by A. R. Case
The officers herded Jonathan into the living room. While they discussed what had happened, two more cops showed up and went to talk to his dad.
There was a bit more commotion when his boss stopped by, but by then things had calmed down a lot. Jonathan was ready for them to just leave so he could message Tony back and let him know he was okay.
His dad came into the living room and sat on the couch next to him. His boss didn’t look happy, but left. The last of the uniforms said his goodbyes. “We’re on until midnight.” He told Jonathan.
His dad dropped his head in his hands and sat there for a long time. Jonathan was scared, but not like he had been. It was weird, but seeing his dad’s boss there made him just a bit sorry for his dad.
“Are you in trouble?”
He took a deep breath and let it out. “Not really. I shouldn’t have gotten so defensive.”
He lifted his head and blinked. “When I hurt you that night, I lost a lot, but it made a few things clear. I went in for therapy. Then when they said I was fine, I found a group to keep with it because I wasn’t fine.”
He looked at Jonathan. “I lost you.” His brow crinkled. Jonathan watched him swallow. “What’s worse, is I hurt you. That’s …” He shook his head. “I arrest people for that shit.” His foot was tapping. “I was wrong. You know that right? I was wrong. A man doesn’t do that.” He blinked.
Jonathan felt his eyes prickling but kept quiet. Lock it down and take care of business whispered through his head. He remembered Tony saying that. It seemed appropriate right about now.
His dad was staring at him. “You’re probably a better man than I am right now.” He smiled, but it wasn’t really a smile. It was one of those things your face did when you didn’t like what you were thinking. Jonathan knew that face, he’d been doing it a lot lately.
“I think it matters that you try.”
His dad smiled, and it went from ear to ear, or at least as wide as Jonathan had ever seen it. “I’m proud of you, do you know that, right?”
Jonathan nodded. “About Tony..”
His dad waved a hand, “Contact him. I shouldn’t be such a baby about it. He an okay guy? He looked a little rough.”
Jonathan smiled. “He is, but it’s cool, he’s like you that way.”
John straightened. “He ever get mad at you?”
“Yeah, I screwed up a panel that cost five hundred bucks once, so he made me clean toilets for a week.”
John’s face pulled tight, then shifted. “He didn’t yell?”
“He yelled, a little. Mostly he lectured me about paying attention, and he was right. It did cost a lot. It was more like ‘what the fuck?’ then he told me how to fix it, but still made me clean toilets.”
“How’d he make you?”
“He told me I couldn’t do any line work, and showed me the cleaning supplies and said ‘you’ve got latrine duty for a week’ because that’s what he’d figured would make up for it.”
His dad was quiet. Then nodded. “He handled that better than I would have.” His face turned down. “During classes they taught us to focus on solving problems when they come along. Sounds like Tony did that with you.” He took a breath through his nose. “I don’t think I’m there yet.”
“You could talk to him, apologize.”
John looked at his son. “You are a better man than I am. Damn.” he got up and ruffled Jonathan’s hair. “Let’s make that call, huh?”
Tony wasn’t expecting Jonathan to call back, nor was he expecting to talk civilly with John, Sr., but that’s what happened. They talked for a few, Jonathan even handed the iPad over to his dad so they could talk in private. He half expected the guy to rip into him after Jonathan went to bed, but he was surprised again when he didn’t.
“Jonny told me about you hiring him on. Thanks for that. His mother never pursued child support, although I would have paid it. I’m thinking that before Thanksgiving, I should be fixing that.”
“She’s doing okay, but they don’t have a lot.”
John nodded. “I’ve seen that, and it’s my fault. She should have had alimony or something.” He shook his head. “Hell of a woman.”
He was lost in thought so didn’t see the pain Tony tried to mask. Yeah, she was, so much so, she didn’t need his sorry ass when she was hurting. He frowned. She pushed him away when she obviously was feeling the worst. He wondered if she was done feeling sorry for herself yet. Or if she’d even realized what she’d done.
John said something.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear that.” Tony said.
“She wasn’t the reason we got divorced, it was me.”
“Dude. Ya think?”
That got a laugh. “I’d never thought I’d say this, but you’re okay, Tony. Thanks for listening to me.” He stopped. “You called, that shows you care about my boy. Thanks for that. You could have just left it be.”
“I wasn’t going to sleep if I’d done that.”
John nodded. “Thanks for that. I think I’d be seriously thinking about kissing my revolver right now if I’d lost it on him again.”
Tony’s brows knotted. “You need to get help for that too, you know?”
John’s dark expression scrunched then cleared. “Yeah. My shrink’s going to have a pretty good Christmas again.” He yawned. “It’s late.”
Tony looked at his clock. “One o’clock. What’s it there?”
“We’re eastern time zone so it’s one here too. Night, Tony. Call my son whenever okay? Try to forget I was an ass.”
“Will do. If you, well, need to check in on me, go ahead.”
“I’d say I won’t but…”
Yeah, cops, couldn’t help themselves.
It was past three a.m. when Tony found himself in the parking lot of Atlanticare again. He’d stopped by an all night diner and picked up sandwiches. She hadn’t been eating, and Tony wasn’t having that. He just hoped she was still here. Knowing her, she would.
The talk with John had been enlightening, not because of something he’d said, but because Tony had realized that he wasn’t going to give up on these people. If that meant talking to an ex who was a cop, or showing up at three a.m. with sandwiches, that’s what it was. He hadn’t been kidding when he told Ducky she was his old lady.
He went in the side, just like Jonathan and he had done that one day. If they kicked him out, fuck em, he’d just come through the front. The same nurse from the night before saw him and smiled. He held up the bag. “Did she eat yet?”
She shook her head. “She’s over there. Go get her tiger.”
Tony started to go over there, but he felt her hand on his arm. “If she shoots you down, call me…” She finished it with a joking smile. “Just kidding… maybe. Go.”
He was still smiling when he walked up to her. She looked a little better than she had the other night. The nurse she was talking to broke of and pointed. “You’ve got company.”
She turned and there was a flash of something like hope on her face. It was only an instant before she composed it. “What are you doing here?”
He held up the food. “Sandwiches. Got time?”
The other nurse poked her in the arm. “We’re good for the night. Go.”
“You’re off?” Tony asked. “Hungry?”
Susan looked embarrassed, but shrugged. “Sure.”
They moved to the empty cafeteria. The lights were at half level, throwing the large room into shadows. Tony set up the food on a table close to the entrance so they could see what they were eating. He took the seat facing the door out of habit. “Last I saw you, you looked pretty rough. You look better tonight.”
She took a deep breath and let it out. “I was still in a bad place then. I miss him.”
“I talked to him tonight.”
“You did?”
“
Yeah, he’s doing okay.” He felt his face dip, remembering the scene with John. “I talked to John senior too.”
Her face tightened. “How’d that go?”
Tony flipped a quick smile, that fell. “Not good at first, but we got it all straightened out.”
“Straightened out how?”
He shook his head. “He’s pretty serious about his anger management classes, you know? He made Jonathan hang up at first, but then got him to call me back so he could apologize. We talked.”
She didn’t look happy about that.
“He’s messed up.” Tony offered.
She looked up. “You’re not taking his side?”
He realized how much the divorce had cost her then. “Aw sweetheart, I’m in your corner, got that?”
Susan closed her eyes and let them stay closed.
He got worried when she didn’t say a word.
“You still with me?”
She nodded.
“Help me out here… please?”
She opened her eyes. “Thank you.” she whispered.
He smiled and took her chin in his hand. “Kiss?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Figures you’d have ulterior motives.”
“Yup.”
She smiled. Then she quickly kissed Tony. “Let’s eat this somewhere else, like your bed.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
They exited out the side. The lot was dark. He pulled the bag with the sandwiches out of her hands and tucked it in his mouth so he could help her with her coat. “Don’t know why you didn’t put this on inside.” He mumbled.
“What’s that?”
He pulled her coat up and grabbed the bag, then repeated, “I don’t know why you didn’t…”
“No, THAT.” She pointed. It looked like a homeless guy passed out in the lot. “I think he’s hurt.” She moved to help.
Tony followed her. “You might want to go inside to get somebody to help, you’re off duty.”
The words had barely gotten out of his mouth when the guy grabbed Susan used her to pull himself up. Tony caught the glint of something metal. And started forward.
“Move closer and she dies.” The guy said.
“Listen, if you need money for a fix, I’ve got it. Just let her go, okay?” He pulled his wallet out of his pocket to show the guy. “Here.” He gave it a wiggle.
“Shut up.” The guy started dragging her to a van. Tony noticed that it wasn’t parked in a normal spot like most of the cars here. It was haphazardly stopped at an angle with its nose pointing toward the street.
“Let her go.” Tony growled.
“I said shut up or she dies.”
“Fuck that.” Tony charged the fucker and got his gloved hand in the space between Susan and the knife he held. It cut the hell out of his hand, but what this asshole didn’t count on was the fact that Tony knew his fingers were much more harder to cut than her throat. The attacker being off balance, went down with Tony on top of both him and Susan. He pushed Susan to the side as he went in for the kill on the bum.
He was slamming his head on the pavement when Susan stopped him. “Tony, don’t. You’ll kill him!”
“That’s the idea.” He thumped the guy again.
“Stop man, please!”
“Tony. Stop. I don’t want to lose you.”
He practically snarled at her. “I almost lost you, ask me why I should give a shit if he dies.”
“Because I won’t visit you in jail, that’s why.”
That got through to him. He glared down at the guy. “Tell me why you did it.”
“I was paid, man.”
“Susan, get my phone, call the cops. Jacket, right side.” He continued holding the guy by the collar. “Talk. Who paid you?”
“Whitehead. He wanted her dead, said make it look like a mugging.”
“Why?” He tensed to slam the guy’s head down again.
“Dude, no! He’s cleaning house. Her kid found something.”
“Tony, Jonathan?”
He heard what she was saying. “He know where the kid is?”
The guy nodded. “Dude, please don’t kill me.”
Sirens sounded. Tony glared down at him. “Lucky day asshole.”
He looked at Susan, “Dial my ICE numbers starting with 2 and don’t stop until you reach someone. Tell ‘em Boots needs a nine-one-one in Ohio, tell ‘em lock it down. Got it? Nine-one-one, Ohio, lock it down.”
She nodded.
“Go, Cops get here you’ll have to stop.”
She scrolled through the list as the blue and red lights got closer.
Chapter twenty
John Bauer, Sr., did one last check of the house. He and Jonathan talked a bit more when he returned the iPad. He wasn’t happy his son was friends with a biker, but figured as long as he was legit, it wasn’t too bad. Besides, DeSantos seemed to really care. It was weird, but not unheard of. His partner volunteered as a big brother, and took care of his stepkids with the same kind of zeal. Maybe he was wired wrong.
Sure he wanted to protect his kid, it was just weird to think of Jonathan as his friend. He was a father, not a friend. He flipped the light in the bathroom off, making sure the night light flicked on. Jonathan probably didn’t need it, he’d gotten over being scared of the dark by the time he was six, but it would help him locate the room if he needed it in the middle of the night.
John knew his house backwards and forwards, dark or light. He’d been up too many nights walking the floors to not know how it looked. So maybe that’s why he stopped after passing the kitchen one last time.
The door was half shut. With all the police in and out tonight, maybe it had been open or moved, but he usually kept it wide open, with a wedge under it so it didn’t creep shut like this. Shut doors inside, except bedrooms and bathrooms, bugged him. Even more so, half-shut doors bugged the shit out of him. He was the type that would walk around after people and shut cabinets and straighten towels on the rack. He’d asked his therapist about it. He said it was his need to control his environment that caused this. The anger was a bigger issue so they’d focused on that. Keeping things shut or lined up wasn’t that big of a deal compared to knocking the shit out of a ten year old.
Perspective, and balance. That was the ticket.
He backtracked to prop the door open.
The shot came out of nowhere. John ducked and rolled to the side, then scrambled through the open door of the den. He pulled his service revolver off the desk and threw himself behind it. His gun safe was to the left so he scrambled behind it as more shots hit the desk, the walls, and pinged against the safe. He chambered a round and ducked low as he lined up his shots at the doorway. He caught the shadow of a body slip back behind the wall toward the kitchen. He grabbed the frame of the safe and pulled himself up to line up a shot when the intruder showed himself again.
He had to duck behind the safe again as the guy hammered rounds through the wall randomly. His rounds were hollow points so shooting through the wall like this guy was out of the question. The safe was saving his hide for now, but if the guy was after Jonathan, he needed to get his attention, and hope to hell Jonathan was smart enough to go out the window to get safe.
John got low and slid along the carpet as round after round split through his office. Drywall dust and wood chips were flying everywhere.
There was a pause, John figured the bastard was reloading and took the chance to push to his feet and get into the hall, readying to fire. He caught the shadow as he cleared the door and curled to let his shoulder hit the hall wall opposite of him. He fired right as the guy lifted his gun for another go.
His stomach and leg felt the blows, and John let momentum take him to the floor. He kept his aim true and pumped half his clip into the shadow in front of him. The shots coming at hi
m went high as the guy went down. John kept his Beretta trained on the body and watched for movement.
“Jonathan!” He yelled. No answer, shit. He yelled again. “Jon!”
“Outside dad.” His voice sounded distant.
“You okay?” Shit. His chest hurt. That one took it out of him.
“I’m good Dad. There’s some guys out here that are here to help. They’re coming in. Don’t shoot them okay?”
It was getting hard to breathe. He hoped his son heard his weak “okay.”
Things got a little weird as black filled the edges of his vision. He tried to lift his weapon as leather clad bikers dropped the front door, and fanned out with military precision. “Bauer, John Bauer, cavalry here, don’t shoot -- kay?”
The voice boomed in his head and he let his hand fall to the floor. “Jonathan?” he whispered.
Just before things went black he heard. “Nailed him cold. He’s meat.”
Tony was feeling numb from the painkillers he’d been given. Even through that, the stitches in his hand still fucking hurt. Susan was passed out on a chair, the early morning light coloring her hair with a red-gold halo. She’d been at his side, letting him know she talked to a guy named Turbo. He was sending the locals in Ohio to check out her ex’s place. He blacked out a bit between outside and getting prepped for surgery. Then more blank time between then and now.
As he watched her sleep, he knew he’d do it all over again. She was still here, despite seeing him in a rage, and probably knowing he’d sicced outlaws on her son’s home. If everything turned out fine, there would be payment due. Wasn’t the first time he owed his life to the club. Hopefully, it would be the last, and they’d let him be. He had plans.
Yeah, seeing her in the morning light every day would be a good start on those plans. Getting Jonathan home would be another one. He sighed and his head spun. He must have made a noise because Susan woke.
“You in pain?” Her voice was scratchy from little sleep.
“Heads swimming.”
She stroked his head. “Shush now. You sleep if you can.”
“Any word on Jonathan?”
“I don’t know.” She shuffled around and found his phone. “How do you work this thing?”