"Yes, but that's way down the road. Are you sure you can afford to help support us now?"
"Oh, hell no. I supported you for the first eighteen years of your life. It's not my job to support you beyond that. I'm merely an employer in need of a good worker. I'm offering you a job, that's all. And I will work you like a dog, to make sure you earn every dollar I pay you."
Red smiled. She knew better.
"Yeah, right."
"And besides, you coming back to work at the store again will help me out as well."
"How so?"
"Because along with your new job comes additional responsibilities."
Red raised a suspicious eyebrow.
"Like what, for example?"
"From now on, you change all the poopy diapers."
“Hey, it’ll be worth it to see my big guy during the daytime again.
“I still can’t imagine Vinny joining the Marine Corps. And I’m surprised you didn’t try to talk him into joining the Air Force instead. I know you loved every minute you were in.
“Yes, I did. And I did. Try to talk him into joining the Air Force, that is. I told him I always thought the Air Force was the brains and the Marines were the brawn.”
“Trouble is, Vinny is neither, I’m afraid.”
“I think he might surprise you, Red. He said he wanted to be a Marine to carry on a family tradition.
“It turns out that both his father and grandfather were Marines. His grandfather landed on the beach at Normandy and was wounded by a German machine gunner.
“He had what they used to call a “golden ticket.” A wound that would keep him out of future combat. But he insisted on going back.
“He was wounded a second time at the Battle of the Bulge. That’s when he decided enough was enough.
“Anyway, Vincent wants to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps.”
“Vinny wants to get wounded?”
“No, Gooberhead. He wants to be a hero. He wants to have some cool stories to tell his grandkids.
“I told him to be careful what he wishes for. A lot of guys that go to war with that mindset wind up in body bags. I’ve seen it happen.
“He said he’d be careful. But I don’t know. Careful never has been one of his strongest habits.”
“Well, I hope he survives boot camp and makes it in the Marine Corps. And you know what? He probably will, if he wants it that badly. I hope it doesn’t harden him too much, though. He’s such a sweet guy.”
Butch chuckled.
“My guess is they’ll make a man out of him. The Marines are famous for doing that. And he can be tough and still be sweet. Look at me.”
Red rolled her eyes.
“Oh, brother…”
Chapter 21
John Savage was getting increasingly frustrated. Word got around the small town that Red quit her job at the hospital. He was overjoyed, assuming that with the loss of her paycheck, surely they would be unable to make their mortgage payments.
Then that bubble burst when one of his trusted henchmen told him that she was going back to work at the hardware store.
He punched his fist hard on his desk.
"Damn it to hell. I can't catch a break."
The bearer of the bad news sunk down into his chair. It never paid to piss off the boss.
None of Savage's minions knew exactly why it was so important that he seize Red's land. And he didn't plan to tell any of them. If word got out that the super collider would soon be located just outside of town, property values would go through the roof. Red and Butch both might take advantage of that and sell their land to move to greener pastures.
And Savage's grand scheme would go right down into the toilet.
That just wouldn't do.
"We've got to find a way to get them off that land."
Everyone in the room, to the last man, saw the spittle rolling down the side of Savage's lower lip and thought him crazy.
They all had their grudges.
But whatever vendetta Savage had against Red and Butch seemed to completely consume him beyond all reason.
Of course, if they knew there might be several million barrels of crude oil beneath the land, it would all make sense to them.
If they knew that if he owned all the land around the government’s tract, Savage could develop it to take advantage of the financial boom the collider would bring with it. And then they’d understand.
He could build restaurants and bars and hotels, and everything else a construction crew of hundreds would need. He’d finally become the billionaire he always told his father he would be.
It would be too bad the old man was no longer around to see it.
Chapter 22
John Savage was running late, as usual.
And Southwest Airlines was right on time, as usual.
And Jesse Luna wasn’t pleased.
He got off his flight and went to baggage claim expecting to meet Savage and discuss a business arrangement.
The business Luna was in paid extremely well. And his services were very much in demand.
He didn’t have to be kept waiting. If Savage stood him up, he’d be on the next flight out to meet another client who knew how to be on time.
Luna had never met Savage. A mutual friend offered him a description.
“He’s short, fat and bald. The type of guy who doesn’t get laid much, unless he pays for it. He pours on so much Old Spice you’d swear he bathes in it. You can generally smell him before you see him.”
Savage didn’t know what Luna looked like either. If he’d been on time, he’d have stood at the side of the concourse the deplaning passengers walked through to pick up their bags.
With a sign marked “Luna.”
But he wasn’t on time, and the baggage claim area was backed up because the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport only had four baggage carousels and two of them were down for maintenance.
Luna looked around at a sea of people. And a fair number of them were short, fat and bald.
He’d always thought Austin was full of young adventurous rebels. Looking around, he had to wonder if the city had more than its fair share of fat men too.
Then he remembered it was the Texas capitol, and therefore full of politicians and their cronies.
And that seemed to explain it.
He fumed as he paced back and forth.
He had Savage’s phone number in his telephone, but couldn’t call him. He had the idiot in Atlanta to thank for that. He’d been drinking at one of the passenger lounges at Hartsfield and had his cell on the bar next to him. The bartender chose to wipe down the bar at the exact moment a couple of hot women walked in. He was distracted and his bar towel clipped the corner of Luna’s phone.
It went spinning off the bar and Luna’s desperate attempt to catch it was in vain. It ricocheted off the adjacent bar stool and onto the floor, where it broke into three pieces.
It could have gotten quite ugly if Luna had let it. That was his first impulse, but he had a couple of unserved warrants and didn’t want someone to call the police.
The barkeep’s manager was called, he wrote down Luna’s email address and promised a check within seventy two hours.
“It’ll take me that long to file the insurance claim and they’ll contact you by email for your mailing address. I apologize for your inconvenience.”
Luna had motioned for the manager to draw closer, so he could whisper something in his ear.
“You and your boy wonder are very lucky. Neither one of you had to die today. I suggest you train him to be more careful.”
“Yes, sir. And thank you so much for your understanding and patience.”
The truth was, Luna knew that creating a scene or causing anyone harm would merely call attention to himself and increase the chance of him being arrested.
The truth was, Jesse Luna was neither understanding nor patient.
And he was also unable to contact his new client.
He paced back and forth through the b
aggage claim area, and something suddenly caught his attention.
It was the very distinctive scent of Old Spice cologne. And it was almost overpowering.
He asked the portly man wearing it, “Are you John Savage?”
“Yes. Are you Jesse Luna?”
“Yes. And I’ve had a hell of a day. Let’s get this meeting started.”
Chapter 23
Jesse Luna didn’t carry himself as a man going on a job interview.
John Savage didn’t seem much like a potential employer.
An outsider watching the pair might well have assumed it was the other way around. That their roles were reversed.
Savage fell all over himself trying to impress his guest, and to make him comfortable.
“How long are you going to be in town? I made a reservation at the best hotel in Austin, but only for one night. I didn’t know if you had urgent business elsewhere.
“If you can stay longer, It’s pretty exclusive, but I can make some calls and get us a tee time at the Austin Country Club. For my money one of the best courses in the country.
“If you want a woman I can make some calls and have one sent to your room. Hell, why settle for one? I can send a couple.”
Luna turned to the fat man and his gaze was unmistakable: shut the hell up.
Savage did.
Luna didn’t have to impress anyone. His reputation preceded him.
He was not unlike a big league ball player who’d already proven his worth and was shopping for another team.
His would be employers would wine and dine him, provide him with any perks he might desire, and pretty much kiss his ass.
Jesse Luna’s potential clients did the same thing to him.
It wasn’t that Jesse was royalty.
Maybe he was in his own mind, but he had no lineage to back it up.
No, Jesse was as much a master in his craft as a big leaguer batting .353.
And he was very much in demand.
“Tell me about my targets,” he instructed Savage.
“They’re all residents of Blanco, an hour’s drive east of here. In fact, they’re neighbors. There’s three of them. A woman, her husband, and her old man.”
Savage thought using the term, “old man” instead of father would make him sound cool.
It didn’t. It made him sound like a moron.
“Neighbors. Do they live on the same street or something?”
“No. Blanco is a rural community. No housing developments to speak of. A few apartments, and mostly ranches and small farms.
“The father lives alone on his ranch. The daughter, her husband and little kid live in another house on their own land a few hundred yards away.”
“How isolated are the ranches?”
“Very isolated. Our Main Street only averages a couple of cars a minute, even in the busiest times a day. To get to their ranches, you have to take a connecting road off of Main Street, and another connecting road after that.
“I’m guessing that from their front yards, you might have to wait an hour or two just to see a car pass by.”
“You mentioned a kid. Old enough to be a witness?”
“He just turned two years old. In fact, I had someone attend the kid’s party just to take photographs of your targets. Here they are.”
“Cute redhead.”
“She’s a bitch with a bad attitude, not worth your time.”
“Meaning she wouldn’t give you the time of day?”
Luna looked at Savage and smirked.
Savage blushed.
Luna’s words stung because they were true. Savage had once fancied Red, but knew he had no shot with her so he never tried.
She had more class than that.
“Any problem if the kid gets caught up in it?”
“No problem at all.”
“Good. They make lousy witnesses at that age, but a good shrink can get them to point at pictures. I don’t want him to point at mine.”
“Understood.”
“If the ranches are as isolated as you say, why don’t you have one of your guys do it? Should be easy, and they’d do it a lot cheaper than I would.”
“Because most of my guys are idiots. If there was any way in the world to screw it up, they’d find it.
“And the ones who aren’t screw-ups can’t keep their mouths shut. I don’t want the thing to go down perfectly and then one of them get busted for something else and rat me out to save his own ass.
“I want to hire you for the same reason I drive a Mercedes instead of one of those little Korean pieces of crap. I know that the best is worth paying extra for. And I don’t mind paying extra to have a job done right.”
Luna rubbed his chin, as though deep in thought.
“Okay. Here’s my offer, and it is not negotiable.
“I’ll do the three for two hundred thousand. I’ll try to spare the kid if I can. But if he sees me, or if I even think he sees me, he’ll go too. If he goes it’ll jack the price to three hundred. The heat tends to be much worse when a kid is involved.
“Those terms are acceptable.”
“I’m not finished. I do it on my schedule, not yours. I’ll case the joints, learn their habits, and hit them when I’m comfortable. It’ll be sometime within the next six months. You want it done sooner than that, it’ll mean extra risk for me. Extra risk costs extra dollars. If six months isn’t acceptable, I’ll put a rush on it. Three months. For an additional hundred thousand.”
Six months was a long time. There was a chance that word about the collider would get out by then and cause Savage some problems.
But Savage was something else besides vicious.
He was also greedy.
And the thought of spending a hundred thousand dollars he didn’t have to spend rubbed him the wrong way.
“Six months is fine.”
“Good. I’ll need a hundred thousand down. That’s also not negotiable.
“If you’ll give me a couple of hours I’ll bring you a cashier’s check.”
Luna stopped short and gave Savage a “What are you, stupid?” look.
Savage backtracked.
“I’ll bring it to you in cash, but it’ll take me a day to gather it.”
“I thought you ran a bank.”
“Yes. But we don’t normally carry that much cash in our vault. It’s an old bank, and we don’t want to get robbed.”
Luna laughed.
“It’s a shame, isn’t it, what the world has become. Nothing but thieves and hoodlums everywhere you turn. You just can’t trust anybody anymore.”
Savage wasn’t sure if he was being made fun of, but Luna was too vicious a man to call on it.
So he laughed and played along.
“Yes. It’s a damn shame.”
“I’ll stay in town overnight and take an evening flight out tomorrow. Now I have to go get a new phone, and then I’d like for you to have a blonde sent to my room. About seven p.m. would be good. Pay her for the whole night, and make sure she’s good looking. Call me when you’re heading back this way with the money, and make sure it’s in hundred dollar bills. I’ll count it before I leave town. If you stiff me the deal’s off and you don’t get your money back. After that I want no contact from you until after the deed is done and I come to Blanco to collect the balance.
“Any questions?”
“How are you going to get a hundred grand in cash on the airplane? TSA will stop you.”
“Not your business. You have your tricks of the trade, and I have mine. Any more questions?”
“No, sir.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow. And remember, make sure she’s good looking.”
“Yes, sir.”
Chapter 24
"Oh, come on, honey. My hair's a mess, and my eyes are puffy, and I'm not in the mood"
"Bull. You've never been more beautiful than you are right now. Your hair is perfect, and so are your eyes, and you were in a very good mood before I pulled the camera out."
"Says you. Besides, if you start taking photos you won't want to stop. And then we'll be late for church."
But Russell was undeterred. Red had given him a nice digital camera for his birthday several months before, and had rebuffed him every time he tried to take her photograph.
This time he wouldn't take no for an answer.
"Then I'll go to hell for taking pictures."
"Oh, Russell, don't say that. It's blasphemous!"
"No it's not. That's the reason God put beautiful women on this earth. So their husbands could take pictures of them."
"Oh, I doubt that."
"No, it's true. Oh, there was also that whole 'be fruitful and multiply' thing. But that was secondary to the picture taking."
"What am I going to do with you?"
"Oh, I can think of all kinds of things, but they’ll all have to wait until later. For now I’d be satisfied if you just posed for some photographs.”
"If I pose for one photo will you put the camera away and go to church?"
"Make it three and you've got a deal."
Red, exasperated, gave in.
"Okay, but make it snappy."
"Oh, I get it. Make it snappy. Snapping photographs. Very punny. I guess you think you're the queen of the clever puns, huh?"
"It was unintended, baby. Now, are you going to take my photo or what?"
"Oh, now you want me to take your photo. I sure wish you'd make up your mind. Or at least give me a notebook so I could keep track of your mind changes."
"Argh!"
Red turned on her heels and stormed out the front door with Rusty in tow.
Russell walked out right behind her, saying on the way, "Oh, baby, great idea! The light's much better outside. It'll make for some much better pictures."
He stepped off the porch and picked a pink rose from one of the bushes that bookended the steps.
"Here, honey. Let me put this in your hair. It's the only thing on earth that even comes close to your beauty."
She said, "Well, that's corny."
But she did what he asked.
He could be sweet when he wanted to be.
Red looked up to see Bonnie galloping across the pasture toward them.
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