RANSOM (6 page)

  
If he supports his mother then he can’t be that bad of a guy. What made him stoop to kidnapping?

  
“Seeing as how it’s your family’s fault.”

  
“A desperate man will do drastic things to care of those he loves.”

  
I have to know what Lynkin thinks my father has done to him. I take a deep breath for courage and open the bathroom door. Jennifer and Lynkin are sitting at the table.

  
“What do…?” Before I can even get the question out, Lynkin interrupts.

  
“Jennifer is going to stay here with you for a couple of hours,” he states as he stands up.

  
“Where are you going?” Jennifer and I both ask.

  
He glares at me and says, “Don’t worry about it.”

  
“I have to be at work in an hour. You can’t just leave.”

   “Fine I’ll be back before your shift then. I just need to get out for a while,” Lynkin explains with a wink.

   She gives in then and sinks back into her chair. I, on the other hand, am not going to give up so easily. “You can’t leave me here with, with…her,” I say pointing over at her.

   “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Jen asks, now on her feet in a defensive position.

   “It means I don’t want to be stuck in this room with someone like you.” I say.

   “Please, do
tell. What does ‘someone like me’ mean?”

   “A girl with no
respect for herself.” I motion at her up and down. “Look at how you dress. Then, take in account that you are willing to throw your entire life away for someone like Lynkin, just so he will pay you some attention.”

    “You BITCH!” Jennifer screams at me as she, yet again, charges for me. Lynkin grabs her by the elbow and guides her butt back in her chair. The whole time her anger filled eyes stay on me.

   “Do you want beaten to a pulp? Because I’m starting to think so!” he yells so loud that I jump. I shake my head no at him, and he lets out a bitter laugh. “I guess we will find out soon enough, huh? Jen, try not to hurt her. I’ll be back.” Then, he turns and walks out the door without as much as a backwards glance.

   I pull my eyes from the door and back to Jennifer. Now, I wished I hadn’t. The look she is giving me went from angry to completely ruthless in the matter of seconds.

   I open and close my mouth several times before words can come out. “Lynkin said not to hurt me,” I point out.

   “He said to
try
not to hurt you, and I am
trying
very fucking hard.”

   “Yeah, I can see. Look I wasn’t trying to piss you off. It’s just me. I am brutally honest.”

   “You mean you’re such a heartless bitch that you don’t care who you hurt?” she asks.

   “Some would say so.”

   “I say so.”

   I let out a laugh because she sounds just like Amanda. “So does my best friend, Amanda. She is always telling me to cool it on the honesty.”

   “I like her already!” she states.

    I slide down the wall to the floor and fold my arms around my knees. “Yeah, she is pretty awesome.”

Lynkin

The trip to the bar is a blank. I don’t remember getting in the car or any of the turns it took to get here. But here I am, sitting on this hard-as-hell stool with shots of Jack in front of me. It’s five o’clock on a Sunday and I am here, but I am not the only one. The town nut job, Merle, is here, too. That doesn’t make me feel any better.

   I take one shot, then another, and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. I look over the place that I worked all through college. It hasn’t changed much at all in the two years I have been away. Away working my ass off for a good life, and now it is all gone. I slam my fist hard against the top of the bar. Whiskey comes splashing out of the shot glasses that I haven’t downed yet. I’m not going there. I came here to forget, even if just for a little while. Down goes another shot.

   “Boy, you look like you are about to cause some trouble.” I jerk my head only to find crazy Merle standing next to me. “I’ll be damned, it’s Lynkin Conner!” he slurs as he throws his hands in the air, nearly knocking himself over, but luckily there is a stool behind him that he just sits down on.

   “Hello, Merle,” I grind out.

   “What are you beating up on this sad bar top for?” he asks and leans over inspecting the spot where my knuckles put an indention in the old wood. “What’d it ever do to you?”

   “Not a damn thing.” I don’t give him any more than that. I know if I give him an inch, he will run a mile with it and I am not in the mood to deal with his shit right now.

   “
Ya know, drinking doesn’t solve your problems, don’t ya, son?”

   “Yes, I am aware, sir,” I reply.

  “Then what are you doing?” he asks seriously.

   “To be honest, I’m not sure what I am doing anymore, sir,” I say honestly.

   He lets out a laugh. “Sir. You are the only person that has ever called me that in this town.” He looks distant for a minute then continues, “I will give you the best advice I ever received in my life.”

   He pats me once on the back and that’s when I know I might as well give in. He isn’t leaving me alone with my alcohol. “What’s that old man?”

   “Forget it!” he exclaims.

   I shake my head at him and laugh. “Real good advice.”

   “Well that is just scratching the surface of the advice, son.”

   “Ok, then elaborate on it, please.”

   “The things that piss you off or get you down, they are the proverbial shit in your life. Just drop it and move on, because it’s not worth the time you will lose stressing over it. Life is short. Make it worthwhile, because you only get one shot at it,” he explains.

   I know he means well, but this is the kind of thing I have heard my whole life. Life is short, live it while you’re young. Mistakes are just lessons to learn from. Blah, blah, blah. “I hear you.” Is all I say to him and turn back to wave down the bartender on
shift.

   “No, you don’t. It’s ok though, because you will soon enough,” he says with a pat to my back. Then, he stands up and walks out of the bar. Well, more like staggers out.

   The bartender wipes the counter off and places two full shot glasses in front of me. From the corner of my eye, I see someone walking up to me. I take one of the shots before I brave a look over my shoulder at the person. I’m not in the mood for company, but apparently no one gets that. I turn around and snap out, “What?”

   “Oh, I’m sorry Lynkin. I was just coming over to say hi while I was on my break. But, I’ll just leave
ya alone,” a pretty brunette waitress says as she pulls the apron back over her head.

   As she grabs the strings to tie around her back I stop her. “No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be so rude. Just not having a really good day.”

   “Really, its fine I need to get back to work anyways, Lynkin,” she replies.

   “No, see it’s not fine. It isn’t enough that I snapped at you, but it seems that you know me but I don’t remember you. And that makes it worse.”

   “Oh. You really don’t remember me?” She pauses to sigh. “I’m Sam. You know. The ‘new girl in town.’”

   “The new girl in town? This town hasn’t had anyone new in five years.” I say.

   “That’s exactly why I am still called the new girl.”

   “Sam? Oh, hell. You’ve grown a lot since I last saw you.” I mean this girl went from pigtails and braces to short shorts and a barely there tank top. She looks good. “Are you even old enough to work in here?”

   “Yes, I turned 18 a couple of months ago. Anyways, I’ve got to get back to work before Jennifer gets here in ten minutes. My shift is over at eleven if you want to come back and maybe get something to eat together,” she says with a blush.

   “I would love to, but I really can’t. Wait, did you just say Jen’s shift starts in ten minutes?” I ask her.

   “Um, yeah.”

  
I take the last shot and race out the door. I reach in my pocket for my keys when I get to my black four door jeep, the last piece of my hard work I have left. And that’s not because I get to keep her. Nope. It’s because they haven’t come to take her from me, yet.  I really shouldn’t be driving it with all that I had to drink in there, but then again what does it matter? It won’t be mine soon, anyway.

   Fuck it. I run my hand over the hood as I make my way to my door. I might as well enjoy her while I have her, and if that means they get it wrecked, so be it. I turn the key over and listen to her roar to life. The wheel vibrates under my hand when I rev up the engine, and adrenaline pushes through my veins. What a high. I put it in drive and floor it, kicking up dirt from the parking lot. I leave behind nothing but a dust cloud blocking out the lights from the bar.

   What the hell am I doing? I can’t believe I have stooped to the level of kidnapping. What do I really expect to get out of this? That Carl Donovan is just going to hand over his money and that Sage isn’t going to go telling everyone who was holding her? That’s wishful thinking. All I can get out of all this is jail time and disappointing my mom.

   With the gas pedal to the floor, I don’t even take the time to stop or even look when I bust through red lights or stop signs.  If this whole thing doesn’t work out I am no use to my mother anyway. All the hard work was for nothing. I am right back to this one horse town and back to not being able to support my mother. I will never be able to amount to anything, no matter what I do. These past three years are just proof of that. Sure, mom will be devastated that I am gone but she is tough. She’ll survive. Plus, Jen will look in on her for me.

   All of a sudden, the car jerks to the right and I am spinning uncontrollably. It takes me a minute but eventually I get it righted and to a stop. I jump out of the car and look around to see what happened. There is no one else around. I walk up to the road and check it out for anything I could have hit to make the car jerk like it did. All I find is a big ass pothole. It is so big, that I am surprised the jeep didn’t flip.

   “That’d do it,” I say to myself and make my way back to the car. I walk around it to make sure there is no damage done to it, and I’ll be damned if there isn’t a flat fucking tire. “Just fucking great!”

   Now, I am going to be really late getting back. I won’t have the chance to go out in an adrenaline blaze of glory after Jen gets ahold of me for making her late. Life fucking sucks. I hall back and kick the side panel with all I got. It feels so good that that I end up kicking it a few more times, leaving the panel completely caved in.

   Once my complete ragger is over, I get the tools and spare tire from the trunk and get to work changing it. It ends up making my anger worse, because the jack keeps sinking in the dirt and it takes me another half an hour to find something I can place under it.

   It’s already two hours past the time Jen was supposed to be at the bar when I pull into the motel parking lot. I don’t rush getting out and going inside. I know what’s waiting for me in there. The same thing that caused me to leave. One girl that I would do anything for because she is my best friend and always has been there for me, and another girl- no, woman that- that can fuck my emotions all to hell in the blink of a damn eye. And the both of them are ready to tear out each other’s throats.

   I hesitate with my hand on the door knob, not ready to really delve into the ass chewing I am about to get from Jen for possibly making her lose her job. I suck it up and push open the door. I’m sure if my jaw could hit the floor it would have when I see the two of them sitting cross legged on the bed smiling at each other. Not only that, but Sage’s hair is wet like she got out of the shower and is wearing one of my damn flannel button up tops.

   However, the smiles on their faces fall when they see me. The hostility they throw my way is like being the only Tennessee football fan in a house full of Georgia fans. Not good.

   “Where the hell have you been? I had to be at work 2 hours ago!” Jen yells from her spot on the bed.

   “I’m sorry, the car had a blowout and I had to change the damn tire out in Mr. Johnson’s field,” I explain.