Whatever It Takes

by Ben Boswell

  She jolted upright, eyes narrowed, looking like a cornered cat. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

  "Looking for you."

  She eyed me up and down, piecing together my presence. She pursed her lips. "What's Kris gonna say when she learns you've been out fucking whores?"

  "Fuck you, Jessi. Now, where's the shit you stole from Sal?"

  She smirked and shrugged her shoulders. "Like I said, I invested it in the future."

  "Are you crazy Jessi, ripping off the mob? How'd you think you'd get away with that?"

  She laughed. "Oh, please. Sal isn't the fucking mob. He's just a third-rate wholesaler dealing out of his house in Forest Glen. He supplies frat boys with their weekly blow to cover his hooker expenses. He's not fucking Tony Soprano."

  "He came to our house. Threatened our kids. Kidnapped your sister."

  She laughed at that. "That's because you two are pussies. You should have just told him to fuck off."

  I shook my head. "Look, I really don't care. All I care about is getting Kris back. So you're coming with me, cocaine or not. This is between you and Sal."

  I reached out to grab her, but as I did, my vision suddenly went white, like I was staring into the sun.

  CHAPTER NINE

  I woke up in the backseat of my car. It was daylight. Every inch of my body ached. All my muscles were sore, twitchy. My mind was foggy, slow. I felt drunk.

  I was still in my boxers, the rest of my clothes balled up on top of me. As I moved, I felt a particularly sharp pain in my lower back. I reached back and touched two scabby welts. The flesh felt burned. There was a bruise, a pinprick on my inner forearm. It was itchy, burning. Jesus, had those bitches doped me up?

  I slapped my face until I felt somewhat awake. I put on my clothes, was somewhat shocked to find I still had my phone and my car keys. I even had my wallet, though all my cash was gone; in its place was a note from Jessi.

  "Danny Dan: Amber wanted to dump you naked in a dumpster with a dildo rammed up your ass. You can thank me later. For now, stay the fuck away from me. Love, Jessi."

  She'd added a little heart over the "i" in her name.

  I got out of the car and raced back to the loft. I already knew it was pointless. After dumping me, they'd surely have made tracks. Sure enough I found the loft door unlocked, and a quick examination of their bedrooms confirmed that they'd taken their personal possessions and disappeared.

  I stamped my feet in frustration. All that fucking effort. I'd found Jessi. It had been a miracle, but I'd done it. And then I'd just let her slip through my fingers. I was still no closer to rescuing Kris than...

  It hit me.

  …Forest Glen. She'd said he lived in Forest Glen. This whole time I'd been thinking of tracking down Jessi, it had never really occurred to me to just rescue Kris myself. Most of that was that I didn't have any clues about where to find Sal. But part of it was also that the idea of invading his home, even if I could find it, seemed crazy, desperate. But crazy and desperate was where I now was.

  I returned to the car and reached beneath the seat, breathing a sigh of relief when my hand found the gun still safely hidden away there. I would need that, but I also needed a whole lot more.

  _____

  Forest Glen, despite sounding a little like a funeral home, was actually a well-known gated community north of town. Kris and I had often joked that our goal was to be successful enough to end up in Forest Glen. In a less stressful moment, I might have found the irony amusing. As it was, I was just focused on the additional complications Forest Glen added to the situation.

  I drove up north and cruised past the neighborhood. There was one main entrance with a large, manned guard post that checked IDs 24/7. A large sign reminded that "All Visitors Must Be Announced." Around the back was a service entrance, but it had a sign noting that "All Deliveries Must be Scheduled in Advance." I wondered how people there managed to get their Amazon packages—or even a pizza. Either way, impersonating a deliveryman didn't seem likely to be successful.

  A second loop of the neighborhood yielded even more discouraging results. The entire community seemed to be surrounded by a high, metal fence. It occurred to me I could lean a ladder against it and just climb over, but then I'd have to move the ladder to the other side to escape after. It was doable, but seemed very risky. The odds of detection and alarm were too high to accept casually.

  Still, climbing the fence seemed my best option until I noticed a jogging path emerge from a wooded area by the fence line. I slowed the car and looking over my shoulder. I spotted it, a narrow pass-through in the fence to allow runners from the development onto the path.

  Having solved the access problem, I considered the other problem. I knew Sal lived in Forest Glen, but I didn't know which house. There were at least fifty, maybe one hundred, all on large lots, scattered through hilly, winding roads.

  Land records are public, but when I searched a few addresses in the community on my iPhone, I immediately ran into a problem. A good half the houses had been bought by limited liability corporations, shielding the owners' names. Fucking rich people and their obsession with privacy and security. It wouldn't save them from a real mob with pitchforks, but it did make my task much more difficult.

  I did have the license plate number from Jerry's car, so I considered just slipping inside through the jogging path and then looking around until I found it. But of course, with all the three car garages, it was likely I'd miss it even if he happened to be staying at Sal's place at the moment. I couldn't afford that risk or the time. After having been burned by Jessi, I was determined to take into account every possibility, or at least every one I could think of.

  And then it occurred to me. If I couldn't track down the house by myself, I would need to have someone lead me to it.

  _____

  I was back at my home, which, after 48 hours, was already feeling sad and deserted. I forced down some food, took a shower. Then I laid out my purchases.

  I had the gun with extra clips of ammunition. I had a new jogging outfit, nice and dark, but credible. I covered the reflective strips with black duct tape. A sleek running backpack. High powered binoculars. A pack of heavy-duty zip ties. And most importantly, a new 100-pound, combination safe. It was big enough for either $250,000 in cash or 10 Kg of cocaine. I had filled it with twenty-five pounds of powdered sugar in quart sized Baggies. I wasn't planning to fool anyone, just buy time.

  I went over the plan on paper, and then committed everything to memory. I muscled the safe onto the front porch and loaded up my backpack. I packed up a suitcase with some clothes for Kris and me. Then I got in my car and drove to Forest Glen.

  _____

  I parked my car in the direction of the highway, down a side street across the road from the jogger cut through. It was now late afternoon, the shadows were lengthening. I took off at a jog toward the main gate, then reversed course after about a half mile. I didn't want to tire myself out, but I needed to seem like a real runner when I ducked into Forest Glen.

  The cut through was narrow, just wide enough for a single person, a small concession to convenience over security, but enough for my purposes. I followed the path onto a leafy east-west road that ran perpendicular to the main drive. I ran back towards the guardhouse, ducking into a copse of trees that gave a view onto the entrance. In the gloaming, I was well-nigh invisible.

  I slowed my breathing and then made a voice call to Sal through FaceTime. It buzzed several times, until I feared that he wouldn't pick up. This was my only real gamble. If he didn't pick up, I'd have to wait for him to call me. That wouldn't be the end of the world, but I wanted to be able to set the pace.

  Just as I was about to give up, he accepted the call.

  "Hey, numb nuts, sorry I took so long to pick up. I was busy tonsil boxing your wife with my prick."

  "Can it, Sal. I got your shit, okay."

  "Well, well, well, I'm impressed, but a little disappointed. I was so looking forward to cornholing
Krissy tonight. And from the way she was just slobbing my knob, I think she was looking forward to it too."

  "You want to come to me, or me to you?"

  He laughed. "Oh, I think it’s best if one of my guys goes out to your place. That way I can keep sweet Krissy company and get her ready in case you decide to screw me. You're not dumb enough to do that, are you?"

  "I guess you'll see."

  I disconnected the call.

  Less than five minutes later, I saw a car drive down the hill toward the main gate. Though I couldn't see inside, I recognized the license plate. It was the same car Jerry had driven to my place earlier, a black Lexus.

  It was normally about fifteen minutes to our house. I gave him an extra five for traffic. Sure enough, twenty minutes after the car left, my phone vibrated. I had turned off the chimes. I accepted the call.

  "What the fuck is this? And where the fuck are you?" he grunted.

  "Take it easy, Sal. Your stuff is in the safe. Where I am doesn't really matter, does it?"

  I could picture him seething, but as much fun as he'd had with Kris, this was really what he was after. He could sense a trap though, but obviously couldn't figure it out.

  "It's not a bomb," I said quickly. "I have no interest in doing anything that's going to hurt Kris, but if you want your stuff, you're gonna have to do things my way."

  "Kid, if you fuck with me, I am going to assfuck your wife and then put her out on the street turning tricks for a quarter a pop until I am fully paid back. Got it?"

  "Get the safe home and then call me. We'll talk about next steps then."

  I disconnected again.

  I knew I had fifteen minutes to wait, but after that it became nerve wracking. It was early evening, and the rich folks were coming home on a regular basis. I tried to scope out Jerry's car early. The one thing I couldn't afford was to miss it.

  And then, suddenly, there it was, approaching the main gate. The guard checked the sticker, flashed a light at the driver, and then lifted the arm barrier. I'd spotted his car coming down the hill when he departed, so I was already jogging in that direction as he hit the gas.

  He passed me sooner than I expected. I sped up, trying to keep him in sight. He slowed, made a right. I ran harder now, gasping. When I got to the turn, I scanned around. Tail lights, maybe 250 yards away, turning left. I ran harder still, getting lightheaded, feeling my throat tighten as a wave of nausea hit me. When I got to the second turn, I scanned around again. Nothing. The road continued on, over a hill, down the other side, though I didn't know how far. Had I lost him?

  I stopped. I forced myself not to breath, even as my chest pounded and my ears filled with a sound like rushing water. But even over that, I heard it. An engine shutting off, a car door slamming. It sounded like it was coming from the second house on the right.

  I resumed my jogging, slower now, catching my breath. I passed the house on the opposite side of the street just in time to see Jerry ducking inside through a side door by the garage. He'd backed the car into the driveway, the easier to unload the safe from the trunk.

  I was elated. I'd found her. But I also realized the hard part was coming up.

  I looked around. Seeing no one, I crossed the street and threw myself into some thick shrubs bordering Sal’s property. A moment later Jerry, joined now by Rock, came back outside. They lifted the safe out of the car and hauled it into the house. The door slammed shut heavily behind them. My suspicion was that it locked automatically, and I was loath to just walk up and start tinkering with a well-lit, street-facing entrance. Being dressed all in black would make me look even more suspicious.

  I worked my way around the back of the house. There were sliding glass doors that opened out onto a back deck. I could probably wrestle those open, though doing it quietly would be difficult. Then I noticed, on the deck table, a large ashtray, filled with butts. I felt a surge of excitement. If Sal's guests were going out there on a regular basis, they might be sloppy about locking the door.

  I didn't see a dog. No sign of motion detectors.

  I was about to jump the fence, but before I did I had to wait for Sal's next call. Sure enough, after a few more seconds, it buzzed at me.

  "Hey, Sal, so you get the safe back home yet?"

  "Yeah, what's the fucking combo?"

  "Real simple Sal. You let Kris go. I give you the combo."

  He laughed. "How stupid do you think I am?"

  I resisted the urge to give a smart-ass response. Instead I gave him my sales pitch. "I think you're smart, Sal. I think you want to get back what's yours. And I think you'll understand that I just want to get back what’s mine. I have no interest in messing with you. You've won. Just let her go."

  "How do I know what's in the safe?"

  I sighed. "You don't. But how do I know you'll let her go once you get your coke back? See, we're in the same boat."

  "Yeah, numb nuts, except I have the safe, and I have your wife. So what I think I'll do is call up a buddy with a blowtorch to crack the safe while I go ahead and crack your wife."

  "Sal, please, you've had your fun with her. Just please let her go."

  "Give me the combo."

  I hesitated. I had held out a small hope he'd agree to release her first, but now realized it had always been a pipe dream. The question was whether I'd buy more time by giving him the combination and letting him find the sugar? Or whether I'd get a few extra minutes by playing hardball? I decided on the latter.

  "I can't do that. If you can't trust me, I can't trust you. Think about it. I'll call you back in fifteen for your final answer."

  He laughed, darkly. "My final answer is going to be busting a nut in your wife's ass."

  He disconnected.

  I didn't have a moment to waste. I jumped the fence. My heart raced wildly. At any moment I expected lights to come on. Shouts. Angry men with guns. I crossed the lawn quickly and threw myself against the house. I drew my gun and approached the glass doors.

  I peered inside into the kitchen. It was empty. I grabbed the door handle and pulled. It opened smoothly. I stepped over the threshold, closed the door behind me. Holy shit, I was in.

  Off to the right, I could hear a television, a baseball game in progress. I knew Jerry and Rock were in the house. Sal too. Was there anyone else? I couldn't be sure. I couldn't risk peering into the TV room. I had to just hope I wouldn't run into anyone before finding Kris.

  I circled through the house to the left, trying to give the TV a wide berth. It led me through a formal dining room, then into the foyer. I slipped up the stairs. The steps led up to a landing, a hallway running left and right. To the right, I saw a big set of double door, the master suite. There were other rooms as well, doors shut, but potentially occupied.

  I crept toward the master bedroom. Every footstep sounded like a hammer blow in my ears. I'd let Amber sneak up on me, incapacitate me. How could I think I'd get past these hard men when I couldn't even handle a naked girl? Still, I forced myself forward.

  I reached the double doors and hesitated. Once I went through, I would lose the element of surprise. But I didn't know what I'd find. I didn't know what awaited me. Would it be just Kris and an unarmed Sal? Had he gathered an audience to witness the moment when he forced his fat prick into her virgin ass? Might he be armed, holding a gun to her head to ensure compliance?

  I listened at the door. There were sounds, but they were muffled, distant. Did I hear her whine?

  "Damn, you're tight," I heard him say.

  Fuck, I was too late. I shoved the door open briskly. I blinked in the bright light, hadn't realized how dark the hallway was. The scene came into focus. She was naked, on the edge of his bed, on her hands and knees. He was behind her, in his bathrobe, his erect cock tenting the fabric. He had a firm grasp of her hair, holding her in place. He had two fingers in her ass, up to the second knuckle, twisting them back and forth. They both swung around to look at me, both of them with a similar look of shock.

  "Get th
e fuck away from her." I raised the gun, my arm shaking noticeably.

  He laughed. "What are you going to do with that?"

  "Blow your fucking rapist head off if you don't get away from her." I stepped in closer. "Even as nervous as I am, I won't miss from this close."

  My admission of nerves seemed to shake him. He could sense my desperation.

  "Okay, relax cowboy," he replied as he released my wife.

  She lunged away from him, away from his grasping hands, away from his probing fingers, away from his menacing prick. She tore a sheet off his bed and wrapped it around herself.

  "There are others. In the house," she exclaimed.

  "I know." I turned toward Sal. "Okay, now you're gonna lead us to the rest of your goons."

  "Ask wifey. She's had plenty of opportunity to tour the other bedrooms."

  She just nodded curtly. She started toward the door. I gestured for him to follow. We walked down the hallway. Kris pushed open one of the doors and stepped inside.

  "Damn, baby, you back for more already?" I recognized Rock's amused voice. "I still have your stink on my dick."

  I stepped forward and shoved Sal through the open door.

  "Hey, what the fuck?" groused Rock.

  I followed Sal and shoved the gun against his neck.

  "Kris, get his gun," I grunted, nodding toward the dresser.

  Rock stood quickly. "You know you aren't going to shoot anyone."

  I shook my head. "Buddy, believe me, I am just looking for an excuse to kill each and every one of you after what you've done. You motherfuckers."

  He glanced over Kris and then smiled. "You can't rape the willing," he replied. “And believe me, she’s been more than willing.”

  I pressed the gun harder into Sal's neck. Sal yelped. "Rock, don't. This fucker ain't all there."

  Rock took a step back and put his hands up. Kris ducked past him and grabbed his gun. She looked from Sal to Rock, her eyes suddenly wild. For a moment, I was sure she was going to kill them, just shoot them down where they stood. I almost said something, but then I realized it had to be up to her. After a moment, she grunted and shook her head.