Chapter 10

Stan woke still looking towards the ceiling. The hooker he had with him the night before was still asleep on the other side of the bed. He slapped her on the ass and woke her.

“Blow me, bitch.”

She rolled over and took all his almost 5-inch erection into her mouth and brought him off after a few minutes. When he was done he got out of bed and took a shower. As he shaved, he re-examined the scar on the side of his face. He earned that by biting the first cock that was jammed in his mouth in prison.

When he was done shaving, he put on some deodorant and combed his hair. He went out into the living room and looked at his phone. No messages.

After the pancakes had been thoroughly devastated, along with over two gallons of coffee and three pounds of bacon, I helped my mom clean up while Renee got the kids making their beds and cleaning their rooms. That way, they did not see the visitors dragging the twelve dead bodies and stacking them in the enclosed trailer that one of the big SUV’s had pulled behind it.

When the yard was cleaned of bodies, four of the men took metal detectors and used big industrial strength shop vacs to clean the yard of the spent shell casings that were all that remained of the battle. Recon, himself, cleaned up the mess left by the bloody man inside the back door.

“Wildman, all clean and right with the world.”

“OK. You ready for the next move?”

“Which one?”

“You get online and trace these numbers to see where they go. When you are done I am going to call each of them and see if Stan answers. When he answers I want to be able to let him know that Renee and I are coming for him and he will not survive the encounter.”

“OK, give me a few minutes to check out the numbers. In the meantime, why don’t you and the missus clean up your bedroom.”

“What’s to clean?”

“Wildman! Everyone heard that scream this morning. I figure you and Renee killed someone up in the room.”

“RECON!” Renee yelled.

“Yes, Mrs. O’Dell?”

Renee had spoken while her face was turning more and more red. I hadn’t seen her blush like that in years. As a reward, I fist bumped my friend and looked at my wife with wide eyes and my eyebrows raised.

“Renee let’s go and clean up that body in our room.”

We went back to our room and stripped the sheets and picked up the clothes that had been dropped all over place the night before. When the room was spic and span, we carried the stuff to the laundry room and began a load. My mom joined us there and smiled at the two of us.

“I told you so,” my mom patted my butt.

It was my turn to blush. Renee and I returned to our kids, all of which had gathered at the kitchen table to play a new game Grams had taught them.

“What game are you guys playing this morning?” I asked the twins.

“It’s a game Grams taught us. She called it ‘Blackjack’,” Jack answered with authority.

Yeah, Grams is a hoot.

Each of the kids had taken a handful of black-eyed peas out of the big sack in the pantry and were betting peas on each hand. They traded off being the dealer every 5 or 6 hands. Renee and I watched them and marveled at them. Even James was focused. Everything was so calm, and family focused. Renee took my hand and turned to face me.

“Mick, when all of this is over, can we live here?”

“I don’t see why not. We don’t need to keep up the facade like we did before you knew our real situation. The girls can go to school here in the town. Mom can live here if you don’t mind and be our babysitter when we go out.”

“It sounds ideal to me.”

We kissed, and Renee hugged me tighter than yesterday. She was healing fast and soon would be able to return to normal activities. She would soon be able to hug the girls tight and her ribs should be in good shape for when she began to show. Show! Shit that reminded me.

“Renee, we had sex.”

“Yes, we did.”

“What about the STD?”

“I talked to the doctor before I left the hospital, he said two weeks to be totally safe, but that the way I was responding with the antibiotics for the STD and the ones for the ribs, I should be safe as of this week. The last time they raped me, it hurt, and it had been burning when I peed. I haven’t felt that burning in about three or four days and last night was far from painful.”

“OK, if you don’t mind when we go back to town, I will be tested, just in case. I don’t want to reinfect you.”

“Good idea, but I think we’re OK,” she kissed the tip of my nose.

There was a cough behind us. We turned to see Recon standing at the door.

“I’ve got something for you.”

We followed him back and into the area I used as an office and he sat down at the computer and pulled up a screen.

“Three of these phones have one number stored. The fourth one has a different number. None of the numbers are listed so I assume they are all burners.”

“So, which one should we call first?”

“Your call. I say go with the odds and call the one on the three phones. Obviously, someone wants to hear the good news from someone.”

“OK. Give me one of the phones.”

Recon handed me the small flip phone and I opened it and followed Recon’s instructions to find the stored number and dialed it. I recognized the voice as soon as he spoke.

“About fucking time. What is going on?”

“Hi Stan.”

“Who is this?”

I paused before answering.

“It is me. Mick! How have you been, Stan?”

“Fuck you! You’ll know how I’ve been soon.”

I paused again.

“Do you mean that little message you sent my family last night?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I waited again to answer and then spoke slowly and deliberately.

“I just wanted to let you know that all of your men are dead. You messed with the wrong man when you started fucking Helen.”

“Fuck you!”

“You traded Helen for Renee, remember? In hindsight it was a tremendous trade in my favor. Helen was a good woman until you ruined her.”

“You fucking ruined me. You took everything I owned. You had me sent to that fucking prison. Over what? A fucking piece of useless ass.”

“She wasn’t that to me. But losing Helen had been more than made up for with Renee. Until you lied to her and trapped her, our life was fantastic. Now you have fucked with it again. If you thought that what I did to you after you took Helen was bad wait for the next step.”

“You don’t scare me.”

I looked at Recon and I paused again.

“I do scare you, Stan, and you know it and you are going to pay the price before it is over. You are going to pay for what happened to that poor cop. Just like the shooter paid when I took out his eye and shot his nuts off.”

Now it was Stan’s turn to pause. After a few seconds I spoke again.

“And you will pay the price for what you did to my Renee.”

“The bitch got what she wanted. And from what my guys tell me, she enjoyed it.”

I paused. This time it was not for effect or to stall, I was getting pissed.

“In the end your guys didn’t enjoy it. My guys fed Billy his nuts and Brian was cooked after telling us what the plan was. Now they are both dead. Warren will follow in the near future.”

I looked at Recon and he pulled his index finger across his neck.

“I’m sorry, I was just told that Warren has joined his partners. Apparently, he didn’t react well to having a shotgun shoved up his ass. My guys apologized to me though. They say that they didn’t know it was loaded with bird shot.”

I paused. I could hear Stan breathing and could now sense his fear.

“That leaves you.”

“Fuck off and die. You’ll never find me.”

With that Stan cut off the call and I looked at Recon.

“Got him. You kept him on long enough that I could triangulate his position. I’ll print out the address for you.”

“Send someone over there in case he runs.”

“I’ll send Rocker and Jack. They’re still in town.”

“Great, so what about the other number?”

“I don’t know. Go for it while I get Rocker on the horn.”

I punched the button to call the number on the other flip phone. It rang for a while and then the call was picked up. Another familiar voice.

“Is it over? Is she fucked and dead?”

“Fucked?”

“Yes! Fucking fucked!”

“No, you are though, Helen.”

“Mick?”

“Yup. So not very crazy after all, huh?”

“Mick, I love you.”

“You can’t love me, you are dead.”

“I want you back.”

“Here is what is going to happen. First, I am going to contact the DA and tell him what has been going on and that you are not nuts. If they release you, you will be homeless and broke.”

“But you have been giving me that money for when I get out.”

“I am going to take back all of the money I have putting into your account over the years. You are going to be broke and I will make sure you stay that way for the rest of your life. You will beg to have it as well off as some fucking crack whore.”

“I don’t have any money. I gave it all to Stan to take care of Renee so I can come back.”

I paused as the steam blew out of my ears.

“How is she?” Helen asked meekly.

“No thanks to you and Stan, she is fine. I’ve moved the family out of the city. Last night we killed the men Stan sent after us. I just talked to him and explained the facts of life to him. His life is as good as over. Renee is safe and she is going to have another baby.”

“YES! She got knocked up by Stan’s guys!”

“Nope, she was pregnant before that.”

The scream on the other end of the line was amazing. Maybe she was nuts. I killed the connection and looked at Renee. She’d come in while Recon called Rocker.

“It was Helen?”

“I will have to check the bank, but if what she said is true, she financed the whole thing from the hospital with the money I had been putting in. Stan did the dirty work with her money.”

“I’ll kill them both,” Renee growled.

“Renee, relax. First let’s tell the DA about the thing and then see what happens. Now that we know where they are we can keep tabs on them. Even if Stan runs, he can now be followed. And I already have a chunk of the money back thanks to last night’s visitors being paid up front with pre-paid cash cards.”

“OK. But before this is over, I want to put a bullet in that son of a bitch’s head.”

“Relax. Stan will get what is coming to him.”

“Recon, let’s talk. Excuse us, will you Renee?”

“Sure.”

Renee leaned over and I kissed her on the tip of her nose before she left the room and I sat on the desk in front of my friend.

“Well, it would seem that you are indeed my bro. I’m sorry to have doubted you,” I said.

“I’m not worried. A lot of the evidence pointed at me. I’m thankful that you gave me the chance to put together the proof,” Recon replied.

“We still have a few things to iron out. I need to check Helen’s bank balance. And I want to send video of what happened to Billy and Brian and Warren, anonymously, to Stan and Helen. Seeing it will send Stan over the edge and might flush him into the open where we can get our hands on him.”

“But I have his address.”

“No, you have the address of where the phone was. It could have been a deli or a laundromat. Let’s be sure.”