Starting Over Pt. 07 Ch. 02

Andre came out of the cabin. "Hey, John, Marty."

John walked ahead of Marty. "Hey, Andre. Has the government gotten all they can?"

"Yes. I told them about the safety deposit boxes that I had so that they could execute a search warrant for them. The rest of the information is on some of the computers they seized and in my notebook. I am helping them go through that."

"How many people will they arrest?"

"Probably about 20. The leadership is key and I know all of them because I was laundering their money. Some of the little guys will get caught or make a deal so that they are not caught up in it. The leaders are the key."

"Right. Well, I just wanted to say thanks for honoring our agreement."

"No problem. My wife was getting so stressed out, she really wanted me to get out of the business anyway."

"Are the Marshals going to put you in Witness Protection?"

"Yes. The FBI said I gave them plenty of information. I may not even have to testify, but I will, if I have to. They marshals said they have a good place for me and my daughters. I think my family is looking forward to it. I thought my daughters might be upset at leaving their friends, but the guards they had for the last few weeks really scared them. They are pretty accepting of the situation."

"Good. Well, I just wanted to say good-bye. We probably won't see each other again."

Andre held out his hand. "Thank you for getting my family out." He shook John's hand and then Marty's.

"No problem," John answered.

"We loved it," added Marty.

John and Marty went back to his car, waved good-bye to Andre and the marshal standing there, and pulled away. They had just reached the main road when they heard gunshots.

Marty turned to John, "It's not hunting season."

"Except for people."

John turned the car around and parked along the side of the road. He and Marty looked at each other. All they had was their handguns, both Glocks.

They jumped out of the car.

"What's the plan?" Marty asked.

"It's about a mile back to the cabin. That will mean about 15 minutes to get there through the forest. You go to the left of the road and make your way there, I'll go right. Let's see if there's something the marshals can't handle."

Marty took off to the left and John to the right. It was going to be at least 15 minutes if they had to stay quiet while going uphill through the woods in November, when leaves were falling and getting crunchy.

It turned out to be only 13 minutes for John to get close. He was about 100m from the cabin when he saw someone about 30m in front of him with a rifle pointing at the cabin. He had to be quiet now. That rifle was a lot more accurate at distance. Plus, he didn't know how many more there were.

John watched as two other shooters with rifles made themselves known by firing at the cabin. They were shooting out the windows and trying to take out the marshals as well as the family. John could also see a marshal lying in the middle of the road about 20m in front of the cabin. He couldn't tell if he was dead, but he was for sure shot and in trouble.

While considering his moves, John thought about where they could have come from. How did they get here without John and Marty seeing any cars or people. Were there other roads that came close? Did they use one of those and come down from above, the other direction from the way John and Marty came in? That must be it.

John crept forward carefully, his focus on the individual with the rifle. He wanted to get as close as he could before he used his Glock. The individual started taking some shots at the cabin, which masked some of John's movements with the noise, so he started moving a little more quickly.

Suddenly, there was firing over to the left of the cabin, and the guy he was stalking looked that way. It was not rifle fire, it was a handgun. They knew someone else was joining the fight.

They guy in front of John stood up and looked that direction. When he did, John was now only about 15m away. He stood and shot the guy, catching him in the left shoulder and knocking him down. He immediately ducked down and started crawling for the guy he shot. He had to get there without another rifle finding him. There was still rifle fire in the back of the cabin and to his left.

When John got to the guy, he found him still alive, but the shot had come in from the side and shattered his shoulder. The man was almost unconscious, so John grabbed the man's rifle and checked the magazine for ammunition. It was half full. He heard other shots being taken and hoped that Marty was okay while he searched the man for more magazines.

Suddenly, the volume of fire picked up from the rear of the cabin. John didn't know what the inside the of the cabin looked like or if there was a back door. He had never been in this one. But he knew the marshals couldn't withstand it for long.

Meanwhile, Marty had killed one of the rifle bearers, and was closing on another one. He and John had taken out two, but there was another one in front of the house, and it seemed there were three in the back. He was creeping up on the guy in the middle of the front of the house, when the guy said something that sounded like "Go" and leaped to his feet.

The guy started running toward the front door as the volume of fire picked up in the back.

Both John and Marty came to the edge of the woods firing at this individual. He got hit and went down.

John saw movement along the side of the cabin and ducked behind a tree to watch for another shooter. He saw Marty sprint to the downed individual in front and grab his weapon and sprint back to the woods. One of the guys in back shot at Marty just as he reached the woods.

Marty got back to the woods and hid behind a tree as he got shot at. John could still see him. He motioned to Marty that he was going around the woods towards the back of the cabin. Marty gave him a thumbs up and motioned that he would do the same.

John worked his way a little into the woods before turning to go alongside the cabin and toward the back. He was moving slowly and studying everything going on every few steps. Finally, he was almost able to see the back of the cabin through the trees when several bullets went zinging past him, sounding like bees buzzing by.

John dropped behind a couple of trees and waited. The shooting stopped and he took a very quick peek around one of the trees. There were four guys there. Three had rifles and one had a little girl in front of him, one of Andre's daughters.

John got ready, popped up and shot the guy on the right with the rifle. He went down immediately. Return fire came from the other two, but the guy holding the little girl stood his ground. He was yelling something at Andre. John knew that he and Marty had to get there quickly before Andre gave himself up and they all died. He knew that in cases like this, they never let anyone live, even little children.

John heard the crack of a rifle again and watched as another of the guys with a rifle went down. The last one ran and hid in the woods. John started working his way around that direction. When he got closer and his hearing was coming back, he could hear the guy holding the child talking. He could hear him demanding that Andre come out. He could also hear the cries and sobs of the mother and daughter that were still inside.

As John got fully behind the cabin about 15m to the side, he saw Marty also making his way over there. John stopped and motioned toward the bad guy with the rifle hiding. Marty motioned the he would get the guy. John stopped and waited. He just hoped Andre got there soon.

This guy seemed not to care that his men were being killed. He just seemed intent on killing Andre. Maybe his plan was to use the daughter for a clean getaway. He should know better than that. It wasn't going to work.

John was listening to the debate about what to do between this guy and Andre. Andre seemed to know that giving himself up meant that they would all die. He was continuing to delay this guy because he knew that someone was out there helping. He knew something was going on, whether he could see it or not. John decided the time had to be soon. He just hoped Marty would get there quickly.

Suddenly, there was a quick gun battle in the woods. The guy holding the girl hostage turned to look. He pivoted away from the woods as Marty walked into view. He was holding the rifle with his right hand and had it pointed toward the guy, but his left showed he'd been winged by a bullet.

I stood up and walked out.

Marty and I both had our weapons pointed at the man. "Who are you and what do you want?"

He just stared, but from inside the house, Andre shouted, "This is the number 2 guy in the gang, Bogdan."

John stared at him as his eyes darted around, checking out him and Marty. He was holding what looked like a Sig Sauer, pointing it at the girl's head. For her part, she was crying lightly, but not frantic. John didn't know if she was already tired from doing so, or if she was just a brave one.

John pointed his weapon at Bogdan's head. "Let her go and you live."

Bogdan grinned. "And if I don't?"

"No matter what happens, you are not leaving here alive. If you shoot the girl, my buddy and I will unload our magazines on you. If you try to leave, we will block your way until we get a good shot and then empty our magazines on you. Your only choice is to let her go and we'll take you alive."

Bogdan looked around at all the carnage John and Marty had caused. All his men were dead. He stared at John and then Marty. He stared a long time at Marty, who looked like a lean, mean, killing machine, as we used to say. I guess he figured he was not going to be able to get out of there with the loss of his men, so he relented.

"Okay." Bogdan let go of the girl and held up his hands.

"Drop your gun from there, without lowering your hands." He did. "Now turn around, drop to your knees and put your hands on your head." He did so. "Marty, watch him."

John had Marty watch Bogdan while he went inside to get some handcuffs from one of the marshals. He found that there were three marshals inside, one was dead and the other two shot up pretty badly. He grabbed the cuffs and turned to Andre. "Call the police and tell them to get there butts up here. The FBI should get here, too. Tell the cops that. We need at least three ambulances."

John went outside and cuffed Bogdan. He stood him up and moved him to where he could sit on the porch. He was now completely silent.

It took about 20 minutes for the police and the FBI to arrive. When they got there, Andre told them what had happened from his point of view and then John and Marty were taken aside for their statements. Once they were all done, John and Marty were released and they hoofed it back down to John's car. It was almost 6pm and completely dark in the woods.

John dropped Marty off and then went home. As soon as he walked in the door, Maggie was there. She was smiling and ready to give him a hug, then stopped.

"You smell like gunpowder. What happened?"

John held up his hands. "Just a second. Let me get a beer and sit down. I'll tell you everything."

John told her and she shook her head. "You are always getting in the middle of things."

"Yeah, it appears that way."

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Maggie looked at the Ring app and saw that it was Allison June. She went and answered the door.

"Hey, Maggie!"

"Hey, Allison. You here to see my trouble-maker?"

"Yep." Allison came inside. "My dad said you were a shit magnet, and I can see he's correct. I want to congratulate you on saving the Baciu family. However, I want you to never take my boyfriend with you for stuff like that again." Allison grinned when she said that, knowing that Marty would never say no to danger.

John grinned. "Oh, so you two are dating?"

"Yes. And he is very, how shall I say it, uh, loving."

John looked at her sideways. "You mean caring, or are you talking about sex."

Allison grinned and John could have sworn that she blushed, but it was hard to tell on a black woman. "John, how crude." She shook her hips. "Of course, I'm talking about sex. A girl has her needs!"

Maggie stepped up to her and put her arm around her. "Yes, they do. You just ignore my fiancé's comments" She leaned over and whispered something into Allison's ear.

"Hey!" said John. "No secrets. What was that about?"

Maggie shook her head. "Women secrets. Just letting her know that satisfaction runs in this group."

"Well, at least it was complementary."

Maggie rolled her eyes and looked at Allison. "Men's egos."

---------------------- Thanksgiving, November 25, 2021, Bradford residence -----------

John and Maggie arrived around 10am at her father's house. All the family was there. They had brought along chocolate chip cookies.

They said hello to everyone and when Maggie got to Mary, Mary made a production out of seeing the wedding band. She had been the maid of honor at the wedding, but she and Maddie were the only ones who knew Maggie and John had been married last Friday. "Wait! That's a wedding band!" She held up Maggie's hand.

Everyone else came over to see the bands on both their hands. They were both congratulated and then Mr. Bradford disappeared for a moment. He came back with two bottles of champagne and some flutes.

"I can finally toast these two!" That got a laugh. "I didn't think it was ever going to happen, but these two certainly should be together. Congratulations!"