The Way of Things

by Tony Milano

  The Way of Things

  by

  Tony Milano

  Smashwords Edition

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  The Way of Things. Copyright © 2014 Tony Milano. All rights reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  For Aidan

  You are my Motivation

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Thank You

  About Tony Milano

  Other Books

  Connect

  CHAPTER ONE

  Spiderhead

  Some days are better than others. This did not feel like one of those days. It was six in the morning on a rainy day in New York and the city's finest were already at work, in fact they had been up all night. That is how stakeouts work. The department likes to keep things simple, just two detectives sitting in a car, no backup, just a cup of coffee to keep the wheels of justice rolling forward.

  Detective John Nash and his new partner Detective Tommy James have been keeping an eye on The Green Dragon restaurant in Chinatown. It is a known hangout for Chinese mobsters, unlike the street thugs you see on the corners, only the truly connected Triads have access to what this restaurant has to offer. The city documents will tell you that a little old couple from China owns the place, but every cop and criminal knows who really owns it, Chenglei Chung.

  Chenglei Chung is a big time Triad leader from Hong Kong. It is estimated that he is in the top one hundred of the richest men on the planet. You gotta love a rags to riches story like his. He started out as a bagman for some no-name boss in Hong Kong and worked his way up the ranks by dealing drugs, selling guns and murdering other mobsters when it was necessary, until there was only one more step on that ladder, his boss. Rumor has it he tossed his boss off of the second highest building in Hong Kong while his boss's wife watched and screamed, he liked the screaming so much that he threw her off next.

  John Nash was a highly decorated New York City police detective. He made his bones just recently during a bank robbery that he stumbled across by accident. He was standing in line at First National waiting to talk to someone about his lost debit card when three masked men rushed into the bank. They shot the door guard before he could say anything. In less than two minutes they had everyone face down on the ground and they were attempting to crack the big safe in the back. Not a very bright thing to do in the middle of the day on a Tuesday. There was easily twenty customers and employees in the building. John managed to call his Police Chief on his cell phone and get the building surrounded before the crew could get their slimy hands on any of the loot.

  The whole event lasted about thirty minutes and ended with SWAT coming in the back door and dropping the two members of the crew that were working on the safe. John managed to distract one of the crew by dropping his badge on the floor. The masked man flipped out when he saw the badge and he got close enough to John for him to wrestle the gun away from him and get the guy in a choke hold, it was not pretty but it worked just the same. For his actions he received a few medals and he got to shake the hand of the Mayor.

  John was not always a New York cop, he started his career in San Francisco walking a beat like any other rookie. He did not mind doing the little work like looking for pick pockets during parades or directing traffic when the system went down. To John it was all a part of being a cop. He loved it.

  His wife, Victoria, did not share his enthusiasm for the force. She had been with John since he was in the Army and to her this was just another version of that horrible experience. She used to stay up late at night waiting for him to come home from long deployments overseas. She would sit there looking out the window waiting for his car to roll up the driveway, it never did. Sometimes the phone would ring and she would be too scared to answer it for fear of the news that he had been killed in some country that she had never heard of, or worse that he had been captured.

  When John joined the police force Victoria was happy for him but as time went on she found herself doing the same routine as before, sitting and waiting. She thought that John would spend more time at home when their baby girl, Lucy, was born. But that is just not how the real world works. John felt the burn to work harder and to start climbing the ranks up to detective. Eventually he ended up on the Asian Task Force. It was a great promotion and it was also a bit odd for an over six foot tall knuckle dragger from Scottish and English descent to be on this task force. He stood out like wolf at a sheep convention.

  The car shook back and forth as the street sweeper went by. John barely noticed as he stared at his coffee. He had that thousand yard stare, the kind only a battle-tested solider can appreciate. He was deep in thought. Still plagued by the memories of a lost love, the memories of what could have been. What he felt should have been. Memories of a life that was stolen from him. Just when everything was working out, just when he was finding something to live for again, stolen.

  John was plagued by the thoughts of his wife Victoria and his little girl Lucy. His work had gotten the better of him, he was getting obsessed with capturing the big guys, the big fish, the whales, the ones that always got away. It was that obsession that led to the biggest mistake of his life, the one that hurt his career, the one that led to the death of his family.

  John was getting too close to a major player in the Triads. He thought he had all the bases covered, he greased the palms that needed grease, he had all the information he needed to make the bust of a lifetime. But he was wrong, he was careless. He had the whole department geared up for a major raid on a warehouse where an illegal gun shipment was arriving. The Russian mob had sold some major fire power to the Chinese Triads and John had the inside scoop on it all. It was close to midnight and a ship had just dropped off a cargo trailer and the Triads were unloading the shipment into small trucks to be delivered throughout the city. A joint task force involving the FBI, ATF and SFPD all swarmed in to stop those trucks. Over fifty officers dressed in tactical gear, automatic weapons and state of the art surveillance equipment overpowered the unorganized Triad thugs that were moving boxes. Everything went as planned and pallets of firearms and explosives were seized and they never made it to the streets. It was a great day for John.

  On the way home, John called Victoria to let her know everything was okay and he was on his way home. He knew something was wrong when she did not answer the phone. It was almost two in the morning, maybe she was asleep, maybe she did not hear the phone, maybe everything was fine. His gut told him otherwise. He sped home and got there just in time to see his wife and daughter on the front lawn, on their knees with their hands on their heads. It was an execution. Two Chinese thugs, dressed in jogging suits, gold chains and running shoes stood behind them with machine guns. Just as John pulled up they opened fire, slaughtering Victoria and Lucy. The machine guns were loud but John could still hear the screams from his family over them. As John got out of his car the machine guns were turned on him. He dove back into his car, laying on his floorboard he quick checked his gun from his holster and pulled a backup pis
tol from the glove box, he was locked and loaded.

  The bullets drilled holes in John's car like it was made of paper. The air was filled with glass and metal, the smell of gun powder and antifreeze was overwhelming. He waited for a break in the gun fire. There it was, he leaped out of the car duel wielding pistols blazing as he ran at the two gunmen. Ducking for cover they scurried into their black Town Car with John running after them shooting down the street, in just a few seconds they were gone. John ran back to his wife and daughter. They were already dead. John held them tight as he cried to himself. It would be easy to blame God for this one, but John knew that God wanted nothing to do with this mess that John created, all the blame was sitting on his shoulders alone. A few moments had gone by and police cars were on the scene, lights and sirens blasting through the now silent neighborhood. John's neighbors had called the police and they arrived to see John on the ground holding his family, there was blood everywhere, the house was peppered with bullet holes. John was a wreck, shock had set in and it took three paramedics to get John to let go of the bodies.

  It took a month for the department shrink to let John get back to work, he was complaining, but John knew he was not ready to be back at work. He could not get the screams of his family out of his head. Still, he had to do something other than just sit alone staring at the walls. Through some of his connections in the Asian Task force he found out that Chenglei Chung was the Triad boss that had put a contract on John's family, in a show of power to get John to back off. John was angry, but he was also broken. He was not acting like his normal self, he started drinking heavily and getting into fights with complete strangers, well, at least the drinking was new.

  Some detectives in the department tried to help him out of this hole he was digging, but he was in too deep already, money had come up missing and all fingers pointed at John. The sad part was he could not even remember if he had taken it. He knew his time was short so he decided to resign, instead of getting removed from the force in shame. Soon after, he felt that he had to get away from the memories, a change had to be made. He decided on a move to New York City. No real reason for New York, no more thought went in to it then a dart hitting a map on the wall. It was okay he thought, maybe he could lose himself in the city that never sleeps. That was the plan at least. It did not take long and John was back on the force, this time in New York City.

  "You still here John?" John snapped back to reality. "Yea, I'm here." He glanced at his new partner who had been talking the whole time. "I was just thinking, but I'm back now. So, Tommy you married?" John looked at Tommy trying to see into his soul. Who was this kid? He came out of nowhere and now here he is, sitting in the same car as the best detective the force has seen in years. This kid must be some kind of a Hotshot. "Nope, you?" Tommy looked sincere with his question. Could he be the only person in the department that has not heard the story? Hard to believe, but still he looked sincere. "Never had time for that." John was lying through his teeth. Tommy did not flinch. Was this kid playing some sick game or was he the last honest man in New York? "I hear you....How much longer?" Tommy was young and impatient. Two things that can get you killed when you are not expecting it. "Anytime now" John really meant to say soon, but that was too optimistic for John. "How long have you been chasing this guy?" Tommy had just finished his coffee and was ready to get moving. This stakeout was taking too long for Tommy. But this was John's gig, Tommy would have to wait. "Six weeks....I already lost one partner to Chung." John was being honest, a rarity for him. "I heard about that." Tommy was not backing down. "You should know, I asked to be your partner." That got John's attention. John looked at Tommy, he saw his soul staring back. John smiled with approval. All he could think was Hotshot.

  And John was right. His new partner that seemed to come out of nowhere was a Hotshot by all accounts. Tommy James was a college quarterback that was bored with throwing passes, so he decided to join the police force. He was ambitious, he made detective in just over a year. He was quick on the gun, fast on his feet and he knew how to work the system to get what he wanted. In his short time on the force he had racked up a healthy arrest record and had made friends with all the right people in the Glass Castle. The Glass Castle was the tongue-in-cheek name that the working stiffs used when referring to the Commissioner or anyone else sitting a desk and speaking at parades. Tommy's star was shinning bright and he was an unstoppable force that could make it to the top, that is as long as he could keep his head on his shoulders.

  Across the street Chung's henchman walked around the corner and down a narrow alley way. He was a slender man in his twenties with a bald head and a big tattoo of a Black Widow on the side of his head. "There he is, Spiderhead!"

  John almost spilled his coffee when Tommy yelled in his ear. John and Tommy leaped out of the car and followed Spiderhead down the alley way. At the end of the alley was an open door, the detectives pulled their weapons and cautiously entered the room. There was meat hanging from hooks, big beef slabs swinging back and forth, but no people. They had stepped into the back of a Chinese butcher shop that was connected to the Green Dragon restaurant. Except for the Chinese music playing in the front of the shop, it was oddly quiet. This was familiar territory for John and the solider in him quickly took over. He motioned for Tommy to check the right, as he moved to the left. As a solider John had seen a lot of action, mostly Black Ops missions that involved dropping into dangerous towns or villages, finding the weak spots and exploiting them.

  John slowly opened a door to a walk-in freezer. His heart was pumping at full throttle. John leaned into the freezer. The cold chill in the air was instant. The freezer was empty, nothing but dead meat. John knew at this point that Spiderhead was on to them, he must have known that they had followed him down that alley way. “Crap.” he got away. John started to walk towards the front of the butcher shop, but was stopped by the sounds of gunshots coming from the alley. He quickly turned to run back to the alley, but he was stopped by a big, tattooed and very pissed off man holding a meat cleaver standing in the doorway. "Move, I'm a police officer." John demanded. The man just started to laugh at John. "Have it your way." John shot the man in the right leg and he fell to the ground dropping the meat cleaver and yelling in pain. John ran passed the man and into the alley.

  At the end of the alley Tommy was laying on the ground bleeding, he had been shot several times. John fell to his knees and held Tommy. There was too much blood, he was sitting in a pool of it, Tommy was dying. "Hang in there kid. Hang on." John was digging in his pocket for his phone. "I'll get help." John called for an ambulance. Tommy was dying too fast. "I fucked up." Tommy was coughing up blood. "It's ok, just hang on." John was cradling Tommy in his arms, the way a father would his son. "Spider...it was Spider." Tommy's body started to shake. "I know kid, hang on." It was too late, Tommy died in that alley way, in John's arms.

  An hour later, John's boss Chief Whitman and an investigation team were in the alley way. There was police tape everywhere. "So let me get this right. You saw one of Chung's thugs come into the alley, you followed him into this butcher shop." Whitman had that pitch in his voice like dad had just caught you in a lie. But John was not lying, not this time. "That is correct sir. Then I heard gunshots." If you listened close you could hear the rebellious contempt in John's voice, not that he was trying to hide it much. John had a strange love-hate relationship with Whitman. They had known each other for over twenty years. They first met in boot camp when they were both trying to date the same girl.

  It was probably a good thing that Whitman won that contest. Looking back at his life, John would not wish that misery on anyone else. "Gunshots?" Whitman's questioning was starting to push John's buttons. "Yes, gunshots." John still had Tommy's blood all over him, he really needed a drink at this point. "And you ran in the direction of the gunshots?" Whitman said it like he was surprised John had the balls to do it. "Yes, I ran to the gunshots." John's mother had a certain outlook on what makes a hero she would tell hi
m "A true hero always runs towards the sounds of gunshots." John never forgot that. "And what happened when you got out here, to the alley?" Whitman lit a cigarette and offered it to John. He did not take it. "I saw Tommy." John quickly corrected himself. "I saw Detective James on the ground bleeding to death with multiple gunshot wounds." John was trying to stay professional, but Tommy had made an impression on him. "No shooter?" Whitman asked a stupid question and John snapped at him "If I saw the shooter he would be laying next to Tommy." Whitman had no doubt about that. He liked to give John a hard time, but deep down he knew that John was a man who would get the job done, done at any cost if need be. Chief Whitman looked at John and shook his head. "Ok John, you look like shit. Go home and get some rest." Finally some good news, John could not wait to get out of that damn alley. He started to walk away when Whitman said "John, I need your badge and gun." John spun on his heels. "What are you talking about?" John knew the rules, but acted surprised anyway. "Come on John don't bullshit me, you're suspended pending psychological evaluation." John thought he was going to get out of it, but the look on Whitman's face said otherwise. John pulled his gun and badge and handed it over to Whitman. "This is bullshit and you know it." Whitman was not having it. "Policy is policy John, call the shrink in the morning, you know the number." John had no interest in calling the shrink, but if anybody really needed to talk about his problems, it was definitely John.

  Later that afternoon, John stopped off at a bar for a drink. It was a shitty bar in a shitty neighborhood, it was also down the block from an apartment he just started renting. The bar was almost empty. John thought to himself 'Good, no stupid people to deal with.' John sat at the bar and started slamming shots. "Tough day?" The bartender had seen John drink before, but not like this. "You have no idea." Now that was an understatement, he thought. "Have a beer on me." The bartender placed a beer mug in front of him. "Thanks."