by: Kristy Duke
Walking stealthily into the large living room, Liam Brock’s heart skipped a beat in a rush of excitement as he eyes the large furniture that lies scattered across the mahogany flooring. Large picture frames filled with smiling faces spread across the dark wooden walls while a large stone fire place lies directly in front of Liam. A sense of awe rushes through his tense body as he takes in the large gold and silver ornaments that line the stone ledge that hangs over the hearth, silver and gold screaming of the wealth that lies within the large house. “Wow,” he hears himself speak aloud to break the silence that had built between the six of them since they had entered the house only minutes ago and a couple of the others sends angry glances at him. Angry glances at him for breaking the plans of working in silence, a plan they had thoroughly planned and went through several times in the last month or so since Andre got this crazy idea.
“Get moving,” a tall broad figure snaps into Liam’s ear and Liam jumps back to find Andre standing behind him, his black nylon bag held tightly within his gloved hands. “or get out. We aren’t going to get slowed down by you.”
Liam nods as his heart slowly slows back down from the rush of surprise that Andre had thrown through him before he opens his own bag he holds onto within his own gloved hands. Moving towards the large stone fireplace, for a short moment, Liam’s thoughts flash back into the past of the poor farm he had grown up on. A poor farm where he had been forced into working at a young age in order to survive and in order for his old man to keep his prized farm that had been handed down to him. A grin spreads across his handsome face as he grabs a gold ornament that is shaped into a tall angel and places it carefully into his bag. A grin of pride at getting out of his old hick town and out of the farm when he had and at becoming who he has became as he his mind flashes forward of the riches they will withhold when they exit the mansion and return to their own hideout.
A violent rush of adrenaline shoots through him as he grabs the last ornament from the shelf and places it into his bag before taking several steps to his right to where a large clear china cabinet stands. Several glass shelves stack the cabinet, each shelf holding expensive ornaments that the wife had obviously been collecting over the years she had been married to the rich jerk. Feeling no guilt, he carefully and silently clears the cabinet into his thick nylon bag as sweat begins to run down his face from beneath the thick black ski mask that covers his face. Sighing heavily, he takes a step back to find him alone within the large living room and an odd sense of relief to fill him. Relief at being left alone to take anything he wishes or finds of any value within the large room while his friends he had entered with has moved onto their own rooms to rob. Just as was planned.
Silently moving to the front door, he once again re-thinks the plan through as he sets his full bag down upon the floor before grabbing another bag. After glancing at his watch , he quickly walks across the living room floor on his way to the enormous television stand that holds a large flat screen TV in the open area of the wooden stand. Eyeing the TV, he shakes his head before turning to the clear glass door that rests to the right of the screen before grabbing the smaller electronic equipment that sits upon the thick wooden shelves. Only leaving the large TV screen and the multi CD player that rests behind the clear door, he leaves the door open before kneeling down and opening the thick wooden doors. Excitement rushes through him at the sight of the entire lower door packed with hundreds of DVDs while besides the stand stands a tall CD holder tower packed with CD’s. Feeling like a kid in a candy store, he swiftly shoves the DVDs and CD’s into his bag, his mind silently calculating how much he has earned within the past five minutes since they had broken into the house. Chills of excited greed races down his back at the thousands of dollars they will be walking out of here with when the job is complete.
Abruptly his thoughts are shoved to a halt as the loud clicking noise of a key turning in the front door penetrates the thick silence that has built within the stuffy room, silence as planned. Taking a deep breath to interrupt his panic, he steadily stands up while grabbing the metallic black hand gun that he had hidden under his windbreaker. “Damn it,” he mutters nervously as he glances around the living room, in search of any help from his comrades or for cover. Finding none, his attention falls back to the white front door as it slowly opens and a thick voice speaks out from outside.
“It’s not locked?” a thick male’s voice booms from outside to be followed by silence, “Well I know I locked it, Steve. Yeah, I locked it. Marge made a big fuss over me double checking it, kept saying we were going to be late to Justin’s ball game.”
More silence as Liam stands frozen near the large television, his mind freezes momentarily before melting into recognition of the plan they had went through so many times before today. “If anyone walks in on us, we shoot. We shoot everyone to kill. We leave no witnesses. Just like last time.” Andre’s voice screams back at him as more sweat rolls down his face as his emotions race wildly within him at the thought of killing anyone. He has been involved in several of Andre’s jobs and robberies, yet he never had to shoot at anyone in those jobs. Andre or Cale was always in charge of killing any witnesses.
“OK Phil,” another voice speaks from outside the open door as Liam holds tightly onto the gun while silently falling to his knees to crawl behind the couch several feet away, “you better stay here and let me, Ronnie, and Alan run in and see if there is anything amiss. You can wait in the car if you wish. One of us will come down to you in a few minutes to explain the situation.”
“This is nonsense,” the thick voice says again and Liam gulps as a man’s foot steps in side before stopping with the rest of his body outside. “Megan probably snuck home after her job before meeting up with Riley and the rest of her friends to go shopping. She left the dang door unlocked, again.”
“All the same,” another voice speaks up, “it is best for us to check -”
“Ronnie, enough already. Marge is waiting at the ball park for me to run Justin his lucky mitt, we don’t have time for this nonsense. He don’t have his glove in twenty minutes, he doesn’t get to play,” Phil’s deep voice booms sternly to create a wave of silence among the men outside, forcing Liam’s nerves to explode within him. “Let’s go in. You all can check the house out while I run to Justin’s room for his lucky glove.”
Guilt slowly crawls through Liam as he nervously glances above the fire place at the large colorful family painting of the mayor and his family, guilt in knowledge that he is about to leave his attractive wife a widow and his beautiful children fatherless. But hiding behind the couch with the rich man’s goods wrapped in bags, he has little choice but to follow Andre’s plan, if he refused to kill them, Andre would kill him in anger for messing up his plan. It was him or them.
“Your choice, Phil,” another man says and Liam watches as two tall men in suits and ties walk in followed by the smaller wiry mayor and another tall man in a suit.
“I’ve been broken into!” the mayor cries, looking around the room in horror as Liam steadily aims the gun at the man’s thin chest, silently going through his shooting lessons he has had over the past few years since joining Andre’s men.
“You need -” the tallest man in the suit, seeming to be in charge, starts to instruct before Liam quickly shoves the metal trigger back and the loud explosive shot interrupts the guard. Phil lets out a surprised scream as the bullet finds it’s target in his small chest and blood quickly stains his white shirt as he is thrown back. “Phil!” the guard yells as he withdraws his gun along with the other two guards. Adrenaline races violently through Liam as he watches the younger of the three guards pulling out a black cell phone from his pocket and as he begins to dial a number, Liam quickly pulls the trigger back once again. The guard yells as he is thrown back as the bullet lands directly in his thick chest and the phone loudly clatters against the wooden wall.
“Over there!” the guard yells, standing next to the tallest of the three, the leader. The leader nods as they both pull up their guns in Liam’s direction. Liam watches them nervously, knowing he has lost the edge of surprise he had held upon the rich mayor and the youngest and least experienced of the three guards. “We know where you are now. You might as well as slowly stand up and drop the gun,” the guard calls out to Liam, “and we won’t shoot. We’ll count to three. We get to three, we’ll shoot up the damn couch!”
Taking a deep breathe, Liam peers around the corner, watching the two agents taking a step forward towards the couch, their guns aimed at him. Relief fills him as he notices two of his friends standing silently in the hallway that lies several feet to the right of the open front door, a hall leading to the kitchen and a bathroom. The two men’s masked heads nod at Liam before they aim their own guns at the backs of the two guards that now threaten Liam’s life.
“One,” the leader of the two guards states calmly, “two,” he pauses once more as they steal another step forward. “three.” Another short pause as they take another step forward and now stands only a couple of feet away from the couch, leaving them little opportunity to miss shooting Liam. “Ok we counted -”
“Glad you know how to count up to three. Your mama’s would be so proud,” Liam recognizes Cale’s sarcastic voice behind the masked man who stands on the right side of the hall entrance while another masked man stands at the other end. The two guards quickly turn around in surprise as Cale and the other masked men quickly shoot their guns, the thick metal bullets whiz through the air before each guard is hit squarely in the chest. They both cry out in pain and surprise as blood quickly stains their expensive shirts while they fall upon each other on the carpeted floor.
For a long moment, Liam stares at the violent scene of the four men lying bloodily upon the expensive flooring while fear and disbelief floods over him as realization slowly sinks in of what he had done. Not only did he kill someone. He killed the mayor of Atlanta and a security guard. A local celebrity in his own right and a peace officer of sorts. A wave of nausea floods through him and he forcefully swallows it down as Cale and their friend quickly approaches him while another masked man runs in from outside. “I killed the driver,” the Andre says behind the mask of the man who just entered the house, he takes in the scene on the floor as he walks around the dead bodies. “Our man Liam, did this?”
The two other masked men nod. “The mayor and the younger guy,” Cale finally speaks up , in a whisper, pointing to the well known rich mayor and the guard, “Blake and I took the other guards by surprise.”
“Well done men,” Andre says as he walks around Cale and Blake to where Liam remains hidden behind the couch, taking in all that he had done. “Come on out, Liam. You did good.” He helps Liam to his feet who unsteadily joins the other three, “The rest of us are still upstairs taking what we can, but we best be loading up the van of what we have bagged and get going. With shots like that in this neighborhood, it is bound to bring attention.”
Liam numbly nods as he slowly walks over to where the mayor and the guards lie upon the mahogany carpet, they stare blankly up at the high ceiling where their shirts are heavily stained. Liam feels his heart racing heavily within him as guilt explodes within him as the mayor’s southern accented voice speaks clearly from within him, his voice calming his guards’ fears by an innocent explanation of why the door was left unlocked. Un-consciously, Liam glances up at the large family painting that hangs over the fire place of the mayor with his wife, son, and daughter and for a moment his thoughts fall upon the family they had robbed of their father and husband.
“Let’s go,” Andre says as he pats Liam on the shoulder, making Liam jump in surprise, “we gotta get out before the cops show up and ruin the show for us.” Andre winks at Liam from under his mask before grabbing a full bag and shoves it at Liam before grabbing two heavy bags for himself.