Chapter 24 – Ethan
Twenty-Four
Ethan
In Boston, A Month Later
M om had good news. I wish I could report that her good news changed everything, but all it did was convince her to head back out to Missouri to spend more time with her grandkids. She reminds me several times – in front of Amanda – that I’m her least favorite son for not having any grandkids.
Even Amanda gets embarrassed at that line of questioning. She doesn’t seem so embarrassed when I’m fucking her every night but… we can’t talk about it during the day due to me “focusing on healing my gambling”.
Amanda might have that fancy doctor certification, but I can tell when a woman is simply avoiding a discussion. Hm. She can avoid my ass all she wants as long as she comes back here every night. So far, she has.
I don’t love that she spends all this time with that friends of hers, Mallory, but they have to find a new office and I have ruthless demands about the space Amanda chooses next. She claims my security wishes are “too extreme”, but I refuse to let an incident like the first time happen again. Doesn’t matter what she wants if she wants to leave this house freely and Amanda understands the situation.
She acts all tough but that incident in her office shook her up good. I can see it now that we’re back in Boston. She lets me walk her to breakfast with Mallory every morning before they begin their “girl boss time” planning the future. Pisses me off that she’ll plan a future with Mallory but ignore me…
After a month, I thought it would be different for Amanda, but nothing I do will keep her focused on me and only me.
I could always kidnap her back to Missouri and let her adjust to our relationship the good old-fashioned way.
But I have the job for Wyatt, and while I have good news from mom and some semblance of getting along with Amanda, I don’t have any progress on the attack or the word Yancey printed on a piece of paper in their pockets.
The longer we’re in Boston, the longer we go without a lead, the longer I develop a suspicion that I have no basis for. I’ll consult the club tonight when we have our ‘team meeting’ to catch up on the non-existent progress we’ve made. I suppose it’s something to celebrate that I haven’t gambled in a long time, but with football season starting up soon, I’m constantly fighting the urge to offload a few dollars on a good preseason game.
Can’t go wrong with a sure bet…
But I don’t want to lose Amanda. I can’t.
* * *
A few days later…
Magnum Sinclair shows up at Mulligan’s with a young Hollingsworth boy named Reed who initiated last summer but is still pretty green. He’s good with a gun, like most Hollingsworth boys, and unlike the rest of his family, he made some sort of career for himself at twenty-four other than being a rich man’s son.
Like Deacon, he has an entrepreneurial spirit. Unlike Deacon, he lacks morals of any kind. At least from what Wyatt told me about him.
Magnum and Reed arrive together, approaching me and Darragh Murray at Mulligan's bar. I cleared through two pints of a mysteriously woody IPA called Rabbit Rabbit they had on tap. Not enough to make me drunk, but enough that I can easily sway my mind away from gambling.
“Those are your boys,” Darragh says, pointing to them and finishing up his beer.
He’s always one drink away from calling us what he truly thinks of us – dirty rednecks. Doesn’t bother me as long as he’s honest and we can work together.
“Could you bastards be any more obvious?”
“I didn’t think we were hiding,” Magnum says, as if we haven’t already drawn stares from all the patrons in the bar.
“Most people here are wise to the situation,” Darragh says. “Magnum. We’ve met. And the red-head?”
“Reed,” he says, grinning and flashing three gold teeth that replace the ones he got knocked out of his head during a college hockey game.
“Right,” Darragh says. “Our job tonight is simple. My brother Rian tracked the biker cell to a motel in Somerville that normally gets a lot of Hispanics, so they notice when a bunch of drunken bikers crash. After the situation in Cambridge, they fled, but the girl at the front desk caught the name of where they went.”
“You got a good network going here then,” Magnum says before ordering a shot of tequila for himself and a pint of beer for Reed.
“They split off,” Darragh says. “And we only tracked two of them down. We’ll most likely need to… take them for a swim.”
Reed laughs. “I’d like a chance.”
Magnum gives him a disapproving look, but the drinks come out and I keep my attention on Reed Hollingsworth. He’ll be useful tonight.
“There’s a new possibility I want to put forward,” I venture after Magnum takes his shot of tequila and Reed starts throwing back that beer like he’s in a hurry to get it down.
“What’s that?” Magnum asks. “I heard Deacon’s wife might have something here.”
“Yancey,” Darragh says knowingly. Reed doesn’t know what we’re talking about, but the kid has good instincts and he just listens.
“Amanda’s last name too,” I say, not offering any explanation about who she is. “But it made me wonder… what if the biker thing is just a coincidence and they were after her business partner.”
“Then why’d they have her name on the paper?” Darragh asks in a frustrated tone that reminds me of the ones Owen would use to get me away from a good blackjack game.
“They’re not just business partners. They’re best friends. Close. If someone wanted to hurt Mallory, they might go after Amanda. Just a thought.”
“Sounds kinda dumb,” Magnum says.
“What’s her last name?” Darragh asks. He clearly doesn’t think it’s so dumb anymore.
“Don’t know. But… that doesn’t mean anything. She’s a white girl from Chicago. She could be part of a mob family.”
“Paranoid,” Magnum says. “All the Shaw boys are paranoid as fuck.”
“Only one way to find out,” Darragh says. “We can drop her name and see if there’s a reaction. Pretend it’s an accident.”
“Can’t hurt, I s’pose,” Magnum relents, but I can tell he isn’t convinced. Reed says nothing, he just sips on his beer, but he seems downright delighted about tonight. The only thing that excites me about tonight is getting back home to Amanda and drawing her body on top of mine…
For the first time in my life, I don’t want to put gambling or the club first. And it’s for a woman who doesn’t return my feelings in the slightest. Maybe Magnum’s right. I’m paranoid because I want her all to myself and the longer we stay here, the more I feel Amanda slipping away from me.
What happens when she’s gone? When she starts a new therapy office? When this is all over? She’ll leave.
We share restlessness for action. Darragh knows the city best, so we lead the ride together. Magnum and Reed match our pace, with Reed lagging slightly behind in case we attract law enforcement. Darragh assures me that they have "their people" in various pockets of law enforcement throughout the city, but the less attention we attract, the better for all of us.
I haven't done a job like this since I was in Chicago with Wyatt, working on that money situation with dad.
Wyatt wanted peace, but the peace we claw out never seems to last. Dad wanted us ready for the realities of our life. If you exist outside of normal American society-- the endless cubicle grind-- you have to fight for every ounce of freedom that you have.
We park the bikes one block down, concealed behind a large Chevy Suburban with three parking tickets slid beneath the windshield wipers. That many tickets will get the car towed soon, but Darragh promises there won't be any cops working this neighborhood at the time we show up.
Reed Hollingsworth brought a fucking arsenal for this job that I doubt we'll find necessary. Hunting knives, guns, and thick rope. His collection impresses Darragh Murray, but the kid scares me. His first big job and he shows up with all that? Crazy shit.
Magnum slows us down to smoke a cigarette and Darragh, as Boston as they come, takes one of Magnum's cigarettes for himself. Reed doesn't smoke, but I indulge myself. I never liked bloody work. It's a part of life. Sometimes, a man has to kill, he has to fight and hurt other people but... I never had Wyatt's thirst for blood. Dad knew it from the time I was a kid and kept me away from leading the club.
I'd much rather throw fists and fight like a man than use firearms, but the truth is, I'd prefer not having to do either. Fighting with fists at least puts you on even footing -- and makes it less likely that you'll put yourself in a situation to get hurt or killed. But this is necessary. Why did they have YANCEY written on a piece of paper? How do these people know Amanda?
And most importantly... how did they get a Midnight SS cut?
Magnum and Reed approach the address from another street. Magnum has a good sense of direction and a mental map of nearly every major city in America thanks to his extensive real estate holdings. He's also responsible for keeping Reed's darker tendencies at bay.
I let Darragh lead the way. He needs my muscle to get the door down faster, though as a current welterweight, he has the size to get a door off its hinges if he really wanted to.
"We'll get our answers," he says. "And I'm sorry for dragging you into any of this trouble if it's our problem, not yours."
"Looks like we share problems."
Darragh chuckles. "I thought this would be a business alliance and it's... turned into much more. You boys are good people. Rough around the edges but that makes it easier."
I grunt in response. We're there.
91 Melvin Street.
"Two of them inside. They'll hear you get the door, so we'll have to be quick. I expect they'll be armed."
"You're good with a gun. Or you wouldn't be here."
The Boston mobsters run a tight ship.
"True," Darragh says, his eyes gleaming as he gears up for a fight.
"Ready to do this?"
I haven't worked a job without my brother in a long time. I nod. I'm as ready as I'll ever be to do something like this. The quicker we get through this darkness, the better. Darragh holds tightly to his pistol as we rush the door. I slowly run my hands over the wood, finding the weak points.
Even metal doors can get ripped off their hinges.
We're so quiet that all I can hear is my breath and Darragh's. We look at each other and nod before I grip the door in the right places and let out a loud growl to pump adrenaline through me as I rip the door off its hinges.
Pure chaos ensues once we get inside. I see a black flash and then hear Darragh's gun go off, piercing through the silencer to create a quieter, but not totally silent explosion. Once he pops the first guy, the second raises his hands in defeat.
Magnum and Reed hear the signal and act, breaking through the back windows and entering the safe house.
"Move one muscle and we'll paint the walls," Darragh threatens him, pointing his gun at the man's head and then pointing to a chair covered in a black jacket and a towel.
The man doesn't say a word.
"Sit," Reed says in a thick, West Texas accent. "We have questions."
* * *