Chapter 58
The farmhouse loomed in front of Vin, feeling larger and more imposing than it ever could at any other time.
In reality, it was a two-story farmhouse.
It was moderately large as far as such homes go, but its white paint and blue shutters could definitely never be mistaken by anyone as something worthy of intimidation.
Vin knew Chainz was in there and that a one-on-one fight against him would be one of the hardest battles of his life. Vin checked his two guns, ensuring they were loaded and ready. He had retrieved them from the site of his battle with Legion and figured they were his best hope for a quick win.
He had hoped Chainz would be exactly where Legion had said, watching the battle from the second-floor balcony.
He needed to make sure before walking in there, though.
Vin crept through the grass, hugging a large tree in the side yard.
He looked up at the second floor and was satisfied when he saw movement on the balcony.
A massively muscled arm was moving as Chainz held a pair of high-powered binoculars up to his face.
Vin thought about moving into a better position and trying to take him out with a shot from a distance, but it was risky.
These pistols had a wicked recoil, so the closer he was to Chainz, the better his odds would be of ending this battle in one shot.
And Vin really wanted to end it in one shot.
If he took a shot from the ground and missed, Chainz would retreat inside, where he undoubtedly had guns and other weapons at the ready. Vin needed to be stealthy, sneak up to the second floor, and take this monster out with one shot through the back of the head.
He’d never see it coming, and Vin was fine with that. He didn’t need this to be personal. He didn’t need to spit some huge final catchphrase into Chainz’s face as the light left his eyes. He didn’t even need Chainz to know that it was him who pulled the trigger.
He just needed the man dead.
Vin crept back around toward the front of the house. The porch was completely unguarded, as Legion had said. Vin slowly and quietly opened the front door, slipping inside as the scent of candles, sweat, and rotting food nearly pushed him back out.
He was revolted to see what his former home had become under the reign of this horrid animal. It was time to end this and wipe this stain out of his life forever.
Vin moved slowly up the stairs. They were old and prone to creaking, so he moved very deliberately, placing his boot down and slowly applying weight in order to limit the sound it made.
Soon, he was on the second floor, creeping toward the bedroom.
Vin’s heart was pounding in his chest as the do-or-die moment was rapidly approaching.
The bedroom door was right in front of him now.
It was a door he had walked through so many times.
It was the door he had carried Deb through on their wedding night.
It was the door he had walked out of with a bag packed on the day he had left his wife and son.
Now, he’d walk through it again with a higher purpose. Deb was counting on him. Jimmy was counting on him. The Natives and ranch hands and everyone currently living under the lash of Chainz and his followers were counting on him, whether they knew it or not.
Vin took a long, slow, deep breath and kicked out with one leg, caving the door in as he rushed forward with both guns drawn, pointed right at the balcony, ready to drop Chainz where he stood.
However, no one was there. The balcony was empty.
Vin gasped in realization as a huge form rushed at him from the side of the doorframe.
Chainz barreled into Vin like a charging bull, and Vin began wildly pulling the trigger of both guns in his panic. Chainz slammed Vin into Deb’s antique armoire, grabbing him by both wrists and smashing them against the wood. Eventually, Vin’s fingers opened, and his guns fell out to the floor.
He kicked out at Chainz’s legs, slamming the heel of his boot into the crime lord’s knee. Chainz grunted in pain and let go of Vin’s wrist, grabbing him by the back of the head and smashing his own forehead into Vin’s.
The impact sent Vin’s world spinning, and it only got worse as Chainz head-butted him two more times. Vin’s eyes rolled back as the room spun in a dizzy haze. The force he had been hit with was unlike anything even Legion had doled out.
Chainz was a hardened mountain of muscle, and his strength was even more unbearable than Vin had imagined.
Chainz pulled Vin forward by the back of the head, driving a knee into his ribs.
The stabbing pain in his torso told Vin that if his ribs hadn’t broken, then several of them were at the very least very badly bruised.
Chainz forcibly threw Vin back against the armoire and reared back for a punch aimed at Vin’s face.
Vin ducked, and Chainz’s fist easily splintered the wooden door of the armoire.
Vin rolled forward, coming up to his feet near the foot of the bed as Chainz wrenched the door free and hurled it at his foe.
Vin ducked as the wooden projectile sailed over his head, knocking the hat from his head. Vin braced for another charge, but Chainz hesitated.
“Here you are,” Chainz said, his voice silken as he smiled at Vin.
“You know, I’ve told a lot of really badass mother fuckers to kill you.
But you kept surviving. Not one of them could stop you.
Not Sean, not Maverick, not Legion. As cliché as it sounds, if you want something done right, I guess you really do gotta do it yourself. ”
“You’re done, you psychopath,” Vin spat, pointing a bloody finger at Chainz.
The huge goliath began to slowly circle toward the door, and Vin matched him, keeping the distance between them.
“This world has no room for you.”
“Ha!” Chainz spat on the ground and gave Vin an amused smile. “This world was made for me, you idiot. People scraping each other's eyeballs out over blankets and scraps of food, that’s what this situation becomes without someone like me keeping order.”
“You call what you did here order?” Vin scoffed. “You turned this place into a hell hole.”
“But the people survived. They were fed. They were clothed. They might not have been happy, but they were alive. There’s more to life than happiness.”
“Says the piece of shit who set himself up like some kind of king,” Vin replied.
“I earned that,” Chainz said. “I earned it all.”
“You’re gonna lose it all.”
“Maybe one day. But not today. And not because of you.”
As soon as Vin’s back was to the balcony, Chainz charged him like a bull.
He wrapped his powerful arms against Vin’s waist and pushed him out onto the balcony, where the sounds of distant battle could still be heard.
Chainz slammed Vin hard into the balcony’s safety rail, and the wood groaned as Vin’s spine bent around it.
Chainz continued pushing, his hands coming up to wrap around Vin’s throat.
Instantly, Vin could feel his airway closing off. His lungs started to burn for oxygen, but Chainz had an iron grip on him. He had to do something to break that hold. Vin lashed out with both fists, striking Chainz on his temples simultaneously.
That stunned the big man, but he maintained his grip. Vin cursed mentally. That could have been enough to kill a smaller man. Vin quickly switched gears and decided he needed to start fighting dirty if he was going to win.
Chainz might seem invulnerable, but there was one place where all men had an Achilles heel.
Vin kicked out, striking Chainz right between the legs dead on.
His grip instantly loosened, and Vin ducked low and tackled Chainz through the double pane of glass that was the open door.
They slammed together through the glass in a shower of tiny, jagged projectiles.
Vin landed on top of Chainz and started to rain huge punches down on the giant’s face.
He threw every strike with the rage and pain of an entire community, desperate to wipe this stain from the map forever.
Chainz seemed to catch his breath, and with it came his awesome strength.
He flung Vin off to the side, sending him rolling along the floor.
Chainz was back on his feet again quickly like some kind of horror movie monster.
Vin noticed something on the ground near him. It was one of his pistols. He lunged for it, a feeling of triumph flooding through him as his fingers closed around the worn handle of this trusted weapon.
He turned and took aim, but Chainz was already barreling at him.
Vin fired off two rounds. The first one struck Chainz in the left shoulder, and the other slammed into his forearm.
Chainz cried out in pain as Vin scrambled to his feet, taking aim at the chest. But Chainz was at him again, grabbing Vin by the shirt with his right arm and slamming him into the wall hard.
Vin tried to whip Chainz in the head with the handle of his pistol, but the massive man reached up with his now-bleeding left arm and slapped the weapon out of Vin’s hand.
He roared in agony at the movement of his injured limb, and Vin watched in horror as his pistol sailed out through the open balcony door, disappearing out over the edge.
Chainz buried another knee strike into Vin’s injured ribs, and if they hadn’t broken the first time, they were certainly shattered now.
Vin dropped to the floor, unable to breathe, and Chainz gave him a momentary reprieve as he clutched at his shoulder, grimacing in agony.
Chainz reached into the closet on the wall behind Vin.
Eager to make the most of this moment, Vin rolled toward the door, scanning the ground for his other pistol.
But Chainz emerged from the closet with a huge shotgun clutched in his right hand.
His left arm dangled uselessly, so the big man wrenched the shotgun up and down in one hand to cock it.
He then tossed the gun up and caught it in one hand as though this were a movement he had practiced and perfected over the years.
Vin abandoned his search for the missing pistol and ran for the doorway, pulling the door he had kicked in, which still hung on one hinge, closed behind him.
He dove for cover as a booming eruption emanated from within the room, blowing a massive hole in the door right about where his chest would have been had he still been standing.
He heard Chainz cocking the gun again and sat in wait as the crime lord kicked what remained of the door off of its last hinge.
Vin leaped into action, grabbing the shotgun by the barrel and forcing it up as Chainz let off another round.
The sound of the round was deafening, and Vin’s head was rattled by it.
A ringing noise was all he could hear in the seconds following the shot, and Chainz used that opportunity to shove Vin hard toward the stairs.
However, Vin had the wherewithal to keep both of his hands trained around the shotgun and wrenched it out of Chainz’s hand as he fell end over end down the wooden stairs.
Vin landed hard on the floor at the base of the stairs and thanked whoever was watching out for him that he hadn’t broken his neck in the fall.
He was, however, even more banged up in the wake of that awkward tumble, and his entire body screamed for relief.
Vin knew he only had seconds as Chainz came barreling down the stairs after him.
He gripped the shotgun, cocked it hard, pointed it at the stairs, and shot.
Chainz fell as the shot fired, allowing it to pass over his head and slam into the steps, reducing one of them to splinters.
Chainz tumbled down the stairs as Vin tried to scoot back and away from him to get off another shot.
However, Chainz once again proved too fast, diving onto Vin and making a wild and desperate grab for the shotgun.
Vin, knowing Chainz would inevitably wrench the gun from his hands, did the only sensible thing he could think of and flung the shotgun away, tossing it out of the open front door, beyond the porch somewhere.
Chainz grunted in frustration and went to slam his right fist down onto Vin’s prone body.
Vin kicked out with one leg, meeting Chainz’s elbow as it came careening for him.
He didn’t feel the crunch of breaking bones the way he had been hoping, but Chainz had backed off enough for him to roll away and back to his feet.
Chainz followed a moment later, chasing Vin into the kitchen. He slammed his massive body into Vin, throwing him against the counter. Vin reached out, groping for anything that might be useful. His fingers closed around the handle of a frying pan as Chainz spun him around.
Vin swung the pan just as Chainz punched at him. He slammed the frying pan into Chainz’s hand, causing the big man to recoil. Vin then jabbed the pan into Chainz’s throat and swung it wildly, catching the Chain Gang’s leader in the side of the head.
Chainz stumbled back a few steps and nearly fell, but to Vin’s astonishment, he remained standing.
What was it going to take to bring this man down? Vin had known the fight against Chainz would be tough, but he had no idea how insanely strong and durable this man was. Could he even be called a man? What man could withstand all of this?
No, Vin realized he couldn’t think like that. He was a man. He wasn’t a monster or some kind of immortal demigod. He was just a man. He ate, he slept, he bled, and he could die like any mortal man. Vin promised himself that he would be the one to end this once and for all.
Chainz gripped his bleeding left shoulder and looked up at Vin, a look of admiration and contentment shining through the pain.
“Not bad, Vin,” he said, actually smiling as he grimaced, showing off the shining metal of his grill.
“I haven’t had a fight this good in years.
Don’t tell me you’re getting tired. Let’s get serious. ”
Vin tried to look strong, but the truth of the matter was that he was nearly spent.
His entire body ached, from his injured shoulder to every joint and limb.
His ribs were broken, and he could taste blood on his tongue.
Vin wasn’t sure if that was coming from his mouth itself or if internal injuries were starting to well up.
But he couldn’t stop now. He wouldn’t. Not until this smug son of a bitch was dead and buried. Vin tossed the dented frying pan off to the side and reached onto the kitchen counter, grabbing a large chef’s knife out of Deb’s knife block.
He held the blade out in front of him, and Chainz laughed.
“Now we’re talking,” he said, crouching as he prepared to engage.
“No more talking,” Vin said. “Time to die.”