Chapter 58: The Final Solution

“Enough!”

Everyone stopped moving and turned to see who had spoken in such a commanding voice. Samuel rose from his chair. The white-haired man looked at all in the room and spoke in a firm and confident manner.

“Isaiah, sit down. Mr. O’Dell please retake your seat. All of you, please retake your seats.”

We looked back and forth amongst ourselves, and when I made my way back to my seat, my wives did so as well. Douglas and Sara and their family took their seats. The only ones left standing were Jun, he had one hand on his pistol, and Bosco, who was pressing a button on his phone.

“I understand how you might think that we intended to do you harm,” he spoke while looking at his son choking and sputtering in his seat. “But that is not why I agreed to meet with you.”

“Your silence sort of left all of us with the impression that you weren’t serious,” I said.

“Oh, I’m serious. I’m serious because you have killed members of my family.”

“Only after your family first killed my daughter.”

“That’s a bold-faced lie! My family did no such thing,” the old man said firmly. “We do not go after children.”

“Now THAT is a lie, Samuel. Abraham Crawford and two of his friends broke into our home and at gunpoint, raped Blossom and Erin before Erin killed her attacker and got his gun. She got our weapons from our gun safe and rescued her family only to have Abraham shoot and kill Erin’s daughter. It wasn’t until later that we found out that Abraham was being supported by the Church of Heavenly Grace and Light. Your church Samuel.

“We found the same with the kidnapping of our children from The Sunset School, a school that had been bought by the Church, and by the Principal, Joan Crawford, local leader of The Church. Then she ordered the invasion of our home by women armed with semi-automatic rifles and we killed all but two of them. Then your grandson, Isaiah’s son, drugged and attempted to rape my wives in McCall, Idaho. And finally Lynn went to Joan’s home to find what your family would accept to call off the feud you began. Instead Joan and Gabriel abducted her, tied her to a chair, and attempted to brand her face with the letter “W”. They said the “W” stood for whore.

“The O’Dell family, my family, has never come after you. We only minded our own business. We’ve only ever wanted to be a private family. You, Samuel Crawford, you started this.”

“I did not start any feud!” the old man declared loudly.

“Well someone started it. Someone who had access to the lottery money that was given to you by a parishioner. Someone who bought weapons. Someone who actually bought a school and its teachers. Someone who got themselves hired as the manager of my wife Erin’s business and tried to run it out of business. If not you, Samuel, who? You need to figure that out because right now our family has one dead and several friends injured. You have a goodly number of dead members of your Church that you are responsible for.”

Samuel sat there listening again to the accusations, all the time looking at Isaiah. He took a deep breath, in seeming pain, and said, “Isaiah, I made you the man in charge of the Church. What have you done?”

The Brothers of Tennessee received Bosco’s text message and came storming down the street and up to the gate of the Crawford compound. The guards leveled their weapons at the group and the Brothers stopped their bikes in response. The Brother in charge of the group, his name was Blue, got off his bike and raised his hands in a non-threatening manner. He slowly walked to the nearest guard.

“We got a text that our friends are in trouble inside.”

“If they were in trouble someone would have called us,” the guard responded, trying to sound tough. “And no one has called. So get on your bikes and get the fuck out of here.”

“But our friends...”

“I said get the fuck out of here!” the guard loudly demanded.

“You didn’t say the magic word.”

“Which word is that? Please?”

“No, it’s...” Blue stopped talking and moved extremely fast.

The word must have been “ooofffff” because that was the only sound the guard made when Blue lifted his foot and, like lightening, kicked the guard in the nuts. He dropped so fast that you’d think he was trying to dig a hole with his face.

The other guard quickly covered the few feet between himself and Blue. But Blue took one step forward and greeted the guard with a forehead to the bridge of his nose. The nose flattened, the cartilage snapped, the blood exploded and the guards face broke even more when he hit the driveway face first, unconscious.

Several of the Brothers got off their bikes and soon the gate guards were deposited in the bushes. To be sure they would not interfere when they awoke, all weapons were stripped from them as well as their pants and underwear.

One of the Brothers opened the panel containing the gate phone and the button to open the gate. He pressed the button and the gate swung open. The Brothers laughed as they passed one of the guards who had been planted next to the “Welcome” sign ass up. The laughter continued a lot as they rode quickly up the drive to the Crawford home.

Approaching the house, the guards aimed their rifles at the group and once again, the Brothers stopped their bikes. Blue got off his bike and approached the two guards who were on high ground on the front porch of the house

“Our friends are in trouble and we are ready to kill you all and then go after your families. Your call.”

The two didn’t stop to explain that no one was in trouble because they clearly recognized that the ones in trouble was them. Being outnumbered by about eight to one, and suddenly realizing that their pay wasn’t high enough, the guards placed their weapons on the ground and took off running for the front gate. The Brothers, still laughing, walked to the front door. They opened it in time to hear gun shots.

Isaiah suddenly rose from his chair, still sputtering and coughing, ran to a side cupboard, and pulled out a small box. He withdrew a vial from the box and promptly uncapped it. He quickly brought it to his lips and drank the contents down before anyone could stop him. Leaning against the wall he gathered himself for a few moments. Then he staggered back to his chair and sat down, beginning to explain between long inhalations.

“This all started when Abraham saw that slut Erin O’Dell...”

I cut him off before he could speak another word against my wife. I slowly waved the pistol back and forth from eye to eye.

“Isaiah, call one of my wives a name again and I’ll put you down like the rabid dog I believe you to be.”

“they were all at a grocery store and the big one was flouncing around using her body to tempt my son. She and the other sl ... the other women were walking around barely dressed. One of them, the tattooed one, actually had two of their whelps in holsters and with her breasts bared was nursing them in front of God and everyone.

“He fell under her evil spell and when the women left the store, he was drawn along behind them in his car. He found out where they lived and he and his friends returned later. They thought it was an expensive house of ill repute due to the evil affliction your wife had placed on him. He never meant to hurt anyone.”

“His friend raped me!” Blossom screamed before Erin placed a hand on her shoulder and calmed her.

“And another raped me,” Erin said calmly. “But I overpowered him.”

“And once we had armed ourselves, I gave Abraham the chance to drop his weapon,” Lynn added, “and turn himself over to the police but he chose to do otherwise.”

“He was bewitched! Enchanted!” Isaiah objected.

“He was a fucking pervert! He was going to try to walk out our door and take my wife Erin’s daughter with him. My husband was shot and bleeding on the floor. Abraham was using Taylor Erin as a human shield and I shot him in the leg because that was the only part clearly exposed when Taylor Erin bit him.”

“You see! The little bitch attacked him and my son shot her out of self-defense.”

I was on him as he finished the sentence. I sprawled across the side of the table and had my hands around his throat. I squeezed and squeezed, pressing my thumbs into his windpipe. Isaiah tried to scream for help but I let no air escape from his throat.

Apparently responding to some sort of an alarm, two armed men came rushing into the room. Seeing me at Isaiah’s throat they lifted their rifles towards me. They didn’t get farther than the thought though as Jun struck one of them across the face with the butt of his pistol. The other man came to a sudden stop when Clifford had jumped up from his seat and pressed the barrel of his pistol into the man’s forehead.

All three of my wives had their weapons out and trained on Samuel. He froze with his hands in front of him trying to ward off whatever was coming his way. From another door to the room, two more men came running in holding rifles. Before they got three steps into the room there was a gunshot and one of the men dropped to the floor holding his groin.

Sara walked to the man and he looked up at her, recognition coming to him just as Sara said, “This is the man that raped me.”

Sara put a bullet into the center of his face, the force pushing him onto his back. Sara calmly put another bullet into his groin. The man would have screamed if he had a mouth remaining and had he not been dead.

“And this one?” Douglas asked.

“He was there holding me down,” Sara accused.

Douglas put two bullets in the man’s heart and turned his gun on Samuel.

“Are you have a good time, Samuel? Is this the sort of fun you were looking for when you started this feud? This is what you and yours have started. I’ve known the O’Dells personally for only a few weeks and I swear to you that they are of the finest sort. Now you are about to lose your son. It would seem that he may have started this feud without your knowledge. Maybe not.”

“Don’t harm my son! Release him!” Samuel demanded of me, still restricting the younger Crawfords airway.

Just then the doors to the dining room burst open and the room was filled with The Brothers. I let go of Isaiah’s throat and he sagged into his chair. Samuel rose from his chair as Jun and Bosco took places on each side of the room and in front of a line of Brothers.

“Isaiah, did you do all of this?” Samuel asked, seemingly unaware of the small army of armed wild men filling up the room.

Isaiah was holding his throat and coughing and gasping for air as he did take notice of the army around the room. He didn’t try to talk.

“Son, I asked you what have you done? Did you use Church resources to do the things they say?”

Isaiah looked up at me, around the room at the Brothers, and then at his father and sharply nodded in the affirmative.

“Did you send people to rape these women?” Samuel asked pointing to my wives.

Again he nodded.

“And you sent the men to attack Sara and destroy their home. You attacked our own family?”

Isaiah painfully croaked out, “Yes.”

Samuel looked at the two men lying dead on the floor of his dining room. He returned his attention to his son.

“Was the vial you drank an antidote to the poison you placed in the O’Dell’s drinks?”

Isaiah nodded.

“And did you poison the drinks of Douglas and Sara and their children?”

The nod was not returned quickly but it was returned.

“So many dead including your children and mine. Enough is enough.”

Samuel’s right hand dropped under the table and came up with a revolver. In one smooth move, he raised it, aimed, and put three slugs into his son’s chest. Isaiah jerked with the impact of the first bullet but had no reaction to the next two. He was already dead.