Chapter 10

I made my way to the kitchen and got breakfast started. When I saw Ava make her way to the front door, I had to keep myself from teasing her about the way she walked. But then a thought struck me, and my mood switched from being amused to being more than a little concerned.

“Want me to give you a ride?” I asked her.

Yes, it was a four-hour ride there and back, if there was no traffic whatsoever, and I didn’t like her enough to offer something like this under normal circumstances. But I had absolutely no desire for her to die in a car crash because she couldn’t concentrate on the road! She blinked in surprise for a moment, but then gave me a big smile as she answered.

“No, but thank you! John will drive me back, he has to get there too.”

“John came back too?”

“He’s home.” she informed me in a casual tone. But when she saw my eyes narrow and my eyebrow rise, she quickly elaborated. “He had to clear something for work first.”

When she left the house, I didn’t hear a car door slam. I went outside to look for her and saw her walking in the direction of John’s house. How did she even get here without a car? It also wouldn’t make sense for her to drive to John’s, spend the night at his place, then walk over here at six in the morning to take a shower, and then walk back to hitch a ride to the hotel. What the hell was she up to!?

When I still couldn’t make sense of the situation after a minute, I simply decided that I didn’t care anymore. I was taking the day off from worrying about my family’s antics and trying to figure out their schemes.

The sex with Ava had me thoroughly relaxed and content with life, especially since there was no pain in my stomach despite how long and intense we went at it. I simply didn’t want to deal with anything at that moment. Who would have thought that, after drinking eased my anxiety only marginally, sex would work wonders on it.

Honoring my new resolve, I decided to simply eat my leftover pizza as breakfast. But when I made my way into the living room to drop on the sofa, someone had cleaned up my leftovers from last night. I checked the fridge but couldn’t find it in there either. Thinking Ava had already gone back to her old ways, I checked the trusty old trash can for my food, but only found the carton.

When I went up to my room, I noticed that someone had also cleaned up my empty beer bottles. But most confusing of all, someone had swiped my damn painkillers! The ibuprofen was still there, but the Zydol was just as untraceably gone as my pizza. It must have been Ava, since she was the only one I knew was home.

I pulled out my phone to ask her, but noticed four more calls from Claire I had missed last evening. That made me remember that I wanted Golden Boy to let me know about his attempt to call his bookie, so I decided to call her back.

“Tim? You alright?” I heard Aaron answer, sounding like I just woke him up.

“Aaron? Didn’t I call your wife’s phone?”

My anxiety suddenly came back with a vengeance, as my mind made up one worst-case scenario after the other to explain why Claire wouldn’t be able to answer her phone. The fact that Aaron was still at least half asleep when I called, and therefore shouldn’t be in any distress, didn’t even register with me until much later. Aaron not answering right away only fueled that fear until, after a few moments he finally spoke up.

“My Wife, whom I’d prefer to hear you call ‘your mother’, is in the shower after her morning workout.” he answered in a nauseatingly preceptive tone, that wasn’t lessened in any way by his chuckle.

“Well,” I countered, mocking his tone and chuckle, “your son ‘Tiny’, whom I’d have preferred to hear you call ‘Tim’ for the last few years, doesn’t give a rat’s ass about what you want anymore.”

“Son, we... ”

“Your daughter stole my painkillers.”

“ ... What!?”

“At least I think it was her, since she was here this morning. What’s with that anyway? I thought we agreed on you guys hiding out for a few days, and then she shows up to get her damn homework!?”

“What homewo... ” he stopped mid-word and thought for a moment. “Oh, yeah ... Well ... Her grades are important, you know? Last year before college and all that.”

He wasn’t a great actor. Ava had lied about coming back for ‘school stuff’, as she had first put it, and he was trying to cover for his little princess. She probably made that up when she panicked after she took my painkillers. Thankfully I didn’t necessarily need them anymore.

“Sure it is. Anyway, I missed a call from Claire yesterday, ‘cause I collapsed into bed after I came back from getting my stitches out. I was expecting one from your Golden Boy, though. What happened?”

“Oh, Logan tried to call them a few times, but couldn’t get a hold of them. Claire said you mentioned that would be a good thing?”

“Yeah. It means they’re ... they’re probably out of business. Make sure he tries again today. If nobody tries to reach him by tomorrow, it should be safe for you all to move over to Granny’s for the rest of the week.”

“Are you still not gonna join us?”

“No.” I answered. He seemed to expect more of an answer, though, because the only thing I heard for the next few seconds was his breathing.

“Why not!?” he finally asked.

“If they come looking for you, I’d rather know as soon as possible, so I can deter their search. If they come looking for me personally instead, I don’t need you to be in the way.”

“Son, if it’s not safe for us to be home, it’s not safe for you either. Why can’t you just joi... ”

“Because after the shit I’ve been through the last two days, the last damn thing I need while worrying about those guys coming after me, is to listen to you all happily fuck each other! Is that so hard to understand, Aaron!? Be a parent for once in your life and keep your remaining children away from the damn house! If those guys show up, I can’t deal with them and worry about your asses being around!”

Throughout my tirade, I was unable to keep my voice from rising. By the time I hung up on him like I did on Claire the day before, I was sure he was holding his phone a good foot away while still being able to understand everything I said.

The next three days were basically routine. I spent the morning going through my online courses, rapidly working through all the assignments the school had made available to me, then went to work for the afternoon. At work, however, I sat around half the time staring at the safe, thinking about what I was supposed to do with all that money. It was a hopeless task. It was a lot of money, sure, but nowhere near ‘start a new life’ kind of money. Especially since I had no means to spend it on anything more than an expensive TV or another junker car.

I finally realized why Bill didn’t want any of it. I couldn’t put it in the bank without legitimizing it first, but I also couldn’t just write made up invoices and pay them in cash, since it would only take a single phone call for the IRS to know they were crap. I couldn’t open an offshore account to funnel the money through a shell company and make the invoices more believable either, since I wasn’t eighteen yet and lacked the contacts to get the cash into those offshore accounts in the first place. And even if I could find someone to launder the money for me, without word of it reaching the people I stole it from, they would take at least a sixty percent cut for laundering it before I’d have to pay income taxes on what was left. Maybe I should just use it for all the regular shopping over the years.

After work, I stopped by a grocery store to make good use of the newly discovered benefit of not being asked for an ID when shopping with a company credit card, went home to eat, and did some more research about what Bill had told me regarding those guys’ porn productions.

I was basically trying to ease my guilt with each video I found, telling myself that the women I saw could have been the women of my family. Especially after I had tracked a few of those women down and learned what had happened to them after their videos were sold and published. Then, I finally drank myself to sleep in the living room. Not that it took a lot for me, I would never be much of a drinker with the low tolerance I apparently have, but it was also around that time when I started shooting awake at night, driven by the urge to check every door and window in the house.

I had received word from Aaron that Logan did indeed reach someone on Thursday, albeit not the one he was expecting. The call was answered by someone Logan had never spoken to before, but who was quite interested in what he had to say, so I mentally prepared myself for visitors checking out his story.

They rang our doorbell on Saturday, Ava’s birthday, the day Logan had told them the family was supposed to be back.

“Yes?” I greeted the two men standing in front of me, after I had opened the door.

“Yeah, Hi. Logan around?” the taller one of the two asked.

I had scanned them the moment I opened the door, and knew there could be trouble when I noticed the same telling bumps underneath both of their shirts. Going by the size of those bumps, they were carrying guns instead of just knives or batons. The two in front of me looked nothing like the guys I had met in the parking lot, nor like the people I had seen on the bar’s surveillance. They were clearly not part of the Bookie’s crew, too young and dressed in pricey brands, so I suspected they belonged to the guys I stole from. Hopefully they were just going after the Bookie’s current affairs to try and get some of the money back, instead of looking for leads for where the money went.

“No, sorry. The rest of the family is out.” They shared a look when I told them that.

“You happen to know when he’s back gonna be back?”

I watched them for a moment in overplayed suspicion.

“What did the dipshit do this time?” I asked in an exasperated tone I hoped to be convincing, causing them to exchange another look.

“Come again?” The look on his face as he asked was a brilliant mix of confusion and suspicion.

“Let me take a wild guess. You’re going to UT Austin with Logan and he owes you money?” I asked, giving them a knowing look. “He has a habit of bailing on his bills.”

“Huh. That makes this a lot easier. Who’re you and how did you guess?”

“I’m Logan’s brother, and growing tired of fixing his shit. That’s how I guessed. So ... how much is it this time?” I was reaching for my wallet as I asked, playing my act.

I tried not to let them notice how my body tensed when me reaching for my wallet caused their hands to move part of the way to their guns. Any indication I gave that I was expecting more than just regular college mates of Logan’s, would give them cause to see through my already poor acting. They would know that I knew, making the family’s absence look like what it actually was: Protective hiding. I was just pulling through by overplaying my displeasure about Logan’s character, but I was surprised at how calm I really was. For some reason, the thought of this going bad for me wasn’t nearly as unnerving as it should have been.

“I’m afraid it’s more than you carry around.”

That caused me to look up in surprise. I was expecting them to just take the money I offered, and then tell me it wouldn’t be enough, keeping my money as extra. These two were a lot more professional than I had seen from the bookie’s crew. Which didn’t bode well for me! Luckily, I was able to play it off as surprise about the level of Logan’s newest debt.

“Wait ... how much does he owe you?”

“‘Bout ten grand.” he said, matter of fact, watching my reaction.

I blinked at him for a moment, as my hands holding my wallet slowly dropped back to my sides. Did they increase his debt or did fucking Logan fucking lie about the amount, even as we were preparing to fucking fix it for him!?

“Did he take you out for drinks and you woke up the next morning in a bathtub full of ice cubes, missing a damn kidney?”

“He gambled. And made us cover his debt.” he informed me, still watching me curiously. When I put up a pensive act instead of responding, he asked. “What?”

“I’m thinking if I shouldn’t just let you guys bust his kneecaps instead of keep paying for his shit.” I answered in an aloof tone, causing the taller one to actually chuckle.

“Well, we wouldn’t go this far. But we’d really like to set this straight. He said he’ll be back by today.”

“Yeah, that was the plan because the Princess’ birthday is today. But something went wrong with Granny’s hip surgery.”

“Oh, sorry to hear that. Why are you not with them?”

“Some of us have to work.” I explained.

“Any way you could reach him? Maybe call him?” I could hear his voice become slightly displeased.

There was no way I could call Logan now, he’d fuck this up. But if they didn’t get an answer immediately, they would simply keep looking for him. And I feared, if I couldn’t pay them off now, they’d probably go to the hospital Granny wasn’t actually in, to put pressure on the rest of the family and thereby expose our legend. If this call played out well, however, it could further deter their suspicions, give whomever I called the opportunity to warn me if they were close by the house, and tell me if anything happened on their end.

“Sure ... let me try calling them real quick.” I said as I pulled out my phone, thinking about which one of them I should call.

Logan was out of the question, he’d panic, screw up, and my still broken rib was protesting when I just thought about fighting two guys. Aaron’s acting skills had just been proven to be non-existent a few days ago, when he tried to cover for his princess. I didn’t know if John had already joined them or was still dealing with his work stuff. I dialed Claire’s phone and she answered surprisingly quickly. I didn’t put the call on speaker, but Claire was one of those people who all but screamed into their mobile phones, so the two guys could probably hear her side of the call anyway.

“Baby?! Everything alright? Did something happen?” I heard her greet me. Me calling her obviously made her believe something was wrong, because her voice sounded like she was preparing herself for the worst.

“Wow, Mom, thanks for the vote of confidence. I haven’t burned the house down. Yet. No, I’m calling ‘cause two of Logan’s friends are here asking for him. He’s not around, is he?” I laughed while turning my back to the guys, so they wouldn’t see my face when I faked the laugh, and hoped Claire would pick up on me uncharacteristically calling her ‘Mom’ in a chipper tone. I also hoped she would notice that I really didn’t want her to go find Logan. It seemed to work, because after only a few seconds she had caught herself and played along.

“Oh ... No, Honey. He’s ... having his shift in the hospital with Mom right now!”

“Damn ... well, is Dad around?”

“Somewhere ... in the garage? Why, what do you need?” she asked, the question at the end sounded a little different from the rest. Was she asking if I needed help? Or was she simply asking for a hint about what she should say?

“Well, could you check if the others are around? Ask if Logan told either of you anything about having debt? Maybe something about gambling?”

“Gambling!?” I heard fake gasp in mock shock, causing me to involuntarily smirk. “Let me go find your father and the others!”

“Whoops. Sorry, Logan.” I said under my breath, but still loud enough for the two guys to hear. While I appreciated her acting, I was worried about Claire actually running around, telling the others that something was going on, causing unnecessary turmoil. I just wanted her to make sure that all of them were accounted for. After a minute or so, Claire came back.

“Well, I asked everyone.” She said, but then didn’t continue. I thought she wasn’t sure what I wanted to hear, so I tried to guide her again.

“None of you knew?” I said, making sure the guys at the door heard that nobody even knew about the debt, so they weren’t likely to steal from them.

“No.”

“Apparently his debt is ten grand! I take it, with Granny in the hospital, you won’t have that lying around?” I said.

With this, I mainly wanted to make sure those guys heard that there wouldn’t be anything more to get from this family. But I also wanted to point out the real amount of Logan’s debt. Yes, it was petty. So what!? If, in an hour or so, I found myself moribund, I wanted the rest of the family to at least know that the numbers Logan had given us didn’t add up in any way. Even after everyone was doing everything to help him!

“ ... No. Probably not.” Claire sighed after a second of hesitation.

“Alright. Thanks, Mom, I’ll deal with it.” I told her in a resigned tone. “Give Granny a kiss from me. Love you. Goodbye.”

After I had hung up the phone, I looked at the two guys. Throughout the call they had exchanged glances and gestures, showing me they were indeed able to hear both sides of the conversation, and they didn’t seem happy about what they had heard. Maybe that was the reason I had ended the call the way I did, despite not intending to.

“Alright. I don’t have that much cash in the house. I don’t wanna pry ... but ... I suspect wiring you the money isn’t an option?” The prospect of receiving that money, even though Claire had claimed not to have it, caused them to relax somewhat. They grinned and shook their heads, so I nodded. “I have enough cash in my office. Wanna come along and get your money right away?”

I was still hoping I could discourage them from trying anything reckless if they learned I was working in a big security firm.

“You gonna steal money from your workplace to pay for Logan’s debt?” The smaller one of the two spoke for the first time.

“Hell, No! That’s my money.” I answered, while getting my keys and leaving the house to get to my Jeep. “Not that it’s any of your concern, but I stashed it there so dipshit won’t get his hands on it again.”

That seemed to amuse them. Bill had encouraged me to paint Logan as unreliable as possible if I got the chance, so they’d know there was nothing to get from him after I paid them off, and so they would be reluctant to do any business with him again.

“No offense ... but you drive around in that thing while having ten grand in cash lying around?” The smaller one pointed at my Jeep.

He was annoyingly perceptive. I mentally kicked myself for not thinking of that and taking at least some of the money home. I just held on to my original notion of not making them think we were lucrative targets, completely forgetting about other scenarios.

“What’d you think that money was for?” I grumbled, not liking him dissing my beloved car.

After we arrived at the office building, he continued asking questions.

“Security? What do you do here? I thought you were some kind of computer whiz?” he smiled.

So they had already heard about the story Logan told when they had him in the bar, meaning they also knew about Logan telling them that I was the one who collected the evidence. However, in the same situation, Logan also told them that he had used my money to pay for his debt, which at least somewhat confirmed my acting so far. I prayed for them to buy it and brush Logan’s story off as just some guy claiming whatever to get away.

“Computer whiz ... for someone like Logan maybe.” I chuckled, trying to downplay my knowledge. “I do IT-support. I’m the one replacing all the keyboards that were drenched in slipped drinks, and ordering ink for the printers. And, every once in a while, when the internet fails, I pull the power cord from the router and act like I did something amazing after I plug it back in.”

“Huh. But you also do programming, right?”

Shit. That was all I could think of. Logan had only phrased it as “computer stuff”, so either this guy was fishing, or they had looked into me.

“I design websites and can make Apps. But that was mainly before I found this job. Why, you need one?”

“No ... just asking.”

As I led them to my office, I could see them tense up. Normally I enjoyed the cooler air down there, but knowing what I claimed not to know, I understood why they would be uncomfortable being brought into a basement. As I opened my office door, I silently thanked Bill for making me display all the garbage hardware that had accumulated in those shelves. The stack of keyboards and boxes full of cables supported my claim of doing merely IT-support.

I asked them to wait in front of the door, so I could open the safe without them seeing how much money was actually inside, and grabbed ten-thousand dollars in fifty and hundred dollar bills. I also stuffed another five-thousand dollars into my own pocket, just in case. When the safe was closed again, I called them in, placed the money on my desk, and encouraged them to count it before we made our way back to the parking lot.

“Alright. Do yourself a favor and...”

I never learned what the smaller one wanted to suggest, because he stopped when four of the armored SUVs rolled up next to us. His eyes grew big when Bill, followed by Paul and six of my other colleagues, stepped out of the cars. All of them looked quite impressive wearing ballistic vests, their batons and Walter PPQs on their sides, and even holding MP5s.

All of them greeted me cheerfully, asking about my plans for the evening and whatnot, but as each of them noted the suspicious bulges in the strange guys’ shirts, the cheerfulness vanished from their faces and they started eyeing the two with distrust. When Bill spoke up, he was eyeing those guy’s guns very obviously.

“Hey Kid. What’re you doing here on a saturday?”

“Oh, two of Logan’s friends from college came around, looking for something he forgot to give them.”

“What did the idiot do this time?” Bill asked, smirking.

“What he’s best at. Being refreshingly useless. We figured it out, though.”

As I said those words, the two strangers started nodding. They were visibly uncomfortable with the implications this situation was presenting them, which filled me with satisfaction. At least one part of my plan had finally checked out. Bill and the guys went to great lengths to showcase how close we were, and just how much trouble they could cause if anyone tried to mess with us. The two seemed to reach a conclusion and quickly injected themselves into the conversation to dismiss themselves.

“Well, we got what we needed. Thanks, Timothy.” he said, as he pulled out his phone. Hearing my unshortened name made me perk up, and I realized I never told him my name. They really had checked me out. “Tell Logan to stay out of our bar in the future.” he continued, and my body was flooded with such relief I almost fainted on the spot.

As he walked away, he had already started talking into his phone. Unlike Claire, whoever he was talking to didn’t speak loud enough for me to hear both sides of the conversation.

“We got it ... Nah, don’t think so ... Not worth it ... Let ‘im, nothing to do with us.”

That was all I could hear before they sat in their car and drove off. I was still watching the intersection their car had vanished into, when Bill’s voice pulled me back.

“You Okay, Kid?”

“I think that went well?” I asked, eager for someone with more experience to confirm my hopes.

“Well, they certainly didn’t know we were the ones who visited their bar. They wouldn’t ‘ve acted the way they did otherwise. And that last bit sounded like you’re officially not worth their effort!” he confirmed.

“Yay! I’m worthless!” I shouted, raising both arms to the sky, causing them all to smirk. At that moment, I finally realized how tense I was the last few days. “But why are all of you here on a Saturday?”

“Oh, we were on an exercise when John called me an hour ago. Looks like your mother was flipping her shit after you called, so we cut it short to check up on you.” he explained with a happy smile.