Second Chance SEAL(122)

Tied up to a chair each were Hartley and an older version of Hartley, probably her mother. They both had gags in their mouths, and I could see the fear and the anger in Hartley’s eyes.

Culver sat at the table, smiling at me. Like before, he had his gun on the table in front of him.

“Hello, Travis,” he said. “Looks like your girl here broke a rule.”

I did a quick scan of the room. The two women were tied in chairs, Culver was sitting at the table to their left, the gun thug named Pate was standing behind the girls, and Guff was slightly behind me and to the right. Guff had his gun down for the time being, fortunately.

“This was a mistake,” I said. “You scared the girl, like you meant to, but you scared her a little too much.”

“So she said.”

“I don’t know why she ran home, but I came here to fetch her.”

He smiled and nodded. “I believe that.”

“It doesn’t have to go any further than this,” I said. “Let me take her back and we’ll be done.”

“Now, I’m not so sure I can do that, Travis. You already broke one of our rules. That means the trust is shattered, and what can we do if we can’t trust each other?”

“It was a mistake,” I repeated.

“She said she called here and nobody answered. She thought I already went ahead and hurt her family. Can you believe that?”

“Yes, I can,” I said, glancing at her. I hated the pain I saw in her eyes.

“I’m a reasonable man, Travis. When I do business, I try to keep things simple. But this is no longer simple.”

“What’s your play here then? You going to kill the girls? I won’t help you if you do.”

“Do we need your help?” Culver stroked his chin. “I’ve been thinking. Maybe I can just torture you for what you know and I can follow through with your plan myself.”

I smirked at him, keeping my breathing calm. “You sure that’s what you want?”

“Seems like a good plan to me.”

“Like I said, it doesn’t have to be like this.”

“Truth is, Travis, I feel like it’s better if I just get rid of the lot of you. Then we can take this farm, take the shipment back from the Caldwells, and maybe even my bosses will toss something in for the lot of us.” He smirked at me. “I think that’s what I’ll do.”

He was fast. He reached for his gun and had it up almost as fast as I drew mine.

But instead of firing, I stepped back and grabbed Guff. He was surprised and stumbled off balance. When Culver fired his shots, they tore into Guff’s body.

Blood splattered onto the kitchen floor. I raised my gun and put two bullets into the gun thug standing behind the women. I grabbed Guff before he could fall, yanking him back toward me as Culver fired off a few more shots.

The bullets tore into Guff but didn’t hit me. I took aim over his shoulder and put a bullet right through Culver’s eyes. His head snapped back as blood splattered onto the window behind him. He tipped back and fell onto the floor.

I let Guff drop to the ground then. He stared up at me with shock in his eyes as he bled out on the floor.

It had happened in less than ten seconds. That was how it happened with close-quarters gunplay. Things went down quick, and you had to know what you were doing if you wanted to survive it.

Three men lay dead in that kitchen, blood sprayed across the clean surfaces. I quickly went over to Hartley.

Her eyes were wide with shock as I pulled off her gag. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” she said.

I took the gag from her mother. “And you?”

“Okay,” she said.

I untied the two of them. They stood and stared at the bodies, but they weren’t really seeing anything.

“Listen to me,” I said to her mother. “My name is Travis Rock. I’m working with your daughter to help clear your family of debt to the mafia. I’m sorry this happened.”

“Culver told me,” she said dully.

“Please, look at me.” She turned to me slowly, obviously in shock, but we didn’t have time. “I need you to bury these bodies. Are there people who can help?”

“My boys and my husband are coming home soon,” she said.

“Tell them what happened. Clean this up and bury the bodies.”

“What about us?” Hartley asked.

“We’re going back to Knoxville.”

“What?” She looked shocked. “After you just killed Culver?”

“Listen, that’s exactly why we have to go back. We need to enact our plan and we need to do it tonight. Otherwise, we’re fucked, and your family is dead. Do you understand me?”