Acquisition

"About what time, please?" Hillary asked.

"'Bout four, four 'til closing," John said. "Now, if there's nothing else?"

"No, thank you," Hillary said and ended the call.

"He'll be at Clark's tonight," she announced to the three others.

"Hey, Jack?" Kaitlin said into her cell phone. "Found him; he'll be back at work tonight. Yeah, Hillary just called. Oh, might want to take Chad and Jeffrey with you; we need to get that phone."

"How you know he hasn't made copies of it?" Hillary asked.

"Computer's right there," Kaitlin said, pointing. "And I got the cable in the bedroom; can't do anything with it without the cable."

"Oh, okay, aw shit!" Hillary said, glancing at her watch. "Aw shit, I'm going to be late; you! You drive me to work, come on."

"Here, you take her," Chad said, handing his car keys to Jeffrey.

"Why me, you do it," Jeffrey said, pushing the keys back to Chad.

"Because, your little Mr. Happy's all out of commission," Chad smirked, unzipping his jeans. "Mine's not."

"No, Chad, I don't feel like it," Kaitlin snarled, pulling her filthy bathrobe tighter around her bulk.

Within a few moments, though, she was sucking his cock hungrily while he played with her pendulous breasts.

"After we get that phone, I know we're going to have to cool it for a while," Chad said.

"Yeah," Kaitlin moaned. "But we got to get that fucking phone!"

"We'll get it, don't worry," Chad said, confident.

Chapter 6

Jack cursed as his silly little girlfriend smiled happily and waved to him as he drove past. Really, did Melinda Fontenot honestly think he was satisfied with her puny little blow jobs? She wasn't even very good at sucking cock, barely able to get more than half his five inches into her mouth. Both Kaitlin and Hillary could swallow him down to the root.

Jack had even tried to get Melinda to see that anal sex wasn't the same as sex; she certainly had the ass for it. But Melinda flatly refused, would not even entertain the idea of it. Neither Hillary or Kaitlin ever refused him a little bit of their ass.

Jack hit the siren for a short blast and Melinda laughed as she skidded to a stop next to a customer's car.

"Yeah, that's my boyfriend," Melinda said proudly to the customer, who had absolutely no interest in whom the girl was dating.

Jack drove around the rear of the Drive-In and smiled as he spotted Tommy MacElroy's car.

"Yeah, fucker's here," he said into his cell phone when Jeffrey picked up. "Ass hole gets off about ten, ten thirty; he makes the night deposit Melinda says."

"Good so we'll see you there," Jeffrey said, again resisting the urge to scratch his penis.

"He's there," Jeffrey said to Chad. "About ten, ten thirty."

"Look, don't hurt him, just get his phone," Hillary said.

"Fuck you, fucking needs his ass kicked," Jeffrey spat, indicating his crotch. "Got it coming, hear?"

Kaitlin finished her drink and giggled slightly as a belch escaped.

"Right Kaitlin?" Hillary wheedled. "They don't need to hurt him, right?"

"Whatever," Kaitlin said and decided that she might want to take a shower if Tommy would be coming home soon. In Kaitlin's mind, if Tommy did not have evidence of her infidelity, he would have to come home.

It did not occur to Chad, Jeffrey or Kaitlin that Hillary seemed to care more for Tommy's well-being than his own wife did.

At the drive-in, Tommy smiled at Kizzy when he caught her staring at him with her love-sick eyes again. She'd been a year behind him and Kaitlin when they went to St. Thomas Aquinas and from the moment she entered the school had made no secret of her crush on him. But he'd had eyes only for Kaitlin Monroe. He followed Kaitlin like a love-sick calf while Kizzy had followed him like a love-sick calf.

"Glad you're back," Kizzy finally said, blushing hotly.

"Glad to be back," Tommy agreed and called out. "Order up!"

"Thanks," Theresa Smith said, grabbing the tray and balancing the four cheeseburgers and four large chili cheese fries.

"No drinks?" Tommy asked, looking at the tray.

"Said they had their own," Theresa said.

"Uh huh, better let me take that," Tommy said. "Which car?"

"The white Cadillac; why? What's up?" Theresa asked.

"That much food and no drinks?" Tommy said, coming around the counter and pulling on his coat. "Not saying they would, but a lot of times they grab the tray and drive off."

She watched with interest as Tommy carried the tray to the car.

"Hi guys," Tommy smiled at the four young men. "Twenty eight forty, please."

"Uh, yeah, uh, where's the girl?" the driver asked, looking around him toward the building.

"Tray was too heavy, all that food," Tommy smiled easily. "Didn't want her falling busting her butt. Twenty eight forty please."

The fact that the four men had to rifle through their pockets and scrounge together the money told Tommy his hunch had been correct. They were four college boys that were out, drinking too much beer, smoking a few too many joints, and had gotten the munchies. They saw the Drive-in and decided to grab a bite and stick the waitress with their bill.

John Clark didn't charge the girl for drive-offs, but a few too many drive-offs and the girl would be looking for a new job.

"Thanks, guys; y'all come back, hear?" Tommy said as he took the twenty nine dollars.

"Uh, change?" the driver asked.

"Really?" Tommy asked. "Not even going to give her a big sixty cent tip?"

"She wants a tip, she should have carried the tray herself," the driver sneered.

"I'll send her out with the change," Tommy said.

Tommy handed Theresa sixty pennies and told her to bring it out to the kids.

"They were going to stiff me, weren't they?" she asked him.

"That's a big ten four," he affirmed.

"Wow, what ass holes," she said bitterly as she skated out the door.

"Live and learn," Kizzy smiled.

"Two smokehouse, no pickles on one, large regular fries," Melinda hollered out as she skidded to a stop next to the soda fountain.

"Got it," Harvey said, eyes glued to Melinda's shapely rear as the girl swiveled back and forth to maintain her balance.

"She is a cutey, ain't she?" Tommy muttered to Harvey.

"Affirmative, sir!" Harvey said.

"Order up," Harvey yelled a minute later.

"Thanks," Melinda said, grabbed the tray and zipped out into the bitter cold.

"Two fish, no tartar, cheese fries add jalapenos," Theresa called out, whizzing in and stopping just short of the drink machine.

"How'd those boys like their pennies?" Tommy asked.

"Dropped them on the ground," Theresa growled. "Losers."

"Oh well, there money," Tommy shrugged.

At ten oh five, Tommy sent everyone home, even though Harvey offered to stick around to help.

"Brother, I got this," Tommy smiled and locked the door behind the Marine.

A block away, Jack parked his cruiser, reached onto the floorboard of his car and pulled on a regular sweatshirt. He also pulled on a ski mask, then slipped out of the car and walked over to where Chad and Jeffrey sat in Chad's SUV.

"Come on," he barked.

"Fuck, why we got to walk, fucking cold out here," Jeffrey whined, pulling on his ski mask.

"He sees your SUV, think he's coming out, dumb ass," Jack snapped. "God damn, think I want to walk? Fucking right it's cold out here, but boo hoo."

Inside of the building, Tommy smiled when the heat cut off at ten minutes after ten; Kizzy said she had bitched at her dad about how cold the building got right after closing. Obviously that's what it took; Daddy's little girl complaining about the cold.

Tommy made quick work of checking the receipts, wrote out the deposit slip and prepared to leave the building. The last thing he checked was his .32 and made for the door.

Just as he stepped outside, two masked figures grabbed his arms and a third one approached.

Tommy smiled, recognizing Jeffrey's ridiculous reindeer ski mask.

"All we want is the..." Jeffrey said, trying to disguise his voice.

"Uh huh," Tommy said and fired one slug into Jeffrey's shoulder, knocking the boy to the ground.

Tommy had no intention of killing Jeffrey, although he would

Shed no tears if Jeffrey did die.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" Chad screamed and dropped to the ground, covering his head with his arms.

Jack reached for his service revolver. Tommy grimaced but knew he had no choice.

Jack was an ass hole, had always been an ass hole, and would always be the kind of ass hole that would never accept responsibility for his own actions. Even if Tommy did survive being shot at close range, and Jack went to prison for it, Jack would get out of prison bent on exacting revenge.

If Tommy did not survive being shot at close range and Jack did go to prison, Jack would get out and exact his revenge on Tommy's mother.

"Hate to do this but..." Tommy muttered and put a bullet in Jack's right eye.

Then Tommy pulled out his cell phone, the cell phone that the three masked assailants had been intent on taking, and called 911.

Chapter 7

Tommy MacElroy would have smiled, would have laughed; his mother in law, never one of his biggest supporters, was absolutely incensed that he would actually shoot one of her sons.

The fact that he shot her son while her son was attempting to rob him completely escaped Patricia Monroe's mind.

Yes Tommy would have laughed, except for the fact that he'd had to kill a man. The guilt was overwhelming and every time he closed his eyes he heard the 'bang' of the gun and saw the look of disbelief in what he could see of Jack's face, saw Jack spin to the right and fall to the ground.

Yes, Tommy knew he'd had no choice; even Sheriff Dick Davis had said Jack's gun was in Jack's hand at the time of his death. Tommy still felt guilty, though. All of his life, he'd seen movies where the good guy shoots the bad guy, the bad guy deserves to die, and Tommy had cheered for the good guy and had seen the justice in the hero's actions. What the movie never shows you is the trouble the hero has sleeping afterward.

Both Chad and Jeffrey were being tight-lipped about why they'd had ski masks on, why they'd waited outside of the Clark's Drive-In building. Both Kaitlin and Hillary were likewise feigning ignorance

Donald Pellichet, father of Debbie Dublachon's boyfriend, DJ, had offered his services to the MacElroy family, pro bono as Marnie Vogel, Jack's mother, was suing Tommy over the death of her son. Patricia Monroe likewise began proceedings against the MacElroys' until Parker Johnson of Johnson; Johnson and Lambert pointed out that Jeffrey had been injured during the commission of a crime and therefore, had very little chance of recouping any damages against the MacElroys.

"The Vogels have no chance either; you acted in self-defense, but I really cannot see you having to incur thousands of dollars in legal fees just to fight this frivolous lawsuit," Donald smiled sympathetically.

"How much you charge for a divorce?" Tommy asked.

"Oh, thank God," Gladys said.

"Mom, need you to go wait out there; why don't you ask that girl Ethel get you one of them coffees?" Tommy gently asked.

"What? What you mean, 'one of them coffees'?" Gladys asked.

"They got one of them machines, makes them one at a time and you can pick what kind you want, real strong, or even weaker than that stuff you call coffee," Tommy smiled as he helped Gladys out of her chair.

"You shush; my coffee is just fine; your father loved it," Gladys fussed as she pulled the office door shut behind her.

Tommy chuckled as he heard his mother telling Ethel, the young receptionist all about his father.

"All right, Mr. Pellichet, this is why those three were waiting out there for me," Tommy said and put his cell phone on the man's desk. "The three of them, Jack, the guy I killed, and Kaitlin's two brothers are the stars of this."

Donald's face tightened slightly; that was the only emotion that crossed the man's dark features as he watched the sordid activity.

"And the two women they're screwing are my wife and her sister; yes, Chad and Jeffrey's sisters. So, I want a divorce based on infidelity; I also want..." Tommy said as the short video clip finished playing.

"Louisiana's a 'No Fault' state; you don't need to prove

Infidelity," Donald interrupted Tommy.

"I have been eating that family's shit for damned near all my life," Tommy said forcefully. "Countless fucking years of not being good enough, rich enough, smart enough. I know Louisiana's a 'No Fault' state but I want a little pay back, all right?"

"Got it; going to need you to get me a list of all marital assets,"," Donald Pellichet said, pulling out a standardized form he and his partners had devised.

"But how much is this going to..." Tommy asked.

"She's the one giving up the booty; let her pay for it," Donald smiled. Then he fixed Tommy with a hard look.

"She is the only one giving up the booty, right? You don't have you a little honey on the side, huh?" he asked.

"No, of course not," Tommy said.

"Boy, better not be lying to me; I get your wife up there and start doing hammer time on her and find out you got you two or three little girls you playing house with..." Donald demanded.

"Sir, I promise, I am not playing house, playing doctor, playing you show me yours I'll show you mine with anyone," Tommy smiled.

"You make any copies of this?" Donald asked, indicating Tommy's phone.

"Here, brought a copy for you, just in case," Tommy smiled pulling a disc out of his shirt pocket.

"You know how much one of them machines costs?" Gladys asked, just opening the door and barging into the office. "I told that girl we'd have to be insane pay that much, here, got you one, she said it's the strongest they make, hope you like it, probably paint your liver black, I swear," Gladys said, pressing a cup of coffee into Tommy's hand.

"Thanks Mom," Tommy smiled.

"I mean, seriously, who in their right mind pays that much for a coffee machine?" Gladys asked, taking a seat.

"But do you like the coffee?" Donald asked, also amused.

"Well, yeah, it's good, she got me this one, oh what's it called, smooth something and it's not too strong, not too weak, Y'all have that French Vanilla cream I added that to it," Gladys agreed. "No, no, I didn't put nothing in yours, don't worry, but it's real good."

"Then, Ma'am, it's worth every penny we paid for it," Donald smiled.

"I like him," Gladys admitted as they drove away from the office of Richards, Pellichet, and Jones.

At their office, Parker and Brandon Johnson listened to the highly implausible story that Hillary and Kaitlin Monroe had concocted for why their brothers and Officer Jack Vogel had lain in wait for Tommy MacElroy. Finally Parker held up his hand.

"Okay, now, let's start again, but this time y'all will tell us the truth, huh?" he said.

Kaitlin and Hillary looked at each other, then Kaitlin started again with the same tale they'd woven. Parker and Brandon looked at each other and frowned.

Chad Monroe sat in the Bender Police Department lock-up; his brother twiddled his thumbs in the DeGarde Police Department lock-up.

Jeffrey had been brought to St. Elizabeth's Trauma Center, to have his injured shoulder tended to. This was fortunate for him; in preparing him for surgery, an inexperienced nurse's assistant did not realize that only his shirt and sweater needed to be cut away; she cut away every stitch of clothing he had on. A surgical nurse noticed the amateurish bandage someone had applied to his penis and removed THE GAUZE, seeing the infection that had set in. Jeffrey lay in a hospital bed for twenty four hours, then was transferred to DeGarde's lock-up, due to DeGarde's lock-up being closer to St. Elizabeth's Trauma Center.

"Dude, why I can't stay at the hospital?" he whined to Sheriff Bob Chastaine. "I'm injured."

"Not life-threatening," the police officer shrugged.

At Clark's Drive-In, Tommy and John caught up with what Tommy had missed in his nearly one week of absence; four days of illness and two days of running around taking care of the legal matters.

"Yeah, that little bubble head, the blonde, one that was dating that cop you, well, you know, she..." John Clark said.

"Melinda Fontenot?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah, her. Anyway, she quit, said she wasn't going to work here if we wasn't going to fire you," John shrugged.

"Fire... You're not going to..." Tommy asked.

"Son, them three punks was fixing rob me, I mean you," John said, face hard. "Would have killed all three of them punk ass scumbags that had been me."

"Hey," Kizzy said, skating into her father's office and grabbing Tommy in a fierce hug. "Oh, my God, when I heard you'd been robbed, I swear to God, my heart just stopped; you can ask..."

"Hey, Honey? We're talking," John said.

"Uh huh, right, whatever," Kizzy said, gave Tommy another squeeze, and then skated back out again.

"Uh, Son, you uh, you might have noticed my Kizzy, well she uh," John said, face turning redder and redder.

"She uh, she kind of sort of has a little bit of a crush on me?" Tommy asked, getting to his feet and putting on an apron.

"Yeah, I mean, hell, done told her you're married and uh," John said, getting to his feet and pulling his own stained apron off.

"Welcome back, stranger," Nancy said, dropping a few more patties onto the grill, pre-cooking them for the dinner rush.

"Stranger, huh?" Tommy smiled, practiced eye sweeping the parking lot, the canopy and the interior at the same time. "When it comes to strange..."

"None stranger than you," Nancy cackled, BEATING HIM TO THE PUNCH.

Monica, another blonde waitress, regarded Tommy with almost open-mouthed awe. Tommy looked at her; she had worked at the drive-in for nearly a year now, but he'd never noticed her having any interest in him before.

Finally Monica blurted out, "What happened? I mean, all we

Heard was these three guys tried to rob you and

You..."

"All I know is, I step outside, and two guys grab me and a third

Guy starts reaching for me and I shoot him then the second

Guy pulls a gun on me and I knew it was either him or me,"

Tommy said, repeating what he'd said over and over. "Then,

Turns out I know all of them, believe that?"

"Were you scared?" Monica whispered, still in awe.

"Happened so damned fast, no, really didn't have time to be

Scared," Tommy admitted. "Then, minute I sit down, it hits

Me; I just killed a man."

"Huh," Monica whispered, blue eyes wide.

"Customers out there, not in here," John barked gruffly and

Monica gave a little yelp and skated out into the bitter cold.

"Tommy MacElroy, you're my hero," Nancy whispered, imitating Monica's wide eyed delivery.

"Shut up," Tommy smirked and got busy with the hundreds of menial tasks that have to be performed in a fast food restaurant.

"Son, next time, give them the money," John said quietly. "Hear? Nothing in that bag worth dying for; just give them the money."

"Uh huh," Tommy said, not telling his boss that it wasn't the bank bag the three were after.

"Seriously," Nancy said, under her breath when John Clark left the building. "It ain't your money; just give it to them, hear?"

Outside of the apartment building, Theresa White smiled. She'd already made the other four deliveries on her list; this had been the first one she'd attempted; a cute red head neighbor had told her that the target drove a metallic gray or silver Lexus. Finally, the Lexus was in the driveway with a red Lexus sitting behind it.

"Let's go, Sister," Theresa said to herself.

Inside the apartment, Kaitlin and Hillary were sharing a joint; Hillary had scored some really good weed from the manager of the electronics department at Abdul's Department Store; the department she worked in.

"Fuck, what the fuck now?" Kaitlin snapped when a knock sounded at the door.