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Chapter 34: Pissed Off
Bobby hit eighty miles an hour on the straight away of the main avenue leading to the apartment where he'd left Jack and Craig. His pulse was still pounding in his temples, and he couldn't seem to loosen his grip on the steering wheel enough to get rid of his white knuckles, one of which was swelling up and seeping blood down the back of his hand.
He ran several stop signs, but there had been no traffic at the intersections at the time. It was when he came to the first red light that Jerry pulled his cell phone down from his ear long enough to yell at him to watch what the hell he was doing. He laid on his horn, swerved out into the oncoming traffic to make it past the three cars sitting at the intersection, and barreled through the fast moving cars traveling from both his left and right on the cross street. The air filled with the sound of car horns, with several of them ended up on the side walk when they swerved to miss his speeding car.
"Damn it Bobby! Watch it!" Angel echoed Jerry's words from his position in the back seat.
Anthony had been telling them that his boss wanted Craig, but he hadn't gotten to the reason of why his boss wanted Craig. Bobby's mind was playing all sorts of possibilities out in his mind, but as he pushed harder on the gas, taking the needle on the speedometer past the eighty mile an hour mark he glanced back at the boy who was staring straight ahead, wide eyed, with the blood still dripping from his wounded mouth. "Keep talking Anthony, why the hell would your ass hole of a boss want my brother?" Bobby yelled the words as he approached the next intersection at full speed, and could tell it was going to be a repeat of the previous traffic light.
"He says he's his father." Anthony spoke just loud enough for Bobby to hear him over the roar of the engine.
"What the fuck is his name Anthony?" Angel grabbed the kid by the front of his shirt and gave him a hard jerk towards him, pulling his still bleeding face into view directly in front of him.
"Adam Macks." Anthony answered without any hesitation.
The sound of the name made Bobby feel like crawling out of his skin at that moment, drawing bile into his throat, burning and choking at him. "Shit!" He yelled and hit his horn as he reached the red light.
He swerved hard to the left, rocking his passengers in that direction, and then back to the right, sending them back to where they had started, still sounding his audible warning to the traffic in front of him. The back tires hit a patch of ice and started to fishtail on him, forcing him to let off the gas and struggle with the car's desire to start spinning out of control. He heard the responding sounds of horns, breaks screeching and squealing rubber as his car rocketed past the cross street. He regained full control of the wheel and pushed on the gas again, the next street was where he needed to turn. They were getting closer, and he could feel his blood surging red hot through his veins, the ringing in his ears intensified and his pulse started pounding harder. He felt as if he were going to burst wide open. "You were helping his father?" He knew he yelled the words but they were barely audible to him; drowned out by the rage that was boiling over inside of him.
Anthony was still looking into Angel's eyes. "I didn't know, man, he told me things. I'm sorry." His face was marred with fear and his body seemed to cower under the man's glare.
"We'll deal with you after we get there. No matter what, you keep your ass in this car." Angel let go of his hold on the boy and let him shrink down into the seat. He turned his attention back to his brothers in the front seat of the car. "We haven't heard anything from Jack, and if there was anything wrong he would have called us, right?"
Jerry, who had been on the phone with Green the entire ride up to that point, flipped his phone closed and quickly slid it into the pocket of his shirt just under his coat. "They got that kid in the yard." He announced. "Green says to slow the fuck down Bobby; he's got units heading that way now." He barely got the words out as Bobby came up behind the back end of a Toyota and jerked the wheel to his left to pass him. The big round headlights of an oncoming vehicle much larger than their car illuminated the interior, showing the wide eyes of the three men.
Bobby yelled something that was supposed to be, "Oh shit!" While Angel and Jerry both yelled out incoherent verbal abuse aimed towards the eldest brother.
Anthony poked his head up from behind Bobby's seat, but as soon as he seen the headlights directly in front of them, looming far above the hood of the car, he ducked back down, yelling something about only wanting to do the right thing and he didn't want to die.
Bobby twisted the steering wheel back towards the right, just as they cleared the front end of the Toyota, the eighteen wheeler they had been playing chicken with blasted it's air horn in the same instant as it sped past them, making contact with the rear end of the car. The Toyota slammed on its breaks, sending it into a spin, while Bobby did his best to maneuver his own out of control car over the curb, through a grassy lot, and into the parking lot of an all night drug store.
The people walking calmly in the lot managed to jump out of the way and get clear at the last second, the horn sounding under Bobby's hand warning them in time of the danger hurling towards them. Bobby didn't try to hit his break, he laughed at the sheer luck that the drug store sat on the corner of an intersection just one street shy of where he had intended to make the careless turn into traffic, "We're almost there!" He yelled out. Now he only needed to get through this parking area and onto the side street. It would take him down to the street where the apartments were located.
"You crazy fucker, you're gonna get us all killed." Angel yelled, holding onto the back door handle and the back of Jerry's seat.
"Bobby just slow the hell down man, this ain't doing no good!" Jerry cried out, placing a hand on the roof of the car above him, and bracing his legs down hard on the floor board as the car jumped the next curb and hit the slippery street, not once losing any speed.
There was a short moment of quiet, with only the sound of the engine revving hard and fast under them, and it was then that Angel realized his cell phone was ringing. He dug in his pocket, trying to stay upright in his seat while Bobby swerved in and out of the traffic on the street. The drivers in the other cars started blasting their horns, expressing their anger as Bobby zigged and then zagged around and in between them. "My phone!" Angel spoke loudly, as if that would slow Bobby down. He managed to dig the electronic device out of his pocket and flip it open on the fifth ring. "Jack?"
Jack's voice yelled out on the other end, "Shit!" The yell was directly in Angel's ear at that moment, but then it sounded as if Jack dropped the phone. "Go! Now! You get the hell out of here! Run!"
Angel held the phone tighter to his ear. "Jack!" He yelled, and looked to the front of the car. "Bobby, hit the fucking gas!" He sounded scared.
Bobby glanced at his brother in the mirror and did what he had been told, pressing down harder on the gas and whizzing past more cars. He could sense the urgency in Angel's voice and see the panic in the younger man's eyes. "Hold on!" He turned sharply to the right at the next street, the street he wanted. He could see the lights from the parking lot of the small apartment complex at the end of the dead end street, just on the other side of a partially completed house under construction.
He didn't stick to the street, he gunned the engine even harder, turned into the gravel drive of the construction area and headed across the snow and ice covered mud hole separating him from the back side of the apartment buildings. He could feel the tires sliding in the mud, but kept the car running hard, not losing much speed and cutting the distance between him and his younger brothers by more than a hundred yards. He tunneled between two of the apartment buildings, turning the wheel as he hit the gravel landscaping and snow between the brick structures and the sidewalk. The car spun around under his steering, aiming towards the building at the far end of the complex, the tires squealing and sputtering on the clean blacktop as it spun into the position he wanted. His headlights swung around with the car, landing on the door of Sofi's mother's apartment. There were three cars parked outside the unit, their doors all standing wide open and there seemed to be countless men swarming around the place.
Bobby's heart jumped to his throat when he realized Craig was outside, being half carried, half dragged away from the apartment, towards one of the cars. He didn't take the time to think about what he was doing, he never let off the gas, and was ascending on the intruders with the same speed he'd practiced on the street. He felt the yell emitting from his throat, and he was sure he heard Jerry yelling in unison.
The sound of gunfire rang out from inside the apartment just as his headlights bore down on the sidewalk. Bobby hit his high beams, blinding the men dragging his baby brother away from the door, and the sight of blood flowing freely down the side of the boy's head only fueled the rage that had been burning deep inside of his gut. He twisted the wheel at the last minute, turning into the closest car between him and the assailants.
The airbags on both the driver's side and the passenger's side deployed with a force almost as great as the sudden impact. Grinding metal and shattering glass filled the air around them, but the crash didn't stop the car, it was carrying too much momentum. He felt his mother's car spin around rapidly on the clean blacktop, and then felt it tip up on the right tires for just a moment before it flipped completely over, rolling twice until it came to rest on its wheels more than a hundred feet from the apartment.
Bobby's mind felt numb for a moment, and he wasn't quite sure exactly what the hell had happened, but he managed to compose himself quickly when he heard Jack's voice shouting from inside the apartment, "Is every one okay?" He yelled to his other two brothers as he pushed hard on his door, forcing it to open despite the crinkled, tin can look it now sported.
"I'm fine." Jerry was getting out on his side of the car. Bobby heard Angel mumble something about his arm, but the man was getting out of the car, dragging an unconscious Anthony along with him. Bobby's legs felt like wet noodles when they tried to support the weight of his body. He focused his attention on the men, and the apartment. He pulled his gun and was about to move towards the obvious gangsters clad in fine clothing, when the air filled with gunfire, exploding into the last remaining remnants of car glass. The man ducked and somehow managed to move his feet fast enough to get around the car to the relative safety of the crashed metal, where his brothers were both hunkered down. Anthony was lying on his back, and it was then that Bobby realized the boy wasn't unconscious, he was dead. His blank eyes were staring up at the night sky, and blood was pooling under his head.
Bobby Mercer's heart wrenched at the thought that he'd probably just killed the kid. He'd put him in danger, and dragged him along with them because he was pissed at him. Hell, he'd been ready to kill him his self just a short time before. Now he was dead, and Bobby could see that he was just a little boy, not much older than Craig, and he felt as if he should have done something different.
Angel seemed to be reading Bobby's face in the short instant that it had taken the man to start mentally berating himself for putting the kid in danger. "Bobby, it wasn't the crash, it was a fucking bullet." He spoke quickly. "They shot him." He reached out and hit his brother's arm hard.
Bobby looked at Angel, and it seemed his brother's words brought him out of whatever state his mind had started to wander into. Bobby pulled his gun, and yelled out as he stood to take aim over the top of the car. He fired off three rounds at the men pulling Craig across the lot, towards another waiting car. "Craig!" He screamed out as he fired, "Craig!"
Angel and Jerry followed their brother's lead, Angel aiming for the car rather than the men, taking out one of the tires, and then aiming for the gas tank. He pulled up on his gun when he realized Craig was being dragged to close. If he shot the tank and the car went up, the whole thing would explode and take his brother with it.
The men seemed to toss Craig's limp body into the back seat, one of them shot back at what was left of the Mercer car while the rest of the men loaded into the remaining cars and then sped away, the car carrying Craig away spraying sparks from the rim exposed by the flat tire.
Bobby ran across the lot after the vehicles, firing off the last rounds out of his clip. He stopped, screaming at the retreating tail lights. He turned and looked at the nearest car to him; an old VW Bug that looked like it had seen its better days. He didn't care; he had to catch up to the sons of bitches that had just taken his little brother. He walked up to it and pulled on the door handle, but it was locked. He looked around the lot and spotted a large rock that would work perfectly for busting out the door glass. He was about to pick up the rock when he realized Jerry and Angel weren't joining him, they were running to the apartment. Jack. Damn, it felt like three weeks ago all over again.
Bobby reached the door just a few seconds after Angel and Jerry, and found Jack sitting on the couch, blood staining the front of his shirt. Sofi was on the phone, and her mother was shouting at Angel in quick Spanish that seemed to snap off of her lips crisply. Angel was trying to calm the older woman down. Jerry was at Jack's side, on the couch, inspecting his chest closely.
"Jack?" Bobby moved to his younger brother, sure that he was going to find bullet holes on his body.
"I'm okay, but the tube was pulled out." Jack spoke with a gasp. "They took him." He sounded as if he were going to cry. "Damn it, I tried, but they…."
"I know Jack, I know." Bobby crouched down in front of him. "You're okay? No new holes?" He asked with concern.
"I'm fine." Jack looked up at the ceiling. "They just shot up the ceiling to get us to stop fighting them." He shook his head. "They never once pointed a gun at any of us."
"Wrong, they pointed their guns at us." Bobby's voice turned ice cold. He looked at Jerry for a long moment, "And they killed the only person who would know where the hell they took Craig." He pointed out; the chill of his words seemed to spread out into the air around them. Jack started to shiver.
"Not really." The voice from the door way alerted them all to the new presence in the room. Bobby turned to look at Green standing in the door way. The walls of the room started to light up with the reflections of red and blue lights.
"A little late, aren't you Green?" Bobby spoke sarcastically, pissed at himself for letting the whole thing go down, pissed that he'd separated his family, exposing his brothers to the danger that was waiting for them, and falling into the trap that had been set of them. He was pissed that he'd trusted a cop to help him figure out what the hell was going on, and for Anthony lying dead next to his mother's car. He was pissed because some sick fucker had his little brother, and because he hadn't been able to stop any of it.
"You can be pissed off all you want Bobby, but we do have one person who knows what the hell this is all about, and if they got Craig, he'll know where they took him." Green spoke quickly, but his voice was calm, and it seemed to be calming in the midst of all the destruction around them at that moment, calming even for Bobby.
Bobby stared at Green as realization kicked his brain hard. They had Terry.
Craig heard Bobby's yells. He heard him, he was yelling his name from somewhere out of reach, somewhere far away in that spinning whirlwind that was sucking him down. His brother was there though; he was going to make everything okay. His body still wouldn't move for him, and his head was spinning wildly, everything was blurred, and vague. Lights and shadows, that was all that he could really comprehend. But he heard Bobby's voice. Somewhere on the other side of that blinding pain pounding at his brain he heard his brother, his oldest brother, his guardian, and protector. The closest thing to a real father that he'd ever known.
He felt himself being carried by those arms wrapped tightly around his waist, moving backwards, he thought, and then he felt smooth leather under him, and though the world around him was spinning, he kept his mind focused on the fact that Bobby was there. Bobby was going to get to him, and make the pain in his head stop. He would make the world stop spinning, and hold onto him, and keep him safe. Bobby was going to do what fathers were supposed to; he was going to do what he always did. Then he felt hands holding him down, but wasn't sure why, he wasn't trying to move, not that he could have at that moment if he had tried, but he wasn't trying.
He was trying to remember exactly what had happened, he wasn't sure. "Bobby." He tried to call out, but the word only came out as a moan, he could hear it, and it confused him. It felt as if his body was in motion and that only intensified the dizzy feeling, pulling on his stomach as the spinning around him quickened. He could hear voices, but none of them were Bobby's and he wondered where Bobby had gone, he was waiting for him; and then he felt a cloth covering his mouth and nose, filling his nostrils with a sickening odor that seemed to overwhelm him in only a matter of seconds. His brain started to spin off into a black cloud, sucking all thoughts and comprehension from his mind. His last thought before slipping into that cloud of blackness, was that Bobby was going to make this stop, he was going to get to him, and he was going to make him feel better.