Chapter 5
Casey had been watching from his car, sniper rifle at the ready. "Holy hell Walker, nice slap." He was unable to hear anything that had been said. He was only aware of a brief outline of the plan, as well as the specifics on the meeting, that Sarah had texted him when no one was looking. He had thought Walker had just gotten a little carried away with the act. He realized that he was chuckling and rubbing his own jaw thinking that Chuck was going to be feeling that for quite a while.
Sarah was furious as she ran away from Chuck. She had no idea what had gotten into him. He had never said anything that harsh to her in the past. That slap would not be all Chuck had coming after this was over, but for now she needed to focus on the task at hand. She ran past Billy to an area that was secluded from the others separated by a life guard stand but still visible from the parking lot. Billy taking the bait followed her over and sat next to her in the sand.
"You ok," he softly asked.
"Ya, I'm ok. I'm sorry. You have been so nice and invited us to join you and Chuck gets all jealous and…uh he makes me so angry."
"Jealous? What was he jealous of?"
"Well…you." Sarah answered very bashfully. "He said that I was always looking at you and…I don't know."
Billy's smile grew. "He is just worried because he knows you could do so much better than him. You could have any guy on the beach, and let's face it, he is kind of a nobody."
"Do you think?" It was strange. Even though she was furious at Chuck right now she still had to hide the resentment that she was feeling towards Billy for speaking about Chuck in that way.
"Ya, you don't need some computer geek that doesn't know how to treat a woman. You need someone that can treat you the way you deserve." Sarah couldn't help but fear that that was exactly what Chuck had done. She had hurt him so many times. And god knows, he definitely knew how to treat her. He was the kindest most caring man she had ever known, their last conversation excluded. Their last conversation stuck in her mind. It was so unlike him. He had indirectly called her a call girl. Her anger started to return, when she realized that she hadn't answered Billy, "Ya, I guess you are right. It really is very kind of you to come cheer me up, but I understand if you need to get back to your friends." She looked straight at him with an expression of longing. Though her expression was an act, there was no man that could leave her sitting in the sand alone when she looked at them like that.
"I think they will be fine for a little while," Billy returned her smile. He had just begun to lean in to kiss Sarah when the sound of voices loudly calling his name from somewhere near the group of people could be heard. Billy looked at his watch then back at Sarah. "Would you be able to stick around for a bit. I have some things to take care of, but they should not take long."
"Actually I have to find a ride home, since I came with Chuck."
"Then it is settled. You can hang out over here for just a few minutes and then I can give you a ride anywhere you need to go." Billy stated, not really providing any options, which is exactly what Sarah had anticipated.
"As long as it is no trouble. You have already done so much for me today."
"No trouble at all, but I am going to have to ask you to stay over here. This is just work stuff anyway." Sarah responded to Billy's request with a smile and a nod. He stood and made his way back over to the group of men. Sarah had stayed seated long enough for Billy not to realize she was making her way to where she could keep an eye on the exchange. The men Billy was speaking with were not the same men that had visited him earlier. They seemed to converse more freely, as if they were a part of Billy's crew. There were two men, one of which handed a medium sized duffle bag to Billy. Those must be the drugs Sarah thought.
Within a few minutes Julio and his men arrived as well. He was carrying a briefcase. All together there were seven men, though Sarah had not seen any actual guns, she had determined that everyone other than Billy had a bulge caused by a weapon either under their jacket or their shirts. They should not be a problem to take out once she had enough evidence to make sure that Billy stayed behind bars this time.
"Ok, let's go you impatient bastard I have some things that need my attention." Billy began while walking toward Julio.
"The merchandise that we had discussed?" Julio asked as he pointed to the bag.
"10,000 of the little guys just like we talked about…and the fee as we discussed?" Billy asked as he pointed to the briefcase.
"To the last dollar." As Julio said this Sarah came walking from behind the life guard stand causing Julio to jump and place his hand on his pistol under his jacket though he did not draw it. "Who is she?"
"She is nobody." Billy said with some anger in his voice. "Sarah I thought I told you to stay where you were." Billy had lost the soft tone that he had been using when speaking with Sarah. It was replaced by a sharp edge to his voice that reflected his displeasure at being disobeyed.
"Well, that's the thing Billy. Generally I am pretty good at following orders, though it seems that lately that has become somewhat difficult for me." Sarah drew her gun and pointed it straight at Billy. "Nobody move! I have a very trigger happy partner watching and praying for the chance to shoot any one of you, so it would benefit you all to drop your weapons and put your hands on your heads."
Not believing her Julio began to draw his weapon. There was a single shot and causing him to drop dead with a bullet to the forehead. The rest of the group froze. Sarah continued, "Unless anyone else would like to have a third eye as well I suggest you do as I say." Each of the four remaining armed men dropped their weapon in the sand. One of Billy's men attempted to discreetly drop his weapon close to Billy's feet. Sarah had noticed this out of the corner of her eye. She walked over and slowly bent forward to pick up the gun. As she bent forward Billy suddenly kicked sand in her face, and then dove on top of her. He had guessed correctly that her partner would be unable to get a shot after he had tackled her. The other men all dove for their weapons. Casey had dropped Julio's men before they were able to get to their guns. Billy's men were able to dive behind the life guard stand, one of which was able to grab his gun on the way. He peaked around the corner to fire randomly at the unseen partner. Casey was unable to get a shot for the first few seconds allowing the man to fire off 4 shots in his general direction. The last of which hit his car. "God Damn punks! That was my car." Casey then switched the rifle to fully auto and peppered the building with bullets. One of these bullets penetrating the building and hitting its mark.
Sarah was taken aback by Billy's attack. She was unable to see due to the sand in her eyes. Billy was straddling her before she was able to recover. He landed a blow to her ribs knocking the wind out of her. He was about to strike again when she was able to connect with a randomly thrown punch. The blow was enough to knock him off balance enough for her to reverse their position. Though she was still unable to see she could effectively wrestle with Billy as she was able to stay in contact with his body. He was able to land a few blows in the process but it only took a few seconds of grappling before she was able to get a hold of his arm. Once she was able to do so she grabbed his thumb
and snapped in violently back. Billy's scream alerting Sarah to where his face was, she then landed a viscous elbow causing Billy's body to go limp.
The third man who had also been hiding behind the small structure, remaining unharmed in the gun battle, decided to make a run for it. His route taking him within 20 feet of the still mostly blinded Sarah. With her head following the sound of the running foot steps, in one quick motion she pulled a knife and hit the man square in the chest with a perfect throw before Casey could even get a shot off.
Casey made his way to the beach, already on the phone fore a clean-up crew. As he approached he was hanging up the phone. Sarah had recovered some of her vision as her eyes were able to wash out some of the sand. The first clear image she saw was Casey's smug grin.
"Nice toss Walker," pointing to the dead man with the knife in his chest as he chuckled.
"Ya, you had a couple good shots yourself," pointing to Julio. Casey just smiled and walked over to help Walker stand from her current kneeling position.
"So where is Bartowski, shouldn't he have disobeyed orders and come running in to save you by now?" Casey was still grinning. His only response was a scolding look from Sarah. "of course he is probably on the way to the hospital for a broken jaw from what I saw."
The smile on Casey's face faded as they both heard the action of a gun being worked. "Turn around, and don't you dare move." Billy had come to and had found the unaccounted for pistol in the sand near where he was lying. Casey turned to face him as Sarah continued to try to clear her vision. Billy looked at Sarah. "Shame really, I was going to show you one hell of a good time." He raised the weapon pointing it at Sarah.
Bang! A shot rang out but from off to the side of the confrontation. Billy doubled over and fell to the sand. Chuck was standing there with Julio's pistol in his hand.
Casey looking at Chuck was surprised to see that Chuck didn't seem to be shocked by his own actions. "Let me guess, it was accident."
"Hell no, that guy deserved it. He was going to shoot you two." There was no real emotion in his voice as Chuck responded.
Sarah looked at Casey with some concern before turning her attention back to Chuck. "I thought I told you to stay with your family. I told you that we would handle this, and that you needed to stay as far away as possible." Her words were harsh still reflecting the hurt he had inflicted earlier.
"It didn't look like you had it handled. It kind of looks to me like I saved your lives." Chuck was more matter of fact than sarcastic as he said this. He walked over and handed the gun to Sarah and began walking away. "I am going to the bonfire with my family, it is pretty clear that you don't need me around here," finally a hint of hurt and sarcasm breaking into his voice.
Sarah did nothing to stop him from walking away. She was even more furious with him now. He had yet again put himself in danger when she had been very clear where he should be. That, of course, was nothing new, but he had never treated her like this. He was acting as if he didn't care that his words could be hurting her. It was the complete opposite of the Chuck she knew and cared about. He had shot a man for crying out loud and had shown no remorse at all. How could killing someone not be destroying him right now? She knew that eventually he was going to be devastated by what had happened. She was the first time she shot someone and she had been trained and prepared long before it happened. Something is just not right with this whole damn situation. She both wanted to go make sure that he was alright, and then hit him again for how he was acting. AAHHH! We does he get to me like this.
"Casey, can you handle this? I should be getting back to the group before our cover is blown." Sarah asked after about 15 minutes.
Casey knew that the cover was a concern, but not Sarah's biggest at the moment, though he decided not to push her on it. "Ya, I've got this…but Walker," he added as she walked away. "Whatever happened, take it easy on the kid." Sarah nodded and continued on her way.
Sarah came walking up to Ellie and Anna as they were watching Morgan yelling instructions to Devon, who was working on starting the bonfire. Morgan said he would have gotten closer but the heat from the flames were excruciating on his sunburn.
"Hey Sarah, that alone time must have been something you look beat." Ellie smiled. "Is Chuck sleeping it off or did you outright kill him?" Ellie noticed the concern in Sarah's expression immediately.
"What do you mean; I thought Chuck was back here with you guys. I was catching up with some friends we ran into. He said he was going to come back to be with you guys a little while ago."
Ellie wasn't as nervous as Sarah since she had not witnessed Chuck's odd behavior. "He probably ran into someone he knows and just lost track of time."
"You are probably right," Sarah grinned. She had sat with Ellie and Anna for about half of an hour, becoming more and more fidgety as the time passed. Finally losing her patience she walked over to where Chuck had left his stuff, and began digging in his bag. Her face took on a disappointed look as she pulled out her hand, holding Chuck's watch. She pulled out her cell phone.
"Casey we have a problem."