Amos spent a quiet morning watching out of his window to keep his boredom at bay and to see what Mr. Phil was up to. He had noticed that most residents seemed to be likely to leave the building during the midday period. This was when most people were outside, and this made it the safest time to be outside.

  Even if there were still people with bad intentions around, at least they had more targets to choose from. Filthy Phil seemed to like to linger in front of the building to select his targets. Amos noticed that the grubby landlord would try and ask every resident where they were going and then once in a while he would watch them walk down the street and then almost immediately go into the building.

  His keys are his tell Amos realized as he talked to a resident he took out his keys and started playing with them. If he found a good prospect, he kept them in his hands otherwise he put them back and went back to his work outside.

  Amos was good at noticing patterns, and he could see that Mr. Phil was very methodical and sneaky. He only seemed to be interested when he was sure that a resident had left their apartment unattended for a decent amount of time. As soon as he had his target he would hustle into the building, keys in hand and move to the correct floor to search the apartment for something to steal. Keep watching, the more you know the easier it will be to set the trap Amos told himself.

  He was determined to stop Mr. Phil from stealing from residents and he was also hoping that this may be a way to repay Old Man Dan and Ms. Murphy. Filthy Phil was a predatory thief and Amos really, really despised the fact that he had behaved like this man as well. He had to fix this, but he was not quite sure how he could.

  His stomach was in knots as the time crept closer to three pm, Amos knew he would not be able to eat much so he settled on a glass of milk and a few spoonsful of peanut butter. He felt a stab of pain when he realized that there was no one there to yell at him now as he dipped his used spoon into the jar for the third time. He missed his mom and felt terribly guilty, eating like this was a poor way to behave so soon after her death.

  After his simple lunch he prepared what he needed. His gun was loaded and checked and stored in his pocket. Amos decided against packing more bullets than what fit into the gun. If six shots are not enough then I am probably done for anyways and hopefully I don’t need to shoot it at all. Amos did not really believe that this was likely, but he hoped so anyways.

  His baton was stowed into his right front pocket as well as a handful of black plastic zip ties in his back pocket. He was not sure why he brought them with him but Mr. Holden at the Surplus had told him “Always pack zip ties, you never know when you need to secure something or someone.” He took forty dollars with him and hid it in a zip pocket in the front of his pants. His dark jacket and a black t-shirt completed his look along with a low-cut pair of black sneakers.

  He studied himself in the cracked mirror in the hallway, he looked …young, there was no way around it, he still looked like a kid. He shrugged his shoulders, checked his gear and made his way to the door.

  After a four-minute wait the hallway was clear and he locked up and exited via the stairwell as stealthily quiet as a barn cat on the hunt. Exiting the building and moving down the drainpipe across the roof was becoming second nature for Amos along with stopping and pausing at vantage points along the way to look for anyone that might spot him.

  In order to avoid trouble Amos took the bus to the stop in front of the restaurant and since he was twenty minutes early, he chose to ride for another ten minutes then he crossed the street and rode the bus back arriving in front of Giorgio’s at three ten pm.

  As the bus pulled away, its engine groaning and the airbrakes hissing as they released their grip Amos suddenly felt a wave of nausea accompanied by a sudden, desperate urge to pee. His chest had tightened and his breathing was becoming more and more rapid. His eyes winced from the sunlight and his ears were starting to make everything around him echo with a hollow ring. Stop it, stop it Amos told himself, it is just fear, ignore it, think about what you have to do. His first problem, his only problem as far as he knew, was the owner Giorgio. Amos was counting on the gun.

  Who will argue with a loaded gun? If I need to, I shoot once into the floor by his feet and then he will know I mean business. It seemed to make sense, but Amos also knew that it was probably too simple, and it probably was not a great plan but what else could he do? Get inside, get the gun on Giorgio and get the kids out of the restaurant. Don’t shoot unless you have to and keep your back to the wall and Amos scowled at himself and then what? You don’t know what you are doing so let’s hope you can handle the “then what”.

  His left hand reached out to the tarnished doorknob, it was warm from the bright spring sunlight but the touch of it still sent a cold shock up Amos’s arm. He took a deep breath, fought down the urge to suddenly pee and pushed the door open and stepped into a dimly lit dining room. His heart was pounding, and his ears began to produce the low echo that sounded like rushing water, so much so he barely heard the jingle of the bell above the door as it closed behind him. He did, however, hear the bellow from the kitchen that came immediately after the sound of the door closing.

  “Why is the door unlocked? We’re closed right now so you can come back at….” the voice came from a large, heavy-set man with a dark fleshy stubble on his cheek and large belly straining behind the buttons of a worn and stained dress shirt. As he came out of the kitchen he focused on Amos at the door and immediately narrowed his eyes and for a brief moment let his mouth hang slightly open.

  It did not take long for him to start moving it again. “Who the hell are you, how did you get in here, what the hell do you want?” The big man started moving toward Amos but probably slower than he might have normally because he was still holding a large mug in his hand as he did so.

  Amos pulled out the gun as he braced his feet in his shooting position. “Stop there, don’t come any closer” his voice sounded higher and thinner than normal to him, but he wasn’t planning to use his voice to stop the big man if it came to that. “Where’d ya get that shooter kid?” Giorgio said as he slowed down and held his hand out and away from his body. “You’d best be careful; ya might shoot yourself.”

  “STOP right there, don’t come any closer” Amos was fighting to stay calm and focused. The big man had slowed down a lot, but he was still walking slowly toward Amos with his hands and the big mug held out from his sides in the “I mean you no harm” pose. Don’t let him come any closer, get ready to shoot Amos bent his elbows and braced himself to shoot.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “You don’t want to rob me kid, we haven’t had any customers yet, no money here. Put the gun down and I’ll give you a plate of Pasta no hard feeli…. whoa” the big man appeared to catch his foot on a chair leg and started to trip. He’s going too slow to trip the thought flashed across Amos’s mind and then he saw a sudden movement from the big man. Giorgio had been holding his mug out in order to get his arm cocked and ready to launch the contents of the cup in one quick motion.

  The black coffee was flung from the big, chipped mug and arced up at Amos catching him on the way down in the neck and the side of his head and splashing across his eyes. Amos stumbled back, not sure if he should shoot and trying to blink the coffee out of his eyes. Luckily for him the coffee was not quite hot enough to burn but it did blind him for a few seconds which was enough time for the large man to lunge forward and grab his forearms with both hands. The hands were large, rough and calloused and very strong.

  In one motion Giorgio squeezed his fingers tightly around the smaller boy’s forearms and jerked them and the gun violently up so it was pointing away and at the ceiling. Amos was now almost dangling in the air hanging from the big man’s grip while he was trying to hold onto the gun.

  “Let go you little bugger, let go now” the big man lifted Amos and the gun even higher, and Amos’s feet were struggling to touch the floor. I won’t be able to move, I’m going to lose this battle, but I can’t let go, I can’t…... a deep, solid thud came next as Giorgio suddenly leaned forward and headbutted Amos. He had seen it coming at the last moment and managed to lean his back and to the side, but he still caught a fierce glancing blow that stunned him mightily. Amos’s grip weakened on the gun and Giorgio grabbed it and wrenched it away with one hand while tossing Amos to the floor with the other.

  Amos crashed into the front wall of the restaurant, his vision was blurry, and his ears were ringing. He looked up to see the big man standing in front of him, his chest heaving with his dirty dress shirt half pulled out from underneath a worn braided belt that was holding up his pants. “If you are going ta stick a gun in someone’s face ya best be ready to use it” Giorgio said between big breaths of air. “I’m really tempted to use it right now but first I think I’m gonna find out some more about you. I bet you’ve still got some surprises for me.”

  In the next moment Giorgio did get a huge surprise but it was not from Amos. As the young boy’s vision cleared and the last remnants of coffee dripped down his forehead and landed on his chest, Amos saw a sudden movement behind the big man. A large heavy pan appeared from just behind Giorgio and then swung down on its side where the edge of the pan connected with the meaty forearm that was holding the gun.

  It was a lucky blow and because his arm was turned up to hold the gun, the heavy pan connected directly with the bony part of the wrist. At the moment of impact there was a thud, a clatter a second later from the gun falling on the scarred wooden floor and then a curse from Giorgio.

  He turned to face his assailant and was confronted with Alanah swinging the pan up and over her head for a second blow. Thwack, the big man shielded his head with the fleshy part of his arm this time but still managed a couple of harsh curses before grabbing Alanah by her hair with one hand and the saucepan with the other. “How dare you” he roared as he spun around to face Amos again while jerking and dragging the much smaller girl with him as he did.

  While this moment of chaos lasted just a few seconds it was enough for Amos to act. He did not have to repeat to himself Do the most important thing first, he did it on instinct and willpower alone. A surge of adrenaline gave Amos a huge burst of energy giving him his speed advantage back over the much older and slower man. He knew it was better not to scramble to look for the gun, it was much safer not to take his eyes off of the threat and he knew he had another weapon at his disposal that he was not afraid to use.

  Giorgio watched the boy get to his feet and come at him, he also spied the gun several feet away under a nearby table and he smiled as he threw the girl to the floor off to the side. He would beat this foolish boy first and then her. “Come ere ya little bas….huuugnnhh” he managed to wheeze as his left knee seemed to just explode in pain.

  The boy had ducked low and swung his arm at his legs, but he hadn’t even been close when suddenly the big man had seen a flash of silver appear out of nowhere before smashing into his leg. He staggered back and into a table and while fighting for balance he threw his arms behind him to grab at something stable leaving himself wide open.

  Amos swung with speed, accuracy and a deliberate pattern. He had learned in the process of destroying several boxes and crates that if he swung first one way and then back the other way he could double the speed of his strikes with little effect on his aim or power. In fact, against the big chef his backhand strokes did the most damage. “Thwack” the first backhand caught the side of his other knee. “Thud” this time his forward blow landed right into the fleshy part of his thigh. With a deep grunt Giorgio dove toward Amos but the difference in speed and reflexes still fueled heavily by adrenaline were far too great.

  With a graceful leap backwards Amos managed to land a backhand blow on the side of the big fleshy head sprawled in front of him and then another sharp blow on the big back just below the shoulder. Giorgio howled in pain and gasped for breath while muttering curses. As he started to push himself up off the floor Amos yelled “stay down” and swung the solid metal ball at the end of his baton into the side of his ribcage. “Stay down” Amos panted again, the vast amount of adrenaline he had dumped at once now leaving his system and leaving him extremely fatigued. With another grunt Giorgio started to rise again when suddenly the floor next to his head exploded in a shower of dust and splinters.

  The shot rang through Amos’s ears and made his pounding headache much worse. He looked past Giorgio and saw that Alanah had managed to get up, she had retrieved the gun and fired what he hoped had been a warning shot at the floor. “Stay down fatso” her voice rang out in the empty dining room. “I would love to shoot you so just try your luck.” Still shaking off the cobwebs and fighting the effects of his adrenaline dump Amos managed to process what should be done next.

  “Don’t hesitate to shoot him if he moves again” he said, “aim with both hands right in the middle of his back and you won’t miss.” He moved around the outstretched man until he got to his feet. “If you try and move, I will smash your spine with the rod” he said with a calm and even voice “and I will do it again and again.”

  Giorgio had not moved much since the gunshot. He too was suffering the aftereffects of an adrenaline dump but he was almost forty years older, and he was in terrible shape. Add to that the beating he had taken from the rod and all of the remaining will to fight had disappeared from the big man. Get him secure, get the restaurant secure. Amos reached into his pocket and with the baton dangling from its wrist strap he managed to fasten a long black zip tie tight around the chef’s thick ankles.

  “Your wrists next” Amos said but the big man resisted “I’m too banged up to do that, you wrecked my shoulder.” Amos hesitated, considered his options and then gave the big man a light tap on the back of his head. “The next one will be serious, hands behind your back.”

  After cursing and rolling from side to side like a beached whale Giorgio managed to position his wrists behind his back where Amos tied them, twice, just in case. After that he moved to lock the front door and then turned to take stock of the situation. The big chef was lying on his side and moaning slightly, Alanah stood over him with the gun still aimed at the middle of his back.

  “Are you okay” Amos called out. “Better than okay” was her immediate reply. “Who else is here?” She said, “Just me and the two boys” she said not taking her eyes off the man on the floor. Amos moved to the window and looked up and down the street, “no one seems to have heard the shot” he said. “If they did, it would not have been the first one they’ve ever heard in this neighborhood that’s for sure” came her reply.