Only One Road - 20. Chapter 20

Only One Road (chapter 20)

The door was unlocked just like I expected. I didn’t even bother being quiet – I didn’t see the point.

“Finally!” I heard Mickey’s voice from the living room. “Took you a while! I got bored, had to start without you. Hurry up already!”

I walked into the medium size living room. When I saw Dylan, I almost shot Mickey right then and there. Dylan was handcuffed to the old heater, his arms twisted above his head in a tight, painful arch, his face so pale that it seemed unreal, blood running from the corner of his mouth down his chin. His eyes were closed, and he seemed to be unconscious. Mickey turned around and froze in his spot when he saw me. He looked like he was wearing some demented Halloween mask. I smiled at him.

“Hey,” I said softly. “Having fun?”

“What the hell…” he said and took a step towards an old desk that was sitting in the corner of the room.

“Nope,” I said lightly, and pointed the gun at him.

He stared at me in disbelief.

“Connor,” he said in a low voice. “I don’t know why the hell you are doing this, and I don’t want to know, okay? This is between me and this son of a bitch over there…” He nodded towards Dylan whose eyes were still closed. “Did you know that I ended up in jail thanks to that bastard?!”

“Was it before or after you attacked Kay?” I asked politely.

“Kay was a mistake,” he grimaced. “All I wanted was to beat the shit out of this prick… He killed my fucking dog, Connor! He set it on fire, okay? I didn’t even know that Kay was in the house when I got there, okay? And the next thing I know, fucking cops are coming for me, okay? So I get arrested and thrown in jail, okay? My Uncle got me out, and I moved here… And then I meet this dickhead in the middle of the street, and…” He took a deep breath. “Look at me!” He pointed at his face. “Just look at me, okay?”

His manner of saying ‘okay?’ every ten seconds made me smile.

“Uncuff him,” I said calmly.

“Connor…”

“Do it,” I nodded.

He gritted his teeth, and his eyes darted behind my back. I knew what – or rather who – was there.

“Come in, Tanner,” I said evenly, without looking back. “I am almost done here. Uncuff him, Mickey.”

“I’m sorry, Mickey,” Tanner said quietly from behind my back. “Do what he says, will you?”

Mickey looked dumbfounded.

“What the hell…” he muttered with a frown that made his already distorted face to look even more distorted.

“He has Jenny,” Tanner said helplessly.

Mickey blinked and looked at me in disbelief. I gave him a very small smile and nodded.

“I’ll do anything for him,” I said simply. “Now uncuff him, please. Otherwise, I will shoot you, and then I will do it myself.”

Mickey blinked again, and slowly walked towards Dylan. He uncuffed him, and Dylan’s arms fell down heavily. That made him hiss and open his eyes. He slowly raised his head, and when he saw me, I almost laughed out loud, when there was that very familiar, old small smile stretching his bleeding mouth.

“You okay?” I asked him without letting Mickey out of my view.

“Peachy,” he muttered.

Mickey looked at me with pulsating hatred in his one remaining eye.

“We should’ve killed this fucker when we had a chance,” he said slowly.

“Later, Mickey,” I said indifferently, and pulled the trigger.

The shot sounded like a muffled handclap, thanks to the silencer. I sort of expected to see puzzlement on Mickey’s face right before he slowly slid to the floor, just like in one of those movies. Instead, he staggered backwards, tripped on one of the chairs, and went down like a sack of potatoes.

“Jesus Christ!!” Tanner yelled behind my back. “Are you out of your fucking mind?!”

“Probably,” I agreed and turned towards him. “Give me your car keys.”

He stared at me like I was devil incarnate. Pure horror. Finally, he put his hand into his pocket, pulled out a set of keys, and gave them to me. He looked like someone who believed that they were having an extremely vivid nightmare, and expected to wake up any second. I took the keys and nodded.

“She is in the dark Ford on the other side of the road,” I said calmly. “She was asleep when I left her. The door is unlocked, and the keys are in the ignition.”

He didn’t say anything. He didn’t even nod. He just turned around and stumbled outside. I glanced at Dylan who was sitting by the heater, his face as pale as before, breathing shallow.

“Be right back,” I said softly, and he just closed his eyes once for ‘Yes.’

I went after Tanner, and lit a cigarette once I was outside.

He was frantically trying to open the passenger’s door of the dark Ford, but it wouldn’t budge.

“It’s jammed,” I called loudly, and he looked at me blindly. “Get in through the driver’s side!”

He limped towards the driver’s door, and I walked closer to the car. I watched him, and once he got inside, I lazily flicked my cigarette away, making sure that it landed in the stream of gasoline that I left by the Ford. I thought of watching Tanner’s facial expression when he realized that Jenny wasn’t sleeping, but then I decided against it, and quickly walked back towards the house.

I was almost by the front door when the car exploded behind me. The sound was so great that I went deaf for several seconds. I swayed on my feet and grabbed the doorknob, furiously shaking my head. Holy shit, that was loud! My hearing returned to me, and I couldn’t understand what that strange shimmering sound that I heard was. I looked up, and started to laugh. The explosion blew out every single window in the house.

I kicked the door open and walked inside. Dylan was still sitting on the floor, his eyes closed again, his head down.

“Hey,” I said softly after I stepped over Mickey’s body and got closer to him.

He slowly raised his head, opened his eyes, and looked up at me.

“Come on,” I muttered, and pulled him up by his shoulders.

He hissed when I tried grabbing his hand, and I immediately relaxed my grip.

“What is it?” I asked, holding him up by the shoulders.

He wrapped one arm around my neck and bent his elbow.

“He owed me several broken fingers,” he muttered, his hair hanging in front of his face.

I winced and looked at his hand. Sure enough, four of his fingers were bent at a very unnatural angle.

“I am taking you to the hospital,” I said firmly, and dragged him towards the front door. “Do not argue with me.”

“I wasn’t going to,” he muttered. “What about the house?”

“I’ll take care of it,” I said calmly. “Let’s get you into the car first.”

It wasn’t Tanner’s car, I realized when we got closer. Apparently, he never fixed those tires. This was a rental. Well, even better. I shoved Dylan into the passenger’s seat and closed the door. Taking care of the house was easy. Mickey had crapload of gasoline in the garage, and as I said before, the house was old.

Twenty or so minutes later, the house was nothing but a huge bonfire. I looked at it for a full minute, marveling at how magnificent it was. Finally, I got into the car and started it.

“Stop by your place first, will you?” Dylan muttered. “I want to clean up. I probably look like shit, huh…”

I laughed at that.

“Yeah,” I agreed lightly, and started driving.