“I don't understand what is going on,” said Sara. She kept an eye on the street as they walked from shadow to shadow.

“I don't either,” said Brian Lu. He kept his hands in his pockets. He didn't often use them to fight, so keeping them out of the way was okay to him.

“Is your father all right?,” asked Sara.

“Sure,” said Brian. “He's mad that his place was busted up, and someone smashed his television so he can't watch the Expos. You know how he is about the Expos.”

“Puts the fanatic in fan,” said Sara.

“Exactly,” said Brian. “I left him filing a report with the police so he can get the insurance to replace his beloved.”

“Why are you involved with this, Brian?,” asked Sara. She paused in the shadow of a door frame leading into an apartment building much like hers.

“These guys came down to the park to tell me to mind my business with the picture from the apartment,” said Brian. “When I went back to the apartment, the place was busted up but they had waited for the old man to leave his den. The rest of this was finding them at your shop and following you on the train to your place.”

“They followed me home?,” asked Sara.

“I didn't see any of them other than the two I left at the station,” said Brian. “I think they already had you scoped out.”

“So they knew where I lived?,” asked Sara.

“I think so,” said Brian. “Do you think this is about your professor's plane crash?”

“I doubt Professor Holopolous had anything to do with gangsters,” said Sara. “He taught history and archaeology.”

“He wasn't working on anything?,” asked Brian.

“He had a dig planned somewhere in Africa,” said Sara. “The University was asking for students to fill out the lists. I wanted to go, but I didn't have the qualifications yet. And then he crashed. It's been years since then. I'm almost out of school. I missed any chances for anything like a dig in another country.”

“Maybe these goons want you for some other reason,” said Brian. “They only wanted me to stay away from you for whatever reason.”

“What do you mean?,” asked Sara.

“They came down to the park where I practice with my picture and told me to stay away or else,” said Brian. “That's when I went to check on the old man. The place was wrecked.”

“Which picture?,” asked Sara.

Brian paused a moment to dig the picture out of his pocket. He handed it over while still checking the scene. Eventually his pursuit would stop wearing suits and he wanted to be ready for that.

“This was after you won that tournament,” said Sara. “Your father was the happiest I ever saw him.”

“He just won a half a mill,” said Brian. He held out his hand to take the picture back. “That was what he used to pay for the boat”

“He won a half of a million dollars?,” choked out Sara.

“Yep,” said Brian. He put the picture away.

“But he seems so stingy,” said Sara.

“He never spends a dime unless he has to,” agreed Brian.

“Do you think these people will go after your dad?,” asked Sara.

“I hope so,” said Brian. “I think he will be able to get some answers from these goons about what they want, and why they think you can give it to them.”

“An explanation would be good,” said Sara. “I don't know if I can go back to my job with these people following me around.”

“The old man is mad about his television,” said Brian. “Someone will pay for making him miss the next Expo game.”

“Baseball is three months away,” said Sara.

“There is a lot of preseason stuff that goes on,” said Brian. He shrugged at her look. “Spring training and drafting and stuff.”

“You don't know a thing about baseball, do you?,” said Sara.

“I don't memorize stats and stuff, but I know a little,” said Brian.

He had to know a little hanging out with the old man. Otherwise, he would bear the brunt of a lot of scathing comments about his lack of attention and care. So he had picked up enough to get by and no more.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

It kept the old man off his back, and him happy enough with life to keep going.

Brian paused when he saw a lookout ahead. He didn't know what it meant. The guy was standing on the corner ahead, phone to his ear. He seemed to be reporting to someone as he watched the street.

“I wonder if this guy is looking for us, or is doing something else,” said Brian. He gestured for Sara to walk behind him. “We're going to ask him if he has business with us before we move on.”

“What if he doesn't?,” asked Sara. She slid behind him, watching the rest of the street.

“Then we move on to our next stop and see if we can figure out what's going on while hiding out and avoiding trouble,” said Brian.

“We're going to have to go by the shop at some point to let people know that it's closed until I get this sorted out,” said Sara. “I have to let the others know so I won't get in trouble for not being there.”

“All right,” said Brian. “I don't know where to hide you with your place and the apartment already known. I don't know if the old man's boat is still where I parked it.”

“We need to talk to whomever is in charge of these criminals,” said Sara.

“I can do that when I am sure that no one is going to dump you into the river after they torture you for whatever they think you have,” said Brian.

“You never cared when we were together,” said Sara.

“I did,” said Brian. “You just thought I was not being careful enough with my job.”

“Your job is beating people up,” said Sara.

“If I was dumber, I could have been a policeman,” said Brian. He walked up to the man on the phone and listened to him talk. The man stared at him to hint that he should move on. Brian smiled.

“Do we have a problem?,” asked the man on the phone. He didn't cut the phone off so the person on the other end could hear what was going on.

“I don't know,” said Brian. “I'm curious what you are doing.”

“I'm talking to my girl,” said the man on the phone. “Do you mind?”

“I know you aren't talking to some girlfriend,” said Brian. “I just need to know if you are on the lookout for me and my friend for some Chinese guys in some snazzy suits. Are you?”

“If I say no,” said the man on the phone.

“Then I expect you to cut off your phone and walk away,” said Brian.

“I'm not cutting my phone off,” said the man on the phone.

“Okay,” said Brian. He looked up in the sky.

Brian kicked the phone out of the man's hand. It flew to the roof of a nearby store in pieces. The man looked at his device flying into the sky.

“You kicked my phone to pieces,” said the man without a phone. He pointed to the building where it had flown.

“Go to this place and talk to the old man that is there, and tell him what happened,” said Brian. “He will replace your phone.”

He wrote the apartment address down on a card he had taken from a store. He gave the card to the man without a phone.

“He will replace my phone?,” said the man without a phone. He looked at the card, and then at Brian.

“Sure,” said Brian. He smiled at the lookout. “Whatever you do, don't tell him the Expos suck. That will piss him off enough to not replace the phone.”

“He better replace my phone,” said the lookout.

“He will as long as you don't make him mad,” said Brian.

Brian directed Sara to walk around the lookout. He took her arm and hurried her away from the stores on either side of them. He glanced over his shoulder and waved at the lookout before he pointed to the train station ahead.

“What was he doing?,” asked Sara. She slid down the railings to the platform.

“He was telling his friends that the street was clear of the police,” said Brian. “If they heard what was going on, I expect them to come out on the street now that they don't have any coverage.”

“So they will be looking for us too,” said Sara.

“Nope,” disagreed Brian. “They are going to be talking to the old man about getting a phone. They won't be looking for us at all if we can get the next train out of here before they come down to the station.”

“I don't think that will go over with your father,” said Sara.

“A little excitement is good for him,” said Brian. He nodded as a train approached. “It brings out his sunnier side.”

“Your father doesn't have a sunnier side,” said Sara.

“Just because we've never seen it, doesn't mean it's not there,” said Brian. “Here comes the train. We're going to get on, and ride it to the end of the line and then back to the city.”

“We should look to see if those men broke into the shop,” said Sara. “Maybe they want something from there.”

“We'll swing by on the way to talk to the old man,” said Brian. “If everything is in place, then we just leave a note for your other employees, and move on.”

“All right,” said Sara. “We should call the police.”

“Can't,” said Brian. “I have been committing acts of vigilantism in the way I have been dealing with things so far. Once the police get involved, I will be lined up for a cell along with all the rest of the people I have been hurting.”

“Have you considered not hurting people?,” asked Sara.

“Right up until they decided to grab you out of your building,” said Brian. “Anything before that I was willing to let slide as long as the old man was happy. Now, I'm invested in not letting you get hurt.”

“Even if you are crossing the line?,” said Sara.

“Maybe we're not together any more, and not supposed to be seeing each other and all that,” said Brian. “I still have a spot in my heart for you. We can be separate if that is what you want, and maybe you can be on your own, or find someone else, or whatever. I will still love you to some extent. And if I have to cross that line to keep you safe, I will. If you get a bad boyfriend, he will be hurt.”

“You've never said anything like this before,” said Sara.

“I didn't think I had to,” said Brian.

The train rolled into the station, and squealed to a stop in front of them. The doors opened as Brian kept an eye on the concrete walls around them. He frowned as a group in urban thug appeared at the end of the steps across the wide room from them.

“It looks like they aren't going to talk to your old man before they try to talk to us,” said Sara. She jumped in the carriage as people moved around her.

Brian stepped aboard. He watched the crowd as they approached the train. He hoped they didn't board. He couldn't leave bodies behind him wherever he went. The police were bound to notice sooner or later and want to ask him some questions.

The first thug caught the door and stepped on. The rest of his followers massed around him in the carriage. They gave Brian a collective glare as he gestured for Sara to move to the back of the train.