“Is it safe to come out now?” Freddy asked from his bathroom.
The masked man continued to try, in vain, to struggle under the full weight of Chris’ hulking frame. It was no use for the would be assassin. As much as he tried, Chris wouldn’t let him go. He was apprehended by a former army soldier and cop. The masked man had no chance of escape. He was in Chris’ personal custody now.
“Give me a couple of minutes” Chris replied, as he continued to push down on the masked man’s back. “I want to keep wearing this guy down so he’ll stop trying to resist.”
Sitting on the floor of the bathroom, Michael hyperventilated, as Freddy paced across the tiny floor.
“Will you stop doing that!” Michael eventually shrieked.
“Sorry” Freddy replied nervously, as he stopped pacing and looked down at Michael. “I’m just anxious and nervous, that’s all. I mean, someone tried to take my life….again. I’m allowed to a be little freaked out right now.”
“Well, we don’t have a lot of room in here, so it’s really annoying that you keep doing that. Wait at least until the coast is clear to exit the bathroom before you do that.”
Just as Michael had mentioned this, the bathroom door was opened by Chris.
“All clear” Chris okayed. “He got so tired that he passed out. He’ll probably come to in a little bit, so we should have some time to talk until then.”
Michael got up from the bathroom floor and joined Freddy back in their bedroom.
“I couldn’t get him to talk before he passed out” Chris continued “so I have no idea who he is or where he came from. There’s no form of identification on him or anything else that could reveal his identity to us. All I could do was take off the mask and see who was underneath.”
As the three men approached the bed, they could see that the masked man was no longer masked. He was a middle aged Hispanic looking individual. Clean shaven with black hair. Nothing particularly distinct about his appearance in any way, shape or form.
“You think he’s a gang member?” Freddy asked, as he stared at the man passed out on their bed.
“I have no idea” Michael responded. “But what I do know is I’m not letting the mayor cover this up so easily. Chris, please escort me downstairs so I can retrieve my communication device.”
“I’m nervous about leaving Freddy alone with him in case the man wakes up again” Chris remarked. “I’m also nervous about leaving the man alone unattended.”
“Ugh, fine. I’ll go get it myself. But if something happens to me, it’s on you, Chris.”
“Michael….”
Michael stormed downstairs, before he let out a shriek.
“Oh my god!”
Chris, hearing Michael’s yell, grabbed Freddy and ran down the stairs as fast as he could. When the two of them made it into the living room, they could see the window had been taken out of the frame.
“Jesus fucking christ!” Michael exclaimed, as he found his communication device. “How do these guys manage to keep doing this?”
Michael snapped a picture of the open window frame and the glass pane on the grass in front lawn of their house.
“I have no idea” Freddy replied “but however they do it, it’s sure sophisticated.”
“It probably isn’t all that sophisticated” Chris corrected. “They probably just blow torched the window off. It’s how they manage to keep doing it without making any noise that’s surprising to me. How I couldn’t hear him coming in before he got upstairs is shocking to me. Now let’s go back up to your bedroom. I don’t want to keep that man unattended for too long.”
Michael nodded his head, as he, Freddy and Chris made their way back up into the bedroom. When they got there, they could see Evan standing over the passed out body on their bed.
“Evan” Michael said, as he ran to his son. “Go back to bed now. You shouldn’t be up this late.”
“Dad?” Evan asked, with a tinge of fear in his voice. “Who is that?”
“It’s someone who was a problem, but isn’t anymore. Now go back to bed.”
Freddy put one hand on his son’s left shoulder and Chris put his hand on Evan’s right one. They both looked at each other and smiled approvingly.
“It’ll be ok, Evan” Freddy assured him. “Chris stopped this guy from trying to hurt your papa. Everything is going to be alright now.”
“Chris?” Evan said, as he turned to look at him. “Is that true? Did you stop this bad man from hurting my papa?”
“I most certainly did” Chris replied light heartedly, as he nodded his head.
“Wow! You’re so awesome! I can’t believe you were able to do that!”
Chris chuckled, as Evan went in for a hug.
“Thank you for saving papa, Chris.”
Michael let out an “ahem” in response.
“And thanks for saving my dad, too.”
“That’s what I’m here for, Evan” Chris replied. “To make sure you guys are kept safe.”
Chris ruffled Evan’s hair, before he gently pushed him off to Michael.
“Now go back to bed, kid. You have a long day of school with your dad tomorrow. A growing boy needs to get his sleep.”
“Yes, Chris.”
Evan walked out of the bedroom, as Michael turned to look at Chris.
“Thank you, Chris” Michael said with a light smile.
Chris scratched his beard and chuckled.
“Don’t mention it” he replied. “I’m just happy to be of assistance in any way I can.”
Michael nodded, before he went to go tuck Evan back into bed.
“So?” Freddy asked nervously. “What do we do with the man now?”
“That’s a good question” Chris replied with a lack of assurance in his voice. “Since he’s still alive, we have a number of options at our disposal. We can try to wait until he comes to and see if he’ll talk and spill the beans over who ordered him to do this. We can just kill him ourselves and be done with it. Or, we can hand him over to the police.”
“I would normally just call the police right away” Michael said, as he walked back into his bedroom “but doing that is immediately just asking for this to be swept under the rug. The commander will either kill him or find some other way to make sure no one ever finds out about this.”
“But even if they did that” Freddy said “you have the photos of the taken out window and the masked man on your communication device. Wouldn’t that prove something happened tonight?”
“Not necessarily. If we have no footage of the actual attack, then the mayor’s team could say we kidnapped the man. The police who would take him into custody would perjure themselves to say the same thing.”
“As much as I have problems with this line of action” Chris said “I think it’s our only one at this point. Keeping him too long puts us at risk of facing criminal charges. Killing him isn’t an option either, though I was prepared to do it if I had to.”
“Well, I think…”
Before Michael could finish his thought, police sirens could be heard outside of their house.
“Son of a bitch” he remarked with a groan. “I guess the decision was made for us, then.”
Walking downstairs, Freddy, Michael and Chris could see a police car parked in front of the house. Getting out of the car was Officer Adams and his partner. Walking towards the house, they could see the removed window pane on the lawn.
“Jesus” Officer Adams remarked “again?”
“Hello officers” Freddy said, as they approached them. “Funny timing you guys have.”
“We just happened to be in the neighborhood doing a night patrol and spotted the missing window pane on your lawn.”
“Uh huh” Michael replied, sounding unconvinced. “Sure you did.”
“We don’t actually give enough of a fuck about you and your commie husband to keep tabs on you 24/7” the other officer replied. “We just happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to see what’s what.”
“Officers” Chris said.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Big Bear Chris D’Salvo. Relegating yourself to the commie’s butt boy these days?”
Chris stared angrily at the other officer, before Officer Adams put his hand on his partner’s shoulder.
“Enough” Officer Adams said. “What seems to be the problem here?”
“Well” Michael replied bitterly “if you actually gave a shit, you’d care to know that someone tried to kill Freddy again just a few minutes ago.”
“Jesus” the other officer said. “So soon after the last attempt? Man, that mayor is absolutely nuts. He’s lost his damn mind. At this rate, they really ought to insist he step down and replace him before your commie husband wins this thing in a landslide.”
“Replace?” Freddy asked inquisitively.
“Yeah, it’s a long story” Officer Adams replied “but the gist of it is, in a few days, there’s a deadline to remove and replace a candidate from the ballot. Once the deadline passes, the slate is locked in for election day.”
“Hmmm” Freddy thought to himself. "That's good to know."
“Well, quit standing out here” Michael said in an irritated tone “and come inside and take the man into custody.”
Officer Adams sighed, as he followed them to the house.
“A word, Freddy” he said.
Freddy nodded, as Officer Adams pulled him aside.
“Look, before you go yapping your little mouth to the press, just know that we had nothing to do with whatever may have happened in your house tonight. I may hate your commie ass as much as anyone, but I’m certainly not prepared to stoop to the level of having you killed. I think you should be repudiated at the ballot box and laughed out of this town for good. However, if we were to go around killing everyone we hate, then we’d be no better than the likes of you and your commie ilk.”
“That’s not particularly reassuring to me” Freddy replied “especially since the commander is just going to cover this up now.”
“Well, I can’t control what my higher ups will do, but just know that this what we rank and file really think.”
“What about you targeting my son yesterday?”
Officer Adams shrugged his shoulders.
“Higher up orders. Just know that ain’t gonna to happen to your son again. Those boys might lose their jobs now to save the commander’s skin. No one is going to want to put themselves on the line again to follow orders like that, only to be thrown under the bus at a later time. Now let’s go inside and see this supposed would be assassin of yours.”
Freddy groaned, as he led Officer Adams into his house. On his way inside, the other officer leaned into Chris and whispered in his ear.
“You’re a real traitor to your brothers in blue, you fucker” he said.
“That life is over for me now” Chris whispered back. “I’m not in a cult anymore.”
The other officer snorted, as he walked up with Chris to Freddy and Michael’s bedroom. Once they were all there, they could see that the masked man had woken up and was struggling to break free of the handcuffs on his wrist.
“Where’d you get your hands on those, Chris?” the other officer asked. “Using it for some rough, kinky gay sex now?”
Chris growled at this comment.
“Feisty one, I see” Officer Adams remarked of the masked man struggling on the bed. “Alright, boy. Up you get.”
The other officer joined with Adams to lift the masked man up into a standing position.
“Aren’t you going to ask him any questions?” Michael asked angrily. “Where he’s from? Who he is working for? Why he came here tonight?”
“We’ll ask him at the precinct” Officer Adams replied dismissively.
“Presuming they don’t just cover this up again” the other officer added.
Quickly, Michael snapped a photo of the officers dragging the masked man down the stairs, hoping to use it as evidence later to build a case against the mayor. He had one other piece of evidence in his disposal, one he kept from Freddy until he could build a stronger case. Freddy, Michael and Chris watched from the top of the staircase, as the officers took the masked man out of the house and loaded him up into their car. The man continued to struggle and began to yell out.
“You’re making a big mistake boys!” the masked man yelled. “Cleanup will be here any moment and you’re going to be sorry.”
“Yeah, yeah” Officer Adams replied dismissively, as he pushed the masked man into the car. “Tell it to the judge.”
Chris made his way downstairs and closed the front door. He watched as the police car drove up the block and out of their sight. Sighing, he turned around and made his way back upstairs. Once he was back in the bedroom, he saw Freddy and Michael looking at him nervously.
“I guess the choice was taken out of our hands then, huh” he remarked.
Freddy and Michael both nodded their heads.
“I’ll tell you guys what. I’ll sleep downstairs for the rest of the night, to make sure that no one comes in to try to rob your house. After tonight, though, we’re going need to have a talk about different sleeping arrangements.”
Michael gulped, as Freddy patted him on the shoulder.
“It’ll be alright” Freddy said.
Chris nodded, as he made his way back to the sofa bed in the living room. Freddy held onto Michael’s shoulders and led him back into their bed to go back to sleep.
During the drive to the police precinct, Officer Adams noticed a strange car following them.
“Who is that?” he remarked.
“Beats me” his partner responded, seemingly unworried.
What they didn’t know was that the man in the car had been following them since they left Freddy and Michael’s house. He had come back twenty minutes after he dropped the masked man off, to find that the police were already at the house.
“That’s not good” the man thought to himself, as he parked several houses down and looked out with binoculars.
After a few minutes had passed, he could see his partner, Bulldozer, taken into custody by Officer Adams and his partner.
“I have to eliminate them all” the man thought to himself, as he started up the car. “Even if the mayor manages to cover this one up, I can’t risk him saying anything that could incriminate me or anyone else.”
When the police car drove off, the man quickly followed behind in his own car. He kept a quiet pursuit until he could get them into a deserted area. That moment arrived just a few blocks away from the precinct. Quickly pulling over the car, the man rolled down his window and aimed a bazooka like weapon at the police car. Quickly firing off two shots, the officers could see the bullets flying at their window.
“Look out!” Officer Adams screamed, as he tried to swerve out of the line of bullets.
As they were heat seeking missiles, there were no way Adams could save himself, his partner or the unmasked man in the backseat. Upon impact, the car exploded with a loud bang. A fire erupted from inside the vehicle. Wanting to confirm his kill, the man from the parked car got out and walked over to the burning inferno that was the police car.
Looking inside the vehicle, he could see the charred corpses that were the former officers and his partner, Bulldozer. With haste, he put on fire resistant gloves and pulled out the unmasked man’s body from the back of the car. Quickly extinguishing the flames, the man dragged the charred body of his former comrade into his car and placed him in the back seat. Driving off quickly, the man briefly passed by the burning police car, fortunate that Bulldozer’s botched job was salvaged by Cleanup’s cleanup.
After another botched assassination attempt…..