“Ok, go do it,” I said as I parked the truck around the corner.
Zion started to walk down the sidewalk towards the spot on the other side of the curve where she was supposed to meet this mystery guy. I snuck through the bushes to my left and made my way out to a good hiding place. The bushes were thicker than they should have been. Someone had been doing a poor job of trimming them. That was actually a good thing. It would actually help shield me from view today. That was all I wanted. I needed to be blocked from view.
I crept up to the edge of the clearing and I could see a good view of the street and the spot where Zion had been told to drop the money. Al had gotten it from the evidence locker pretty damn quickly. Usually such a thing required a mountain of paperwork and shit. He was bending some rules, wasn’t he?
I watched the action unfolding in front of me. At first nothing was happening. I waited a few minutes, maybe five before I finally saw a large man approaching from the side. He was wearing all black, his face covered by a ski mask. He was wearing a black jogging outfit and a pair of black sneakers. He was ready to run if need be. I didn’t move a muscle.
To her credit Zion looked very happy and composed.
“I wasn’t sure you would show,” the man spoke. “Good girl.”
I could see Zion squinting in anger. Easy… easy… don’t let him rile you up.
I watched and licked my lips, my body resting on my haunches. I was ready to spring forth and take a bullet for Zion if need be. I knew that I loved her. I’d realized it when we were driving over there. I was so scared to lose her. I wasn’t sure how I would deal. I’d waited my whole life to find someone who made me feel this way and now I did. I was a lucky man and I wasn’t about to let anything change that.
“And I see you have the duffel bag. Good. Set it down in front of me. And then I want you to open the bag and show it to me.”
Zion did as she was told. “Where is Chelsea?”
“She’s safe for now. And if you keep doing well then she will stay that way. I’m a man of my word.”
“I’ll bet. You are a piece of shit.”
“Thanks,” he said with a chuckle. “This is fun. You are a piece of work.”
“Are we done? When do I see Chelsea?”
“Well, you probably won’t. I said I’d let her go and I probably will. She can’t identify us. But you have seen our faces. And that can’t be. So, you will have to be dealt with. I am going to enjoy finishing the job I started with you before.”
Shit. He was going to do it.
“Don’t. You don’t have to do this!”
“Yeah, but I want to.”
He pulled the gun. Zion ducked down and I leapt from my hiding place. I collided with the man and the gun fell to the ground from his grip. I landed hard on him. He was a big man, taller and bigger than me, and I was two hundred pounds of muscle. This man still had me by a good forty pounds.
He pushed me off him quickly and threw one of his large sneakers towards my head. The kick came hard at me and I barely had time to put up my arms. But it was enough. I stopped the blow and this gave me enough time to grab his foot and then twist it into an ankle lock. He howled in pain as I jerked on his joint. I thought I might actually get him to stop for a moment. He was trapped. Al and his team should have been coming to the rescue at any moment, but so far, I saw nothing. Bastards.
The man was incredibly strong. He somehow muscled through the pain and stood up on his other leg which he quickly hurled around going into some tailspin and swung the leg at me hard. It came towards my head and I dropped his foot long enough to block the blow. He dropped to the ground and swept my feet out from under me with his other leg.
I fell to the ground hard. As I tried to stand he kicked me in the face with his large foot. It was a glancing blow because I saw it coming at the last moment, but it still connected and it put me down hard. I heard him grab the duffel bag and run away.
Then I heard the shots ring out. I saw the man hit several times in the back. He fell face down on the ground. He was done.