Tuck's Revenge (15 page)

“What kind of person irons their t-shirts?”
Tuck said to Rat who chuckled.

When the man left the house, Tuck saw it as
their chance get settled inside to grab him when he got back. Tuck
and his men slipped down the back of the house, surrounded by a
tall privacy fence, and found a gate. Walking past the nice
in-ground pool confirmed Tuck’s thought about the guy having money.
At the backdoor, he looked inside and seeing no one there, he tried
the door. It was unlocked so they went in. Tuck and his men pulled
their weapons, and went through all the rooms checking for anyone,
but there was no one else. No toys or baby beds so no kids, which
was a good thing. His men crept silently around him making sure
everything was secured.

Tuck and his men were in the house a little
over two hours when they heard the car coming up the drive. It was
a woman. Backing into a room off the hallway, they waited until she
got in the house and then confronted her. All of them but Rat
stayed back, it was his scene. She went directly to the kitchen and
set some bags on the table. Rat walked up behind her and put his
pistol in her back and his hand over her mouth. “Stay quiet and sit
down.” She did what he said and after Rat got her tied to a chair
he took part of the tablecloth and blindfolded her.

“If you don’t scream I won’t gag you,” Rat
said quietly.

“Who are you and what do you want?” she
whimpered.

"Was the guy that left here your husband?”
Rat snapped.

"Yes. Why? What do you want with him?”

"I want to ask him some questions, and make
him an offer that may save his life. Do you know what your husband
does to make money?” Rat said while Tuck and the others continued
to listen.

"He's a sales executive for a bike mechanics
shop,” she wailed.

"Is that what he told you? Did you ever
wonder why a bike shop would need a salesman? How many sales
executives do you know who go to work in a t-shirt and carry a
gun?” Rat laughed.

"He makes good money so I never asked any
questions,” she whispered.

"What do you really think he does for a
living?” Rat snapped again.

"I really don't know. What do you think he's
done?” she asked.

"I'll discuss that with him when he gets
here. What time do you think that will be?” Rat said quietly again,
he was keeping her off her game.

"He usually comes home around five,” she
said.

"Well it looks like we have a long wait. I’ll
let you get a little more comfortable so I’m going to move you into
the living room so I can see out the window. Are you comfortable?”
Rat said nicely now.

"Yeah, this will be fine,” she replied
hesitantly.

Rat sat with the woman until a car pulled in
the driveway, the rest of them made sure they cover every door and
window to make sure. Tuck listened when Rat told her that her
husband was home loudly. "I'm going to take your blindfold off and
I'm going to stand here behind the door, so don't do anything
stupid and get him killed, you got that?”

"I got it,” she said.

The man came through the door and as soon as
he closed it, he was met with Tuck’s gun to the back of his head,
and he froze in his tracks.

“Pull out your gun slow and hand it to me
butt first.” The man complied, and Tuck pushed him forward and told
him to go sit by his wife.

“Are you alright,” he asked his wife.

“Yeah.”

"Who are you and why are you here?” the man
demanded.

"I left your boss, Archer, a while back, and
we had a long discussion about you and several of your
friends.”

"Are you the one that killed him?” he
snarled.

"I'm afraid I am.” Tuck laughed and the
others came into view. The wife whimpered and the man paled a
little at the site of all of them.

"Do you know who he was?” the man
whispered.

"Yeah, he is the one who stupidly let his
name be used by Steven Portman. That's why he's dead now,” Tuck
said.

"So you're the one he is looking for,” the
man whispered.

"Yep, but I figure if I find him first, I
win.” Tuck laughed.

"All this isn't what I wanted, the boss
ordered it,” the man said.

"You mean Steven?” Tuck said until the man
nodded, he needed confirmation that Steven was the highest and he
got it.

"Looks like Archer told you quite a bit. But
he didn’t tell you everything, he couldn’t have.”

"Well he didn't have a lot of choice since I
was crushing his toes with a hammer and was about to move to his
balls.” The man’s eyes got bigger and he started to look
scared.

"What do you want with me?”

“I want you to help me set up a meeting with
Steven and your whole organization. If you do, I'll let you live a
long happy life with your beautiful wife here. If not, then you'll
die a worse death than Archer did, and leave your wife a
widow.”

"If I do this, they’ll kill me.”

"If you don't do it, I'll kill you and that
you can bet on.”

"I don't want them hurting my wife. She had
nothing to do with this.”

"If you do what I tell you, I will guarantee
safety for you and your wife, and you'll live rich for the rest of
your days without fear. But you'll have to follow what I say to the
letter.”

"What will I have to do?”

"Does Steven know Archer is dead yet?”

"Yeah, he knows. He knew an hour after it
happened.”

"Okay, then what you do is call Steven and
tell him I contacted you and said that I was coming. Tell him the
whole crew needs to meet up with him somewhere and figure out what
to do, because I told you I was coming after all of you for what
you did. If he acts like he's thinking about coming, you need to
act like Archer knew more than he did and tell him you need to let
everybody know what the deal is so you can come up with a game
plan. Convince him everybody in the organization needs to meet but
him; tell him you will meet him at the shop in town after. You’ll
be off the hook once they show up and I’m done.”

He reluctantly agreed to Tuck’s terms, and
asked when he needed to make the call.

"Call him now and I'll listen to what you
have to say and make sure you're convincing enough.”

The man made the call and when Steven
answered, he did exactly as Tuck told him and said exactly what he
wanted him to say. When the call was over, the man told Tuck they
were meeting in the desert in three days and everybody was going to
be there.

Tuck and his boys had three days to get
ready, he and the boys planned. Raven knew of a connection, which
wasn’t too far away. Rat and the others stayed at the house while
Raven and Tuck went to make a deal.

"What am I going to do with you while I'm
getting everything ready?” Tuck said to the couple. “We'll just
take you with us. We need a way to get around anyway, Raven take
the car.” On the way to the car, Tuck told them in a calm voice, "I
sure hope you don't give me any problems or do something stupid.
I’ll kill you, you know that don't you?”

"I swear we won't try anything,” the man said
as Tuck pushed him into the driver seat.

Raven went to the back with the woman and
Tuck took the passenger seat.

"Take us to into town.” When they arrived, he
took the keys to the car and went inside, leaving the man and woman
with Raven. Tuck told the owner who he was and who sent him. He
smiled and told him to pull around back and drive inside the door
and they’d fix him up. Tuck asked them if everything was ready to
go, and they said, "It will be ready to go when you leave
here.”

After they were loaded, the guy closed the
trunk, then came to the window. "If you need to transfer it to
something else, just pick it all up at one time and set it down
wherever you want it.”

As they were leaving, Tuck told the man to
drive easy and don't have any wrecks. "What did they put back
there?”

Tuck smiled and said, "You don't want to
know, if you knew you would probably have a wreck.”

As they got back to the man’s house, and he
told them they’d have to tolerate their company until the job was
over. They didn’t look too pleased with the news but what could
they say. Tuck and his men took turns staying awake all night and
watched the couple to make sure they didn’t try anything.

"How far is this meet up place?” Rat asked in
the morning.

“It’s where we always meet out in the desert.
Steven likes so no one can overhear what we’re talking about,” the
man said.

“Is there anybody else around?” Tuck
asked.

"No, there's nobody around for miles,” the
man replied.

"Good, take us there.” They drove about forty
miles until they were far out in the desert.

"This is the place?” Tuck asked.

"Where do you gather and stand around?” Raven
asked confused.

“We just park on the road and stand around in
the open area.” It looked like it used to be an old storage site
for some business. It had several old rusty barrels scattered
around and several piles of old lumber along with other things that
must have seemed worthless when they vacated the site.

“Pull up to one of the barrels,” Tuck ordered
one of his men, he got the keys to the trunk and opened it, then
took out the contents they’d loaded the day before and set it in
the barrel. "Now drive slowly down the road this way.” They got
about one hundred yards away from the site, and Tuck told him to
stop and kill the car.

"Get out and walk over here with me. When we
get here tomorrow, this is where we'll be,” Tuck said,
pointing.

“How are you going to get here with all the
guys around?” the man asked warily.

"Don't worry about that, just know we’ll be
there.” Rat smiled.

"How do you expect me to get out of the way
before you make your move?” the man asked.

"Just tell them you need to take a piss and
walk over here.” Raven shrugged.

"What did they put in the back of the car
yesterday?” the man asked.

"It was about thirty pounds of C4.” Tuck
smiled.

"You had me riding around with C4 in the car?
What if it went off?” the man squeaked.

"Well, then we would all be dead right now,
wouldn't we.” Rat laughed loudly.

*****

The day of the meeting came, Tuck told the
woman she had to stay there. "I need to ask you not make any phone
calls or do anything to mess this up, or your husband will die.
Just sit here and watch TV or take a swim and let this pass and
you'll never see or hear from me again. But if they get wind of
what's happening, I'll know it and I'll have to come back here when
I'm done out there in the desert.”

"I won't do anything because I never want to
see you again,” the woman snapped.

"Don't hate me because of what your husband
was involved in. I think I'm doing you two a favor getting rid of
these people. After this, you can live the rest of your lives
without worrying about when they are going to come take you out.
Their selfishness and greed would eventually come down on you guys
because they don't like witnesses to their deeds. It would
eventually happen, because that's what these kind of people do. I
don’t kill women, so you are lucky,” Tuck said.

They headed back to the desert for the meet
up. When they got a few miles from the spot, Tuck told the man to
drive in, act natural, and let it play out. Then he crawled into
the backseat. "Remember, after you get there, and you see everybody
has shown up, tell them you're going to take a piss then walk to
the rock I showed you yesterday. When you come to the rock, I'll
know everybody is there.”

As the man got to the site, he pulled up
behind all the other cars, and he was going to have to walk about
forty yards up the road to where they were all standing. As he got
out of the car and closed the door, he glanced into the backseat
where Tuck was supposed to be, but he wasn't there. What the hell.
As he approached the other men he greeted them with the usual
handshakes and hugs like they were a crime family or something, but
Tuck was glad to see he was acting normally without showing any
signs of being nervous. Two more cars showed up and the men walked
up to the crowd.

Tuck watched from the rock, and he saw his
man make a move toward his direction, so finally all of them were
there.

“They’re all here.”

"Where is Steven?”

“At the shop, he beeped me as I got out of
the car,” the man said. Tuck looked over his shoulder and then
moved quickly to the second part. He was leaving; just needed to
make sure no one double-crossed him.

“Rat,” Tuck said softly and held out his
hand. Rat dropped the keys into it and he melted into the trees and
was gone.

Somebody in the group of men yelled out to
the man looking into the trees after Tuck and said, "C’mon, man,
shake it off and get over here.”

"I'll be right there,” he yelled.

"You better get down and cover your ears.
This is going to be pretty loud.” Rat grinned.

The man got on the ground and covered his
ears and Rat set off the explosives with a handheld radio. The
explosion was devastating, and the shock of the blast was so strong
it knocked Rat off the rock he was on. After the dust cleared, he
walked to the site with pistols in hand to see if anyone made it
through the blast. But when he reached the site, it was apparent
nobody made it. There were body parts everywhere for fifty yards
around the blast site. "Looks like ten pounds would have done the
job, but at least they didn't feel anything.”

"Are you sure that was all of them?” Raven
snarled.

"Yeah, that was everybody,” the man
whispered.

Death: the action or fact of dying or being
killed; the end of the life of a person

Tuck walked silently to the back of the shop
they had already scoped out. He knew exactly where to stand to hear
everything.