Taking Down Tony

"Be careful, Jake. Please come back safe," she choked out. I returned her hug and kissed the top of her head.

"I'll be back. I promise."

As I released my hold on Christy, Bear stepped out of the door. He had a bag of clothes in one hand and and Bushmaster assault rifle in the other. He wore a shoulder holster with a Desert Eagle 50 caliber magnum pistol. Bear never did anything in a small way.

"We'll take my ride. They will probably be looking for yours," Bear said.

I retrieved my clothes and AR-15 from my truck and loaded them into Bears big black Humvee. Like I said, Bear didn't do anything in a small way. Lucky jumped up into the back seat and we headed for Austin. As we drove we began to talk about what we were going to do. I suggested that we give Lyle a call since his people were keeping tabs on what was happening. Lyle got excited when I told him I was on my way back with Bear. He said whatever we decided to do to count him in.

Bear and I found a motel on the edge of town and he went inside to the front desk while I stayed out of sight in the Humvee. Bear got two rooms on the back side of the motel and once we settled in I called Lyle. He hurried over and looked up in awe when I introduced Bear to him.

We talked for hours and in the end we decided that we would grab one Tony's goons. If we could get him to talk we might have a chance of acting against Tony. We spent two days going over the plan. Lyle's people had kept watch over mine and Jill's houses. They reported that one of Tony's men would drive by a couple times a day to see if anyone had returned. We set our plan into action on the third day.

Lyle's people were eager to help since one of their own had been tortured and killed by Tony's men. To pull this off we were using three vehicles. Lyle drove one car, Bear and I were in a van and two of Lyle's people were in the third car. When we saw the black sedan coming Lyle pulled out in front of him. Bear and I in the van pulled in behind him and the third car with two of Lyle's employees tailed us. As we approached my house, Lyle came to a stop and I pulled up along side the target vehicle. The third car stopped behind our guy pinning him in. Bear leaped out of the side door of the van and with one punch from his massive fist knocked out the drivers side window. He pulled the stunned goon through the window and literally threw him into the van and jumped back in. As I pulled away one of Lyle's men in the tail car got out and drove the empty car away. The snatch had gone off with a hitch.

Bear quickly had our hostage disarmed and handcuffed. I had Lucky leashed to the front seat and he was almost rabid trying to get at our captive who cowered in sheer terror. I drove fast, following Lyle to an abandoned warehouse. As we approached, the loading doors opened and we drove inside as the doors closed behind us. We came to a screeching halt and Bear dragged the terrified man out and attached his handcuffs to a chain hoist. A few seconds later he was standing on his tiptoes with his hands pulled up over his head. When he looked around all he saw was five men in black ski masks surrounding him. We extricated his wallet and his license identified him as Vincent Moretti, Vinnie for short.

We started to interrogate our prisoner, but once he had gotten over his initial shock he clammed up. He was either very loyal to Tony or more afraid of him than he was of us. After a half hour of getting no where Bear asked me to let him "convince" Vinnie that we were serious. I told him I had a better idea and instructed one of Lyle's men to strip our hostage's pants off. I was standing behind him and when his bare ass came into view I saw a bandage on his right cheek. I ripped it off and saw the teeth marks on his ass. This was the guy who had tried to carry Christy off from the lake house. Now I understood why Lucky was trying so hard to get at him.

I went to the van and led Lucky out so that he was standing inches away from the half naked man. Lucky was snarling and snapping as I held him back by his leash. The sight of slashing teeth so close to his shriveled dick and balls broke Vinnie and he began to babble. He was eager now to answer our questions as long as I kept Lucky away from his family jewels.

We learned two vital pieces of information from him. First he confirmed that Tony had killed the missing woman in a fit of rage and that he and a guy named Gino had buried her in a remote wooded area. His second piece of useful information was that Tony had a delivery of Colombian cocaine set to arrive the next day.

Bear, Lyle and I moved to the other side of the warehouse to discuss what we had learned. We all agreed that this had gone better than we had hoped. As we talked I came up with an idea how we could bring Tony down without firing a shot. I had Bear handcuff Vinnie to a chair and we put a bright light in his face. He couldn't see that we set up a video camera that was focused to only show his head. We again asked Vinnie questions which he now freely answered.

The rest of my plan was going to require a lot of luck and some precision timing. Bear, Lyle and I left Vinnie under guard and and the next morning drove to the opposite side of the river from Tony's property. We found an empty lot which was wooded and worked our way through the trees until we were above the river. Scanning the opposite side I saw my assumption was right. When I had used Google Earth to check his property it showed the house sat thirty feet above the water. That thirty feet was a cliff face and there was no wall on this side of the property. What we did note is that there was a two inch pipe that ran from the river up over the cliff. Many people along the river used pipes like this to pump water up for irrigation.

Satisfied with what I had seen we went back to the motel. I explained my plan to my two friends and they had to admit that it was risky, but if we pulled it off it would it could possibly solve the problem. Much of the plan was in Lyle's hands to arrange. He left, taking the video of Vinnie's confession with him. Bear picked us up a pizza and later that evening I called Jill and Christy. I had phoned them everyday to let them know we were safe. That night I was able to tell them that with luck Bear and I would be coming back in a couple of days.

The next day we made one quick reconnoiter of the area where the drug exchange between the Colombians and Tony's men was to be made. Then we waited until late afternoon. This part of my plan required a lot of man power. In addition to Bear, Lyle and myself, Lyle recruited eight of his people who worked as body guards. All of these men had been in the military at one time. We all met at the warehouse and went over the plans.

Vinnie had given us the location where the exchange was to be made. It was on a dirt road in a remote wooded area. Shortly after dark two cars would approach from opposite directions. After using their headlights as a signal the two men sent by Tony would get out of their car with a suitcase containing money. At the same time the two Colombians would get out of their car and unload the cocaine. When both sides were satisfied they would make the exchange and drive away. Tony's men then would take the drugs to another location and prepare it for distribution to either local dealers or shipment to other locations. At no time would Tony be directly involved with the drugs.

We split into two teams of four and hid in the trees on either side of the road. Right on time we saw the two cars approaching. They stopped and flashed their headlights in the prearranged code and got out of their cars. As they approached each other we sprang into action. From both sides, with guns in hand, we took the four men by surprise. In order to prevent mistaken intentions Tony's men and the Colombians had left their weapons in their cars. Seeing eight armed men in ski masks, they didn't put up any resistance. It only took minutes to have them all handcuffed laying face down in the dirt. Lyle radioed his other three men who came speeding up in three vans. Tony's two goons were loaded into one van and the two Colombians into the other. The two vans roared off with one driver and two of the security team guarding the prisoners. They headed for the abandoned warehouse that Vinnie was being held at.

We checked out the drugs and found there was twenty kilos of cocaine. The suitcase had fifty bundles of hundred dollar bills. With one hundred bills to a bundle there was a half million dollars. We put five kilos of the drugs and the suitcase full of money back in the trunk of the car the Colombians had driven and the remaining two security team members took the two cars back to the warehouse.

This left the one van into which Lyle, Bear and I loaded the remaining fifteen kilos of drugs into. Now came the last risky part of the plan. The three of us drove the van to the river that ran past Tony's house. We met another of Lyle's men who was waiting for us with a small boat about a mile upstream of Tony's . It was just big enough to hold three of us, the drugs and our guns. We pushed off and let the electric trolling motor soundlessly propel us along. The only light we used was from the dim hand held GPS navigator which let us know when we were below Tony's house.

We drifted along the cliff until we found the irrigation pipe. Lyle was the smallest of the three of us at five foot eight and a hundred and forty five pounds. He used the pipe to scale the cliff and then dropped a rope down which I used to climb up. Bear tied the drugs to the end of the rope and then we pulled the fifteen kilos up behind us. Bear stayed with the boat. This part of the plan was to plant the drugs on Tony's property. We figured the security in the house would be too tight so we ruled that out. There was a cabana behind the house next to the pool however.

Moving stealthily through the dark, Lyle and I made our way to the cabana. Wearing black clothes and black ski masks it would be hard to spot us in the dark of the night. We leap frogged each other moving from tree to tree. Lyle and I froze when we were only yards from our objective. The back door to the house opened and an armed man stepped outside. I saw the flare of a lighter as he lit a cigarette. We remained frozen in place for the next ten minutes before the hired muscle tossed down the butt of his smoke and went back into the house.

Again, cautiously we crept forward. We were in luck when we reached the cabana. It was unlocked. There was only one large room. Lyle remained at the door keeping it open just a crack while he peered out watching for any movement from the house. I located a closet and stashed the drugs inside, covering the three five kilo packages with some towels I found inside.

Again we quietly crossed the property and made our escape, rappelling down the cliff to where Bear was waiting in the boat. Only when we had pushed off and Bear had turned on the trolling motor did we breath a sigh of relief. This had been eerily similar to some of the missions I had been on while in Iraq.

The trolling motor pushed us back up the river to our waiting van. It was now time to set the final part of my plan into motion. We drove back to the warehouse that now held Vinnie, Tony's two couriers and the two Colombians as well as their cars. There were three of the security team members standing guard as the others had already dispersed.

When we arrived back at the warehouse I had Bear bring Vinnie over. Lyle had provided me with a portable video player and I placed the disc with Vinnie's confession in it and showed it to him. It had been edited to so that all it showed was him talking. When I told him that a copy of the disc was being delivered to the police I could tell by the smell that he shit in his pants. I then gave him one piece of advice. I told him that the only way he would probably live is to turn states evidence and beg to be put into the witness protection program.

We then left the warehouse after making sure that the Vinnie and the other four were handcuffed and chained so they weren't going anywhere until the police arrived to free them. Everyone involved in my plan had worn ski masks and gloves so we weren't worried that we would be recognized later or that we had left any prints behind.

Our next stop was to a pay phone where I placed a call to the police. I told them to check the garbage can outside the front door of the station and they would find a package with proof of two crimes being committed. Before I hung up I told them they had two hours to act before the press was notified. I figured that would give them enough time to get the necessary warrants. In the package was a letter informing them of where the drugs could be found at Tony's house, the location of the warehouse where we left the five men and five kilos of cocaine, the location where they could find the body of the missing woman and a copy of the video of Vinnie's confession. It would be enough to spur them into action.

I didn't wait two hours to call the press. I called a local news station and asked if they would like an exclusive story on the arrest of a wealthy businessman on drug and murder charges. They were eager to get the story. I told them to send out two news crews to a general area and when the police were arriving at the scenes they would be told where to go.

One of Lyle's men remained near to the warehouse and another was stationed close to Tony's house. When they saw the police going by they radioed us and I in turn notified the news station where to send their reporters. There wasn't anything more for us to do so we called it a night. Lyle went home and Bear and I went back to the motel. I set my alarm to catch the early morning news and turned in for the night hoping that everything was going to plan and this would be the end of Tony.

As soon as the alarm went off the next morning I turned on the TV and sure enough the lead story was about Tony. The reporter on the scene said that the police had entered Tony's estate in force and a gunfight had broken out. Apparently one man had been killed and another wounded. I breathed a sigh of relief when they said none of the officers had been hit. The reporter went on to say that Tony had been arrested along with one other man who had not been wounded. The news then switched to a related story in which they reported that five men in handcuffs had been led out of an abandoned warehouse.

I breathed a sigh of relief. I now hoped that Tony had much bigger problems to worry about than Christy. As the story ended Bear knocked on my door. He stood there with a big grin on his face as he had just watched the same channel in his room next door. We congratulated each other on a job well done. I had one last thing to do before we headed back to Bear's place.

Bear checked us out of the motel and we drove to Lyle's office. He had just arrived when we walked in. I had a suitcase in my hand, the one containing the money that was going to be used in the drug buy and had taken with me when we left the warehouse. I put the suitcase on Lyle's desk and counted out two piles of one hundred thousand dollars. I pushed one pile over to Lyle and the other to Bear and told them that was their share. I then told Lyle to split the remaining money with the men who had been involved in my plan as a reward for their help.

Bear and Lyle started to protest that I should be entitled to a share of the money but I told them that my reward would come when I knew that Christy and my sister were no longer in danger. Bear and I said good-bye to Lyle and climbed back into the Humvee for the ride back to his home. We talked about how well things had gone and I had to admit it had come off much better than I could have hoped for.

When we pulled up to the front of the house the front door burst open as I stepped out of the Humvee. I was almost knocked to the ground as Jill and Christy threw their arms around me in joy. Bear just stood watching with a big grin on his face as Lucky raced around us barking. I couldn't help but laugh out loud as they both covered my cheeks with kisses. Finally I got them calmed down and we all went and sat around the big kitchen table.

Bear and I took turns telling everyone about the events of the last few days. I told Christy how we had grabbed Vinnie and how he had the wounds on his ass from Lucky's teeth. Bear took over the story and regaled them with the part where Lucky had tried to bite off Vinnie's private parts, causing everyone to laugh out loud. Christy bent down and gave my dog a big hug and was rewarded with a big sloppy doggy kiss. When we had finished our tale everyone stared at us in awe.

Jill was the first to speak. "What happens now, Jake?"

"Well, I guess we wait and see how this plays out. Right now I think Tony has more things to worry about than us," I replied.

"Well, the three of you are welcome here for as long as you want," Bear's mom said.

"Thank you, Mrs. Kowalski. I really appreciate that," I replied.

"Pshaw, young man. You can call me Mattie, and this old man here is Ben," she said nodding to her husband. Ben looked at his wife and I could see the love he had for his wife in his eyes.

"Jake, Mattie and I have become very fond of these two fine young ladies. You are all welcome in our home," Ben said.

"I really appreciate that. I'll pay you back for your generosity," I said gratefully.

"The hell you will," Bear said as he reached down into the bag of clothes he had brought in with him. Bear pulled out the bundles of cash and set it on the table. Ben and Mattie's eyes bugged out at the sight of the bills stacked on the table.

"Where did you get all that money, son?" Ben asked.

Bear explained how we had confiscated the cash from the drug dealers and how I had split it up among those who had helped me.

"But that's drug money. We can't keep it. It's tainted," protested Mattie.

"Mattie, it's money," I interjected. "It may have been obtained through illegal means but that doesn't diminish it's value. Now it has been returned to good people to better their lives. It would be a shame to let it go to waste."

Mattie's eyes softened. "Well, I guess if you put that way then it doesn't seem so bad," she conceded.

Bear and I spent the rest of the day chilling out. The last few days had provided enough adrenaline rushes that it was nice to just relax. We did make sure to catch the six o'clock news. The lead story was the recovery of the remains of a buried body that was linked to the arrest of the wealthy businessman from the previous day. This caused Christy to cry again as she realized just how perilous her captivity had been. She was sitting on the couch next to me and I put my arm around her and hugged her to my chest. She cried into my shoulder for several minutes.

There was more good news as it was reported that due to the seriousness of the charges and the risk of flight that Tony and his men were being denied bail and would remain in custody until after their trials.

After dinner that night I stepped out onto the back porch. The sun was just touching the horizon on it's way down. I heard the screen door squeak and looked over my shoulder. Christy came out and walked up to me. With out speaking, she put her arms around my chest and hugged me. I wrapped my arms around her and for several minutes we just held each other in silence. Then she leaned back and looked up into my eyes.

"Thank you, Jake. For everything," she said and then raised up on her tip toes and lightly kissed my lips. Before I could react she slipped from my arms and returned to the house leaving me to watch as the screen door closed behind her. My tongue licked my lips as I thought how soft and warm her lips had been. I yearned to kiss her again.