“Nah, the kind of hat that has the funny sparkly tassels on top,” Joker suggested.
“Ok, maybe.”Jack chuckled.“But I like those little plastic kazoo things that make that awful noise, ya know?”
“Those damn things are annoying, yeah.”Joker nodded.“I agree with that one.Cause this fucker has made a nuisance of himself here.”
They zip tied his hands and his feet.Then they dragged him along the ground with no care as to getting him dirty or messed up.They figured you sneak up to kill someone and you deserve what you get.That was actually a motto in their family.Tit for tat.No quarter given and so on.
Ray never woke up when they got him back to the house and hauled him out to the garage.Working in tandem, the brothers searched his body for weapons.
When Ace came in, he shook his head as they began pulling out blades.They found three small guns and at least a dozen knives of varying lengths.By that time, they had all but stripped him of every stitch of clothing from his body.However, they had some class as they refused to deprive him of his underwear.
When he frowned and began to wake up, Ray was sporting goosebumps on his arms.He tried to open his eyes and couldn’t seem to do so for a few minutes.Finally, he shook his head and came awake.He glared at the men standing around him.“What the hell is this?Why am I tied up like a criminal?”
Ace stood there with his arms crossed over his chest.“Maybe because you ARE a fucking criminal.You ever think of that, Sherlock?”He snorted as he glared at him.“We know who you are and what you’re doing here and we aren’t about to let you do anything you planned to do, asswipe.”
Ray glared at him.“And just what do you think I intended to do here?I came here to see my niece and nothing more.”
“Oh, really?”Ace glared back and scoffed.“Then why were you so well armed that we had to strip you almost bare to find everything we found?Why were you reaching for a rifle when my brothers came up behind you?Why were you trying to hide instead of coming to our front door?”
Joker smirked.“Usually, people do that when they come to visit, jerkoff.You know, come, knock on the front door then greet us with a hug?”
Ray stared at them as he shook his head in confusion.“Your front door?You don’t live here.This is Charli’s place.”
Ace glared at him.“Yeah, this is Charli’s place, but I live here too.Charli is my wife.”
Ray paled and glared at him.“You and Charli are married?You can’t be married.She never got permission to marry.”
Ace shrugged.“Permission...She’s free and over legal age.She doesn’t need anyone’s permission to marry.”
Ray shook his head then closed his eyes as the motion hurt.“You’re wrong about that.She does need family permission to marry.And I know for a fact Julien never would have given it.As Michael’s daughter she was promised in marriage to another tribe.”
Ace snorted.“Promises, promises.Well, she never gave her word to do that.Charli doesn’t answer to you or Julien, she answers to herself.Your family left her behind when they moved back to Italy and cut off contact years ago.She’s already told Julien that and he’s on his way back to argue with her, but he will find that he’s too late.She’s already married to me and we have a son together.”
Ray shook his head.“No, no, no, that’s impossible.Her father would have already signed the contracts on her seventh birthday.”
Ace rolled his eyes at this point then shook his head.“Except he was already dead two years before she turned seven, wasn’t he?”
Ray scoffed.“Julien would have signed it in his stead.”
“Look Jackass, she will not be marrying anyone else,” Ace retorted with a growl in his voice.“End of that stupid assbackwards, old world fairytale.Besides, we have you caught and that is what should matter to you.Not her marital status.So don’t make out like that is why you were here sneaking around in the fucking woods.Attempted murder is a crime.Not that you need any more charges made against your dumbass.”
Ray hocked a loogie and spit it out on the ground between him and them.“You can’t prove that.I can always say I was unsure about her safety as you all were here at her house when you shouldn’t be.”
“No, dumbass,” Jack retorted.“It is your ass that shouldn’t be here.Carrying knives, guns, a rifle and hate in your heart.Trespassing, intent to kill and spitting on the ground could be called assault these days.I mean we don’t know if you have a virus or something.”
“I have every right to be here,” Ray defended.“I’m her uncle.You all seem to know that already.So the weapons were something I retrieved from my carafterfinding you all here.”
Ace glared at him and countered this argument easily, “Oh, is that right?You are her beloved uncle, eh?You were left behind to watch over her, given money the tribe set aside for her, right?What happened to all that money, Ray?Huh?Because I know neither Ben or Charli ever saw a dime of it.But you sure as hell did, didn’t you?You used that money to build your own life.You used all that money to build your own place, a place where no one could find you, where you could make deals with bastards like Jed Whittaker.So you could build up and distribute guns to our enemies.That’s not only against the damned law, it is fucking treason.”
Ray stared at him while he looked a bit perplexed as to how the man knew all of this.“You can’t prove any of that against me.”
Ace smiled then he leaned in closer.“Oh, I think we can,Tirade.I think we can connect you to a massive gun ring.We can tie up any and all loose ends with the appropriate people.In fact,I thinkI can tell you that Shay Montross is on his way to arrest you as being part of the Whittaker gun ring.”
Ray paled as Ace’s words hit him.He opened his mouth but nothing came out.He could feel the words stuck in his swelling throat.He had to swallow hard and when he tried again to speak his voice was nothing more than a whisper, “You can’t prove anything.”
Ace smiled and he seemed thrilled to continue his speech, “Oh, but I think we can.We have witnesses that can place you with several of the members of Whittaker’s team and we found paperwork at the Whittaker home implicating you.Then you took a full warehouse of his arms to resell on your own.You just jump started your own gun running biz.Just stepped right into his boots, right?”
Ray looked confused.“How do you know all of this?Like who the hell are you guys?”
