Captain – Brothers At Arms #6

When Travis caught sight of the three men in one cell, he knew he was seeing just how far the mighty had fallen. “Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

Barrett lowered his arm and gazed at the two men standing there. He groaned and growled, “It had to be you, huh?”

Travis rocked on his heels and said, “Yup.” He popped the P and smiled. Travis turned his gaze to Barrett’s sons.

One of them asked, “Do you know this bozo, Dad?”

Barrett sighed heavily and said, “Yeah, I know this motherfucker. He tried to bust me over a fight your mom and I had and she ended up all busted up. I told him it wasn’t me that smacked her around but he didn’t believe me.”

“And you know what?” Travis leaned closer to the bars. “I still don’t believe you didn’t have anything to do with her bruises and broken bones. But that’s another story. I’m here with a warrant for your arrest and I’ll be escorting you boys to the Marshals office in St Louis. Oh, and by the way, we also have your youngest son waiting for you there. It should be an interesting family reunion.”

“Go to hell.” Barrett growled as he sat up and glared at the other man.

“But before you go,” Zeus added. “I think you should know that some of your friends are waiting beyond the fence for you. But they really don’t seem happy to be here. I wonder why that would be?”

Barrett glanced over at Travis and growled, “You have to offer us protection. Thanks to my dear old dad, they are pissed at me and want to see me dead. You can’t let that happen.”

Travis shrugged. “I’ll give you and your guys the same consideration I’d give anyone else.”

“That’s not good enough, you prick,” Barrett half screamed at him. “Those men out there want me dead!”

“But why do they want you dead?” Travis asked in a sly tone. “What did you do to make them so hostile?”

“That’s for you to figure out isn’t it?” Barret snapped back. “I’m not going to do your job for you.”

Travis chuckled. “I never asked you to do my job for me, just the same as I’m not going to do what you want me to do for you either. You won’t get our protection until we arrest you, so I’d really be careful how you talk to me. Right now, we’re taking you in to talk to you.”

“You have to arrest us.” Barrett growled.

“We have to figure out what charges first. But before we can do that we have to go through the evidence we have against you and your sons,” Travis explained. “It is a real mess too. Since your dad disowned you, we’ve been getting report after report of your crimes going back a number of years but we have to verify them and that takes time.”

“Time we don’t have if the men waiting for us outside have anything to do with this.” Barrett growled.

“They have a right to be mad and they have the right to go where they want to go,” Travis explained carefully. “They haven’t done anything wrong, so we can’t arrest them on your suspicions. Or because you think they might want to hurt you. They haven’t broken any laws, yet.”

Barrett looked ready to explode but Travis held up his hand to stop his tirade. “You refused to talk to us, so we have to sort out what you did and didn’t do. Then we can charge you for what charges we can prove. That’s the way the law works. But now it’s time to take you to our headquarters. So stand up and get cuffed, then we’ll get you into a van and take you to St. Louis where you’ll be held for final charges. Like I said, charges we can prove.”

Zeus snorted. “But don’t worry, we’ll have sharp shooters on the roof to protect you as you walk out the front door.”

“Let’s hope they can kill the shooters waiting for us out there.” Barrett snarled.

More of Travis’s men joined them. Diabolus opened the cell doors and the men filed out to be cuffed and led upstairs. They were also read their rights.

When they came out of the hallway, Travis gave Gary and Grady a nod. “Your transport is coming. I’m leaving an officer here to watch you.”

Gary growled and shook his head.

Finally, they all gathered near the front door and when Travis opened it, Barrett peeked outside. He swung his gaze from place to place, as his expression showed his dread. He couldn’t see anyone but he looked like he was going to pass out from the anxiety. Like he could feel them out there waiting for the right moment to strike. He looked over at Travis and demanded, “So what are you going to do to protect us?”

Travis shrugged. “We will be out there with you. I don’t know what else to tell you.” Travis then heard a double stomp from the roof and he knew his men were there, ready for Barrett and the rest of them to leave the clubhouse. He paused to look over at Click. “Is there anyone out there waiting or watching?”

Click checked the cameras again and finally lifted his head. “I don’t see any hot spots anymore. But I think they moved out of range? I just can’t tell.”

Barrett snorted. “You aren’t looking very hard then, sonny. Those men wouldn’t leave without knowing they got what they came here for. That’s me and my sons dead at their feet.”

“Who are they and why do they want you dead?” Travis asked again.

“I told you I’m not doing your fucking job for you. Figure it out yourself.” Barrett snarled.

Travis nodded then motioned to the parking lot with his head. “The van is outside. Let’s go gentlemen.”

Barrett scoffed then turned and led the way out the front door. His sons were right behind him as two officers spread out and walked along with them. The other four men were next and then the group was halfway to the van.

The Marshals were spread out with their weapons in their hands, busy watching for anything. One of them looked up to the roof and saw several people holding rifles, watching for any sign of trouble.

Shots came from different places and when the gunfire started, it caught everyone unawares. Barrett and his sons were caught with the first wave of gunfire.

The people inside the clubhouse and on the roof watched in horror as bullets hit Barrett, Alijala, and Romano. Their bodies jerked as the bullets tore into them then they fell to the dirt. Their bodies were still jerking from the second wave of bullets coming from where the shooters were hiding.

The shooters on the roof were firing as well. They lobbed shots into the trees and screams were heard as they began hitting the shooters.

When the shooting stopped and the smoke cleared, the men the Marshals were leading out of the clubhouse lay in the dirt bleeding out. The two Marshals were wounded but they were still alive. More agents flooded out of the clubhouse and began running out the gate and into the trees.

Travis looked over the main room and asked if anyone inside was hurt. When no one claimed to be hit by any bullets he looked at Zeus and growled, “Well, that didn’t go as expected.”

Alfredo rose to his feet after Delaney pushed him to the floor to protect him. “Are they still alive?” he asked in a whisper.

Travis looked at the older man and his granddaughter as slowly shook his head. “No sir, they are all dead for sure.” He shook his head.

“Well, you gave him every chance to confess,” Delaney told him with no emotion in her voice. She moved to the doorway to look outside. Memphis tried to stop her but she brushed him off and continued to the doorway. She had to see for herself what happened.

She saw the carnage outside and she gasped. She raised her hand to cover her mouth as she stared at her dad and her brother’s bodies lying in the dirt. She gazed at the mess outside. “Well Dad, you finally found out you can’t cheat death when he comes after your ornery hide. Great grandpa died screaming out the names that haunted him, you died with your sons because you were too stubborn to take the consequences of your actions.”

Then she turned and walked back to Alfredo. She looked in his eyes and saw the desolation in them. She reached up and cupped both of his cheeks. “Grandpa, I’m so sorry. But you know as well as I do that they got what they so deserved. Justice was finally served on Barrett, Alijala, and Romano.”

“I know tesoro.” Alfredo nodded. “The three of them did so much damage in this world that nothing but death was going to stop them anyway. I may not like the results but I set this whole thing in motion when I disclaimed them.”

Desi shook her head and joined them. “You did nothing of the kind. Barrett and his sons brought this on themselves. They are the ones who lied and cheated the people they did business with. They are the ones who took the lives of the people they thought crossed them. To their minds, they did nothing wrong, they felt they had the right to end someone else’s life when they didn’t. We all make mistakes but then we all have to settle the accounts one day. Well Barrett, Alijala, and Romano just settled their long overdue accounts. You just brought the truth to light and tried to right their wrongs. There was nothing else you could have done.”

Gary snorted and said, “Travis neglected his duty, and if I’m going up on charges, so is he. He got those men killed by not protecting them correctly and the bosses in St. Louis are gonna hear about it from me.”

Gina stalked over to him and got right up in his face. “Oh yeah, Gary? Is that a fact?”

Gary sneered at her. “Yeah Gina, that’s a fact.”

Gina snapped her head around to look at Travis. “You might want to check Gary’s phone.”

Travis looked puzzled. “Why would I do that?”

“Because I’m thinking the men out there weren’t people Barrett cheated. I’m thinking they were part of Gary’s protection racket. That’s why Click couldn’t see them. They just arrived from the road after Gary called them.”

“You shut your mouth, bitch!” Gary screamed at her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Gina smirked at him. “Oh, don’t I? Really? You gonna play the victim now? I don’t think so.” She turned to Travis and told him, “I’ve been following Gary for a while now and he may live in a nice house and drive a nice car and all but he’s got quite the racket going. He’s been shaking down the drug lords in Kansas City. To the point where they pay him a smart sum under the table, and in cash every week to a heads up when the marshals are coming around to bust their asses over drug pickups. The Marshals never find anything because Gary here tips them off and they are able to get their shipments out before the Marshals get there. He likes that extra money coming in and he doesn’t have to pay taxes on the cash either.”

“Prove it!” Gary called her out.

Gina stared him in the face and began reciting a bank number she knew by heart.

Gary frowned then paled as he realized what the numbers meant. The name on the account wasn’t his but the account belonged to him anyway. “How the hell did you know about that account?”

Gina just stared at him. “My grandfather is a Marshal and he taught me to observe and then dig, sometimes I had to dig harder to find the truth but he taught me how to dig. He always told me the truth will be found if you know where to look for it.” She took a step back and shook her head. “When Desi first came to us, I saw how you treated her and I didn’t like it. You were mean and nasty to her for no reason.”

“Oh, I had a reason,” Gary told her. “I did some digging too. I found out who her family was and she had no reason to become a Marshal in the first place. Not with her family connections.” He turned his head and growled at Travis. “Maybe you should see if Leon Vincinti left anything behind when he was here a few days ago.”

Emily raised her head up and called out, “He came here to see me. He knew my dad from St. Louis and he wanted to know if I was all right. You see Alijala and Romano decided to take my dad’s landmark bar and my dad died the night they broke in. I’ve been in hiding since the night he died four years ago. I already turned the tape of that night over to Travis.”

Desi turned to Travis and admitted, “Barrett killed my mom when I was fourteen years old. I don’t know if he ever knew she had his daughter or not and it doesn’t make any difference now if he did or not. I went to live with my grandfather in Montana and Leon knew him from when they grew up in New York City, long before he became the man he is today. Then when I was seventeen, Alijala and Romano came after my grandfather. They started a fire in the barn that night and when my grandfather went outside to let the horses out of the barn, Barrett’s sons shot him on the front porch. He died and I ran out the back door. A few years later, I joined the Marshals but I never broke the law to do it. I’m Barrett’s bastard but I didn’t get to choose who my parents were and I never claimed him as my father either.”

Travis looked at Gary and shook his head. “You know none of this shit matters. Leon Vincinti wasn’t here when this went down and you can’t blame him for something he didn’t do and had no part in. So him being here before this event is a moot point.”

Just then, one of the Marshals came back to the clubhouse and he was shaking his head. “Boss, I don’t think those shooters were anyone Barrett Raggetti even knew.”

“What do you mean?” Travis frowned.

“We got some of their ID’s from their pockets. We ran their names and found out they were low-lifes from Kansas City. They run a gang in the inner city but we were able to link them to Gary here. Found his number and his name on their phones, at least two of the cells they had with them.”

Travis looked over at Gary. “Now we will add murder to your dossier, along with attempted murder, endangering your fellow Marshalls and I’d like to tack on so many other charges.” He shrugged. “But I don’t have to, do I?” He sighed hard. “Come on, let’s load the bodies up and take them back to St Louis with us. Damn, this paperwork is gonna make history.” He looked at Desi and Gina. “And you two will have to give us a statement of what happened before we got here.”

Gina and Desi nodded. “We’ll be here anytime you want to talk to us.”

Two new marshals arrived and Travis pointed over at Gary and Grady. The men went over and escorted them out the door.

Travis and the other Marshals filed out of the building.

Finally, it was just the Brothers at Arms and their women.

Marty and the others came back down from the roof. Marty looked around the room and finally asked, “Is this circus finally over now?”

“And by a circus, do you mean the endless horror filled amusement park rides full of murders, spilled whiskey, fake walls, gold, jewels, dead bodies and money?” Lindy quipped.

Marty laughed as she nodded her head. “Yeah, that one.”

Zeus smiled and wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. “God, I hope so, babe…I really do hope so. Time to get back to our own lives again.”

Lindy smiled and whooped. “Hot Damn! We’re gonna open up a new plant!”

“Don’t forget a new bar too.” Marty smiled. “And if we can get someone to teach us how to make whiskey that would help.” She gave Delaney a wink.

Delaney looked over at her grandfather and asked, “What do you say, grandpa? You ready to make some good whiskey and show these hillbillies how it’s done?”

Alfredo looked up and around at the group as he smiled. “Maybe Tesoro. Maybe.”