Generations in Agony...Texas: Chapter Twenty-eight

28) Bad to the Bone…

Ever since he had gone to prison, Tyrone Stump had kept to himself. There had been some talk when he was still at his sentencing stage that he might go up to one of the mental facilities, instead of Huntsville. But, he had not killed anybody while on his maniacal crime spree. He had terrorized all of Agony—his home town—and most of the surrounding counties, before he was caught and subdued by a mob of deputized men while he was back in Agony, hiding out at his Aunts.

That had been fifteen years ago, and he had just turned eighteen at the time; coming into life as an adult within the confines of one of the toughest state institutions in the whole country. It had been hard; he had to keep to himself and fight off gangs, faggots and just about everyone. In the end, he had fallen under the protection of the ‘Mob’, which pretty much controlled life on the inside.

Some of the other black population resented him getting thick with the family; but no one would touch him once he was in. And, the boss on the inside—there had been four since he was sentenced—never gave him anything to handle that was a problem. He carried out his orders without question, and learned from some of the best criminals in the joint; lessons he planned to use when he got out again.

Lately, he had the company of a made guy: Beau Dawes had been sent up for armed robbery and conspiracy to commit murder. The guy was so young that he had actually spent his first two years in a juvenile institution, before they sent him up to the big house. At the boss’ nod, Ty had taken Beau under wing, and they had developed something of a friendship, even though Beau was given the more choice jobs to carry out within the walls, Ty never complained. He knew these men held the key to his moving up in the world of crime, a world he planned to belong to for a very long time…

So when word came down the lines that a boss in Chicago was looking for a button man to carry out a hit on a target in a remote West Texas town, most every eye within the family turned to Ty Stump.

“Ain’t you from some little town out the middle of no place?” The boss had asked when Beau took him for the meeting.

Ty nodded.

“Place called…Agony?”

“That’s right, Mr. Gazzatti.”

Gazzatti nodded as his eyes turned into slots of concentration. “We got a job for you, Ty. You’re close to out, my sources tell me. Some favors are going to change hands and you will be hitting the streets tomorrow. Like the sound of that?”

Ty smiled and nodded. “Best news I’ve had in years.”

A few garbled chuckles spilled around the room they were in: it was the food warehouse behind the kitchens, where just about anything a prisoner could want came in under mob protection. “Word is, they’ve sent five guys down to this place to make a simple hit. No body’s come out. No word, no nothin’. The thinking is that the guys going down from Chicago are too obvious. We need somebody with a background there…somebody we can trust to go in, find the target, and push the button. We think that’s you, Ty.”

“Good as done…” Ty had to force himself to keep from smiling too much. For years, he had lost all hope of ever getting out before he was an old, old man.

“Beau has a packet for you in the cell. Look it over and burn it. Anything else you need will be waiting outside…” The boss pulled a roll of cash from his pocket. “Here’s a few hundred to get you going. Get some clothes…stuff that no one will think twice about in this little shit-hole of a town. We’ll have a car waiting for you out there too.”

“Could you make that a truck, Mr. Gazzatti?”

“What, like a pick up, or somethin’?”

Ty nodded and smiled. “Something used is best. Easier to blend in. Everyone there is either Oil Patch or working cattle. A black Cadillac would really be like me driving in with ‘Hitman’ painted on the side. If they know to look for it, then I’d rather take a different approach.”

“Smart guy, Ty. I think this Chicago Boss will be glad we brought you in on it.”

Ty gulped. “Any money in this for me? I’m just asking now, getting out is payment enough.”

Ty nodded. “You’ll be taken care of. We always take care of our own.”

“Thanks Boss…” Of course Ty had been around these men long enough to know that in the end, he could trust only that they would kill him without blinking, if they felt the need to. So, he made plans of his own.

~