Hard to Kill - Debt Collector 4 (A Jack Winchester Thriller)

by Jon Mills

  As they got closer, Billy pulled over to the side of the road and took a piss. He banged the trunk before he got back in to let Jack know they were getting close. He continued driving for another ten minutes, before he brought the car down to a crawl and made a sharp left off the main road down onto a gravel trail.

  The car came to a halt and Jack could hear voices outside. The door slammed and the suspension gave way. Voices outside were muffled but Jack caught the gist of the conversation. Footsteps moved around to the rear of the car. A key was inserted into the back. Jack readied himself.

  The lid on the trunk popped up and that’s when it all went south on him. Four guys were holding shotguns at him.

  “Get him out of there.”

  Billy stood back. “Sorry, Jack, but I’ve far more to lose than you.”

  “You bastard,” he said through gritted teeth.

  It didn’t take them long to zip tie Jack.

  “Someone offered me a tidy little price if I handed you over to them.”

  “Who?”

  “You’ll see.”

  As two guys strong-armed him away, he glanced back to see Billy slapping hands and pulling the guy he assumed was Ronny into him for a shoulder hug.

  “How you doing, man?”

  “Oh, it’s been a while.”

  The two men led him into the house. Inside he glanced around at the bags of meth stacked against the wall. Out the corner of his eye he noticed several females in the room partially naked snorting up crystal while one guy was getting head in the corner. Jack was led down into a dark basement and placed in a chair with his arms behind his back. One of them covered his eyes and shoved another piece of material into his mouth. It tasted like oil. It was damp and the whole place stunk of urine.

  He couldn’t see what they were doing but he could feel them zip tying his ankles to the chair. A few seconds later the sound of boots pounding against wooden steps, then a door slamming shut and several bolts being slotted into place.

  In the darkness he ground his teeth against the material. In an attempt to get out he began shifting his body but they’d bound him tightly. Frustration soon turned to anger. He became quiet to hear the conversation that was going on upstairs. Footsteps clattered against the hardwood floors.

  “You had me worried for a minute, I thought Mike’s crew had taken it.”

  Laughter ensued and then the clinking of bottles.

  “After today we are going to be fucking made.”

  “You bet.”

  What the hell had Billy got himself involved in now? And how the hell was he going to get out of this? His blood boiled at the thought that someone had his daughter, and that in an attempt to do the right thing he now found himself blindsided by Theresa’s lunatic boyfriend.

  Chapter 28

  It was the break she had been hoping to get. Isabel received the call some time in the early hours of the morning from the Covington Police Department. Apparently Billy Dixon had phoned the police several hours after the incident in the bar. He hadn’t got through to her but had given the police a message to let them know that if they wanted Jack Winchester, they should be ready for a phone call sometime after noon. That was it. The officer who took the call said he hung up after leaving the message. He thought it was a joke, someone who had seen the Amber Alert and was playing games with the police. It happened. All manner of people would step forward and send the police on a wild goose chase. But right now it was the one thing she had to go on.

  Isabel left her phone on speakerphone while she got ready.

  “Run that by me again. He said Winchester took him?”

  “Seems that way.”

  “So how did he manage to make that call?”

  “Who knows, Cooper? All I care about is getting this asshole behind bars.”

  “What are you going to do when this is over?”

  “Return to Florida.”

  “What about New York?”

  “Are you kidding? That grimy place. I need the ocean, sunshine and folks who don’t grunt when you ask them for help.”

  That morning she hurried. She was about ready to bring this to a close. The thought of returning to Florida and putting this all behind her seemed almost too good to be true. But she was still no closer to knowing where Theresa’s daughter was.

  Giovanni had seen Winchester’s mug shot on the news the previous night. He knew it would only be a matter of time before the police caught up with him. He sat sipping coffee. He’d been out briefly that morning to pick up some breakfast for the kid and himself. His mind circled back and forth on what to do next. He kind of figured they would put out an Amber Alert and that would prevent Winchester from leaving but he still had no idea where he was. The aftermath of the storm meant that the streets were filled with workers trying to get power up in some areas of the town. It had been one hell of a night. He set his coffee down and grabbed up a packet of cigarettes. He lit one and the kid stared at him.

  “What are you looking at?”

  “You shouldn’t smoke.”

  “I shouldn’t do a lot of things. Eat up your breakfast.”

  He continued flipping through channels until he came across a local news channel broadcasting a report about a shooting down at a local bar. They had tied it to the two men wanted in the Amber Alert. So far they had nothing on the whereabouts of the kid. That was good news.

  Giovanni got up and went over to the window. He glanced outside and then back at the kid. He was beginning to second-guess his decision to take her. What was he thinking? Without a lead on where Jack was, or a means to contact him, he had nothing.

  Jack heard the door unlock. He’d been down in the basement for what seemed like an hour, maybe two. Footsteps approached and then the rag in his mouth was taken out along with the material around his eyes. Standing in front of him was Billy Dixon.

  “Brought you some food, thought you might be hungry being as we didn’t have breakfast.”

  “What are you playing at?”

  Billy studied him and then set the plate down. He paced up and down a bit, cast a nervous glance upstairs and then took a seat across from him.

  “I’m handling the problem like I told you I would.”

  “You already knew them, didn’t you?”

  He cocked his head to one side and smirked. “I didn’t know initially they were the ones who took the meth until fat boy mentioned his name, but yeah, I know Ronny. We go way back. Unlike Mike, Ronny doesn’t have the connections I do. So we’ve made a little arrangement. He’ll get far more money selling to the big guys than trying to distribute this on the streets.”

  “Who did you make the deal with?”

  He breathed in deeply. “It dawned on me last night after we got out of the bar. The cops are looking for you and me. Now, I can understand them coming after me because they would think I took Ruby but you? You’ve got to have done something bad to piss them off. So I made a call to the cops. I said I was being held by you and that I would arrange for them to come and collect with the assurance that no charges were laid against me from the bar incident.”

  “You asshole.”

  “As for Tex. Well, I just got off the phone with his son Kalen. Him and his crew are going to meet with us this morning and arrange a little deal whereby my debt is cleared and we make a tidy profit.”

  Jack shook his head.

  “I told you. I would handle this.”

  “You have just signed your death sentence.”

  Billy frowned confused.

  “How so? By you? You’re the one tied up.”

  “No, by Tex’s men, you idiot.”

  Again he looked completely stumped by what Jack was saying. That’s because he didn’t know how these things worked. The moment Billy had told him about what Tex had done to others who had overstepped the line, he knew he was dealing with a man much like Gafino. He didn’t care about the money that Billy owed. It was all about watching him sweat. The torture had already begun, the seco
nd they cut him loose and gave him forty-eight hours. Whether he returned with the money or not they would hunt him down, bring him in and make a spectacle out of him. They would use him to set another example to others. To send out a clear message that it didn’t matter who they were, no one was immune.

  “Tex is going to be more than happy. He’s going to get far more than forty thousand. So are we.”

  “If you want to live, you need to get me out of here.”

  “You just hang tight. This will all be over real soon.”

  Before Jack could say another word, Billy shoved the rag back in his mouth and covered his eyes. Jack knew he had to get out of there. Once Tex’s men showed up, things were going to go from bad to worse real fast. He rocked back and forth hoping to break the wooden chair that he was on. His ankles were tied to the legs and his wrists bound behind his back and attached to the chair. Going by memory of what he saw around him, he knew there was a table behind him. The floor was concrete and there were metal support pillars for the floors above. If he could just get over to one of those he might be able to use the corner of the metal to cut through the plastic zip tie. Jack rocked back and forth trying to get some momentum going. When the chair collapsed against the floor it took the wind out of him. Still attached, his binds bit into his skin. This wasn’t going to be easy.

  Chapter 29

  Kalen had eight of his men gear up. Billy must have a been a complete idiot to think that he could try to sell back product that belonged to his father. As he listened to him on the phone he just played along with it.

  “So you are going to pay back the forty grand in product?”

  “That’s right, plus you can tell Tex that I will throw in an extra twenty grand just as my way of apologizing for the inconvenience.”

  “I must say that’s very generous of you.” Kalen glanced at one of his men and he smirked.

  “Well, I know that we have had a good working relationship and I just want to make sure that is maintained.”

  “And how did you manage to come up with that much product so fast?”

  “Contacts. You know me, Kalen, I’ve always got someone in my back pocket.”

  “By the way, word on the street is that Mike hasn’t been seen. You wouldn’t know anything about that?”

  “Oh you know, Mike. He goes off the grid quite frequently on benders. He’s probably partying in Vegas right now. Anyway, why’s that?”

  “Because he worked for us.”

  Kalen waited to hear his reply. He almost felt like bursting out laughing. Billy cleared his throat. “He worked for you? But I thought he was solo. Heck, he said he was solo.”

  “So you have spoken to him?”

  “Uh. Well, yeah. I mean, we are old buddies. He said he was creating product himself. He was raving about his new cook.”

  “You mean, our new cook.”

  “No. he didn’t say that. Hell, I even warned him that he needed to be careful, you know with cooking and selling on the streets.”

  “Because of my father?”

  Billy became tongue-tied as he tried to talk his way of the hole he was digging.

  “I told him that only those who distribute for Tex are…”

  He trailed off and Kalen let out a chuckle. He didn’t want to spook him and cause him to run. Right now he wanted to get his hands on the product and on Billy.

  “I’m pulling your leg, Billy. Relax. It’s cool. I know there are distributors who aren’t working for my father. And hell, I don’t give a shit about Mike. He was an asshole. It’s just he owed us a good amount of money.”

  “Perhaps he did a runner.”

  “Yeah. Maybe.” He paused. “So when and where do you want to meet?”

  “You know Lee Road? There’s a house by the water. The first on the left after the bridge. I’m thinking you could swing by here around about two?”

  “We’ll be there. And Billy, you better have the product as time is up.”

  He let out a nervous laugh. “Oh don’t worry, I’ve got more than enough for Tex. Um, before you go. Do you guys have my daughter Ruby?”

  “No. Why would we have her?”

  “Well, I thought that maybe you had picked her up. You know, until I came up with the money.”

  “We don’t have her. Speak to you later, Billy.”

  With that Kalen hung up. He looked at one of his men who was also a friend of his. “Get hold of my father, let him know that we have a meeting arranged, then get the boys together. We are heading out in the next half an hour.”

  “Didn’t he say two o’clock?”

  “Yeah. We’re going in early.”

  Down at the police department that morning the place was a hive of activity. For a small department this had been the most action they had seen in several years. Isabel had updated Simon on what was about to go down. He had arranged to have four FBI agents to assist with the apprehension of Winchester. They would arrive within the hour. Covington had their SWAT team getting ready.

  “We will be blocking off the roads in an eight-mile radius around the house. We’ll have eyes in the sky.”

  “What about the weather?” another officer asked. A murmur spread throughout the group. People were aware of the danger. Evacuation orders had already been given to those in the New Orleans area as Hurricane Danielle still wasn’t over. Almost like the tide, it was as though the storm had pulled back for a period of time to allow itself to build up for one final crescendo.

  “Yeah, boss, it’s pretty bad out there.”

  “Right now this is what we have in place. We can only control what is within our control.”

  “They don’t pay me enough to deal with this shit,” one of them muttered. The sergeant on duty asked who said that but none of them spoke up and none of them pointed the finger. It was the way they were. They watched out for each other and none of them wanted to be out in this weather. Isabel glanced outside. The light morning rain had turned into a heavy downpour making visibility limited.

  “Now, this is Agent Baker. Most of you have met her; she will be heading up the raid today. Do you care to add anything?”

  She did but in a room full of this much testosterone, and the way the weather was outside, she didn’t think anything she added would make them feel any better about this. By all accounts this was going to be a simple bust. In and out.

  Isabel had downed four cups of coffee by the time the phone call came in from Billy. She was handed the phone by an officer. They placed the call on speakerphone so all the guys in the room could hear.

  “Do you have the girl, Billy?”

  “No, I already told the officer yesterday. We don’t have her. Listen up.”

  He gave the address for the place and wanted to make sure that she came alone.

  “You have my word on that.”

  “If he even gets the slightest inkling that you are with anyone else this shit is going to go south. Now do I have your word?”

  “You have it.”

  “Noon.”

  With that he hung up.

  “Alright guys, load up and let’s move out.”

  Chapter 30

  Water poured over the gutters creating a mini waterfall as Billy stepped out onto the porch to have a cigarette. The Bogue Falaya River had risen up to the edge of the bank. The ground either side had turned into slick mud that was flowing into the dark water. Ronny joined him outside with a beer in his hand.

  “Are you sure about this?”

  “They are going to take me in. All you have to do is get the money from Kalen and give him the product. Trust me, I’ve done countless deals with these guys. Just keep your men in line. If they get a sense you are playing them they will cut you down before you’ve had a chance to swallow.”

  “And the guy downstairs?”

  “They’ll take him with me.”

  Ronny nodded and took a swig of his drink. Billy was worried. He’d worked with Ronny countless times in the past. They’d grown up together. Both
of them came from the same neighborhood and had experienced their own share of run-ins with the law. It didn’t take long for them to get into trouble. Back then it was stealing cars. The first one they stole they sold for two hundred bucks to a guy who ran a wrecker’s. He would spray-paint them and resell them. Eventually it became a constant means of getting enough money to get the attention of women. Most of the time they would spend what they earned on booze and drugs.

  Of course it didn’t take long before they shifted up to dealing narcotics on the streets. At first it was simple stuff like marijuana. They had their own little grow operation that they ran out of a friend’s garage.

  Soon both of them began to dabble in meth using the shake and bake method. At first it was just an additional source of revenue but before long they were making more money from that than they were from marijuana. They couldn’t make it fast enough.

  Then Tex started clamping down on small operations. Even though they got less money, it meant the chances of being busted by police or killed by him were less.

  “Are you sure they are going to let you go?”

  “I haven’t done anything. They have no reason to hold me.”

  “But your record, man.”

  “I’ve done my time.”

  Ronny took a deep puff from his blunt. Ronny was a strange-looking guy who had long black hair that was slightly curly. He looked as if he had just stepped out of an ’80s soft rock band. Whenever he didn’t have a bottle of beer in his hand, he was smoking blunts.

  “So what’s the deal with your little girl? I saw her face plastered all over the news.”

  “I don’t know where she is. To be quite honest, she was a little shit half the time so whoever has got her has done me a favor.”