Chapter 3: The Horseman of Death

The first to be released from jail was Geoffrey Gelman. From the police reports, he had voiced some concerns to his Frat brothers about the whole plan to drug my wife, and had objected to them raping her. However, he had gone along with it in the end.

I took a month's vacation from work, mostly to spend time with my wife. But one day was set aside for Me Time. I hadn't forgotten what they'd done, and I would never forgive them for what they'd done. The slaps on their wrists had been stinging slaps in the face to my wife and me. Oh, that Judge was going to get his, too. But first, Geoffrey "With a G" Gelman had a meeting with the Pale Rider.

Tracking him was easy. He still had his apartment, paid for with Mommy's money, since he was now out of a job.

He never saw me coming.

When I hit him with the stun gun, he fell like a sack of shit and twitched on the floor. It was fairly easy to handcuff him to a chair by his ankles and wrists. I then found a pair of used underwear from his hamper and stuff the tighty whiteys in his mouth.

Once he was secured, a calmness came over me. I knew I was crossing the line, but Justice had been denied for too long.

It took a few more minutes for him to come around. He took only a few seconds to assess his situation. Then he saw me, sitting in a chair turned backwards leaning forward over the back of the chair. "Welcome back, Jeffy," I said in a voice that could freeze molten lava.

When recognition dawned on him, he started struggling against the cuffs and trying to say something around the racing striped undies in his mouth.

"Shut up and listen, asshole," I growled. When he had stopped trying to talk, and was looking at me with abject terror in his eyes, I continued. "This is what's going to happen. IF you want to walk out of here alive, you will do exactly what I say, when I say it. Do you understand?"

He nodded his head frantically.

"Good. I know that you objected to how your Frat brothers treated my wife. That means something. However, you participated in her rape. That also means something, and the Scales of Justice need some balance. Don't you agree?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

He was just staring at my implacable eyes as he slowly nodded his head.

"Good man," I said, my voice still emotionless. With God as my witness, it took every ounce of self-control I had not to rip his fucking head off right then and there, but I needed him.

"Here's the deal, Jeffy. You now work for me. Your paycheck for being employed by me is another day of life. As you can see, I'm wearing latex gloves, and there will be no DNA or fingerprint evidence that I was even here. I also have an airtight alibi, just in case you want to report me to the cops after our little meeting has concluded. If you do that, I will come back and kill you with no qualms whatsoever. You could say that working for me is a win-win for you. You get to live another day." I paused to let him digest what I'd just told him.

At his tentative nod, I stood up and moved in front of him. "I'm going to remove your gag now. If you scream, I'll kill you. Do you understand?"

At his nod, I pulled the undies out of his mouth.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked, once he was able to speak.

"Right now, I want you to tell me exactly how you and your friends managed to get plea deals when the evidence was overwhelming and potential eye-witness testimony would have been a slam dunk for the DA," I said, my voice once again dropping to Antarctica.

"One of the prosecutors in the DA's office is from our sister sorority. Jim contacted her and asked her to convince the DA that this was all a big misunderstanding," he blurted.

"Which one?"

"Amanda Ramirez," he said. I wrote her name down for future reference.

"So, Ms. Ramirez somehow convinced the DA that the case might not be strong enough?" I asked.

"Yeah, don't ask me how, but she did it," he said with a shrug.

"Ok, which one of your friends gets out next?" I asked.

"Darren, Jack, and Larry get out in two weeks," he said with some trepidation. "Jim is the only one serving the full 90 days, since he was the mastermind and took full responsibility."

"Well, wasn't that nice of him," I said, my voice laced with sarcasm. "If you say anything to any of them about this conversation, I'll kill you. Do. You. Understand?!"

"Y ... Ye ... Yes," he stammered.

"Good. Be advised, Jeffy. Your life is hanging by a thread now. I'm going to take the cuffs off. Remember our deal. You work for me, and you get to live. Questions?" I raised my eyebrow again.

"No, sir," he said. Yes, Geoffrey knew which way the wind was blowing.

I got up and walked over to him. "Good," I said, then hit him with the stun gun again.

What can I say? I wasn't taking any chances that he might grow a spine.

Once I'd cleaned up any trace that I'd been there, I left and made my way back to my car at the other end of the complex. When I got in and started the engine, I closed my eyes for a moment and thought about what I was doing.

Some say that revenge is a vulture that picks at you until there is nothing left. There's an old saying that says "When you plan your revenge, dig two graves. One for your enemy, and one for yourself."

But sometimes ... just sometimes, Justice needs a helping hand. This wasn't just for Latisha and me any longer. These assholes were dangerous to ANY woman who wouldn't give in to their "charm".

Latisha knew that I was planning something. I knew I couldn't keep it hidden from her forever, so I really didn't try all that hard. When she confronted me, it was an interesting conversation.

"What are you planning, Steve?" she asked after dinner one night.

"Justice, sweetheart," I hedged. She just gave me That Look, so I sighed and forged ahead. "This isn't just about you and me anymore, baby. If I don't do something, what's to stop them from doing what they did to you, to some other unsuspecting woman? What's to stop them from coming after you again? You heard Jim's threat in Court after he was sentenced. I get the feeling that they won't just go away after they get out, so I'm putting things in place to deal with the threat once and for all."

I reached across the table and squeezed her hand, and she squeezed back, even as a tear came to her eye. "Please baby. What if you get caught?" she asked at length.

"I'm taking every precaution I can to not get caught. I've already talked with Geoffrey a bit, and he now works for me. It didn't take much to turn him against his former Frat brothers," I said with a slight smirk.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that little snake would do anything to save his own hide. He was the first one to turn on the others, by what I heard from Malcolm."

Malcolm Martin is Latisha's brother and a cop with the SBPD. Former Marine, and while he couldn't be directly involved with the case, he kept his ears open. Hell, it was his sister who'd been raped, and we buried the hatchet after he found out what I'd done to the five assholes at the party.

What I didn't tell her was that very few, if any, of the rapists would survive. I had planned it out and went through different scenarios that took into account anything and everything that might go wrong.

In the two weeks following Geoffrey getting out, I drafted a script for him to use when he contacted his buddies after they were released. I took it to him the day before they would be released from custody.

"What's this?" he asked when I handed him the two pieces of paper.

"This is what you're going to say when you call your Frat brothers, Geoffrey," I said, my voice once again colder than the Arctic Circle.

He looked at me, perplexed. "You want us to plan revenge against you?!"

"No, I want you to follow the script. In one more week, Jim will be getting out, too. That's when you follow the rest of the script. Do you have it memorized?" I asked.

It took two hours for him to memorize his lines, as well as the contingency lines I'd placed in there in case he was met by any resistance or arguments from his butt buddies.

Once he was able to recite the lines verbatim three times in a row, I took the script back. "This stays with me," I said.

"But what if I forget the lines?" he whined.

"Write them down yourself if you want, but if you mess this up, I'll have to ... fire you," I said, intentionally putting an ominous tone in my voice.

He gulped. "Ok, ok. I'll do it. But once this is all over, we're good, right?"

"I won't lie to you, Geoffrey," I said. "We will never be 'good', as you put it. No matter what, you assisted in the rape of my wife. Granted, you argued against it at first, but in the end, you went along with Jim's plan."

He was a bit startled that I knew all of that. "How did you know?!"

"I know a lot of things. I also know that you rolled over on your Frat buddies so fast, it made the cops' heads spin. You really don't want them to find that out, do you?" I grinned.

"N ... no. For what it's worth, I'm really sorry I went along with what happened to Latisha. I'm sorry for what I did to her and to you. I've always liked her," he said, and I saw tears in his eyes that weren't there because I had threatened his life.

"Well, you didn't like her enough to NOT go along with it, and you didn't like her enough to WARN her that it was going to happen," I said, standing up and folding up the script to put in my pocket. "Save your apologies for someone who might forgive you ... like God, maybe. Forgiveness for what you've done is above my pay grade. Just remember that after you get them to meet with you, you call me and let me know that it's on."

I didn't even wait for him to reply as I turned and left his apartment.

When I got home from my Saturday afternoon visit with the asshole, Latisha was waiting and pacing back and forth.

"Baby? Are you ok?" I asked as I saw the look of worry on her face.

"I'm scared, Steve. Jim is getting out in a week, and I don't know what we'll do if he comes back!" she exclaimed and then started to cry again. I held her close and gently stroked her back.

"Sweetheart, do you trust me?" I asked in a soft tone.

"With my life, baby," she replied, her full lips quivering.

"Then trust me when I say that Jim and his friends will NEVER touch you again," I said with a smile, looking into her deep brown eyes.

"Thank you, Boo. Can you tell me exactly what you're going to do to get them to leave us alone?" she asked.

How the hell could I answer that? Lie? Be even more vague than I had been already? Granted, the Orders of Protection for Latisha against the assholes had been made permanent after Jim's threat against me and my wife, but she was still worried that they would do something to us. What could I tell her that would both mollify her and not make her think I was a monster?!

She sensed my hesitation. "What are you going to do, baby?" she asked, a worried look coming over her beautiful face again.

"There's a reason why I didn't ask for an Order of Protection for myself, sweetheart," I said quietly. "I want them in a certain place at a certain time. Geoffrey is helping me with that. The rest of them were all aboard with Jim's plan from the beginning. They need to be dealt with, permanently."

Her eyes went wide at that. "You're going to kill them!" she exclaimed.

I just nodded. "I love you too much to let them near you again, Latisha. I can't just stand by and let them run free. They could catch you at the grocery store, or going to and from work. Jim is the mastermind, so I'm sure they won't come after you or me before he gets out. I just..." my voice cracked as I shuddered.

Yes, I had considered what might happen to me if I killed them ... when I killed them. Guilt wasn't a factor, but what if I enjoyed it too much? What if, after I killed them, I wanted to kill more people? They deserved it for raping my wife and pretty much getting away with it, but what if someone else wronged my wife or me in some trivial way? What then? I had considered all of those things, and if worse came to worst, I would give up all I had to keep Latisha out of harm's way. There was only one solution for THAT problem.

I had talked to Malcolm about it during my planning stage, since he had served in Afghanistan and Iraq, and had killed terrorists over there. I asked him what it was like to kill a man.

When I had asked him that, he knew what I was planning. He confronted me, and I told him flat and cold what I'd just told Latisha. I would NOT take chances with her life, or leave her open to another assault by those assholes. I had failed her once, but I would not fail her again!

"Man, it ain't your fault that it happened. Hell, you did more than most men would. You took on five assholes to defend Tisha and kicked their motherfuckin' asses. That means a lot to us. She's my sister, but she's also YOUR wife! I ain't gonna lie to you. Killin' a man changes you. It took me a helluva long time to come to terms with it. Some are better at dealing with it than others. It helps, at least it helped me, if the assholes we kill are pure fuckin' evil. I ain't gonna tell you not to do it, Steve. As far as I'm concerned, you'll be doing the world a fuckin' favor. What I AM telling you, and you'd best listen, is that you need to consider everything very carefully. Consider what it will do to you. Consider how it might affect Tisha. Are you gonna tell her?" He finally took a breath. He had just read me the riot act AND told me that he wasn't going to stop me at the same time.

"If she asks me flat out, I won't lie to her. I just hope she can understand what I have to do. I'm glad you do, at least," I smiled wryly. Up until a few months ago, he STILL hadn't warmed up to me, even though Latisha and I had been together for six years, and married for four of those.

"Well, I can't say, officially, that I agree with vigilante justice, Steve. But from what you've said, and from what I know of Jim Gables already, I know that if you need a fuckin' hand with anything, you let me know." He nodded as he basically just told me that he would help me with whatever my plan might be.

"Thanks, Mal. I can't let you do that, though. If this all comes apart on me, I can't be responsible for getting you into trouble," I said. Then I reached over and shook his hand. "It means a lot to me that you'd do that, though."

He grinned. "Brother, I know I didn't give you a fair shake for a number of years, but I respect the man you are, now."

"I've always been this man, Mal. I would die before I let some asshole hurt Latisha again. Thanks for understanding."

"Not a problem, man. Hell, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to do those fucks, myself. Ya feel me?"

"Yes sir. Ok, I'd better get back to work. Catch ya later," I smiled and we shook hands again.

Now here I was, hoping and praying that Latisha would at least understand what I had to do. It broke my heart to see the look of sadness and fear on her face.

"What about the Restraining Order?" she asked.

"It's just a slip of paper. It won't stop bullets, and it won't stop him from getting to you when there aren't any cops around, either," I replied with conviction, shaking my head slowly. "You heard his threat, sweetheart. You already know what he's capable of, and I won't give him another chance to get to you. I can't. Besides, what if he and his butt buddies go after some other woman too? What then? You know as well as I do that there's a high probability that they'll rape some other lady, and I can't allow that either. I'd rather have five shit suckers' deaths on my conscience than another rape at their hands. Their parents would just buy them out of trouble again."

We were still in an embrace, but Latisha pushed back from me gently and stood there with her hands on her hips. She was shaking her head slowly as she thought about everything I'd just said.

Until all this had started, I never thought I'd want to kill someone, much less five people. I never thought I'd feel so much hatred for anyone. I hadn't even been planning to kill them until Jim made his threat against us.

She looked up and opened her eyes as her gaze focused on mine. Our eyes were locked as she stepped forward, reached up, and pulled my face down so our lips met in a soft kiss. The steely determination was back in her voice as she spoke.

"Avenge our baby, Steven," she said, her voice almost cracking. "Do what you have to do. I love you."

"I love you too, sweetheart," I said softly.

We went to bed together that night and just held each other as we fell asleep. Well, Latisha fell asleep. I couldn't, as I stared at the ceiling. My mind was running through every possible scenario that I could think of, as to what could go wrong when dealing with the assholes. When I finally fell asleep, somewhere around 3 AM, I felt that I had planned for pretty much any contingency. The killzone was prepared as best it could be. Geoffrey was scared shitless, since he didn't know how I knew so much about him turning on his Frat Asshole Buddies during police interrogation. I didn't come right out and say it, but I left him with the distinct impression that I knew his every movement.

The stage was set, and the final act was about to begin.

The next morning, Geoffrey called me and told me that he had called all the assholes, including Jim, and had informed them just as I'd instructed.

"They'll be at the warehouse in an hour, Steve," he said. "I'm about to leave to join them. They bought it!"

"I'll be there shortly," I responded neutrally.

I dressed in jeans, t-shirt, windbreaker, and steel toed boots. All of those articles of clothing would be burned before the day was over, but that was ok with me.

I looked up to see Latisha standing there. "Is it time?" she asked.

"Yes," I replied. I rose to my feet and took her in my arms again. "No matter what happens, sweetheart, always remember that I love you."

"I love you too, honey. Just please, be careful and come back to me," she said with a sad smile as a tear rolled down her face.

I wiped her cheek gently. "No more tears, baby. These sons of bitches deserve everything they're going to get today."

"Yes they do, but do you?" she asked. "Do you really believe that you can live with what you're about to do?"

"To protect you and avenge our child, yes," I replied gently. "I have it set up already, but I need to go. I have to be there to spring the trap."