by Mike Ryan
Seconds later, Jacobs was brought directly in front of the two of them. There was silence for a few moments. Jacobs glanced at Butch, but only briefly. He then stared at Mallette. Jacobs wasn’t even mad at Butch. He didn’t like or trust him enough for that. Mallette was the one he was shooting daggers at.
Mallette then reared back and delivered a strong right hand to the side of Jacobs’ face, dropping him to his knees. Jacobs instantly got back up and tried to charge him, but the other men quickly grabbed his arms, preventing him from getting at Mallette. Mallette grinned at him, taking particular delight at his current situation.
“Finally, we’re face-to-face again.”
Jacobs spit in his face, which wiped the devilish grin off of Mallette’s mug. Mallette took a step back, then wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt. He looked down at his arm, the rage starting to boil inside him. He then delivered another powerful shot to Jacobs’ face. With the other men still holding him up, Jacobs was spared the fall.
“Take him inside,” Mallette said.
The men pulled Jacobs past Mallette and Butch and took him inside, where they pushed him down onto the floor. Mallette and Butch stayed outside for a minute, discussing their next move.
“What’s your plan from here?” Butch asked.
Mallette laughed. “Now we kill him.”
9
Mallette and Butch walked into the room, their eyes fixated on Jacobs on the floor. Jacobs was on his knees with a couple of men standing behind him to keep him there.
“I see you’re a man of your word,” Jacobs said, looking at Butch.
“This isn’t how I wanted it to be.”
“So change it.”
“Business is business. And this is the best business decision, whether I like it or not.”
“I’ll be sure to remember that.”
“You won’t be remembering anything,” Mallette said, circling Jacobs. He stood directly in front of him and looked down at him. “You’ll soon be dead.”
Jacobs gave him a look, then glanced at Butch. There was something strange in his gaze, causing Butch to think maybe something else was going on.
“Wait, was he alone?” Butch asked.
“Yeah,” one of his men replied. “He was just outside the back fence.”
“Nobody else with him?”
“No, he was alone.”
“He have anything on him?”
The man shook his head. “Just his gun.”
Mallette saw what Butch was asking. “What about Franks or the dog?”
“Nobody else there.”
“What about his phone?” Butch asked.
“Not on him.”
“Go out there and check the perimeter again.”
“Why?”
“So we don’t get a surprise visit from someone,” Mallette said.
Several men left the building to go check the area again, though there were still two men behind Jacobs to make sure he didn’t get any ideas.
“Funny, isn’t it?” Mallette asked.
Jacobs looked up at him. “How you figure?”
“The way we ended up here. I’m sure you thought the situation would be reversed, didn’t you?”
Jacobs shrugged. “Sure hoped so.”
“You know, I’m almost going to feel… I was going to say remorse, but let’s not kid ourselves. I’m going to enjoy killing you.”
“So do it. Get it over with.”
Mallette raised an eyebrow. He didn’t meet many men who wished to be dead sooner. “In a hurry?”
“The sooner you get it done, the sooner I get to be with my family.”
Mallette grinned. “So that’s it. Your family. You still miss them, don’t you?”
“Every day.”
“And you’d like to be with them as soon as possible, wouldn’t you?”
“Yep.”
“In that case, maybe we should delay your punishment as long as possible. Whatever you want, I’d rather do the opposite.”
“Suit yourself.”
“So what about it, Jacobs? Anyone else out there with you?”
“Nope.”
“What about Franks? I’ve long suspected him of helping you.”
“Said he’s not there.”
Butch’s phone rang. He answered it and put it on speaker. “Yeah?”
His man was calling from the spot they found Jacobs. “Got Jacobs’ phone here.”
“And?”
“Looks like we interrupted him talking to someone. Just a number, though. No name on it.”
“Who were you talking to?” Mallette asked.
Jacobs pretended to think about it. “Gee, I, uh, just can’t remember.”
“What about the dog?” Butch asked.
“We’re looking,” the man replied. “No sign of it. Don’t see any tracks in the dirt.”
“Keep looking. Spread out further.”
“Will do.”
“So who were you talking to?” Mallette asked. “Franks?”
“Told you I can’t remember,” Jacobs answered.
Mallette took out a gun from his jacket and pointed it at the side of Jacobs’ head. “For the love of god, you better start talking.”
Jacobs didn’t seem worried. “Is that supposed to scare me? You’re gonna kill me anyway, you really think that’s gonna do something?”
Mallette huffed, then pulled the gun away, tucking it back into his jacket. “Maybe not. But I know something that will. I understand you have a girlfriend now.”
“Just someone I’ve been hanging around.”
“Come now, you really expect me to believe that? All of this?”
“What is it you want?”
“I want to know everything you’ve got going on, who’s helping you, who else I need to worry about out there?”
“Isn’t anyone. It’s always been just me.”
“And Franks?”
Jacobs shrugged. “He’ll run things down when I ask, that’s all.”
“That’s not the story I get from Butch.”
“What’s he know?”
“I’ll give you five seconds to tell me everything you know.”
“Or what? You’ll kill me? Big deal.”
Mallette smiled, moving his face in towards his prisoner. “No. That would be much too simple. No, if you don’t start talking, I’m gonna have them bring in that new girlfriend of yours, and I’ll make you watch as we rip her body apart piece by piece. We’ll kill her slowly right in front of you. How’s that sound? You’ll get to see what you didn’t the first time around with your wife.”
Jacobs jumped to his feet, ready to pounce on his adversary, though he never got the chance to do any damage. As soon as he stood up, the men behind him walloped him on the back of the head, sending him crashing down to the floor again.
Mallette grinned. “There’s that Jacobs spunk that I admire.” After a few seconds, Jacobs got back up to his knees again. Mallette took a few steps back, making sure he was a safe distance away. “I could be persuaded to leave the woman alone, and not have her bear that cruel and torturous punishment. But only if you tell me what I want to know.”
Jacobs took a deep breath. He didn’t even want to give Mallette the time of day, but if there was even the slightest hope of him leaving Tiffany alone, he had to cling to it. “There’s no one else. Only Eddie.”
“What of this other man I’ve heard about? Some… stranger that no one knows about?”
Jacobs shook his head. “He’s… no one. I don’t even know his name. Eddie took care of that. He found him and hired him. It was just to protect Tiffany’s parents. Once the danger was gone, he left. Don’t know where he is. Couldn’t reach him even if I wanted to.”
“So it’s just you, Franks, the dog, and Tiffany? That’s what you’re telling me?”
“Tiffany’s not involved. She’s a kindergarten teacher. Once you kill me, hurting her won’t do anything. Leave her out of it.”
Mallette pa
ced around in front of Jacobs. “I would only turn my attention to her if it also had the benefit of hurting you, bringing you to your knees. But since you’ll be dead first… there’ll be no need for me to hurt the girl. She’ll get a pass. I cannot, however, assure the same for Franks and the dog.”
“Eddie knows what he’s in store for.”
“What about the dog? Could he be retrained?”
The corner of Jacobs’ lips lifted, forming the hint of a smile. He hoped Mallette tried to retrain Gunner. First, it would mean the dog would live. Second, Gunner would probably rip his arm off. “Sure. You could try.”
Mallette let out a laugh. “I almost believe you mean that. Almost. I have a feeling you’re only saying that because you would like the dog to kill me in the attempt.”
“Crossed my mind.”
“And there is no one else?”
“No.”
“After I kill you, if I find out you’re lying, and there is someone else… I will kill that woman.”
Jacobs looked up at him. If this was the end for him, so be it. But he had to make sure that Tiffany’s life didn’t end with him. “There is no one else.”
Mallette nodded, feeling that Jacobs was telling him the truth. “OK. Now, since we’re old friends, I’ll even extend the courtesy of giving you your final options. Would you like to see it coming? Surprise you with a shot in the back of the head? Which would you prefer?”
“How about we both get a gun and one bullet, and we do it like we’re in the old west?”
Mallette laughed, appreciating his tenacity, even in his final moments. “No, I’m afraid that won’t do. I’m not interested in giving you a fair chance. You’re dying here, there’s no two ways about it. I just thought I’d give you a choice.”
“Well then…”
Butch’s phone rang once more. He put it on speaker again. “Yeah?”
“Looks like we found Jacobs’ car,” the man said.
“And?”
“Looks like the dog’s inside.”
Jacobs sighed and closed his eyes. He was hoping they wouldn’t find it. Or that Gunner would have somehow escaped. He was upset with himself for being so sloppy. Franks was right. He was careless and foolish. And now it was going to cost him and Gunner their lives.
“What do you want me to do with him?” the man asked.
They all could hear Gunner barking. Butch didn’t have an answer and immediately looked at Mallette.
“Kill it,” Mallette said. “And don’t be squeamish about it either. That dog needs to be put out of its misery. Dump every round you’ve got into that thing. I want no doubt about its survival.”
“Did you hear that?” Butch asked.
“Yeah,” the man said. “I’ll do it. Not crazy about killing a dog, but I’ll do it.”
“Just remember that dog could kill you if you let it out of the car,” Mallette said.
“Just get it done,” Butch said.
Seconds later, two gunshots were heard. Mallette and Butch instantly looked at Jacobs, the pain of losing his four-legged friend clearly evident on his face. Jacobs’ eyes were closed, then he put his hand over them, obviously in a lot of anguish. He took his hand away and stared straight at Mallette, who had a smile on his face.
“Looks like something else that you care about is no longer with us.”
Butch hung up his phone and looked at Mallette. “Let’s get this over with, huh? No use in dragging it out any more.”
“I tend to agree. Time to kill this bastard and then turn our attention toward Ames. Then you can move on to your new city, and I can once again return to my rightful spot atop this one.” Mallette laughed again. “It feels great to win.”
10
Mallette walked around Jacobs once, stopping when he was in front of him again. He pulled his gun out for the last time. He pointed it at Jacobs’ forehead.
“I think I would prefer you to see it coming,” Mallette said.
Several shots rang out. Mallette and Butch immediately rushed over to the door and looked out. They saw several men dropping to the ground.
“What’s happening?” Mallette asked.
Butch looked on, stunned. “I don’t know.”
“What is happening?!”
Then, they saw a dog appear out of nowhere, running full speed right for them. Mallette took aim at it and fired off two rounds, both of which narrowly missed. Just as he was about to fire a third time, a bullet ripped into the frame of the door, barely missing Mallette’s head. He flinched, then took off running for his car. Butch, not wanting to get in Gunner’s way and feel his wrath, also scattered.
“What’s going on?” one of the men behind Jacobs asked.
With the door open, Gunner flew in like he was in a dog race, immediately finding a target. He sank his teeth into the arms of one of the men. As the man struggled to get the dog off him, his partner also was distracted, and took his eyes off Jacobs. That was the opening Jacobs needed.
Jacobs spun around while still on the floor, kicking the man’s legs out from under him. As the man fell hard to the floor, Jacobs jumped on top of him. They wrestled for only a few seconds before Jacobs was able to take the gun away from him. Jacobs pulled the trigger, unloading two shots into the man’s stomach.
As the man’s body went limp, Jacobs rolled off the man’s body and aimed at the man still struggling with Gunner. He was punching Gunner in the head with his left hand. Jacobs took aim at the man and shot him at point blank range in the chest. Gunner released the man’s arm as he fell dead to the floor.
With both men dead, Jacobs got on his knees as Gunner walked over to him. Jacobs put his arm around Gunner’s neck and pulled him close to him, their heads touching each other.
“I thought I lost you, buddy. I thought I lost you.” Gunner licked Jacobs’ face, causing his owner to smile. “I’m sorry. This was all my fault.” Gunner licked his face again. “Let’s get out there and see if we can fix this, huh?”
Gunner ran over to the door, waiting for a command from his owner. Jacobs cautiously went over to it and peeked his head out, not wanting to get it blown off if Mallette was waiting out there. He wasn’t, though. Everything was quiet. There wasn’t a sign of anybody. At least no one breathing. There were five dead bodies lying around out there, but that was it. The cars were gone too. Presumably with Mallette and Butch inside them.
Jacobs looked out at the bodies. “What the hell happened here?”
He looked genuinely confused. Somebody killed those men, and he was pretty sure it wasn’t Franks. Though maybe he had been practicing more than Jacobs had thought.
Gunner barked, causing Jacobs to look at him. Gunner barked again, this time with his tail wagging. Jacobs turned his head and quickly located what Gunner was looking at. Jacobs smiled and lowered his head, wiping the sweat off his forehead with his arm. He then gave another look at the man who was approaching them.
As Nate Thrower got closer, Jacobs took a quick look around, making sure there was nobody lying in the weeds, waiting to take a potshot at one of them. Once Thrower got there, Jacobs stuck his hand out to shake his friend’s hand.
Thrower smiled as he shook it. “Heard you might need a helping hand.”
Jacobs laughed. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I did.”
“Just so happens that’s my specialty.”
“I would say it’s lucky that you just so happened to come along, but I get the feeling luck had nothing to do with it.”
“Well, you’re lucky I just got into town today,” Thrower said. “But Eddie called me a little while ago, asked me to stop here and check on you.”
“Good thing he did.”
“I’ll say. I got here just in time to see someone pointing a gun at Gunner.”
“Those were your shots I heard, huh?”
“Yeah. It was a close call.”
“Too close,” Jacobs said. “Thanks. I owe you one.”
“You can buy me a beer sometime.”
; Jacobs looked at the bodies again. “Not a bad day’s work.”
“That’s just half of it. There’s three more on the outside. Shot the one, then knifed two more to get in here quietly.”
“How’d you know where I was?”
“Didn’t really. Just followed the trail.” Thrower then pointed at Gunner. “And him. I let him go and he led me here. Took out whoever was in our way first.”
Jacobs pet Gunner on the head. “I screwed up here.”
“What happened, anyway?”
“Me. I got careless. This was a mistake that shouldn’t have happened. I got double-crossed by Butch.”
“So how’s that your fault?”
“I had a feeling it was coming. Things didn’t add up. Things didn’t make sense. Alarms were going off. And I came anyway. I was… I dunno. Maybe I was thinking of Tiffany. I want to get her out of this life as soon as possible. Guess it’s clouding my judgment.”
Thrower shrugged, then tapped his friend on the arm. “Happens. Don’t beat yourself up over it. Just learn from it and move on. It’s all you can do now.”
“Yeah. I won’t make this mistake again.”
“So now you’ve got Butch in the crosshairs, huh?”
“And Ames.”
Thrower shot him a look. “Ames? I thought we…”
Jacobs shook his head. “No. We weren’t so lucky. He just showed back up. Apparently, he was bad off, took him all this time to recover.”
“Well, that’s a kick in the nuts.”
“And now Mallette’s back in the picture.”
“Mallette?”
“Oh, I guess you haven’t heard. He got released.”
Thrower snickered. “Wow. You really don’t have much going for you right now, do you?”
“Doesn’t seem like it.”
“Well, maybe we can do something about that.”
“We?”
Thrower grinned. “You don’t think I’m gonna let you have all the fun of dealing with these animals yourself, do you?”
“I don’t want you to think that you have to. It’s not your fight.”