CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Better call Ted!
That was what his father told him in no uncertain terms. If something happened, he was to speed his ass away from there and call his big brother.
But something horrific was happening. The gunfire was so sudden and so rapid that Duke knew he had no time to waste. He tightened his grip on his Glock and quickly reached for the doorhandle ready to go in blazing away too. His parents needed him. He had to get inside of that building!
But he remembered what his father had said. Don’t get out of that truck. No matter what happened, do not get out of that SUV! It was fortified. No bullet could penetrate it.
And that was why he threw his phone and gun onto the passenger seat, gripped that steering wheel of his father’s huge, fortified Escalade, pressed his big shoe on the gas pedal, and floored it.
That was when Roz ran around to the front of that police station and was shocked to see her son behind the wheel of his father’s SUV. “Duke?” she cried out. “Duke?”
But she was too late. He didn’t see her nor did he hear her. He flew across that parking lot, hopped that curb like a maniac, and barreled his way straight ahead until he was crashing into that building. Glass from that big picture window shattered like a building crumbling as he sped through.
But he kept on driving. It might have looked like a suicide mission, but he had every intention of getting out of there alive. And getting his parents out of there alive while he was at it too. There was no in between with Duke.
But when those men stopped shooting inside of a room, and trained their guns directly at his face inside that big tank of an SUV, Duke didn’t hesitate. He floored that gas pedal again and went full steam ahead. It was them or it was him. And it wasn’t going to be him!
He drove into them so fast, and with the full force of a ten-thousand-pound truck, that they didn’t stand a chance.
But as they were going down, they were firing their best shots.
They got off round after round after round.
And one by one by one those bullets sailed toward Duke Sinatra as if there was no way out, and crashed into his windshield.
Duke couldn’t duck. He couldn’t cower. There was no way for him to zigzag his way through that narrow hall.
All he could do was to continue to go full steam ahead.
Life be damn. Pain be damn. Fear be damn.
For his mother’s sake, and his father’s sake, and his own sake, there was no other choice but to drive full steam ahead.
And because he was his father’s son, that was exactly what he did. He plowed into them as if he was mastering a video game. He knocked all four gunmen off of their feet and up onto the hood where they slid off as soon as he slammed on brakes.
With all four gunmen under the truck, Duke jumped out nervously with his gun in hand and ran into that side room.
And that was when he found his father, who, to his shock, had been shot several times.
Mick was sliding down the wall in front of the window, with a trail of blood sliding behind him.
His gun was still smoking from the barrage he gave out even as he took what they had too.
Duke’s heart dropped at just the sight of his strong father down and so vulnerable. But that was when he heard more footsteps inside that building. And that was why he grabbed his father and dragged him to the SUV.
With all the strength he had, Duke hoisted his father onto the middle row of that SUV and slung him inside, closing the door behind him as another group of gunmen were running up the hall.
He fired on them first, and then hopped onto the driver side front seat, closing that door, as they fired on him.
Then he locked the doors again, put that Escalade in reverse, turned around to see where he was going, and he floored it as he ran right into those gunmen and took them out one by one as if they were obstacles on his course.
Even as they were firing at that SUV, he got himself and his father out of that building.
But as soon as he sped backwards into that lobby, he saw his mother jump to the side. She had entered the building with her gun drawn too, trying to rescue her husband and her son.
But she could not have been happier to see Duke when he drove into that lobby.
But this time he saw her, slammed on brakes and unlocked the doors.
She hopped in on the middle seat where Mick was stretched out and closed the door.
Duke locked those doors again and sped out of that building driving backwards, turned with a violent swerve, and then took off.
Roz was already at Mick’s side helping him. He was bleeding badly and was barely conscious. “Oh Mick!” she said in agony as she took off of her blouse and tried to staunch the flow of his blood.
But as Duke drove down the street toward the corner, he saw trouble in front of them. “There’s more!” he cried out as another group of patrol cars were in roadblock formation in front of them. Mick lifted up as he and Roz looked through the front windshield.
“Floor it, Duke!” Mick said with barely enough breath to breathe, and Duke floored it again.
He crashed through the two middle patrol cars, as the other cars moved to the side, and then he headed around that corner that would take them along the eight-mile stretch that led out of town.
But less than three miles after he turned that corner, he saw a brick wall-style fence began closing as if it was closing them in.
“What the fuck?” he yelled out loud. “This can’t be happening!”
Mick and Roz lifted their heads again and saw the brick wall in front of them too.
“And they’re still coming,” Roz said when she looked back and saw those patrol cars turn that corner, too, and was heading their way.
Mick knew he had to take over. “Open that hatch, Roz,” he said breathlessly as he fought the pain of multiple gunshot wounds.
Roz quickly removed the floor mat on the backrow, pressed the button, and it opened.
As she did so, Mick lifted himself in an upright position, grimacing from all of the pain, as he reached into the compartment filled with an arsenal of weaponry. He grabbed the bazooka and put an IED on it, which nearly took everything out of him just to do that.
But he found the strength to speak again. “Duke, press down the back glass.”
“But Daddy, that’ll expose you and Ma to their gunfire.”
“Do it!” Roz yelled at him.
Although Duke was afraid for his parents, he did as he was told. He pressed the button that lowered the back windshield.
But as soon as he did it, Mick fired that IED straight into the oncoming police car caravan.
The cops tried to swerve their cars out of the way of that explosive device, but it was too late. They were hit violently and their cars, along with every one of those crooked cops, went up in a ball of smoke and fire.
But as soon as Mick saw that he had hit his target, he told Duke to press the window back up and then he fell backwards, dropping that bazooka to his side, and passed out.
“Mick!” Roz cried as Duke pressed back up the back windshield and continued to drive.
But that brick wall was still there. He stopped nearly fifteen feet away from it. “How are we gonna get out of here, Daddy? Daddy?” he said as he looked through the rearview mirror. When he saw that his father had passed out, his heart dropped. He turned around to get a good look at him. “Daddy?”
Roz knew she had to take over. Mick was out. And Duke was too green. “We got to get your father help,” she said.
“There’s no phone service in this town,” Duke said.
But Roz grabbed that bazooka, grabbed another IED out of the arsenal hole, put it on, and then hurried to the front of the SUV. “Turn it sideways, Duke,” she ordered her son.
Duke turned the SUV sideways, so the middle row driver side window was parallel to the brick wall. “What are you doing, Ma?”
Roz pressed down the side window, pointed that bazooka out of the vehicle, and fired. It was so powerful that it caused her entire body to fall backwards as she fired.
But it was enough. It blew a hole into that wall.
But Duke was panicking. “It’s not big enough, Ma,” he said, looking back at his father. They had to get him some help! “It’s not big enough to drive through!”
Roz crawled across seats to get to the arsenal again, but she couldn’t find another IED.
And that was when she saw another group of cars coming around that corner and heading their way.
“Oh Lord,” she cried and Duke turned and looked too.
And that was when he saw even more patrol cars.
“How could this tiny town have that many cops?” Duke said out loud.
But this time Duke knew he had to act. He turned his SUV back around, facing that brick wall, and didn’t hesitate. He did what his old man would do and he floored it.
“Duke!” Roz cried out, but Duke was unstoppable. He let that hole his mother had blown in that wall be his guide and he drove straight into that brick wall and the little opening that IED had given to them.
And it worked. The wall crumbled down just enough for Duke to drive through. But those cop cars had gained too much ground on them.
And then Roz finally found another IED. “Press down the back windshield again, Duke!” she cried out. “Press it down!”
This time Duke just did it when he saw that those patrol cars also drove through the now-gaping hole he left in that wall and was determined to stay on their tail.
And as soon as that windshield went down, Roz fired that last IED into their path, dropping backwards as she did.
But it did the job: All of those cop cars began to swerve and slam on brakes. But it was too late. They lifted up. They dropped down. They were incinerated too.
Duke pressed the back windshield back up and fled. But he couldn’t stop looking back in his mirror at his father. How could he be down like that? How could he be down?!
Roz felt the sting of just seeing Mick down too. She dropped that heavy-ass bazooka, and went to Mick and held his head in her lap. He was in and out of consciousness, but he was groaning in terrible pain.
And Duke was panicking. “We need to call 911, Ma!”
“No hell we don’t,” Roz said. “Not here. This wasn’t no accident. All them cops? These fools tried to assassinate him. They were waiting on him. We ain’t calling shit here. Get him away from this town first!”
“But I’m calling Teddy,” Duke said. “Dad said if anything went down, I was to call Teddy right away.”
But as soon as he attempted to make a phone call, he realized there still was no signal. “Dammit, still no signal!” he cried out and then he threw his phone across the front seat. And then he wasn’t playing. He floored it. He was flying out of that crazy town.
But Roz was crying as she held Mick’s head in her lap.
It was then did Mick wake up and look up at her.
And that was when she saw the terror in his hard, green eyes.
Which mortified her. Because that never happened.
No matter what they went through, Mick had that confident look that always let her know everything was going to be alright.
But not this time.
Even he knew he was in trouble.