by Norman, Mack
☆☆☆
Several hours later Max heard, “Jarod, I know you are the boss, but next time don’t knock them out. This bitch is heavy.”
“Shut your mouth and dump him in the closet and lock it, you weak Mofo.”
Max opened his eyes and couldn’t see out of his left eye, and it stung as he blinked. He blinked a few more times and saw a red film over his eye as the man dumped him on the floor of the supply closet. Max wiped his face against his jacket the best he could with his hands behind his back and could see a bit better until the door was closed and the room was very dark. There was a vent in the door that was about two feet wide and a foot tall that light came through and he could hear the men talking.
“Jarod said to kill this cracker after Mo gets all the info out of him after supper.”
“Yes, and I want to watch Mo and his carving knives go to town on this piece of shit. He thought he was setting us up for the kill and we got his sorry ass.”
Max’s eyes had adjusted to the dark, and he took inventory of the contents of the room. He saw reams of paper, toner cartridges, and a plethora of the usual office supplies. He saw a stack of paperclip boxes and now had to get his hands out in front of him. He sat on the floor, pushed his back against the wall, and forced his hands to move across his butt. He struggled for several minutes as he walked his hand around the curve of his butt and felt his wrists scream in pain as the handcuffs dug into them. He finally pulled his hands to his feet and then cleared them.
Then he grabbed a box of large paperclips and removed one from the box and straightened it the best he could knowing that the thugs could be coming for him at any minute. This was much easier on the cop shows on TV and Max struggled for several precious minutes before he felt the cuff give way and switched his effort to the other cuff, which only took a few seconds since he had learned what not to do on his other attempt. A few seconds later he was free and searching for a weapon. He found a mop handle, removed the mop head, and broke it in half by jamming one end between the door handle and the door. The two-foot length of oak would make a good club, and now he needed something sharp.
He found a box with three pairs of scissors with sharp ends and couldn’t help but think about the Nuns at his old grade school admonishing the kids not to run with sharp scissors. He found a roll of duct tape and taped the scissors with the blades open to the club, so they became a battle ax. He was ready to knock heads and kick ass.
He tested the door handle but couldn’t budge it, so he looked around the room for another means of escape. He found nothing promising until he looked up at the ceiling.
☆☆☆
“Oscar I don’t like waiting. They could be torturing Max or have already killed him,” Amy worried Oscar for the fifth time.
“Hey. I know that you have been putting on an act trying to get Tony jealous. You can stop worrying about Max around me, and you aren’t going to fool Tony.”
“Oscar, I love Max, and I realized Tony didn't love me when he started sleeping with Liz that he doesn’t love me. What Max and I have is real, and we are good together. This isn’t an act, and I certainly wouldn’t be sleeping with Max if I loved Tony,” cried Amy and then she added, “Oscar, please save Max.
Amy could tell that Oscar wasn’t buying her act even with the fake tears and emotion. She knew now to low key the effort or she would overplay her hand.
“Look, girl, it’s dark now, and we can start clearing the guards out and rescue your lover. Leave your other people here and tell them to start sniping any of the thugs thirty minutes after you leave them. That will give you time to get your ass into the warehouse and begin killing gang members. I will take my best night stalkers with me, and we will have night vision goggles (NVG) so don’t shoot us. We will see you so no problem there. We don’t know where he is, so kill silently and hide the bodies so we can kill most of them before they know they are being attacked,” Oscar offered.
Amy filled her men in on the plan and then headed off into the night with her AR and two pistols plus extra magazines. She stayed in the shadows and approached the guard from behind. The man was apparently not a trained soldier because he had a lit cigarette and was dropping off to sleep with his chin resting on his hand against the wall. Amy slid up behind him, grabbed him by his dreadlocks, yanked his head back, and drew her knife across his throat. She dropped him to the ground to start his long sleep.
Amy was now in the building and carefully walked down an aisle between two rows of racks until she saw the entrance to the front office. A roaring fire in a barrel lit up the area, and these two men were actually paying attention to their surroundings as they shot the shit.
Amy knew she couldn’t sneak up on them, so she decided to walk up to them with a smile and then kill them. She took her jacket and body armor off, dropped them on the floor, and then took her t-shirt off exposing her lacy black bra and voluptuous breasts. She slung her AR15, so the rifle hid behind her and tucked her pistol behind her in her belt.
Amy made her t-shirt into a bundle, tucked her knife into the bundle, and walked toward the men, “Hey, big boys. Jarod sent me to bring you some super.
“Man, Lee, that fox is fine,” one man said as Amy approached.
“Shit girl, I ain’t seen you before and why the hell would Jarod give a shit about us eating.”
“Jarod wanted to reward you for doing such a great job. Your reward is you both get to sleep with me tonight,” she said as she faked handing the bundle to one of the men.
She was standing between the two when she lashed out with her foot and struck the man behind her with a blow to the groin while plunging her knife deep into the other man’s ribs. She whirled around and stabbed the man who was doubled over in the back of the throat ripping the blade downward and severing his jugular vein. She turned quickly, drove her blade back into the first man, and thrust the knife upward into his heart.
The entire assassination took only four minutes, and Amy was dressed in her clothes and hid the bodies five minutes later and on her way to free Max. She might not love Max, but she was growing fond of him so she would kill everyone who had hurt him. He was her friend, and Amy didn’t have many friends.
☆☆☆
Max used the shelves as a ladder and climbed to the ceiling where he shoved a 2 foot by 4-foot air return vent aside and hoisted himself up into the air duct above. He headed toward the central office slowly to keep the sound of his shoes scuffing the metal as low as possible. He kept checking other vents to see what was in the rooms until he found the main office. He watched through the grill and learned where Jarod was and more importantly where his guards were located. Jarod had two women in his room who were bound and gagged. Max only guessed the terror in their hearts at what Jarod would do to them.
Max climbed out of the top of the duct over a room about 50 feet from Jarod and the guard. He walked on the support beams for the ceiling and removed several of the long wires that held the ceiling up. He twisted the three together to make a wire over 20 feet long and made a slip noose at the end of it. He wrapped the other end around his club so it wouldn’t cut his hands and then dropped the noose end over a pipe and down to the guard below. When the noose fell over the man's head; Max jumped through the fiber ceiling tile causing the wire to close around the man’s neck. Max’s weight falling then caused the wire to yank the man upward, and suddenly the man’s body plummeted along with his severed head.
Max unwrapped the wire from his club and ran into Jarod’ room before Jarod could untangle himself from one of the women. Max didn’t say a word as he brought the homemade ax down on Jarod’s skull burying both scissor tips into the side of Jarod’s head.
Max retrieved his pistols from Jarod’s nightstand and a 12-gauge shotgun before freeing the women, “Ladies, find an empty room and hide until I tell you to come out. There is going to be death around every corner for the next few minutes.”
The women left without taking the time to dress as Max climbed
back into the ceiling and waited for his next victims. He didn’t wait long until two more of Jarod’s gang came to find out what caused the noise. They drew their weapons when they saw the guard’s body and rushed into the room ready for a fight. Max came crashing down on top of them as he hammered the ax into one man’s shoulder and shot the other through the shoulder from above killing him instantly. Then he put his foot on the other man’s chest next to the ax head and used it to pull the stuck blades from the man’s shoulder. Max then slammed the ax into the horrified man’s face and killed him.
Max was now covered in blood from decapitating one man and shooting and axing the others. He heard a movement behind him, turned with the ax raised above his head, and almost brought the ax down on the person attacking from behind.
“Max is that you,” Amy cried out.
Max was in a fever pitch, and it was all he could do to miss her with his ax. She ran to him and threw her arms around him as they kissed. Oscar and two of his men arrived just in time to see Amy being smeared with blood that was dripping from Max.
Oscar joked, “Hey get a damn room if you're going to do the nasty. Shit, both of you, need a shower to get the blood and gore off. Sorry, for kidding and which one of you is bleeding like a stuck hog? Do you need medical attention?”
Amy replied, “Not me. Oh, God, Max are you okay?”
“I’m fine, but you should see the headless man out in the main office,” Max laughed.
Oscar was amazed that this author had been able to defeat four of the gang, “How did you cut the man’s head off and why.”
“I’m writing that into my next novel and don’t want to spoil the plot. You’ll have to read the book,” Max replied as he tried to take a step and fell to his knees.
“I think I might have hurt my foot when I jumped from the ceiling down on these assholes.”
He wrapped his arm around Amy, gave her a passionate kiss, and she helped him walk out to one of the trucks for the ride home.
They arrived back at Max’s room a few minutes later, and Amy said, “Max thanks for continuing the act. I think we convinced Oscar that we are in love.”
This pissed Max of for some reason that didn’t come to him even though he knew he had agreed to the plan.
Amy helped Max clean the blood off before she helped him lie down in his bed. She fetched some hot water from the kitchen and was very gentle as she gave him a sponge bath. He ached all over, but her soft and loving touch stirred his desire. When Amy was done, she washed herself off and curled up in the corner on her own mattress.
“Amy, I hoped that you would at least share my bed even though you don’t want to have sex with me. You would feel great against my sore body right now,” Max pleaded.
“And I would love to have your warm body against mine, but we don’t love each other, and I love Tony. Case closed and go to sleep,” she said as she rolled over and closed her eyes.
Max was furious and replied, “Amy I do care for you; however, you can’t see that Tony thinks of you as his sister, and that won’t change. You won’t make him jealous, and you’re not using me anymore in your scheme. I’m going to find someone that doesn’t play all of the games, so move out tomorrow and find someone else to play games with.”
Max fell asleep, and Amy was gone when he woke up the next morning.
∞
Chapter❹
Raiders
The days passed quickly as everyone was busy; either helping the two new neighborhoods join the community or starting up the new now legal businesses. Max tried to stay away from the prostitution but rather enjoyed assisting in setting up the first bar and gambling joint. He was a fan of the old wild west and gave Roger several ideas on how to decorate the bar and costumes for the saloon girls. He even took his deputies into downtown Gallatin to a costume store to fetch some frilly dresses for the women and green shade visors for the dealers.
The grand opening was scheduled for 7:00pm and Max had brought a sweet little black dress back from Gallatin for Amy to wear to the bar opening. He had no plans to visit the cathouse even though it had been almost a week since Amy had shared his bed. Once his anger subsided, he and Amy agreed for her to move back into his room to keep up Amy’s plan. She was still like his best friend in private but a flirt and temptress in public, which caused him great stress when they were alone at night.
Amy had applied the makeup Max retrieved from a looted pharmacy and Max was pleasantly surprised at how it brought out her natural beauty. Max walked up behind her and handed her the dress and Amy’s face beamed with delight.
“Max, you are a doll,” Amy exclaimed as she tried on the dress over her naked body in front of Max.
She looked at herself in the mirror as Max surprised her with a pair of stiletto heels that matched the dress perfectly.
“Max you are too good to me and spoil me. You will make a great husband for some lucky girl. I think that new nurse in the walk in clinic has the hots for you, but she will have to keep her hands to herself for several more months,” Amy said as though Max had no say in the matter.
“Babe, what if I really like her and want to start dating her now?”
“Max, we’ve gone over that several times and you know I really need you to help me finish working on Tony’s jealousy.”
Max chose his words carefully and said, “You know Tony will be going to the cat house tonight with the boys. Maybe Liz will throw him out when she finds out. I can get the word out without it getting back to me.”
“Oh, Max, please be a darling and do that for me,” Amy said as she worked on developing her skills at charming men.”
Max was surprised at the reaction and asked, “The fact that Tony will be sampling the charms of the soiled doves doesn’t bother you?”
“Nope, not as long as he comes home to me at night.”
They walked over to the bar, which was in the front of the Auto Parts warehouse and heads turned when Amy walked in on Max’s arm. There was a live band, and several men took turns stealing Amy away from Max while he slammed a double Jim Beam on the rocks down. He saw the new nurse, Jackie, standing with several others and asked her to dance and she accepted.
Max was a good dancer, and they were soon lost in the music when Jackie asked, “Aren’t you and Amy Baker living together?”
“Yes we are, but she won’t mind if I dance with a pretty girl every now and then. How do you like your new home so far?”
“Well, the people are great, but I miss my apartment and the coffee shops. I love strong coffee.”
“Me too. The stronger, the better. I’ve been working with the kitchen crew, and they have a special pot just for me. Tell them you want some of Max’s coffee, and they’ll take care of you but be careful, it might put hair on your chest,” Max laughed.
Jackie laughed and said, “Do you like hair on a woman’s chest? Mine is hairless and very soft.”
Max was stuttering and searching for an answer when he felt a tap on his shoulder as Amy stole him away from Jackie by saying, “Hello Jackie, I need my man back, but you can dance with him every now and then.”
Amy steered Max away from Jackie quickly and started nuzzling her mouth against his neck when Max said, “Amy, please slow down a bit on the affection or you might not want to come back to the room later.”
Amy’s face tightened as she responded, “Did miss Jackie the nurse get you excited? She isn’t a good match for you, and you can do better. Now shut up and dance because this dress and heels even have Tony’s attention. Drop your hand on my ass when I tell you, so Tony will see it.”
The night drug on for Max as he made eyes at Jackie and she shared many of his glances. As Max expected, Tony didn’t pay attention to Amy even though Amy tried every trick in the book. Amy had tears in her eyes as she asked Max to go back to the room with her.
“Amy, I’m sorry that you are bummed out, but I’m going to stay and drink and have some fun. I won’t do anything to hurt your plan for Tony,” he li
ed as his eyes drifted back to Jackie who was dancing with Greg.
“Please come back with me and don’t make me go back to the room alone Max,” Amy begged.
Max tried to keep his cool but replied, “Amy, I’ve been playing this game for almost two weeks, and it isn’t working. I’m going to have some fun. Have a guard escort you back to our building. I won’t do anything in public that will hurt your plan for Tony.”
Max walked away headed to find Jackie as Amy walked out the front door and walked across the dark parking lot to the next building alone. He had a drink while waiting for Jackie to finish dancing with Sam and then pulled her to him as the next dance started. They danced while talking about nothing important then Max took her back to his table and ordered drinks.
“Your gorgeous lady left you here all alone and left you alone with all of these single women,” Jackie said as she sipped from her Jack and Coke.
“I’m not alone now, and I’m a big boy and can take care of myself when confronted with wild beasts and wilder women,” Max flirted.
Jackie had a confused look on her face and said, “Max, I’m getting mixed signals here. A few minutes ago, you had your hand on her ass in front of the world, and now I get the feeling you want to move it to mine. You can’t have both. Not if one of them is me, anyway. Normally, I wouldn’t give you the time of day, but you looked like someone had a gun to your head, and you were being forced to be with that killer woman.”
Max quickly replied, “My relationship with Amy is very complicated, and I’m actually …”
Max was stopped in midsentence by several men running into the bar yelling, “We’re under attack. Grab your guns.”