The Good Deed ~COMPLETE~

Chapter 20: Preparation

I couldn't speak, shock gripped my tongue. I couldn't believe what I had witnessed. In my 28 years of existence, I had never seen a dead body, or in this case, two dead bodies. Much less, witness their executions. Mark stayed silent as well, though I knew, this wasn't his first encounter with death.

Jacob stood over the soulless shells of his once loyal servants. He looked sad and shook his head with grief. "They were my best men."

Shock had released its grip, "Then why the hell did you kill them?" I snapped.

"Son, in my business, failure is not acceptable." Jacob returned the empty gun to his pants.

I indicated the weapon, "Weren't the bullets blanks?" I tried to make sense of the malarkey.

He looked down at the twin corpses. Blood oozed from their skulls. Then back up to us, "Nope, they were real."

"But, I shot you!"

Jacob laughed, "I lied, sort of. The first bullet was a blank. The other two,... well, ... " Again he looked down at the assassinated.

Jacob focused his attention on Mark. "What's your name boy? And I know it's not Benjamin Jenkins!"

Mark stood tall, as if ordered to attention by his drill sergeant. "Mark Allen Wayne, sir!" His eyes focus straight ahead.

Jacob sized Mark up and nodded his head in approval. "Mark! You did good today. You managed to walk right passed my guards, into my room. Which is part of the reason they're dead."

Mark made no response, just continued to face front.

"You two." Jacob smiled and shook his head with disbelief, "You know, I was planning on killing somebody today. I just didn't think it would be Ivan and Nicholas." He looked dead at me. He wasn't smiling anymore, "You! You were supposed to fail. Now, look at this mess." The impact of his own ruthless actions crashed upon him, as he gazed down to the fallen brother's.

"Sir, I'm ... "

"You shut up!" The old man barked, still looking at the dead, "This should have been you two. Not them. It should have been your parents, your girls. Not my Ivan, not my Nicholas." He dropped to his knees. He seemed to have lost his mind. He was silent for a few moments and then he began to breathe heavily, with deep inhalations. He clenched his fists tightly and his body began to shake like an internal earthquake slowly building.

Jacob had deep regrets about his impulsive actions. I feared he would take out his aggression on us.

Mark and I stood watching the raging anger consume Jacob. We remained motionless in fear that he may explode at the slightest movement.

Mark looked at me and then to his duffel bag, which lay only three feet from Jacob. I knew Mark, he wanted to go for his gun. I shook my head in the negative.

The tremors within Jacob rapidly faded, he began to sob and only seconds later, he was laughing. Jacob seemed delirious. I desperately wanted to speak, but felt it might be too soon. It seemed Jacob needed some time to think.

When Jacob arose to his feet, I took a chance.

"Sir... " I briefly paused to make sure it was safe to speak, "can we, talk?"

Jacob sat on the bed, looked up at me and calmly said, "I know what you are going to ask me," he paused briefly, "so, go ahead, ask."

"Leave me and my family alone and let us go back to our lives." I spoke sternly.

Jacob sat on the bed quietly for a few moments, thinking over the request. He nodded, looked at us and gave his counter offer. "I'll tell you what, I will let you all off the hook, on one condition," Jacob inched to the edge of the bed, "You do one more job for me." He stood.

I looked to Mark and then to Jacob. "Ok, one job and then you leave us alone."

"Joe, you have my word. But, if you fail me... "

I cut him off, "We won't fail you."

"Good, I will contact you soon with the details. Now you two get out of here before I change my mind." Jacob threatened.

I informed Jacob, "The hotel was locked down. No one is allowed to leave."

"Locked down?" Jacob picked up the room phone and dialed security. A few seconds passed, then, "This is Jacob Scholtz. I have just been informed the hotel is under lock down. Might I ask who authorized it?" He paused and then, "If you value your job, I suggest you unlock it right now." He slammed the phone down. "Done."

"You must be an extremely important guest."

"I have news for you Joe, I'm not a guest here." Jacob surprised us once again, "I own this hotel."

Jacob is a man of many secrets. I had the suspicion that there was much more he wasn't telling us.

Once again we grabbed our bags, exited the room and raced down the stairs to the side entrance. This time, it was unlocked. We hopped in Marks jeep and left the hotel parking lot. We had survived.

November 28th 2005, 8:00am

The next morning, I went to Value City and told my boss, Jim Murray, I needed some time off. I did not tell him any details, I just told him I had a family emergency and did not know when I would be back. Jim assured me, my job would be there when I returned.

I called Ryan Wiltshire and told him all about Jacob Scholtz and how he was the brains of The Operation. Ryan was in disbelief, as not even Marcus knew of Scholtz's involvement. The special agent promised me he would look into my claim.

In the days that followed the events at the hotel, our lives seemed to have returned, somewhat, back to normal. Sue took a leave of absence from work as well.

We spent most of our time with each other. She had practically moved into my place. We spent every day and night together. Sasha had even made herself at home. Somehow this whole ordeal had brought us closer together. I used some of the money I had left over to fix her windshield. With the rest of the money I purchased Sue a diamond ring. It was nothing too fancy, but certainly not too shabby either. I did not propose, however, I told Sue it was a promise ring and that she forever had my love.

I told Mark he could use the $500 I had given him, to put a down payment on a new car for Mandy. Mark didn't tell Mandy about The Operation, which was probably a good idea, as Mandy tends to over react sometimes.

Though I still didn't have a car, things were going great. Sue and I grew closer. Mark and Mandy seemed happier and we hadn't received any threatening notes or curious looking packages. Life was going great... for about two weeks.

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