Royce (40 page)

And Jameson wished he’d worn a wire, but Oscar’s men weren’t shy about frisking and touching him in places no man had. “Yes, I’ve done it before, how much and who, that’s my question?”  She laughed, “Straight to it aren’t you,” he looked at her, “It’s a woman and her kids can you do that?  You aren’t squeamish when it come to women and children are you?”  “No, but it cost more lady.  What are we talking about here, how much?”  He said rubbing his fingers together, “Cause if it ain’t enough I ain’t doing it,” he said so she’d know he was serious.  “A hundred thousand, that enough?”  “Whew, yeah lady that’s enough, now you’re talking,” he said excitedly.

“Okay, here’s what I need to know you’re serious, and I work alone.  I don’t need anybody knowing any particulars.  Whatever deal you got with Oscar, that’s between you and him, but between you and me it’s one hundred thousand,” he looked at her, “That’s my fee.”  She nodded, “Now if you’re serious you meet me back here at three o’clock with five thousand dollars and the target information and you better show me you good for the rest, like bring more cash so I’ll know it’s coming you understand,” she nodded, “I’m good for it, as long as you can pull it off I’m good for it.”  “Oh I can pull it off, I just want my money,” she smiled. “Deal lady,” he offered his hand, she shook it, “Now you know my name what’s yours so I at least know who I’m making a deal with?” 

“I’m Tammy, and that’s all you need to know.

After Jameson had Tammy on video placing the hit she was arrested and after a humiliating short eight day televised trial she was sent to jail.  Royce wasn’t happy with her sentence though, ten years eligible for parole in five.  He fumed, and thought the jury believed he had an affair had something to do with that.  Tammy’s attorney had done a good job of painting him and Joy as uncaring cheating spouses.  But now life couldn’t have been better, Tammy was in jail and even though he didn’t see Karen and Dillon as much, knowing that they were being well cared for by his parents eased his mind and he was actually kind of relieved he didn’t have to deal with their emotional issues over this.

Tammy had done one thing right.  Sending the kids to his parents was the right thing to do, even though he knew it was for some warped reason in her head, but his mother and father doted on them and were happy to have noise and kids in the house again.  And in his house Justin turned three and Christopher was walking and had a mouth full of teeth and was biting everything and he lost himself to loving Joy.  He couldn’t contain the love he felt for her and he couldn’t help but feel the effects of loving someone without the burdens of Tammy and her antics or Michael and his, he felt weightless, carefree to just love and be loved and be true to his life’s calling, and then Jameson called.

“Mr. Harrington I need you to meet me at The Meridian, its important,” and he found himself sitting across from Jameson a stiff drink in front of him, his heart pounding in his chest waiting for him to tell him what he called him for.  “Mr. Harrington I was alerted by Dallas PD that there’s another hit out on your wife,” and Royce knew his happiness was too good to be true and he sat dumbfounded, “It’s too early to know who called it, but I and my crew have been tailing them.”  

“Fuck Jameson!  Another hit!  You know its Tammy…Fuck this is unbelievable!”  He wanted to cry, why couldn’t she leave him alone?  “I think so too Mr. Harrington and I have someone undercover to find out, but in the meantime and for the safety of your family I wanted to make you aware.”

Royce gulped down his drink,
the bitch, he wished he’d strangled her and he’d gladly go to jail to stop this.

He didn’t tell Joy, she was so distraught and crying every day once everything came out at the trial he just couldn’t, but he did take out his gun, a semi- automatic handgun. 

“Royce I don’t know about that around the kids,” Joy was alarmed. “Hey I need to protect my family,” so every night he took it out and put it on the nightstand, it was cocked and loaded and Joy wanted no parts of it. “It’s legal and registered,” he said to convince her, “It's part of my constitutional rights, the right to bear arms.”  “I know but it’s dangerous around the kids Royce and why are you taking it out now? What if one of the boys comes in at night and sees it?”  “I know what I’m doing Joy I’ve been shooting all my life and who knows what might happen so don’t worry,” and her eyes got big when he said that, “I guess so you’re from Texas, I guess so,” she acquiesced.  She’d never held or seen a gun in her life, to her guns didn’t have the same meaning as they did to Royce.

To him it was shooting at snakes, hunting, scaring off a coyote, and to her even though it was quiet in her suburban neighborhood she grew up in a city.  It was the late night news where there was always a shooting of some kind either by police or some gang related incident, it was drive by shootings that always hit the innocent.  That’s what she associated guns with something dangerous and not to be laid out in the open in front of the kids.

Jameson assigned his crew to the Harrington's again.  Valerie had gone undercover at the women's prison befriending Tammy to get information and found nothing, and him, Reggie and Tommy were taking turns following the hit men Dallas PD had shown them.  It had been grueling every eight hours they switched covering the twenty-four hours in a day. 

It was midnight and his turn to follow the hit men.  He was tired and yawned but he followed them and watched them messing around going here and there, to the liquor store, to Walgreen’s., and back to their motel where they stayed until around two in the morning.  Then he watched them bringing out luggage and loading the car, the Walgreen’s bag they tossed in the front seat,
readying for a stake out
and then they’d probably change locations find a new motel to hang in
.  They drove off and he followed them. 

They went straight to the Harrington’s.
Yep a stakeout
.  He drove in behind them, but he turned off to the right he knew this street would come right back to the main street and by then they should be at the Harrington’s staking them out, and sure enough when he pulled onto the Harrington’s street he saw them parked in front of their house. 
They’re not hiding though, that’s stupid to park in
front like that
,  he turned off his headlights and drove further up the street and then he saw them get out of the car, crouched, dressed in black.

“Fuck!  Its tonight, the hit is tonight!  Tommy!”  He yelled in the radio, “It’s tonight get everyone to the Harrington’s, the hit is tonight!”  He didn’t wait for a reply he was out the car gun drawn and running towards the Harrington house.  He heard a loud muffled, “BOOM!”  The front door splintered and was kicked in.

Royce was in a fitful sleep.  He’d been in one since he talked to Jameson and Joy had him worried about the gun, if Justin or Chris came in at night so he wasn’t sleeping very soundly, he heard a distant, “BOOM!”  He jumped up, “What was that?” 

He had on his pajama pants too, he made sure he didn’t fall asleep naked like he would have normally after making love to Joy.  He grabbed his gun and jumped up out of bed and headed towards where the sound came from.

Jameson was frantic now, he might be too late!  They were in the house, he ran in behind them and saw them walking briskly towards the master bedroom.  The one in back turned when he heard him and he saw him raise his gun and he fired on him.  He saw Mr. Harrington come out of the bedroom with his gun raised, the first gunman raised his gun at him, “SHOOT, Mr. Harrington SHOOT!”  He shouted.

Royce had come out prepared for anything.  He saw men dressed in black in his house, and in a split second everything seemed to happen simultaneously and in slow motion, he heard Jameson shout, “SHOOT!”  He saw the gunmen’s gun slowly raising, and one man fall and at the same time his mind clicked to protect his family and he opened fire, “BAM! BAM! BAM!”  He unloaded into the gunman.

Joy slept fitfully and from exhaustion she found peace in her sleep and in the depths of her dreams she heard banging,
was Justin in the pots again
?  She opened her eyes and saw Royce outside the bedroom door in the dark, “Royce what are you doing?”  “Stay back Joy, stay back!”  He shouted at her like something was wrong and that scared her, fear gripped her, “What happened?” She jumped out of bed, and ran towards him and saw the gun in his hand, “Oh my god! Royce!”  The smell of burning gunpowder hung in the air and he put his hand up to stop her, “Don’t Joy, please stay back!”  He pleaded.

Jameson was about business now, he went up to each gunman and took their exposed guns and pushed them aside, he started searching them to remove any other weapons.  “Mr. Harrington I can take care of this,” he took Royce’s gun. “Mine’s legal, it’s registered,” Royce said almost to himself.  “Mr. Harrington this just got bad.  Get your family, pack a bag and let’s go, I’m getting you out of here!”  Jameson wasn’t fooling around now, this was serious, they had to go, “Go! Mr. Harrington get your family and let’s go!  We have to go!”  He shouted at Royce.

Joy came out, “Mrs. Harrington we have to go, get some things together!  We have to get your family out now!”  Joy was scared but she heard his urgency, she grabbed Royce and they went into action.  They pulled down the suitcases, she heard cries over the monitor, “I’ll get the kids you pack a bag.”

She went out into the hall, two men with dark blood pooling around them were lying dead in her house and she cringed at the sight, then stepped over them like it was an everyday occurrence.  She saw others come running into her house she stopped, her heart beating wildly. 

“Over here,” she heard the blonde man say, he was obviously the leader and her fear left.  She felt the need to get to her children, Christopher was crying and Lindsey was standing at the top of the stairs.  “Go baby get your suitcase and pack some clothes we’ve got to get out of here.  Wake your brother and tell him what I said,” Lindsey looked scared, “Don’t worry I’ll explain once we’re set okay, go baby go!  Be quick,” she wanted nothing more than to get out of this house, two men were dead on her floor. 

Royce heard her over the baby monitor and he kicked it into gear.  They needed to get out of here and he’d just killed a man.  He started throwing clothes, suits, underwear and shoes in a suitcase.  He saw Joy’s suitcase open and nothing in it, he went to her closet and took out clothes, her underwear drawer, her shoes, he tossed them in her suitcase.  He ran to his closet and quickly dressed, jeans and a shirt, he didn’t comb his hair but ran his fingers through it, he splashed water on his face and gargled water in his mouth then went to see if Joy needed any help.  He saw people in his house, doing things to the bodies, they had placed them under black plastic tarps, like Joy he walked by them like he’d seen it all before and walked quickly to the boys room.  She was packing two suitcases, “You need help baby?” 

“Yeah, check on Lindsey and Deon, help them and tell them to get moving,” he saw her moving quickly packing, opening drawers and the closet was wide open and he thought,
I just killed a man to make sure she is here to do that
,  and his resolve was clear.  He’d do it all again to see her moving, to see her alive, to see her still here.

In a matter of moments they were packed.  “Take them to the safe house,” Jameson said to one of his crew and Royce saw the bodies were gone, “We’ll clean up here,” and Royce didn’t know he meant they were going to make it look like two men didn’t die in his house tonight and the bodies were going to disappear never to be found again.  They rolled their suitcases to a big SUV and piled in and a blonde woman drove them out of their quiet neighborhood. The neighborhood was dark, quiet and peaceful.  No one was aware of what just happened at 23 Chaucer Street. 

Royce had no idea where they were going, he just knew they had to get away. 

The safe house was actually Jameson’s house, he owned five acres in the woods in east McKinney, it was heavily treed and impossible to find unless you knew where you were going.  Street signs didn’t exist, and dirt roads that led off to who knows where turned off here and there.

They pulled down the dirt driveway, it was a one story ranch house.  Royce unloaded the SUV.  “Jameson will be here either tonight or in the morning, try and rest,” the blonde woman said and before she left she took one last look at the man, the breathtaking radiant man she’d seen in the portrait over his mantle when she planted the bug was not the same. 

Joy put the kids to bed and when she and Royce went into the master bedroom she ran into his arms.  “Oh baby,” she clung tightly to him, he held tightly on to her.  They stood there holding each other and Royce thought,
I’d do it all again to feel her like this,
he’d kill that man a hundred times to hold her like this.  He nuzzled his head against hers, “I love you baby, I love you.”

Jameson was cleaning up the house.  They sprayed luminal to see where the blood had splattered, he had a solvent that absorbed blood, he sprayed it on the illuminated areas, and he was impressed with Mr. Harrington.  He didn’t know he had it in him to shoot a person, most people thought it was easy, but it wasn’t.  It wasn’t easy to pull a trigger against another human being and he was glad because if he didn’t he would’ve had to shoot him with Mr. Harrington in his line of fire and even if he knew he could do it, he didn’t like the odds of that.  Inwardly he smiled, the bodies were in the trunk and now he looked over the house,
good as new
,
no one will ever know
.  “Okay, it’s clear, let’s finish up,” and Tommy and Reggie knew that meant dispose of the bodies.

Joy and Royce finally released each other and went to bed, both were too exhausted to take off their clothes and lay on top of the cover with a blanket on them.  Joy snuggled against him in his arms and fell into an exhausted sleep and for Royce it was welcome he was so tired from all the nights he’d slept fitfully and somewhere in his subconscious he knew the threat was gone and finally was able to sleep. 

Jameson came bright and early the next morning. “Come in, come in,” Royce said when he opened the door. The TV was on some kind of cartoon, and to his ears it was loud, he walked in following Royce, “Hey babe this is Jameson, he’s the one I was telling you about.”  Royce had to fill Joy in, she was wondering who were all those people last night and where did they come from and how did they know to be there, so in order for the story to make sense he had to tell her everything.  Joy smiled at him, “So it’s you I owe my life too, thank you Jameson.  Thank you, I thank you and so does my family,” and Jameson looked at Royce.  He’d told her everything except that he’d killed a man, “Just doing my job ma’am, no thanks necessary.”

“Let’s talk about what to do now,” he said when he was comfortable, “We’ve got to get you folks out of here.  I’m sure soon whoever called the hit will be made aware it didn’t go as planned, so we need to be a few steps ahead,” and Jameson was surer than anything he wanted to get them away from Texas.  Last night was too close, way to close, it could have gone either way, “We have to move and move quickly, out of the state or out of the country even,” and he saw Joy react to that.