Stealing Second (The Amendments Book One 1)

by Nicholas Antinozzi

  “So, what you’re telling me is that Jim is running around out there, somewhere, and you have no idea where he is?”

  “That was the last time we heard from him.”

  “You must still love him.”

  Cathy began to cry and she stepped over, into my arms. “I do, but not as a husband. The man I loved died two deployments ago, Gary. The man who came back was a stranger to me. I don’t know him at all.”

  Just then, Lisa walked into the kitchen and she looked at Cathy and gave her a worried look. She walked over to her knapsack and began rummaging through it. Lisa pulled out an orange prescription bottle and unscrewed the cap. She then tapped out a couple of small tablets. “Here,” she said. “Take these. You’ll feel better.”

  Cathy pulled away and dried her eyes. “I don’t know,” she said. “What are they?”

  “They’re happy pills.”

  Cathy held out her hand and Lisa dropped the pills into her palm. I fought the urge to chuckle as Cathy dry-swallowed the two tablets. We had no idea what she was taking, but whatever they were, I thought they couldn’t hurt. Lisa offered the bottle to me, but I shook my head. “No, thank you,” I said.

  Lisa shrugged and tapped a few more of the white tablets out into her palm. She then popped them into her mouth and began to chew. I heard Jack and Ace mumbling something, followed by the sound of slow footsteps on creaky stairs. “I’m going to go see what the guys are up to,” I said. “Will you be okay?”

  Cathy nodded her head and offered me a sad smile. “I’ll be fine.”

  “You’re crazy,” said Lisa. “This house is spooky as hell. I’ll stay here with Cathy.”

  I smiled and left them standing there. Behind me, I heard Cathy say something followed by the sound of Lisa’s laughter. I was happy the two women had a moment alone to form some kind of bond. I liked them both and hated the idea that I had somehow come between them. I walked into a large, decrepit dining area. The ornate woodwork was covered in layers of dust, but it was nonetheless impressive. A huge chandelier hung askew from the twelve-foot ceiling. I carefully walked around it, just in case the footsteps upstairs might send it crashing to the floor.

  The front of the house was occupied by two large rooms that I imagined had been the living room and parlor. The rooms were lit by pinpricks of yellow light that spilled in from the boarded up windows. A ratty couch occupied one wall and an old portrait hung crookedly behind it. The portrait was of a stern-looking woman and I was amazed that someone hadn’t stolen it and shopped it around. The frame alone would be worth hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. Ten feet from the front door was a grand staircase and I stared at it with wonder. The stairs tapered off from at least ten feet wide at the bottom, to roughly four feet across at the first landing. There, they turned at a ninety degree angle and disappeared. Above, I heard the sound of footsteps and I slowly began to take the stairs, carefully clinging to a solid banister. Despite the creaking, the stairs seemed surprisingly solid under my weight. I turned the corner and followed the flight to the top.

  The upstairs landing was spacious, and again I was taken aback by the sight of more portraits hanging on the walls. I counted five in all. The faces lacked any sort of expression and appeared to belong to a single family. I could only guess at how long ago they were painted. Judging by their clothes, the paintings predated the era of the photograph. I felt a cold chill as I studied the faces in the pale light.

  Jack appeared in the hallway and briskly walked my way. He yanked his flask out of his hip pocket and fumbled with the cap. He stopped and took a long pull off of it and quickly returned it to his pocket. Wordlessly, he flipped me the bird as he continued walking to the stairs. He took them two at a time.

  From down the hall, Ace stuck his head out of a door. He waved me over to join him and quickly disappeared. I swallowed my courage and walked down the hallway. Gloomy light filtered in from open bedroom doors. Thick cobwebs hung from the ceiling and I batted them aside the best I could. I found Ace in a dingy room that was lined with empty bookshelves. In the darkness, I could see that he stood at an open door. I walked over to join him and saw that the door led up another flight of stairs. Every sense in my body was screaming at me not to climb them.

  “Did you bring a flashlight?” asked Ace.

  “No, do you want me to go get you one?”

  “Nah, there looks like there should be enough light up there for us to poke around.”

  I rubbed my chin. “I don’t know, man,” I said. “Maybe we should stay down here. What if we crash through the ceiling?”

  “There’s something up there,” said Ace. “You can feel it, can’t you?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Gary, you can’t lie to me. I know you feel it. Whatever it is, it wants us to come up there.”

  “Aw shit, are you out of your mind? I ain’t going up there. This is seriously creepy, Ace. I don’t like it.”

  “Fine,” Ace said, shaking his head. “Go back down and join the girls. I don’t need you.”

  “Thanks a lot,” I said. “Now I have to follow you.”

  A wide grin spread across Ace’s face. “I knew that would work,” he said. “Buddy, I can read you like a book.”

  “Buddy is dead,” I replied.

  Ace chuckled and slowly began to climb the stairs. The staircase was narrow and impossibly steep and I knew that one wrong step would mean a serious injury, possibly even death. I reached for the thin banister, but it wiggled in my grasp. I let it go as if it were a snake. I stayed two steps behind Ace and he moved slowly, testing each stair gingerly as we ascended to the top. Finally, he turned to wave me up and disappeared into the shadows.

  I could feel my heartbeat in my temples and my spine tingled as I reached the top of the stairs. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face; it was that dark. The sticky air was warm and pungent. I followed the sound of Ace’s footsteps, desperately wishing I had run back downstairs and grabbed my flashlight.

  There was a fluttering sound and I froze. “Get down!” ordered Ace. Something brushed against my cheek and I instantly dropped into a crouch. “Just a few bats,” Ace said, calmly, “nothing to worry about.”

  “Except rabies,” I hissed.

  “Don’t forget about the vampires.”

  “Oh, that was so funny that I forgot to laugh. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  “Hang on, there’s a window over here. Somewhere …”

  I covered my head, but it sounded like the bats had found a new place to hang out. The fluttering was gone and it had been replaced by the sound of Ace grunting. I didn’t like the sound of it and I could only imagine what he was doing. The grunting continued and gradually, it was joined by the groaning of nails being eased out of strong wood. I suddenly felt a strong urge to pee and was only barely able to control it.

  There was a crack and a fat beam of light hit me square in the face. I was temporarily blinded and I heard another quick crack and more light spilled into the attic. I blinked my eyes and saw Ace standing next to a large octagon window. The rising sun was directly between us and I shielded my eyes to see.

  The attic was filled with old packing crates and steamer trunks. There were dozens of them. The room was long and only half as wide as the second floor. An old Victrola phonograph stood on the edge of an upright trunk. Scattered next to it were dozens of little dusty records. A wire birdcage hung from a hook on a rafter and an ancient mannequin stood guard next to Ace. “Wow, look at all of this junk,” he said. “I can’t believe that nobody has been up here.”

  “I can,” I said. “Can we go now?”

  “Go ahead, I’m not stopping you.”

  “What do you hope to find up here?”

  “I’m killing time, Gary. I don’t want to sit downstairs and worry my ass off. The kids won’t be back for at least an hour. You can do whatever you want. I’m going to see what’s up here.”

  “And what is up here?�
�

  “What do you mean? Look around.”

  “No, Ace. I meant that just as it sounded. You said that you felt something up here. I felt it, too. Don’t feed me some line of bullshit. What do you hope to find?”

  The smile left his face and he dropped his eyes. “I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head, “but whatever it is, I’ll know it when I find it.”

  “You can do more than read minds, can’t you?”

  “Trust me, you don’t want to know. Let’s just say that I have psychic abilities and call it good, okay? I don’t like to talk about it and you already know too much. Just promise me that you’ll keep my secret to yourself.”

  “I haven’t told anyone.”

  “Don’t you think I know that?”

  “I don’t like it that you can read my mind.”

  “Don’t you think I know that, too? Why do you think I keep it to myself? Nobody likes the idea of someone looking inside their head. That’s why I moved here from Missouri. I had to get away. I needed to make a fresh start.”

  I sighed. What Ace said made sense in a strange sort of way. I didn’t think I’d like to have his psychic abilities, whatever they were.

  “No, you wouldn’t,” said Ace.

  “Knock it off.”

  “Sorry, it is kind of fun sometimes. Give me a hand over here. Let’s take a look inside of these old trunks.”

  I knew he didn’t need me to help him look inside the trunks. I imagined myself being alone up here with the rabid vampire bats, and I knew he really only wanted me for the company. I looked at Ace and he just chuckled and nodded his head knowingly. The attic was split by a narrow walkway that led to the window, divided by stacks of trunks and wooden crates. With nothing else to do, I walked over to join him. “What do you suppose happened here?” I asked. “Who would leave all of this stuff behind?”

  “I can’t be sure, but I think the last member of the family was very old when they died.”

  “But why hasn’t someone come along and cleaned this place out? Look at it up here, this place is every antique hunter’s dream come true.”

  Ace popped the locks on one of the old steamer trunks and opened it. “You know why,” he said. “Something kept them from coming up here.”

  “That’s enough. I don’t want to know anymore.”

  “Gary?” called Cathy from the second floor. “Are you guys up there?”

  “We are,” I hollered back. “You can come on up if you want. There’s a lot of neat stuff up here.”

  Ace rolled his eyes as he rummaged through a stack of beautiful moth-eaten dresses.

  “No thanks. Hey, Jack thinks we should wait outside. He doesn’t like this house.”

  “No!” shouted Ace, dropping a dress into the trunk. “Nobody goes outside, not for any reason!”

  “You don’t have to bite my head off,” replied Cathy.

  “I’m sorry. We can’t risk being seen, not with Neil and Violet out there. We’ve got to think about them. What would happen if we were all captured while they’re gone?”

  “Oh shit,” said Cathy, “you’re right. I’ll go down and tell him. Thank God somebody has their head on straight.”

  Ace stared at me and shook his head. “We can’t risk it, Gary. Not even to go to the bathroom.”

  He had plucked that thought out of thin air and I shook my head and stared at the ceiling.

  “Sorry.”

  “Just try to be careful, okay? Do I really think that loud?”

  “Some people think louder thoughts than others. You’re one of them. I can’t read Lisa or Violet, but Jack is twice as easy to read as you are.”

  I thought about that. “What about Cathy?”

  “Yeah, I can read her.”

  “And?”

  “If you absolutely need to hear something, I’ll tell you. This isn’t some novelty trick to use for amusement purposes. I take it very seriously. I’ll tell you something—she wants to sleep with you. There. The rest you can figure out on your own.”

  “Yeah, I kind of figured that.”

  “And you’re worried that she’s been molested. Gary, you’ve got to let it go. You can’t go back and change the past. I know she was with your dead friend. You’ve got to forget about all of that. Live for today and tomorrow, nothing else matters.”

  “Funny, I don’t remember telling you any of that.”

  “You didn’t.”

  “Then how did you know?”

  “Cathy told me.”

  I should have known. I rubbed my eyes and sighed. I then reached for the handle of another of the steamer trunks and slid it over into the walkway. The first clasp opened easily, but the second seemed corroded and I fought with the buckle before it popped open.

  Chapter16

  A high-pitched scream sent my heart racing. I looked to Ace, but he was already running to the stairs. I dropped the lid to the trunk and ran after him. The scream was joined by a second, which was followed by the sound of Jack’s deep voice. “Shut up!” he bellowed. “Ace? Gary? Get down here!”

  How I made it down those steep stairs without taking a tumble is beyond me. By the time I reached the empty library, Ace was already out in the hallway. I caught sight of him turning for the second flight of stairs as I dashed out of the room. I tried to imagine what had happened, but my mind was blank. The only thing that mattered was getting down there and dealing with it, whatever it was. I took the stairs two at a time, bounded around the corner of the threshold and thundered down the remaining steps.

  And I saw that we weren’t alone.

  A giant of a man stood in the living room. He carried no weapons that I could see and his faded jeans and olive green t-shirt were caked with dried mud. He was young, perhaps in his early twenties, with shaggy brown hair and a scraggly beard. Sleeves of brightly colored tattoos covered his arms. I guessed him to stand close to seven feet tall. He was lanky, but solidly built. Ace stood in front of him, sizing him up.

  “He says that Violet and Neil were captured,” said Jack.

  Lisa held Cathy in her arms and she began to sob. I walked forward to stand next to Ace. “Who are you?” Ace asked.

  “Leroy Jones, sir,” the man-child whispered. “I sure am sorry, I tried to stop them.”

  “Who captured them, and where the hell were they taken?”

  “The Blue Helmets captured them and they took them to the camp. I tried to warn them, but that red-headed kid wouldn’t listen to me.”

  “Neil,” hissed Cathy, “that son of a bitch.”

  “Hold on,” said Ace, “let the man talk. So, you followed them and actually saw them captured? Are you sure they were taken to the camp?”

  Leroy nodded his head. “I really am sorry. Don’t you people think others have tried bribing the guards? It never works.”

  “I knew it wouldn’t work,” spat Cathy. “Ace, this is your fault. My poor Violet would still be here if it wasn’t for you.”

  “Cathy!” I shouted, twisting to raise a finger at her. “That’s enough of that kind of talk.”

  Cathy shot me an angry look, but she turned to Lisa and buried her head in her shoulder. I didn’t want her making a bad situation worse. Blaming Ace wasn’t going to help anything. I turned back to face the tall kid.

  “This is going to sound like a stupid question,” continued Leroy, “but can we assume that you still want to get your people out of there?”

  “Hell yes,” said Ace. “My wife and kids are in there. That woman behind me, she’s right, I’m to blame for her daughter being captured. I’ll do whatever it takes to get our people out of there.”

  Leroy nodded his head, uncomfortably. I began to suspect he was younger than I had originally guessed him to be. He nervously rubbed his huge hands against his thighs and one of his green eyes began to twitch. He reminded me of a high school student standing before the principal. “A bunch of us are going to attack the camp,” he said. “I’m supposed to ask if you want to join us.”


  “Hell yes,” Ace said again. “How many people are we talking about?”

  “What do you mean? We figure there are about two hundred soldiers guarding the camp, but there’s at least five thousand people being held there. Rumor has it that they’re scheduled to be hauled down to Wyoming. They’ve got a huge camp down there at Hallberg Marine.”

  Ace nodded his head, patiently. “How many people are joining the attack?”

  “Gee, I don’t know,” Leroy said. He set his jaw and stared at the ceiling. He then returned his attention to Ace. “I’m guessing we’ve got a thousand people out here who are ready to fight.”

  “Holy smokes,” whistled Ace, “seriously?”

  Leroy nodded. “Maybe more than that, people like you keep showin’ up. The plan is to hit them tonight at ten o’clock. We want to hit them hard. They’re not even American soldiers, they’re all Blue Helmets. My old man hopes to teach them a lesson.”

  “Is your dad leading the attack?”

  “Gosh no, Colonel Hawkins is leading the attack. He’s an Oath Keeper. Have you ever heard of them?”

  “I’m an Oath Keeper,” said Cathy, proudly.

  “You won’t be alone. Colonel Hawkins thinks we have about a hundred Oath Keepers. He’s going to want to meet you.”

  “I’m ready whenever he is.”

  “He’ll be happy to hear that.”

  “How can you be sure they won’t start moving the prisoners tonight?” asked Ace.

  “The new camp isn’t ready. Colonel Hawkins says it won’t be ready for a few days.”

  Ace nodded his head. “How can he be sure of that?”

  Leroy smiled and confidently crossed his tattooed arms. “You’d be surprised at how much he knows. He knows you people spent last night at an old farm, over in Harris. I’ll bet you didn’t even know you were followed, did you?”

  Ace turned and shot me a startled expression. “No, we had no idea,” he said.

  “The revolution is a lot bigger than you probably think,” said Leroy, raising his chin. “And we’re getting more organized and better equipped every day. A lot of our own soldiers have come over to our side. Colonel Hawkins thinks it’s only a matter of days before we have the whole army fighting next to us.”