Young Writers Society

Meyer’s hands tightened on the steering wheel as he sped down the road, regretting that he hadn’t insisted on Reneve riding in his own car. Better judgment would’ve reminded him how long a two hour car ride could become, when it was shared with a man that’d been your enemy for a decade.

“So you say it was Resnick that ordered you to burn all my bud?” Reneve asked.

“Yep,” Meyer answered tersely, glancing up at the road signs. “I would’ve been much more creative, if it’d been my idea.”

“Like what?”

“Kidnapping your nephew.”

There was a tense silence between them. Reneve eyed Meyer warily, considering smacking him in the mouth. He still hadn’t entirely forgiven Meyer for dragging Ronny into their squabble, and he didn’t appreciate humor. Reneve nodded after a long moment. “Alright…. I guess you proved that.”

“Yeah…. Well, going after him was Resnick’s idea. He was supposed to be a hit.”

“No kidding?”

“Do I look like I’m joking?” Meyer glanced at him irritably.

“So Resnick’s serious about wanting him dead… alright… good to know.” Reneve nodded. “I guess it is high time Resnick got a taste of his own medicine.”

“It’ll take a lot more than you and me to give Resnick his own treatment,” Meyer said, shaking his head. “Just killing him will suit me, though.”

There was a brief silence, as both men looked out their windows. The landscape was barely more than a green blur, flying past as quickly as Meyer thought he could get away with driving without getting pulled over.

“If he wanted Ronny dead, why hasn’t he tried, yet?”

Meyer was silent for another long moment, considering not answering at all. He didn’t feel like talking to Reneve right now. He took a deep breath and slowly let it out, taking the exit ramp to his right. I guess he should know, in case Resnick’s not the one who ends up dead at the end of this, Meyer thought. There was no point in Ronny dying, too.

“He couldn’t get anyone to agree to go after him,” Meyer said with a shrug.

“You mean he asks if you’re going to accept orders or not?” Reneve scoffed.

“Only me and Axel,” Meyer answered, decidedly refusing to look at Reneve. “We’re the only ones who knew how to track Ronny down, and neither of us were particularly fond of the idea of taking a stand against the Reneves. He let it slide.”

“You think you were on good terms with us?” Reneve asked skeptically.

“I think a man with as much gun power as you have could’ve put more effort into tracking down someone you claim to hate so badly,” Meyer said, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel as they came to a stoplight. “I haven’t moved in five years… and Nate never brought a gun.”

Reneve chuckled wryly. There was a brief, glorious silence as Meyer took the next two lefts, then drove up a slight incline. They drove through a small neighborhood, to the end of a well-to-do looking little cul-de-sac. At the top of the hill sat a large white house, practically a mansion for the size of it.

“So who’s this Axel guy?”

“Back up me,” Meyer answered as he pulled into an empty parking spot several hundred meters from the gate at the bottom of the driveway.

“Your backup?”

“My replacement.” Meyer turned the car off, and looked at Reneve. He sighed. “Resnick is going to need someone to take over his business eventually… he’s been grooming me for that role for a lot of years… a few years after I started with him, he hired Axel, and gave him the same training.”

“To be your right hand man, once you took over his job?”

“Yeah.” Meyer nodded, pulling out his cell phone. It was hard to believe he’d discussed the logistics of taking over Resnick’s operations just a few weeks ago. It seemed so long ago, when Meyer actually respected the swine he called a boss. “Or to take over the operation, if I ever fell out of his graces.”

“Like now.”

Meyer sent Reneve a silent glare, but dipped his head in agreement. “I figure we’ll be seeing Axel before the afternoon is through.”

“You expecting a call?” Reneve asked, gesturing at Meyer’s phone as he tapped it on his knee nervously.

“Yeah. I told Sadie to call once they were through with chapter five… she should’ve called me already.”

“Through with what?”

“Nothing.” Meyer dialed Sadie’s number and listened to the line ring for an agonizingly long time, until I reached her voicemail. That wasn’t good. He hung up the phone and grasped it tightly in his hand. “She’s not picking up… I hope everything’s okay.”

“We’ve got a car,” Reneve said, looking in the mirror. Meyer slumped down in his seat slightly, watching in the mirror as a car sped up the lane and up to the gate. Axel was driving, with Ronan in the passenger’s seat.

“Speak of the devil,” Meyer muttered, gesturing at the car as the gate opened and Axel drove up to the house. “Axel was driving.”

Reneve gestured at the way Meyer was slumped in his seat. “I take it I should be concerned if he points a gun at me?”

“You won’t be alive long enough to worry about anything, if he points a gun at you,” Meyer said, pulling his pistol out of his belt to check it. He dropped the clip out and nervously fingered the top bullet, before sliding the clip back into his gun and racking the action. “He’s a fast aim and a good shot.”

Meyer dialed Sadie’s number again, desperately wishing she would pick up. He cursed at the voicemail message as he hung up his phone and shoved it back in his pocket.

Reneve watched him a moment. He almost felt sorry for Meyer. Just when it looked like the Lovetts were starting to get their lives figured out and settled down, along came a crook in their path to trip them up. “My men are in position. What’s your plan, Lovett?”

Meyer looked up at the sky. The sun had already set, but it was still casting crimson rays into the edge of the sky, warding off the darkness for a little while longer. “We wait until dark…. Then we move.”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Sadie lay very still, pressing herself against the edge of the trunk to get as far away from Karson as possible. He was slowly waking up, groaning and writhing next to her. It’d taken him a long while to come around from whatever drug Axel had given him, and it’d given Sadie a lot of time to think.

After she calmed down, she decided she wasn’t going to let Resnick have another victory. She didn’t care if he killed her. She’d rather take a bullet than let him take his pleasure on her again, or even have the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She was done crying because of him. She was done being the victim. Resnick was about to see a side of Sadie that he didn’t want to uncover.

“Mm… what happened?” Karson muttered, rolling over. He inhaled sharply, grabbing his shoulder. He cursed.

“We got kidnapped by Resnick’s goons… again,” Sadie said irritably. “Not so much fun on this side of things, is it?”

“Sades…” Karson breathed heavily for a moment, trying to control the pain. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she snarled. She wished she could see something—anything – except this blasted darkness. If only she could get the hood off her head, maybe she could peer through a crack and get an idea of what time it was—in the very least she could get a deep breath. The air in this hood was smothering. “How bad is your… the uh…”

“I’ll be fine,” Karson muttered, hand still clamped over the wound.

“You think you can fight?”

Karson was silent for a long moment, squinting the darkness, trying to get a good look at Sadie’s face. He didn’t like the tone she was using. It sounded like the tone Lovetts always used right before they did something stupid. “I guess we’ll see.”

“I guess we will.” Sadie fell into a brooding silence, anger still burning hot as the car came to a stop. A moment later the trunk opened, and Sadie felt a man’s hands on her shoulders, roughly hauling her out. She struggled in the man’s hands. “Let go of me!”

“Shut up, whore.” Axel grunted, digging his fingernails into her forearms as he set her on the ground and forced her up a slight incline.

“Make me, jerkface,” Sadie snarled, jerking away from Axel. She stumbled forward, unable to see where she was going because of the hood still over her head. Axel was quickly after her. He gave her shoulder a swift push, sending her tumbling into the flowerbed headfirst, hands still bound behind her back so she couldn’t catch herself. She groaned loudly.

“Ooh, jerkface, aren’t you talking tough now,” Axel mocked, walking up and grabbing her shoulders. He yanked her to her feet and forced her a step forward. “Next time it’ll be onto the concrete steps.”

“Better than in your hands,” she muttered, still struggling.

“I don’t have time for this!” Axel said irritably, digging his fingers into her shoulders. Sadie threw her shoulder into his chest, as best as she could. He growled in frustration and grabbed her around the waist, then hefted her over his shoulder. He turned to look at Ronan. “Get Hynes.”

“What do you think you’re doing? Put me down!” Sadie tried to struggle, but with her arms behind her back, and her legs held down by Axel’s arm, she had no leverage. She stopped struggling with a huff as Axel started up the stairs. “I hope Meyer kills you first.”

Karson cringed when he saw Sadie on Axel’s shoulder. He didn’t know how this night was going to play out, but he figured that manhandling Sadie was going to make it worse—for Resnick and his men, at least. She seemed furious, and Karson couldn’t blame her.

He hesitated as Ronan paused to shut the trunk. Looking up he saw a large white house sitting on top of the hill just in front of them. The drive they were standing in made a large loop and circled back down to the bottom of the hill to join the road they’d driven on to get up here, and met a locked gate with a guardhouse at the bottom.

The grounds were immaculate—the result of someone spending a lot of long hours tending the lawn and shrubbery. The hedges were trimmed into various sculptures, the flowerbeds – aside from where Sadie had taken a tumble into one – were prim and proper.

The house itself was ridiculously large, with dozens of windows and it seemed like as many stories, though in reality it was probably only three or four plus an attic. It was a shiny white, like it’d recently received a fresh coat of paint. A guard patrolled the perimeter of the house with a threateningly glare on his face and an AR-15 in his hands.

Karson looked at Axel as he quickly ascended the steps with Sadie on his shoulder. He hesitated outside a large, polished, mahogany door with an iron knocker that was doubtfully ever used. Anyone who was still alive by the time they go to door were certainly announced in advance.

“Move,” Ronan ordered, giving Karson a push. “I ain’t giving you a ride up the stairs.”