by Mark Lemke
CHAPTER 9
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Jansen watched Nick drive away.? A part of him wanted Nick to stop and come over to him, but Nick didn't stop.? When he was gone, Jansen went inside The Tavern.? He saw his two men, knocked out on the floor, lying in a small pool of blood and beer.? If they hadn't already looked like they needed a hospital, he would have finished the job Nick had started.
Jansen almost smiled.? They were supposed to take Nick down a peg and hurt him.? Rough him up a bit.? The idea was to get him second-guessing himself.? Jansen really didn't think it was going to work, but that's what his contact at Waxman Industries wanted him to do.? Cause some self-doubt and hesitation in the guy.? As he looked at the two men on the floor, he shook his head, sure that Nick was not experiencing any self-doubt right now.? The two capable fighters now lay crumpled and damaged as if attacked by an overwhelming, superior force . . . not one man.
He had no choice but to get them out of The Tavern and into his truck before anyone showed up to question what had happened. ?He picked them up one at a time, put each in turn over his shoulder in a fireman carry, and lugged them outside.?He was cursing under his breath as he loaded them into the bed of the truck where they lay in a heap.
He knew the men weren't going to like being beaten like that, but he really didn't care.? This outcome was unsatisfactory and he intended to let the two men know it, though it would be too little, too late.? Their careers with Waxman Industries are over.? Neither man would be whole again, mentally or physically.
Jansen knew the two men assumed it would be no contest.? He would like to have seen how Nick did it, but he needed to keep a low profile for the time being, which is why he was outside The Tavern when the fight went down.? Like most men in his profession, he was confident of his own abilities and yearned on some level to test them against an equally qualified opponent.? It was this ego that made him want to go up against Nick and prove to himself and to Nick who the better man was.? He wanted to fight him and put this issue to bed right now.? But the people paying him didn't ask him to kill Nick, just send him a message.? He'd sent Nick a message, all right.? It just wasn't the one he'd intended.