The Call
Jason
“Make the call.” Andy found a sleek black cell in one of the prone men’s back pocket. “I’m sure this was the one they were using.”
Jason held out a hand and Andy slapped the cool metal device into his overheated palm. He realized, belatedly, as though he was looking down on himself from above, that the phone was smeared with blood. Bile crawled up his throat, and he barely managed to keep himself from retching.
The yard was a blood bath. The volley of bullets exchanged as soon as Andy opened fire had lit up the evening. There were almost no windows left on the side of the cabin facing the driveway. Bullets were lodged in the logs. The guys in the drive, who had never even thought Andy would be in there with him, who had never figured on Jason returning fire when Ricci had his family, hadn’t fared well without cover.
Andy mowed them down, one after another. He’d finished off one clip and hadn’t bothered to reload, just grabbed another gun and kept on shooting.
It was horrific. Jason knew those images would be burned into his brain for the rest of his life. Andy had not shown mercy. Not to a single man. To him, they were all Ricci and Ricci represented a cage. Not just the cage he’d fought in, the cage his life had become.
Andy was like a wild animal. Harsh. Unpredictable. And never meant to be locked away. He’d wanted his freedom and there was no way he was going back.
“Get yourself away from here. Get into the woods. I’ll clean up,” Andy said gruffly when Jason remained frozen.
He gave himself a shake, flicked the phone and found no password, which was damn lucky. Although he was sure Andy knew someone who could crack it. He had no doubt if Andy could find him, he would also find Jason’s family.
“You got anythin’ in that cabin you want out?”
Jason turned and slowly stared back at the building that had once housed so much happiness for him. That cabin had been his shelter, his refuge, his home. It had been the place he’d relearned what it meant to love. His son had been born there.
“No.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Andy got busy dragging bodies from the driveway up into the cabin. Jason turned his back, refusing to watch the final desecration of his home.
He stalked off into the woods. The silence of those trees had been his escape for so many years. He couldn’t believe he was leaving it all behind.
His hand shook as he raised the phone to his ear and dialed the last number that was in the call log. He’d start there, make his way through if he had to.
At least he had a family to go and find. He’d promised them he’d come for them and now he would. Thanks to Andy. Jason knew there wasn’t another way. They weren’t leaving alive if Ricci was still breathing. He just wished Andy could have shown an ounce of mercy to men who had the misfortune of working for the wrong boss.
What is there in this world for a man like Andy? It sickened and terrified Jason to realize how easily that could have been him. He’d managed to retain his humanity, but barely.
Jason didn’t realize how long he remained in the woods, standing still, staring at nothing at all, lost in the horror of the past hours, until he smelled smoke.
He whirled, in time to see the first flames starting. The orange tendrils grew, eating up oxygen, devouring the dry logs of his home. He wasn’t far enough that he couldn’t see Andy’s form moving down the driveway, lighting the vehicle there on fire as he did the house.
The tremors took him then, sweeping up his spine, chilling his entire body. He easily could have been among the dead. Amanda and his child taken and killed as well. He didn’t believe in what Andy had done. He did wish there was another way, but it didn’t change the situation. If he was the one laying there lifeless, Amanda and Ross as well as Joan wouldn’t stand a chance. Ricci would have had them killed, their bodies dumped somewhere, just because he could.
Jason would have done anything, anything to keep his family safe. If Andy hadn’t been there, what kind of a monster would he have had to become to keep his promise?
He finally forced his numb hand to flick open the phone and hit the last call. When the crisp male voice came over the line, he knew he had the right number.
“Change of plans, asshole. You have a new boss now. You’ll get paid if my family is alive and well when I get there. If not, we’re coming after you and we’ll take you down like we did Ricci and his men here. Now, give me the fucking address.”
The guy didn’t hesitate. Listed off some little town in the middle of nowhere Wyoming. It was an abandoned house, which figured.
Jason knew already it wasn’t going to cost him a cent when he got there. That guy and whoever else was with him would ship out long before he and Andy ever arrived. They didn’t want to be next, despite what promises he made. Ricci was seen as almost untouchable. If he was dead, they knew they didn’t stand a chance.
Andy came stalking through the woods a few minutes later. He found Jason standing there, watching the flames engulf the cabin and the vehicle in the driveway.
“You’re going to fire the other cabin?”
Andy shrugged. His eyes burned with a strange light, a light that wasn’t quite… sane. He had two rifles strapped over his chest, ammo over his chest and hip. He had two handguns tucked into the belt of his bloodstained black cargo pants.
“Nah. Don’t need to. The fire will spread. Anyway, there isn’t any such person as Jason Strathmore anyway. He’s a figment of your imagination. As far as you’re concerned, he died here too.”
“I have to undo the chicken coop. Let them out…”
“Done already. Did it on my way here.”
Jason didn’t look at the guy’s shoes. He already knew they’d be covered in blood. Andy’s hands were red. Dull red, the faded red of other men’s blood. Jason refused to look there either. He felt like his own hands looked the same, even though he hadn’t been the one to pull the trigger.
He couldn’t miss the undertone in Andy’s voice. The disbelief when Jason assumed he’d let the animals burn to death. The tone that half protested the fact that he wasn’t a monster, even after he’d just killed men…
Jason turned his eyes once more to what was left of his life. He’d been happy here. His hopes and dreams, everything he knew, would be reduced to ashes. But not everything I loved. By some miracle, because of Ricci’s greedy desire to make Jason suffer, to make an example of him, his family had been spared. Ricci’s hadn’t banked on Andy, who was a wild card, and that had been their salvation.
“I have to call this in. There are other people here. I can’t chance anyone getting hurt… and- those men- they may have had families.”
“They were in the wrong line of work if they did.”
“Some might say the same thing about me.”
Andy made a gravelly noise in the back of his throat that could have meant anything. Jason sighed. The acrid smoke in the air went up his nose and he shuddered.
“I have to call the police. I don’t want the fire to spread.”
The other man finally nodded, his eyes soulless, without remorse, without any expression at all. “Go ahead then. Call it in. By the time they get here, the other cabin will be burned up. The thing is, Andrew Murphy never existed either. It’s an alias, just like Jason Strathmore. By the time the police figure it out, we’ll be gone. South America, Europe, whatever. Lost back into the mists of wherever we came from.”
“I…” Jason’s hand shook as he glanced down at the phone. It would be so simple. Dial the numbers. Make an anonymous call. The phone was going to get chucked anyway. Like Andy said, they would both be long gone. He had to do it. He couldn’t imagine those men, the men Andy had so mercilessly gunned down getting lost in the ashes, their loved ones never knowing what happened.
“It was them or us. Remember that when you feel remorse or pity. They wouldn’t have shown us any. Our bodies would never have been found and the beautiful woman you never had the chance to make your wife would always be wondering if you were coming back for her like you promised.”
Jason swallowed hard. The smoke was getting thicker, billowing towards where they stood in a thick, dark column.
They couldn’t stay there. He had to make a decision.
“You didn’t kill them. You didn’t do anything at all. You tried to stop me and I did it anyway. I had to. I did what we had to do to end this for us, to make sure that we are truly free. You. Did. Nothing.”
“I witnessed it.”
“Which I’m sure you would have chosen not to if you could. You would have let them live, even after what they did to the woman you loved and probably would have done to your family. You would have found a better way, but I couldn’t. I didn’t have time. I know what Ricci did, you don’t even understand the half of it. I knew, and I promise you, he deserved to die that way.”
Jason stood, the smoke swirling around them like an otherworldly mist, a horrible mist, erasing men who had once lived and the blood that was spilled.
“You have a new start, Jason. Don’t waste it.”
He nodded once, forcing his hand to dial the one place he never thought he’d ever call. He held the phone to his ear. An operator, probably dispatch answered.
“I need to report a fire.” He rattled off the land location and hung up. He pocketed the cell, his shame and remorse already more than he could bear.
Regret crawled up his throat, choking off his air supply. If he could undo it all, he would. He would never have gone to that first fight. Never walked into that place. Never thought he could make it in a world he didn’t belong in. He regretted his sheer fucking naivety, even after years of hard living.
That life brought me Amanda because it put me here. It brought me Ross. It brought me a love and joy I never thought I’d know again.
“Let’s go.” Andy jerked his arm roughly, pulling him violently out of his own head.
He had to move on. There was no other choice. He couldn’t stop, couldn’t rest, had to put this all from his mind, until he was sure his family was safe. And safe meant out of the country.
Andy nodded in agreement and set off in the direction of the stolen car Amanda had hidden earlier.
Jason had no choice but to follow. In less than a day, his entire life had changed. Amanda and Ross’s too. He wasn’t even sure they would want him after this. He’d endangered them, tainted them. He would see them to safety before he left, if that’s what Amanda wanted him to do.
He’d give her the choice. It would break him, destroy him, but that wasn’t important. The only thing that mattered was that he find his family and fulfill his promise.
After everything, his word was all he had left and he damn well was going to make good on it.