Mess Us Up – Jaxson Kidman Page 0,1

Mama’s. And you do what she says.”

“What is she going to say?” Taz asks.

“No idea,” I say. “I don’t think about that part of it. I just think about what I know is going to happen. We get in there and get out. In one piece. Got it?”

“Got it,” Taz says. He hits the table. “Let’s fucking roll.”

He stands up.

Les stands up. He motions for everyone else.

“Just be protected,” I say. “And, Taz, ride my ass like I’m some pretty one night stand.”

“Consider it done,” he says. He snaps his fingers. “I’ll just pretend it’s Violet’s ass.”

I feel Les seething.

I curl my lip at Taz.

He shows his hands. “Sorry. Shouldn’t have said that.”

“Hey, Mac,” Raf says. “Can I say something about…”

“No,” I say. “This isn’t going to turn into a pity party. One thing at a time. Keep it separated.”

Taz takes the lead leaving the room.

Les follows and they start talking.

As I start to leave the room, Ado is purposely hanging back to talk to me.

“What is it?” I ask him.

“I’m sorry about that arm wrestling thing,” he says. “That was my fault. I stirred the pot there.”

“It’s done and over with,” I say.

“It’s kind of not though, Mac,” Ado says. He runs his hand through his hair. “I needed that cash. I was banking on Taz to beat the fuck out of Aric there.”

“You threw down money,” I say.

“Yeah, I know. That was all the money I had. I’m kind of broke right now, bro. I really needed that…”

“So you tried to gamble to make money… using money you couldn’t afford to lose?”

“Yeah,” Ado says.

He offers a weak laugh.

I curl my lip. “With all of this shit going on? That’s what you want to say to me? Really? Learn a fucking lesson and then talk to me. If you can’t keep your head straight, then walk out of here right now.”

“So that’s it, Mac?”

“Get out of my face, Ado,” I say.

He lowers his gaze and walks out of the room.

I slam the door behind me.

I watch Ado walk away.

He’s becoming more of a problem with each passing day.

There’s a fence that’s partially open.

The factory is some kind of stone factory. It’s still open for business, but it’s on a one week shutdown. That means nobody is there. Security is supposed to be there but that’s been taken care of.

How?

I don’t know and I don’t care.

Everyone has a job to do. If you look at someone else’s job, you’ll fuck up your own.

I drive the shit box of a car through the open part of the fence.

I’m wearing black gloves.

So is Les.

We have to make sure there’s nothing that ties us to the car.

I check my mirror and watch Taz as he continues to follow.

I tape the brakes three times and that’s Taz’s signal to stop following.

The SUV crawls to a stop and I keep going.

I drive the car around the building.

“Where’s the SUV?” Les asks.

“It’ll be here, bro,” I say. “We might be early.”

“Early?” he asks. “These deals don’t work on early or late. They work on time and nothing else.”

“I fucking know that,” I snap. “Maybe Mama gave the wrong time.”

Les looks at me.

I bite my tongue.

Mama would never give the wrong time.

She has everything down to the second more than I do.

Unless…

I see a vehicle appear straight ahead.

The SUV is coming from the south entrance.

That’s where the big trucks come and go from the factory.

“Told you,” I whisper to Les. “It’s fine.”

“Let’s get out and get out of here,” he says.

“Just hold up,” I say. “We have to make sure…”

The SUV slowly turns.

“Fuck, Mac,” Les says. “That doesn’t look green, does it?”

I swallow hard. I blink my eyes.

I blink my eyes four times.

Begging to see green.

Because the SUV sitting there is blue.

The driver’s side door opens.

“We’re fucked,” Les yells. “Fuck this…”

He opens his door and gets out.

“Les!” I yell.

I have no choice but to get out of the car too.

I ran around the front of the car as Les takes out his gun and begins to lift it.

I know what he’s going to do.

Anything to survive…

Even if a deal goes bad and you know your ass is toast, you’re going to fight back. Any sliver of survival you’re going to grab. And if you’re going to go down, then you do it with a fight so you grab a little pride to take with you to the other side.

I look back as I keep running toward Les.

The man that steps out of the SUV looks our way