by S. W. Lauden
“Guess that means we’re in for fight.”
“Probably so, but not for a day or two. We should go in and try to get some sleep.”
They walked inside and sat down on the floor in front of the fireplace. Mary was sprawled out on the ratty old love seat, with her legs dangling over the end. Kristen was moving back and forth in a sturdy wooden rocking chair. Greg couldn’t remember the last time two women had been there at the same time.
He put his hand on Kristen’s belly and gave it a rub.
“What was it like growing up out here?”
Kristen and Mary answered at the same time. Kristen said “Quiet.” Mary said “Boring.”
“Do you two ever agree on anything?”
Mary spoke up first.
“Is there a difference between ‘quiet’ and ‘boring’ that I don’t know about?”
Greg found it hard to argue with her logic, but that didn’t mean he trusted her. Even now, quietly sitting in front of the fire like they were a happy family, he couldn’t be sure who was on his side. He had less than forty-eight hours to find out for sure.
“Hey, Mary. You sure you’ll be able to take Magnus out if it comes down to it?”
“You questioning my loyalty?”
“You already sold me out to him once.”
“I figured you’d squirm your way out of there. Besides, if it’s between some ex-cop and one of my oldest friends, I’d make the same decision again in a heartbeat.”
It wasn’t exactly the answer he was looking for, but it would have to do for now. The big question was this—should they stay and get ready to fight, or head back down the mountain to look for help? Greg was still wrestling with that when Tommy stood up, raising his arms in a giant stretch.
“I’m calling it a night. Are we taking turns on guard duty or what?”
Greg raised his hand.
“Sure. I’ll take the first shift.”
“Perfect. Come wake me up when it’s my turn. Goodnight, ladies.”
Mary didn’t even wait until he was gone.
“He’s really cute.”
“…And he has a girlfriend.”
“Who cares? So do I.”
She swung her feet to the floor and went to the bedroom she was sharing with Kristen. Greg was supposed to crash on the couch, but he knew he wouldn’t be sleeping much. He got up to grab the rifle that was leaning against the wall. Kristen held a hand out and he helped her up. She gave him a peck on the cheek and shuffled off behind Mary.
Greg pulled the rocking chair across the living room and out onto the porch. The sky was awash with stars as he set the rifle across his lap and settled in for a long night. As a kid, the darkness of these mountains used to fill him with terror. These days it felt like the only place other than the ocean where he could truly clear his mind.
He was worried about Chris and Junior. There hadn’t been time to given them much thought since arriving at the cabin, but now the morning was replaying in his head. And so was that night up at the tidal pools. Was that really a year ago?
It was hard to watch the two of them struggling to keep their family together with less and less support from Eddie. The money he gave them was nice, but it didn’t make up for what he was turning into. Especially when Junior needed him the most.
And Marco. The guy was no saint, but he’d had enough punishment for one lifetime. Greg started rocking faster as he pictured the fresh scars on Marco’s face. He could feel the bile and anger building up inside as he imagined what Magnus might be doing to him right then. Greg would never forgive himself until he’d brought his friend home alive.
He heard a loud crash that brought him back to reality. It was on the far side of the El Camino, in the darkest part of the property. Greg stood up and took cover behind the rocking chair. The butt of the rifle was tucked into his shoulder and his head was tilted on the sight. The only thing left to do was wait.
It was a full minute before he heard another sound. Louder this time, and closer. He swung the barrel slowly across the yard, looking for something he could take aim at. The darkness all around him bubbled and bloomed as his imagination filled it with monsters. That’s when he saw the two glowing eyes staring back at him.
The black bear was down on all fours, but wasn’t moving. Greg could hear it sniffing the wind, trying to make sense of its surroundings. He grunted a couple of times and lumbered toward the cabin. Greg banged the butt of the rifle on the wooden porch. When that didn’t work he started shouting too.
“Go away, bear!”
The bear stood its ground, staring him down for another second or two. It didn’t take off for the trees until Tommy bashed through the screen door. He had one of the other rifles in his hand, but was only wearing boxer shorts. Greg let him get as far as the steps before repeating something that Marco had said to him on the day that everything went to hell on the trail.
“Dude, bears!”
Tommy skidded to a stop before bolting back to the porch. Greg raised his rifle in the air, squeezing the trigger. He prayed that all bears spooked as easily as the one he’d just seen.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Marco grabbed the brick of weed and put it in the lifeboat with the others. Then it was back down the stairs to the galley where the rest of the shipment was stashed in the walls. One-hundred pounds of commercial grade bud in all, grown in Paraguay and routed through some existing associates that Magnus had in Mexico. Marco wasn’t allowed to leave the boat when they docked south of the boarder, but he learned a lot by being a fly on the wall.
For one, Magnus spoke passable Spanish, especially when it came to a specific kind of business negotiation. It also seemed like his boss had a checkered past down there. Marco overheard two of the chain-smoking Mexican gunmen say how amazed they were to see that Magnus had come out of hiding at all. Which might explain why the yacht was back on the ocean as soon as the shipment got loaded.
Marco guessed Magnus could easily get a hundred and fifty thousand for it at the current street value, but that was before they treated and packaged it up as Grizzly Bear. From there the profits would only climb.
Not a bad for a two day trip, but first they had to get it to shore without getting busted. That’s where Marco came in. It was actually a pretty genius plan—he had to give Magnus credit for that. A guy with his experience was the perfect mule, especially out on the ocean. Marco was also the perfect fall guy if everything went sideways.
That meant Magnus could pull into the harbor without a worry in the world. Meanwhile Marco would be bouncing along in the dark trying to keep from capsizing. The goal was to land the lifeboat along an empty stretch of beach in front of a massive sewage treatment plant. Magnus had arranged for two of his guards to meet Marco there to load the delivery into their van. The final destination was a facility near the Van Nuys airport.
The bomb that Magnus had mounted on one of the lifeboat’s benches was his insurance policy. If Marco didn’t arrive within the delivery window, Magnus could detonate it from his phone.
“We might lose the shipment,” Magnus said. “But it would be worth it to know that you were shark food.”
None of it mattered to Marco. He was biding his time until Greg came back to get him. That’s when he would take his revenge on Magnus and anybody else who got in the way. What form his revenge took depended on the day that he dreamed it up. At the moment, while he was bringing another couple bricks up the stairs, strangulation sounded pretty good to him. Up close and personal. With his bare hands.
“The hell are you smiling about?”
Marco looked up to find Magnus leaning on the lifeboat. He went to the other side and loaded his bricks from there.
“I asked you a question.”
“Whistle while you work. Spoonful of sugar. All that bullshit, dude.”
“Just so we’re on the same page: you know
what’ll happen if you or that shipment goes missing, right?”
Marco smiled before heading back down to the galley for another load. Magnus screamed after him from the top of the stairs.
“I’ll kill everybody you know, starting with your friend Greg.”
It wasn’t a long list, but Marco got the point. Especially when Magnus showed him a picture of Maggie Keane during her last few seconds on earth. Her wrists were bound together and a gag was shoved deep into her mouth.
“Lathrop let her get too close. Then she stuck her nose in my personal business, so this is what happened. And you saw what happened to him. Ruin this delivery for me and you’re next.”
Marco only had a few more trips to make and then it would be show time. They were currently somewhere along the far side of Catalina Island seeking cover from the Coast Guard. Marco’s solo journey began when they rounded the peninsula. Thirty miles of rough water in a lifeboat loaded down with enough weed to land him in prison for several lifetimes. It was going to be a brutal trip for sure, especially considering the cold weather and wind chill. But it was still a better alternative to the universal death sentence that Magnus was promising.
Thankfully his tormentor was gone when Marco came back up on deck. He guessed Magnus was up on the bridge, getting ready for his grand entrance in South Bay. It was a good thing Marco didn’t get seasick or he might blow chunks just thinking about it.
He finished loading the lifeboat a little early. Magnus rewarded him by reiterating his threats. Marco nodded, giving a stiff salute as they lowered him down to the water. He pulled the ripcord on the outboard engine and twisted the accelerator. Watching the yacht and its crew disappear was a dream come true, except Marco had different dreams now. At the moment they involved lighting Magnus on fire and watching as his ashes blow away in the ocean breeze.
Marco pointed the bow to shore, slapping along on the rolling swells. The cold wind cut through his threadbare clothes as snot ran down his face. A blue nylon tarp was duct taped tightly around the product to protect it from getting wet, but Marco was already soaked after only ten minutes. He felt the salt water stinging his cracked lips, running his tongue across the deep crevices. Everything tasted like blood to him these days.
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It was early in the morning on the third day. Tommy was asleep in the rocking chair on the porch. The rifle had fallen off of his lap and lay at his feet. It was still there when a bullet split the doorframe behind his head. He sprang from his seat and ran inside the house, remembering at the last second to grab the gun off the porch.
Greg had been fast asleep on the couch, but was standing beside the front window when Tommy ran by. He went straight for the back door, exactly according to the plan they had cooked up. Mary was in the living room throwing greenwood into the fireplace to send as much smoke up the chimney as she could. They knew that Magnus and his men would benefit from the cover out there, but it also might come in handy if they had to evacuate the cabin.
Kristen was in her bedroom where all the mattresses had been flipped up to cover the windows. Strategically placed holes the size of baseballs had been painstakingly bored into the material to let her return fire as necessary. A dresser was pushed in front of the bedroom door from the inside, pinned in place with the bedframe. She had two rifles and ten boxes of shells. If there was one good thing about this situation, it was that these two women had been raised in the mountains and knew how to shoot.
Greg ventured a peek through the curtains and almost got his nose blown off. The shot came from over behind the El Camino, which was parked about fifty yards away. If this was a Hollywood movie, Greg would have loaded his car up with explosives that could be detonated with a smartphone. But this was real life and Greg didn’t know the first thing about building bombs. However this played out, it was going to be a good old-fashioned gunfight.
“I told you we’d come!”
Magnus didn’t need a bullhorn this time. His voice was loud enough to carry across the short distance between Greg’s car and the cabin.
“And you know what we’re here for.”
Greg had to scream to be heard. Luckily he’d had plenty of practice at that.
“You came a long way for nothing.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“Where’s Marco?”
“Already dead. You’re next.”
There was a brief moment where it seemed like this might turn into a stand off. Then the bullets started flying again, blasting every window and chewing up the outside walls. Everybody inside dove for cover behind the nearest piece of furniture. Greg thought there were four or five men out there, from the sound of things. All of them armed with handguns.
Greg spoke up, but kept his voice down this time.
“Everybody all right?”
Mary and Kristen both responded immediately. Tommy took a minute, but said he was fine when he finally chimed in. Greg could hear a quiver of fear in his voice.
“Stay calm, Tommy. We need you to keep your head in the game.”
“What kind of psycho stays calm in a situation like this?”
Greg heard Mary giggle in the living room and thought it was a good sign. They’d survived the first attack, even though he knew it was just a warm-up for the main event. Things would be different once Magnus got impatient.
Luckily, the four of them had discussed this in advance. Going on the offensive was the only real option. Greg gave the signal and they all got back into position, waiting until Magnus started speaking again. That way they would know where to aim through the smoke.
“There’s more where that came—”
Shots rang out from every corner of the cabin. It pained Greg to hear the bullets ricocheting off of the El Camino, but he tried to maintain perspective. He prayed that at least one of them had hit their intended target. He got his answer as soon as it got quiet.
“That’s going to cost you, assholes!”
Greg heard the first shot and dove for cover. Two more rang out, but it sounded like they were coming from hunting rifles. None of the bullets were striking the cabin this time. Greg crawled to a shattered window, pulling the curtains back. He could see Magnus and his men facing out into the thick forest that ringed the cabin. Somebody else had opened fire on them, creating a golden opportunity for Greg and his team. He brought his rifle up and started firing.
Magnus and his men were caught in crossfire and couldn’t decide which way to run. Their only option was to head back down the road the way they’d come. From there they could either regroup and fight their way back to the cabin, or get back into their cars and leave. He hoped they would take option two, but he wasn’t holding his breath.
The four of them in the cabin didn’t stop firing until Magnus and his men disappeared from view. It looked like one of them got hit and was lying out in the open, flat on his back. His chest heaved and his head rolled angrily from side to side. The cop in Greg wanted to rush over to see if he could be saved, but that was somebody else’s responsibility now. He went around the cabin to check on his own crew instead.
Mary was back at the fireplace adding new wood. He looked at the bear paw tattoo on her shoulder and had a moment of doubt, but let it pass. No point in worrying about something he couldn’t change. She would have shot me by now if that was the plan.
“Everything okay in here?”
“Define ‘okay’. Last I checked people are out there trying to kill us.”
He moved on to the kitchen. Tommy was on the ground with his back against a cabinet. There was a large wet circle spreading on his right thigh.
“Jesus. Did you get hit?”
“Broken glass. I’ll be fine.”
Greg reached over to grab a dishtowel. He tossed it to Tommy.
“Put some pressure on it to stop the bleeding. I think that one’s going to leave a scar.”
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“It’ll make a good story some day. Who the hell called in the reinforcements?”
“No idea, but I’m not complaining.”
Greg went over to Kristen’s bedroom last. He should have been the most concerned about her, but she was so heavily fortified that it put his mind at ease. The room sounded silent as he started knocking on the door.
“Kristen, are you all right?”
“I’m fine, but…Greg, you have to see this.”
He went back to the living room and eased the curtain open again. Two gunmen had emerged from the woods and were moving toward the injured man. It was hard to make out the shadowy figures thanks to all the smoke clinging to the ground and swirling around. One of them looked like a hobbling old man. And he was wide out in the open where Magnus could easily pick him off.
“Kristen, cover me!”
Greg threw the front door open and sprinted across the gravel. The closer he got, the better the visibility.
“Eddie! J.J.!”
“I told you I was a good shot.”
“Get back into the woods before—”
Several shots cracked the temporary silence. Magnus and his crew were coming back for a second round, just like Greg knew they would. Eddie slumped off with J.J.’s help, barely making it back to the edge of the forest before the real shooting started. That left Greg alone and exposed with only smoke to hide behind. He dove for the El Camino and rolled beneath it.
Greg heard the footsteps pounding his way. Then he saw their feet. White puffs of frozen air escaped from his mouth as he tried to lay still. It was no use. Magnus would eventually realize that nobody from inside the cabin was shooting. Once he figured that out, all bets would be off.
Then Greg heard a familiar sound in the distance. It thundered off the mountainsides, shaking the trees as it came closer. A beautiful, rhythmic whirring that sent Magnus and his men into a frantic retreat. It wasn’t long before the helicopter was right overhead. Greg looked up expecting to see a golden Sheriff’s Department star, but found a TV news logo instead.