The Wrath Walker (The Wrath Series Book 1) by Matthew Newson (fun to read .txt) 📗

“That’s it, I’ve had enough old man.” Joey stormed from around the counter toward me. He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me toward the door.

“Hey! Stop that. You’re hurting me.”

“Shut up, old man. You had your chance, now get out!”

Joey quickly unlocked the door and threw it open, and as he went to push me out. I stood firm in my power. As he pulled on my arm I didn’t budge, so he pulled harder, and again I didn’t move.

“You better let go of whatever it is your holding on to...”

That’s all he got out as he turned and saw I wasn’t holding on to anything.

“Why do you keep calling me old man?” I grabbed his arm, and with a flick of my wrist, tossed him across the room into his steel reinforced counter. He bounced off with a thud and fell to the floor. I scanned the parking lot and saw no one, so I shut and relocked the door.

“What gives, old man? How did you even do that?” Joey coughed hard a few times and picked himself up off of the floor and pushed back his ridiculous hair.

“I’ll say again, why do you keep calling me old man?” I turned back and faced him.

He reached behind his back to pull his gun he had tucked in his waist belt.

“That’s not going to help you.” I held up his handgun for him to see. “Say Joey, this is a mighty nice piece of hardware you got here. Do you, by any chance, have a permit for this gun? What’s this here? You have completely filed off the serial number. Don’t you know that’s illegal? Here, let me help you dispose of this highly illegal firearm before you get yourself into trouble with it.”

I dropped the magazine, ejected the round, pulled the slide off, and threw the parts into the open dining room to my right while Joey looked on in disbelief.

“Now that’s better, wouldn’t you say?”

“I don’t know who you are, grandpa, but you’re a dead man now. No matter how this plays out, you’re not walking away from this alive.”

“From where I’m standing, you’re the one in trouble, seeing how you sent all your bodyguards home early. You thought you could take care of an old man all by yourself, but then again, looks can be deceiving.”

“I don’t care who you are, because no one is ever going to see you again after tonight!”

“What do you mean you don’t know who I am? You know exactly who I am, Joey. Brandon came today and told you all about me.” I held a sly smile.

“Brandon said it was some guy in a red business suit that killed Ron, not some old decrepit man.”

“Really? Do I seem decrepit to you? Wait, I know what the problem is, it’s the form I’m using.” I shifted from a feeble-looking old man and back into my true self. I straightened my black tie as Joey stared in horror. “That’s much better isn’t it? Now you do know my name, because your informant in the Black Castle police department told you, so say it.”

“Wrath,” Joey said in disbelief. “Look, I don’t want any trouble. Whatever you want I can get it for you. I know a lot of people.”

“You should have thought about that before you turned to a life of killing and stealing.”

“Listen, I owe you ten grand, how about I double it? Let me get your money and we’ll call it square. I’ll never say anything to anyone, and you can go on your way.” He walked around the tall counter.

“I have no use for money, Joey,” I scoffed at him.

“Come on, everyone likes money. How about a job then? I could use a guy like you with whatever kind of skills you got there. I could make you a very wealthy man.” Joey stopped at the midway point of the counter.

“I don’t need money, and truth be told, I’ve never used it before. Besides, even if I did, you still couldn’t buy your way out of what you have coming, and please don’t pull up that shotgun you have stuck to the top shelf. It will not work against me.”

But it was too late, and he fired all five shells at me and laughed as I stumbled back against the door.

“Oh yeah? That’s right, creep! What’s the matter? Were you not ready for that?” He yelled at me from behind the counter as he reloaded the gun and came back around to get up close and personal.

“That must be some kind of body armor you have on under that suit, but I bet your ribs have been ground to powder after that pounding. I don’t know how you’re still on your feet, but let’s see if you’re still standing after this one.” He raised the shotgun to my face. I immediately grabbed the end of the barrel with my left hand and held tight as I delivered an open-palm fist strike to the middle of the gun and broke it in two. Joey looked on in terror at the two pieces of the gun in his hands before I punched him in the chest and sent him to the floor.

“Joey, Joey, Joey...” I shook my head. “You have been a very bad man, you know that?”

Joey coughed and writhed on the floor. “What are... What are you talking about?”

I checked my watch and saw he still had a few minutes left. “I’m glad you asked, and since you have a few more minutes allotted to you in this word, I’m going to tell you. Starting with the obvious, you have illegal gambling operating out of a restaurant where people can bet on anything. Even who’s going to win a professional wrestling match. I can’t believe people in this town actually want to bet on that. If the gambling wasn’t bad enough, you cheat people out of what you owe them, because you