Ark

Chapter 2

“The winner by knockout and still champion, Angel Bonebrake!” The crowd packing the arena roared as, in the center of the cage, the referee raised Angel’s hand high in the air. From his seat in the front row, Dane Maddock clapped and whistled. For a brief instant their eyes met and she winked.

Bones Bonebrake, Angel’s brother and Maddock’s business partner and best friend, elbowed him in the ribs.

“How does it feel to know your fiancé can beat the crap out of you?”

Maddock smiled. The truth was, he was still in a daze over his engagement. For years he thought he’d never marry again, but the beautiful Cherokee girl with the vocabulary of a sailor had other plans.

“I can still kick your ass, Bones. That’s what matters.”

“Keep dreaming, Maddock.” He looked around at the attendees who were already filing out of the arena. “I suppose we should get out of here. She’s going to be busy with post-fight interviews and all that crap.” Bones caught his sister’s eye, waved, and then pointed to the exit. She smiled, gave him the thumbs up, and then blew Maddock a kiss.

“Do you think she’s the first mixed martial arts champion to blow kisses in the ring? That’s not very badass.” Bones asked as they pushed their way into the lines of people making their way to the exits.

Maddock rolled his eyes. “Can we talk about something else?”

“Sure. Let’s talk about the wedding. Which one of you is going to wear the dress?”

Maddock silenced his friend with a frown, but it didn’t last. Upon leaving, Bones spent the drive from his uncle Crazy Charlie’s casino, where the fight had taken place, to his mother’s house, speculating about what Maddock’s and Angel’s children would look like.

“Don’t get me wrong, but it’s going to be weird if I have a bunch of short, blue-eyed blond nephews. I mean, I can teach them how to pull chicks and all that other important stuff you don’t know anything about, but there’s nothing I can do about the DNA. We’ll just have to hope they get that from my sister.”

At a hair under six feet tall, Maddock was hardly short, but most people look small alongside the burly, six foot five Bones. The big native had lorded his height over Maddock, literally and figuratively, since their days in the Navy SEALs.

“We haven’t even talked about a wedding date and already you’ve got us having kids? Slow your roll,” Maddock said. The engagement was so new, he wasn’t at all ready to contemplate anything beyond that.

“Maybe you missed a couple of health classes, but you don’t have to get married before you…” Bones broke off in midsentence and tapped the brakes as his mother’s house came into view.

“What is it?” Maddock asked. Neither silence nor slow driving could be classified as typical Bones behavior.

“Something’s not right. Mom’s still back at the casino with Angel, so Grandfather’s the only person home. He goes to bed at, like, eight o’clock and he never leaves a light on.” Bones pointed to the front of the house, where a faint light was barely visible through the front curtains.

“Maybe he left it on for us?” Maddock offered.

“And waste ten cents worth of electricity? Not a chance.”

Bones pulled his Dodge Ram pickup over to the side of the road and parked. They hopped out and moved quickly toward the house. As they drew closer, Maddock spotted a shiny white SUV parked behind a clump of trees a short distance away.

“Do you recognize that car?” He pointed at the SUV.

Bones shook his head. He quickened his pace and Maddock had to double-time it to keep up.

“I’ll take the front door, you take the back.” Maddock keenly felt the absence of his Walther, but he had seen no need to take it along to the fight. He wouldn’t have gotten it past the metal detectors at the casino in any case.

A covered front porch ran across the front of the modest, ranch-style home. Neatly trimmed shrubs and flower beds bursting with life lined the porch on either side of the front steps. Bones’ mom had a green thumb.

Maddock crept up the front steps, careful not to tread on the second, which he knew to be squeaky. By the time he reached the front door he could just make out unfamiliar voices. He moved to the front window and peered through the tiny slit between the drawn curtains.

Two well-dressed men, one a hooked-nose man of Middle-Eastern descent; the other a tall black man with a shaved head, stood over Samuel Bonebrake, Bones’ grandfather. The old man sat in a kitchen chair placed in the middle of the living room, his face a mask of serenity.

“Come on, you obstinate old codger, you are wasting our time,” hook-nose barked. He leaned in close and whispered something in Samuel’s ear.

“Questioning him will get us nowhere, Ahmed. He won’t talk unless we persuade him,” his partner said. He spoke in a light Jamaican accent that would’ve been pleasant to the ear in other circumstances. He looked down at Samuel, smiled, and drew back his fist.

Maddock sprang to the front door and turned the knob.

It was locked.

Twice he heard fist meet flesh. The second time, the old man cried out. Maddock threw his shoulder into the door and it burst open. He heard another crash as Bones forced his way in through the back. The intruders looked up in surprise, but each reacted in an instant.

Before Maddock could close the gap between them, both drew automatic pistols and opened fire. Maddock dove behind the sofa, bullets shredding the upholstery just above his head and tearing into the sheetrock wall.

“Come on, Tyson! Let’s get out of here!” Ahmed shouted. Still firing, the two men ran out the front door.

Maddock sprang to his feet and, for a moment, considered chasing them, but he knew he would be a sitting duck.

“Bones, are you all right?” He turned to see his friend standing beside his grandfather, checking him for injuries.

“I’m fine. Here.” Bones dug into his pocket, took out the keys to his truck, and tossed them to Maddock. “Pistol’s in the writing desk.”

While Bones attended to his grandfather, Maddock yanked open the drawer of the nearby desk and snatched up an old Ruger Single Six Convertible .22 revolver and a few spare bullets. He dashed out the front door just in time to see the SUV roar past the front of the house. From the passenger seat, Ahmed blazed away with his automatic.

Maddock dropped to one knee, bullets whizzing past his head and smacking into the door and wall behind him. He had time for one aimed shot which shattered the SUVs rear window before the vehicle was down the street and out of sight.

He sprinted to Bones’ pickup truck, intending to give chase, but stopped when he drew close. The front right tire was flat, and a quick inspection showed a bullet hole in the sidewall was the culprit. Ahmed was either very lucky or an excellent shot. Either way, any hope of catching the two intruders was now lost.

He tucked the revolver into his belt and stalked back to the house, cursing all the way.

Inside, Bones had moved his grandfather to the sofa. The old man lay stretched out with his head resting on a cushion, holding a bag of ice against his forehead. Blood trickled down the side of his face. Bones looked up when Maddock entered.

“What happened?” Anger burned in his eyes and his body trembled with scarcely contained rage. Maddock was almost glad he hadn’t caught up with the two intruders. He shuddered to think what Bones would’ve done had Maddock somehow managed to detain them.

“They shot out the tire. For what it’s worth, I got the license plate number.”

Bones spat a curse and his grandfather raised a crooked finger.

“No language like that in my house, Uriah,” he rasped.

“Yes, Grandfather.” The irascible Bones was perhaps the most irreverent person Maddock had ever known, but his respect for his elders was absolute.

“I don’t suppose you know who they are or what they wanted?” Maddock asked.

The old man shook his head. “I have never seen them before, but I do know what they wanted.”

Bones frowned. “And what was that?”

“They are looking for our family treasure.”