Maxine's New Life

That woman knows how to stage a dramatic exit, I thought. I sat down on the one comfortable chair and then looked around. Most everything in the room belonged to Jen and her husband. The clothes, towels, and bed covers were mine but but hardly anything else. I didn’t even own a TV. Fortunately living in my friends house had allowed me to save my separation pay. Not only that the business was actually in the black. I wasn’t worried about the cost of the move, I just wanted to get to it before anything happened to Jen.

The way things get done in small towns is that someone knows someone, who knows someone, who has what you want. In my case it was Ed, who had a recent client, who had lived in an isolated fishing cabin about five miles from town. The cabin was about seventy years old so I had some evaluating to do. The driveway leading to the cabin was only a little less than half a mile long, and it was dirt. In the bad weather I was going to need a place in town to crash.

The cabin itself was hardly bigger than the one room over Jen’s garage. Ed, who went with me to inspect it, explained that the exterior walls were board and battens. I had no idea what that meant except that I could see the outside was real wood. I liked that.

“The owner is going to be gone a minimum of 2 years even with good behavior. His mother wants to rent it to help with the expenses. Taxes and maintenance on the place plus she put up a lot of money to get him a decent defense. She would sell it but he is adamant that she not sell. Renting, he did agree to though I doubt that anyone would care what he thinks at this point.”

“Well, I would hate to shoot him, if he just showed up one night. I want him to know I’m staying here, if I decide to take it.”

“”I’ll make sure his mother explains it all. and that she gives you plenty of notice before he is released. I expect your present problems will be gone by then. When that is done, you can live like a real adult.” Ed said smiling.

The cabin was actually one big room. Larger than the over the garage room, because their were no roof eves. The roof was a steep shed roof, high on one end and lower on the other. To carry the roof load there was a line of 6×6 posts half way inside the room. If that line of posts had ever been a wall, it was long since gone.

The floor was covered with an old rug from someone’s house no doubt. The furniture wasn’t the classy kind of shabby chic, it was just crap. Everything had been discarded from someone’s house. Of that I had no doubt. That said, the old refrigerator was cold, There was no range, but I really didn’t mind. My plan was microwave all the way. There were no cabinets in the kitchen. The pipes under the sink were even exposed, since it was a plastic utility sink. For storage the house came equipped with metal warehouse type shelving units. Those had started life in some other place no doubt. There was an old ironing board bolted to the wall with one leg on the small end. It served as a breakfast bar, at least that would be its purpose for me.

“What happened to the bed?” I asked.

“When his mother decided to try to rent this place, she cleaned it. She had the bed taken away. She didn’t think anyone else would want to rent the place with that old smelly bed in it.”

“That was probably a good idea. I’ll tell you Ed, I just don’t know. This place is pretty dismal.”

“Max, if the rollers come for you, it will be down that long drive. They won’t be walking five miles through the woods, or paddling a boat over that pond. Those city boys will come right down the road. It won’t be hard for you to rig a surprise for them. I understand you have had some experience with IEDs. What was it they called the course you taught?”

“Cooking with Maxine.” I replied. “Well all that is true enough, but I still have to work.”

“You work from a cell phone, nobody knows where you are more than half the time. The rollers won’t know either.”

“Ed, I’ll have to stop coming to the office.”

“The hell you will, I have bailed out almost every bad guy in the county. They are not going to shoot up my office, unless they have a death wish. None of this will guarantee you a long life, but it’s your best shot.”

“Yeah, you are quite the salesman,” I said kissing his cheek.

“I owe you, this is just a payment on the debt.”

“So, let’s go pay the woman and buy a bed.” And that’s exactly what we did. Ed was too old to help, so I fought the bed from the minivan into the house alone. It is the kind of situation where a boyfriend would have come in handy. I also bought myself a shopping cart full of household crap. I had brought my sheets and towels from Jen’s house. I knew winter would come soon, so I also bought three blankets. You can never have too many blankets, my dad always said.

I had to go to the power company to leave a deposit and sign a contract. I planned to spend one more night at Jen’s house. I had not wanted to put them in danger even one more night, but I gave in to her whining. I almost always gave in to her.

We came as close as possible to a family dinner that night. We ordered take out spaghetti from a class restaurant. Bob opened a bottle of wine making our last supper even more special. After dinner we sat around drinking even more wine. I got very mellow over the course of that evening.

Around midnight Bob walked over to me with the wine bottle, but rather than pour more wine into my glass, he kissed me. It wasn’t a best friend of my wife’s kind of kiss. It was more of a lets get naked kind of kiss. I could have resisted, but I didn’t. All the excuses I had for not getting involved the last time were gone. I didn’t have to live with them afterward and they both knew it.

Since Jen was sitting there watching, it obviously was okay with her. I had no idea what she was thinking or planning and at that moment I didn’t care. I just wanted to float along to a huge orgasm. I just didn’t want that to happen for a long long time. I wanted to enjoy the feeling of his tongue in my mouth for a while longer then move on to even more delicious things.

I smelled her perfume even before I felt the hands reach around me from the rear. The hands lifted my knit top into a wad under my chin. Then she deftly opened my bra snaps. There must have been a signal of some kind between them because Bob pulled back at the same time that she lifted my top and bra over my head. I was naked to the waist and it was a marvelously free feeling. I was floating on a cloud of lust.

Somehow I found myself standing. Bob turned me to Jen and she kissed me with a smaller tongue but it was still marvelously erotic. While she kissed me and cupped my breasts, bob unbuttoned my slacks from behind. Before I even realized it my slacks and panties were around my feet. I stepped out of the rumpled clothing. I was naked sandwiched between two people who were still clothed. That didn’t last long Bob pulled away. I was trying to beg him not to leave but Jens tongue was in my mouth and I was gasping for air.

My body shivered as though a cold wind had blown into the room, but it wasn’t the cold. I shivered at the feel of Bob’s naked body against my back, and the sensations created by his erect penis against my butt. Working its way into the cleft of my ass.

I reached behind me and guided it so that it rubbed between my legs and across my vulva. As he stroked my vulva the head of his cock hit my clit at the end of each stroke. It add to my arousal. I felt hands push me forward bending me at the waist. My knees gave way, after some pulling and tugging I came to rest on my knees with my head in Jen’s lap. I felt Bob’s thick cock push into my pussy. It was not a gentle entry, but it was thrilling. I felt his cock force its way deep inside me. I was soaking wet but my pussy wasn’t able to stretch fast enough to compensate for the size of his cock without some discomfort. More of a deep burning sensation than actual pain. It was a thrilling sensation as he drove deep into me.

I was surprised as I rose toward my first orgasm, that Jen repositioned herself moving my face until it was pressed against her pussy. I had no choice but to do as she wanted. Hell I didn’t mind one bit, since I was totally out of control and unable to make any decisions on my own. I had to be led and the two of them were doing it just fine.

I came the first time while Bob drove his thick cock in and pulled it out of my pussy in some kind of ancient rhythm. At the same time I was finding a shortage of oxygen with my face pressed hard against Jen’s sweet smelling pussy. Whatever she did to deodorize her pussy was choking me. Still I exploded in an orgasm while I fought to survive the experience. It was all about survival as the two of them push and pulled at my body.

It took only seconds for the cock moving inside my pussy to awaken my body again. I felt Jen’s muscles contract hard and I knew she was in the throws of her own orgasm. Somehow even though I was almost unconscious, I had managed to lick and suck her clit until she was ready to orgasm. At the point where her muscles locked she pulled my face hard against her pussy cutting off all oxygen. I fought against her until she finally released me.

By that time I was very near my second orgasm. Jen lifted my body then kissed me deeply. She couldn’t press herself against me but she kissed me with just our lips touching. She was like me lost in that moment. I could tell neither of us was thinking clearly. I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to collapse onto the floor. Jen had the sofa and Bob was driving his cock deep and slowly. From his motion I knew that he was about to cum inside me. I was weak at the thought of his cum pouring into me.

“Cum in me, please cum in me,” I begged.

“Yes,” he almost screamed as I felt him stiffen, then a warmth spread inside me. I never felt the splash of cum but it did feel different after he came.

I fell to the floor exhausted. I almost went to sleep, but Jen helped me to my feet and into their bedroom. We slept off and on that night with a lot of touchie, feelie going on between naps. When I awoke in their bed, they were gone. I was thankful. I wanted some time to pass before I came face to face with either of them.

I spent very little time in the office, and only a couple of hours delivering court papers, and the rest of the time I tried to make the cabin livable. That meant everything from having the fuel oil tank filled, to learning how to work the kitchen sink and shower facilities. Fortunately it was still mild weather.

Since the owner never did get around to installing the pipe insulation needed to keep the pipes from freezing, there were turnoffs at the well head for the worst of the freezing weather. That information along with how to drain the water lines was for nights when the temperature fell below 20 degrees. The instructions also told me not to turn them on again until the outside temperature had risen to at least 30 degrees. The well pump itself was protected by a 75watt light bulb inside the pump house, which I was told should be changed before the temperature got down to freezing. The information came from the state prison via Ed and the cabin owner’s mother.

I made a little fancy plaque with the instructions on it and posted it above the kitchen sink as a decoration. In keeping with the industrial theme of the place, I bought a metal work bench to use as an island in the kitchen.

After almost a week had past I was ready to venture back out into the world. In my case that meant a drink at the Cop Out. Since I had a long treacherous drive, I chose coffee and diet coke as my beverage of choice. On the very first night I met Blevins friend Jerry. As I matter of fact I spoke to him as he walked in.

“Hello Jerry,” I said it with a smile.

“Hello Max, have you seen Sarah?”

“You mean the ER nurse?” I asked. He could see that I was curious.

“Yeah, now that I’m not undercover, I have a girlfriend.” He smiled. Even though I didn’t feel like it, I smiled back.

A couple of Blevin’s friends sat down. It was an older crowd that I attracted. Not long after the older nurses found their way into the bar. I felt safe. I mean I was surrounded by men with guns, why wouldn’t I, right?

After a week of having a social life again, I felt pretty good. I picked up a handful of frozen dinners a couple of times a week, and I ate out almost every day for lunch. I spent at least part of almost every evening a the Cop Out socializing with the friends I had made there. I was not sure that anyone knew my true sexual orientation, since the rumors about me and Andrew flew around. He never came back to the Cop Out. He might be worried that I would kill him, if he did. All in all it was a pretty good life. Then of course, as life always seem to do, it came tumbling down. Why it took then so long I never really understood, except maybe the cousin was finally headed for trial.

It happened on a Wednesday night, two days short of being three months exactly since the clinic incident. Since word got out that the rollers were planning to take me out, someone from the Cop Out seemed to be leaving at the same time I did every night. The someone at times was a group, and it varied each night.

That Wednesday it was me, Blevins, Jerry and his chick Sarah. I hadn’t really wanted her along, but I wasn’t supposed to realize that they were my bodyguards, so I kept my mouth shut. The four of us were on the sidewalk half way between the entrance to the Cop Out and the parking lot when I heard the car Revving up.

During my first vacation in the scenic Iraq, while standing guard at check points, I learned that a revving cars always means bad shit is about to happen. Sure enough, when I found the source of the noise, the car was rolling fast toward us. I saw the arm with the pistol hanging out. My only thought was, get your fat ass on the ground.

I screamed, “Gun,” as I went down. Blevins had been around enough to drop shortly after me. The kid Jerry was trying to protect his chick, so he and Sarah were the only ones standing when the gunmen in the car threw about twenty rounds at us. Blevins was already emptying his pistol at the car before I even started to get mine out. I fired all five rounds at them, but it was a waste of lead, I was pretty sure.

I looked back to see blood on the sidewalk. I got to my knees and saw Jerry dragging himself off of Sarah. Jerry had blood over his jacket but it was not nearly as noticeable as the large and growing stain on Sarah’s top. The Combat medical training I got before I deployed kicked in. I took my knit top off and quickly folded it into a pressure bandage, I pressed it hard onto Sarah’s Chest.

“Blevins, get some pressure on Jerry’s wound. One of you people standing with your finger up your ass call 911.” At that moment I felt hands cover my hands, then other hands pulling me away. Sarah’s nurse friends had taken over. I was suddenly sitting on the sidewalk in my jeans and bra.

Somebody tapped me on the shoulder. It was a man holding his shirt out to me. He was wearing only a white tee shirt. He had obviously given me the shirt off his back. I began to cry at that point. I was on the verge of hysterics, but managed to barely hold it together.

The ambulances came from all over. The attendants took over for the ER nurse, who had been holding my sweater to Sarah’s chest. The next one to arrive took over from Blevins. They quickly loaded both of them into the back of their trucks. The third unit’s Medics, ordered me and Blevins into the back. Since the Cop Out was downtown, it was a short ride to the hospital. Even so when we arrived, Sarah was in the operating room. They had Jerry in a treatment unit awaiting a second surgeon to remove the slug from his shoulder. Jerry had what we would have called a million dollar wound. It could get one a medical discharge but wouldn’t leave them with too much permanent damage.

They instantly took Blevins and me to treatment rooms. I got a pill to calm me down. I wasn’t anything more than mad as hell, by that time. I could have used a tranq when it first happened, but thirty minutes later, I was just blood red pissed. Minor drama hurts my feelings and I pout, major trauma makes me just want to kill someone. From talking to other afghan vets, it isn’t that much different with them.

I had some scrapes and bruises from concrete burns on exposes skin, otherwise I was fine. They had me sign a bunch of forms, then I was released. Released from the ER usually meant a ride to the exit in a wheel chair. In my case I walked to the waiting room for the surgery patients.

“Are you alright?” one of the patrolmen who had been in the Cop Out asked.

“I’m fine what do we know about jimmy and Sarah?” I had put myself right into the family even though I was an outsider.

“Jerry’s isn’t life threatening, but Sarah is real bad Max.” He spoke in a whisper because there were close friends of hers in the waiting room.

I nodded my understanding. I didn’t sit, because I didn’t want to talk to anyone. Instead I found my way to the robot room for machine made coffee. It was terrible, but I have had worse. I stood alone in the hallway drinking coffee, when a middle-age woman in a fancy scrub suit approached me.

“You should leave,” she said. At first I thought she meant I should go home to rest, but then I understood the tone of her words.

“Why?” I asked quietly.

“Those bullets were meant for you. You shouldn’t pretend that you care about her.” That time the words were angry.

“I am here because that should have been me. I want to be close even though there is nothing I can do. I promise I will stay away from her friends and family.” Since the woman didn’t leave, I added. “I am sorry this happened.”

“Slut, we all know about you and Andrew, the freak.” With those words she left. So Andrew liked to brag. One day I might try to get even. I couldn’t unring the bell, but I could break the damn thing. The middle-aged woman left without me saying another word in my own defense. It wasn’t the time or place to argue with Sarah’s friends.

Blevins approached me from the elevator. “You alright Max,” he asked.

“Fuck you Blevins,” I whispered as I hugged him. My body shook but it wasn’t sexual for a change. I was just tired, scared and my feelings were hurt. Blevins seemed to be the only one who cared.

“It’s okay Max, It isn’t your fault.” The son of bitch knew what I was thinking. “Just wrong place wrong time, all cops understand that. Now let go of me so I can talk to my men.”

He left me standing in the hall alone again with my thoughts. The rollers had truly fucked up. I had to wonder, if they knew they had attacked cops on their home turf. Cops are the biggest gang of all, and the most dangerous. They don’t do it for the money, they do it for the power. The rollers were going to find out all about that. I just knew it in my soul.

I sat in the robot room with cups of bad coffee . Drinking one after another until Blevins came back. “Max they lost Sarah. You need to go. Some of these idiots want to blame someone and you are handy.”

“Alright,” I replied quietly.

“Are you alright to drive?”

“I’m fine.”

“Maybe you should stay with friends or check into a motel tonight,” he suggested.

“I’m fine,” I replied. I didn’t tell him I was a couple of steps ahead of the rollers. I had already moved to a place no one knew. A place requiring a two mile drive in the country where it was dark as original sin. A drive that showed the headlights of any car following me. The drive on public roads ended at a newly installed cattle gate across my private drive. It was set 30 feet down the drive. If one hadn’t been down that drive in daylight, and if that someone was in a hurry to do a drive by, that someone was likely to crash into it. Doing some significant damage to their car, but also giving me a loud heads up. At that point life was would get interesting for us all.

I can’t think of anything worse than running into a heavily armed and pissed off bitch in the middle of the night. I had even bought a new shotgun for the dance. I got a Mossburg Pump riot 12guage. It was a lot of gun for a woman my size, but it would get someone’s attention just by pointing it at them. That and the surplus kevlar vest gave me pretty good odds of making my presence known. Hell I might even be the only one to walk away, if it came to that. I had other plans though. Sitting in a vending machine room of a hospital most of the night had given me plenty of time to think.

Since I had prepared for it, nothing happened. I slept until noon. The cell phone was broadcasting some stupid song while I tried to get it before the song ended and the call dropped. “At Your Service, Stone.”

“Max this is Blevins, we served a search warrant on the rollers about twenty minutes ago. They were so used to nobody calling their hand, that even after shooting a cop and killing Sarah, they didn’t even try to hide evidence. Not sure if the guns we recovered were used in the shooting but none of them were purchased legally. We found drugs and money as well as the weapons. The rollers are finished.”

“They are never finished. You just got a few of the worst of them out of commission for today. Others will come along to take their place,” I suggested. “Probably make bail before your shift ends.

“Well maybe they will forget about you.”

“Maybe, thanks for the update.” I paused a moment the added. “You do know that they might have been shooting at you. You are head of the gang task force.”

“Hell Max, I’m the whole task force. We almost never have any gang trouble .”

“You could have fooled me,” I replied. I fully expected the rollers to be out on bail before the sun went down. Hell Ed was probably writing their bail at that very moment. I wasn’t angry. If Ed didn’t do it, someone else would. It did leave me with a problem though. I had to take their mind off me somehow. “Blevins who are these guys, did they come from some big city? You know move south to avoid those killer winters?”

“No these are home grown thugs from Tryon. They started as a skateboard club of sorts. They met at one of their local Parks to skate and smoke a little weed. Then one of them started to supply the others with weed. His name was Simon Russell. Russell was a little more ambitious than the others. Pretty soon he was supplying his group and a bunch of other kids from the high school and university over there. He used the skaters as his delivery and distribution system. He got big enough that he needed muscle, so he brought in a couple of Mexican brothers. From there it became a gang. When they couldn’t move enough weed to satisfy everybody’s desire for more of everything, they branched out. Then they got to be a real problem.”

“So how hard core are they?”

“Russell is still a reasonable guy, but the Mendez brothers that’s a different thing all together. Either the brothers or maybe that last cousin, the one out on bail, did the shooting. I would bet my life on it.”

You might be doing just that, I thought. “Ah, so how many cousins are there?”

“Well after you came to town there were two less, The one out on bail is the last of the ones we know about. There maybe more on the way though. I would say right now they are down to about one cousin. That still leaves three very bad dudes out there.”

“Do you have them in custody?”

“Not yet,” he admitted.

“Any chance one of the dealers will roll over on the Mendez family?

“They are scared to death of the brothers. They won’t talk, unless they are more afraid of something or someone else.”

I stopped asking questions at that point. The rest of the intelligence needed to come from a different source.

After Blevins hung up I called Ed. “Hey Ed, can you get me an address for the Roller’s enforcers. The Mendez brothers I think it is.”

“Hold on, are you okay. I heard there was a shootout at the Cop Out last night.”

“I’m fine, one of the nurses got killed though. I think they were after Blevins.” I waited a second while Ed laughed. “So about the address?”

“I bailed the one you didn’t shoot out of jail a few weeks ago, let me look in the file.” All kinds of things ran through my head as I waited for Ed to return. “According to their file, they lived with their Grandmother.”

“Is that a mail drop of do they really life there?” I couldn’t believe that these bad ass brothers lived with there sweet lil granny..

“No they may be whoring around, but they always come back to their granny’s place to wind down. Regroup I guess you would call it these days.”

“At two A.M. how would I know if they were home?”

“Any car in the drive would be an indication. Granny is blind she doesn’t drive.”

“Ed, we never had this conversation?”

“What conversation?” he asked.

I pulled the maps and even a satellite picture of the house up on the net. I found a place to leave the minivan just four blocks from the house. Even if the response was large, which it most likely would be, the parking lots wouldn’t be checked until after the area was secure. My plan was to leave the van on the edge of the secure area.

The plan also called for me to get out of the secure area before the police arrived. At least to get me and the assault vehicle hidden. The city’s urban/ghetto park had a parking lot that was unsecured. There might be cameras, that I would need to check. It was far enough away that a 4AM ‘thug check’ would go unnoticed by the bad guys.

Since I was in no great hurry, I made my shopping run. The purchase date of the items should be far enough away from the assault to at least give me plausible deniability. A good story to a jury who in their hearts wanted to spare me anyway, should be enough. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but I also wanted to have several end game strategies.

So off to the thrift store I went. Inside I bought mens work pants and a thick paid shirt. Since it was closing in on fall, there were several knit caps available for purchase. I chose the largest one, even though it was yellow and would stand out.

From the outside storage area, I purchased a twenty inch bmx type bicycle. I checked that it worked first, then I put it into the rear of my van. It needed air in the tires at least. I chose to buy a twenty buck compressor rather than be seen on camera in a convenience store pumping up a tire.

At the dollar store, I bought a one gallon gas can, a pair of very weak, thick rimmed, reading glasses, a small container of liquid dish washing soap, a pair of cheap cloth gardening gloves, a pair of rubber household cleaning gloves and finally a roll of gauze bandaging cloth. I almost bought a bottle of peroxide but I couldn’t remember how the weak solution would react to gasoline.

With my purchases in tow, I stopped by a small convenience store on the opposite side of town from the road leading to my new home. I bought one gallon of unleaded gasoline, and three glass quart bottles of beer. I bought the tire compressor from a small do it yourself auto parts store. I had way under a hundred bucks in my homemade assault package. Too bad the army couldn’t do it this cheap, I thought. It would sure save on my tax bill. It was late in the afternoon when I returned home.

I knew that if I was a instant suspect, I probably would be soon after, the cops might trace a gasoline purchase, but it would be a long shot. I had chosen a mom and pop convenience store, because I didn’t see a camera outside. All my other purchases were very deniable. I made all my purchases with cash, so that the trail would be harder to follow.

I had bought the most expensive of the thrift store bikes. Twenty five bucks for a one speed kids bike was a lot there. The one I got didn’t have any rust. It looked as though it had been well taken care of. Once the tires were inflated and the seat adjusted, I spent an hour learning to ride again. It didn’t take long for it all to come back. On the one speed I wasn’t going to set any speed records, but it was faster than any guy could run for long.

I spent the evening on my computer. My old laptop had nothing of any real value on the hard drive, but even so I made it onto ebay to pick up some thumb drives as a place to move my personal files. The hard drive was about to be a thing of the past. While on ebay I bought a hard drive that would fit in my old computer. The hard drive was an older, smaller model. The older versions of Windows were not being recognized any longer for updating, and it would never hold the larger newer versions, so I had to rethink my options. I had always wanted to use Linux, one of those small versions would work, I thought. It looked like the perfect time to try one out.

I slept well that night since I had a plan. It was the being without a plan that kept me up nights. Having a plan made it much easier to sleep. That and a quick masturbation session with my personal vibrator. The orgasm wasn’t meant to be mind blowing. It was meant to help me sleep and it worked just fine.

For a week I worked exactly like I had before all the crap came down. I went into the office at nine. I waited for a call to come in giving me something to do. Since the clinic thing and the the driveby shooting, I had been getting more work. A lot of it was odds and ends work. It was not my staple, process serving. I expected the extra work to end after the notoriety died down, so I enjoyed it while I had it.

I played dead until Wednesday of the next week. My one exception was a 4AM driveby on Monday night. Just to get the lay of the land. If anyone was on watch, it was from inside the house. Not likely they would know what was happening until it was too late. I also looked for any signs of police surveillance, but I didn’t notice anything.

I took a nap Wednesday after work. I even went to the Cop Out and stayed until they closed at 1AM. Jerry was still upset about his friend Sarah. I tried to be no more than concerned. Sure I would have screwed his brains out any other time, but that night I just had too much on my mined. After the Cop Out closed I went to breakfast with Blevins and Jerry, It was 3 AM when I left them in the restaurant parking lot. They surely presumed I was headed home. Since there was a pall over all of them, I didn’t have to make a decision about getting laid. Until Sarah’s death there had always been a chance, but lately everyone was just too sad to think about such things.

It was early in the morning on Thursday when we left the diner. It was early for us but it was possible that the Mendez family was still working, so I waited at home until 4AM. It seemed to me that by that time even the thugs would be sleeping. I loaded the van while wearing rubber surgical gloves. under the brown cloth work gloves. The bicycle with the metal egg basket from the dollar store attached to the handle bars went in first. Then the box containing three quart beer bottles filled with gasoline and liquid soap. The soap was just to make it adhere to the hard surfaces better. Each bottle was capped with the twist top originally used to keep the beer in place. Finally the gauze strips meant to be inserted into the bottles after the caps had been removed. I could have used tampons but I didn’t want anything that even vaguely might point to me. The gauze would get soaked with gasoline from the bottle. I knew I needed to be careful after they were primed. There would be gasoline on my gloves and probably the plaid shirt as well. It was eminently possible to set myself ablaze. The reward could be a life free of the Mendez brothers. The risk seemed justified to me at the time.

Inside the house I removed all my clothes except my panties. I put on a tight fitting jogging suit first. I put on the over sized jeans, then the brown plaid shirt over the running suit. I pushed my hair into the orange knit cap then I checked my pocket to be sure I had the dollar store glasses. I felt as though everything was right so I was ready to go.

I drove the van to the small neighborhood park four and a half blocks from the Mendez house. There I unloaded the bike and then removed the three bottles from the box. Those went into the basket attached to the handle bars. It was a tight fit, but I managed them.

The four block ride to the site of my sapper attack was a nightmare. Bottles of homemade napalm rattled around in the homemade basket not two feet from my face. The glasses were so weak that even when I put them on it made very little difference in my vision. I primed the bottle at the corner of their street, then rode quickly to the house.

The first of the Molotov Cocktails went onto the trunk of the older, but beautifully restored muscle car in the drive. The next two went onto the porch of the house. I did not wait to see what the damages were. Instead, I pedaled the small bicycle as hard as I could back to my van. I had no idea whether anyone would try to follow or not. My mind was focused on getting out of any area that most certainly be quickly sealed off.

I hefted the bicycle into the rear of the van and quickly headed out. Once inside the van, I removed the shirt and jeans. I put them into a black plastic garbage bag. The gloves would stay in place until I dumped everything. The first siren I heard came from a different direction. I slipped easily out of town. I dumped the clothes at a county dump site. The jeans, plaid shirt and orange cap along with the cheap glasses made it into the dumpster. I entered the site a mad bomber and left it as a sweet little process server. I knew the police would be looking at me as well as any others who might have a reason to do in the Mendez clan, so I drove to Aster for an early breakfast I even made sure I was noticed by a waitress there. Doing that was pretty simple, I spoke to her more than just to order.

“God I wish I had your body. Enjoy it while you are young. Middle-age might have you out in the middle of the night getting ready for a morning walk.”

“You don’t look as though you need to lose weight,” she replied.

“I need to lose twenty pounds according to one of those perfect height to weight charts.”

“So where do you walk?”

“Sometimes at the park, but it’s getting chilly and frankly I’m not sure walking in the park this early is a good idea. They say it is closed until sunup, but I know better. I’m hanging out waiting for the mall to open. God I do love your body.” I said. Yes I was flirting with her, but a woman flirting with a straight woman would be remembered.

It was 6AM by the time I finished eating. I dawdled intentionally. After I dropped the bike at the Salvation Army pick up site, I drove to the mall parking lot. I was standing at the door when they opened at 7AM. I stood with several other mall walkers until the security chief opened the doors. I made sure I was noticed by him as well. A forty year old, reasonably attractive woman, stood out among all the retired people, who usually walked at the mall. It didn’t hurt that I had walked there a few morning previously. I really was trying to lose the twenty pounds.

“You are early this morning Max?” The security man suggested.

“Just an hour or so. I couldn’t sleep.”

“Yeah, I heard about all the trouble you have been in. Anything I can do.”

“Well you could come over and keep watch over me at night,” I said that with a big wink. Might as well make sure he remembered me that morning.

After my three mile hike around the mall, I went home to shower. After my shower I had time for a nap. I did that, since I didn’t have a boss. Even with the sleepless night I was in the office by ten, and in reasonably good condition.

“Good morning Ed,” I said walking into the office.

“Good morning Max, did you see the morning news on TV?”

“No I didn’t. Is there anything interesting?”

“Yeah there was a suspicious fire at the Mendez brother’s grandmother’s house. It’s a good thing she was in Mexico visiting her brother, or she might have died.” He seemed a little upset at the thought of an innocent dying.”

“You mean like Sarah at the Cop Out.”

“Yeah, like that I guess,” he replied.

“So were any members of the family visiting?”

“Yeah her two grandsons and a great nephew. The whole family was visiting. No word yet on their conditions. Most likely minor, if any injuries at all.”

“Ah oh well,” I really hadn’t expected to do any more than flush them out. “I guess, I need to take some things from the safe room. And you need to be very, very careful.”

“Sweetie if those thugs hit me, you won’t have to worry about them. There are about a thousand guys worse than them that I have bailed out. Just go through my files and call them all and offer them a grand to off the brothers and it is done.”

“Well let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. You really need a vacation.”

“Let’s see how this plays out.”

“Okay, I’ll be operating from the van till you decide to leave.” I said it with a smile. “Spread the word that I’m not in the office till further notice.” I removed the riot length Winchester 1920‘s style pump shotgun from the safe room. It was the kind with the hammer exposed. It had been used in the federal prison system back in the day. My story was that it was retired at the same time as Alcatraz, but I didn’t know that for sure. From the room I also removed the 10mm very modern Glock. I filled a small plastic bag with shells for both as well as the .38 five shot Colt which I wore in a shoulder holster under my jacket that day. When I left Ed’s officer for possibly the last time, I felt as though I was going off to war again.

I drove the minivan to the closest McDonald’s parking lot. I went through the drive through for a large coffee, then sat in the parking lot to drink it and crank up my computer. Every half hour I finished the coffee went inside to pee. While inside I got another cup, then went back to the car. Since the sun was shining the car was warm. The warm car and the comfortable captains chair soon had me nodding off.

I hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep the night before. I was on the nod when the cell phone rang. I looked at the dash clock before I answer it. The clock told me that I had spent the whole morning doing nothing but avoiding everyone. It was 2PM when I said, “Hello,” into the phone.

“Max it’s Blevins. We need to talk where are you?”

“On the move Blevins. After Cop Out and then Ed telling me about the Mendez brother’s house last night, I felt like I needed to get away from him before he became another Sarah.”

“Yeah, I have been looking over my shoulder as well. Honest Max, I didn’t even know where they lived.”

“Neither did I, but they just might not know that. So if you didn’t do it, and I didn’t do it, who did?”

“Probably some other dope gang. They have made plenty of enemies. Hell half the cops in two different cities would be happy to hit them. Then there is all the people they have been strong arming as well as the other dopers.”

Well maybe the dopers are ready to cut the Mendez brothers loose. Someone should suggest that if they give them up, the temperature would go down for a while at least.” I said that just to plant an idea.

“We have a more immediate problem. Me, you, and Jerry are going to be suspects. I figure we can change the times of our after hours adventure last night and alibi each other.”

“So what time was the firebombing?” I asked.

“Around 4AM,” he replied.

“So what were we doing till sunup? having a threesome?”

“Actually that’s about the best alibi we could come up with.”

“There goes my reputation,” I replied. “Tell them I left about six. I was out having breakfast then. They might find the waitress so make it possible for me to have been there. After that I was at the mall walking.”

“Good, then we just alibi each other all three of us doing the dirty till sunup. I’ll get with Jerry.”

“Blevins, what if Jerry did it? We will be giving him an alibi for a crime he committed.”

“You think I’m going to lose any sleep over those assholes?”

“I guess not,” I answered. So Blevins wouldn’t care. He would alibi me, even if he thought that I had done it “I wonder who the rollers think did it?”

“My guess, they think it was you. I mean they did try to kill you, and it didn’t work. They know you are capable of killing people, since their two cousins are dead.”

“Ah so I’m going to need that alibi,” I replied.

“Well, it could have been me or Jerry and neither of us has an alibi either. This will just wrap up the loose ends. Besides no one died, so as far as I’m concerned, it’s a no harm, no foul situation.”

“You know they aren’t going to see it that way.”

“Then when they come, kill them all this time, I sure as hell plan to.”

After the Blevin’s call, I dialed up Jennifer on her direct line. We had been keeping touch again since the shooting outside the Cop Out club. She had set the tone with the first call by completely ignoring the fact that I knew both her and her husband in the biblical sense. For that I was very grateful. I suspected that she just had enough class and guile to wait for a better time to discuss it with me. She did end every call with come see us, you are always welcome. To her credit, it always sounded just as it had before the incident.

“Hey Jen it’s me Maxine, how would you like to be my mouth piece?”

“God, you know I love when you talk gangsta’,” she suggested. “So what fun thing are you up to now.”

“From a friend at the police department I heard that it looks as though the Tryon cops my want to question me about the Mendez brother’s fire thing.”

“Let them ask who you are then, invoke your right to counsel. Do not go to Tryon until you call me.”

“Yes mother,” I replied.

“If you had listened to your mother I probably wouldn’t need to be acting like one. So where the hell are you?”

“Sitting in your van outside a McDonald’s hijacking their WiFi signal.”

“Hell Max, that’s probably a felony,”

“Hey, I bought a cup of coffee. I’m just drinking it in the van.”

“So anything else right now? I’m headed into a deposition about a bank account, not near as much fun as defending you will be.”

“Just one thing, I don’t want to tell the cops where I live. It isn’t the search, it’s having the info out there while Granny Mendez’s little boys are looking for me.”

“Tell the cops to fuck off till they get a warrant, then we will take them to your hide out Ms Barker.” With that we both broke into laughter. I was surprised she even knew who Ma Barker had been. “You be damn careful Max, you are my only fun client.” Thank god she didn’t mention our personal relationship.

I continued to work at my little business. That same night I found the hard drive in my mail box. I switched out the computer drives immediately, then tossed my old one in the lake behind the cabin. I also loaded the Puppy Linux live CD into the computer’s new hard drive. It was a little hinky but it did everything I expected and more.

The day after I spoke to Jennifer Ed called to tell me someone had stopped by his office looking for me. The supposed client didn’t leave a number. Ed agreed with me that the Mendez brothers were looking for me.

“Blevins it looks as though the Mendez Boys are looking for me. Someone went to Ed’s office, Can you get patrol to watch his place till this blows over. You might find one of them staked out watching the place.”

“No problem, by the way speaking of the Mendez brother, the cousin Pablo decided that he didn’t like the temperature here after all. He decided to not take his chances in out courts. He left on a bus yesterday I’m told. Too bad your friend Ed is out his bail.”

“Yeah, but back to my immediate problem please. Ed said the guy who came to his office was a well dressed Caucasian male about thirty. Could that have been Simon Russell the Roller chief. Do you think he might be trying to make nice.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it, but I can make a couple of calls to see. Who knows, maybe the rollers are looking for new muscle. If they will drop a dime on the Mendez brothers, this could all be over by dark.”

“It’s a blood feud now, it won’t be over till I am dead, or they are. I seen this kind of tribal shit in Afghanistan.”

“Yeah, knowing you Max, my money is on Mexican funerals for all.”

“From your mouth to God’s ear,” I said. “Please see if you can find out if Russell wants to sell out the Mendez brothers.”

I served a couple of papers, enough to cover the cost of my coffee anyway, before Blevins got back to me. “The word from Tryon’s gang unit, is Russell wants to distance himself from the Mendez brothers, but he is afraid of them.”

“Then why the hell is he looking for me?”

“He wants to trade information for his life. He is afraid you are going to target him next.”

“Next, I didn’t target anyone.”

“Yeah I know that, remember when that happened I had my dick in your mouth.” He said it with a laugh at least.

“Yes my poor sore pussy won’t let me forget.” I showed him I could be just as crude as any man. “You got any idea what his information is?”

“Number one: it’s that he didn’t order the driveby at the Cop Out. Number two: seems to be a warning. The Mendez brother have ordered that everybody they know keep an eye out for you. They want to take you alive. They don’t want any driveby this time.”

“Ah, they want it up close and personal.” I suggested.

“Yeah,” Blevins said. “And no chance of a miss.”

I spent two hours thinking about it before I called Blevins back. “Blevins, let’s ambush the sons of bitches.”

“I like it, how?”

“Tell them were to find me then, follow me until we can get them in the clear. Then you can arrest them for kidnapping me.”

“That is way too dangerous, the Captain will never go for it.”

“Blevins they ain’t hunting the Captain. You be there and I’ll do it myself.”

“What do you need. I know a couple of cops who owe me one and a lot more who would love to bust those bastards. We haven’t been able to tie them to the Cop Out yet.”

“I need a tracking device they can’t find, and something to tell you they snatched me.”

“Max you know this could get really rough and go terribly wrong?”

“I know, but I also know I’m damn tired of McDonald’s coffee.” Even though the coffee at McDonald’s is good coffee, everything gets old eventually.”

One of the low life Roller dealers gave the information to the Mendez brothers. They had no reason to doubt it, since they put the word out themselves. Russell had turned on them, but they didn’t know it.

The tip was that every Friday night I met a woman at one of those cheap Paki motels. We made it a woman to disgust the brothers even more. Also to let them know there wouldn’t be much of a threat. I went to the motel alone. I checked into the motel and pretended to wait for my lady love. I was half asleep when they came. When they broke the door, I activated the call for help. The tracker was always turned on. It was just a gps sending unit The lab boys had fitted it into my ear canal. It was going to take some doing to get that thing out.

When they came I resisted, but not a lot. If they had known me better they should have been surprised that I didn’t at least shoot at them. They weren’t at all gentle when the dragged me from the room in the middle of the night. I took more than one punch and a couple of kicks.

I had no idea where they took me, since I had a bag over my head. I figured the bag was a waste, since they were obviously going to kill me. My only hope was that Blevins and company would get to me before they did. I had a lot riding on him.

The Mendez brother dragged me into some kind of industrial warehouse. They tied me to a chair with plastic zip ties. Then they took turns bitch slapping and punching me. I expected the cigarette burns at any minute. They loved that I screamed and cried for them. Most of that was not faked. I was in some serious pain and had long since begun to doubt my decision making ability. My clothes had been taken and searched before they tied me to that chair, so the locater in my ear proved to be a blessing. Of course had they found it, I would have had a quick, merciful death.

One of the nasty brothers took his cock out and stuck it in my face. “Suck it punta,” he demanded. I couldn’t bring myself to bite the damn thing off. I was trying to survive until Blevins arrived. That is, if he could get to me in time.

I took his cock into my mouth and began to nurse on it. He let me do that for only a few seconds then he drove it into my throat. I tried to relax the muscles but my body fought against the intruding flesh. I took a quick breath when he pulled back. I managed to not gag so badly on his second plunge. I was fighting to remain calm to gasp whenever I could. Finally I knew what he intended. He intended to choke me to death on his cock.

I tried to pull away but he held me in place. He laughed as I was gagging and fighting for air. When I could hold out no longer the blackness enveloped me. I knew then that I was dead. Blevins would be to late, if he came at all.

I jerked awake in the back of an ambulance. The paramedic was squeezing a bag that forced air into my lungs. Once I woke up and tried to sit up, he stopped pumping. He placed a mask over my face. He also held me down on the gurney.

I drifted back to sleep. I knew for sure that I wasn’t dead, so sleep sounded good to me. When I next awoke, Blevins and Jerry were in the small cubicle of the ER.

“Damn woman, I never heard of anybody really dying from that. If Jerry hadn’t crashed his patrol car through the door, you might have gone down in history. Some asshole lieutenant wanted to wait for a warrant. “

“Thanks Jerry, it really would have been embarrassing to have died that way. Not to mention I don’t think I like the idea of being dead at all.”

“No problem, it really was Blevins here who saved you. He had to kill the Mendez asshole to get him off you.”

“Shit, I missed all the fun?” I said.

“He had a gun, that’s why I popped him. It wasn’t to save you, it was to save my own ass.”

“Thanks both of you. So is the other one going to jail now?”

“Yes, we finally have something he can’t wiggle out of,” Blevins said. “I also hear Russell told his crew to stay out of town until he could reorganize the whole dope business thing.”

“The weed don’t bother me none. It’s that other shit.” I added.

“We are going to go, so you can sleep. Call me when you get out and well have a beer or something,” Jerry suggested.

the end.

*** This is a continuing daily serial novel that already have over 300 additional episodes