by J. D. Oliver
A waiter with a fake French accent appeared at my elbow. He asked what we would like to drink, I had him bring us a bottle of wine. I wasn’t in to it much, but Faith liked wine. He had rattled off some fancy French name for the wine, I told him sure to bring what was the best. Turned out the best went for two hundred dollars a bottle, but what the hell. We didn’t go out that much. He poured a splash in the bottom of my glass. I wasn’t a complete red neck, I knew what I was supposed to do, so I done it. Then he poured our glasses to the proper level.
After we ordered Steak and Lobster, he went on his way and we could look around us. Every table was full. Some of the men were dressed like me, local ranchers. But some had some pretty expensive suits on. Them I marked in my mind.
Seated at the next table was two such, with two women dressed somewhat like my wife. Those two guys, I knew the type right away. I looked over at my wife, she had seen them also. She nodded.
Now if you will remember, I am from this neck of the woods. Those two women, I knew them. From my single days, they were hookers, nice girls, but hookers never the less, I had went to high school with them. They were trying to be unobtrusive, but I could tell they knew I had seen them.
I leaned over and gave my wife a peck on the cheek, whispering to her, she looked at them, then nodded to me. The girls at the next table got up to go to the bathroom. Faith got up and followed them.
The two men were in close conversation, they’d glance at me when they thought I wasn’t looking. I could tell by the small bulges in their suit jackets that they were packing. Now in Wyoming it was legal to pack, but not if you concealed it. Of course I had a permit for my gun, being that I was now an FBI agent.
In Wyoming prostitution was illegal, the johns could be arrested as well as the girls. Faith came back, the two girls came back a few seconds later. The music started up, Faith and I got up and danced.
Faith said, as she laid her head on my shoulder. “They just picked the girls up an hour or so ago. The girls work for an escort service. It was supposed to be a no sex call. But when they got to their room, the first thing they did was throw them on the bed and rape them. So I guess you could arrest them for rape. By the way, they say they know you.”
“Yes, I went to High School with them, they were nice girls at that time. Well I guess they still are. No body deserves to be raped. What else did they have to say?”
“Well their scared for their lives, those guys said that they would kill them unless they did everything they told them to.”
We twirled around the dance floor a couple of times, I made eye contact with the girls, and nodded to them. I could see the relief in their eyes. I whispered into Faiths ear, “Those girls are as good as dead unless we help them, there is no way they are going to let them loose to yell rape. Plus of course, I know they are here to kill us. And if they killed us, they would surely kill those girls.”
“How do you know they are here to kill us?” Faith said.
“I just do, don’t ask me how. There is this little voice, yes literally, telling me so.”
“Sometimes, you’re down right spooky, you know that?” Faith said, as the music came to an end. We went back to our table. The food hadn’t come yet.
One of the guys had Angelina by the arm and was twisting it. The other girls name was Patty, if I remembered right. Faith looked directly at the man and he dropped her arm. Faith’s eyes were blazing with fury. I laid my hand on her arm, “Take it easy honey, we can’t kill them here, unless they try and kill us first.”
“Like so much I can’t, if he does that again, I’m going to.” Faith said.
I got up and went over to their table, “Well as I live and breath,” I said, “Patty and Angelina, I haven’t seen you two since high school, I told my wife I went to school with you two, she wants to meet you, go over and say hello.”
The two goons eyes were wary, the girls got up and went over to my table. I sat down in one of their chairs. “Well boys, your ride is about over, your ticket’s have been punched. All that remains, is how you want to go out.” I said, with a big smile on my face. When I had sat down, I palmed my pistol, it was pointed at them.
“I guess you know, you’re ruining my night out with my wife. This is such a nice carpet on this floor, I sure hate to ruin it with your blood. Say boys, who’s paying you anyway?” I gave them another toothy grin.
One of them said, “I guess you can’t count, there’s two of us and only one of you.”
“I guess your math is just as fuzzy as the president’s is,” I said, “you see I have a .44 Mag pointed at your guts right now. And if I miss, my Wife will have cold steel sticking out of your necks in under a second.” With that I flicked open my jacket a bit so they could see my FBI badge. They seen it, and they got a little more white around the gills. I continued on, “so you see boys, you’re dead meat either way, you might just as well spill your guts, that is before I spill them.”
“Will you let us go if we tell you?” The goon on my left asked.
“Well now, I didn’t say that, but what I will do is not kill you, how’s that?”
“You’re an FBI agent, you wouldn’t kill us anyway.”
I gave them a low sinister laugh, “Boy’s, you don’t understand who you are dealing with. You see I’m also a New Mexico State Ranger, them and the FBI hired me because I’m an assassin. I don’t have to take any prisoners. Now shall we try this again, who paid you to kill us?”
They looked at each other, licked their lips and then one of them said, “We don’t know for sure, but the guy was named Jeff Strong, he’s a Porno actor for Fantasizes Inc. out of LA. That’s all we know, really?”
“How much did they pay you?”
“Twenty Thousand down and another twenty when it’s done.”
“Well at least I’m not cheap. Okay, put your guns on the table and empty your pockets. Everything on the table.” Guns, extra clips, brass knuckles, strangulation wire, small bag of crack, switch blade knives. Billfolds, crammed with money. One thing that was missing, no rubbers. I looked at them, “you didn’t use any protection when you raped those girls?” They turned a little more pale.
“Shit, I should kill you right now. But I’m not going to. Just leave everything on the table and get out of here.”
“You’re not going to give us any money?”
“Nope, I’m giving it all to Angelina and Patty. You’re fortunate you’re getting away with your lives, now get out of here before I change my mind.” They got.
I took a large cloth napkin and put all of their stuff in it and tied it like a Hobo’s bundle. I went to our table and sat the bundle under my chair. The waiter came over, “Have the gentlemen left?” He said.
“Yep, they sure did, just bring their food to our table, we’ll pay for it.” He gave me a snide look and started to say something, I flicked back the edge of my coat. He slammed his jaw closed.
He not only seen my badge, but also my gun. Faith said, “You let them go again, how many times are you going to let the Rattle Snakes get away?”
“I didn’t want my food to get cold, I’m hungry, aren’t you?” I said, smiling at the girls. “After we eat, you girls have an appointment with the emergency room, I want them to run a rape kit on both of you, take a few tests for STD’s and the like, okay?”
We not only had the orders that Faith and I ordered, but also all four of the other table, we split the food the two goons ordered between the four of us. People were looking at us, I smiled at them and gave them the thumbs up, they looked away. After we ate, the two girls got up to go to the bathroom, they stood there waiting for Faith. Faith bent down and said, “Why did you let them get away?”
“They didn’t get away, their going to try and kill us when we leave the Hotel tonight.” I said. Faith asked: “How do you know that?”
“I told you about my little voice, don’t you remember. One of them had an extra key hid in his shoe, it’s to their car, they have more guns and money in
there. Really I didn’t want to get blood all over this white carpet. The management would never forgive me.”
“Oh you, you make no sense at all.” Faith said, then followed the girls to the bathroom. I paid our bill and left the waiter a hundred dollar tip, when he seen it, he smiled, for the first time. I really didn’t like male waiters. I guess I was a sexist about some things, I just didn’t like men waiting on me.
I picked up the bundle from under my chair and met the women when they came out of the bathroom. We went to our room. I undid the bindle stiff, and counted out the money, there was eighteen thousand dollars altogether. I laid it on the bed, and checked over one of the pistols. I put it in my jacket pocket. It held fifteen shots, that should be enough. Faith was watching me. I looked at her, “are you ready?” I asked.
“No, I want to change clothes, it’ll just take a second. She pulled off her dress over her head, she was standing there in her Bra and Thong panties. I lost my train of thought. She quickly undid her knives and slipped on her jeans and shirt and overall jacket. She put her stiletto’s in her jacket pocket, the other jacket pocket held her .32 Mag. The two girls were standing there watching us. Patty asked, “What are you people?” I answered, “Survivalists.”
Chapter Fifteen
We took the down elevator to the side door of the Hotel; we stopped just inside of the door. “Clay, Clay, wake up, you’re doing it again.” I heard Faith calling me. “I’m Okay, they’re out there.” I said, as I got one gun out of my pocket and my .44 out of my holster. “You all just stay inside, I’ll take care of this; I know just where they are. No, Faith it’s Okay, I’ll take care of it, it’s my responsibility.” I said, “You just hold this door, it opens to the inside.”
Faith held it open for me, I did a roll and tuck, it was a good thing, because they must have had an Uzi or something, cause there sure were a lot bullet’s coming my way. I had a pistol in each hand. On my left about 30 feet away stood one of them and on my right at the same distance was the other one. They were still firing, I put one through the right eye of the guy on my left and one through the left eye of the guy on my right. They fell over like cord wood.
It was quite, abnormally so; till we heard the sound of a siren coming our way. I turned to Faith, “take the truck and take the girls to the hospital, will you. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Don’t worry, it’ll be alright.”
A city police cruiser pulled up, an officer jumped out. “What’s going on here?”
I indicated the two dead men, “They tried to kill me, they missed, I didn’t.”
“Alright, give me your guns.” He said. I looked down, I still had them in my hands. The officer had pulled his. “Drop the guns and get your hands up.” He yelled. He was getting excited. “Calm down man,” I said. “I’m an FBI agent, just take it easy.”
“I don’t care who you say you are, drop your guns or I’m going to shoot.” He yelled frantically. Shit, I tilted my right hand gun and shot his pistol out of his hand.
I walked over to him, he was holding his wrist, “You’re okay, the numbness will go away pretty soon,” I said as I showed him my badge and I.D.
“How long have you been on the force?” I asked him.
“Two months,” he said, looking at me with fear.
“And they let you on the street by yourself. You almost got yourself killed tonight. You lost your cool, that could cost you your life next time,” I said. Another cop car pulled up. I told them the story and left them to clean up the mess.
But how was I going to get to the Hospital? I tapped the cop that I had shot the gun out of his hand, on the shoulder. “I’m taking your cruiser, you can pick it up at the Hospital.” He nodded his head. I started to turn away, then turned back, “You had better not tell them that I stole your car.” “No, no, you can take it, it’ll be all right.” He said backing up.
When I got to the Hospital, Faith was waiting for me. “They are both in there, getting examined now. We can wait over here, do you want a cup of coffee?”
About twenty minute’s later a Doctor came out. “We took both rape kits, we found enough fluid to get good DNA out of them. We took samples to test for STD’s also. They are getting dressed now. So you can take them home.” He had no more than left, than guess who showed up, that’s right, Harry Silver.
“Well it didn’t take you long to get here.” I said.
“The second I heard, I knew it was you. Nobody else can shoot their eyes out at 50 feet. So who were they?”
“I didn’t take time to get their names, but their I.D’s are in our room. They raped two girls, earlier tonight. Who are you going to have do the autopsies?”
“I suppose the local M.E. can handle it. Then we’ll have to send the DNA samples to either the State lab or our lab. As soon as I hear anything, I’ll let you know.” Harry said.
“Yeah, you can call me on my cell phone, we’re going to New Mexico for awhile. Rosie has some business to wrap up down there.” I said.
“So, you guys are building two new oil refineries huh?”
“Yeah, I guess so, maybe only one. Rosie is handling it.”
“Well watch your backs, I have already heard rumblings from Washington. The present administration, they don’t like the competition. I can’t wait till November.” Harry said, shaking his head as he walked away. Then he turned back around, “Oh yeah, if I was you I’d keep a close eye on those girls, they might want them dead too.”
I looked at Faith, then said, “I guess we don’t get to have sex on our date night.”
“I think there is an adjoining room right next to ours, I noticed a locked door anyway. We’ll stop at the desk when we get back and rent it too.” Faith said. I leaned over and kissed her. Just then the girls came out.
“Where do you guys live?” Faith asked them. They said that they had a little house on the outskirts of town.
I said, “I suppose every low life in town knows where you live?”
“Clay, behave yourself, that was unkind.” Faith said.
“The reason I asked was that the head FBI agent thinks they might still want to kill you. I don’t really know why he thinks that, but it behooves us to take precautions.” Faith said.
“Can we go by and get some clean clothes?” Angelina asked.
“No,” I said, “they might be watching your house.”
“Clay, I remember you from High School, why are you being so mean? You used to be so nice.” Patty said.
“Pay no attention to him, he’s just a little out of sorts. He thinks he isn’t going to get any nooky tonight. Come on let’s go back to the Hotel.” I followed along behind them. I remembered them well. I remember that I asked Angelina out, but she was a popular girl, I was a nobody, just a breed kid. How the mighty have fallen. Angelina turned around and looked at me, a little tear ran down her cheek.
I got behind the wheel, still feeling out of sorts. You know how it is, when memories from High School come flooding back, especially if those memories weren’t the greatest.
I started up and looked to the rear, when a bullet came ripping through my side rear view mirror. I jerked open the door and rolled out, both guns in my hand. I heard the squealing of tires coming toward me. I stood firmly in the street with my feet braced, firing both pistols. The windshield of the car was shattered in a million pieces. The guys behind the window, weren’t in much better shape. Their car careened into a parked car right behind my truck. I stood there, reloading my guns. The wail of sirens started up again. I was sure getting tired of this.
The city police were coming to get the cruiser that I had borrowed. That was why they were there so fast. They got out of their car, “Well if it isn’t the one man crime wave.” One cop said. He made the mistake of saying that while he was within arm length of me. I knocked him cold. Faith got out and took me back into the Hospital. The next thing I knew was when I woke up back in my own bed at the ranch.
Faith was setting beside the bed, reading. I looked at
her and said, “I didn’t get any nooky, did I?”
She turned and jumped on the bed, “Oh, you’re back. I was so worried. How do you feel?” She said, feeling my head.
“How long was I out this time?”
“Thirty days.”
“I’m sorry. But I guess we can go to New Mexico when I get out of bed.”
“No need. Rosie took the plane, the Hoeffer boys went with her, as body guards.”
“But she doesn’t have a license.”
“Yeah, I know. But she went anyway. They’re due back in three days. Rosie said the boys are doing okay. They make good body guards. They can shoot right on target, she taught them how to use a knife. They’ll be alright.”
“I didn’t even know that she knew them, how did this all come about?”
“Everybody on the ranch knows everyone. Rosie told me that she had been noticing that they were doing a good job. That was why she picked them.”
“Which one is she sweet on, Chip or Dale?”
“I don’t think she is sweet on either one. But I think Tiff likes one of them, I don’t know which one.”
“What ever happened to Patty and Angelina?” I asked.
“They’re living with Red and Daisy. We hired them on as ranch hands. They’re doing pretty good. Not great, but they are trying.”
“Are they causing any ruckus, like you know, sex wise with the male hands?”
“No silly. They don’t do that anymore.”
“Well that’s a relief.” I said, just as Suong came in the door.
“So, how’s my patient doing today? Is that head wound healing alright?” She said, looking at Faith.
“I was just going to take the bandage off and look at it, when he woke up.” Faith said, reaching for my head. I put my hand up there instead.
“When did I get this?” I asked my beautiful wife.
“Do you remember what happened when we came out of the Hospital? I see that you do. Anyway, the bullet hit your door jam and split up, part of it broke your outside rearview mirror. The other piece hit you on the left temple. Blood was streaming down your face, but you didn’t seem to notice. I at first thought it was just a scratch. But it put another hole in your head, just like you needed more. Anyway it sort of match’s the other side now. I think it’s also going to turn your hair white; I hope it leaves a lighting bolt pattern, just like the one on your right, that’ll be neat, won’t it?”