Black Horse (Breaking Black) (20 page)

“Hmm… maybe you were dumb enough to think that I wouldn’t check the closets…”

Black Horse watched his son approach. For the first time in forever, Black Horse had been caught off guard. Outwitted with someone who he deemed to be inferior. He was backed into a corner, and he was prepared to do the only thing he knew how.
Fight
.

As Colt swung the closet door open the old man stormed at him. Neither surprised to see the other, neither backing down from the fight. With two guns to his head, Colt demanded the respect that had long evaded him. But just when he was about to pull the trigger a foreboding sound caught Colt’s attention. Footsteps. More than one set. More like dozens stepped in behind him. Fred Morone, Tony Schiabetta, Jerry Rogers and at least ten other bikers stepped in. Dressed from head to toe in black with various weapons ready to defend their leader. The biggest of the men, Ray Grisham, held a hunting blade to Randy’s neck. There had clearly been a struggle. A slick trail of blood ran from Randy’s nose.

“Gun down, Colt…” demanded Ray.

“Oh, how cute. The boy scouts are here,” Colt said turning around with his guns still pointed at his father.

One of the bikers, Jerry, started to move forward, his heavy boot hitting the floor.

“One more step and I blow his fucking brains on the wall.”

Ray let go of Randy as the group spread out closing off the exits to the house, creating a formidable barrier. Randy and Colt stood back to back, circling the room with their weapons out. They were largely out numbered, but Colt was smarter than most of these guys put together. Black Horse stood back and watched, grinning, wondering how his son and his friend would get out of this mess. It was entertainment to him.

Randy said softly under his breath, “We doing this?”

“Colt replied. “Yup.”

“On a count of three…”

But the men didn’t wait for the count of three. They moved fast shooting anyone in their way. Most of the men carried knives with them for dramatic effect but they weren’t so effective at taking down a man who stormed through a room trying to take down as many others as possible. You had to have really good aim, and half of these jokers were already three beers in.

Bullets flew everywhere, Black Horse went down. Jimmy Hearns lay flat in the middle of the room like a coward, Ray caught a bullet in the chest and Tony caught one in the gut. Two of the bikers cornered Colt. Jerry and Pete. They had a familiar look in their eye. He had seen it many times before in his own father’s eyes. Drug addled lunacy. Before he could reload his gun, Jerry had slammed his hunting blade into Colt’s stomach. Blood spurted out of Colt’s mouth. He screamed in agony.

“You messed with the wrong crew, Colt!”

“No, dumbasses,” said Randy as he came up behind the two assailants and pressed two guns into the bald scalps. “You did.”

He pulled the triggers simultaneously and they went down, limp and unmoving.

Randy stepped over the men and passed Colt his shirt to hold against the wound. It was a deep knife wound and if he didn’t get to the hospital fast, he wouldn’t live the night.

“I’m fine! Get him! He’s getting away!”

From the shadow of the room, to the bright afternoon that awaited outside, Black Horse drug himself away from the blood bath that occurred inside the house. He was bleeding from the head, arm and leg, but as long as blood still coursed through his veins, he would never stop
hunting for his prey. Fast on his heels, Jimmy Hearns followed. He had clearly chosen his side.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Stripped

“Danny’s here…” said Shelly aloud as she checked her phone.

“Alright,” said Averi as she kissed her brother Tim goodbye. He was still sleeping soundly.

“Bye, baby… We’ll be back tomorrow. Hopefully you’ll be getting out of here soon…”

Tim didn’t respond, continuing to sleep soundly thanks to the medication that was pumping through his IV.

Shelly and Averi took the elevator down to the first floor where Danny met then.

“Ladies, your chariot awaits…” Danny said facetiously referring to his beat up Jeep that was parked outside.

The moment Averi stepped out of the elevator she knew something was wrong. A group of orderlies and nurses were pushing a man in on a stretcher. He was holding a piece of fabric to his stomach as he grimaced in pain. She’d know that face anywhere.

With a look of shock on her face, Averi watched the stretcher go by.

“Colt?!”

“Let’s go, Averi…” Danny urged.

She wasn’t budging, though. In fact, she started to run after the stretcher.

“Ave!” Shelly yelled.

Suddenly Randy ran in the building. He had traveled on foot from the abandoned house over to the hospital. He heaved, out of breath and exhausted from his run.

“Averi… Stop. Go with Danny…” he said breathlessly.

“What the hell happened?!”

“We were outnumbered. The Seventy Devils showed up.”

“Is he going to be okay?!”

“I don’t know. He swears he’s fine, but they cut him pretty deep. I will call you when I know something. Go with Danny. He will keep you safe.”

Averi wanted to be there, be by his side, but she knew that no where was safe. Against her greatest wishes, she followed Danny out of hospital and climbed into his car with shaking hands. She couldn’t see through the tears, or breathe through her cries.

“Hang on…” Danny said with a dangerous hilt to his voice as he sped off down Memphis Road, quickly weaving through traffic, trying to get Averi out of sight.

***

Black Horse cut off the tags of a white Escalade that sat parked outside of Mick’s Coffee Lounge. The driver had left the passenger window rolled down and Black Horse easily reached in and unlocked the vehicle. Hotwiring the vehicle didn’t take long at all; he’d done it a million times before. In the cup holder there was a bottle of water that was half full. He poured the remaining water over his head and allowed it to wash away some of the dirt, grime and blood from his face, neck and arms. He was going to need to do something about his appearance if he planned to lie low. Speeding off down Asher Lane, Black Horse devised a plan.

Black Horse walked through the front door of the Grainger Run Goodwill and made a beeline for the men’s wear section. Quickly, he picked out a pair of jeans, a white button down shirt and a clean t-shirt that he could wear underneath. Quickly, he paid for his items, and sped out of the parking. Next, he walked into the gas station on Route 1, grabbed a couple of essentials from the toiletry aisle and paid for it in cash. He bid the cashier farewell and gave a seemingly kind smile to the young mother and her daughter that stood behind him in line. If only they knew that he wasn’t some nice old man.

Black Horse took the brown paper bag from the cashier’s hands, and at the last minute realized that he had forgotten something.

“I’m sorry, darlin’. Can you grab me a pack of matches and some lighter fluid? Me and the little miss are havin’ us a barbecue, tonight!”

“That sounds nice!” said the cashier, just trying to be nice. She put the tall bottle of lighter fluid on the counter along with a 100-pack of matches. “That’ll be $4.98.”

“Here ‘ya go, sweetie,” said Black Horse as he handed over a five dollar bill. “Keep the change.”

“Gee, thanks, Mister,” the cashier said rolling her eyes as she put two pennies in the “take a penny, leave a penny” jar.

Black Horse kicked the door of the gas station quickie mart open and he made his way around to the bathroom around back with his paper bag in hand. The bathroom was disgusting. Grimy walls with sticky floors and mold growing in every crevice of the tiled room. Black Horse dumped the contents of his bag out into the dirty bathroom sink and discarded the bag behind him. A striped can of Barbasol shaving clean clunked against the sink as a cheap bic razor, a tooth brush and a tiny tube of Ace tooth paste followed. He wanted to strip away the parts of himself that people would recognize him by. His all black clothes, his long beard and shaggy hair… his foul breath. He stripped the old parts of him away and made himself a new man; in appearance alone, of course. There was no fixing the man he was inside. Lord knows Jessa McClain tried.

As his gray hair fell into the sink, Black Horse became unrecognizable. His head was shaved bald, and he trimmed his facial hair so that only a bushy mustache remained. He decided at the last moment to trim that, too. He didn’t want anyone to be able to put two and two together. There were few who would be able to see him coming now. His fresh clothing, his clean cut image with not a hair on his face or head, and a jovial smile gave him the appearance of a friendly visitor who was just passing through. Something he most certainly was not.

Black Horse was coming, and no one would recognize his arrival until it was too late.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Safe Room

Danny led Averi to the safe room that was located just next door to the back office. This room had one purpose. To guard Danny’s money that he earned from the bar. As a result, there were four deadbolts on the door. The room consisting of four walls, no windows, a heavy duty old school safe in the corner and a folding chair that Danny sat on when counting the money at night. The aptly named safe room was like Fort Knox.

“I’m sorry to have to do this to you, Ave… but we have to keep you safe. They are continuing the search tonight and I’ll keep my eyes peeled.”

“I’ll be fine. I just want this to be over with.”

“I’ve got some magazines you can read…” Danny said as he flicked the Penthouses out of Averi’s view and past her the Sports Illustrated, National Geographic and People magazines that were from lord only knows when.

“Thanks. Don’t forget about me back here…” said Averi, trying to be a good sport.

“Because we would do that?! Figure out what you want from the kitchen so we can get your order in before happy hour and the bull crowd arrives…”

“I’m not hungry.”

“From what I hear, you’re in a delicate state, and you will eat. Colt McClain will not have my head because I didn’t offer you some dinner.”

Averi couldn’t help but laugh. Colt may have been rough around the edges, but he did look out for her.

“Chicken fingers, a side of fries and some ice water.”

“Yum. I’ll let Terry know. Stay put.”

“Cause I have a choice right?” Averi said facetiously. She was trying to make light of a situation that was very dire, indeed. The fact of the matter was, the man that was after her was so feared that her friends felt it was best to lock her in a safe room with four locks to protect her until Randy could pick her up.

As the heavy door of the safe room shut, Averi heard four locks secure the room. But in that moment, it wasn’t relief that she felt. But expectation. She awaited his arrival. Like his son, Black Horse didn’t know the word quit. The difference was, while Colt defended her and protected her and loved her without end, Black Horse wouldn’t stop until she was dead. Averi’s
hand reached over her flat stomach, knowing what precious cargo lie inside. For the first time in a long time, Averi Ford broke down and cried.

***

“No! You’re not admittin’ me! Clean it up, stitch it up and I gotta go!” Colt yelled his temper clearly getting the better of him. His second cousin Margie Braxton was a nurse in the emergency room at the hospital and she was trying to get Colton to lie still long enough so she could treat him.

“Colt… This is a deep stab wound. The muscles are separated. You must let them operate!”

“I will come back for the operation after I deal with that son of a bitch!”

“Colton, I must insist!”

“Insist all you want, I ain’t stayin here while my girl’s out there…”

“Let the cops handle it…”

“The cops know what he’s up to… You see they’ve done nothin! The Oakeley force is corrupt! Averi’s uncle is keeping them away from us tonight so we can take care of this… Once and for all. ”

“Shawn is a great guy…”

“Margie, please… Stitch me up. I have to go. Averi is pregnant, and he is coming after her.
Please
!”

Margie looked at Colton with somber eyes.

“Damn it, Colt… Lean back. Let me see what I can do.”

***

The Monkey Bar was jammed packed and Shelly was running around like a chicken who had lost its head trying to fulfill everyone’s drink order and keep everyone happy… which in this town, was a fool’s errand.

“Baby! I said a Jack on the rocks… not this shit…”

“Shelly, where’s your girlfriend tonight… whatshername…”

“Averi…”

“Yeah, where’s she at?!”

“Hiding from jackasses like you.”

“Hey beautiful, how bought you bring your sweet ass over here and we chat for a while.”

Danny, Shelly’s brother, stepped up behind the foul mouthed drunk.