Cold Blooded III: Sins and Sanctions (Nick McCarty Assassin Series Book 3) (38 page)

“Oh… you think so,” Korbin moved on Gus while Nick kept his eyes on Matger.

Korbin reached for Gus’s coat front, and in seconds was on the floor in an unbreakable arm lock. Matger reached inside his jacket, only to be staring down the barrel of Nick’s .45 caliber Colt. “You don’t want to go there, Mr. Matger. My partner Gus and I are more than we seem. Please allow Gus to release Mr. Korbin, so we can adjust our negotiations.”

“Very well, Mr. McCarty, but Saul and I are a bit more than we seem also. You cannot threaten us. He and I are old school. We never forget. Do you know what I mean?”

Nick grinned. “Yep. I sure do. Gus and I never forget either. Do we, Gus?”

Gus helped Korbin to his feet, dusting him off comically, while aching for a reason to plant the man in a more final manner. “No, we never do.”

Nick placed the ‘Cease and Desist’ warning in front of Matger. He then showed him his FBI credentials, while Gus showed his US Marshal’s Service ID. “We don’t have to do this the hard way. You made a mistake. It will cost you, because we have people very interested in your loan sharking outfit. If you had chosen to take the check at an incredibly unfair profit, we would have exited your lives without a pound of flesh. Now, you take the check, make us out a real legitimate receipt, and then you take a moment after we leave to rework your operation. If you don’t, there will be people to do so for you. Do we have an understanding, Mr. Matger?”

Matger took the check, typed a complete statement of the loan being paid in full, printed it out and handed it to Nick. “You have made a very bad enemy, Mr. McCarty. You should have left the old man’s business alone. He would have been fine. They always have a place for old folks in this country.”

Nick barely jutted in front of Gus before his partner launched in a no holds barred ending to Easy Loans. “Thank you for your cooperation. I hope we’ll be able to avoid any more unpleasantness.”

Matger smiled engagingly. “Yes… if I were you, I would be hoping so too. We do not always get what we wish, do we, Mr. McCarty?”

“Hardly ever, Mr. Matger,” Nick admitted, moving Gus toward the door. “Let’s go, Gus. We have the only legal thing we need. I want to get you, Rachel, Jean, Tina, Deke, and me into one of Rachel’s digital picture frames to possibly please Carol for a moment. These two fucks behind us will die all in good time, my friend. I will have our police pal, Sergeant Dickerson, protect Dan’s home officially while the forces launch on Easy Loans. You and I will of course be available for retribution I’m afraid will never materialize for Matger.”

Gus immediately relaxed as they passed through the doorway to Easy Loans. “We should have killed them on the spot, Muerto. I do see your plan though to be in the best interests of everyone, except now we’ll be watching our backs again.”

“Complacency is the root of all evil, my friend. We will be diligent. First, we will do all we can for Dan and Carol. The rest will follow as we clear out our Carmel Valley place of terrorists, and other assorted blots on humanity. We’ll need some space before dealing with our acquaintances at Easy Loans, possibly in an info gathering session.”

“That’s what I’m talkin’ about,” Gus said, his tight lipped, fist clenched departure from Easy Loans, content with a promise for the future.

“Truthfully,” Nick countered, “I’m more of a let the buyer beware type guy. I get sick of reading how everyone needs the government as their mommy to protect them. Easy Loans feeds off the suckers and saps who are between a rock and a hard place. Dan had a weak moment. It happens. Unfortunately for Easy Loans, Dan has us. The old man will try and pay me back every damn dime too. If he does, I’ll funnel it back through to his kids.”

“I admit it. I’ve been where Dan is a couple times. I imagine cold blooded psychos are immune to entities like Easy Loans, huh Nick?”

“No, but we usually revisit the situation with a solution.”

“I’ll bet.”

* * *

Nick entered Dan’s home, feeling the dread permeating the atmosphere in sad waves as he followed the old man from the entrance. He shook hands in the kitchen with Dan’s son and daughter, whom he’d met when they visited a few years before. The solemn, tear stained features said more than words could ever express. Dan took him into the living room where Carol reclined on their loveseat with pillows braced everywhere, covered by a quilt he knew she had made. An ice water circulating pump flowed in and out of a pad Nick could see was braced between the seat and her left side. A table against the nearby wall held syringes and pills. Carol’s head lay against the loveseat, her face pallid and drawn. Oxygen through small tubes at her nose, delivered from a system pump on the other side of the couch, worked to help her labored breathing.

“The cold pad’s the only relief she gets from the pain in her back,” Dan explained.

Carol groaned slightly, hearing Dan’s familiar voice. Her eyes opened in a wide eyed stare of incomprehension at first. Dan sat on the armrest next to her, his hand gliding soothingly over her forehead. “It’s okay, baby. Nick made it over to see you. Are you feeling well enough to talk?”

Nick cringed at the transformation. Dan’s gentle touch brought Carol back for a moment. She sighed, but then smiled at Dan. Nick saw the old man bite his trembling lip, his eyes filling as he bent over to kiss her head. Dan held a cup with bent straw to her mouth. “Have something to drink, Hon.”

Carol sipped the water, gripping the cup over Dan’s hands. She pushed the cup away, reaching out to Nick, who knelt in front of her. He grasped her hand carefully, seeing the bruising all along her wrist and arm from intravenous needles. “Oh, Nick… I’m spoiled now. Thanks… for coming over. I…I’ve been reading your first novel again.”

“Dan told me you’re stuck on one of the chapters. I brought this for you to see we all miss you.” Nick held the digital frame with images and sound he and Rachel had put together.

“My goodness. This is lovely. I’m sorry about not having everyone over. I can’t do that anymore.”

“Don’t be sorry. They all understood.” Nick remembered their digital picture creation had been halted many times with tears.

Carol leaned forward, gripping Nick’s hand with both hers, features tensing as if she held her consciousness in place. “I have to know. Was there ever an Adara? I…I know writers use personal experiences. The chapter End of Days makes me cry every time I read it, but…but it’s a good cry. Was there?”

Nick glanced at Dan. He made a decision before putting aside the digital picture frame, and grasped hers with both his too. He stared into her pain ridden features, trying to smile reassuringly, and failing. “Yes. It wasn’t in Beirut. I met her in Tehran. Her name was Fatima.”

Carol’s eyes brightened, excitement overcoming the pain for a moment. “It has always been like you joked. You are Diego.”

Nick allowed the cold blooded killer to surface into his own features. “As I told my Rachel, Diego’s a campfire girl compared to what I am. You’ve made me confess, old girl. I hope it isn’t too much.”

“Oh no… not at all. I suspected.” Carol lifted a cold hand to frame Nick’s face for a moment. “You are so much more though. Will you say the line to me, Nick?”

“Sure I will,” Nick agreed as Carol moved her hand from his face to her husband’s hand as it rested on her quilt. Nick recalled the moment near the end with Fatima dying in his arms as if it happened only minutes ago. “It is a long hard road sometimes to the end of days, baby, but I will travel it with you as far as I can go.”

Nick saw her hand tighten around Dan’s.

“Did you Nick… travel it with her?”

“Yes, old girl, I surely did as far as I could go. Then I sent a bunch of guys responsible all the way with her.”

Carol closed her eyes, leaning back as Dan held the cooling pad for her to rest against. Nick felt her hand release his. “Thank you for that… Nick. Please tell everyone thank you… for me.”

Nick patted her hand. “I will indeed, Carol. Goodbye for now, old girl. I will see you soon.”

“You’d… better not,” Carol mumbled, drifting off into labored slumber.

Nick said his goodbyes to the kids, who rejoined Carol, while Dan walked him out to his car. Nick handed him an envelope from inside his jacket. “The Easy Loans thing is over, Dan. Sergeant Dickerson will have a squad car drive by your house until we’re sure there will be no retaliation. I have some contacts with the FBI’s financial investigations people. They’re going to fix Easy Loans. You take care of yourself. I won’t say a bunch of meaningless crap. Carol’s the best.”

“Thank you. You weren’t only writing make believe stories. It’s all true what you write.”

“Much of it is worse,” Nick admitted. “I have credentials for the US Marshal’s Service, FBI, the Company, and I have consulted with all of them. It was the reason I met Rachel and Jean. I was sent to kill them. Instead, I killed the man who ordered it done. Then I helped Rachel and Jean so they could become my family. Carol deserved to know, and so do you. I’m more legit than I have been in the past, but I still can’t make it public knowledge.”

Dan shook his head. “That is amazing, and I am glad you told Carol. That is the most animated she’s become in days. I won’t ever forget what you did for me with Easy Loans. I will pay you back, Nick.”

“What if I could use you for something else? You wouldn’t be an errand boy. You can look like you belong anywhere. I need someone who can occasionally go somewhere, and keep their eyes open without drawing attention. I believe you could do that easily. I’d like that far more than you paying me cash. Think about it, Dan. Goodbye for now, my friend.”

Dan shook his hand, and turned to walk away. “I will consider your kind offer. I could tell in there you knew you would not see my baby alive again.”

“I did. Thank you for inviting me into your home.” Nick watched Dan walk to his doorstep, his shoulders squaring as he neared the door.
May God be merciful to Carol, my friend, and to you
.

* * *

“Did Nick help you with Easy Loans, or should we get a lawyer?”

The old man met his son Dan Jr.’s inquisitive look with a nod. “He did. I have the receipt here that he gave me.”

“I know he’s a famous author,” his daughter Sally said, “but why would he do something so huge for you, Dad?”

“In his way, I think he loves your mom and me. I don’t know why, but we became close over the years, seeing him at Otter’s Point, and sharing coffee at the Monte Café. It’s God’s blessing we became friends.”

“I know Mom loved his novels, but she always said she didn’t really know him,” Dan Jr. said.

“I know this much,” the old man said, “he’s one of the most dangerous men alive. I must leave it at that, or betray a confidence. He made your Mom very happy tonight for a moment. That’s all I care about. She was haunted by a chapter in his first novel. He cleared something up for her that she thought very important. Then he said her favorite line to her. It was her brightest moment in days.”

“Would you want him to come with us… I mean when…”

The old man hugged his daughter. “I know what you meant, Honey. Yes, I would like him to come with us to Mom’s favorite beach very much.”

“Are we going to try and move her to the bed tonight?”

“No, son. It’s too painful for her. I’ll sleep next to her on the loveseat. That way I’ll be able to renew the ice in her pump reservoir easier.”

“What was the name of the chapter Mom questioned him about?”

“The End of Days,” Dan answered after a few seconds hesitation. He turned away from his kids, hands over his face, regaining control a moment later. He took a deep breath, turning back to put his arms around Dan Jr. and Sally. “C’mon. Let’s go settle Mom in for the night.”

* * *

Rod Matger awoke in a sweat, sitting up in the bed feverishly gasping for breath. Matger’s silk pajamas, wet and clinging coldly to his body, radiated an odor of decay. Glancing at his mistress, he noticed her snoring form appeared blurred in the darkness. Rubbing his eyes, the pain began lancing through his ribcage, forcing him onto his back once again. An equally grainy form hovered over him, as his bedside lamp flicked on.

“Hi there, Rod. Remember me from earlier?”

Matger peered at the smiling face, squinting against the light. “McCarty?”

“Yep. Right the first time. My partner and I were going to allow the forces of law and order to hound you for a while over your nasty loan sharking business. Then I visited a real lady who I’d probably murder a hundred of you just to make her smile. When I left her side, I noticed an ache I could do nothing about. Then I thought of you and your buddy Saul. Although you’re not feeling too good, my untouchable ache has receded slightly.”

“My God! Wha…what have you done?”

“I’ve killed you, but I wanted to share your end of days all the way to the finish. I’ve already made sure Saul had a nasty accident. It seems he pitched down a flight of stairs at his apartment building, and snapped his neck. Don’t worry. I stayed with him, watching life fade from his cheap thug eyes before coming here.”

Matger’s eyes closed, his fists clenching under his heart, pain building in an irresistible wave. “You bastard! You…you’ll never… get away with it!”

“Ah contraire, my small time hoodlum. I will get away with it. Not only that, I will mark where they bury you and Saul. A couple months from now I’m going to piss on your fucking graves,” McCarty related to Matger in a matter-of-fact tone. “Maybe the ache will have gone away by then. Don’t worry about your girlfriend. I only gave her a little whiff of ether to help her sleep through this unfortunate turn of events.”