Free Beneath the Tombstone (The Tombstone Series) by Martin Cogburn

stand up on the back of his neck. There, now she was getting him
all worried, too. Goodness, talk about fall apart. He had never seen her like
this before.
    “What
are you afraid of – the dark?” Jason asked with a nervous chuckle, trying to
get her riled up a bit. He had to find some way to get her to start walking
forward again, or he would never get her over to the bank of the little pond
where he and the doctor had decided his heroic act would take place. What he
had envisioned was a nice, quiet, romantic walk with a flirty and willing wife.
That’s not what he was getting. If he’d known that she was going to be so
skittish, he wouldn’t have parked so far away from the pond. Jason was
beginning to wonder if he was going to have to drag her there.
    “A
little late for a stroll in the park, isn’t it?” a voice from the darkness
asked, startling Jason. But once his heart quit racing, he gave an inward sigh
of relief. His accomplices must have gotten tired of waiting and decided to
come looking for him. He was thankful for their ability to improvise.
    “Well,”
Jason spoke, “I would say there’s no law against it but…there is. Although it
would appear that the wife and I are not the only ones breaking it.”
    “Well,
my goodness, aren’t we all rebels,” the voice laughed. “I tell you what, I
won’t tell on you if you won’t tell on me.” He paused. “But really, I’m not too
concerned about that, for you see, dead men tell no tells.”
    “Oh,”
Jason said, playing along, “I wasn’t planning on killing you.”
    Jason’s
remark was given a wicked sounding laugh. He began to make out the outline of a
man, then two, and finally three. Advancing forward, their forms began to take
shape, walking side by side. The one on the left had a drawn and ugly face that
sported a crocked nose. He looked much meaner than the others. The doctor had
done a good job picking him out.
    The
one on the right side sported a hoodie pulled low, making his facial features
indiscernible, but with his gangster style get-up, he too looked the part.
However, the guy in the middle didn’t really fit the picture. His cheeks were
full to the point of making him look a little baby faced. Plus, he was a lot
shorter than the other two. No scars or tattoos marked his dark brown skin. No
anger in his dark brown eyes. But what really annoyed Jason was the fact that
the little runt was the only one advancing towards him. The other two split off
to each side before beginning to circle around.
    Misty
was squeezing Jason’s arm. “Come on, Babe,” she pleaded, trying to tug him
away. “Run!”
    Jason
turned to his terrified wife with what he considered to be a heroic grin on his
face. “It’ll be okay, babe. I won’t let anything happen to you.” The brave
statement made a bit of pride swell in his chest. In his heart, Jason just knew
he was discovering what it meant to truly be a hero. He felt nothing but raw
power coursing through his body. If only this confrontation was real. He could
leave these guys scattered across the playground, he just knew it.
    Trying
to decide what he thought a hero would say, he spoke, “You sure you want to do
this?” Silently, unfazed by Jason’s tough guy impersonation, the little guy
continued on. “All right, but you’ve been warned,” Jason said, but his words
sounded a bit forced.
    Misty
again tugged on his arm. “Please Jason,” she begged. “There’re three of them.”
    “Yeah,”
Jason scoffed as he dropped his right leg back into what he considered to be a
fighting stance. “There’s only three of them. I guess they didn’t hear about
the three guys I whipped in the ally the other night.” He stressed “in the
ally” making it sound like he was an ally fighter… whatever that was. He’d
heard the term before anyways.
    The
baby-faced Spanish kid approached with arrogance and too much confidence for
Jason’s taste. The doctor and this elf needed to be taught a lesson.