Quinn began counting. In seconds the crew were again standing with fingers interlocked behind their heads in their underwear. Quinn gathered weapons and drugs from each stack of clothing. He moved over to Mack the Knife and finished the gang frisk. Benny and Sammy watched his back every moment. Quinn stood in front of the crew after stashing the weapons and drugs in Benny’s backpack.
“Our business is done, kiddies. Here’s the deal. Take your drug dealing crap the hell away from the school and never look cross-eyed at my brother Benny. Break the deal and we come for you one final time. We will blow your houses up and kill everything you’ve ever known. This isn’t a police action. We’ll turn your lives into a kill zone. This is your only warning. Help your asshole friends to their feet and get the hell out of my sight. I don’t care if you have to drag them. Do it or die!”
The crew hurriedly dragged their leader and knife wielding cohort to their feet. They never paused as they half dragged and carried Bart and Mack the Knife along the sidewalk.
“Thanks, Quinn,” Benny said. “I thought I’d have to let Sammy kill someone.”
“Sis sent me as you and Sammy are Dad’s favorites,” Quinn joked, shoulder hugging Benny.
“She said exactly that… didn’t she?”
“Yep.”
“Why do you think Dad does kind of go easy on me and Sammy?”
“He loves projects. Once he takes them on, he rides the wave into the rocks. Make sure he never reaches the rocks, kid.”
“I hear you, brother.” Sammy fell into line next to Benny with nose near his hand. “School will be interesting after this.”
“We’ll be there for patrol, Ben. Sis knows follow-up has to be done for a few days until we scope out the situation. If we left anything to chance we’d have to deal with Trailer Trash Momma.”
Benny laughed, clapping his hands. “Oh my God… Mom had Dad this morning. Every time she pins her hair back, opens her blouse, and does the Trailer Trash opening… oh my… I start laughing so hard I miss what the heck she’s going off on.”
“Clarice Salvatore is running for city council. She asked Dad for a donation to her campaign fund. Sometimes I think Dad makes this stuff up so he can get Momma going,” Quinn replied. “Unfortunately, I checked at Sis’s insistence. Clarice is running.”
“Oh God,” Benny came to a stop, shaking his head. “Mom will have a stroke if Clarice gets on the city council. Dad’s one of the most dangerous men alive, and even he wouldn’t have the balls to donate to Clarice’s campaign fund.”
“If you hadn’t run out of the kitchen you big girl you would have heard Dad calming Mom down with the promise to donate to anyone with the most chance of beating her. We can’t get involved in this. We’ll have to rally around Brother Sonny.”
Benny started walking again. “Sonny would never back his Mom or Dad in anything. I believe like Mom. I think they stole Sonny out of a baby cart at the hospital. We know Phil and Clarice. Those two are the most toxic human beings I’ve ever seen and I was raised in a crack-house.”
This time it was Quinn who had to stop as he was enjoying Benny’s statement with Benny grinning at him. “Don’t… don’t repeat that ace, Ben.”
“I won’t. Sonny’s the best. I feel uncomfortable when Mom goes off on Sonny’s parents. I know he shares her feelings about them as people. I think they do love him though.”
“I don’t know about that.” Quinn walked along shaking his head. “They tried to use him in everything under the sun as a prop. You’re right in that Phil and Clarice probably love him as much as two sociopaths can love anyone.”
“Dad claims he’s a psychopath. He’s tough to figure.”
“Like Sis always told me, ‘don’t figure Dad, and don’t ever ignore his advice’. I never have and never will.”
“That’s because of her scars, huh?”
“Yeah. She ignored him and paid for it.”
“Dad, Uncle Johnny, and Uncle Gus got him though,” Benny said, hoping to hear more about the incident than Jean’s simple ‘he’s dead’ answer.
Quinn was silent for a few more steps, looking around at how close they were to Otter’s Point. “That guy didn’t go gently into the night, Ben. They kept him alive until he paid for his sins. Cleaner chopped him up for disposal from our helicopter for the fishes.”
“I guess it’s best to remember Dad can blow the heads off three guys and walk into the Monte to short order cook for Mom without missing a beat.”
Quinn nodded. “Good one. That’s exactly the picture of Dad to remember.”
They reached Otter’s Point at the bottom of the steep street in another ten minutes. Benny pointed. “That Mr. Harding is scary.”