Page 67 of Bullet
We followed her back into a private office, and because of the size of the withdrawal, we had to sign some paperwork saying that we intended to pull out the amount that we did, to verify our identity, and to ensure we were both approving the withdrawal, as both of our names were on the account the money was in. It was much more paperwork than I was happy with. I was hoping to get to the Taphouse before sunset so I didn’t bump into too many people dropping off the cash and my keys, but the sky was already turning to night, and it seemed I wouldn’t be getting that wish.
We were nearing the end of the transaction when I got a phone call. I ignored it, thinking that the only person who could call me that I cared about overwhelmingly at the moment was Cameron and he was right next to me, but the second the phone stopped ringing, there was a brief pause, and then it rang again.
“What the heck?” I pulled it out and saw that it was Nick calling me. “Sorry,” I said.
“That’s okay,” the banker replied.
I stood up from the chair and walked out into the lobby of the bank, which was mostly empty, as the bank was near closing. “Hello?”
“Hey there, Bullet. Got a visitor here that you might be interested in,” Nick replied. Immediately after that, I could hear kicking and screaming, followed by a hollow shout of my name before the voice got cut off, it sounded like, by someone covering their mouth. “Recognize anyone?”
“What are you doing to Celia?” I growled.
“It’s simple, really,” he replied. “She wandered in here with a wad of cash, but it only covered some of your debt. She begged me not to take any money from you and told me she’d do whatever it took to pay off the other half. I’m wondering what you think we should do with her.”
“Nick, don’t, I’m getting your money right now. Don’t hurt her. I’m begging you.” It was uncharacteristic for Nick to be so brutal, but he’d shown us that he was capable of it if the situation called for it. I didn’t think some fudged numbers would upset him so badly, but maybe he was finally cracking after losing his kids. “Please, just give me another hour.”
“Oh, Bullet, I just don’t think that’s gonna work. See, I keep doing this thing where I trust people and go easy on people, and I keep getting walked all over. This one here...” There was another round of screaming before her voice got cut off again. “She cost me fifty grandandmy VP. So, the way I see it, she needs to pay for her meddling.”
“Nick, don’t you—” The line cut off before I could finish. “Shit!” I bolted back into the bank, snatched my dad’s keys off the desk, and ran out. “I’ll pay for your Uber. It’s an emergency!”
“Harry!” Cameron called after me.
“Just get the money! I’ll call you later!”
I ran out to where his car was parked and was relieved that I thought to bring my gun with me when we left the house. Celia was dead center in my mind, and I was cursing her quietly for going there alone. Maybe she was trying to make up for what she did, but these guys weren’t just friendly office coworkers. If anything happened to her, I didn’t know what I would do, and I was grateful for a cop-free highway as I zoomed down the road to get to the Taphouse.
A loud screech emanated from the car as I whipped it into the Taphouse parking lot, circling around to the back. I still had my keys, so I used mine to get the back door open, cocked my gun, and ran in. Celia was sitting in a chair in the middle of the warehouse, tied to the chair with rope, and with her mouth bound by duct tape. She started trying to call out to me the second she saw me but couldn’t. I ran toward her, but when I got close enough, Nick stepped out from the shadows and stood behind her.
“She sure is pretty, Harry,” Nick said.
“Look, I’m getting your money, you don’t have to do this,” I said.
“No, I think I do, Harry. If I don’t make an example out of someone, people are just going to continue to do what they want around here, and I can’t have that. We’re expanding, we’re getting bigger, and if your little lady here is going to cause problems for that, she’s gotta be stopped.”
“She won’t cause problems,” I said. “Let her go.”
“I don’t think I will,” Nick replied.
I pointed my gun straight at him and Celia’s eyes widened. “You’regoingto let her go. Your money I can get, but if you hurt her, I won’t stop until you and every single member of the Steel Knights are dead.”
Nick looked back over his shoulder. “Did you get that?”
Avery stepped out from behind some filing cabinets with his phone in hand. “Got it, Squared.” He walked over and showed his phone to Nick. “Wait, look at this part again. Look at his face.”
Nick and Avery stared down at the phone and I could hear my own voice playing back, threatening to kill Nick. “Yeah, that’s good. You know, Harry, you could have had an illustrious career as an actor.” I looked down at Celia, but she just shook her head at me. Nick looked up, saw my gun outstretched, and waved a hand. “All right, put that thing down before you hurt someone.” He leaned down and untied the rope binding Celia to her chair, then she brought her hands up and slowly peeled the duct tape off. “Sorry about that, sweetheart. It had to look believable.”
“What’s going on?” I snapped. Celia jumped up and ran over to me and I took an arm to push her behind me. “What is this?”
“An intervention maybe? I don’t know. What would you call it, Avery?” Nick asked.
“I liked intervention,” Avery said. “It’s true.”
“From one emotionally constipated person to two others, you needed some help. You obviously love each other, and yeah, she got a little misguided because of her crack-ass godfather, but he’s contagious that way. Trust me, I know. Just…” He walked a little closer to us. “I lost my kids, you lost your dads,” he said to Celia and me. “We don’t need to lose anyone else. We gotta stick together in this world.”
“So, Celia is free to go?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m not crazy. Well, I am, just not in this specific situation,” Nick replied.
