The Harvest (Book 1) (17 page)

“Shut up twerp and get the Monster.” He threw Madison a smile. “We’re going on a little road trip.”

“Ten four. On my way.”

A few minutes later a monster truck roared up to the house.  Zack stepped aside, waving Madison down the steps and followed her out to the truck, where Colin, a younger version of Zack, sat behind the wheel. Underneath layers of dirt and rust the truck was painted to look like the drink by the same name.

“Nice ride.” Madison commented, measuring herself against the five foot tall tires. “Very inconspicuous.”

Zack laughed. “Maddie, meet Colin. Colin Maddie.”

Colin, like his brother, was struck stupid by Madison, but unlike his brother kept this to himself. “Nice to meet you ma’am.”

“Please. No ma’am. I’m barely thirty for Christ’s sake.” She pulled her face mask back on over her head.

“Thirty! Woo, lord that’s old.” Zack joked.

“Can we get going?” Madison pleaded, using all her will to hold back the irritation brewing over Zack’s lack of urgency.

“I sense time is an issue with you.” Zack opened the door for Madison, who climbed into the truck. She sensed nothing was an issue with him, but refrained from saying so. It wouldn’t be prudent to insult him when she was in desperate need of his help. 

Colin shifted the giant machine into gear. The engine rumbled loudly as they rolled across the pasture and onto the highway. 

14 ZACK

Six months earlier

Pueblo Colorado

7:50 am

Zack Londergan lay under a pile of twisted sheets. He was twenty four, a two time college dropout, and a multi millionaire. At eighteen, Zack’s entrepreneurial spirit, and love for everything marijuana, led him to open a medicinal marijuana shop. At first the shop served as a place to hang out and get high, not as a serious business. Zack ran the place with his business partner Salvia. They opened and closed when they felt like it. If inventory was low they’d close shop for a few days until they could restock. If there was good powder on the slopes, they would close shop and go skiing for a few days. They had no worries.

All that changed once Colorado legalized the sale of marijuana. Zack’s business seemed to take off overnight and he was forced to spend more time, and considerable effort, to keep the machine functioning smoothly. One store soon turned into fourteen, and by the age of twenty one Zack had made his first million. Two days prior, the company went public and Zack’s net worth jumped to triple digits. Not a Facebook fairy tale, but he had no complaints.

The insistent ringing of his alarm clock was ignored.  The body next to him grumbled. He reached out, hit the snooze. Peace resettled over the room. 

“What time is it?” A female voice asked.

“Don’t know.” Was Zack’s barely intelligible response.

            A blonde head poked out from under the blanket. Pale blue eyes went from sleepy to wide awake. A very beautiful, very naked girl jumped out of the bed.

            “It’s almost eight o’clock damn it.” She threw her pillow at Zack’s unmoving body. “I told you I couldn’t be late today.”

            “You’re a big girl.”

            “And you’re an asshole.” She stomped off, slamming the bathroom door behind her. The sound of the shower running could soon be heard.

            Zack didn’t move. 

            A half an hour later the girl emerged. Everything was fresh, except for her dress. The night over was obviously not a planned event. She walked over to the bed. “Can you give me a ride home? I need to change.”

            “Take the Porsche. Keys are in the kitchen.”

            “Are you serious?” She wasn’t happy with his response. “I can’t drive a stick.”

            “Get my cell would ya?” Zack still hadn’t emerged from under the covers. She brought over his phone, slapped it into his outstretched hand. 

            “Mornin’ Jules…Rough. Look my friend Mandy needs a ride home. Do you mind? She’s on her way down now. Thanks.”  He set the phone on the nightstand. “Jules will take you home.”

            “Who the hell is Jules?” She clenched her fists.

            “My housekeeper.”

“Your housekeeper. Are you kidding me?”

“You can walk.” He rolled over, away from her.

She stared at the lump under the covers, and stormed out, slamming the door behind her. The alarm went to buzzing again. Zack hit the snooze. After a few minutes his breathing became heavy and rhythmic. Ten minutes later the alarm went off for the third time, but Zack was in a sleep coma and didn’t hear it. Nor did he hear his phone ringing.

COLIN

8:30 am. Colin Londergan, Zack’s younger brother, waited by the curb outside his house. He had a cell phone to his ear and a pissed off expression on his face. 

“Come on Zack. Answer the damn phone.” He scanned the street for his brother’s black Porsche. A black car approached. Colin stepped forward, hopeful, but it was only a Volvo. The Volvo slowed to a stop in front of him. The window went down and a pretty red head leaned out.

“Hey Colin.” Happy to see him.

“Hey Sonya.” Not thrilled to see her.

“Need a ride?” Her inviting blue eyes begged him to say yes.

Colin hesitated, looked at his watch and the empty street. He was tempted to accept her offer, but looked back at Sonya and shook his head. “Nah.  My brother’s on his way.”

Sonya’s expression turned to disappointment. Colin was the hottest guy at school. She would have scored huge if they’d arrived together. And it didn’t matter in the least that his girlfriend was one of her best friends. All boys were fair game as far as she was concerned. Colin stepped back on the curb, dropped his book bag to the ground. Sonya, not one to beg, waved and drove off. Colin took out his cell, called Zack for the hundredth time. When he got no answer, he grabbed his bag and went back into the house.

The Londergan home was decorated in expensive, albeit tasteful, furnishings. An accomplishment made easy by the fact his mom was a successful interior designer. He dropped his bag in the entry way. Something he wouldn’t have dared if his mom was at home rather than away on a business trip. Her absence was also part of the reason for his current abandonment issue. The other part, the bigger part, being he was on restriction for night skiing.  

His mom didn’t care so much that he had been arrested for trespassing. What really turned her pale was the fact he was skiing dangerous slopes in the dark. She didn’t care if it was a full moon. She had immediately restricted him without debate from driving, skiing, and anything remotely fun for two weeks.  And remotely fun included seeing his girlfriend Zora. 

His cell rang. He answered without looking at the ID. “It’s about time douche bag.”

“Colin Londergan!”

“Shi…shoot mom, I didn’t know it was you.” He rolled his eyes to the ceiling.

“Who did you think it was?” Her tone was suspicious.

“Nobody…I mean I thought it was Josh. Anyway, I gotta get to class, what’s wrong?”  He lied to her as was usual when it came to Zack.

“Nothing’s wrong. I wanted to make sure Zack didn’t leave you stranded. Like he did the last time.” Her tone left no doubt this was exactly what she had expected to happen.

“That was three years ago mom. And he didn’t do it on purpose.”

“You’re right. I guess it was the undercover cop’s fault. If he hadn’t arrested your brother for selling drugs, he wouldn’t have left you stranded.” She didn’t hide her anger or bitterness over Zack’s chosen lifestyle. “Of course he would have been high when he picked you up, but at least…”  

“All right mom.” He cut her off before she really got rolling. “The bell’s gonna ring. You don’t want me to be late do you?” He heard a car horn honk several times. Colin covered the speaker.

“No I don’t.” Her tone softened. “And if you can stay out of trouble until I get back, I’ll consider letting you off restriction early.”

“Awesome. Gotta go. Bye mom.” He quickly hung up. The horn blared again, longer in duration. 

ZACK & COLIN

Colin went to the front door, peaked out the side window light. A black Porsche was backing out of the drive. He grabbed his bag, ran out after the car.

“Zack! Wait!” He yelled, preparing to throw his book bag at the retreating vehicle.

The Porsche jerked to a stop, causing Colin to juke to the right to avoid crashing into the hood. Colin jumped into the passenger seat.  “First you’re late, then you’re gonna leave me?” Colin ragged his brother, but was happy to see him anyway. 

 “I gave up a nice piece of ass to take your sorry butt to school. Show some appreciation.” Zack threw back.     

“Whatever. You’re still late and still a douche bag.”

“No one says douche bag anymore do they?” Zack took a curve a little too fast.

Colin grabbed the ‘oh shit’ handle. “Maybe not in stoner world.”

“Stoner world. That’s funny. Hilarious. Ever think of doing standup?” Zack shifted gears, steered the Porsche onto the exit leading to the interstate.

The Porsche reached seventy going down the on ramp. They hit the interstate doing ninety. Zack pushed the car over one hundred, before easing back to ninety. Colin wanted to put his seatbelt on, but he didn’t dare, knowing Zack would tease him for being a momma’s boy. Despite their mom’s best efforts to poison him against Zack, Colin deeply admired and loved his brother. 

Zack’s eyes darted to the rearview mirror. He mouthed the word shit. The car did a nose dive, slowing to seventy in a matter of seconds.

“What’s wrong?” Colin looked to Zack, who jerked his thumb behind them. Colin checked out the side mirror.  Flashing blue lights were almost up on them. “You dumb ass.” Colin laughed.

Zack eased the car over a lane closer to the shoulder. He signaled to get over again, but before he could do so the cruiser flew by in a blur of blue lights. Two more followed. And judging by how fast they disappeared down the interstate, they were doing well over one hundred miles per hour.

Zack laughed out loud. “That’s right you mothers. Worse shit goin’ on in this town than Zack Londergan.”

Although Zack played it off, Colin knew that for a second, maybe two, his brother felt the panic creeping in. He was still on probation and the cops in town didn’t care for him much. Maybe it was the pot, maybe it was all the money Zack made from selling pot or maybe and more likely it was because his last name was Londergan. In any case, Zack didn’t need another arrest of any kind. He’d say he didn’t care, but Colin knew better.

Zack was about to ease back onto the road when a Honda Pilot slid sideways in front of him, slamming into the guard rail and catching on fire. The brothers glanced at each other, Zack slammed the car into park and they both jumped out and ran towards the burning vehicle. Zack took the driver’s side, Colin the passenger’s.

“There’s no driver.” Zack yelled over to Colin.

Colin looked inside and saw a German Sheppard puppy in the very back seat. The dog was frantically pawing at the doors and windows to get out.  

“There’s a dog.” Colin reached for the handle, but Zack knocked his hand away.

“What if it’s hot dumb ass?”

Colin ignored him. “We’ve got to save the dog.” He searched the ground, found a large rock and heaved it through the window. Zack took off his shirt and wrapped his hand. He reached inside and opened the door. More smoke poured out of the vehicle, but the dog didn’t exit as they expected.

Zack gave Colin a crooked grin before diving into the vehicle. Moments later he emerged, puppy in his arms, smoke in his lungs. Colin took the dog from him. By now they could here sirens approaching. Colin carried the puppy away from the burning vehicle. Zack, still hacking like a two pack a day smoker, slid behind the wheel of the Porsche. Colin got in, holding the dog in his lap.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting’ the hell out of here.” He eased the Porsche onto the highway, checking his rear view every few seconds as they sped away from the burning vehicle. “If you’re on tonight’s news, someone will call mom and then she’ll know I was late picking you up.” Zack explained, taking the first exit he came to.

Colin didn’t ask any more questions. He often got caught in the middle of the war between Zack and their mom. He knew Zack missed being with the family, but his mom refused to let him come around as long as he insisted on staying in the drug business. She didn’t care how much money he made or that the government legalized the sale of pot. In her mind he was still a drug dealer. For his part, Zack was equally stubborn. He’d made enough money and could have left the business, gone to college, but he liked his lifestyle too much to become a slave to a regular job. So the two of them stayed in a perpetual state of impasse with Colin as the collateral damage.

“Zack?”

“Yeah?”

“Why are there three suns?” Colin asked, looking out through the windshield.

Zack glanced out to where Colin pointed. He stared for several seconds and shook his head, turning his attention back to the road as they rounded a curve. He slammed on the brakes with both feet. The Porsche fishtailed out of control on the slick pavement, spun around on a direct collision course with a sideways loaded down logging truck that was sliding towards them.

The tractor trailer tipped from the weight of the logs. A loud groaning sound filled the air. The safety wires, pushed beyond their limit, snapped free. Several tons of timber logs rolled off the bed and careened towards them. Colin shielded the dog, bracing for impact.

Zack pumped the brakes, turning the wheel away from the spin. The Porsche’s tires caught dry pavement and the car jerked to a sudden stop. Zack wasted no time slamming the gear shift into reverse and flooring the gas pedal. The car flew backwards down the road mere seconds before being pummeled and crushed.

They watched the logs roll and slide every which way along the road. After several tense minutes movement ceased. Zack and Colin looked at each other, then back to the bizarre scene in front of them. Zack shifted into drive and cautiously maneuvered the car around the logs until they reached a point where the road was impassable.