“Alex! Phone! Line two!” Julie, one of the waitresses, called waving a phone handset at me. I punch the button and picked up the phone. It was early, only six o’clock. I was working the bar again until Peter could find a replacement and I had just come on shift.
“Hello?”
“Alex! It’s Cain! Don’t hang up! I want you to run! Right now! I’ve been trying to call you but you haven’t been answering your phone! The Bulls are coming for you! Right now! Run!”
I felt like I just stepped into a freezer, the room suddenly going cold. I heard the shriek of tires and a blare of car horns through the phone. “Hurry! You’ve got to go faster!” Cain yelled at someone.
“What’s going on?”
“I’m coming for you! But you have to get out of there! Now! They may be there already! Please, Alex, run!”
I was frozen in place with fear. “Stay away from me!” I warned as I gripped the handset tight.
“Alex! I just want to protect you, but you have to get out of there! Now! Please!”
I remembered what happened the last time he had called to warn me, and I made my decision. “Okay! I’m leaving!”
“Where are you going? Stop! Stop!” he called to someone else. “I’m going to have a new address!”
“I’m not telling you.”
“Goddamnit, Alex! I’m trying to help you! You can’t do it alone! Do you want to die?”
I was silent a moment. “344 Jacob Street, Slidell.”
Cain repeated the address. “I don’t care! Another hundred if you can get there before she does! We got it! The driver said thirty minutes. Hurry!”
I slammed the phone down. “Peter!” I screamed at the top of my voice as I dashed from behind the bar. Every eye in the place turned toward me, but I didn’t care.
“Everyone! Get out! Now! It’s for your own safety!” Nobody moved, looking at me like I was crazy. “Out!” I shrieked.
“What’s going on?” Peter shouted from behind me.
“The men from before! They’re coming back! They could be here any moment! They are coming for me! I have to go!”
“You?”
“I’ll explain later,” I said as I started running toward the back.
“You heard her! Everyone out!” Peter roared as he began to hustle people out.
I stopped only long enough to grab my purse before I burst out of the back door and heard the rolling thunder of Harleys, the sound causing my hear to almost seize in panic. I stopped, holding the door open, unsure of what to do. I saw four Harleys round the corner, and I stepped back inside, holding the door open so I could peek out between the door and jamb as I watched the bikes pull into the parking lot. Once they were out of sight in the front of the building, I pushed the door open, slipped through the gap, and closed it quietly before scurrying to my car. I threw my stuff in and, resisting the urge to race out of the parking lot, pulled out as if I didn’t have a care in the world so to not attract attention. I turned away from the front of the building, and as I drove away, I prayed that I wouldn’t hear the sound of gunshots.
***
It was a forty minute drive from work to Granny and Grandpa’s house, but I made it in thirty. I jumped from my car and ran into the house, leaving the front door open.
“Alexandria! What in heaven’s name?” Granny cried as I burst into the room.
“They’re coming for me! The men that tried to kill me before! I saw them at the club!” I didn’t wait for a response as I hurried down the hall, bouncing off the wall with my shoulder but not even feeling it, and began to throw my few things into my bag. I was in a panic and I had to get away.
Granny was standing in the door, pale as a ghost as I whirled and started for the door. I paused long enough to give her a quick kiss. “I’ll call you!” I said as I squeezed by her.
I was just entering the front room when I heard the wail of car tires outside and my heart leapt into my throat. Grandpa was standing in the room with a shotgun pointed at the closed door.
“Get behind me,” he growled as he crouched slightly, his eyes never leaving the front door.
There was a hard hammering on the door. “Alex! It’s —”
The rest of the words were lost in the blast of the shotgun. Grandpa jacked another shell into the chamber. “You get away from here! You’re not hurting her!”
“It’s me! Cain!” he called from outside the door.
“You git! You’re not taking her!”
“I’m trying to protect her! Don’t shoot!”
Grandpa let loose with another blast, riddling the wall and door with shot before racking the gun again.
“Fuck! You crazy old man! Let me help her!”
“You step one foot in that door —” Grandpa shouted, the gun never wavering.
There was a heavy thud and the door jamb splintered and the door flew open. Cain dived behind the wall just as Grandpa fired again.
“Shit! You’re making a mistake! I don’t want to hurt her! I’m trying to save her!” Cain swore from outside.
“Just get away from here, you hear me!”
Suddenly the front window broke and Grandpa let go with another blast, taking out the rest of the window. The sound of the shotgun in the house was deafening and my ears were ringing. I couldn’t help but cover my ears, but the shotgun in Grandpa’s hands never wavered. I saw movement at the door and Grandpa fired again. The metal front door was riddled with holes.
Cain darted across the open door and Grandpa moved, tracking Cain’s path, and fired again. The sheetrock on the other side of the open door exploded in dust. He racked the gun again just as Cain charged through the door. Cain grabbed the gun and with a vicious twist, jerked it from Grandpa’s hand. Grandpa took a swing at him, but Cain ducked it and shoved him hard into a chair.
“Don’t hurt him!” I screamed.
“I’m not going to hurt anyone!” Cain roared. “I came to save you, goddamnit! It’s your crazy ass grandfather that is trying to kill someone! You stupid old shit!” Cain paused panting. “Get your stuff. We have to go,” he said more calmly.
“I’m not going anywhere with you!”
“Alex, they are coming to kill you!”
“They don’t know where I am!”
“Are you sure? Does anyone at the club know where your grandparents live? If they do, the Bulls will find out!”
I thought about it a moment and I didn’t like the answer. “Maybe.”
“Get your stuff. We have to go.”
“The cops are going to be here any minute!” Grandpa growled.
“I know. But they can’t help. The moment she is alone and unprotected, she’s dead. I have to take her to Dallas. It’s the only way I can protect her.”
“You’re not taking me anywhere!”
I saw Cain grind his teeth. “Fine. Then we will all die here. Where are the shells for the shotgun?” Nobody answered. “I guess this is it then. I couldn’t bring my gun on the plane.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Throw dishes at them, I guess. It’s all I can do. Maybe you three can slip out the back or something. Unless you want to tell me where the shells are.”
I stood frozen with indecision. “Damnit!” I turned and hurried to the hall closet where I knew Grandpa kept his gun. I dug around a moment until I found the box of shells. There was a picture of a quail on the box and a big number eight.
I held the box out to Cain. “Birdshot?” he sneered, not taking the box from me. “Fuck. Hand them to me,” he ordered. I opened the box and began to pass the shells to him one at a time as he slid them into the gun with his thumb. After I passed him five, he jerked the chamber closed, then reached out. I handed him another one which he slid into the gun.
“What are you going to do when the cops get here?” I asked.
“Probably go to jail. It will be up to your grandpa to protect you then.” He glared at Grandpa glowering at him from the chair. “You need buckshot! You can’t stop shit with birdshot!”
I fumed. I didn’t know what to do. Grandpa hadn’t been able to stop Cain, so how was he going to stop the Bulls? “Shit! Let’s go!”
He looked at me a moment before he looked at Grandpa. “You two! Go out the back. Go to a neighbor’s house, anywhere, and stay there. Just get away. Leave the doors open. Go! Alex, get your bag. Hurry!”
I picked up my bag, but Cain paused. “I know what you think, but I will do everything I can to protect her,” he said, looking first at Grandpa then Granny. “Keep yourselves safe. When this is all over, I will bring her back to you. If the Bulls come looking for her, tell them everything. Don’t lie to them and don’t try to protect us or they will kill you. When the cops get here, tell them someone tried to break in but you scared them away. Don’t tell them about me or Alex. If I am arrested, she will be unprotected and the Bulls won’t stop until they kill her. Understand? Now go.”
“I love you,” I whispered as I hugged Grandpa. “I love you, too,” I murmured as I hugged Granny. “I will be okay.”
“If you hurt her, I will kill you,” Grandpa threatened.
“If she gets hurt, I will be dead already,” Cain replied as he took me by the hand and dragged me out of the house.
As I ran out of the house and bounded down the steps I could just hear the far off wail of a siren. I started to drag my heels, slowing Cain down, deciding to take my chances with the cops. But then I heard it — closer than the sirens — the heavy rumbles of hard charging Harleys. I jerked my hand free of his and put on a burst of speed for the car. I no longer had a choice. I was putting all my faith in Cain and his ability to protect me.