Free Taking Stock by C J West

couldn’t give them away. Sharon would scoff at his things and he could think of no one else to give them to. He’d miss the Corvette and he couldn’t risk buying another. He’d find another fast car to fall in love with.
    The cab swerved to a stop in the tunnel. A black SUV blocked the road ahead. Brad hadn’t seen it until the cabbie slammed on his brakes. The men were out in an instant and running toward them. They surrounded the cab. The fat muzzle of a handgun tapped the driver’s window. The driver could have thrown the cab into reverse, but he was too frightened to resist. He raised his hands and remained completely still. The back passenger’s door flung open. One of the men grabbed Brad’s bag and motioned him out. Brad didn’t move. This wasn’t a robbery. They were here for him.
    The cabbie lowered the front window and the man outside talked deep and easy. No mistake in what he wanted or the consequences of disobedience. He asked for a driver’s license and the cabbie complied with a trembling hand.
    “Our friend will ride with us.”
    The man pointed his gun at the radio. “Don’t even think about calling this in. Everything will be fine. Our friend’s just a little confused about where he’s supposed to be right now.”
    Brad wasn’t going to make it to the airport.
    No one had stopped behind them. Not a soul on the road to help. With men on both sides of the cab he wouldn’t make thirty yards on foot.
    The man up front was still talking to the driver.
    “We’ll be monitoring your frequency. Call this in and we’ll visit your nice little house on Agawam Road . It won’t be tomorrow or next week, but we’ll come. You have kids ? ”
    The driver swore he wouldn’t call the cops. No one would know Brad was gone until his body turned up on a garbage barge.
    “Out Foster!” the man at the back door yelled.
    The gun came out of his jacket or his pants. The barrel pressed into his ribs forcing him toward the back of the SUV. Brad climbed in and they sped off. They burst out of the tunnel and weaved through narrow streets. Soon Brad was lost. Both men were eerily calm. They’d kidnapped him in the ideal spot between his apartment and the airport as routinely as he ordered coffee. Amazing since he’d only decided to run forty minutes ago.
    “Scared the shit out of you, didn’t she ? ”
    They couldn’t mean Eric a. How could they know ?
    “Don’t worry. She doesn’t know what she saw.”
    The car headed downtown.
    “Don’t believe us ? Listen, what do you think we do all day ? ”
    Brad hadn’t known these guys existed. The guy in back looked like someone he’d passed on the street a thousand times. Maybe he was.
    “We listen to you and Fletcher and a few others. We skip the boring stuff, but we hear pretty much everything you say.”
    If they were telling the truth, getting around them was going to be tough, but they couldn’t know everything. He spent his days in dozens of different places. They couldn’t bug them all.
    “You’re not going to bully me. I’m not going to jail for you.”
    “That’s right. You’re not going to jail. You’re going to do what you’re told and we’ll all come out of this rich.”
    “I’m done. I’m out. I can’t go back.”
    The driver spoke for the first time. “Don’t be stupid. You say that to the boss and we’ll be dumping your carcass in an alley in Chelsea .”
    “It’s over.”
    “It’s not over. Everything’s fine. She’s a zombie. If she makes it through next week, she’ll go home and sleep for four days.”
    “You don’t know that.”
    “Brad, listen, the last time you had sex was six weeks ago. She had long straight hair and red lingerie. She was incredible, but you got her so drunk I bet she had the nastiest hangover of her life. No wonder she never called back. Now, the blonde in the pink Red Sox hat last Saturday, wow! She was hot. A little young for you maybe. She had her eye on some guy across the bar. Too bad,