Domesticated, Ch 16 (Patreon)

The Corolla stutters, and Alex pulls it to the site of the road. With more time and fewer people shooting at us, I would have gotten us a sturdier car, but putting distance between us at the Zoners was the pressing matter. The Corolla was the first car we came across. It and a few well-placed bullets in the tires of the three cars they got chasing us allowed us to lose them.

Unfortunately, while their aim wasn’t as good as mine, they did enough damage that we won’t drive to our destination.

I hand the Sturm I took from a Zoner on my way to get the kid to Alex as he exits and he puts it in the waistband under his jacket. Not how to carry a firearm, but Alex didn’t think to put on a holster when we set out on this rescue.

“No sign of them,” he says, scanning the way we came as I exit with the boy in my arms. He’s trembling, clutching at my shirt, pressing his face against my chest. He stopped crying halfway through the drive. The trauma reaching the point where tears no longer mattered.

“We have a dozen blocks to go.”

“They have to know where we’re heading. They’re going to have people watching.”

“Then we watch for them first.” I head into the alley and Alex follows. The first step is to put distances between us and the car. The Zoners might know where we are going, but that doesn’t mean they can cover all the ways we can reach it.

* * * * *

The Zoner hits his head against the wall I shoved him at, and he goes limp. Alex brings the other’s head down on his knee and he too falls to the ground and doesn’t move.

“If they’re watching this far off a straight line, there’s at least one of them with more than two brain cells.”

I nod, making sure the boy in my arms in uninjured. They are casting a broader net than I expected. But the broader the net, the larger the holes. Unfortunately, those will get ever smaller the closer we get to our destination.

“If we can make it within two blocks of the construction site, they should have to stop pursuing us.”

“Or make that the last ditch effort to keep us from being able to hand over the kid.”

“That’s unlikely. This seems more like an attempt at forcing the Slicerbacks into initiating the aggression. If they get too close, and are seen attacking someone within Slicerback territory, it can be considered an act of aggression. After the damage we’ve already inflicted on the Zoners, I doubt they want the Slicerbacks to attack.”

“Shouldn’t that mean they want us to hand over the kid at this point?”

I shrug. “That depends on if it’s a four or five brain cell decision.”

Alex stares at me. “I don’t know what to think of you getting a sense of humor.”

I silence the boxes. Now isn’t the time to figure out where that came from. I get moving. We still have nine blocks to cover and we can’t afford to keep to a straight line.

* * * * *

“Shit!” Alex exclaims, and I grab the crate of newspapers and throw it at whoever caused him to react that way. The woman is thrown back from the impact, her knife flying away. Alex is still backing, but his eyes are tracking it.

But he is resisting the pull.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” he replies, panting. “I almost reached for it. Thanks for that.”

“It’s what I’m here for.” I grab him by the collar and kiss him hard. He melts in to it. “Better?” I ask when I break the kiss.

“I hope Emile’s not planning on getting home early.” He grins. “Because I’m going to get you to finish what that kiss started.”

That will be less difficult than he thinks after watching him kick ass for the last two hours. “Two blocks to go.” I motion to the girders, visible through the building.

“Those are going to be the toughest ones yet.”

I lean over and whispers into his ear. “And the one that will work me up the most.” 

He grabs my arm and pulls me along. “What are you waiting for?”

* * * * *

A kick in her side and ribs break. A steel-toed boot in the knee of another one and the legs folds. I twist so the punch it hits my side, instead of the boy in my arms. He doesn’t react to the motion. Hasn’t reacted to anything happening for a while. He might be catatonic. I haven’t been able to stop and check since I noticed.

Mate metal comes in to sight and I grab the wrist, twisting until it breaking adds to the scream of pain. The gun drops to the ground, then gets kicked out of reach by those blindly trying to reach me and take the boy.

Elbows, knees, and feet bring them down. With the few exceptions, none of them seem to be willing to injure the boy in the process of getting him back. I punch on in the face and step out of the alley. Alex joins me as we run for the other side of the road.

We’re halfway to the other side when people step between us and the exit. I grab Alex’s hand as he reaches for the gun.

“They’re Slicerbacks.” I make out the flash of colors in the lower light.

“Remember that they too tried to kick out asses?” Alex points out.

“Shooting them isn’t going to help anymore than shooting the Zoners.”

“At least there’s only five of them. I’m getting tired.”

I step forward. “I’m returning the package Brandon hired me to retrieve.”

“No one would hire someone we’ve blacklisted,” the girl in lead states.

“They would if they needed the most bad-ass  monster in the city,” Alex replies. “And since Brandon didn’t want to drag all of you into this, that’s who he went for. That puts him at the ten brain cell level, easy.”

“Whatever it is, we’ll take it from you and deliver it ourselves.”

Alex snorts.

“We are delivering him,” I state. “You can escort us, or we can remove you from way.”

“He just said he’s tired,” she replies. “I think we—”

“I said I’m glad there’s just five of you. After the trouble I had to fight through to get here, I am fed up with kicking anyone’s ass but his.”

I raise an eyebrow.

“Try to kick your ass?”

I tilt my head.

“I’m not telling them I’m looking forward to you kicking my ass.”

I smile and look at the girl. “We have personal things to take care of once we are done with this. Delaying us isn’t going to make things go better for you.”

The four behind here whispers.

“Fine. We’ll take you. But you try anything and—”

“If we try something,” Alex says, “you’re just going to have to deal with it. Can we get on with this?” He starts walking and I stay at his side. The group backs until they realize what they’re doing and make it spreading around to surround us. As we approach the construction site, more join.

The first four floors are finished, but unadorned. The building was to be low-rent apartment, but the company behind it pulled out for reasons I haven’t looked into. That was six years ago. The Slicerbacks moved in a few months later, and have made it their base since.

The ground floor had been further along, by the number of wall that were torn down to make the central space we are being led into. News of our arrival precedes us because the gathering is large, with a man approaching thirty dressed to impress, with chains and bracelets standing  before them.

Brandon pushed his way through the crowd and ignores orders to get back in line.

“Stay quiet,” I tell Alex and he nods.

“What the fuck is this?” the man says as I hand the boy to Brandon. “What are you doing fraternizing with him?”

“Protecting you,” I state, as Alex’s fist shake from the strain of restraining himself.

“I’m not talking to you,” the man snaps. “I should shoot you right now for the way you’ve been humiliating me.”

“You won’t survive pulling your piece out,” I state.

“I’m not fucking scare of you.”

“I don’t need you to be.”

That takes him aback, but his face is back to anger.

“You sent people to hurt me, my husband, and my son,” I state before he can start a tirade. “By the rules you play by, I’m within my rights to destroy you for it. But you represent a pillar within the ecosystem that is this part of Phoenix. If I remove you, I destabilize it and I will have to deal with some other gang trying to fill the power vacuum.”

“You talk like I should be scared of you.”

“I talk,” my make my tone harder, “like you should respect me. The way I am respecting you. If no one has told you of what we went through to make it here, then you should know the Zoners tried to keep up from returning Brandon’s brother to him.”

Alex growls under his breath, “So not how I’d have said that”

“Am I supposed to be grateful? Is that your game? You want me to get on my knees and—”

“Stop!” I roar, then take the time to bring the boxes back under my control. The last to be silences makes me want to blame Alex for this. For how living within, for how adapting to society is making me something else.

“I am not demanding anything other than the respect what I have demonstrated I’m capable of doing afford me. I am not demanding that you change how you treat the neighborhood. You can continue demanding protection from them if you want to, not me,” I add as the smirk forms on his face. “I will respond to any such attempt the way I did before. I am not demanding anything of you, and you will demand nothing from me. You leave me and mine alone, and I will do the same.”

His expression doesn’t change. He continues to fight not to attack me. He continues to see this as an attack on him personally.

He had wrapped his ego into what the Slicerbacks represent, and that I stand up to that means that he, personally, isn’t strong. If I leave it as it is, even if it isn’t today, he will make the mistake of trying to kill me.

“If you’ve ever considered expanding beyond this neighborhood, you’ll find that the Zoners have been softened up for you. Consider this my one and only tribute to the force that is the Slicerbacks.”

The suspicion is loud on his face, but he knows Zoners are who stood in our way. Even if only a fraction of the fighting we did in the last blocks reached him, he understands the force I represent.

“We are leaving. Anyone you put in our way will be removed.” I turn and face those standing between me and the exit.

Boxes shimmer and I am impressed that they don’t hurry to get out. My respect for their leader raises. The fear I see is directed at me, but despite the less than inspiring behavior, they are continuing to obey him. In other than utterly unfathomable circumstances, he must be quite a balanced man to get a group like this to listen to him, even if it means I will break them.

“Let them pass,” he says.

The relief only appears on their face after they have moved out of the way. Until then, only defiance accompanies the fear.

I can feel Alex struggling to stay quiet as we walk through the graveled lot around the building. It’s only once we’re on the sidewalk he lets it out.

“I can’t believe you just let him talk to you like that. He’s just some wannabe gangster who gets kids to do his dirty work for him. You should have just broken him and get it over with. You know he’s going to continue to make out life miserable, right? His kind doesn’t know anything thing else.”

“Did you listen to what I said?” I ask when he catches his breath.

“You can’t tell me you were serious about the respect thing. About the tribute. He’s nothing more than—”

“A leader. Someone with power and a need to use that power so no one will forget he has it, because if they do, they might think they can replace him. And unlike me, he can’t be certain they wouldn’t succeed. We have threatened that power. Each time he sent his people to bring us down, and they failed, we made him less powerful.”

“We never even saw him until now. We didn’t do anything to him.”

“He is the Slicerbacks. And before you bring it up again, he doesn’t get kids to ‘do his dirty work’ they respect him. However he attained the position he is in, he has shown them he deserved it and that he uses it to protect them as well. Do not assign to him how you and I, or others, think. He is his own person, with his beliefs, which include protecting his family.”

“But you…”

“Know him better after this. By giving him the Zoners, his anger will be spent there. He may decide to try to put us in our place again at some point, and I will deal with it then. Until then, we have time to enjoy ourselves.”

“Do you think there’s any Zoners who’ll get in our way?”

“If there are, you are welcome to kick their asses the way you think you can kick mine.”

* * * * *

“Well,” Alex says as the garage comes into view, “that was disappointing.”

The only Zoners we saw ran off. “I’ll do my best to make you forget about that.” I pull him to me, then my hand is on his ass.

“Do that again,” he threatens, “and we’re getting arrested for indecent exposure.”

“They’ll try to arrest us,” I correct.

“If fucking me doesn’t keep you too busy to deal with the police, you need to increase what you’ve been doing to me.” He rests his head on my shoulder.

“I like to think I can multitask without sacrificing how effective I am.”

“Great. Now I want us to go start a fight with someone so you can show me.”

“Maybe another day. Right now, I want us to enjoy the rest of it with you against a wall and me fucking you.”

He lets escape a whine and takes the three steps quickly so that he unlocks the door and opens it as I reach him and as I hear a second click that has no business being there.

I pull him to me and turn my back to the door as the explosion detonates. The door slams in to me, then I land with Alex under me and debris falling around us with the metal door, taking those that would break us.

“Are you okay?” I ask as I go through moving my feet and toes, then fingers and hands to confirm nothing is broken.

“Dad! Pop!” Emile yells.

I shoulder the door off me and roll off Alex. Emile reaches us as Alex groans to a sitting position. I do the same, and watch as the dust settles to reveal the ruins of the garage.

I feel Emile’s around me, but don’t hear what he said. Boxes erupt quietly as I watch the wreckage of the life I tried to build with him and Alex, and I don’t silence them. I want this anger, because I now realize that this was more than humoring Alex. I wanted this. I wanted a quiet domestic like with him and Emil.

I wanted this.

And they took that away from me.

The growl that resonates from my throat might not be human.

They may have destroyed any chance I had at regaining even a semblance of actually being human.

And they will reap the monster they are unleashing.