Page 33

Dickie’s house number three, because it was meant to be utilized only when he needed deep cover, was on a dirt road in back of a trailer park in the sho’nuff white hood, and Mick stopped his Escalade near the top of the street where his surveillance crew was parked.

He parked alongside their Dodge Charger and pressed down the window. “He’s still there?” he asked the crew chief.

“He’s still there, Boss. Can you imagine Dickie Lamm hanging in a hellhole like this?”

“Yeah I can imagine it,” Mick shot back. “If his ass is involved in that ambush on my family, then this hellhole is going to end up being too good for him.”

But as soon as Mick said those words, they heard tires screeching and then a dark-green Jeep Wrangler speed out of Dickie’s driveway and take off in the opposite direction from where Mick’s Escalade had stopped.

“Is that him?” Reno yelled out, but Mick saw Dickie’s face when he got to the end of his driveway and looked in their direction. Once Mick confirmed ID, he and his surveillance crew didn’t hesitate or bother to answer any questions. Mick took off in his SUV and they took off behind him.

It was a wild chase from beginning to end as they sped through dirt road after dirt road until they turned into an offroad that had them bouncing in Mick’s big tank of a vehicle as if they were in bumper cars.

Reno and Sal both feared that they would roll over and get thrown out, or be tossed through the windshield despite their seatbelts.

Because Mick was driving like a maniac. Mick was determined that Dickie and that Jeep wasn’t getting out of his sight.

But the ride was so treacherous that Mick’s men in their Dodge Charger got bogged down in the deep dirt and couldn’t get out. They were left behind.

But Reno and Sal weren’t faring much better. They both were holding onto anything they could grab. At one point Reno, in the front passenger seat, grabbed onto Mick. But Mick was so singularly focused that he didn’t even notice. He wasn’t letting Dickie Lamm get away.

But their speeds were increasing rather than decreasing as they moved deeper and deeper into what could only be described as offroad woods.

And the deeper they went in, the thicker the shrubbery was getting.

So thick that Dickie and Mick both had to swerve on a second’s notice to avoid running straight into a tree.

And Mick was swerving that Escalade like he was driving a Pinto. But Reno and Sal were having heart palpitations.

When Mick swerved so fast to avoid the next oncoming tree that the SUV nearly tilted, Reno screamed out. “ Uncle Mick !”

When Mick avoided another tree by slamming on brakes and turning at the same time, Sal screamed out “ Uncle Mick !”

But when they saw Dickie Lamm suddenly go airborne just ahead of them as he attempted to cross a wide ditch, they just knew he wasn’t going to make it. “He’s on a suicide mission!” Sal proclaimed.

“There’s no way he’ll clear that ditch!” yelled Reno.

Although that Jeep sailed nearly high as a bird, it cleared that ditch and landed on all fours on the other side.

“That motherfucker did it!” said an amazed Sal.

But then he and Reno realized Mick wasn’t slowing down, not even for one second, as they approached that same ditch.

They both looked at what many would call their crazy uncle. “What are you nuts?” asked a terrified Reno.

“Uncle Mick, this big tank can’t clear that ditch,” said a terrified Sal.

But Mick didn’t hear either one of them. His mission was simple: He was not letting Dickie Lamm out of his sight. He was tired of this shit. He wanted answers!

But when they realized their pleads were going on death ears, both Reno and Sal leaned all the way back against their seats as if they were putting on imaginary brakes, and braced themselves for impact.

They had one hand on their seatbelts to release them before they hit the water.

“You can’t be serious, Uncle Mick,” said a desperate Reno. “Stop this madness at once!”

Mick stopped it alright. He stopped by speeding as fast as he could and sailing across that ditch like a plane in the air. Even tough men Reno and Sal had to close their eyes. They couldn’t even look at this trainwreck.

Until they felt a hard drop down, and then their bodies jerked forward, and then they were on all fours again and speeding behind Dickie.

Both men were amazed. And smiling now. “Your ass did it, Uncle Mick!” Sal said with joy in his heart. “Your ass did it!”

“I already knew he was gonna clear that,” said Revisionist Reno. “I knew it all along. Good job, Uncle Mick.”

Even Mick had to glance at Reno when he told that capital lie.

But he kept going and was actually gaining on Dickie Lamm as if Dickie’s Jeep was running out of steam. As if his cheaper ride didn’t fare nearly as well as Mick’s tricked-out SUV.

But that didn’t mean Dickie had stopped. He was still going way too fast for those woods they were buried in. But Mick was quickly getting so close to him that he was almost on his bumper.

Until Dickie made an abrupt turn left that was so sharp and sudden that he ended up on two wheels. Then he hit what had to be a big stump and ended up airborne again. But this time it wasn’t on purpose. This time it wasn’t as successful. He ended up crash landing and flipping several times.

Mick swerved around the stump and was able to speed up to Dickie’s SUV just as it was sliding to a stop upside down.

But if they thought that was the end of Dickie Lamm, they were sadly mistaken. He crawled out of the wreckage and began making a run for it.

“He’s getting away on foot, the motherfucker!” Sal yelled as Mick came to a screeching halt, and Sal then Reno then Mick hopped out and ran after Dickie.

It was easy work for Sal as Dickie was limping through those woods.

But then Dickie, realizing he was not going to get away, stopped, turned, and was about to fire on them.

Sal, a super-fast draw, had no choice but to fire first. He hit him in the shoulder and Reno, firing too, hit him in the stomach.

It couldn’t be help. Their natural instincts for survival had kicked in and when they shot they were shooting to kill

They ran to Dickie. Fortunately for them, he was still breathing. Though barely.

They lifted him, carried him back to the SUV and sat him up on the second row, and then got in. Reno got up front on the passenger seat, and Sal got on the second row with Dickie. As Mick slowly drove back to civilization, they questioned Dickie.

Sal wasted no time. “If you tell us everything you know, then we’ll get you help. But if you lie to me, Dickie, we’ll dump your ass in these woods for the bears to eat you. You understand me?”

Dickie nodded, although he looked as if he didn’t care either way.

“Why did you ambush me and my son at that meeting with Big Dan Testa?” Sal asked him.

“I wanted Bianca.”

Sal frowned. “Bianca? What did she have to do with my meeting with Danny Testa?”

“I loved her so much. I met her in prison you know.”

“That’s a lie. How you gonna meet her in a women’s prison?” asked Reno.

“I was going to visit my old lady at the time. And my old lady told me how nobody came to visit her. So the next time I came, I met with her. All she talked about was you,” he said to Sal.

“She said you answered her calls when you could, but that she wanted me to lay eyes on you and make sure you were okay. But from the moment I laid eyes on her, I wanted her. I was nodding my head and telling her no worries, but I wasn’t thinking about you being with her.

I was thinking about me being with her. She was in her sixth year when I met her, and then I started coming to see her and I stopped coming to see my own old lady.

But Bianca didn’t even tell me she was getting out.

She didn’t want me showing up to pick her up.

She wanted you to do the honors. Which you didn’t do. ”

“I sent Robby to pick her up.”

“What the fuck all this got to do with that ambush?” asked Reno.

“I knew she loved Sal, and she wasn’t going to stop until she had Sal.”

Then Sal frowned. “Were you the one who tried to set me up with Zam’s old lady Alice?”

“No, that was some Bianca and Alice shit. They were close friends. Chainsaw was desperate for money, and Bianca agreed to pay him and Alice half a million bucks of the money you gave her, Sal, to set you up. She figured your old lady would leave you then.”

Sal shook his head. What was Bianca thinking? “And when she didn’t leave me?” he asked Dickie.

It took several seconds for Dickie to continue.

His wounds were beginning to sting. “When she found out that Gemma Jones not only didn’t leave you, but that you were able to figure it out and take out Alice and Chain, she knew then she had to change up.

That’s when she started sending those crazy text messages to Gemma.

I told her that shit wasn’t gonna work, but she didn’t listen to me.

She was convinced they would make Gemma hate you. All she wanted was you.”

“So she decided to try to kill him and his son because she loved him so much?” asked Reno.

“Yeah,” agreed Sal. “What kind of sense that makes?”

“It wasn’t her,” said Dickie. “It was me.”

Sal frowned. “You?”