Thanks to al for reading, and those of you who reviewed the last chapter, special thanks, you are the best! Let me know what you think of this one :)
Still do not own, still make not money.
Chapter 10: Divide and Conquer?
The kid wearing the uniform didn't look much older than Jack. His eyes had a fear to them that felt familiar, but that didn't stop Bobby Mercer's fist from making contact with his nose, vibrating with a sickening crack as knuckles met bone and cartilage. The kid sprawled immediately while Bobby gave his throbbing hand a quick shake, ready to push past the next badge trying to block his forward motion towards the dark colored car driving away from the curb.
He could see Craig's eyes through the car window; he could tell the kid was losing it. He was screaming Bobby's name and struggling against the man holding onto him. He didn't like being touched. That was the thought that ran through Bobby's head at that moment; Craig didn't like being touched, and here these ass holes were, total strangers putting their hands on him, driving away with him; taking him to God only knew.
"Mercer, just give me a reason." The second cop reached for his gun and was ready to pull it out. He stepped in Bobby's path again, as the car he'd been trying to catch up to picked up speed and moved further down the street.
Bobby pulled his fist back and was about to bust a jaw when hands grabbed hold of him. "Bobby, Bobby, that's not gonna help!" Angel cried out from behind him.
Bobby was sure he saw the flash of handcuffs just out of the corner of his eye and he quickly pulled his body backwards, away from the attempted arrest he could feel was coming. As soon as he was out of range of the cop more hands grabbed at his arm.
Bobby gave his arm a jerk back from the hands reaching for him. He turned to discover it was Jeremiah intervening this time. "Get the fuck off of me Jerr'." He yelled and turned to look at the cars still gathered around the house.
His mind flashed a picture of their street the morning Jack had been shot and Craig had been stolen by Sweet's men, this felt too damn close to that morning. "Shit." He turned back to watch the retreating tail end of the car carrying his baby brother grow smaller in size as more distance was put between them. Without realizing it he managed to walk clear past the corner to stand in the street as he watched the car make a turn at the next intersection. "Shit." He sucked in a deep breath and started walking back towards Angel. "You got Bradford on the phone? You're talkin' to him?" He called out to Angel.
He could see more suits closing in on him and his remaining brothers. His heart was beating hard in his chest. His first instinct was to grab Jerry's keys, hijack his car and take off after Craig. Hell, they would get Jack out of jail, that wasn't going to be an issue. He didn't care how much it cost; he'd get the money to get him out of jail. The charges weren't going to stick, they couldn't. But Craig, once they had him locked down in the system it would be nearly impossible to get him back.
"Yeah, I do, and he said to stop your bullshit or he ain't gonna be able to do anything for us." Angel's voice was sharp enough to cut through the confusion that had dropped down over the whole scene like a blanket.
Bobby felt Jeremiah join him at his side, and the cop with the handcuffs was coming towards him again while other men assisted the kid lying on the ground.
"Mercer, you are under arrest for assaulting an officer of the law." The cop started to spout off Miranda rights, but was interrupted by another voice.
"I don't think so, patrolman." Johnson's voice called out from a new car that had arrived at the curb. He got out of the unmarked car and quickly moved towards Bobby. "I tried to get here as soon as I heard Harris was going to pull this shit." He called out.
Bobby felt his right fist tighten and was ready to take aim on Johnson. He needed to hit someone, or something. Hell, he was ready to take on every man grouping together in his front yard, "Come a little closer Johnson." He challenged him.
"I didn't know Bobby." Johnson spoke quickly, eyeing Bobby's fist as he came to a halt just out of reach of any strike. "I was at the hospital with Green, and I got the call. I'm sorry, I had no idea he was going to arrest Jack."
"Fine, get him out then." Bobby's voice came out hard. "And get Craig back while you're at it."
"Craig?" Johnson kept his gaze fixed on Bobby for a moment, then glanced at Angel and Jeremiah. "What?" He obviously felt as confused as the Mercers, but for different reasons.
"Craig, they took Craig." Jeremiah spoke quickly.
Angel continued his conversation on the phone while Bobby turned his full attention to Johnson. "What the hell is going on here Johnson? They arrested Jack. How in the fuck did that happen?" He yelled at the only person in his immediate presence that he could lash out at with validity.
"I didn't know about this Bobby." Johnson spoke quickly. "We will get Jack out; he'll be out in time to sleep in his own bed. Harris can't have anything substantial, not with Green's and my reports to back up your statements of what happened Saturday. What the hell are you talking about with Craig?"
"Ass holes from Children's Services showed up here with Harris, and while he arrested Jack, they took Craig!" Jeremiah informed the detective with a relatively calm voice.
Bobby's voice thundered out as his anger released. "They had fucking papers, and they just swooped in here and snatched him right out from under me! It's bad enough that I've had to fight tooth and nail to keep my family together for the past fucking month; scratching and clawing just to keep my brothers safe! I never thought I'd have to worry about the fucking cops or the government coming in here and ripping our lives apart, not after all the promises I got from Green and you!" He could feel the pressure building up in his gut, the promise he'd made to himself years ago, that promise to watch out for his brothers no matter what, was falling apart.
"We'll fix this Bobby; I promise you we will fix it." Johnson sounded and looked half worried. As he looked around at the men standing around the front yard of the Mercer house his worried expression turned to contempt.
"What the fuck Johnson, the FBI turned that sick shit loose and let him come after my family. Why the hell is that? What the hell is Harris up to? Why is my family a damn target for the FBI?" He tried to stop the words from coming out, but he couldn't hold it in. His family was disintegrating right before his eyes and he felt helpless to stop it. He'd come so close to losing all of his brothers too many times in the past month, enough was enough. It was going to end soon, and he was going to end it, one way or another.
"Bobby, man, just calm your ass down." Jeremiah spoke quickly while he looked around at the imposing law officials invading their space. "You don't want to draw all this attention." He kept his voice low, just at a level that Bobby could hear him when he leaned in closer towards him.
Bobby kept his hard stare fixed on Johnson, barely flicking his eyes to Jerry as an acknowledgment that he'd heard him and understood. "Tell me what the fuck is going on Johnson, or you're gonna be wiping more noses off the street." He made a quick motion to the younger uniformed officer who was being helped up to his feet, holding cupped hands over his bloody nose and moaning.
"I don't know; you have to give me some time." Johnson sucked in a deep breath. "You call your lawyer."
"I got Bradford on the phone now." Angel announced as he stepped closer. "He wants to know why all these fucking people are out here trampling over our mother's grass, making it all muddy and sickly." He turned and looked at the Johnson. "They got what the fuck they came for, get them out of here."
Johnson sighed and nodded his head. "Let me talk to them. I don't know what they're sticking around for." He turned and walked over to one of the suits and started talking quietly.
"Bobby, Robert says we should be able to get Jack out pretty easy. He's heading down to the station now." Angel closed his phone up. "He's going to make some calls about Craig too."
Bobby looked at Angel and then at Jeremiah. "What the fuck are these guys doing here?" He turned his attention back to the conversation taking place between Johnson and the man that he assumed was another FBI agent, since Johnson seemed to be guarded with him. "What do we have that Harris would think is important?"
"We ain't got shit." Angel shook his head as he followed Bobby's eyes. "Harris is taking a stab in the dark here."
"You guys did get rid of the guns, right?" Jeremiah spoke as the man Johnson had confronted pulled papers out of his coat pocket and held them up for Johnson to look at. "I have a feeling they're gonna search the house."
"Shit." Bobby muttered. He hadn't thought about the tote full of illegal weapons that he'd snagged from Stanley Miller's apartment. He hadn't given the tote one thought since he'd cleaned and put away the guns late Saturday night.
"The guns were moved a couple of days ago." Angel muttered quietly, raising an eyebrow towards Bobby as if he were expection questions as soon as the revelation was made. "I thought we should get them out of the house, just in case."
"What do you mean they were moved?" Bobby looked at Angel, half ready to crack his skull for making that move without talking to him about it, but thankful his brother had been thinking with the right head for a change. If the feds searched the house and had found that tote full of guns they would have all ended up behind bars and in a shitload of trouble. "Good thinking." He forced the words out as Johnson turned and headed back towards them.
"They have a search warrant." Johnson spoke as he neared them. He still made a point to stop just out of reach of Bobby's aim if the man should decide to take a swing.
"How the hell did they get a search warrant? Or an arrest warrant for Jack? You keep saying they don't have shit, but they must think they have something, or they wouldn't have the warrant, right?" Jeremiah spoke up before Bobby had a chance to.
"Look, we knew there was going to be an investigation, I just didn't expect Harris to go this far." Johnson held both hands up as if to surrender. "I wish I knew the answers, but I don't."
Bobby stood back and watched as the men started filing into his mother's house. "Hey, you better not tear shit up, you got that?" He yelled out to them. "That's my mother's house, you treat it with respect." He turned away. "Those sorry sons of bitches are going to tear it all to hell." He muttered and looked at Johnson. "You better get your ass in there and make sure nothing get's broken!"
Johnson sighed and turned away. "I'll do my best Bobby." He glanced at the uniformed officer still standing close by with his handcuffs gripped tightly. "Put those away, and don't even think about using them." He warned the man as he stepped past him and up the steps. The officer fidgeted with the cuffs for a moment and then slid them into their pouch on his belt. He was staying out there to keep an eye on the brothers, that was obvious, but he was just out of earshot, so long as the Mercers kept their voices quiet.
Bobby looked at his watch. It was a little after two o'clock. He wondered just how quickly Bradford would be able to get to the police station to work on busting Jack loose. "Shit, so much for coming up with a plan." He didn't bother to look at either of his brothers; he stared at the front door of the porch, listening for the sounds of the few precious items that had once belonged to his mother crashing about. He never heard the sounds he expected to, but he was sure he heard Johnson's voice a couple of different times. "I hate trying to react to shit all of the time. It's time to take action before the shit gets worse."
"How the hell do we do that Bobby?" Angel asked. "We have no idea what Harris is looking for, or why he's decided to target us. I mean let's face it, if Macks was working with Harris, he wasn't a snitch, Harris is a crooked agent, and that's going to be a little more difficult than taking down a dirty local cop."
Bobby understood the reference to both Fowler and Higgins, and he knew that Angel was right. It didn't matter to him though; they were going to take Harris down. Dirty cop, dirty FBI, it all amounted to the same thing, dirty authority making dirty money at the expense of innocent people like his own family. Okay, maybe him, Angel and Jeremiah weren't so innocent in the past, but Jack and Craig? He wasn't about to lose both of his little brothers, not after fighting so fucking hard to keep them both safe. "I don't know Angel. I figure if Macks had people feeding him information, he was working both sides. We know who he had covering his ass in the FBI, that's easy, I say we find out who he was working with on the other end and what the fuck he was up to." Bobby finally turned to face both of his brothers. "So, we got contacts on the street, right? I'm sure someone knows shit somewhere."
"I got contacts, you ain't got shit." Angel kept his voice and eyes leveled at Bobby.
"I got a few people who might be able to ask around." Jeremiah nodded his head. "Evan and Charlie might know who we can talk to, hell they were trapped in Sweet's organization long enough to know names."
"Yeah, and we need to warn Johnny G. If they are coming after us like this, they are gonna take aim on him too, and that could really turn into a mess, what with that sawed-off he keeps behind the bar." Bobby nodded his head. "He might have heard something too; you know how his customers like to talk."
"He would have called." Jeremiah commented.
"No he wouldn't. He knows how to keep his defenses up, and he wouldn't jump on the phone, he'd wait for us to go to him. No news is worth sharing if it can't be done face to face, or so he's told me before." Bobby reminded Jerry of Johnny's way. The man wouldn't run after anyone, no matter how much he liked or disliked them, he'd wait until they came to him. If someone was watching Johnny to see how closely he was involved in shit, they would jump on him the second he reached out and made contact. Bobby knew he had to make that move, and it wasn't going to be at the bar.
Jack didn't say a word. Not one single word the entire ride to the police station. He thought at first that he was going to be taken to the FBI satellite office in Detroit, but Harris told him he was going to be booked into county lock up and held separately from the other inmates. Those words were intended to make him nervous, he could tell by the tone Harris used. Hell it wasn't like he'd never spent a night in jail before, and being held separately was definitely a plus; Harris should have known that. Not that he was looking forward to any time behind bars, but being separated from the drunks and druggies was a small consolation. He could deal with being locked up for a few hours, so long as he didn't have to deal with the shit that usually came with it. Bobby had said they would get him out, and he had faith in his brothers.
Harris talked the whole ride, and Jack tried to remember each and every word, sure that something the man said might come in handy later, when he was telling his brothers all about the experience of being locked in a car with the man.
"I just want to get to the truth here Jack. I need to know what the hell happened on New Years. I need to know every last detail. Your statement didn't make sense to me. There were too many questions raised as to the reasons your entire family was in that cemetery with a man you all claimed was coming after you. I mean, come on, you all admitted that you arrived in separate cars. Craig's statement was too vague. Far too vague to tie up any loose ends, and by not allowing me to question him, your brother has hung your ass out to dry. Can you understand that at all Jack? Your brothers have sacrificed you, and the only way you're going to get out of this is to tell me the truth." Harris' tone was void of any human emotion. He sounded like a robot repeating words that had been programmed into that tiny little chip in his head.
Jack kept his gaze fixed forward, not looking at anything in particular, just forward, his mind bringing up pictures of that morning in the cemetery. The morning he'd picked up a gun and aimed it at a man. No, he wasn't proud of what he'd done, no matter how badly he'd wanted Macks out of the way. He had wanted him dead, deep down, as payment for all of the pain he'd caused Craig and him, and his entire family. Adam Macks had played a part in attacking the foundations of his family, bombarding the foundations that kept them connected and stable. In the end Evelyn Mercer had built unbreakable bonds between her sons that no one would ever be able to rip apart.
No, he wasn't proud of himself for taking another life, no matter how evil that man had been, or the shit he'd done to the Mercer family over the period of five years or more, but he damn sure wasn't sorry, and he damn sure had no fears of his brothers abandoning him. At one time, maybe he would have feared being left to fend for himself, but not now. His family would never do that, they had proved that to him too many times in the past, keeping his head above water when he was drowning in his own fears and self loathing. Harris' actions and words were a desperate attempt to drive a wedge into his family roots and rip them clean from one another.
It dawned on him that Harris was using a tactic that Bobby had often employed back in the day. Separate the opposition, make them weaker by decreasing their numbers and getting them to say and do what he wanted. Well it wasn't going to work on Jack Mercer. Hell no. When he didn't react to Harris' words the man scoffed at him and shook his head, laughing mockingly. "Have it your way Jack. If you won't talk to me, I'm sure I know a Mercer who will." He remained silent the remainder of the ride downtown.
Harris let two of the local uniforms take Jack from the car when they reached the back side of the police house. "Get him booked." He spoke to one of them quietly, but Jack could still hear his words. "I'm heading down to the courthouse. That's where I told them to hold the boy until I arrived. St. Vincent's will be receiving him by evening if anyone should ask, and I will be accompanying him. I'll get my time with him one way or another, fuck the Mercers." He turned and walked away without another look or word in Jack's direction.
Shit, Jack understood this better now. Harris was separating them to get at Craig, not him. He was just using Jack as a way of dividing the Mercers' focus. Damn, that son of a bitch for messing with a little kid to get whatever the hell he wanted. A little kid that had already been through hell and Harris was ready to put him through more. He wondered just how long Harris had before Bobby managed to kill him.
He let a smirk play across his face as Harris' back moved away from him. He thought about Bobby's reaction to his baby brother being dragged off by force. His brother was going to take out someone for that, and Harris seemed to be the prime candidate. Apparently Agent Harris hadn't check the status of the last two dirty cops the Mercers had encountered. Sure, Harris may have been a Fed, but he was still dirty and that just wasn't going to work in his favor.