Page 19 of Claimed By The Devil

“Why are you doing this?” I pant, still trying to catch my breath.

“You’re either gonna be a valuable bargaining chip or a pretty revenge corpse. I haven’t made up my mind yet.”

I feel the tears well up in my eyes, and I prepare to use all the breath that I’ve acquired to scream my lungs out, but he grabs me by my hair and smacks the top of my head with the butt of his pistol. The room begins to spin and my vision grows hazy. He catches me as I start to go down and drags me to my bed. Searing pain fills my head as it bounces off the mattress and the world goes dark.

12

FRIEND OR FOE

DANNY

It’s four-thirty when I remember that Mikey and Dave are overdue for a guard change so I call my associate John to the office.

“I need you and Frank to relieve Mikey and Dave tonight. They’ve been sleeping in the car for two nights now. They can’t be on their A game anymore,” I tell him.

“Are you sure, boss? I know you said that you wanted us to go out there, but Jimmy told us that you didn’t need us anymore. He said you made some other arrangement.”

“Why would he tell you that? Are you sure you didn’t misunderstand him?” I ask, sure that Jimmy and I hadn’t had a conversation that he could have misunderstood.

“No misunderstanding, Boss. He was pretty clear.”

“Don’t go too far. I might need you,” I tell him and he steps out of the room.

I grab my phone and call Mikey.

“Yeah, Boss? What’s up?” he answers.

“Have you heard anything from Jimmy?”

“Yeah, he called twenty minutes ago. He said he was coming out to pick up your girl. He said you handled the…uh…situation and everything was clear,” he replies.

“He’s lying, Mikey. He must be playing for the other side. Do not let him near that room, you hear me? I’m on my way,” I end the call and grab my car keys. “John! Let’s go. You’re coming with me,” I shout and John follows me out to the car.

“You really think Jimmy flipped to the other side, Boss?” John asks me as I burn out of the parking lot, “Why would he do it? He’s second-in-command.”

It’s a good question but there can only be one answer. The only spot higher than second-in-command is the boss. Jimmy didn’t flip to the other side. Jimmy is the other side. He’s the third party, the new player, and that explains how the new crew gained such a presence so quickly. He took everything that he learned from me and used it against me.

“What time did Jimmy talk to you today?”

“Not too long ago. Maybe ten minutes before you called me to the office. He insisted that I clock out and go home, so I walked out with him but I forgot my jacket so I came back in to get it. That’s when you called me to the office.”

So, he has a ten-minute head start at best. His car isn’t as fast as mine so that’s not the worst news. I step on the accelerator and shift gears. Images of Deirdre flash across my mind like a slide reel. I see her bashful smile, her beautiful naked body, the look in her eyes when I touch her, and then, the images that I don’t want to see. If Jimmy lays a finger on her, there won’t be anything left of him. I will beat him half to death and then burn him alive.

“Boss, be careful. There’s got to be deer and all kinds of things up here. We can’t help her if we die on the way,” John white knuckles the dash.

“You packing?” I ask him and he raises his pant leg showing me the pistol on his ankle. “And you’re gonna be able to put Jimmy down if you have to? You’ve known him a long time.”

“A traitor is a traitor, don’t matter how long I’ve known him. If he turns on the boss, he turns on the operation and that’s my livelihood,” John explains and I believe him.

We roll up to the motel and I kill the headlights. I park in the front lot and tell John, “Her room is in the back. We’re gonna walk so he doesn’t see us coming.”

John goes one way and I go the other. If we don’t run into any opposition, we should meet on the other side. I see Mikey’s car and crouch down. I need to get close enough to see what’s inside, but the car is parked in sight of Deirdre’s room, so I get as low as I can and inch my way to the car. I look in the passenger side window, and my face heats up as I stare at Dave and Mikey’s lifeless bodies.

I look up at the window of Deirdre’s room and see no movement through the curtains. There’s no one guarding the door either, so I run across the lot and plant myself against the wall beside the stairs. John creeps up next to me with his pistol in his hand.

“Room 310,” I whisper. “He killed Dave and Mikey.”

“His car is still here, Boss. I passed it on my way around.”

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