“Hello there, you little twerps!” Rachel grabbed Jean by the ear, shaking her. “What the hell is wrong with you, ‘Daughter of Darkness’?
“Ow!” Jean looked around sullenly, seeing Nick and Gus, with John and Cala behind them holding Quinn. Sonny had jumped into a defensive stance. He relaxed with shoulders slumped. “We may as well wear clown clothes with signs saying ‘Stupid is as Stupid Does’, Cracker. The entire band of cartoons snuck up on us.”
“I can’t believe this! When your Dad told me he had something to show me, I thought it would be a nice surprise. Instead, it’s my two ten year old charges following dangerous thugs on the Sunday night they’re supposed to be at a movie. Did you two even go inside Lighthouse 4 movie-theater when I dropped you off?”
“I can’t believe Dad ratted me out.”
The innocent observers restrained amusement until then. The ‘ratted out’ tagline generated a laugh-out-loud moment until Rachel turned on them with hands on hips. “You knew what they were doing all along, didn’t you, Muerto? Don’t think for a moment I’ll forget this you Unholy Trio nitwits. I’m really surprised at you, Cala.”
“What? I didn’t do anything.” Cala pointed accusingly at Nick. “It’s Muerto’s fault! He called it innocent fun. Besides, we’ve been tracking them. No one was in danger.”
“So why wasn’t I told about it?”
“You are too close to the T-Rex. You cannot be trusted with information from the inner circle,” Cala stated, shifting Quinn into a human shield with a squeal as Rachel moved on her.
“Give me Quinn. I’m going to show you an inner circle… of birdies, when I clock you upside your head, traitor!”
“Calm down, hon.” Nick only regained the ability to initiate coherent speech a moment before. “We could never have fooled Jean if you’d known from the beginning.”
“Dad’s right, the traitor! I read you like an old Diego novel,” Jean remarked, enjoying the attention shifting to Rachel. “Cracker and I have the goods on an extortion team. We were ready to move on them when you ruined our surveillance gig. These guys will get away with it now.”
“What exactly were you and Cracker going to do,” Nick asked, taking Rachel’s hand. “You both know we’re in dangerous times right now with my alter ego.”
“It started out as a game. We saw these three suits taking the store owner into the backroom where we stop for an ice cream when you allow us to walk Deke with the com units in. Hey… you’ve been bugging us! You rigged our com units to transmit even when we don’t activate them, didn’t you?”
Nick waved off Jean’s waving finger. “Think of it this way, doody. If something happens to you like a stray bullet from a drive-by, what do I tell your Mom… whoops?”
“But…but we have them. You can’t stop Viper and Cracker now!”
Nick pointed at the store. “Just watch.”
Three police cars drove to the curb a couple of car lengths away from the front of the store without lights or sirens. They had a perfect viewing when Neil and his partner stepped away from their car with the others following suit. It was all perfect until the three emerged from the store. At the first shout, the one in the middle with sharkskin suit and deep gray fedora yanked a mini Uzi from inside his custom suit. In a flash, everyone saw the cops had not drawn weapons, unsure if it was anything but a dress-up con. No one saw him move. The loud bang from Nick’s .45 Colt sent a hollow point slug into the man’s forehead from seventy-five feet away across the street. Gus and John immediately pulled everyone against the building side. The police drew weapons, pointing everywhere. Neil kept his sidearm pointed at the remaining suits.
Once the two suits were handcuffed and the coroner called, Neil gestured at Nick, who was peeking out, making sure he wasn’t shot by the good guys. “C’mon over, Nick.”
Nick turned to Gus. “Take everyone home, Gus. I’ll see you all on the deck sometime soon, I hope.”
“Will do, Muerto.”
“Sorry, Dad,” Jean said, hugging Nick.
“We’ll talk about it later, Viper. Good instincts as always, Sonny.”
“We really weren’t going to confront them, Sir.”
“I believe you. I’ll see you all at the house.” Nick kissed Rachel. When he saw Neil watching, Nick proceeded like a convict walking the ‘Green Mile’ death row final jaunt to the electric chair.
“Knock it off,” Neil ordered. “You’re killing me here.”
“No,” Nick pointed out, “they were about to be killing you here.”
“Thank you for our lives. We should have treated this situation with more respect,” Neil stated. A heartfelt echo sounded from the other police officers. Neil turned to one of the veteran officers. “Take over, Bill. I need to speak with Marshal McCarty.”
“Sure. Nice shot, Nick.”
“Thanks, Bill.” Nick followed Neil away from the scene.