Right In Front Of You

Chapter 45 - One Tough Cookie!

30 Minutes Later; The Desert Inn Motel;
Matt's POV;

My mind was still reeling from the events of the past few hours; as Shannon parked his hummer next to Deano's Harley. The night had been going so well; Britt and I had been discussing our future together, now that she was moving in with me, Shan and H were as excited for us as Jeff and Suzie. None of us could have predicted that the night was going to end the way it had.

Seeing the cool and collected way that Suzie had delivered the news was unnerving. I had always known that she was strong and tonight just drove home how gutsy she was especially when Jeff had explained how she had fought back against what had been happening to her.

My brother had refused to leave her side until she had taken the sleeping tablet that had been prescribed to her; only when she had fallen asleep had he agreed to leave. Making sure the house was locked up tighter than Fort Knox and the girls were armed with baseball bats, we had headed to where Deano had said Shaun was residing for the night.

The fact that he had come to a motel rather than go home spoke volumes. Clearly he knew that we weren't just gonna let this go and that the police were going to be looking for him too. In my eyes his actions throughout the entire night were those of a coward and I had absolutely no problem with doing what we were about to do.

"He come out?" Jeff asked Deano as he extended his arms and cracked his bones.

"Nope the little rat bastard is holed up in there for the night," Deano replied; the evidence of his frustration lay around his bike; by way of cigarettes that had been smoked right down to the filter, in much the same way that Suzie smoked her own cigarettes. "Man you got any smokes? I am clean out!"

"Sure man," Jeff dug in his pocket and handed the pack to the older man with shaky hands; clearly his anger was still controlling him and no one could blame him for that.

If it were Britt, I would just as blind with fury as Jeff was right now. I knew that Shannon would be the same if it were Heather. We also knew that Jeff would be there for us too if it were one of us in his position. I could see the guilt that washed over my brother too, I knew him better than he realized and right now he was over come with guilt because he had let his guard down for a fraction of a second. That however, had turned out to be all that Shaun had needed to take advantage that had led us to this point.

"Thanks," Deano stuck a cigarette in to his mouth and sparked it with his lighter. "So what's the plan?" He asked once he had drawn a healthy amount of nicotine in to his lungs.

"I don't know; I just want to get my hands on him, make him feel the kind of fear that he..." Jeff's voice trailed off in to nothing as he was overcome with what Suzie had been subjected to.

"Alright I think it's just best if we play it by ear,"

"What are we going to do though? Just walk up to the door? He'll never just open up!" Barry announced making the very point that I had just been thinking.

"We could kick the door in!?" Shannon suggested.

"That'll draw too much attention to us," I pointed out.

We stood talking for a little while until we decided that Shannon would knock on the door and say that he was house keeping. With our plan set the five of us made our way towards the motel and up the stairs that led to the second level where the man in question was hidden from view.

Jeff, Barry, Deano and myself stayed right by Shannon's side as he knocked on the door and as predicted Shaun enquired who it was and after a long moment the lock turned and the door opened.