Chapter 42 #2
Chainz put his arm around Sean and pulled him into a half hug.
Sean was pressed into Chainz’s muscular torso and was amazed at what he felt there.
His muscles were like iron. There was barely any fat on his body, which explained his freakish strength.
He had the build of a strongman competitor and the strength to match it.
“Look,” Chainz said, lowering his voice in a conspiratorial tone, “I’m sorry I had to rough you up like that.
When shit goes south, I sometimes don’t take it all that well.
And…well, Sean…shit went very south out there.
But that’s all right because we’re in the middle of a brand-new day.
And we’re gonna make sure we wash away the stink of your incredible failures. ”
Sean winced at Chainz’s continued talk of his failures, as though he were blaming the entire situation at the reservation on no one else.
It had been Chainz who had sent only a skeleton crew with him, and it had been Maverick who had killed the old man and put himself in the grave by challenging Vin to fight him one on one.
But Sean knew better than to argue. Chainz was feeling optimistic, and if he wanted to keep things that way, he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He wasn’t even going to verbally respond to what Chainz was saying, as Sean wasn’t sure whether that would enrage the titan once again.
“Vin and those assholes on the reservation think they’re gonna keep us out,” Chainz said with a laugh, as though this were the most ludicrous thing he had ever heard. “Well, it’s about time we show them the real meaning of shock and awe.”
“What do you mean?” Sean asked, daring to speak now as he and Chainz continued to walk together.
“I mean making a statement,” Chainz replied, letting go of Sean and walking quickly back up to the couch.
He turned around and looked Sean in the eye.
“We’re gonna burn that entire fucking place to the ground.
We’re gonna kill every single person down to the last kid for what they did.
And we’re gonna show the world not to fuck with Chainz. ”
Sean felt wobbly in the face of this grand declaration.
Murdering kids, torching homes, was this what he was now?
Had he fallen from soldier to murderer? He had no choice in this matter.
If he protested or tried to fight back against this plan in any way, he would just be killed, and someone else would come in to take his place.
“What did you have in mind?” Sean asked hesitantly. “How do you wanna make that statement? How do you plan on showing everyone what happened?”
“Well, maybe I spoke a little too soon when I said we’re gonna kill everyone,” Chainz said, rubbing his chin with his massive fingers.
“We need to leave a few of them alive. Someone has to tell the story of what happened there. I’m thinking maybe four of five of them.
We spare them, warn them what’ll happen if they mess with us again, then turn them loose in the wild to tell the tale. ”
Sean felt his stomach turn at the way Chainz spoke about the Natives. He was describing them like animals. Terms like “turn them loose in the wild” really showed how Chainz dehumanized not just those who called the reservation home but anyone who opposed him.
“Sounds like an inspired plan,” Sean said with a nod, trying to sound as energetic and genuine as humanly possible.
“Yeah,” Chainz said, plopping himself back down on his seat.
“Now you just gotta figure out how to make it work. Draw up some battle plans. Figure out what we’re dealing with.
No one in this organization knows war like you do.
And on top of that, you understand Vin, and he’s the biggest threat they got. ”
“This is true,” Sean said with a thoughtful nod.
Vin would be guiding the Native resistance. He’d undoubtedly be right there on the front lines, waiting to put a stop to Chainz’s plan and waiting to take his revenge on Sean for his epic betrayal.
“I’m gonna need at least half of our forces to do what you’re asking.”
“I don’t ask anything,” Chainz said dismissively. “That’s why I’m giving you three-quarters of what we got.”
Sean nearly doubled over. That was overkill, and it would leave the camp completely exposed and unprotected.
“Three quarters?” Sean exclaimed, forgetting himself for a moment. “I doubt we need that many men just to take the reservation.”
Chainz growled in annoyance at being questioned, and instantly all of Sean’s various injuries started to flare to life with pain once more, a grim reminder that he shouldn’t openly question the orders of his commander in chief.
“I don’t care what we need,” Chainz said, all the excitement and humor vanishing from his voice.
“I care about winning. I care about making a statement. This place is a damn fortress. Ain’t no one getting in here, and ain’t no one coming for me after the moves I’ve been making.
When it comes to Vin, I wanna make sure the job gets done the right way this time.
No more excuses. I think we both know if there’s a single chance to win, that mother fucker is gonna find it. And I’m done playing around.”
Sean had to admit that Chainz’s logic made sense. He had underestimated Vin many times, most notably when he had believed four bullets to the chest would be his undoing. He had cursed himself many times over the last day, asking why he hadn’t shot the man in the head once and been done with it.
Sean realized at that moment that Chainz wasn’t giving him three-quarters of his forces to take on the Natives. He was giving him the majority of his army to find and kill one man. Was it overkill? Maybe. Was it necessary? Almost definitely.
While Sean wanted to believe that he alone was enough to seal the deal once and for all, he wasn’t going to leave anything to chance this time around.
He had barely survived Vin’s last miraculous return, and he knew that unless his former friend was eliminated with deadly prejudice, he would not survive another failure.
“You know,” Chainz said, filling the silence between them as Sean contemplated the implications of this mission, “I’ve been thinking a lot about medieval shit lately.”
“What?” Sean asked, his brows furrowing in confusion as he was pulled back into the here and now by that statement.
“You know, like kings and castles and Lord of The Rings type shit,” Chainz said, waving his hand as though lazily painting a picture of what he was seeing.
“What about it?” Sean dared to ask, interested to see where the seemingly random anecdote was going.
“Well, like them, old-time kings would have spikes outside their castle,” Chainz said, looking out into the distance as though he were visualizing what he was talking about.
“And they’d put the heads of their enemies there for everyone to see.
Just like jam it up through the neck hole until the spike came up through the top of the skull. ”
Chainz started laughing at the image.
“And they’d like, look all surprised and shit,” he continued to laugh at this as though it were a comedic film.
“I want that. I wanna line this ranch with spikes up on the wall. I wanna take the heads of all those Native fucks and put them up around there. And anyone else we kill, too. Just pop em up there on top of the wall so everyone can see what happens when you try to step up to the Chain Gang.”
Sean swallowed hard. He could imagine what Chainz was saying with startling detail. He could envision all of it, the spikes, the rotting heads, the dead looks on their faces as they stared endlessly out across the landscape, looking down on anyone who approached the ranch.
This would truly be the ultimate desecration of what this place had been when the old man was running things.
Deb would look at those heads and be horrified beyond belief.
And if Vin’s head were one of them—Sean was positive Chainz would want it in a prime position—then she would quickly realize he had lied to her.
Sean made a silent promise to himself at that moment to ensure that Vin’s head was unrecognizable by the time he was done with him. A few high-powered shots to the face or a sledgehammer taken to the skull would assure that Chainz couldn’t make a trophy out of him.
But he remembered the faces of the Native men and women who had gathered to listen to them in the center of town.
He imagined them lining the walls of the ranch, which would then fully become a fortress of dread.
Unfortunately, his mental vision didn’t end there.
It continued down the line, showcasing face after face until finally, he could see his own head jammed there alongside them.
Right next to him were the heads of Deb and Jimmy.
That startling horror was enough to snap Sean back to reality.
Chainz was still laughing at his idea, and of course, the entire gathered assemblage of his flunkies was laughing along with him.
Sean tried to smile, tried to laugh along to seem as though he were just one of the crew.
But Sean’s laugh was void of any actual humor, and he wanted nothing more than to run, screaming out of the room as fast as his legs could carry him.
But he didn’t. That would be the most foolish thing he could have done at this moment.
Instead, he smiled with dead eyes and continued to laugh with this band of psychos as though he were just another part of their motley crew.
However, Sean was more sure than ever that he was not one of them, and he never could be.