The safe house on Andersonville Road, on a long, isolated, country road, was a fortress within itself, with high brick walls topped off with thick rows of barbed wire, and infrared detection that alerted the house to any property breach.

This was Mick’s house.  This was a place he had built should Charles and his family need protection if he wasn’t around.  And inside and out, it was as quiet and isolated as Charles’s home had been explosive.  Bonita was asleep in bed, even after vowing to wait up for her daddy, and Jenay and Mick were in the living room, with Jenay sipping coffee.  They were both waiting to see Charles.

And when he came, he came running through that door like a man out of his mind with worry.  Jenay sat her cup down, and was up and running to him by the time he ran to her.  Andersonville was nearly thirty miles from the outside edge of Jericho, but Charles had wanted to get there so fast it felt as if it was a hundred.  And when he saw Jenay, his control broke.  They hugged long and hard, like two people who fully understood the devastation they almost experienced.

Then Charles hurried in to check on Bonita.  He wanted to wake her up desperately, but he didn’t have the heart to wake her.  She was peaceful and safe now.  That was good enough for him.

When he returned to the living room, Brent had arrived, and was hugging Jenay too.  But Charles went over to Mick.  Mick felt awkward around all of this affection, but Charles didn’t care.  “Your sneaky ass saved my family,” he said to his baby brother.  “Thank you,” he added, and hugged Mick into a big, bear hug.

Brent and Jenay couldn’t help but smile at Mick’s reaction.  He patted Charles, and almost returned his hug, but then it was over.

Brent went to shake Mick’s hand too.  That was more like it for Mick.  “I had no idea you were in town, Uncle Mick,” Brent said to his uncle.

“I had no idea either,” Jenay agreed.

“That was the idea,” Mick responded.

“May I ask you a question?” Brent asked.  “Why did you text Dad?  Why didn’t you just call him?”

“Somebody can have a gun to your head, and make you say whatever they want you to say.  I could have been setting Charles up to come out here to be ambushed.”

“But with a text, somebody can make you write whatever they want you to write,” Brent said.

“Yes, they can,” Mick agreed.  “But that’s why you always have a signature code.  Then you will know you are not being set up.”

Brent still found it elaborate, considering Jericho, but Jericho was a hotbed these days.

“We’ve got to get Angelo,” Charles said.  He wanted those bastards caught.  That was his entire focus.  “They took out his whole family.”

“Good Lord, Charles,” Jenay said.  “Everybody?”

“Everybody.  It was a bloodbath.  It’s a miracle me and Ang survived.”

“I’ve got an army of men just outside of town,” Mick said.  “They’re on their way in now.  But Angelo was a part of this?  That’s where you were headed?”

“That’s where I went, yeah,” Charles said.  “But then a crew showed up and almost took us out.  But Ang knows names.  We need to bring him in.”

“Tell me where,” Mick said as he pulled out his cell phone.  “I’ve got a man in the field I can’t reach.  He followed you.”

“He’s at this trailer park on Hogan.  It’s called Baxter’s.  He’s at lot 19.”

“Did he say why he was in town?”

“It had to do with some shit that went down in L.A.  From the way he was telling it, I don’t think it was related to what happened tonight.”

“And my children will need protection.  Ashley and Donnie and Tony and Bobby.”

“It’s covered, Dad,” Brent said.  “I already dispatched officers to stay outside of their places.  Makayla was still under police protection at the hospital.  I told them to stay put until they heard back from me.  I ordered more officers to get over there for added security.”

“Until my men get here,” Mick said, “and then we take over.”

Brent nodded.  He knew the drill by now.  “Yes, sir.”

“You were making a lot of orders on the drive over here,” Charles said, “when all I could think to do was drive.”

“You were driving so fast it was no wonder,” Brent said.  “But anyway, I’m going to head on back to the hospital.”

“We’ll be in touch, son,” Charles said as he and Brent embraced.

Brent gave Jenay a kiss, shook Mick’s hand again, and thanked him again, and took off.

While Mick moved away on his cellphone, Jenay looked at her husband.  “Sit down, babe,” she said to Charles, “before you fall down.”

Charles wasn’t going to deny that his nerves weren’t on edge.  They were.  He sat down.

Jenay sat down, too, beside him.

“How long ago did Mick pick you guys up?” Charles asked Jenay.

“We got out of there with seconds to spare,” Jenay said.  “It was that close.”  It was even worse than that, with gunmen galore, but she didn’t think Charles could take more bad news.

“Thank God I have a suspicious brother,” he said.

“And a gangster one too,” Jenay said.  “Because these people are not playing with us anymore.”

Charles nodded.  He agreed.

Mick placed his phone call on hold and looked at Charles.  “What did Angelo tell you?” he asked.  “You said he mentioned names?”

“Names I’d never heard of before, yeah.”

“Like who?” Mick asked.

“Some guy named Naughty, for one.  And some guy name Arnie Palmer.”

“Arnie Palmer?” Mick asked.

“Yeah, I know.  Like the golfer, right?  But that’s what he called him.”

“That fucker works for Peetie Brazzano,” Mick said.  “Arnie Palmer is his underboss.”

“And that’s the other name he mentioned,” Charles said.  “Brazzano.”

Now Mick was thrown.  He had not expected to hear that.

He took his phone off hold.  “I need you to pick up Wilk McNaughtry too,” he said into the phone.

“Naughty?” the crew chief asked over the phone.

“Yeah.  Looks like Brazzano may be involved.”

“Damn, Boss.  You think Peetie’s got the balls to come after your brother’s family like that?”

“I’ve got to assume that he does.  Naughty’s around here somewhere.  I don’t know where.  But you find him and bring his ass to me too.”

“Will do, Boss,” his man said, and hung up.

“Why not bring in Arnie Palmer,” Charles asked, “if he’s so high-ranking in Brazzano’s organization?”

“Because he’s high-ranking,” Mick said, as he walked back toward them.  “I need more intel before we go for him.”

Charles nodded.  And ran his hands through his hair.  “They destroy my home.  Almost destroy my family.  Why would this Brazzano person have any beef with me?”

“Or even with me,” Mick said.  “We made a truce years ago.”

“Could it be broken?” Jenay asked.

Mick hated to admit it.  “Yes,” he said.

Then Charles’s cellphone rang.  He looked at his Caller ID.  “It’s Donald,” he said, and then answered.  “Hey.”

“Dad!”  Donald was hysterical.  “They said our house burned down!  They said our house is on fire, and these cops won’t let me leave!”

“And you do exactly what they tell you to do.  Uncle Mick is sending in reinforcements.”

“But what about Mom?  Is she okay?  What about Nita?  What about you?”

Charles and Jenay smiled. “We’re all okay,” Charles said.  “Okay?”

 

Later that night, as Charles and Jenay laid in bed, staring at each other, with Bonita lying between them, Mick’s men escorted the rest of the family to Andersonville.  And each one of their grown children, except for Brent, who was at the hospital, and Carly, who was back in Boston, went straight to their parents’ bedroom, and made themselves at home.

 

And early that next morning, when Mick went to get Charles up, he was shocked by the scene.  Their children had surrounded the bed like a cocoon around their parents.  As if they were their protectors.  Mick was so amazed by the affection Charles’s children had for him, that it stunned him.  He was an absent father through much of his children’s youth.  Such affection was so foreign to him, and he felt so out of his element, that he froze where he stood.

But fortunately, Charles seemed to sense his presence and opened his big, green eyes.  When he saw Mick standing there, looking lost for some reason, he eased his way out of bed, and around his children’s bodies, and headed out of the room.  He closed the door behind him.

“What’s up?” he asked Mick.

The door closing snapped Mick back to himself.  And he spoke up.  “We’ve got Naughty, Wilk McNaughtry, downstairs.”

“What about Angelo?”

“He’s already gone.  His people came and got him.  But I’ve got all the intel I need from him.”

“So why did you wake me?”

“Because Naughty is the one we want.  He’s the one with the real intel.”

Charles nodded.  “That’s what I wanna hear,” he said, as they headed downstairs.