Young Guns Box Set

by Kane, Remington

  * * *

  Rayna met Pearson out on the front steps; she had her hand on her gun.

  “Where did those shots come from?” she asked Pearson.

  “Down that way,” he said, while pointing to his left. “It must be that convenience store.”

  The rookie Collins came out and headed toward them. He was shouted back by Pearson.

  “Stay with the Washingtons, kid. Rayna and I got this.”

  A scream pierced the night from the direction of the store. That was followed by a female voice talking loudly.

  “Oh my God, they shot a cop!”

  The police officers outside James’ building exchanged looks, then all three of them were rushing toward the store. Pearson had taken out his phone to call the robbery in, but when he saw Collins pass him, he shouted.

  “Get back, rookie! Someone has to stay here and keep watch.”

  Collins stopped running and looked over at Rayna.

  “Be careful.”

  “We will be,” Rayna assured him. Afterward, she sprinted past the slower Pearson.

  Collins watched them go. He was thinking that if anyone should have stayed behind it should have been the older and out of shape Pearson. Collins watched the detective lumber along while Rayna was already a hundred feet in front of him.

  Doing as he was ordered to do, Collins walked back to the apartment house, went up the stairs, and stepped inside. He was just able to register that something was moving in toward him fast from his left before he was struck, and the world went black.

  * * *

  The gangbanger who had struck Collins with the butt of his shotgun laughed along with his two companions as he watched the rookie fall to the floor. When a door opened from somewhere on the second floor, one of the other gang members shouted up the stairs.

  “If you don’t want to get your ass shot you better close that door up there.”

  Whoever had opened the door had good sense, and the door slammed shut.

  * * *

  Inside his apartment, James had stirred awake after hearing the boom of gunfire in the distance. Sadly, it was not an unusual sound in his neighborhood, and so he had drifted back to sleep.

  The shouted words directed up the staircase changed all that and James was sitting upright as he strained to listen.

  Then came the kick, as someone attempted to break into the apartment. James rose from the bed wearing only a pair of boxer briefs, then he opened the drawer on his night stand. When his hand emerged, he was holding the gun Tanner had given him. James headed for the door while praying that the small gun would be enough to protect his mother.

  40

  Do Or Die

  OUTSIDE PORTLAND, OREGON, JANUARY 2003

  Unlike the others who had come before them, Cody and Romeo made their ascent up the cliff face on a clear day. While the cacophony of a violent storm would help to cover any sounds their efforts made, it was also likely that the Citadel knew that as well.

  Cody and Romeo assumed that meant that there would be extra patrols of the cliff and its summit during storms. To avoid that, they decided to risk climbing in good weather, although they were doing so at night.

  Hutchins had seemed dubious about their chances of succeeding by an assault on the cliff. That was the very reason Cody thought it the best option. No one had ever come close to making it to the top. Knowing that, the Citadel’s guards might be lax about patrolling it.

  The climb was easier than many the boys had made while training with Amanda. The men who had last attempted the ascent had left behind a series of bolts. Cody and Romeo used the bolts to attach their carabiners, which were D-shaped rings used for fastening ropes.

  As they were warned, the last twenty feet or so were the worst. Cody could see where someone had worked at the rock to loosen it. While climbing up, several stones had rained down on them. Those stones would have a ton of company if the boys attempted to get foot or handholds in the loose rock.

  But that was all right, Cody had a plan for that.

  From their years of training together they knew that Romeo had a slight edge over Cody in the strength department. He was also three pounds heavier. Adding those two factors together, it was decided that Romeo would put their plan into action as Cody assisted.

  They couldn’t climb over loose rock, but it was possible to swing past it if enough momentum had been built up. After signaling each other that they were ready, Cody jumped from his position on Romeo’s far left.

  After falling over twenty feet, the rope his harness was attached to went taut. Romeo had been expecting the sudden jerk Cody’s weight would exert on him, but it was more than he’d anticipated. He nearly had the rope ripped out of his gloved hands. If he hadn’t been in superb condition, he would have risked dislocating a shoulder.

  That leap was the beginning of Cody’s pendulum ride as he swung back and forth while suspended. The goal was to get the arc of his swing so wide that he would be level with the summit of the cliff at its apex. Once that had been accomplished, Romeo could maneuver the rope closer and closer to the face of the cliff until Cody could contact the edge of the summit. If he could grab hold of the scraggly plants that grew there, he should be able to pull himself up, then Romeo.

  Even if the plan was successful it could prove fatal for them. If a guard was nearby and detected their movements, they would be shot and tossed from the cliff.

  It took longer than they had anticipated, but Cody was eventually swinging in a wide arc. The stress on Romeo was intense and he wore a pained expression as he fought to control the rope. At last, Cody was near enough to reach out and grab for solid ground.

  Instead of gripping weeds with a sturdy root base, his hands found grass. It was enough. One clump of grass ripped from the ground, but the turf in his right hand stayed firmly planted. That allowed Cody to get a leg up and crawl atop the cliff’s summit.

  With scant seconds lost, Cody began pulling on the rope to bring Romeo to the top. While doing this, he was vulnerable and knew he could be shot at any moment. Cody pushed such thoughts from his mind and concentrated on the task at hand.

  Part of his training to become a Tanner involved disciplining the mind while building mental toughness. That training was put to use during the time it took to bring Romeo to the top.

  Romeo scrambled up with Cody’s help and the two young men grinned at each other. They had done something no one else had ever accomplished. They had made it onto the grounds of the Citadel. Now came the hard part: getting inside.

  * * *

  A duffel bag full of supplies had been attached to the end of the rope dangling beyond Romeo. It held the weapons and tools they needed; this included bulletproof vests. Cody lugged the heavy bag behind a thick tree as Romeo followed. By taking the burden himself, Cody allowed Romeo time to recover from the strain he’d endured while supporting Cody’s weight.

  “How do you feel?” Cody asked. “You didn’t pull any muscles, did you?”

  “No, dude, I’m good, and I’m stoked to get inside this place and take out Kabell.”

  Cody pointed to his right. There was the faint glow of a light; beneath it was the gleam of metal.

  “That looks like a door to me. Once we get there, I’ll set the first charge.”

  They donned their vests along with gloves and ski masks. When they were halfway to the door, a voice cried out from the darkness on their right. “Hey!” That was followed by a shot and a grunt of pain from Romeo.

  Cody spun toward the voice and opened fire. He was rewarded by a scream which he barely registered. Romeo was down.

  “Where are you hit?”

  “The vest… I’m good, it hit the vest.”

  The door they had been headed to opened and six men came out waving guns. Cody scattered them by sending three rounds in their direction, before helping Romeo up and heading back toward the tree for cover.

  The Citadel’s guards may have outnumbered them, but their skill at firing under pressu
re was less than impressive. Romeo shot two guards as Cody took down another two.

  “We’ll never have a better chance to get inside,” Cody said. “Are you ready?”

  “Fuckin’ A,” Romeo said.

  The two of them stepped out from cover determined to make it inside when Jack Begley, Serge, and five other guards entered the fight. They had come up on the boys from behind, but not silently, and so their approach was heard. The thought flashed through Cody’s mind that if it had been storming, the guards would have gone undetected.

  The boys flung themselves rearward to lie on their backs as a fusillade of rounds passed over their heads. They answered with shots fired in haste but were rewarded with the sight of a wounded man yelping in pain and stumbling into another man.

  When Cody looked behind him at the door that was their destination, he saw a jeep pull up. It had no top and the man in the passenger seat was holding a rifle with a scope attached. The guard in the jeep was sighting in on them when Cody tossed a grenade his way.

  The guard had the good sense to drop his rifle and dive for cover before the grenade exploded. When the blast came, it lifted the jeep off the ground and flipped it over. The driver went along for the ride and screamed out in pain.

  In the meantime, Romeo had tossed a second grenade toward Begley and his people. The blast made them seek cover and gave the boys the precious time they needed to make it to their feet.

  “We’ll never be able to set the charges while we’re under this much fire,” Romeo said.

  Cody nodded in agreement as he said. “So much for plan A. Let’s get out of here.”

  * * *

  Jack Begley had been in the middle of eating a late dinner when the alarm sounded. He was shocked when Serge told him that two men had made it onto the grounds and had wounded a guard.

  Ann shouted for Begley to be careful as he grabbed his duty vest from a hook by the door and rushed toward the nearest elevator. Once there, he found Serge, Mike, and two of his men. Two more guards made it onto the elevator before the doors closed, as they struggled into their own vests.

  Begley was proud to see that his troops were ready and eager to repel the invaders. His confidence faltered when the first grenade went off, and Begley began to wonder just who the hell they were up against.

  The two men moved with the grace of athletes, had deadly aim, and seemed fearless. That said, not for an instant did Begley believe they would make it inside. The door the men had targeted was only the first of three they had to get through to gain entrance to the facility’s interior. They would have had trouble even if they had brought a tank with them.

  Serge’s voice carried above the sound of gunfire. “They’re headed toward the cliff, Jack.”

  Begley left the cover of the tree he’d been behind and charged toward Cody and Romeo with his gun arm extended.

  “Kill them! Kill those bastards.”

  * * *

  Cody led Romeo to a spot left of the position where they had climbed up. It led them down a steep hill. The land was much lower at this section of the cliff and sat about forty feet above the waters of the cove.

  Below, there was no strip of sand, and the cold water was strewn with rocks. A leap into the surf might bring safety but could just as easily result in injury or death.

  On top of that, Begley and his men would be firing down on them if they tried swimming away. Cody and Romeo were aware of all those factors, along with one more. A leap into the rocky water below was the only chance they had to survive.

  As the boys approached the edge, Begley and Serge crested the hill behind them and fired at their backs. Cody grunted in pain as a round skidded off the side of his vest. Neither he nor Romeo hesitated as they reached the edge but leapt out as far as they could. The information they had gathered from Hutchins noted that the rocks were more concentrated by the base of the cliff.

  The boys sailed out into darkness as the moonlit waters below rushed ever closer.

  41

  Two Down

  THE BRONX, OCTOBER 2018

  James opened his bedroom door and found his mother looking back at him from her own room. He kept the gun he held hidden behind the edge of the door frame. His mother looked terrified and was trembling, then she jumped, as the sound of shots echoed like thunder in the hallway.

  At first, James thought the men outside their door were firing through it in an attempt to kill them. But no, the shots were all contained in the hall. Judging by the cries of pain he was hearing, the cops had joined in a gun battle with the gang members. Relieved, James tossed the gun Tanner had given him back into the room, where it landed atop his bed. However, his last assumption was wrong. It wasn’t the cops protecting them, it was James’ brother.

  * * *

  Jerold Washington, known on the streets as Hakeem, surprised the gangbangers by emerging from the basement and firing at one of them.

  His first target was the man holding the shotgun. Jerold fired his own shotgun at the man’s face and the pellets obliterated the thug’s features.

  The other two men returned fire from the Glocks they were holding, but most of their shots went wide. Jerold was no better a shot than they were, but he didn’t need to be. The wide disbursal of pellets from the shotgun made missing difficult.

  He was reloading when one of the men he’d wounded shot him in the left thigh. The bullet sliced a groove along the outer portion of the leg. Jerold answered with another blast from the shotgun which ended any further opposition.

  “James, Mom?” Jerold called. “Are you all right in there?”

  Several moments passed, then the apartment door opened, and James and his mother peered through a crack.

  “Oh, sweet Jesus,” Debra said as she viewed the bloody carnage in the hallway. Then, her eyes fell on Jerold’s wounded leg, and she pointed at him. “You’re hurt.”

  “It ain’t bad, Mom. But listen, you two have to get out of New York. Maurice Biggs wants you dead and he won’t stop coming.”

  Debra was crying as she spoke to Jerold again. “You killed a child, Jerold, a baby no more than four-years-old.”

  “It was an accident!” Jerold said.

  “That was no accident,” Debra said. “It was murder, murder plain and simple, and good God boy but I know I raised you better than that.”

  Tears formed in Jerold’s eyes. He wiped them away as he spoke to his brother.

  “Get Mom the hell out of here, James. Out of the damn city and out of the fucking state. Run as far as you can and just keep—”

  A shot rang out. It was the rookie, Jude Collins. He had come to and seen Jerold Washington holding a shotgun. Still dazed from the blow to his head, Jude was acting on instinct and thought that Jerold was the man who had attacked him.

  The hurried shot missed Jerold by a foot, and he swiveled around and fired the shotgun at the cop, who was still lying on the floor. The blast caught Collins in the throat and ripped open his carotid artery. Blood spurted from the wound. Debra screamed before rushing out into the hallway in her robe and slippers to see if she could help stop the flow of blood. She slipped in the gore coating the hallway floor and nearly went down. After regaining her balance, Debra lowered herself to the floor and pressed her hands to Collins’ wound.

  There was nothing to be done, and Collins died.

  “He shot at me first,” Jerold said. “That cop tried to kill me. You saw him.”

  The front door of the apartment building opened, but only several inches, as Collins’ legs were pressed against it. A face peered in, the face of Detective Rayna Owens.

  Rayna whispered a curse when she saw the bodies of the three gangbangers, but she’d yet to register Collins’ corpse.

  “Fuck!” Jerold shouted at the sight of another cop, then he was headed through the basement door.

  Rayna pushed her way inside determined to chase after Jerold, but then she saw Collins’ body.

  “No, no, no, no, oh God no,” Rayna said. She dropped to
her knees beside Collins and looked over at Debra.

  Debra’s hands were scarlet from her attempt to stanch the flow of blood from Collins’ wounds. Rayna looked at her with such hatred that it made Debra flinch away from her.

  “You bitch! You’re responsible for this. You raised an animal, a fucking animal. Wasn’t killing a child enough for him, did he have to kill a cop too?”

  Those words were followed by tears, as Rayna mourned for the loss of her young lover.

  Detective Scott Pearson, overweight and out of shape, lumbered into the building while still breathing hard. When he saw the scene before him, he closed his eyes tightly, clutched his chest, and collapsed to the floor.

  Pearson died beside Collins, the victim of a massive heart attack.

  42

  Meditation

  OUTSIDE PORTLAND, OREGON, JANUARY 2003

  Jack Begley ordered his men to fire into the waves below the cliff as he hoped to kill the two men who moments earlier had leapt into the water.

  Although there was moonlight, the orb above was only half full and aided little in seeing what was going on below. Begley removed his flashlight from its sheath on his vest as Serge and two other guards did the same. Once the four beams were pointed downward, Begley saw no sign of his quarry.

  “They drowned,” Serge said. “The fools crashed atop the rocks, slid into the water, and drowned.”

  “Maybe,” Begley said, and the doubt in his voice was easy to detect.

  “What else could have happened?” Serge said. “If they swam away we would have seen them, and no one could hold their breath that long.”