He was taking his lucky knife with him so that if she gave him any trouble he’d be able to silence her without fear of being heard.Guns to him were just noisy.He’d use them, but he didn’t care for all the sounds that would be made when you had to fire one.His knives had always done him the best good, and he thought that he was an expert at using them.He rarely cut himself anymore when he was slicing someone up.
At three thirty, he was already standing by her car.Of course, she would have driven today when he’d seen her get out of it.She’d not think that he was going to take her, but wanted to talk.As soon as he had her right where he wanted her, he was going to cut her up a bit so that she’d know that he meant business.Then after that, she’d take him in her car where he wanted to go and that would be the end of her.He’d not kill her, but he would show her not to fuck with him anymore.When he wanted money, he was going to get it or she was going to have to pay.It would be a right shame if, after he was done with her, that her husband didn’t want her anymore, he thought with a laugh.
“Shawn.What do you want?”She startled him out of his thoughts enough that he couldn’t think of what he was supposed to say to her.Pulling out his knife, he told her that she was going to take him to the bank right now.“No, I don’t think so.I have things I have to do today, and I don’t have time to mess with you.Besides, I told you I wasn’t going to give you any money, and I meant that.”
“You’ll do as I say and do it right now.”He reached out to get her, but she slipped by him without him being able to cut her.“I’m not fucking with you now, Mac.You’re going to do as you’re told, or I’m going to hurt you.I’m thinking you need to be taught a lesson in disobeying me, and I’m going to have fun teaching it to you.”
“I don’t think so.”He’d not counted on her having a gun, and he had to think of something to say to her so that she’d drop it.Having a knife meant that he had to get close to her to slice her, but with a gun she could be far enough away that he’d not be able to touch her before she shot him.“Now you’re going to drop the knife, or I’m going to shoot you.I don’t care what you want from me, but you just tried to harm me and I’m going to have you arrested.Do as I say, and I won’t have to shoot you.”
“Come closer to me so that I can get to you.And put that gun away.You know you’re not going to shoot me.I’m your baby brother.”She pointed out that he was going to hurt her.“Because you have something that I want and you’re not handing it over.What’s the big deal?You have money, and I don’t.Just give me ten grand, and I’ll figure out what you’re going to be giving me monthly.I might just have to tell your husband what a selfish bitch you are.”
“I will shoot you, Shawn.I won’t have any trouble just killing you where you stand.”He lunged at her, and she didn’t move.“I’m not a kid anymore, nor am I afraid of you.You just drop the knife and come along nicely, and I’ll have you put in a jail cell next to Dad when he tries the same thing with me.”
“This is my plan, not Dad’s.And he’s pissed off at you, too, for being an FBI agent.Why did you have to go and do something like that?Because you’re stupid, that’s why.All women are about as dumb as rocks.”She asked him about Clair Baker.“She was just a good time that went sour.I told her not to bother me while I was thinking.But she had to, and now look at her.She’s dead, and you’ll never find her.”
“They’re looking in the fields around where she lives.”That startled him, and he asked her why she’d be doing something like that.“So that’s where she is.I’ll have to tell the Feds when I take you in.It would be nice to solve one more crime before I have to turn in my badge for retirement.”He lunged at her again with the blade of his knife, taking up the distance between the two of them.
He nicked her on her arm, and that’s when she fired.He would never believe that she’s actually shot him if anyone were to ask, but he was hurting badly in his left leg.When she kicked away his favorite knife, he reached for her again when he felt something hit him in the back.It was the big man, Dresden, and he was hurting him badly.
“She shot me.Right in the leg when I told her not to.”He said that he’d cut her.“That was the plan, only I was going to cut her up good so that you’d not want her anymore.”
“That’s never going to happen.I love her, you moron.”He felt the cuffs around his wrist and tried to get away.“I’m going to have to tell you that I have a camera on my vest and that it’s been recording you since you lunged at my wife the first time.You should count yourself lucky that I’ve not killed you yet.”
“It’s just a bit of money.What’s the harm in her paying me so that I can have a bit of it too?”He said that it was the way he was going about it.“By taking her to the bank?You’re not making any sense.That’s where the money is.And she’d already told me no, so I had to go another route with her.”
He was read his rights, like he didn’t know them by heart anyway, and taken to jail.His knives were taken back from him, and they even took his best cutter out of his boot before they put him in a cell.He wanted them all back and was afraid that they’d be running some tests on them and catch him with blood in it.He rarely did more than just wipe it down when he was finished with it, so he knew that there was going to be blood in it from all kinds of things he’d been doing.
“I tell you what.You just let me go, and we’ll pretend like this didn’t happen.I know my rights, and you have to let me go if you have nothing on me.If you were to turn your back on me for just a minute, I can be gone in no time.”He was being put in the cruiser that seemed to appear out of nowhere, and was told that it was too late for him.“No, it’s not.Just let me go because I’m your brother-in-law.We’re related now, and you’d want me to be happy that you’ll be hanging around with the family now, don’t you?”
“I wouldn’t hang around you if we were brothers.So no, I don’t care if I get on your good side.”He was taken to jail and put into a cell.“The federal judge will be by tomorrow to rule on you threatening and harming a federal officer.Also, you tried to bribe me and I’m also a federal officer.You just can’t seem to win now, can you?”
“I’m telling you right now that you’re not going to like me being pissed at you.Other people have tried that, and it didn’t bode well for them.”He said that he wasn’t worried about him.“You should be.I’m not a nice person when it comes to people pissing with me.I’ve been known to leave bodies in my wake.”
“Good to know.I’m sure that with that knife we’ve found on you, as well as the guns that were inyour hotel room we’ll be able to have a lot of cases solved.”He told him he’d not given him permission to be in his room.“You’ve been using a stolen card from Clair Baker, and we’re looking for her body even as we speak.We can use whatever means are necessary to keep you behind bars and in prison.”
“I don’t want to go back to prison.I have a plan about that too.I’m going to take me out a few cops when I get finished here.And it’ll be all your fault.”Dresden just walked away, even though he wasn’t finished talking to him yet.“Did you hear me?I said that I’m not going back to prison.It’s too confining, and they have too many rules.I don’t like rules that don’t allow me to do what I want.Come back here now so that we can work this out.”
The door slammed shut, and he was stuck in the cell.He looked around for his brother, and since he couldn’t find him, he figured that he’d either gotten out or was in another part of the jail.It would be just like Benjamin to get himself put in a different cell so that he’d not be able to talk to him.That was another thing that he hated about prison, since he would usually end up in solitary confinement for days on end, he’d have no one that would talk to him.And he enjoyed bouncing ideas off of other people when they were around.
He heard the door open at the other end of the lock-up and heard his dad bitching about being arrested.He didn’t know what his dad had done to be in jail, but he hoped they’d put him close to him.His dad would make fun of him for his plan again, but at least he’d have someone to talk to.Shawn didn’t like his own company for very long.He’d go stir crazy after a while, and that was something that they didn’t want to happen either.
When the door slammed shut again, he heard his dad yelling for him.He was calling out moron, but he knew he was talking to him.He told him that his plan wouldn’t work, and now they were both in jail.He asked his dad what they’d caught him doing that he had joined him in jail.
“They came right in and found those guns like they knew just where they were.Arrested me because I was in there when they were found.That just ain’t right.”He told him he was sorry.“They found your other knives, too.Just pulled them out from under the mattress like that’s where they expected them to be.Never seen a room that had been tossed look so good afterwards.Someone told them what they’d find, and they got you on those, too.You can’t have any guns on you when you’re an ex-con.”
“I know that.Damn it all to fuck and back, I know the rules.”His dad told him to watch his mouth, or he’d give him something to curse about.“That has never made sense either.Not to mention you’re too far away to make good on your threats.That’s like you telling me when I’m crying as a kid, you’d give me something to cry for.I was crying, isn’t that enough for you to want to know what was wrong?No, you had to threaten me again.Sometimes I think I get my messed-up words from being around you all the time.”
“You take that back.”Another thing that he didn’t understand, but wasn’t going to comment on it.And to think that he wanted someone around so that he could talk to them.He should have stipulated that it wasn’t to be his dad.“You keep this up, and I’m going to give them a list of known deaths you caused.That’ll get your ass in trouble.”
“What about what I know about you, old man?You should be worrying about what I can tell them about you.I know all your secrets.You’d be better off telling them what you’ve done because you know that I’m going to make things out bigger than they really are.”Dad started cursing, and it made him smile.He didn’t know what some of the words were that he was using, but he was sure putting them together nicely.“We’ll live a lot longer if we just keep our mouths shut about each other and go on with our lives.I know that I’m not going to lose any sleep over you being in here.At least you can’t stab me in the back.”
“You think so?Well, you just wait and see.”His dad would think on what he was saying and keep his mouth shut.He knew a lot about his dad and wasn’t afraid to use it to get out of prison.Not that he was going back.He had a plan for that, too, that would keep him from a life sentence.
~*~
Mac had to have fourteen stitches in her arm, and she was sure that was because Reagan had put themin so small.They were neat as a pin, the stitches, but next week it wouldn’t matter at all that she’d been hurt, as Aaron was going to change her into a tiger—they’d finally heard back from the leap leader—and she’d be as good as new.
Since she was going to be changed, they put off trying for a baby.They didn’t know what the change would do about the baby, but didn’t want to take any chances.They would both be safer with her being a tiger, and she was looking forward to running with Aaron.He and his brothers did it often enough that she thought she’d have a good time with just the two of them.Mac couldn’t wait to be able to run with the others, and she was excited about having a baby the next time she ovulated.
