baby girl. I see. You went through the files, did you? I wasn’t a big fan of keeping them at first, but do you know how much extra cash those things have brought in over the years? A lot of people are terrified of those damn things. Something about them being hard copies just scares the ever-living shit out of people.”

  “Did you make a deal with my wife?” Step raised his voice.

  Boss nodded. “We did.”

  Step’s stomach tied in knots. “Why?”

  Boss looked at him coldly. “Because you were a failure as a provider.”

  Step’s blood went cold.

  “That job, the one in Knoxville doing something…pest control, was it? Whatever it was, you brought home shit for money.”

  Step’s thumb tapped the hammer of the gun.

  “That pretty little wife of yours got y’all in some debt. Serious debt with the wrong people.”

  Step looked at him, dumbfounded.

  “You didn’t even know, did you?” He laughed. “The fucking man of the family is supposed to be on top of that kind of shit, Step. You gotta know what your wife is up to, and let me tell you, son, she was up to no good, stuff no wife should be up to.”

  The gun felt lighter in Step’s hands.

  “You know, I wasn’t ever gonna tell you this, but since you and me are about to have at it till one of us is dead, I might as well let you know, I fucked your old lady.”

  Step’s heartbeat pounded in his head.

  “Paid her $150 for an hour, a couple, three, four times. Boy, she knew how to ride a cock, too. I’ll give her that. Worked it like she was trying to put a permanent shine on it. She ever ride yours like that, Step?”

  Step could barely hear him over the growing ringing in his ears.

  “Anyway, $150 a few times a week wasn’t gonna cut it. No, sir, she needed fifty grand ASAP. Had a gambling habit, your little whore wife.” He laughed again. “I ain’t never met a woman that gambled before. Kind of threw me at first, couldn’t make heads nor tails out of it.” He stared off into space as if he was still trying to piece the mystery together. Shrugging, he said, “But debt is debt, and I proposed a way for her to get out of it. She thought about it. Not as long as you would think a mother would, mind you, but she did mull it over for a minute or two. Gave her seventy-five grand. She paid off her debt and lost the other twenty-five before the sun came up. A week later she was hanging from the end of a rope in your garage.”

  Tears welled up in Step’s eyes.

  “You went to shit fast once you put that little wife of yours in the ground. We got the order to close you out. We didn’t know how much you knew about what your woman was up to. Couldn’t take the chance that you might bring trouble to our doorstep. But, as it turns out, you didn’t know nothing. It was almost startling how much you didn’t know about your wife and her dealings, while you were off earning pennies at that damn job of yours. Closeout got called off because we didn’t wanna waste a bullet.

  “You’re lucky Bonnie took a liking to you because she made you her pet project. I ain’t never seen her want something so badly. I told her you were useless, that we should forget about you and leave you to die in some bar fight, which you took to on a regular basis as a widower.

  “But the old fat sow wouldn’t listen to me. She made the case to bring you on board. Said you were ripe for closeout work. Even went on about God calling you up for it. Crazy shit.” He chuckled. “Gotta hand it to her, she was dead-on about that. Don’t know what the hell God’s got to do with it, but you sure do have a knack for closeouts.”

  Step flicked the trigger of his gun. “We’ve established that.” He raised his pistol.

  Boss nervously gripped his gun. “You forgetting about the fuel tank?”

  Step shook his head. “Didn’t forget.”

  The back door to the barn opened and Dani stepped inside. She came to a sudden stop at the sight of the standoff between Step and Boss. She felt something jab her in the middle of the back, but only gave it a fleeting thought as she was focused on the two men pointing guns at each other. When whatever was jabbing her pressed even harder into her spine, she looked over her shoulder at the bright red face of Armstrong.

  “Keep moving,” the state police officer said.

  “What…” Dani started, but stopped when she realized what was pressed against her back: Armstrong’s gun.

  Step eased his finger off the trigger.

  Dani slowly moved forward, instinctively putting her hands in the air. “My uncle, where is he?”

  “I said keep moving, Deputy Savage.”

  “My uncle…”

  “You shouldn’t have trusted me, Deputy.”

  Dani struggled not to vomit.

  “Well, well, well,” Boss said. “The police have arrived.”

  “Drop your gun,” Armstrong said to Step.

  Step stood, unmoved by the corporal’s demand.

  “I don’t really have to explain to you what I’ll do if you don’t, do I?” Armstrong asked.

  Step grinned.

  “Drop your gun!”

  “This ain’t gonna work out for you like you hoped,” Step said.

  “Deputy Savage, explain to your friend what happens to you if he doesn’t drop his weapon,” Armstrong said, shoving her farther into the barn.

  “I ain’t got to explain it to him, you dumb bitch. He knows. You’re the one that don’t understand. Step and me ain’t friends. He don’t give a shit how many holes you put in me.”

  Armstrong laughed nervously. “Bullshit.”

  Step pulled back the hammer on his gun.

  “Wait!” Boss said. “Just wait a goddamned minute!” His hand started to shake. “I ain’t particularly interested in getting gunned down or blown up, so let’s just talk about this. Let’s work something out.”

  “Blown up?” Armstrong asked, peering around Dani’s shoulder.

  “There’s gas fumes all over this place,” Boss said, motioning toward the fuel tank with his head.

  “So?”

  “So, one little spark could blow us all to shit.”

  Armstrong let a half grin tick up on her face as she studied the fuel tank and sniffed the air. “Ain’t nothing gonna blow up.”

  “You sure about that?” Boss asked.

  Armstrong hesitated and then grunted out, “I’d lay money on it, yeah.”

  “That’s just another way of saying you ain’t a hundred percent sur
e on the matter,” Boss said.

  “Not a hundred percent, no.”

  “Then shut your fucking mouth,” Boss barked. “Let’s deal, Step. C’mon now, ain’t no need for it to end like this.”

  Step laughed. “If ever there was a need for something to end like this, this is that something.”

  Boss looked at the open trapdoor. “What about the inventory? She’s still alive, ain’t she?”

  Step’s resolve faltered as he looked down into the tunnel.

  Boss nodded with a grin. “Yeah, she is, ain’t she? We can fly her out of here, take her back home to her momma. She’ll be back in her own bed by midnight. I’ll even have a doc look her over.”

  Step considered his proposal. “Kenny and the deputy, too. They go with the girl.”

  “No way,” Armstrong said. “Not Deputy Savage—”

  “Shut up!” Boss said. “If Step wants that fine little piece of ass with a badge on the plane out of here, she’s on the plane.”

  “She knows too much.”

  Boss laughed. “Who the fuck is she gonna tell? Pikes own near everybody with power in this fucking state and three others, and a good chunk of the idiots in Washington. You hear that, Deputy? You go talking about this you’ll be dead a day later. That’s a goddamned guarantee.”

  Dani shook her head in disgust. “I ain’t gonna tell anyone.”

  “You see—” Boss started.

  Dani cut him off. “But here’s my guarantee. Ima kill every last one of you motherfuckers.” She did a half turn toward Armstrong. “Starting with you, Corporal Armstrong.”

  Boss groaned. “Okay, now that we’ve got all the guarantees on the table, can we get on with this? Do we have a deal?”

  Step stared down the tunnel and then nodded.

  Chapter 81

  Armstrong’s partner leaned over the limp body of the old man on the back porch of the small house and took his pulse. He was alive, but barely. He most likely was on his way out of this world. The state police officer stepped over the old man and entered the kitchen of the house. He snarled at the unwieldy number of pictures of Jesus on the wall. He moved toward the living room, but stopped when he heard the familiar sound of a gun being cocked from behind him. He turned slowly and almost laughed at the skeletal dope head pointing a scattergun at him.