by mike Evans
Jack said, “This give us some time to get our reports together, and I want this man taken to the prison hospital. You make sure and tell the police he needs to stay sedated for a day. I still need to talk to the commander and let him know what is going on.”
Anderson nodded his head and the men began digging through the facility. By the time they were done they had found three pallets of wrapped bricks of meth. Each one measuring a foot by a foot and six inches deep it was enough to get a city block high for a month. Each time they thought they were done a drug canine unit member would lose its mind. By the time that they were done the news media had shown up filming the police working feverishly to keep the men and women from the neighborhood out of the crime scene and the drugs secure.
Jack and his team had been working solo and the late call in to the police after the raid had been enough to start a small wildfire of hate towards them. When the commander had asked why they hadn’t called them in as a courtesy Jack, not one for filters, had told them that they still wanted the drugs to be here when they arrived. The commander was ignorant to the amount of dirty cops on his force and had threatened them with empty promises of never being allowed back into the city again.
**
Headquarters
The men walked in to a standing ovation as they moved through the DEA’s makeshift headquarters. There were claps on the back, and handshakes all around. The commander was standing outside his office smiling, clapping as well. He motioned for Jack to come into his office and he obeyed. He closed the door to his office muting the applauding. Commander McClellan said, “Sit down, Jack. You’ve had a hell of a day, son.”
Jack sat down pulling his coat off and finally remembering his Kevlar vest he reached to the sides and unfastened the Velcro letting some fresh air up his sweat drenched back. Jack said, “He threatened our families, sir. Not just a few of ours but all of ours. Everyone on the team stands to be in danger if we don’t get protective custody for them.”
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about. What did he say that has you so damn worked up? Aren’t you the guy that does this for a living, and weren’t you the one who use to go after these fucking killers?”
“Sir, if you had someone tell you that everyone you’d ever loved was going to die, and he was the most powerful drug dealer in the states… don’t you think that you would want to go above and beyond to keep them safe?”
“He’s going to go to jail, Jack. Of course he won’t be going anywhere until after he gets out of the hospital. With the amount of drugs that he had the courts are going to put him away forever with all of this. You of all people are worried about retaliation, you’re aware in the short time you’ve been doing this how many busts and enemies you’ve made, right? Besides, that fucker could live for four hundred years and the US attorney would still not let him out.”
“Commander, do you really think he gives a fuck about going to prison?”
The commander tried to answer and Jack cut him off first. “The answer is hell no, sir. They run that place, and have the guards on payroll. As long as one of the brothers in prison doesn’t shank him first then he has very little to worry about.”
“So you want me to assign your team special protection? For how long do you want it?”
Jack shrugged, “I don’t know. How long can we get it for? They don’t necessarily give us an exact date and time that they are going to retaliate. Typically their threats of killing us and carrying through with promises of raping our wives and killing our children are when they get around to it. Hell, half the time they just wait us out anyways. How long do you feel protecting your team is acceptable, sir?”
“You know we got budgets to worry about, right Jack?”
Jack stood quickly, knocking his chair over. “This is too fucking typical! Don’t worry about me and mine, we can sleep when we are dead!”
The commander responded, “Jack, I didn’t say no but—”
“But nothing. We just got millions in drugs and cash off of the street and out of those piece-of-shits hands! So sorry if I take a little bit of offense that you are worried about your budget. If anything happens to Krystal there won’t be anyone left in the five-one-five gang to bring to trial.”
“Jack, for god sakes don’t even say something like that. You’ll drive yourself insane if you think like that.”
“If I don’t think like that then what do you want me to do? I’m the only one protecting her and it won’t be like there is a security detail making sure she stays safe when you have me working sixty hours a week bouncing from one stakeout to another.”
“We have to keep you moving until the city is cleaned up. Until all of these men are taken off of the streets.”
“Until the city is cleaned up, are you kidding me? You are just digging in the sand, sir. You won’t ever clean it up because there is always another grain to take its place but eventually we will just bury and suffocate ourselves.”
“Damn, Jack, you always know just what to say.”
“I need some sleep, we all do.”
“You boys do your paperwork in the morning after a long night’s sleep. Hell, go celebrate. It isn’t as if you haven’t earned it.”
Jack rubbed his hands through his hair smiling thinking of a good night’s sleep and unsure when he had the last good one. “You think about what would happen if Carol got taken? If someone picked her up off the street just because of your job and let us say they took her to an abandoned house, and twenty of them had their way with her. Do you think you’d be able to sleep? Do you think that you could eat, that you could drive, that you could carry on a conversation afterwards?”
The commander opened his mouth trying to think of words to help Jack make peace but none came to mind. He knew that if he had the stress of an entire gang coming after his family that he might drive himself insane. He patted Jack on the shoulder whispering, “I’ll make sure that there are some uniforms sitting on your house for a few days at the least.”
Jack held out a hand and the two men shook. “Thanks. I wanted at all costs to avoid having to tell Krystal about the threats. You know the wife of an agent does nothing but worry the way it is. They’re probably the only ones that lose more sleep than us.”
Jack walked into their conference room debriefing the men that they’d have a few days of someone sitting on their houses and that they should go home and get some sleep. The men had the same worries that Jack did, Anderson raised a hand. “I’m sorry to ask this, Jack, but what the hell do you think we are going to do when they come after us? Don’t tell me you aren’t worried. This is bigger than us, this could get ugly and it could go down quick.”
“It could go down tonight, six weeks or in six months, they just need to send their hitters after us and we probably would be screwed. They don’t have to worry about the repercussions because they don’t give a shit.”
Bull was sitting with his feet up on his desk looking around, he yelled, “Is that supposed to make us feel any better, sir?”
“Do you sleep at night, Bull?”
“Yeah when I’m home.”
“Well you might want to take a little break from it, just until all this shit blows over. We either take them all to jail or put them in the ground. The brotherhood will fight until they have nothing left to lose or until we are in the ground.”
Bull put his feet down as each of the men in the room thought to themselves about their loved ones. Jack was thankful that he didn’t have any kids to worry about, that the thought of losing someone made of himself would be more than he could handle. The men walked out somberly, each of them taking a few extra magazines with them to place on their nightstand.
**
Jack Gray’s Home
Jack took his time going home. He went the long way and back tracked fifteen different times until he wasn’t sure that he was in the right neighborhood. When he finally pulled in he did his best unlocking the door, while balancing a pizza and a bottle of wi
ne in one hand. He walked into the living room seeing Krystal lounging on the couch looking not much better than him. “Jack, you can’t keep off of the news for even one drug bust, honey? You realize that these people are going to see these shows. It doesn’t take a genius for them to figure out where you live, you know. What the hell are we going to do? You can’t take that much money off the streets without them wanting to do something about it, babe. What are you going to do?”
“We are going to stay in for the night and the commander said that he’d put a car outside to make sure we can get some sleep.”
She pointed to the pizza and said, “Looks like you brought some supper home. I’m starving, and some wine to wash it down? Classy, Jack. You really know just what a girl wants.”
Jack set the food down smiling, she knew those eyes and knew that the pizza was going to be stone cold before she ever got the chance to have a slice of it. “I’m going to be giving you a lot of one on one attention, honey.”
“What about sleep and food?”
“It’s overrated, dear. They are always saying I need to get my stress level down I'm in my thirties. You know, I need to start taking care of myself.”
Krystal rose to her feet setting the pizza on the table and taking the wine with them as they headed upstairs. Jack checked the window as she unbuttoned her shirt and was a bit worried that the overnight car hadn't shown up to watch them. Krystal walked over, pulling him away from it and dimming the lights. “Is it that bad this time? Is it any different than normal?”
Jack didn’t have the heart to worry her. He knew that it wasn’t going to do anything to help. He thought that either way they were still going to be here for a few days and they could enjoy it or she could fear for her life the entire time. “Krystal, it’s always bad when I have to worry about you. I can’t think of any profession where it would make a difference what I did, I would still worry about you.”
“Yeah but if you were an accountant you wouldn’t have to worry about anyone wanting retribution on you for what you did.”
“Can you see me as a number cruncher?”
Krystal laughed at him trying to imagine him in a shirt and tie. “No…not with your math skills I can’t.”
Jack laughed, stepping up close and picking her up off of the ground carrying her to the bed and laying her down. Jack kissed her slow, knowing that each one was precious when he had to worry about there being a tomorrow. He licked her neck and ran his tongue down her breasts not stopping until he was past her navel ring. She laughed, bucking, but he held her hips down and pulled her underwear off kneeling on the floor and staying there until her toes curled.
They rolled around in the bed in a heated mess. Krystal pushed him down on the bed and lifted her shirt off tossing it over her shoulder. She laughed, arching her back, placing her hands behind her head as she moved her hips back and forth. Jack stared into her eyes knowing there wasn’t anywhere that he would rather be. He closed his eyes enjoying the moment of it all.
The door slammed open and in a second Jack's life would be changed forever. He tried to push Krystal off of him and to the floor but it was less than one second between the door crashing open, the sound of a shotgun being pumped, and a terrible blast that sent pieces of her skull across the wall behind him.
Her thin body went limp as she fell atop of him, her blood pouring and covering Jack's naked body. He rolled off the side of the bed landing on his dead wife as four men pushed their way into the room. Jack stared for a second transfixed on her ruined face. The slug had torn its way out of the front through her nose and was the worst thing that he’d ever seen.
Jack pushed up off of the ground sprinting for the closet. The bullets began coming his way and he took a hit to the leg. He yelled and dived with his good leg into the darkness of the closet screaming in pain. One of the men came running after him and when he was silhouetted in the doorway Jack put two bullets in him, one in the face, and the other in the heart.
When the other three came running up they pushed the fourth man out of the way. The first came running in firing, missing Jack who was leaning against the side of the closet. When the man looked his way Jack forced the shotgun barrel into his mouth pushing him backwards and into the other two men. He fired the shotgun once sending his brain in every direction it could go.
Jack shouldered the shotgun firing at the second of the last two men. Jack had already decided there was one way to get back at the man who had sent these thugs here and knew there was no half assing it. The fourth man received a blast to each kneecap guaranteeing him he’d be crippled for life.
Jack used the shotgun as a makeshift crutch coming out of the darkness into the bedroom. The man leveled his pistol at Jack who took the shotgun and swung it at the man smashing the barrel into his teeth, knocking most of them out. Jack stared at his wife who’d been brutally killed. He stripped the man of his gun tossing it on the bed along with the rest of the men’s weapons and his own. Jack walked to the bed lifting the mattress and pulling out a knife. He walked back to the man flicking it open. “You picked the wrong house, I can promise you this.”
The man quivered as Jack approached with the knife ready to do evil things. “I give up! Arrest me mother fucker…arrest me.”
Jack shook his head no as he approached, he only stopped for one moment to pull on a pair of pants. He stared at the man's tattoos, smiling. “You aren’t going to be going to jail.”
The man didn’t understand Jack's motives and he yelled, “I ain’t gonna walk again but this ain’t gonna kill me, you call the hospital and get me some help, I’d rather be pushed around than dead.”
Jack knelt down clutching the man’s shirt. “Those gunshot wounds aren’t going to kill you, you are right.”
He held up the knife in front of the man’s eyes before he begun to dig in with the blade. Jack didn’t muffle the man’s screams; he wanted to hear everyone of them.
**
Melinda Gray Harper’s home - Present Day
The phone was ringing, and Melinda picked it up. She had never had to live the life while Jack was working and wasn’t used to the calls. “Hello, who in the hell is this?”
Director Hansen who wasn’t one that was used to any bit of disrespect said, “Uh hello, I’m sorry but is Jack Gray available?”
“It is three in the morning. He is doing what all decent people do, he is sleeping.”
“I need to talk to him, will he mind?”
“Being brought out of a torture that lasts all night every night? No, no I don’t think that he will mind. Just give me just a minute while I get him.”
Melinda put down the phone walking into Jack’s room. She knew the drill and knocked very loudly, until a tired voice came back. “You’re safe, sis, come on in. What, you couldn’t sleep?”
Jack pushed up in his bed hitting the side lamp to full bright. He flipped the pillow that had his tears and sweat soaking it. He tried to smile because he knew how nervous he made his sister. “Are you sleeping any better, Jack?”
“You ready for me to get out of your place?”
“No, and you know that I love having you here. Whenever you’re ready to go back to your place, or a new place then that is fine too. You sure as hell aren’t going to want to live here forever and I know my boyfriend is scared as hell of you, not sure you could be more intimidating.”
“How am I intimidating? I sit here and work out, I eat, and I read old files.”
She looked at her brother thinking how he had about 4 inches on the tallest guy that she brought home and since his wife’s murder a year ago had put on at least fifteen pounds of full on muscle. He had taken up the regiment when getting out of the hospital to help get his leg better. But over time had continued it because working out until he could no longer stay awake was the only way he could get a few hours of sleep without the aid of drugs. “You’re just…you’re freaking huge, Jack. They just all feel like you might get out of a chair and rip them in half. The pist
ol and knowing you aren’t working at the moment is a lil creepy too…just saying.”
Jack looked at the clock seeing it was three in the morning and got a cold chill thinking that he probably should go back to sleep and knew damn well what would be there waiting for him. “Did you need something, or were you just bored?”
“No, I was sleeping happily, alone of course...sadly, but nonetheless was sleeping. Still better than having Al in the bed with me. Anyway, the phone rang. It’s for you.”
“I'm already dreaming of the worst things you can think of; don’t bring your ex-husband into it. I don’t know if I can handle that.”
“Go get the phone, it might be something important.”
“Considering the only person I’ve had to deal with the last year is the head doctor…I'm not too worried about it. Probably some stupid ass who doesn’t know he’s hours ahead of where we are.”
“We are in New York, Jack. We beat everyone.”
Jack threw the dampened sheets to the side picking up a pair of basketball shorts and headed to the living room. He gave his sister a kiss on the forehead having to bend down to do it. She patted his back then regretted it. “Regardless of what they want, maybe you should take a shower. I don’t want this bedroom forever smelling like a large sweaty man. I might never get my friends to go home when they pass out here if they knew it was you.”
Jack laughed, “No worries, no interest, no wants. Definitely not ready for that yet.”
Jack picked up the phone looking at the caller id and not surprised that it was unavailable. He collapsed into the Lazy Boy next to it. “Jack Gray here, how may I help you?”
“Gray, hey, son. It's Director Hansen. I hope this isn’t a bad time?”