Sam and Maddie have to fend for themselves.

Chapter 21

"…Alright, Mikey, just be careful," Maddie heard Sam say before he shut off his cell phone.

Sam and Madeline were playing a nice game of gin rummy when the game had been interrupted by Michael's cell phone call. They were still situated at the Gables Inn Motel, although Michael had informed them that he wanted the four of them to move again, this time to a nice hotel with an "h", preferably a five-star one.

"Mikey and Fi won't be back tonight. Seems they've located the red truck at this flea-bag motel and will be staying over there, " Sam explained to Madeline, as he once again picked up his hand of cards.

"Oh, …so they are holed up in a motel together because of a case…sure, sure," stated Madeline sarcastically, as she took her turn and threw out a card.

"You don't know your son very well, Maddie," declared Sam, as he took a card from the stack, glanced at it, and tossed it out, "For Mike, it is all about the case."

"And you don't know love very well. Sam," said Madeline, picking up his card, "…or how to play rummy very well, either…because…Gin!"

She displayed her winning hand with a satisfied look as Sam threw his cards in.

"Maybe it's for the best, Maddie," said Sam, "I'm getting hungry anyway."

"Don't worry," said Madeline, proud of herself, ""While you were taking a shower, I ordered pizza delivery for us!"

He looked concern, which wasn't the reaction she expected.

"Uh…Maddie…you didn't, by chance, use your credit card, did you?"

"I'm not an idiot, Sam!" insisted Madeline, "I used Michael's!"

"W-what? That's not what I'd meant, Maddie! It's dangerous to use a credit card because it'll show a record of-"

There was suddenly the sound of wood splintering, as the cheap motel door broke apart under the constant battering.

Sam automatically jumped up and used his body to completely shield a confused Madeline.

A large hand reached through the broken wood and unlocked the door. Fred the bartender stormed in—a baseball bat held possessively in his hands.

When he spotted Sam in the room, a look of stunned surprise surfaced on his face. He recognized Sam, who had claimed to be an A T and T agent back at Dewey's Bar.

"You!" he pointed accusingly at Sam with his finger, "YOU!"

"Quite an extensive vocabulary you have there, I see," Sam said evenly.

At first Fred didn't know how to react to the comment. Then as the words sunk in, his face showed frustration at the wisecrack.

"God damn it! Give me the picture, or else! "He threatened.

To show he meant business, he turned and viciously smashed one of the motel lamps with his baseball bat. The inexpensive lamp shattered to pieces on impact.

Madeline peeked out sideways from Sam's body, in time to see the damage.

"Ooooh, the poor lamp!, I bet the chair is now shaking with fear!" Maddie stated scornfully. Sam looked down in order to hide his grin.

Fred's eyes popped out as he furiously waved the bat in her direction.

"I swear, the old broad will get it first!" Fred said heatedly, pointing at her with his bat.

"Don''t you old broad me, or Sam will show you who's boss!" Madeline fired back, "Right, Sam?"

"Yeah, that's right!" nodded Sam, "...or if not boss, at least I'll show him assistant to the boss!"

Fred started towards them.

"You two are already DEAD!" Fred almost spitted out the words, as he held the basebat bat up in a threatening manner.

"All I can say, buddy, is I hope you've brought your 'A' game!" Sam challenged, with no fear in his voice.

Sam hated it when thugs underestimated him. Sure, Sam may look like he sat all day drinking beer, but…oh.

No…actually he had been a highly decorated Navy SEAL operator in his day. He had extensive background in all methods of dealing with the enemy.

Sam turned around to warn Madeline to back away. He then boldly faced Fred, who had started to charge him.

"Yee-hawww!" Fred gave a war cry, and ran towards Sam, his bat held up in the air.

Just as Fred reached him, Sam quickly stepped to his side, like a winning matador going up against a drunken bull. Sam then followed up with a solid kick to the guy's behind, startling him. The sudden manuever sent Fred flying towards the wall, smashing his nose in the process.

Fred held his nose delicately as he attempted to catch his breath.

"Sam," Maddie was heard to say, "the guy didn't bring his 'A' game... he just brought 'a game'!"

This further angered Fred as he turned around and came charging again, the bat held dangerously over his head once more.

Sam again merely stepped aside. One second Sam was in one spot and then a split second later, he was a foot and a half to the left.

Before the momentum of the rush carried Fred too far away, Sam reached over and gave a karate chop to the back of the guy's neck. From his Navy SEAL days, Sam knew that hitting at the right spot in back of the neck could cause a temporary blackout. Fred looked woozy as he fell to his knees.

Fred groaned and and rubbed the back of his neck. Then he used his bat to aid him back on his feet. He shook his head vigorously and staggered in rage towards Sam.

This wasn't even a challenge as Sam delivered a hard punch in the stomach of a befuddled Fred. The air whooshed out of Fred and he went down again. But this time he stayed down.

From the floor, Fred grabbed his stomach in pain, moaning. His breathing changed into a wheeze from the damaged nose.

Sam bent down to the injured figure on the floor.

"Say, Buddy, I think it would be in your best interest to tell us the location and date of your next bank robbery," Sam stated to the agonized figure on the ground.

"Owww...Get the eff out of my face!" the man yelled in pain.

Madeline came over and peered down at Fred. She now had possession of Fred's fallen bat.

Sam looked at Maddie.

"Did you hear his response, Maddie?" Sam asked, "after I asked him so nicely?"

Maddie tsked, tsked, "He really is quite rude, isn't he?

"Both of you can go to hell!" Fred was in so much pain, he just didn't care anymore.

"I think I should squash him with this baseball bat!" Maddie exclaimed.

Hovering over him, Maddie held the bat high above her head, ready to strike. This startled both men.

"Maddie-" warned Sam.

Fred's eyes opened wide in terror as the bat started to make its way down.

"Noooooo!" screamed Fred.

"Maddie, don't do it!" bellowed Sam, at the same time.

Fred used his arms as a shield and closed his eyes, waiting for the deadly impact. Maddie brought the bat down, full force.

BAM!

"You're dead now!"

Because his eyes were closed, Fred only heard Maddie's statement.

Am I really dead? Fred silently internalized, as he kept his eyes shut.

"Wowza, Maddie, you've struck him so hard that his body exploded!" Sam's voice sounded so distant.

Je-sus, is this what death felt like? Fred thought to himself. At least I don't feel any new, throbbing pain. No feelings from a hot, fiery infernal, either. Maybe I've gone to heaven! Am I now an angel? If so, maybe I can fly...

He stuck out his arms and flapped them up and down.

"Will you look at that, Maddie! He thinks he's a bird!" He heard Sam comment.

"Yeah, a cuckoo bird!" said Maddie.

Fred opened his eyes.

They were not even looking at him, but instead at something directly next to him.

Fred angled his head to the spot they were staring at. A black blotch was smashed next to him. Evidently, Maddie had used the bat to kill a spider close by. Fred breath a sigh of relief, before anger regarding his situation settled in again.

"Stupid old bitty!" Fred mumbled.

"What did you say?" Maddie reached down and twisted the guy's already injured nose. Very hard. The man's eye's bulged out.

"OOOoww! Let go! Let go!"

"Maddie!" Sam chastised.

"Oh, don't worry, Sam, I did this all the time to my boys growing up," Maddie explained, "how do you think I was able to extricate the real truth from them?"

Sam bent down to Fred's level.

"So keep that in mind, my friend," warned Sam, "You might want to start using your voice box to give us some info here. My gal pal here isn't as friendly as me. This here is good cop, mad mom..."

Fred just kept making agonized noises.

"Sam asked you which bank...so which bank?" asked Maddie aggresively, as she twisted harder with no mercy. Fred cried out in torment.

"Yeoooowww, owwww!...Bank…Bank…of…Miami…" the man barely got the words out, his face a pale white. She loosened her grip, slightly.

"When?" asked Sam.

Fred bellowed in pain as Maddie applied pressure again.

"Yeoooooooooooow!"

"Hey!" yelled Madeline, looking down at Fred, "Answer him when, or I will twist your nose right off!"

The man's eyes bugged out further as his look of fear was palpable.

Maddie looked over as Sam questionably mouthed, 'twist your nose right off?' to her.

"Believe me, Sam," explained Maddie, "if that statement can scare boys, it can scare men!"

From the ground Fred was fighting through the intense pain.

"I…don't…know…Turner…didn't…" and then he was back to moaning in pain.

Maddie reluctantly let go of the guy's nose.

"He's all talked out." Maddie sounded disappointed.

Sam spoke to a suffering Fred, "Okay, buddy... with what little nose you have left...breathe in, breathe out..."

Fred tried to get up, but then collapsed in pain, half the time holding onto his abdomen, the other half holding onto his nose.

Sam stood up, next to Maddie.

"By the way, Sam," added Maddie, "When I first hid behind you, I'd noticed you had a gun on you. Why didn't you use it on the guy to begin with?"

Sam grinned back at her. "And what, Maddie, would be the fun of that?"

They could hear sirens in the background. Obviously, someone hearing the commotion had called the police.

"Come on, Maddie," said Sam, "let's quickly pay for our damages and leave. Michael was right. We need to move up to a better room."

Maddie nodded. "Five-star hotel… here we come!"

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