Page 127 of Size King

“What’s going on?” I ask.

“Would it be possible for you to look after my boys for a few hours tomorrow?” he wonders. “There’s something I have to get done, and I should be back home a little past noon at the latest. I’ll pay you fifteen bucks an hour. You can help yourself to anything you want in the house.”

“I’ll stay over for as long as you need me to,” I tell him. “We’ll all get to know each other a little better!”

“Are you serious?” he asks. “If you can’t, I swear I’m not going to be pissed or—”

“Dustin, I’ll look after Mason and Austin tomorrow for you,” I say.

“In that case, I’d like to now ask if you’ll stay for dinner after,” he continues. “The boys and I will make you breakfast for dinner. Mason and I can make a mean pancake.”

“Yes, I’ll have dinner with you boys tomorrow,” I say.

Dustin is pleased, and I just puzzle myself even more. The more I think about it, the less I understand why I said yes. I can’t fathom why I haven’t been scared away from him after everything that I’ve experienced in the last few days alone. I figure that the only logical reason is that I must want to give him a chance after all, danger and everything else that comes with him.

51

Dustin

It is ten o’clock on Sunday morning. Church congregations are filling up, Megan is over at the house looking after Mason and Austin for the day, and I am riding with Cody and a few of our most trusted Crimson Wheel brethren on our bikes over to Ultra-Cycle.

The crew and I expect there to only be two or three maintenance people working on their garage, and we assume that Jacob will likely have at least one or two Hell-Snakes with him. I don’t know whether to anticipate a firefight or not, but we know everyone is going to be armed and ready for a fight.

The crew goes and closes up the garage and makes sure to keep the maintenance guys quiet. Cody and I march straight into the building and go for Jacob.

It is just he and one other guy. They both have their weapons drawn and are each about to fire on us, but Cody and I are too fast for them. Cody manages to take out Jacob’s buddy with just one shot, and I’m glad to see that my aim is still focused and precise—I shoot off two rounds, both hitting Jacob in the legs and knocking him down onto the floor.

Cody kicks Jacob’s gun away from him before he can crawl over to it. I stand right over him, holding my M9 steady and aiming it right for Jacob’s head. I’m tempted to pull the trigger and end his life right then and there.

“Wanna take him in his office and torture him in there?” Cody asks me.

I’d thought for many hours during many days throughout many months about what I would do to the person who was responsible for Rebecca’s demise. Yet, as I hover over my wife’s executioner, I can’t bring myself to do it. Jacob can read the internal conflict going on within me.

“You know, when you first came into my shop, I didn’t recognize y’all at first.” Jacob chuckles. “You Crimson Wheels aren’t shit anyway.”

I pistol-whip Jacob in the face, knocking a tooth from out of his mouth and a large amount of blood.

“I want you to know something,” says Jacob, glaring up at me with malice. “I didn’torderyour wife dead. The one who got your wife right in the head wasme. I killed your wife, and I would do it again from any distance.”

He is trying to get me to kill him. Or maybe he is trying to get me to torture him so that the minutes would drag out and more Hell-Snakes would show up to try and rip us apart. I’m not sure what Jacob is going for, and I don’t give a shit.

I almost decide to just kill him—to shoot him so that he will bleed out and suffer in his remaining minutes left on this planet. I want to kill him just for what he’s done to me and what he’s robbed from my boys. He’d taken away so much from so many, and he could’ve killed everyone in the clubhouse that other night.

But I lower my weapon and turn to Cody. “Fuck it.”

“What the fuck are you doing?” Cody asks, freaking out.

“He’s not worth it,” I tell him. “Bullets are expensive anyway. Besides, killing him isn’t going to bring back Rebecca. I’m not going to stain my soul with this son of a bitch’s blood. I’m walking away.”

I pocket my weapon, spit at Jacob’s feet, and take my leave.

Even though I’ve made my choice, Cody is not satisfied. He raises his weapon, aims, and fires a round right into Jacob’s head, killing him and decapitating the head of the snake.

I turn back in horror to see Jacob crumpled up on the floor. Cody puts his gun away but keeps staring at Jacob’s corpse.

“That’s for Rebecca,” says Cody. “And for attacking the club.”

This isn’t the first time Cody has taken a life, and he seems fully willing to take another.