Chapter 21 #2
I looked between the two of them, taking in the body language and the obvious hatred for one another. Hatred was a strong emotion, and knowing the love I already had for my unborn child, I struggled like hell to understand how a father could look at their son that way.
“The Hounds have got inside your head, boy. You don’t know what they’re really like.”
“I know they’re better than you. I know they appreciate loyalty and family. I know their lies are always meant to protect those they love, rather than to make them rich and feed their greed like you.”
“You have no idea what I’ve done for you, you ungrateful piece of sh—”
I shot at the mayor’s feet at once, purposely missing by an inch, close enough to scare the son of a bitch into watching his mouth. His shoulders jumped, and he raised his hands in the air, a sharp, hard swallow making his Adam’s apple sink and rise with obvious pain.
“Your boy may have doubts about shooting you, Mayor, but I can assure you... I don’t,” I told him.
The crunch of glass behind me told me that Ayda had approached, but she didn’t enter.
I stretched my neck to one side, making sure to focus on the problem in front of me.
The mayor’s sadistic eyes were locked on me, and even with his fear evident, he still managed to look cocky as fuck.
“Do you realize what I can do to you, Mr. Tucker?” he said slowly.
“Nothing you haven’t already done, I imagine.”
It was his turn to raise a brow now, his surprise clear.
“Dodgy judges, rotten cops, prison officers in your pocket… I was on the receiving end of them all, Walsh, and I paid for my sins via your games and need for power.”
“Yet, you’re still here, meddling in my business, turning my family against me, pointing guns at me without a care for your future, or those in it.” His eyes drifted to Ayda behind me, a slow smile creeping on his face.
I took three steps closer, my face twisting with anger, and my jaw ticking as I raised my gun higher.
“You look at her again, and I’ll put a bullet in your dick before I plant one in the center of your skull.”
Walsh’s attention slid back to me. I could practically smell his fear.
“This is where you and I differ,” I began, taking another step closer.
“This is where I’m the man and you’re the boy because I don’t need to operate in dark, seedy corners.
I don’t need other men, more capable than me, to do my dirty work.
There’s no fun in that, Mayor. No fun at all.
I like to see the fear in my enemy’s eyes before I pull the trigger.
I like to dig their graves with my own bare hands.
I like to pack that soil and dirt in real tight, stamp on it with my heavy boots and let Hell know I’ve sent another bastard its way.
If I want to kill someone, I do it myself.
So, if you think I’ve got any fear of following through with my threat to end your life, and if you so much as acknowledge my girl behind me, you might want to think again, because I will put your fucking light out faster than you can blink. ”
Silence filled the air as we stared at one another, his eyes searching mine for any sign of a lie, while I remained still apart from the subtle flex of my finger over the trigger.
“Noted,” Walsh eventually whispered.
“Good.” My nostrils flared, and my finger pressed down gently on the trigger, skin meeting metal, desperate to extinguish another enemy while it was in my line of sight.
Reality soon kicked in, and I released it, exhaling through my nose and side-eyeing Rubin.
“Kid, I’m going to need you to lower your gun and go to Ayda. ”
He shook his head violently. “Can’t do that, Drew.”
“Yes, you can. You’re safe. We’re here. Nothing’s going to happen to you now. I promise.”
Rubin’s arms were really shaking now, his emotion taking over. His sad eyes filled with moisture as he stared at his pathetic excuse for a father.
“Rubin,” I urged. “Go to Ayda.”
“He threatened to kill me,” Rubin eventually said on a shaky breath.
“He said he knows what I’ve done, Drew. He said the judge who signed off the warrant had tipped him off—told him that they suspected something in this house that would send Dad down for a long time.
He knows it's me. He knows what I’ve done. ”
“And none of that matters because the ATF are on their way, Rubin. We need to get you out of here as quickly as possible and let them come take care of this asshole you have to call a father.”
“If I can get away in time, so can he. I’d rather stay here and hold him in place. I need him to pay.”
Walsh sighed heavily, the slight roll of his eyes making me want to fly over there and punch the guy in the fucking throat.
“Pay for what?” Walsh groaned. “For keeping this town safe? For trying to rid it of the only problem it has ever had?”
“The Hounds are my family,” Rubin hit back angrily, his arms shaking wildly.
“Rubin,” I called out, my tone firmer. His head snapped my way, eyes wild and his body out of control.
I could see the pain he was wearing and the torment running through his mind, and I wasn’t about to let him fall down a hole I’d fallen down one too many times myself.
“Listen. Focus,” I mouthed to him. “Go. To. Ayda.”
As though something clicked, he began to lower his gun, both hands gripping it tightly as he pointed it to the floor.
“Go to her,” I whispered. “Get out of here. I’ll hold Walsh in place. I’ll stay here until the cops get here if I have to.”
“You’re not getting in any more trouble for him, Drew,” Rubin said quietly, shaking his head. “That’s what Dad wants.”
“Then I’ll get out before they see me here. Trust me.”
Rubin looked at me for guarantees, and all I could give him were promises with my eyes. Promises I intended to keep.
Slowly, Rubin began to move, never breaking eye contact the entire time as he made his way to the window ledge where Ayda was waiting, no doubt with open arms.
“Rubin?” Walsh called out to him.
Rubin turned, just as he approached me, looking back at the man who was meant to be his father.
“You’ll pay for this,” Walsh warned him. “You’ll die for this.”
I blinked hard and turned to look at him. I’d seen some fucked up shit in my time, heard even worse, but watching the mayor of our town tell his only son that he’d kill him had to be one of the most messed up pieces of shit I’d ever heard fall from a man’s tongue.
“Fuck you,” Rubin spat before he turned to walk to Ayda.
Caught off guard, I found my attention drifting to Rubin, both proud of his response and concerned for how this would affect him later in life. What I hadn’t realized as I looked at him, however, was that I’d lowered my gun.
In a moment of weakness and concern, I’d taken my eye off the target, and while Rubin climbed over the ledge of the window, Walsh took his opportunity to strike, charging at me with so much force and at such a speed, I didn’t have time to respond.
My body hit the floor hard, the shards of glass forcing my back to arch and my eyes to scrunch tight. Walsh was on me, a fist flying across my face before I could find the energy to strike back.
I took two hits to the face, sending my chin one way only for him to send it flying back in the other direction before I was able to lift a knee up between us and hammer it into his groin.
A groan of pain erupted above me, but Walsh didn’t falter or move, and as I tried to raise my gun to his head and shoot, he hit the weapon out of my grip, sending it sailing across the floor.
I was about to fight back when I heard the unmistakable sound of the cocking of a gun.
A second later, a bullet soared through the air.
It hit Walsh and sent him crashing the floor beside me, a limp body crying out in pain, leaving me to whip my head back in the opposite direction.
There, by the window, stood Rubin. His eyes narrowed, jaw set tight, and his arms out with the gun aimed directly at his father.
“And fuck you once more,” he pushed out through gritted teeth.