JOHN
“This meeting was a load of crap, boss. Something’s up,” I said, suppressing a yawn.
“Maybe, maybe not. We’ll see these days. If they did something, we’ll know.”
“Alright. I’m going back to my woman now. She’s not answering her phone and I haven’t talked to her all day. I want to know if she’s OK.”
“Mad, it’s 5 o’clock in the morning. Any normal person wouldn’t answer their phone at this hour.”
“Right.”
“Besides, there are two of our brothers watching the house, remember?”
“Speaking of them, have they checked in yet?”
“Nah, but I didn’t ask them to.”
“Give ‘em a call, would you? I’m going home.”
“Alright. Don’t fall asleep at the wheel, son.”
“Right. I ain't having no wheel, old man. You should check those eyes of yours.”
I shook his hand and rode off. I was anxious to get to Liz, I didn’t like the fact that I haven’t heard from her all day. At the meeting place there was no cell reception, true, but I have been in town for more than two hours. “Maybe the old man is right,” I tried to reason, but the knot in my stomach wouldn’t go away.
When I finally got home, I went straight to the door. At the moment, I didn’t think it was strange that my brothers didn’t see me arriving.
The door was unlocked and that set panic alarms off.
“Liz?” I called out, opening the door. “Lizzy?”
I looked around the living room, then passed through the kitchen and ran up the stairs to the bedroom. It was empty and the bed looked like no one had slept in it.
My phone was already at my ear as I came back down the steps.
“Boss, she’s not home. She hasn’t been here tonight,” I said, with no preamble.
“Maybe she slept at a friend,” he tried to play it down but I could hear in his voice that something was up.
“What is it, old man?” He didn’t answer right away. “Don’t lie to me or I swear to God…”
“Our brothers haven’t answered their phones.”
The news gave me pause. I ran a hand over my face, feeling the panic rising in my gut. Then, my eyes fell on something that was out of the ordinary on the kitchen table.
“Mad? Are you still there?”
I stepped closer and saw that it was a pair of rainbow striped booties. I didn't’ get the meaning of it, but noticed the note.
“Surprise, you proud daddy you!” was written in Lizzy’s handwriting.
Then, just underneath, “I had to leave in a hurry, dad had a heart attack. Call me.”
“Mad? Can you hear me?” the boss repeated, then called for someone to come by my place. “John!” he shouted in my ear and cleared away the shock of the news.
“She’s pregnant, old man.”
“What?”
“She’s making me a father!”
“What are you talking about, son?”
“My woman, Lizzy, she left me a note. She’s pregnant!”
“Good for you, congratulations, son. If she’s left you a note she’s fine then.”
“No, I don't think she is.”
“What do you mean?”
“She says she had to go see her father. She told me to call her. She didn’t pick up, boss. I’m going after her.”
“Hold on, I have another call.”
I heard the tone but didn’t wait for the old man to come back. I hung up and started for the door, then thought of getting my big gun. I loved that little girl, as I called it.
I was already mounted on my bike when the boss called again.
“Take your gun, we’re paying a house visit.”
“I thought so. Red Eagles South?”
“East. They found our brothers shot just outside the city.”
The cold fear that got a hold of my insides began like a punch to the stomach.
“Dead?”
“Critical. They’re leaving a trail, they want us to come.”
“Then, we shall give them what they want,” I said and rode off.
Soon, I was joined by my brothers, all of them. A speeding mass of pure revenge, we rode like a black Hell through the streets, spreading fear in the hearts of everyone on our path, with only one goal in mind: avenge the brotherhood.
It would’ve taken us around an hour to reach the Eastern Red Eagle headquarters, but anger was the best fuel to push us forward. We knew they were expecting us and we knew this ambush would be bloody, but we were intent on crushing them at all costs. And I knew I wouldn’t die today, not before I got my woman and child out of there, at least.
They started shooting long before their house came into our view. We fanned out and some of us stayed behind to cover our advance.
I ran point, with the boss at my side. He understood this was more personal for me, that my revenge weighed more than the brotherhood’s combined.
As we got closer, we started getting into position. We didn’t need words, we acted like a well oiled killing machine and this was what the Red Eagles didn’t know.
Our war strategies were well rehearsed, ingrained into our minds, manifesting themselves like animal instincts.
We could already see some of their men falling and the blood did nothing but fuel us even more. We were in their yard now, in full view. The fire ceased for a split second, before restarting, with renewed fury.
I jumped off my bike, as did all my brothers, and started shooting. While a couple of our guys’ job was to sit at our flanks and shoot aimlessly to create panic, my mission was to hit; and kill. And so I did. With every Red Eagle bastard I got, I grew more mad, the origin of my nickname making itself known again.
I was hyper focused, deaf to the Hell around me, blind to anything else but the blood spurring out of my targets, and unable to feel anything but the trigger under my finger. I had only one crazy thought in my mind: kill everyone, clear my path to Liz.
Someone grabbed my shoulder and forced me to turn. I was suddenly aware of the heat radiating from my other shoulder.
“Mad! Mad, can you hear me?” the boss yelled over the gunshot rapping. I nodded in stupor. I could see the blood soaking my t-shirt but couldn’t quite understand why it was on me and not one of the Red Eagle guys.
“You’ve been shot. Are you alright?”
“Why is he asking me this?” I thought, nodding again.
“Stand down, I’ll send someone to get Liz. Crow saw her inside.”
“I’m going.”
“No, you’re bleeding.”
“Clear the path, I’m getting my woman back.” He didn’t insist, he understood me. With a silent nod, he made a fist in the air and our men repositioned swiftly. I had a still path in front of me, still like the eye of a hurricane in the middle of the bullet rain spurring from all sides. I ran.
I was still not feeling the gunshot in my shoulder. In fact, I had forgotten completely about it and was not even bothered when I rammed my damaged shoulder into the door to break it down.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion. I saw Liz cowered against a couch, then someone saw me too and went to grab her. I raised my hand and shot him right between his reptilian eyes, then crawled to Liz and cradled her in my arms.
She removed her blue shirt and pressed it on my wound. She was saying something but I couldn’t hear it from all the noise. Then, it all went quiet. I was so surprised by the deafening silence, I almost wanted to shout at my brothers to turn the volume back up.
I looked back at Liz. Her lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear a sound.
“Sorry to bring trouble home, babe,” I said, remembering what I had promised her the other day. “I swear on my life I will take care of you and the baby, I won’t get in trouble no more. I promise.”
Her giggling was the first thing I managed to hear.
“Shut up, dummy. You’re bleeding.”
*****
THE END