Chapter 10 #5
Derek stared from Nick to the other family members, ignoring the two strangers, and shook his head, muttering, “Good God, I’m glad your mothers are dead.
Still, they are probably up in heaven, rolling around in their finery, trying to figure out what the hell went wrong with their boys,” he snapped, staring at them.
“And honestly, I couldn’t tell them why.
You used to be decent people. What the hell happened? ”
“I happened,” Nick declared.
Riley listened closely, trying to figure out who all these players were.
“And why the hell did you bring Billy down here?” Derek asked Nick.
“He has to decide which way in life he is going. And he makes that decision right now. No way I’m having anybody on the fence when it comes to this shit. So, either he can be in or he can be out, but he can’t be both.”
Derek swore and shook his head. “He’s just a kid. He doesn’t know anything about all this mess or how twisted up and nasty the world can be.”
“Well, he won’t be a kid after today then, will he?” Nick asked, followed by another strangled laugh. “You think he should be protected? Nobody was there to protect me all those years.”
“Nobody was there to protect any of us,” Derek barked. “Our father was an asshole. You know that to be true.”
“Yeah, well, boo-hoo,” Nick quipped. “Billy gets to make his choice right now.”
Derek snapped, “Of course he’ll make the choice to stay alive.”
“That’s right. After today, that choice of his is what keeps him alive because he can’t ever go back on his word, or he’ll be the one who’s going down for shit.”
Billy, tears in his eyes, whispered, “What the hell happened here? I thought I came down to help look for that military guy.”
“Yeah, and what happened to him?” Nick asked.
Rory shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Where is he?” Nick turned to Derek.
“You guys saw the texts. He said he would be here. I don’t know what held him up.”
“Well, let’s take care of one thing first, then the other.
We don’t want anybody to come down here with reinforcements and make life difficult,” Nick declared, looking at the men standing around him.
“I have the first load of drugs that we’ll move through here.
So anybody who’s not in better speak up right now because, after this, you’re in forever, whether you like it or not. ”
“Drugs?” Billy squeaked.
His cousin Rory smacked him hard. “Yeah, Nick said drugs. That’s where the money’s at. This is less about the pub and more about clean private access to move the drugs. Now shut up if you want to stay alive.”
“I’m not sure it’s worth the risk of keeping him,” Nick noted, staring at Billy. “I don’t like anything about all these squeaks he’s making.”
“He’s just a kid,” Rory declared.
“You’ll vouch for him?” Nick asked.
“Yes, I’ll vouch for him,” Rory snapped. “He’s fine.”
But Nick didn’t like it. He stared at Rory for a long time. “Since you’re already standing up for him, you’re a liability now too.”
Rory’s gaze widened. “What the hell are you talking about? No fucking way. I’m not a liability at all,” he yelled at him. “I’m too damn involved in all this.”
Nick turned to the suited guy.
The businessman nodded, but his gaze was serious as he went from one to the other, then back to Nick. “Your call, but if you make the wrong one, you know what’ll happen.”
Nick nodded. “Yeah, I know what’ll happen.”
The suit shrugged and nodded. “Do it.”
Without warning, Nick’s gun fired. Instead of the old man going down, the older cousin flopped onto his back, staring at the ceiling. Billy screamed and raced to Rory’s side, but Rory was already gone.
Immediately a second shot was fired, and the kid went down too. Then there was silence. Nick asked, “Any other objections?”
No way anybody said anything now.
“Good,” the suit stated. “Now dump their bodies into the water. We’ve got drugs to unload, and we need to do it fast.”
Nick asked in a bored tone, “What do you want to do about him?” He pointed to Derek.
The suit laughed. “That’s for you to take care of,” he said, a wicked smile on his face.
“The problems that bothered me are gone now. It’s up to you to handle the ones that bother you.
” And he turned and walked away. “Get the bodies into the water,” he called back to the others.
“Then hurry up with the boxes. I’ve got way too many drugs to move to be hanging around here.
We need to get the stash out.” The armed gym rat and Gerald followed the suited man down the tunnel.
And with that, the brothers, Nick and Derek, dragged the bodies of the two young cousins who had just been shot and dumped them into the water.
Only as Billy’s body went over did Derek realize that he was still alive. “Seriously you just shot him like that?”
Riley couldn’t see faces clearly in the semidarkness, but it was easy for Riley to hear the hate in Derek’s tone.
Nick stood and turned to follow the three others down the tunnel, just flat-out lying as he replied to Derek’s question, “I didn’t shoot Billy. Your eyes are lying to you,” his brother quipped. “I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Right,” Derek muttered. “And me?”
His brother snorted and turned on him. “Well, you heard him. At this point in time, you’re just a liability too, right?”
“Of course I am,” Derek said, in a mocking tone, “because that’s the only way you can deal with problems, isn’t it, Nick? By killing people?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But Nick had a smirk on his face as he raised his gun and added, “But you are the one whom I most need to take care of now.”
At that moment, Riley released Cain, whispering, “Attack.” Cain barreled around the corner at a speed that always amazed Riley when he saw trained War Dogs go into full-on attack mode.
Cain took down Nick with the gun going off, shooting harmlessly into the wall of the tunnel. Riley was right behind him, gave him a hard punch in the face, and a hard kick to his torso, knocking Nick into the water. As Riley helped up old man Derek, he asked, “Are you okay?”
Derek replied, moving to the kid floating in the water, “Yeah, I’m okay. Just help Billy. He’s shot, not dead.”
Riley turned his attention to the cousin, floating near the water’s edge.
Meanwhile Derek rounded on Nick, who seemed to regain consciousness. Derek kicked him hard in the head, sending him flopping backward. He tossed his gun away from him too.
Riley shook his head. He and Derek didn’t need the kid nor Nick to wake up enough to come after them both.
Derek jumped into the water and tried to bring Billy back to shore. Riley reached down, grabbed the kid, and hauled him up onto the tunnel’s edge, then helped the old man up.
“Hopefully Billy will make it, but he needs medical help like now,” Derek whispered.
“He does but …” Riley nodded. “We don’t need these other guys coming back for us or yelling about me and Cain being here. I’m damn sure that one muscle-bound guy has a weapon on him.”
The old man’s eyes widened, and he nodded. “Got it,” he whispered. “You go get help. I’ll try to keep asshole Nick from making it out of the water.”
“Just keep kicking him in the face,” Riley suggested.
“Oh, I can do that,” he stated, “don’t you worry.”
Riley nodded, “I know you can, but you also need to keep Billy quiet. That’s the big thing right now. I need him quiet so we can make sure he doesn’t let anybody else know what’s coming. There’s still three of them on the loose. Do we know if there are any others?”
“Not counting the three with us, just those three who left is all of them that I saw.” Derek swore. “Three is bad enough.” He handed Nick’s gun to Riley and said, “You’ll need this.”
Riley hesitated, then agreed. “Make sure you and that kid don’t get taken out.”
“This kid is actually one I raised myself. And you’re right, he’s a good kid—and family.”
“Family,” Riley repeated quietly.
Just then they heard footsteps.
Derek pointed, whispering, “You guys hide, take Billy with you, and just keep out of sight as much as you can. It could get ugly.”
“Yeah, you’re not kidding.” And, with that, Derek helped Riley, as they quickly slipped into the shadows with Billy, hoping Nick didn’t gain consciousness in the water anytime soon, and just waited to see who was arriving now.
The first man came through, carrying boxed goods.
Riley came out of nowhere, hit him hard in the head, and dropped him where he stood. He dragged the body off to the side ever-so-slightly, with the old man nodding his approval. Riley slipped back undercover and waited for the next one. When the next one came, Riley did the same thing, just faster.
And now that he was in that mode, he just waited, knowing that the next one would arrive soon.
Yet the trap was set, and his arms should be full, so he had to come through this narrow tunnel.
Sure enough, he came around the corner, grumbling, “God damn, these boxes are heavy. We should pack up smaller ones for the next trip.” He came closer and met Riley’s fist with all the force that he could punch into it.
Riley heard his ankle give way as his whole leg shuddered in agony, but no way was Riley giving up now.
The man dropped, and Riley was on him in seconds. He didn’t have anything to tie him up with, but he refused to let this one get up. He rolled him over and sat down hard on the man’s back, then looked at the old man and said, “We need help and fast.”
He nodded. “We do have an alarm down here.”
Riley motioned at him. “Get it activated now. We need someone down here quick.”
“But it’s back a bit.” Then he quickly headed over to wherever the alarm was, hopefully in some nearby adjacent tunnel.
When he rejoined Riley, he explained, “It’s set up to beep for the kitchen help to come running.
I thought, if anybody came down here and got lost, we would have a way to find them because we would know where they were. ”
“Good. So this should be pub staff, right?”
Derek nodded. “And phones don’t work down here, do they?” Derek asked.