Black Horse (Breaking Black) (21 page)

“Leave.”

“What?!”

“Did I speak fucking Russian?! Get out!” Danny brought his fingers to his lips and let out a screech of a whistle. “Listen up ‘ery one!”

The juke box stopped and people ceased their conversations to gaze at Danny. He was a big guy, 6 foot 1 with the build of a linebacker. His bald head and his beer belly only added to his image as a non-threatening guy, but when he was pissed, forget it.

“I’m not taking no fuckin’ shit from none of yas tonight. Talk down to the waitresses, or my sister behind the bar, and we’re going to have a problem. Got it?”

Most of the people grumbled and then returned to their conversations, but one man decided to strike up a conversation with Danny.

“It’s amazing how some guys think they can treat these women like garbage,” the man said. He was clean cut, friendly and he looked vaguely familiar.

“I know, right. Sorry, friend… I don’t think I’ve made your acquaintance…” said Danny as he peered at the man with inquisitive eyes.

“I don’t believe we have. I’m just passin’ through… Name’s Michael. Michael Koch.”

“Nice to meet you, Michael. What brings you to our hole in the wall…”

“I’m in town traveling to New Mexico from Baton Rouge. I was intrigued by the sign outside. Mechanical bull?”

“Oh, yeah… that’ll start shortly.”

“Are you sure I don’t know you from somewhere?” Danny asked as he scratched his head.

“I couldn’t think of where. Have you ever seen my face before?”

“No. Can’t say I have, you must just have one of those faces.”

“I must.”

Black Horse’s change in appearance had worked like a charm. Not even Shelly had recognized him.

***

Randy sat in the waiting room of the hospital as he waited on news of Colt. He was expecting a doctor to come out with an update, but instead it was Colt himself, charging out of the back.

“Let’s go.”

Randy, not saying a word, shook his head at his future brother-in-law. How the hell did he ever mistake him for being an enemy of the family?

***

Averi sat in the rickety folding chair in the safe room shifting uncomfortably, and wishing the night would hurry up. She felt so cut off from the world in the room, but she knew she was safe from Black Horse here. She looked at her cell phone, it was only 8:15 at night. Rolling her eyes, she flipped through the pages of the Rolling Stone and continued to bide her time. She just hoped that Colt and Randy were okay.

A moment later, she heard someone on the opposite side of the door. She wasn’t expecting anyone to check on her until around 10 so she was a bit perplexed as to who could be in the office. She didn’t hear any voices, just the muffled sound of boots pounding against the floor. She stared at the door nervously, wondering who was on the other side. Out of instinct, she got up out of her chair and hid in the opposite corner. Something told her that it wasn’t Colt or Randy on the other side.

***

It was nearly 9 PM and the Monkey Bar was standing room only as Danny turned on the mechanical bull. A couple of drunk guys got in
line, preparing to riding Bessie the Bull. Shelly told Danny that she was skipping tonight because she wanted to keep an eye on the crowd from behind the bar. There was one guy that made her feel a little uneasy. That guy Michael from Baton Rouge. He didn’t sound like he was from Louisianna… and he looked so goddamn familiar. But when he left the bar around 8:30, Shelly pushed her worry aside and chalked it up to nerves.

The bar was so noisy. She couldn’t even hear herself think over the racket of the bull and the hooting and hollering of the bar patrons as each drunk was thrown from Bessie’s back. Bessie was a fickle bitch.

***

Averi stared at the door until it ceased to exist. The banging sound of a shot gun shell ripped through the door leaving a massive hole. Then another shot and another.

“Averi?!” a voice yelled.

She recognized the voice. It was not a welcomed voice.

“Get away from me Jimmy!”

“Come on, I’m going to save you…”

“You’re working with him!”

“I know Colt put you in here… I’m going to save you from him, once and for all…”

Jimmy stepped through the hole in the door with the gun still in his hand. He had a strange look in his eye. A manic look, as if he thought he could take over the world.

Jimmy grabbed Averi’s hand but she fought back, crashing the chair against the wall, causing the legs to splinter. Averi grabbed a sharp piece of the splintered wood and lunged at Jimmy, stabbing him in his arm. As blood gushed from his arm, Jimmy’s face morphed into that of a monster. Suddenly, Averi saw the family resemblance between Black Horse and his youngest son. Grabbing her by her hair, Jimmy drug Averi from the room and out the emergency exit as she screamed at the top of her lungs. But as much as she screamed, no one could hear her over the loud noise in the bar.

***

Colton and Randy walked in at a quarter to eleven with sweat pouring down there faces. They walked up to the bar where Shelly poured them each a cold beer and told them to take a load off. Colt took a sip of his beer and pushed it aside.

“I need to see Averi,” he said, pushing his bar stool out.

“Here, you’ll need these.”

Shelly pulled a ring of keys off her belt loop and handed them over to Colt.

Colt made his way across the bar, his eyes scanning the crowd. When he didn’t see any sign of his father, he entered the back office. He searched for the keys he needed to open the door to the safe room, but when he looked up his heart seized. The door to the safe room had been obliterated to splinters. A shot gun blast had charged through the door.

“Averi!” Colt screamed, dropping everything he had in his hand. He ran to the door frame and poked his head inside where the door once stood.

“Averi!!!!!!!”

The were signs of a struggle. Magazines littered the floor of the safe room and the chair sat in pieces on the floor. A piece of wood was covered in blood where someone had clearly used it as a shank.

His heart raced, his mind broke and in that moment, Colton McClain allowed the darkness to take him. He turned like a mad man storming out of the office and into the bar. Pushing people out of his way, he charged through the crowd as his hysteria set in. His father had her, he knew it,
he just knew it. It was then, that the smell of smoke caught his attention.

“Oh, my God.”

His muscles immediately set into a run bolting to the front door of the bar.

“Oh, my GOD! No!!!!”

Colt fell to his knees as he felt his chest sear in pain. He watched as ferocious flames engulfed the abandoned house where Black Horse had set up shop.

“Averi!!!!”

***

“Shut up and sit down! I’m here trying to help you and you stab me… This is the last time you will make a fool of me!” said Jimmy as he tied Averi into a chair.

She glared at him with hate in her eyes. Before she could say a word, Jimmy sent his backhand flying fast, cracking against Averi’s face. As blood spurt out of her mouth, she could feel heat rising from the basement. Black Horse didn’t care who he killed in his never ending quest for vengeance… and his hatred spread like wildfire through the night.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Inferno

The sound of Colt McClain’s heart wrenching cry released into the night. Randy heard it, even over the crowd in the bar. He ran from his seat, knocking over his chair and some poor fool who got in his way. He rammed through the front door of the bar and found Colt on his knees, screaming.

“No!!!!!!!!”

Tears flooded his face as hysteria took over him. His chest heaved. His limbs shook and everything in his body was telling him that Averi was dead.

“Get up,” Randy urged, not taking his eyes off of the fire. “Get up, there he is!”

“What?”

“Get the fuck up! He’s comin’ right for you!”

Colt’s face screwed up in an ugly snarl. He grabbed his knife from his back pocket and lunged for his father, damn near slicing his throat. For an old bastard, he moved fast. Black Horse had climbed from the storm cellar where
he had set the structure on fire. He was out for blood, as much as he could get his hands on. He stared at Colt and Randy with the look of the devil in his eyes.

“I got him, Colt. Get her!”

Randy could hear his sister’s screams from inside of the building. She sounded like she was being tortured.

“Mother fucker, you should have stayed away,” said Randy as he shot Black Horse in the leg. Black Horse fell, gripping his leg. But still, even in agonizing pain, the old bastard still had fight in him. He took a shot at Randy’s head and missed.

Randy smirked darkly at the old man and said,“You wish, son of a bitch!” Randy took one final shot and this time the bullet appeared to do the trick. The cold metal of the bullet found a warm home in the gulley of Black Horse’s chest where his dead heart existed, useless for anything but pumping blood.

Randy left him there to die, unconscious and bloody.

***

Averi fought against the rope that was tied around her ankles and wrists as the heat of the inferno scorched her skin. She struggled, trying to loosen the binds, desperately trying to break free. She wondered, what would Jesus do if faced with this situation? Then a thought occurred to her. Jessa McClain. She had broken out of a locked building that was set ablaze by the man who was supposed to love her.

What would Jessa McClain do?

***

Colton ran towards the fire. The heat burned his skin from across the road. He didn’t care. He had to get her. He had to save her. He couldn’t think of anything else but getting Averi out alive. He kicked the front door in that was secured with a padlock from the outside, and as Averi’s screams cried out into the night, Colton McClain jumped through the ring of fire in a desperate attempt to save the only woman he ever loved.

***

Jessa would fight. Jessa would scream. Jessa would break shit until she was free. She was locked in that burning shed when she was eight months pregnant with Colton. He had always resented Colton in some way or another, and Colt’s love for his mother was a huge factor in that. Averi continued to think of Jessa as she felt
the fire rip apart the skin on her ankles, her legs, her thighs.

“Jesus Christ!” Averi screamed, and as she did her fingernail ripped through the shredding rope around her wrists. The fire had burned the binds around her ankles and suddenly, she was free. She was encircled by the flames, and she didn’t know where to go. She climbed on a chair and stood on the kitchen cabinets to keep away from the flames. She tried to get out of the kitchen window but it was boarded up from the outside. She kicked and she kicked but it did no good. As the tears flooded from her eyes, it became clear to her that she would die in the house. Die at the hands of her baby’s grandfather… die at the hands of an obsessed stalker who would never give up. That is when she saw him and let out a final scream.

***

“He’s coming,” Jimmy said… “He’s coming for you and I have to save you.”

Averi shook, desperate to get free. Desperate to get away from Jimmy Hearns, Black Horse and the burning inferno that was eating at her flesh. Then she heard a sound of hope.

“Averi!!” Colton yelled over the flames.

Jimmy Hearns had his hands over her mouth and he pulled her further into the fire.

They were surrounded by the flames. She bit at Jimmy’s hands and he let go as he winced in pain. The white hot flames bit at her feet and she couldn’t climb any higher to get away from the fire. Jimmy tried pulling her down but she kicked him, her foot colliding with his chest. Yanking her off the counter by her arm, Jimmy put his hand over her mouth as he stared at Colt with hate in his eyes. Colt returned the favor as he aimed his gun at his half-brother and pulled the trigger. Averi gasped as the bullet raged through the air, ripping past her face and lodging in the throat of Jimmy Hearns. He dropped, releasing Averi from his grasp.

Colton jumped over the flames before him and ducked quickly as the ceiling began to cave in above them. Reaching Averi, he grabbed he and refused to let go. She gripped his neck tight and tried to wrap her legs around him, but they were burnt so severely that she could not move them. He carried her, through the flames, and out of the house into the dark of night leaving Jimmy in the inferno. 

Out of the corner of Colt’s eye he could see a figure limping towards them at a fast gait… too fast… it had to be Black Horse. Colt went to guard Averi out of instinct but when he turned around she wasn’t there. With no room to think about what was happening, Colt went hand to hand with his father. His upper cut knocking
Black Horse’s front two teeth down his throat. Randy held him for Colt to hit him again. He seemed to back down for a moment so Randy let go and stood back so that he was in the wings should Black Horse try to run again. Before Colt could get in another jab, Averi had returned to his line of sight. He had finally gotten a good look at her. Her legs were burned severely, but she was standing in an aggressive stance with a crow bar in her hands. She looked at Black Horse as if she had the taste of his evil in her. Black Horse smirked at her for a minute.