by Betsy Poole
Juan. Apparently he’d made it out this far as well.
“The problem was that instead of approaching me about it, he approached my mother. She was the one who led the ritual the night he came to us.”
“Who’s your mother? And what do you mean by ‘problem’, Rick?” I asked.
“She’s the older woman with the long black hair,” Jesus, the kid had watched me get annihilated by her last night. Obviously they were one twisted little family. “Well, my mother, she’s very protective of me … Actually, she’s very protective of the sacrament. Personally, if I wasn’t the only one who knew how to make it, she probably would’ve killed me years ago. But I won’t give her the formula. So she tolerates my little ‘thing’ as she calls it, out here and sells just a little bit of the extra I make. It’s mostly the leftovers, but it helps support all of this.”
He swept his hands across the landscape and smiled.
“Which, as you experienced last night, is pretty goddamn great, isn’t it?” A smile erupted across his face and made him look like a five-year-old. “But, you know, it starts to get a little old after awhile. And you know, mom and her girlfriend, Carole, they keep pressuring to make more and more. And as far as the ‘problem’ with the Mexican man. Well, I think my mom and Carole killed him.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Yeah, and if I had told them about what you said to me this morning, there’s a better chance than not they’d kill you, too, and probably, Ila, too, for letting you stay.”
I grabbed him by his t-shirt and cocked back a fist and he held his hands up.
“If they hurt her, I swear.”
“Wait! Wait! I haven’t told them! I haven’t told them!” I shoved him hard and he stumbled back a few steps. He seemed like he was about to piss his pants. “And I don’t plan on telling them. But you have to do something for me.”
“What?”
“I’m tired of all this, Larry. I’m tired of my mother and Carole always bossing me around…” I knew what he was hedging around about. “And I know you’re a bad man, Larry.”
“I’m not going kill your mother, Larry.” I said, letting my voice go cold and menacing.
“I don’t want you to kill her. I doubt you could anyway. I’ve seen other people try to kill her, and you just can’t, she won’t die. No, Larry, I want you to kill me.”
“No way! I can get you away from them! I can protect you! My employer can protect you!”
“Maybe for a little while you can. But they’ll never stop looking for me, ever, and the minute you let your guard down, they’ll be there, and then you’ll be dead and I’ll be a slave just like I am now! So the only way is for you to kill me. And if you don’t do it, I swear to you, I’ll kill Ila.”
“What!”
“I have her! My most loyal follower has her someplace safe. But if she doesn’t hear from you that I’m dead, she’ll kill her! I swear to you she will!”
I wanted to punch him. I wanted to grab him by the throat and rip his head off and piss down his neck. But I didn’t, maybe I really was in love with Ila?
“Alright … Alright, I’ll do it.”
“Good. It’ll happen tonight at the sunset ritual.”
So here we are again.
Me, the gun, the hillside, my sights drawn on the man who could possibly be the savior of the world. (Okay, maybe I was exaggerating a little about him being the savior. All I know is his drug, his ‘sacrament’ would make a lot of people happy, especially my boss.)
And I’m still not a killer.
After I agreed to kill him, we went through the details. He’d already stashed the gun that had belonged to another former member of the GR, another guy who he thought his mother had killed when he suggested they start selling the sacrament. And he told me after I killed him, that I was to go to the barn and his ally—the good looking redhead with the swimmers body who had originally let me into the house—would release Ila to me and give me some car keys, and I was to leave with both of them immediately.
But as you can guess, I’ve got cold feet.
Like I said before, I don’t mind guns, but I’m not a huge fan of them, and it’s mostly because I’m what you call a jerker. You see, when a gun goes off, whether I’m shooting it or just around it, I flinch. I flinch so hard that I’ll miss my target 99 times out of 100. It’s the real reason I’m not a cop, because I couldn’t pass my marksmen exam. I was just too nervy. My old man and I worked on it constantly, but I could never overcome it. It was the old man’s idea that I go private, because at least I could still help people without having to use a gun.
But I can’t miss now, and I won’t. Because I’ve decided to switch targets. I zoom in on Rick’s mom and train my sights on her head. She’s a damn fine looking woman, but I bet she’s as hard as nails like Rick says she is, and if anyone’s going to die today, it’s going to be her.
My cue to start shooting is when Rick goes into his usual orgy rap. He starts in and I fire and inevitably, I jerk, and instead of the bullet tearing off Rick’s mom’s head, I hit her in the right shoulder and she hits the dirt. I try to line up another shot at Rick’s mom on the ground, but her gal pal, Carole, is hovering over her, so I line my sights up between her shoulder blades. Sweat drips into my eyes and I swipe it away. All it takes is that brief couple of seconds of discomfort to remind myself I’m not a killer, and I decide to storm the staging area.
The scene is pure chaos. GR members are scrambling around, diving for cover. Rick’s mom’s girlfriend is at her side distracted by trying to stop the bleeding, so she doesn’t see me scramble down the hill, but she finally notices me when I’m bringing the rifle’s tock down on her head. She was fast, one second I think I’m going to knock her cold, and the next she almost rips the rifle out of my hand and she’s landed a hard left on the underside of my jaw. I’ve been in more than my fair share of fights over the years and have taken some serious punishment from the types of bruisers who haunt your nightmares; real life boogie men, but I’ve never been hit as hard and fast as I was by Carole.
Obviously she’d been in more than her fair share of fights, and she knows right where to hit someone to take them out with as little muss as possible. That punch made my vision go black and blurry around the edges, and the world went blurry and slow-mo as she threw two more jabs at my nose. I felt my nose shatter with the first and the feeling was enough to bring me back to earth. If you’ve never had your nose broken, let me tell you, there’s practically no worse pain you can experience (Well, I’m sure there is way worse, but thankfully I’ve never been on the losing end of a knife or gun.); it either makes you burst into tears, or it pisses you off so much you fly into a rage.
Me, I’m the rage type.
I turned a half step away from Carole’s second punch, only glancing off my shoulder, and I double grip the barrel of the sniper rifle, and Mickey Mantle her with the butt straight to the neck. The bitch is tough, she stands her ground, her eyes going tea saucer size, her mouth a ragged snarl, her fingers poised like claws. She was going to cut me to pieces with her fingernails, but I bring the stock back around and across her jaw. I pull back just enough to only break her jaw and she hits the dirt on top of her girlfriend.
I’m still not a killer.
“What the hell are you doing! You missed! How the fuck could you miss!”
Rick’s throwing a fit, and I notice that few GR members are getting antsy and thinking about jumping me.
“I’m dead! Don’t you get it! We’re both dead!”
I keep a clear head and give Rick a hard slap to shut him the hell up, and then circle an arm around his throat and then jam the barrel hard under his chin. The froggy disciples get the point and go still and quiet.
“He’s not going to shoot me!” Rick screams. “Jump him! Jump him now!”
I know the game Rick is playing. He wants them to move out of hopes that I’m not bluffing, that I’ll actually shoot him in order to save my own ass. But I’m not playi
ng it that way, Rick’s coming with me kicking and screaming. The GR is completely immobilized as I drag Rick’s ass down to the barn
We make it with no one following us, but I sell have to deal with the redhead. We storm the barn with Rick in full hissy fit mode and the redhead has a carpenter’s knife to Ila’s throat. I convince the redhead to let Ila go by shoving Rick at her hard. The shock of having her fearless leader flying towards her makes her drop the knife as she readies for impact. I come in fast behind Rick’s flailing body and give her a solid whack to the skull the skull with the butt of the rifle.
Still not a killer.
Good to his word, Ila’s unharmed (and, thankfully, fully clothed. It’s the first time I’ve seen her in clothes since we met.) and we have a car waiting for us. I have Ila sit in the back and I keep the rifle trained on Rick as I drive down to the Walgreen’s where I have my rental stashed. Her eyes are wide with shock. You can tell she’s in shock from being betrayed by Rick, and the barrel wavers a little as I speed down Idaho road. But he’s no real threat because he’s too busy blubbering.
We hit the Walgreens parking lot, and the three of us climb into my rental and then head to the US 60 start heading east.
When we hit the freeway, Rick gives out one more little whimper before he passes out from exhaustion.
“We’re dead. We’re so dead…”
Maybe we are, maybe we aren’t. Personally, I’m leaning towards the sign of aren’t. By the time Rick’s mom and her girlfriend are out of critical care, they’re still going to have to find out who I actually am, and by that time Rick will be so underground, it won’t matter.
We ended up driving the entire way back to Chicago. Neither Ila or Rick had any form of identification, so hopping a plane was pretty much out of the question. Besides, I still had the credit card Junior had given me for the trip and the rental was pretty damn comfy, so we traveled in style, including providing both of the kids with a whole new wardrobe and a few other things to keep them occupied while I drove. Screw it, Junior could afford it, especial since I was going to deliver him a cash cow like Rick.
It only took us three days to make it to Chicago, and I could tell Rick wasn’t all too happy with what was going to happen to him, but his tune changed when Junior told him how much money he was going to be paying him to make the sacrament. Rick knew that he was now a free man, and an incredibly rich free man. True, he was going to be flooding the streets with a drug, but as far as I was concerned, all the sacrament did was make you screw like an animal, so I didn’t have any beef with him making it. But if it started killing people, well, that was another story.
Things cooled off between me and Ila during the drive. She was never really in love with me, she was in love with Rick and The Green Ruin, and she was usually just the girl Rick used to break in new male recruits to the GR. I’ll admit I was a little butt hurt about it at first, but then after I spent 24 hours in a car with her, I got over my initial hurt feelings. Ila was a kid, and kind of a stupid and impulsive one at that.
Junior was true to his word and knocked half of my debt off for the trip out to Arizona, and he was so happy that he completely exonerated me. I didn’t bother to tell him what the cartel guy had said to me about the labs, but I figured he’d find out soon enough.
Besides, all of that is finally behind me, and my life could go back to normal and I could go back to Sal’s and work my system, which makes me happier than a pig in shit.
All I need now is for the Bulls, the Bears, and the Cubs to start playing a little better so I can start making a little money off ‘em.
That would be a miracle, but I ain’t counting on it.
Not one damn bit.
Part II:
Just when you think that things can’t get any worse, it does. But the same applies to the good part also. Life comes in phases and as we all came back to Chicago, I thought that I would be able to start my life all over again. The worst part was certainly over – or at least I thought so.
Anthony let go of my debt and set me free. Nevertheless, the second half of it was still left and I was supposed to go back to Sal and work for him. I bid goodbye to Ila and Rick without any worry, knowing that they were safe with Anthony. Rick started making the green ruin for Anthony and made him rich.
Anthony was the first person who would be introducing the drug in the American market and knew that it has endless possibilities. Ila started to work for Anthony as well. He needed a personal secretary for quite some time and Ila came just at the right time. She not only knew the insights of the drug market but also had an attractive face. Anthony had a lot of reasons to make Ila her secretary, but her looks were certainly one thing that topped the list.
He wanted to have Ila accompany her for days and nights. There were times when he would give Ila a big assignment to work on, but during the night, he would often ask her to strip in front of him. It was something that Ila certainly didn’t like in the beginning, but the money was a big factor. She needed it to survive and in order to stay on Anthony’s good books; she was ready to make that compromise.
She knew that she had a great body and the kind of looks that could hypnotize anyone. Anthony was no such exception and Ila was able to win his trust for sure. They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach – well, they are wrong. The way to a man’s heart is through his cock. If you can give him what he needs and satisfy his sexual needs, then you can ask him anything in return.
Knowing that both Rick and Ila were able to start their life from the scratch, I realized that my job was done. All I was left to do was serve to Sal for the next few years and then my debt would be waived off. I knew that a few years were certainly a pain in the ass, especially when I was supposed to spend them with Sal, but I had no other option. The mafia was too strong and I knew that it was a battle that I couldn’t win.
Sal had contacts and he was able to destroy me entirely in a matter of a few seconds. I knew that it won’t be a wise decision and a few years can’t last so long. I was pretty optimistic and with that same positive attitude, I bid goodbye to both Ila and Rick.
“I know you kids are going to miss me!” I said as I hugged the two of them. I knew that it won’t be the last time when I would be meeting them. I would still be in the same town and that too just a few miles away. Sal and Anthony are both business partners and if I had to work with Sal, I knew I had to see Anthony as well. I would be visiting Ila and Rick time after time, but it won’t be like the usual days. We won’t be in Mexico anymore and would only be remembering those good old days that brought us together.
“We will see you soon, Larry. I will try to visit you every weekend. Have fun!” Ila said as she let me go. I knew that she was feeling a little sad to bid goodbye to me. We weren’t exactly lovers and it was Rick that she wanted. They both were together and I was the weakest link. I knew that I have made the right choice in leaving the two of them alone. They weren’t kids anymore. They were adults and were completely accountable for their own decisions.
“I will! Be safe, kids!” I said as I packed my bags and bid goodbye to the kids, without knowing what the future had in its store for me.
It has been over a month now since I have started working with Sal, and it has been a bittersweet experience. I usually do stuff of all kinds, whatever he asks for. From taking a ransom to torturing a few clients and delivering a few drug packages to protecting him, I have a long list of tasks that I need to do.
Surprisingly, not even a single thing included anything good. I was a bad guy and have always been like that, but I knew that it was all getting a little mundane. I was doing the same thing over and over again, almost every passing day and wanted to break that monotony. I wanted to do something good and new. I wanted to feel a sense of freshness in my life.
Working with Sal didn’t give me that freshness at all. It has been only a few months now since I am working with Sal and if I truly need to clear my debt that I need to stay with him for at l
east a few more years, which was the hardest part. I was craving for an adventure. I wanted to travel and do some crazy and wild things. I didn’t want to be his slave anymore and have my own will.
Living with Anthony was not all good, but it was nevertheless better than here. I got to travel and face adventure which made me revisit my good old gangster days. I knew that I was rotting myself here with Sal and had to do something really soon in order to break free out of that living hell.
It was one of those usual days when I was sitting inside Sal’s cabin, waiting for him to arrive. He had called me earlier and expected me to be all dressed. I, on the other hand, had no intentions to put a suit. I was simply wearing my polo and a pair of my favorite jeans to go with it.
“What are you wearing? I told you to wear something good, didn’t I?” was the first thing that he told me, the moment he looked at my laid-back attire. I had no regrets. I was comfortable in what I was wearing and didn’t need an approval from anyone like Sal. He was a loudmouth who could never be happy with someone else. Even if you will give your best, he will come up with an excuse to find the bad things in you. Then why to make an effort, right?
“I am too old for this shit, man! Tell me what is it now? What do I have to do?” I came directly to the point and asked him the reasons for that meeting. I had no time to critique my attire and wanted to start working on my next project. That morning, when I got up, I could feel a rush of adrenaline running all over my body. I knew that something excited was lined up for me and even before Sal called me; I realized that it was a big thing!
“I have something really good and exciting for you, champ. I am sure you are going to love it!”
“What is it? Can’t we just cut to the chase?” I interrupted him in between, as I wanted to know what he had in his mind for me.
“There is this event which is going to happen in the city tonight. It is one of the biggest fashion and retail events of the country and people from all parts of the world will take part in it. Your mission is to protect this woman,” Sal said while handing me the picture of a blonde who has ocean blue eyes and sharp features.