by P. D. Clover
“Friend price my ass. You don’t have any friends… They might ask to borrow a dollar,” I said.
“AH HAHAHAHA” Sam laughed.
“We have this much...” I said as slid the two cashiers checks across the counter to him.
Sam picked up the checks, taking in the amounts, already made out to his store. He eyed us differently than before now.
“You serious?” Sam asked.
“As a heart attack. We want the maple leaf’s, eagles, and anything else marked officially by weight. No collectors stuff, preferably all silver,” I said.
“I will have to double check what I have, but I know off hand I don’t have that much silver here. I can do the rest in proofed gold now. Or you can come back tomorrow if you want it all in silver?” Sam asked, all business.
“Has to be today… Do what you can, but one-ounce coins are my preference. I can’t do shit with gold bars,” I said, as Sam started laughing.
“You didn’t bring that kinda money Kid, and I don’t keep that stuff here anyway… Give me a second, and I’ll get you a final tally by weight,” Sam said.
Chapter13
Matt and I carried out the boxes of silver coins and 100oz silver bars to the truck, it was an incredible amount… What was not so incredible was the 2 ½ tubes of one-ounce gold coins, especially since they accounted for over half of the total amount. It was a little sad really, they could only be used for wealth retention or traded for something excessively big, but at the end of the day gold is gold and the dollar is just paper.
As we finished moving the boxes of silver to truck, my phone began to Beep and buzz with text and email notifications. I assumed it was the rest of the guys responding as that was protocol. Once a message was received via the daisy chain, a confirmation was required of receipt of the message. It was a little late, but that was to be expected. It was just now 8:30am, so most of the guys would be up and moving, checking texts voice mails and emails. By now they all know what’s up and should be mobilizing. Before I started up the truck, I took out my phone to check. Someone may need a hand, or someone might have intel as to what is coming.
Sure enough, I had texts from everyone I was missing, Josh Hawkins, Max Shelby, and the Rorschach brothers, Mike and Jamie. All souls accounted for and following their various plans, we will have a check-in tonight via Amateur Radio at midnight. Nothing fancy, just a swift debrief from everyone regarding whether or not they followed their individual plans and are where they are supposed to be. I only wish they would have responded sooner. They could have had more time to collect and move their resources.
I turned the key and started the large, stolen (or as I liked to think of it “involuntarily loaned”) vehicle. My phone began to buzz and play the song “Crazy Bitch” by Buckcherry, that was Dee’s ring tone. I answered immediately.
“Hey Boss, is everything alright?” I asked. The unscheduled call put me on edge... She knew to only call if things were dire or out of control, no frivolous communications.
Her coded answer said it all, “Circle the wagons!” Then she hung up.
“FUUUUUCCCCCKKKK” I yelled. This was the last fucking thing I needed.
I slammed the truck into drive and floored the gas! In my haste I forgot to release the emergency brake, setting of a mind piercing alarm from the truck. I released the parking brake without letting of the gas. I could feel my rage welling up inside of me, my temples were throbbing with every beat of my heart. I gripped the stirring well as though it was the neck of my most hated enemy.
“What’s up big guy?” Matt asked cautiously.
“Monkey-inbred shit-licking dumb-fucking-fuckity-FUCK!.. How could I have been so stupid!!! I fucking did this...God damnit…I will solve it… Matt get out the AK-V full auto and a couple mags for it…” I said in a fury.
“Okay brother, no problem… but I need you to tell me what is going on first.”
“I’m a sentimental, emotional pussy… That’s what! I am fucking weak and now I have brought a shit storm down on my family,” I ranted.
“What the fuck are you raving about bro?” Matt asked concern in his voice.
“My family showed up…” I said with a snarl.
Matt just looked at me puzzled, then realization dawned on him, “Wait… Katy, Bill, their kids with the dumb names? Are you talking about them?”
“Yes”
“What the fuck bro? Why are they at your house…now?... It doesn’t make sense…Wait...shit. You called her?” he asked.
“Yes”
“Your right, you are a fucking idiot,” Matt said flatly.
Matt then got out both the AK-Vs and placed them in the middle of the truck between us, loaded and ready.
“I got your back. Do what you need to, and I will keep them off you,” Matt said coldly.
“Thanks” I said through gritted teeth.
I hit the gas even harder, I was seeing red and I had blood on my mind, with rage and murder in my heart. Today I was going to kill my brother-in-law.
I was going to kill Bill.
Chapter 14
As we barreled down the road toward home, I could feel my rage grow with every breath, the murder in my heart sang with joy at the prospect of vengeance.
Matt almost whispered the question. “Is this the right play Henry?”
“I warned him… He knew if I ever saw him, he was a fucking dead man.”
“I know that, what I’m saying is, is this the right play… now?” Matt asked calmly.
“What are you trying to say Matt? I am not in the mood for 20 questions.”
“Something is about to happen, that’s a fact. You really want to be in a jail cell while it happens or in a shootout with a bunch of Barney Fife wannabees? That’s not something you want your kids to see you do. Does he need to die?... Hard yes, but there is a time and place for everything…. This isn’t it brother.”
I said with almost a growl. “So what? Forgive and forget? Just let it go? Fuck that… I want my pound of FLESH!!! …. That mother-fuck son-of-a-whore called the Department of child Services and local field Branch of the FBI and told them that Dee and I were child pornographers… That we were sexually abusing our newborn… Do you even remember all the shit we went through? The endless legal nightmare that had to be sorted out? fucking DCS refused to comply with the federal order to return my kid because of the St Louis thing. Charges were never even filed, but that wasn’t good enough for DCS… St Louis PD said it was open and shut, clear self-defense! Then come to find out the lead case worker was Bill’s ex-boyfriend… My son was in foster care for the first 6 month of his life… The truth is I should have killed this mother-fucker years ago… This is just unfinished business.”
“He definitely deserves to die. You know my feelings on this… absolutely, take your pound of flesh! But keep him breathing man... We will settle that score in time. Fuck, I’ll dig the hole. But too many people are depending on you… This is not the way… you know I’m right,” Matt said levelly.
I was breathing heavily, and I could feel my adrenaline spike as I turned into my neighborhood. My hands were shaking, and I had to focus to stop the tunnel vision. My hearing was starting to get fuzzy, and the beat of my heart grew louder and louder.
“No promises, but I will try to leave him breathing,” I said.
As I turned into the alley that lead to the back of my home, my eyes started to flush with water. Just one more autonomic response, I thought, as I could almost feel the mental cage I locked my fight brain away in shake. I could feel that dark part of myself, the part I keep locked away and restrained. He was howling with blood lust and anticipation. Scenario after scenario was flashing through my mind’s eye. My body was on auto pilot as I swung the large box truck into my driveway, blocking in the other vehicles. No sign of Katy’s Subaru, they must have parked down in front. I threw the truck into park and jumped out. It was time to hunt…
I eyed the side door quickly, no one there. I knew Dee wouldn’t
let them in the house, so I went left and headed to the wrap around porch. She would make them stay outside until I got home. I walked around the porch and saw Sahara and Timber sitting next to Katy.
“Where is he?” I said coldly.
“He is in the car, Hen...”
I immediately jumped over the rail and off the porch. I ran down my front yard to the now visible Subaru. Sitting in the passenger seat was the fuck head himself, as always, wearing that stupid fucking beret. I jumped down from the 4-foot retaining wall, down to the sidewalk, which brought me right next to the passenger side door of Katy’s Subaru. I reached for the door handle, locked. I bent down and looked inside, and just as plain as day…there he was. Sitting wide eyed like a scared rabbit, sporting his stupid oversized mustache… he didn’t dare move a muscle.
Somewhere in the background I could hear chanting. It was almost spiritual. Like going to a mega church and hearing thousands of people praying all at once. It only fed my excitement. I had him…
I could feel the broad smile on my face and the warm embrace of adrenaline pumping through my veins, encouraging my muscles with oxygen and hormone rich blood, sharpening my reflexes, energizing my spirit, and focusing my mind to the task at hand. I had been going for at least 26 hours, probably closer to 28. The heavy feeling of exhaustion and my desire to rest my eyes and sore back for just an hour suddenly fell away like a large bag of bricks tumbling down a garbage shoot as soon as I saw the fear in in Bill’s eyes.
I knocked on the glass.
“Bill, I have some good news for you. I am not going to end your mortal strife today. However, I am going to fuck you up. You are welcome to fight back. In fact, I would definitely suggest you try… It’s more fun that way.” I couldn’t hold back my smile as I said this.
“Bill, you either step out of the car and take your medicine, or I will finish what I started six years ago at the Christmas party… You decide,” I said frostily.
Bill didn’t move, he didn’t blink. I knew he remembered the beating I gave him. He spent three weeks in the hospital, where I visited him and gave a very final warning. I told him then that if I ever saw him again or if he pressed charges, I was going to beat him to death with my own bare hands.
Bill knew I was a man of my word.
I pulled my MicroTech automatic knife out, the sounds of frantic shouting in the background was even louder and closer now, but I didn’t care. My prey was trapped. I tapped the end of the knife against the glass and said, “Do you know what this little thing on the end here is?” I indicated to the little ball point pen looking attachment on the end of my knife. “It’s a glass breaker,” I said flatly. “I have used it to breakout windows and pull people to safety after car wrecks. I will use it to break this window and pull you out of this car, if you don’t come out on the count of three, Bill. If I have to do that…if you make me break this glass and come in after you, I will strip you naked and drag you through all the broken glass I can find. So, one, two, …” Bill opened the door. I slipped the knife back into my pocket.
“Henry, just wait a second! This wasn’t my idea, Katy said…” Bill started to say as he stepped out of the car and stood up.
“Bill, Shhhhh…” I said putting a finger to my lips in the universal sign of “be quiet”.
“Bill, you’re here. That’s all that matters now.” As I said this, Bill tried to hide his lanky vegan fed 6ft, 140lb body behind the car door.
I stomp kicked the door with everything my 6’4, 250lb frame could muster. The kick dented the door and spiderwebbed the window. The door hit Bill with full-force and because he was still between the body of the car and car door, Bill took the full impact from both sides at once. I didn’t waste a second, I surged forward to stop him from retreating back into the car. I reached for his jacket but somehow ended up grabbing his ridiculous handlebar mustache, that worked even better than his jacket to get him out of the car and on the sidewalk. Then with a sudden jerk of my hand, still firmly grasping his giant curly mustache, his facial decoration ripped free from his lip. Bill howled wildly, but I just smiled. Bill was rolling around on the ground screaming, then he suddenly got his feet under him and charged me. I couldn’t have been happier. As Bill came at me, I got up on the balls of my feet. Then as Bill came in for the grab I pivoted, grabbing him by the arm and the back of his jacket. Then, using his own momentum I slung him into the retaining wall’s 100+ year-old stone work. Bill hit hard. I could hear the whoomph of his lungs being compressed and the wind being knocked out of him.
I smiled more.
“For fuck’s sake Bill…is that all you got? One too many years on your knees in college, huh?” I taunted.
Bill got his breath back and used the wall to stand up, he was swaying on his feet, “Fuck you, Henry.”
I stomp kicked him in the pelvis, slamming his hips into the wall, but before he could fall, I burst in and started to go to work. I threw my palm hard into his nose, I felt the wet pop and crunch of it breaking. He threw a wild right, which I stopped dead with a forearm block and immediately countered with a right elbow followed by my left elbow, then an upper cut right elbow. He was trapped by my attack and the wall to his back. He tried to lean in and grab me. I checked and cleared his arms out of the way, allowing me to easily place him in a Thai-clinch. With my hands, one on top of the other at the base of his head and top of his neck, I used his forward motion to bring him in and pin his head to my chest as I threw hard, vicious knees to his groin, belly and ribs. Then I pivoted on my left foot, sweeping my right foot back and swinging Bill hard to the right, causing him to fly back and slam into the Subaru, shattering the already damaged window. Bill just laid there unconscious. I turned to see Matt, sitting on Timber’s back and pointing a taser at Katy and Sahara. Well, that did explain the noise I was hearing.
“Well, it was good catching up with you all…” I said panting. “We should do it again… But I have things to do and time is running short, so if you would excuse Matt and myself,” I said as I started back up the stairs trying to reign in my desire to go back and snap Bill’s neck.
“What the HELL Henry?” Katy shrieked.
“What?” I said as I turned to face her.
“We came here for help! We are family!” Katy yelled.
“You and these two ungrateful shits are my family, not that sorry asshole…” I said, pointing at Bill who was now starting to move again.
“Matt, let Timber go.” Matt got up off Timbers back and moved swiftly aside, like tiger circling an abandoned fawn.
Timber got to his feet in a huff and proceeded to get in Matt’s face. But before Timber could utter a single word, there was a sudden zapping sound like a really large moth caught in an industrial bug zapper. Timber froze, then collapsed to the ground. I looked over and Matt had removed the cartridge from the taser and hit Timber with a contact shot to the groin. He swiftly replaced the cartridge, ready for Katy or Sahara to do something stupid. They didn’t. They just stood there, which may have been the smartest thing my sister had ever done. I could easily imagine how this situation might deteriorate.
“Well, that was entertaining! … Timber, you best get that temper of yours in check before someone decides to teach you a lesson. Katy, I know why you’re here. Y’all… just go stay with mom. She has the room, and you still have time to go get what you need… Good luck.” As I turned to go, Katy said “We have to get Bill to a hospital… again... Does it make you feel big Henry…does it? Hurting people?”
“People? No, no it doesn’t… Bill? Oh yes. In fact, that bordered on being sexual... but he doesn’t need a hospital. I barely touched him. Anyway… it’s your life, and the next few hours are yours to do with as you please… Just do it somewhere else.” I turned to walk back up to the house and Matt followed.
My mom was standing at the bottom of the porch steps crying. As I walked up to her she said, “I’m sorry Henry.”
“I know you are Mom. I know. If you want to help them, that
is on you. It’s best y’all get going,” I said as I started up the stairs.
“But you said I should stay here until we knew what was happening?” she pleaded.
“That was before you invited Bill to MY house. You chose your side, so go live with it,” I said as I walked up the steps. Dee had the front door open and a cold Mexican Coke waiting on me. What a wonderful woman.
Chapter 15
As I walked through the breezeway into the sitting room of my home, I took a long hard pull from the ice-cold Coke enjoying the rich, full flavor that only real cane sugar can deliver. I turned around in time to see my sister and niece help up my nephew and start walking toward the car. My mother was trailing behind them. Apparently, Bill had gotten back into the Subaru at some point. I could see his face. Even from this distance, I could tell it was starting to darken and swell.
Matt followed me in and asked Dee, “No Coke for me? I helped…”
Dee gave a loud laugh, “Since when did you start drinking that poison? I do have some coffee ready. Would you like some?”
Matt gave a wide smile, “I’m just teasing. Thank you for the offer, but I am probably gonna need to grab some sleep. We have another long night ahead, this time unpacking. Also, we need to ditch that U-haul tonight.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Grab some rest. I think Dee has the spare bedroom ready?” I asked.
“Matt, the extra bedroom is ready. What’s ours is yours... Henry, are you gonna try to sleep?”
“After I know what the event is…yeah, I will get some rest. I need to know what’s going on and I need to remember that at midnight tonight we have a check in with everyone on the HAM Radio.
“Shit, I forgot about the event happening at 2 p.m.,” Matt said shaking his head. “That almost seems impossible.”
“It’s not that impossible, Bro. We are ragged out. All night driving, buying, loading and lying to everyone… it’s exhausting. Now that my adrenaline has stopped flowing, I feel like I could sleep standing up... My whole body is sore,” I said as I rolled my neck.
