Chapter Thirty-Four
Raymond Castor’s D average in high school was the result of grade inflation. None of his teachers wanted to flunk him, because that would mean he would be left back, and they were as anxious as he was to get him out of their high school.
There was one test on which he received an A-plus. It was the test in citizen’s education about the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which contained information about the right to bear arms. Ray loved guns almost as much as he loved his Harley.
He enlisted as soon as he was free of his mandatory sentence to high school.
He didn’t love the discipline in the army, but he loved being able to shoot guns.
When he was shipped overseas to a combat zone, it was like dying and going to heaven.
After shooting targets his whole life, he finally got a chance to shoot people.
Unfortunately, his problem with discipline caused him to be cast out of heaven when he was brought up on charges for striking a superior officer.
When he got back to the States, he was despondent, but his spirits lifted when he ran into an old friend from high school who was running with the Lucifer’s Disciples and knew how Ray could continue to get all kinds of guns.
Ray rented a house in the country. It was small and run-down, but it had a big backyard where he could shoot his guns to his heart’s content.
As soon as he was home, he loaded his arsenal, set booby traps around the house, and turned off all the lights to make it look like he was asleep.
Maybe Walt didn’t know about the three million dollars, but Ray was certain he would know that he was out on bail that Karen Wyatt had posted.
Ray was not one of the Disciples’ inner circle.
He was a foot soldier. That made him expendable.
There was a shed where he kept his mower and other gardening equipment.
It had holes in the walls that gave him a view of the front and back of his property.
The Disciples dealt a lot of meth, so Ray wasn’t the least bit tired when the killers came a little after three in the morning, which is the time when people were usually in a deep sleep.
There were four men. They came through the woods behind the house.
Ray didn’t recognize any of them, which meant that Walt had brought in a hit squad.
The men scattered. Two moved toward the front door, and two went to the door that led into the kitchen.
Ray eased out of the shed. He was wearing black and had blackened his face.
He heard a scream from the kitchen. One of the booby traps had worked.
It drew the attention of the men at the front door away from the shed.
He fired, and one of the assassins pitched forward.
The other man spun toward him, and Ray shot him in the chest. If only one of the men near the kitchen was dead or incapacitated, that left one man to deal with.
The quarter moon produced very little light, and the thick foliage in the trees in the side yard blocked some of that light.
Ray edged around the side of the house until he could see the kitchen door.
It was wide open, and he saw flames in the kitchen.
He crouched and duckwalked toward the door.
He was about to peek in when a branch snapped.
The last assassin had jumped away from the house when the booby trap exploded, and he had taken cover behind one of the trees in the side yard, figuring correctly that Ray would come to see how many men the booby trap had killed.
Ray dropped to the ground. Bullets sailed over the space his body had just occupied and embedded themselves in the wall of the house. Ray was flat on his back. He fired several times to chase the killer away. Then he raced around the front of the house to shield himself.
“It ain’t worth it,” Ray called out. “You stay here and there’s a good chance you’ll end up as dead as your buddies. Call this a draw and take off. I got no beef with you.”
Ray waited for an answer. When none came, he took out a grenade and threw it toward the tree his assailant was using for cover. The blast shook the tree, and Ray heard a grunt of pain.
“Okay!” a man shouted moments later. “I’m going!”
“Take off. I promise I won’t try to kill you.”
Moments later, Ray saw a man hobbling toward the woods.
He had lied about not trying to kill the last assassin.
He fired at him, but he missed. The killer ran a zigzag path.
Ray fired again, but the man made it to the trees.
Ray thought about hunting him down, but the woods would provide cover that could be used for an ambush, so he decided to bag that idea.
The rented house was on fire. Fortunately, Ray had packed a duffel bag and stowed it in the shed.
He grabbed the bag and checked his surroundings in case the fourth man had come back.
No one was lurking outside, so he ran to the thicket where he’d hidden his motorcycle.
He pulled it out. Then he took out his phone and called the number on the card Karen Wyatt had given him.
“Four men just tried to kill me,” he said. “Where can I meet you?”
As soon as Karen told him the address, Ray headed there.
He’d seen the fourth assassin disappear into the woods, so he didn’t think he was being followed.
That is why he didn’t check to see if someone was tailing him.
Zegda had posted Gabby Wright near Ray’s house so he could report on the success of the hit team.
Gabby told Walt about the shots and the explosion.
Then he told him that Ray was alive and he was following him toward town.