Noble Intentions: Season Two (Episodes 6-10) by L.T. Ryan Read Free Book Online

over dinner tonight? Our place?” It felt natural to invite their elderly neighbor into his home. And Bear found it strange that it felt so natural.
    Mr. Jones smiled and nodded. “Thank you, son.”
    Bear smiled back and squeezed Mandy’s hand in his own. He looked around the bank lobby at the customers and the tellers and personal bankers. He realized that he knew half the people in there. He had never known or felt a sense of community before. He took a deep breath and let the calm of the room wash over him. He felt relaxed. He felt at ease. He felt that they had found a place they could call home. A place he could raise Mandy. A place where their pasts could not find them.
    Maybe it was the calm. Maybe it was the sense of community. Maybe it was the relaxed feeling. Whatever it was, Bear didn’t realize until it was too late that the five men who had just entered the bank were wearing ski masks and were armed and were shouting at everyone to get down on the ground.
    And when he and Mr. Jones didn’t get down right away, the man in the middle fired a single shot. The single shot hit Mr. Jones in the back. He fell forward into Bear’s arms and Bear lowered himself and Mr. Jones to the ground.
     

9
    Feng lay on his back and stared up at the ceiling. The TV played in the background on a twenty-four hour news station. The same thirty minute feed had played for the past two hours. He tuned it out and counted spots and stains and water marks on the ceiling. A knock at the door broke his concentration.
    He got up and walked to the door.
    “Who is it?”
    “Fletcher. Open up.”
    The old man flipped the lock to the left and pulled back the security latch. He opened the door and nodded at Fletcher.
    “Time to go.”
    Feng turned to gather his things.
    “Leave everything. Get it when you come back.”
    “We’ll be returning then?”
    Fletcher shrugged.
    “Right, then. Well I need to gather the documents your boss needs then, don’t I?”
    “Grab only the documents. And hurry.” Fletcher stepped into the room to prevent the door from shutting.
    The old man grabbed his briefcase, sunglasses and his jacket. He pushed past Fletcher and stopped in the hall. Fletcher let the door slam shut and led Feng down the hall to the elevator. They entered the elevator, rode down to the lobby and then crossed the empty entranceway. A black Range Rover waited outside the hotel lobby’s front doors.
    As they pushed through the front doors, a man got out of the front passenger seat and opened the back door.
    “No limo this time?” Feng asked.
    Fletcher didn’t respond. He held his arm out and gestured for the old man to take a seat.
    Feng climbed into the backseat and strapped the seatbelt over his shoulder. He said nothing to the men in the front of the car and they said nothing to him.
    Fletcher opened the other back door and climbed in behind the driver’s seat. He strapped in and placed a pistol on his lap.
    “It should go without saying,” Fletcher said. “But don’t try anything. I will shoot.”
    The old man felt his cheeks grow hot and his eyelids narrowed. He bit back the anger. He’d make sure Fletcher would pay for the way he had treated him. But now was not the time and Feng was not a young man. He couldn’t take on Fletcher by himself. He had men who would handle it for him. Or maybe even bring Fletcher back to New York so he could show him just how gracious a host he could be. Feng’s reach and control over so many were what made him powerful. Not brute strength.
    They drove west on I-88 and merged onto I-80 heading westbound at the Illinois and Iowa border. They drove for another ninety minutes and exited short of Des Moines on a road that Feng didn’t catch the name of. He did see a sign for Newton, Iowa, though the name meant nothing to him. A little while later he saw a white sign with a black border and with the number fourteen painted in black. They crossed a mile long bridge over a lake and then two