American Heroes Series - 03 - Purgatory (51 page)

Nicky frowned. “I just don’t want
to go back to jail. Y’all are headed that way, the way y’all are goin’, and I
don’t want to go with y’all.”

Biffy turned around and shook her
finger at him. “Nicky, y’all always did have a cowardly streak,” she said. “We
are descended from men who used to rule the whole Mississippi River and y’all
are shamin’ them. Y’all are shamin’ what it means to be a pirate, Nicky.  It’s
in your blood, son.”

Nicky didn’t want to be a pirate.
He just wanted to stay out of jail. He wandered back into the house, knowing he
wouldn’t be included in any further plans.  From now on, it was Will and Ed
alone.

Biffy turned back to the sky,
drawing in a deep breath as she thought on their next move. “They found that
treasure but what they found is our due,” she said. “Tonight, we’re pirates
‘cuz we’re gonna take a boat across the Black Bayou right into the back yard of
Purgatory. They got a fence around the whole place but they don’t got a fence
across they backyard. It backs right up to the bayou.”

Ed and Will looked interested.
“What are we gonna do?” Will asked, eager.

Biffy was decisive in her reply.
“Get the guns, boys,” she told them. “Tonight, we’re pirates just like our
ancestors.  Tonight, we make Jean-Pierre Loreau proud.  We take back what is
rightfully ours.”

Ed went to pull the old tin boat
out of the shed while Will went to get the rifles.  Tonight, it would finally
be decided between the Loreaus and the Aurys.

They would make sure of it.

***

The first sign of trouble was the
window shattering in Penelope’s room.  Elliot was asleep in her daughter’s big
bed, the dog snoring between her and Penelope, and when several panes of the
window shattered, Wolfgang leaped up and ran to the window, barking furiously.
Startled out of a deep sleep, Elliot and Penelope jumped out of bed.

“What happened?” Penelope cried,
pulling the dog back so he wouldn’t step on the shards of glass.

Elliot had no idea.  All she knew
was that rain and wind were coming in through the window now.  She yanked open
Penelope’s door.

“Beck?” she called. “Shane? Alec?
Come and help!”

She could hear feet hitting the
floor in various bedrooms as she went back into Penelope’s room, looking at the
damage.  Wind whipped in from the broken window, sending the curtains blowing
wildly.

“My new curtains,” Penelope
lamented. “They’re getting wet.”

Elliot opened her mouth to say
something when more window panes shattered, this time on the window adjacent to
the first one.   The women hit the floor, screaming, as more glass and water
flew into the room.  Beck and Shane were already racing into Penelope’s room to
see what was happening.

“That was a gunshot,” Beck said,
reaching down to pull Elliot off the floor. “Come on; let’s get of here.”

He had a hold of Elliot while
Shane grabbed Penelope.  They pulled the women out in to the central upstairs
hall as Alec emerged from his room and went to flip on the light.  Nothing
happened.

“What the hell?” he flipped the
switch a few times.  He rushed back into his room and flipped a different
switch with the same results. “The power’s out!”

Another shot ripped through the
upstairs window of the writing room and the women shrieked at the sound. With
the wind and rain barreling in, it was loud and frightening. Beck pushed them
down against the wall in the upper hallway, keeping them away from any windows.

“What in the hell is going
on?”Alec demanded, furious. “Who is shooting at the windows?”

Beck shook his head. “I have no
idea, but if they break in downstairs, it’s only a matter of time before they
come up here and….”

He was looking at Elliot and
Penelope, huddled against the wall.   When another shot sounded, this time
against the side of the house, Wolfgang went nuts and bolted from Penelope’s
room, running downstairs. They could hear the dog barking savagely somewhere in
the first floor.  Penelope’s eyes welled.

“Wolfie!” she hissed. “They’ll
shoot him!”

Beck wasn’t sure what to say to
her.  He was more concerned with getting them to safety.  He looked at Alec.

“Does my dad keep any firearms in
the house?” he asked.

Alec nodded. “In his study,” he
said. “There’s a gun safe.”

“Do you know the combination?”

They all looked at Elliot for an
answer. Elliot, struggling not to become hysterical, shook her head.

“I don’t know it,” she said. “We
need to call your dad right now.”

The group of them scooted back
down the hallway in the darkness, staying low to the ground. They could hear
Wolfgang barking furiously downstairs but no more shattered windows as of yet. 
Other than the raging storm, the house seemed oddly silent after the initial
burst.  It was creepy and ominous, like the calm before the storm.

Once they went into the master
bedroom, Elliot and Alec ran for Elliot’s cell phone on her nightstand while
Beck ushered Penelope and Shane into the master bath. It was a windowless room
with two exits, which he figured would be safer than getting themselves boxed
into a room with only one entrance.  Not knowing what was going on, or who was
shooting, he wanted to plan for all contingencies.

Alec and Elliot rushed into the
bathroom, Elliot already hitting the speed dial for Nash. The phone rang six
times before going to voicemail.  Verging on tears, Elliot hung up and tried
again. It went to voice mail on the fifth ring this time. Struggling not to
panic, she hit it yet again.

“He
always
picks up when I
call,” she hissed. “He’s never not picked up, ever. He must be….”

On the fourth ring, Nash picked
up. “Hi, honey,” he said, though there was a ton of background noise. “What…?”

“Nash, somebody is shooting out
the windows,” Elliot started to cry. “You need to come home
now
!”

“What?” he shouted. “What in the
hell is going on?”

Beck could hear his father
yelling through the phone and he grabbed it from Elliot.

“Dad, someone shot out the
windows in Penny’s room,” he said. “They’ve also shot out a window in Elliot’s
writing room.  I’ve got everybody in your big bathroom because they are no
windows, but I don’t know what’s going on.”

“Stay there,” Nash boomed,
something completely uncharacteristic to his manner. He never boomed. “Stay
there and get everyone into the shower. Lock the doors and stay put. I’m on my
way.”

Beck resisted. “Dad, if they
break into the house and get into this room, they’ll shoot us like sitting
ducks. What’s the combination to your gun safe?”

Nash was in Donaldsonville, about
fifteen miles from home.  He was standing in the driving rain, coordinating
rescue efforts of the Village Woods retirement facility that had partially
collapsed in the tornado. They had at least two dead, maybe more, but the
panicked call from his family had him running back to his car.

“Stay where you’re at,” he
commanded again. “I’ll be home in ten minutes.”

“Dad, listen to me,” Beck yelled
back. “I can handle a gun. You may not make it back in time. Tell me the
combination to the damn safe!”

Nash bailed into his car, hearing
the strength and fear in his son’s voice.  He didn’t want Beck getting hurt,
but he was coming to think that those boys were the only thing between life and
death for his family until he could get to them. He just didn’t want to see
anyone get hurt. It was his worst nightmare. Torn, yet knowing what he must do,
he forced himself to relent.

“1946,” he told him. “Beck,
please be careful. Stay down and stay low. I’m calling Sorrento P.D. right now,
so do what you can until they get there.”

“I will.” Beck tossed the phone
back to Elliot, grabbing Alec by the arm. “Come on. We need to go.”

Alec was up, following Beck to
the door as Shane stood up to pursue. But Beck held out a hand to his brother.

“You stay here,” he said. Then he
pointed at Elliot. “Protect her. I don’t care if you have to throw your
bullet-riddled body over her, but do it.”

Shane wasn’t happy at being left
behind but nodded seriously. Elliot, sitting on the floor with the phone in her
hand, struggled not to weep. She could hear Nash’s voice on the phone and she
put it to her ear.

“Are you there?” she asked,
sniffling.

“I’m here, baby,” Nash sounded
extraordinarily stressed.  “I gave Beck the combination to the gun safe.  He’ll
be able to protect you until I get there.”

“Okay,” Elliot’s sobs broke
through. Her arm was around Penelope and they huddled in a frightened mass.
“Oh, my God, Nash, I’m so scared. I’m scared I’m never going to see you again.”

He could hear her sobbing and his
eyes filled with tears. “I’m coming, baby, I swear to God,” he said huskily.
“You’ll see me again, very soon, and we’re going to watch this baby grow up,
and our kids grow up, and fill that house with grandkids, I promise. You’re
going to see me every day for the rest of your life.”

Elliot was weeping softly into
the phone, unable to reply, and Nash blinked, spattering tears onto his face.
They mixed with the rain so no one could see how upset he was. 

As he was peeling out of the
retirement home parking lot, he caught sight of Ken. The man waved him down and
Nash slowed to roll down his window.

“Where are you going?” Ken asked.

Nash was pale with rage, with
fear. “Something’s happened at the house,” he said. “I have to go.”

Ken’s brow furrowed. “What
happened?”

Nash was already rolling up his
window. “Shots fired. That’s all I know.”

He was off, tearing up onto the
highway.  Ken watched him go, thinking that perhaps he should go along also.
Shots fired was never a good sign, especially at Purgatory, a house that had
known more than its share of tragedy. As Ken ran to his patrol unit, he got on
the radio to other units in the area.

Shots fired at Purgatory
.

In spite of the situation in
Donaldsonville, more than one unit responded to the call.

***

Beck and Alec slithered down the
central staircase because they figured it was the most protected, away from
windows.  It was very dark, the only light coming from the porch light that
sent muted streams of illumination into the front rooms. With the drapes
pulled, there was very little light to see by but enough to move around in. 

Wolfgang had stopped his
ferocious barking, so they didn’t know where the dog was at the moment. Still,
they couldn’t worry about it. When Beck and Alec reached the bottom of the
stairs, they crouched low and scooted across the hall and on into the library.

The gun safe was behind Nash’s
big antique desk, tucked up against the wall. A floor to ceiling window was
next to it and as the boys made a move towards the safe, they could see a
couple of shadows out on the porch, dark wraith-like figures casting shadows
against the drapes. They were moving slowly, whispering to each other, and Beck
and Alec froze as they watched the figures move. Beck was pressed up against
the wall as a shadow lingered on the window next to him.

Suddenly, the window shattered as
the butt of a rifle came through. Beck reacted instinctively and grabbed the
rifle butt, yanking whoever it was into the house. Will Loreau’s John Deere hat
flew off and landed somewhere near Alec as Beck and Will began fighting over the
gun. Alec leapt up and clocked Will on the side of the head, sending the man to
the ground. Beck yanked the rifle from his hands and turned it on him, pointing
the barrel at his head.

Wolfgang suddenly came flying in
from the ballroom, barking viciously. He jumped on Will and chomped his arm,
snarling and biting as Alec grabbed the dog and pulled him back. He didn’t know
any of Wolfgang’s commands so he just kept yelling at the dog, hoping he would
stop and hoping he would not get bitten in the process. Wolfgang drew blood on
Will before Alec was able to pull him off.

As Will lay moaning on the
ground, Beck spoke. “You asshole,” he snarled. “I ought to blow your brains out
right now. What in the hell are you doing?”

Will held his injured arm. 
“Ya…,” he gasped, trying to sit up. “Y’all are thieves and murderers. Y’all are
bred from the same stock we are. We is pirates, y’all. We take what we want!”

Beck and Alec looked at the man
as if he was insane. “Pirates?” Alec repeated. “Dude, you are seriously whacked. 
Let’s see how much of a pirate you think you are when you’re in prison with
guys who want to make you their bitch.”

Will sat up, unsteadily, looking
fearfully at the snarling dog. “That treasure y’all found belongs to us,” he
said angrily. “It belonged to my family and y’all stole it!”

Neither Beck nor Alec had any
idea what he was talking about.  “You stupid hillbilly,” Alec slapped him in
the head. “You can’t just break into people’s homes and steal stuff. What’s
wrong with you?”