Enforcer

by Black, Selena

  “You’re out of practice, Harris,” Lincoln goaded. “I’m going to help you retire from your criminal past permanently.”

  Matt grimaced at the flare of pain in his forearm, but didn’t respond to the taunt. He’d kept in shape while in prison and used the boxing equipment in the penitentiary gym to practice with his fists. A knife fight was a whole different matter though and the sting of the flesh wound was a sign that he might have lost some of his previous dexterity with a switchblade. He remembered the fight in the last days of his prison sentence. The muscular man’s charging attacks were incompetent and easily dealt with. He knew the man he now faced was a much smarter and more skillful adversary. The blood already spilling from his arm convinced him of that.

  The onslaught of Lincoln’s swinging arm was controlled and difficult to combat. It forced Matt to retreat until his legs were pinned to the coffee table. There was no more stepping away, without the risk of tripping over the furniture piece behind him and he managed to deflect the next few slashes of the knife aimed at him. He knew he needed to take the initiative though before the sharp blade got through his defenses and did him some serious damage.

  His chance came when a straight arm stabbing attack was aimed at him. It was too strong and Lincoln lunged too far. Matt sidestepped the strike and managed to grab his opponent’s arm. He held on desperately as he swung his own blade, but the blow was deflected aside.

  Lincoln managed to grab his wrist and they were suddenly moving around in a death struggle, with both knowing that the first to let go would be at a disadvantage. Matt felt his grip loosening and it distracted him enough that he didn’t see the head-butt coming until the last second. He managed to turn his face away, but the blow still caught him on the side of the temple and sent him reeling backwards. The blackness closed over him for a brief second and he didn’t shrug it off in time.

  The kick caught his hand to knock the weapon out of it. He watched in dismay as it clattered to the floor and slid away, but there was no chance to go after it when Lincoln threw himself forward. Matt barely got out of the way of the stab aimed at his heart. He wasn’t so lucky with the swinging kick aimed at his ankles. It swept his legs out from under him and sent him crashing to the floor.

  Lincoln dropped on top of him, but Matt managed to get his fingers around his rival’s wrist. The point of the knife was only inches above his chest and it was taking all his power to stop it stabbing in to him. The situation was looking bleak and he could feel the weight pressing down on him sapping the strength of his arms. It pushed the tip of the blade nearer to him.

  “So long, Harris,” Lincoln said through gritted teeth as he strained to finish the job. “Your time is up.”

  Matt turned his head to the side and saw his last chance to survive. The glass ashtray was resting on the floor close by and he did the only thing he could think off. He let out a roaring yell as he gathered the last of his strength to hold the knife at bay with only one hand. Reaching out the other, he grabbed the ashtray and swung it with all his might.

  The prick of the knife point stabbing in his chest came just before the heavy glassware connected with Lincoln’s jaw. The heavy blow to the head sent Lincoln hurtling to the side and he slumped to the floor. Matt was quick to roll away then get to his feet, but he saw that the other man was unconscious.

  “Fuck,” he gasped as the pain of the knife wounds flooded his body.

  He leant over and put his hands to his knees as he tried to cope with it and the breath rasped from him. When he straightened up, he kicked at Lincoln’s legs to see if there was a response. He got none.

  “Is he dead?”

  The fear in the voice was all too apparent and he looked up to see the ashen face of Brigitte watching him.

  “No,” he said in strained voice. “He’s out cold.”

  “You’re bleeding,” she said.

  “I told you to get out of here,” he replied as he pushed himself up to his feet.

  He opened his jacket to see the blood on his shirt. The wounds he suffered weren’t too deep, but were painful nonetheless and he needed to stop the bleeding.

  “There’s a medicine case upstairs,” Brigitte said.

  “Get it for me, will you,” Matt replied.

  She nodded her head, then walked out of the room, and he moved across to sit down on the sofa. He put his head in his hands and knew that things were now seriously fucked up. Not only had he messed up the meeting with Brett Collins, he’d smashed the head of Eddie’s right hand man. That would be considered an attack on the organization and there was no doubt he’d be a hunted man. That put Brigitte in danger too and it was her he was most worried about.

  He heard the sound of her footsteps coming down the stairs and got up to take off his jacket. There were growing blood stains on his shirt and he winced as he lifted his hands to undo the buttons.

  “This is a disaster,” he muttered under his breath as he took off his shirt.

  He heard the gasp and looked across the room to see Brigitte staring at him from where she was standing at the door. A glance down showed the blood trickling down his chest and arm.

  “They’re just flesh wounds,” he reassured her.

  She moved to put the medicine box down on the coffee table.

  “Wait and I’ll get you some clean water,” she told him.

  He put his shirt down then sat on the sofa again. Brigitte returned a couple of minutes later carrying a basin of warm water and a cloth. She put them down beside the medicine box then sat on the coffee table.

  “Give me your arm,” she said.

  Matt reached out to her and she quickly washed and dried the wound. He sucked in a sharp breath when she put antiseptic on it and followed that with a plaster. She finished by wrapping a bandage around his arm.

  The wound on Matt’s chest was smaller, but slightly deeper and she held the cloth against it first to stop the bleeding. She then washed and sanitized it before sticking a plaster in place.

  “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

  “Why the hell did you get back into it?” she said sharply and looked at him.

  “I wasn’t given much choice in the matter,” Matt went on. “They found me.”

  “That didn’t mean…”

  “They knew everything,” Matt interrupted. “That included where I live, the bar I drank in, the program I was on…, and you. They must have been watching me since I got out.”

  Brigitte sucked in a deep breath and got to her feet to walk away from the coffee table.

  “I promise you I didn’t go looking for this,” Matt went on. “I wasn’t given a chance to refuse. The threat was against you if I didn’t go through with the job I did tonight.”

  “You should have told me,” she said when she spun round to look at him. “We could have done something about it…, gone to the police.”

  “Eddie Millar isn’t a man you say no to,” Matt told her. “And going to the police wouldn’t be any real protection. He’s got plenty of them in his pocket.”

  “So, what do we do?” Brigitte let out in a desperate voice.

  “We run,” Matt said.

  “I can’t do that,” she protested. “I have a life here…, a job…, a family.”

  Matt dropped his head to look at the floor. He squeezed his fingers in his eyes, then pinched the top of his nose.

  “You can’t stay here now,” he told her when he looked up. “I did this job tonight to keep them away from you and look how well that turned out.”

  “What happened?” she asked.

  Matt motioned his head towards the unconscious man lying on the floor.

  “What did he tell you?”

  “He said you were working for your old boss and something about you being sent to see a drug dealer,” Brigitte replied.

  “Yeah, that’s about the size of it,” he told her. “I was supposed to get him to agree to an offer.”

  “You couldn’t do it?” she asked.

  “It
got complicated,” Matt went on.

  “What do you mean?”

  He quickly took her through the events of the last couple of hours up to him arriving at the door of the house.

  “And they’re coming here?” Brigitte said after he finished.

  “That was the agreement in the end,” Matt replied. “But I told Brett and Delores we wouldn’t wait.”

  “I can’t just run,” Brigitte exclaimed and brought hands up to her face when she rocked her head back.

  “I’m sorry, but you’ve got no choice,” he told her. “They’ll definitely come for us now. If we stay here, we’re dead. If we got to the police, we’re dead.”

  He could see that scared look on her face as he spoke and got to his feet. Picking up his shirt to put it on, he moved to her and took her in his arms.

  “I really am sorry,” he said. “I didn’t want any of this, but my past caught up with me.”

  Brigitte pressed her face against his chest and felt the trickle of tears running down her cheeks. She was backed into a corner and couldn’t see a way out other than to do what Matt was saying. She’d just seen graphic proof that he was someone that would protect her, but that didn’t make what was happening any easier to deal with.

  “Where do we go and for how long?” she asked in a small voice.

  “For now, we get out of town to somewhere safe,” he replied. “It will give us a chance to think and maybe I can work something out that will end this.”

  “You really think so?’ she asked and glanced up.

  Matt put a smile on his face, but knew it probably looked grim and could see she wasn’t convinced. He wasn’t sure himself that he could do anything to end the situation favorably, but wasn’t about to tell her that.

  “You need to quickly pack a bag,” he told her. “We need to go.”

  She exhaled slowly and lifted a hand to wipe the wetness from her cheeks when she moved away from him. A glance towards the man she opened the door to earlier in the evening showed him still lying motionless on the floor.

  “What do we do about him?”

  Matt shrugged his shoulders and rubbed the palm of his hand down the side of his face.

  “We leave him here and hope we never see him again,” he answered.

  “But…”

  “You need to pack a bag, Brigitte,” he cut in to stop her from going on. “Please. We’re lucky he decided to visit you on his own, but that doesn’t mean others won’t come. They know where you live and we need to get somewhere safe.”

  She met his gaze and held it for a few seconds before nodding her head and walking out of the room to go upstairs. Matt moved across to the window and eased the curtains aside to peer outside. The tranquil, suburban scene appeared normal and he could see no one at all. There was certainly no car parked in front of the house and that meant Delores and Brett hadn’t arrived. In all honesty, he wasn’t sure he wanted them to and suspected it might be better if it was only him and Brigitte.

  He closed the curtains and went across to the man lying on the ground. A quick check showed that Lincoln was still unconscious, and the thought crossed Matt’s mind that maybe Lincoln wouldn’t ever wake up, but he decided to keep the thought to himself. Matt saw the knife that cut him lying on the floor. He picked it up and closed the blade, then went to get the weapon he used in the fight and put them both in his pocket. The sound of Brigitte walking down the stairs came to him and he was out in the hallway before she got to the bottom.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “No,” she answered miserably and shook her head.

  “I’ll try and get this sorted out as quickly as I can,” Matt told her, but could see she wasn’t convinced by his words.

  He walked over to embrace her, but she stood limply and didn’t reciprocate. It was understandable considering what she’d just been through, but he couldn’t let it worry him at that moment. They needed to get out and do it fast, so he grabbed her wrist to pull her after him when he moved towards the door. He opened it to take a look, but all seemed quiet and he stepped outside.

  Brigitte closed the door when she followed and wondered when she would see her home again. The grip on her wrist dragged her forward and they were almost at the bottom of the garden when they heard the sound of a car coming around the corner into the street.

  “Get down,” Matt said and made Brigitte duck out of sight with him behind the hedge at the side of the gate.

  It was more than likely the arrival of Brett and Delores, but there was no point in taking any risks. The car came to a stop at the front of the house and Matt glanced around the edge of greenery. The headlights stopped him getting a proper look at the occupants of the vehicle and he decided to wait to see what happened. Nothing did for around thirty seconds but the door eventually opened and he recognized the person getting out. It seemed it wouldn’t be only him and Brigitte making a run for it and he motioned for her to stand up.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Delores said when she caught sight of them emerging from behind the hedge.

  “Making sure it wasn’t someone arriving we didn’t want to meet,” Matt said and unlatched the gate.

  “What do you mean?”

  “There was a welcoming committee waiting for me when I got here,” Matt said as he and Brigitte stepped out to the sidewalk.

  “What happened?” Delores went on.

  “You don’t want the details,” Matt replied. “All you need to know is that we can’t hang around here. We have to get going.”

  Delores nodded her head and returned to the car. Matt opened the rear door and made Brigitte get in first before following her. He settled down and closed his eyes for a few seconds when he rested his head on the backseat. The adrenaline was leaving his veins and he could feel the ache of his wounds all the more.

  “You look like you’ve been in the wars,” Delores said in a worried voice when she turned to look at him.

  Matt glanced down to see the dark red stains on the front of his shirt were on display. He pulled the sides of his jacket together to cover them

  “I’ll survive,” he replied. “Just get us out of here.”

  It ended the brief conversation and there was silence in the vehicle as Brett turned it around and headed towards the end of the street.

  Chapter 16

  The deep, pulsing throb of agony made Lincoln lie completely still as he came around and he tried to keep his breathing slow and measured. He knew that any sort of movement would hurt like hell and found he wasn’t wrong when he pushed himself up to a sitting position. It felt like his skull was on the verge of exploding and it was one of the most excruciating pains he’d ever experienced. His face contorted more as he gingerly touched the side of his head and he pulled his hand away from the massive swelling immediately. A glance at his fingers showed no blood, which was something at least.

  He screwed up his eyes tightly as he got to his feet at a snail’s pace and needed to reach out to the sofa to steady himself. A glance at his watch showed he’d been out for almost an hour and he knew there was no point in looking for Matt and Brigitte. They’d be long gone and it made the situation a complete mess. The thought of telling Eddie what happened made him wince and it wasn’t a discussion he wanted to have. He knew he would need to, but that was for later. Sorting out himself was the first priority.

  The ache in his head was almost debilitating and all he wanted to do was lie down again. There was no time for that though and he started to walk on shaky legs towards the door of the lounge. The medicine box on the coffee table caught his attention and he moved to sit down, so he could look through it.

  “Great,” he let out in an irritated voice when he saw there were no painkillers.

  He desperately needed something to take away the dull agony pounding in his head. That would at least enable him to function as normal and try to sort out the problems the last few hours brought him. Going through to the kitchen, he started opening cabinets to see if there was an
y medicine in the house. He eventually found a packet of Tylenol and moved across to the sink. When the water was running, he put his hand under the flow to scoop some up to his mouth and started popping pills. He stopped at six and leaned on the counter for a few minutes to see if the pain would subside. The throbbing eased a bit, but there was no getting rid of the ache caused by the blow to his head.

  “Fucking Harris,” he spat out.

  He made a vow that he’d be carrying a gun when the two of them next met. There would be no fist or knife fight. A gunshot would end things and he didn’t plan to lose again. He waited a few more minutes to see if the hammering in his head eased any more, but eventually returned to the lounge. His intention was to get his knife but he quickly saw that it wasn’t there and knew it was taken by Matt. He saw the ashtray lying on the floor and his anger welled up. The urge to kick out at it flashed through his head, but he ignored it.