Revenge (4 page)

The town was dark as he rode through.  The shops were all closed, the houses dark.  The electric clock at the bank told him it was almost half past ten.  It had taken him much longer to get here than it should have, but he hadn’t gone in a straight line.  He wanted to make sure he wasn’t being followed.  He also found that the closer he got to Calumet, the less he wanted to return.  Five miles out of town he had almost turned around, but he had passed Old Stewart’s farm.  What had once been a large house and a shining example of American knowhow had decayed and looked like the most haunted house in the state.  Mercer was gripped in desperate need to know what else had gone wrong in the last ten years.

The further he got into town the more his memories betrayed him.  Every landmark from his youth was decayed, falling apart, a ghastly reminder of the time that had passed.  The garage where he and Specs had built their first bikes had all its windows broken and the front door was kicked in.  Denny Swanson’s house was gone, replaced by a dingy looking convenience store called the Qwik Pak.  The lights in the sign had mostly burned out, only half the name was illuminated.  

He rode on, feeling worse about returning.  It was a mistake and he knew it.  It was too late to leave for another town now.  He had been riding all day and was exhausted.  He decided to stay just one night and leave in the morning.  No one would even know he had been here.
 

He wanted a drink before bed and the only lights were coming from a downtown bar called Stax.  Mercer remembered it, but it had a different name he couldn’t remember.  He just remembered trying to buy beer there when was sixteen and getting kicked out, the owner threatening to call the cops.

He parked his bike at the curb and decided to stop in for a drink and maybe something to eat if the kitchen was open.  He could ask the bartender where the best hotel was, or maybe even find someone who didn’t hate him so he could get a couch to sleep on.  When he walked in he was speechless to find Danni Endris behind the bar.

She stared at him, not believing what she was seeing.
 
Finally, she said, “Mercer Hawthorne.
 
Son of a bitch.”

“Danni.
 
Damn, it’s been a long time.”

She came around the bar and hugged him.
 
Danni kept her arms around him, but pulled back to get a good look at him.
 
He smiled at her.
 
She slapped him in the face.

“What the fuck?”

She walked back to the bar and poured two beers.
 
He walked over and grabbed one, drinking half of it in a single gulp.

“That was for ten goddamn years.
 
That was for leaving in the middle of the goddamn night.
 
That was for never calling me, not once, to tell me you were OK.”

She picked up her beer and downed it as well, then refilled both glasses.

“You’re right,” he said.
 
“I deserve a lot more than that.”

“Yeah, you do,” she said.
 
Then she calmly added, “But I figure you hurt yourself plenty. You don’t need any more from me.”
 
She was right, but Mercer said nothing.
 
She continued, “Where you been?”

He leaned against the bar, but didn’t sit down.
 
He had been riding all day, it felt good to stretch everything out.
 
“All over.
 
Mostly out west.”

“That’s as specific as you’re going to get?”

“For now, yeah.” But he smiled when he said it, which got a smile out of her, too.
 
He gave her a long going over.
 
She was grown up now and looked great.
 
Older, but still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
 
“You got anything to eat around here?”

She shook her head, but the smile remained on her face.
 
“Walk back in here after all this time and you ask for something to eat.
 
Kitchen’s closed, but let me see what we got.”

She headed to the back. Mercer walked around the bar, picked out the nicest bottle of bourbon the bar had, and grabbed a couple of glasses.
 
He poured one for each of them.
 
Danni came back out with a cold chicken sandwich and placed it on the bar.
 
Mercer handed her a glass of bourbon.

“To Specs,” he said.

They clinked glasses and took a drink.

“Are you back for good?” she asked.

“No, but I don’t know how long I’m going to be staying.”

Danni walked to the door, turned out all the lights except the ones over the bar, and locked the door.
 
She didn’t think anyone else was going to show up now, but if they did, she didn’t want their conversation to be interrupted.
 
Especially if anyone in this town still held a grudge against Mercer.

Mercer ate his sandwich and took another drink of beer.
 
She asked, “You got money?
 
That shit ain’t free.”

“I got a little.” He reached for his wallet.

“I’m joking, you idiot.
 
It’s on the house.”

Mercer finished his sandwich and beer.
 
Danni poured them each another bourbon.
 
After another drink, she felt the warmth spread through her again.
 
It felt good.
 
It felt good having Mercer standing next to her again.
 
She thought back to ten years ago, and wondered for half a second what life would’ve been like if he hadn’t left, but that wasn’t the way to think about things.
 
He had to leave, she knew that, but she still couldn’t help but wonder.

Mercer said, “Like I was saying, I have money, but not that much.
 
I was wondering…”

“Hell, no,” snapped Danni.

“You don’t even know what I was going to ask.”

“Yes, I do.
 
You were going to ask to stay with me.
 
My boyfriend wouldn’t be very happy if I brought home some guy, especially if that guy smelled like exhaust and leather.

Danni wondered to herself why she had to lie about having a boyfriend.
 
She could have just said he wasn’t welcome, but she needed that extra part to make sure he didn’t bat those gorgeous eyes at her and before she knew, it she’d be agreeing to anything he said.

“OK, it’s no problem.
 
Maybe I can call Larry.
 
He still likes me, I think.”

Danni shook her head. “Yeah, he probably did before he was killed in that car crash three years ago.”

“Shit, I didn’t know.”

“Yeah, Mercer.
 
That’s the kind of stuff you miss when you aren’t around.”

The nice feelings of his return were evaporating and the anger at his leaving was rising.
 
Mercer knew if he stayed around they’d have to talk about everything, about why he left, and he just didn’t have the energy.
 

He finished his bourbon. “I’m going to find a hotel.
 
Anything around here that’s cheap and kind of clean?

“The Camelot is about a mile up the road.
 
I heard it’s OK.”

Mercer thanked her for the food and drinks and went to the door.
 
He opened it, but turned back before leaving.
 
“It’s really good to see you, Danni.
 
I mean that.
 
I’ll stop by if you’re working tomorrow.”

“If you don’t leave in the middle of the night again, you mean.”

“I’m not going anywhere.
 
Not yet.”

He walked out into the cool night and shut the door behind him.
 
He reached for his cigarettes and lit one up.
 
He was glad he’d parked around the corner.
 
He was able to smoke his cigarette in silence, without hanging out in front looking like a stalker.
 

He’d meant it when he said it was good to see her.
 
It was even better than he thought it would be.
 
She really did look great. He realized there were a lot of old feelings coming to the surface.

When his cigarette was done, he rode down to the Camelot.
 
It was the big, gaudy highway hotel with a giant neon sign in the front.
 
Mercer decided he’d ask for a room around back.
 
That light looked like it would shine through curtains, no matter how thick they were.

After checking in and getting a room key, he rolled his bike around back and walked up to the second floor.
 
He passed by a few rooms. One of them had left their curtains open slightly.
 
He couldn’t resist peeking in and seeing what the people were doing.
 
He saw a naked woman on the bed, on all fours with her legs spread wide.
 
There was a man in just a shirt behind her, giving it to her good.
 
Through the window, Mercer heard wet, smacking sounds.
 
Judging from the moans and shrieks, they were having a good time.

Just then, the woman looked over and saw him standing in the window.
 

“Oh my God, someone’s out there!” she yelled.
 
“What if it’s my husband?”

Mercer quickly moved away from the window.
 
He really didn’t need two fights in one day, nor did he want to be known as the motel pervert who peered in people’s windows.
 

He found his room a few doors down from the ice machine.
 
He turned on a light, illuminating a dreary little room.
 
The yellow wallpaper was peeling and the shower looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in a long time.

He sat on the hard bed and took his jacket off.
 
He ran his hands along the hem of the jacket and pulled.
 
The tight Velcro gave away, and he reached inside the lining to pull out a small cloth sack, about the size of a letter envelope.
 
He checked to make sure the contents were still there.
 

Thankfully, everything was secure.
 
He needed to count it properly.
 
Now that he was finally in a room, alone, he could do that.
 
There was at least a hundred thousand dollars in the bag, and as long as he kept away from Tank and the others, it was all his.

D
anni closed up the bar and decided to walk home.
 
It would take her about twenty minutes, but she’d had more to drink with Mercer than she meant to, so she really needed the night air to clear her head.
 

Mercer Hawthorne was back in Calumet, back in her life, for the first time in ten years.
 
She felt bad about some of the things she’d said to him, especially just before he left.
 
She hadn’t meant to do that.
 
She knew why he left and she didn’t blame him.
 
After Specs died, she knew he couldn’t stay.
 
She could pretend to be mad because he never called or visited, but she knew that wasn’t right.
 
No, she was mad because he didn’t take her with him.
 

Yes, she had been in high school when he left.
 
Mercer and Specs had just graduated and she was about to enter her senior year, so taking a minor across state lines probably wouldn’t have been the best idea for Mercer… but he could have asked.
 
He could have said something, anything, to her before leaving.
 
Hell, he could have come back after a year and taken her away.
 
She’d half expected him to.

On the day of her high school graduation, she thought maybe there was a chance Mercer would come riding back into town on that beat-up old Honda 500.
 
She would toss her diploma to the side, get on the back of his bike, and take off.
 
She even imagined everyone staring at them as they left, watching her graduation gown flap in the wind as she pulled it off and threw it in the air.
 
Of course, that didn’t happen.
 
Instead, she graduated, went to a stupid party full of people she didn’t want to see, and went home to her mother’s house.
 

Halfway home, the wind blew cold and she decided she didn’t want to be alone that night.
 
She thought of calling Mercer.
 
What would he do if she called him up and told him he’d better get to her place and be naked when she arrived?
 
He’d probably be too stunned to say anything.
 
They had never been together.
 
She was Specs’ girl until the day he died and if she was being completely honest with herself, she was his girl long after he died.

But she knew there was always something between them.
 
Both Specs and Mercer were after her, but they were best friends, closer than any two people had ever been, so Mercer backed off when he realized Specs was interested.
 
He let his best friend get the girl so it didn’t hurt their friendship.
 
Then Specs died, Mercer was gone, and she was left to pick up the pieces and live her life in Calumet.
 
There was no use wondering what would’ve happened if she had started dating Mercer in the beginning, if Specs hadn’t gotten killed, or if she’d somehow managed to leave this town behind.