Chapter 7

Old Joe

Joe Senior knocked on the door, and a voice yelled enter. This meeting was important, and he wasn't sure why he had been called in. The man waved him to sit in the chair across from him, so he sat.

"I've heard you sent a bomber to the casino. It turned out to be a fifteen-year-old girl. That's not the kind of business I want to be involved in."

"You can't cut me loose. We are so close to finding out who and what they are. To make an omelet, you have to crack a few eggs."

"That saying doesn't fit here. You've been using children and mentally ill people to try to gain your advantage, and that simply doesn't work for me."

Joe looked at the man who had been financing his campaign against the dragons. Without his money, he didn't know what he would do.

"I understand you want to set some rules. You can do that, but I'll need more money if I have to be careful about who I send in there."

"I don't think you understand. I admit I was curious about who they are and possibly what they are, although I didn't believe your theory about dragon shifters. If that were true, they would have already taken over the world. Or maybe Earth isn't worth it to them, and they'd rather just have a little piece of it. At this point, it no longer matters that much to me. I will pursue other curiosities instead."

Joe was stunned as he looked at the powerful man who had been supporting him for several months now. This was an influential man beyond anyone's dreams. He stayed in the shadows because most people with that much wealth weren't always honest and didn't always follow the law. That showed in the fact that he supported Joe and knew exactly who Joe was.

It occurred to him to try to threaten the man, but if he did, he might not make it out of the building alive. What the hell would he do now? His attacks had reduced his followers greatly, and now he had few. Somehow, they had found a way to track his money and removed large amounts from his bank accounts, so now he only had a little left.

The mob he had worked for no longer backed him. They had separated themselves from what they called his craziness, and now he made no more money and had no defense through them. He nodded because the man seemed to be waiting for a reply.

"I'll have my secretary escort you down."

This new guy would just be one more person on his revenge list. Joe chuckled under his breath. It wouldn't be long, and the whole world would be on his list. Junior was in jail, and Joe was leaving him there for a while because he needed to learn a lesson about letting his personal life interfere with business. In the business they had been in, there was no room for that. The boy had taken himself down and dragged his father with him.

As a rare act of kindness, old Joe had cut his wife loose with a decent amount of cash and a house that was paid for. He realized he was going down a dark path and didn't want to drag her with him. Joe wouldn't say he loved her. That was too strong a word. He had respect for her, and at one time, appreciated their life with their sons. Joe never intended to see her or his other sons again. It was a favor for them so they would not be dragged into this. Even the mob wouldn't touch them as long as he didn't come around them.

His favorite son, who had been an enormous disappointment, was stuck in jail. He couldn't get to him, but occasionally, he could send him a message. Since there was nothing he could do for him, there was no point in sending a message. Now, his last supporter had cut him loose, and he had no idea what he was going to do. Apparently, he'd crossed the line on the man's moral code. Joe hadn't even realized he'd had one.

The secretary led him down to the large entry doors, and he exited without a look back. Was it embarrassing? Maybe a little bit, but that wasn't why he cared. He would have to find someone else to support his campaign against the dragons, or he would have to find some way to make money for himself. It was sad that he had gotten to the point where he had no support of any kind, and his only son, who cared about the business, was in jail through pure stupidity. That bitch, Davy, deserved to die slowly. She had taken down his whole criminal Empire, leaving him with nothing.

Joe hurried to his motel room, entering and slamming the door before locking the lock and putting the chain up at the top. He was sweating profusely and hurried to the sink to wash his face. When he stared in the mirror, he could see the insanity trying to get in or out. There was still a little money left for Mr. Sensitive because he had made sure he had picked people who would do the job he wanted for little to nothing. Turns out that was a good idea.

This hotel was a dump, but he had been hiding in places like this since not long after all this began. No one had even thought to look for him here. They were looking in the places where a rich man would hide instead of looking in the places where a criminal on the run would go. Maybe it was time for him to end this. Maybe it was time for him to go in person and cause as much trouble as he could, even if it killed him.

He'd started at the bottom in the mob and worked his way up. He was raised by a single mother because his father had either died or taken off. He never got the whole story out of his mom. He had started by running errands for one of the mob guys and worked his way up. Eventually, he'd become a mob boss. It was rare that somebody who wasn't related to someone made it that high, and he'd been proud of that. She had taken all of that away from him. While his son had been stupid, he had not intended any of what had happened. On the other hand, she had sicced the law and the dragons on him.

Joe was worried. He thought the dragons would be all-powerful and take him out quickly. That hadn't happened. It made him think they weren't as strong as he thought. Maybe there was still a way to take them out and take over everything they had. The mob had let him run a big area, proving he was no dummy. He needed to apply that intelligence to take down his enemies and take everything they owned away. All he needed was a plan and a few idiots that would work for him and not expect much.

The homeless people already knew him, and since their friends hadn't returned, they didn't trust him. Vegas was not the place for him to try and gather helpers. Some other place would work much better, but where? It needed to be close because he didn't have the time, the patience, or the money to do a lot of traveling. It also had to be someplace where he could stay cheap. Joe had a cousin living in San Francisco. He wouldn't drag him into this mess, but it would be a cheap place to stay.

Joe had traded his Cadillac for a cheap truck that no one would associate with him. He left the old tags on it even though he had promised to change them. The guy had been so thrilled to get the Cadillac for his truck and a little cash that he hadn't worried about it. If he committed a crime in the truck, the guy would wish he'd been more careful. Joe was all about crime, and if he found the right opportunity where he was going, he would find a way to make some money, even if he had to kill someone to do it.

It wasn't really his fault. Because of how he was raised, he'd had no choice but to fall into a life of crime. Everyone was surprised that he was so good at it, but part of the reason was that he didn't care about his victims. They just got in his way and needed to be removed like trash. Joe Junior was the only one of his children who understood his view of things. It was too bad that he hadn't worked with the boy more about interpersonal relationships and who to stay the hell away from.

He left his hotel room, dropped his suitcase and box in the back of the truck, and headed out. Since he had paid cash, there was no need to check out. Only seedy hotels took cash without ID. He was lucky to have found this one. He thought of the old days when he wouldn't have stayed in a place like this for anything. His nose wrinkled. The truck smelled like stale cigarettes and old food. It was battered and beaten from one end to the other and didn't look like anything that he would have ever driven in the past. Oh, how the mighty had fallen, right? That didn't mean he couldn't raise himself back up to the top with his brain and a few opportunities.

Those dragons were lucky that they were going to get a chance at peace for a little while, but when he came back, he would come back with a vengeance. No GPS in the old piece of crap, so he followed the road signs. Joe still had a phone, but it was a disposable one. At least his mind was still sharp, and he remembered his cousin's number even though he hadn't dialed him in years. Once he got out on the open highway and didn't have to worry about the traffic in town, he gave him a call.

"Who is this?" Jerry asked.

His cousin had never been the friendliest guy. He was a mechanic, and he had to deal with many people who constantly complained, even though he was a really good one.

"This is your Cousin Joe. I'm gonna be down your way, and I'm going to stop to see you for a while. Okay?"

"Sure, Joe. I'll have the wife get the guest room ready."

"Great. I'll be there in a few hours." Joe hung up before his cousin could ask questions he couldn't answer. He was sure Jerry had probably heard a few things.

Jerry would help if he could because Joe had paid for him to be trained as a mechanic. He'd also thrown him some business over the years. Family and things like that came first, and he'd never forgotten them. As far as Joe was concerned, Jerry owed him, and he would collect. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to stay there too long because Gloria always shot him disapproving looks. Jerry married a religious woman, hoping she would behave properly, and he wouldn't end up divorced. So far, it looked like it had worked. She dragged him to church whenever she could, so there was still a bad side.

Joe had nothing against church; he'd gone to celebrate many of the best times in his life. He'd also gone to pray when things went wrong; maybe that's where he should be right now. For a while, God had seemed to bless him. Joe had more than most and a good family. When things went wrong, everything went to hell. Maybe he'd lost God's blessings somewhere along the way. He didn't consider himself a bad man. Those things he did that some people might say were bad were just part of his job and business.

He didn't kill people because he liked to. He did it because he had to. They interfered with his business, and that meant they had to go. That FBI agent had said he was cold-blooded, but that wasn't true. Things were done out of necessity, not out of enjoyment. When he had someone taken out, it was quick and permanent. He didn't want them to suffer unnecessarily. All Joe wanted was for them to be gone and out of his way. People just didn't understand him.

Now, he needed those dragons out of his way to take over their business and get revenge on Davy. They knew where she was, and he would make one of them talk. Dragons weren't so tough after all. Had they been, they would have taken him out in the beginning.

The highway wasn't very busy, and he made good time. It was a long drive. He made a couple of stops, which made it around ten hours for him. Had he made this drive a couple of years ago, they would have stopped at a nice hotel and had a great meal. Someone else would have done the driving, and he would have used his phone to do business or watched a movie in the back of the limo.

Joe would have enjoyed the trip, and it wouldn't have seemed so much like a job. While he might have visited Jerry, he would have taken him out to a nice meal instead of staying at his house, where he had to put up with Gloria and the kids. Sometimes, it was hard to believe how much things had changed. He would have to get used to that until he made things change for the better. By the time he got to Jerry's house, he was exhausted. There was no one to carry his suitcase for him, and he had to do it himself.

Even though it was early in the evening, all the lights were out, and if he didn't know better, he would think no one was home. He walked up the steps, dragging his big suitcase, knowing he would have to return to get his box because it couldn't stay out where it might get rained on. Joe knocked on the door, and he heard Jerry coming to answer. No matter how bad things got, at least he knew there were a few people he could count on.