Reckoning

by R. S. Broadhead

  “Reese?” Fuzz’s soft voice startled me.

  “Sorry. I didn’t hear you come in,” I said, wiping snot from my nose.

  “I knocked, but you didn’t come to the door, so I let myself in. You should really lock those doors.” I nodded and hung my head. He sat beside me and pulled me into his arms.

  “Whatever this is, will be okay. Did somethin’ happened with you and Steele? I haven’t seen him all day.” The mention of his name made me wail. Fuzz rubbed my back gently. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  “I’m not good for him, Fuzz.”

  “What are you talkin’ about? You’re perfect together.” I pulled away and met eyes with him.

  “I might hurt him one day. That’s why I can’t be there.” He shifted and narrowed his eyes.

  “Why, in the world, would you think you might hurt him?”

  “I don’t know …” It was killing me not to tell him. “Last night I found out some information that might help with Derek.” I explained my night in detail as he listened intently.

  “So this woman said you have somethin’ in you? Is that why you think you might hurt someone?” he asked. I didn’t reply and he must have taken that as a yes. “I’m sure you don’t have anything bad in you.”

  “I don’t want it in me. I just wanna be normal. I can’t be a monster. There are so many things tryin’ to kill me … I don’t wanna die, Fuzz!” Fear of death was something I should have given up when I started training. Death wasn’t a reality until Liam died in front of us. I cried for hours over everything and Fuzz never left my side.

  “You’re exhausted. You should get some sleep,” he said while he covered me with the comforter. “But before I go, I want you to have my necklace. It’ll keep you safe.”

  “How?”

  “It keeps you off the radar. Nothing will be able to locate you. I also brought you a house warming present. Figured it would be a good thing to have since Derek didn’t seem to like it at Shayla’s loft.” A white LaModa sat on the window seal.

  “Thank you.”

  He smiled down at me as he stood. “We’ll talk tomorrow. If I can’t convince you to move back to the training camp, I guess I’ll have to come here to help you keep up your training.”

  After he left, sleeping was hard. The haunting images from my childhood, the woman at Cry Baby Bridge, and the talk of my time coming soon had me on edge. This was the first time I was alone all night since all this started. Every sound made me jump. I turned all the lights on and tried to sleep.

  The next morning Fuzz called, and we set up a time for him to come over each day. Since my apartment was nearly empty, it would be an easy place for us to train. He brought over some weapons, targets, and dummies that afternoon.

  “I’m having some furniture sent over here. If you’re staying, I’d, at least, like for you to be comfortable.” I was lucky to have him take care of me the way he did. This was an inconvenience, but he was working with me.

  “Thank you.” I paused, trying to decide if I should ask the next question. “How is he today?”

  “He looked like he didn’t sleep any last night. About like you do right now. Stayed in his room or down in the martial arts room most of the day.” I didn’t want to hear that. I needed him to be fine with this. Fuzz and I spared after he showed me some new moves. It felt good to do something I had grown to love.

  “The training you asked me about … with the senses,” he said.

  “Yeah?”

  “We need to wait. In order to work with you on that, you need to have a clear, level head. You don’t have that with everything goin’ on right now. So, I thought about it last night, and I’m pulling you back from missions. Training and personal matters are what you need to focus on right now. You need to be ready to learn this stuff, and it isn’t gonna happen until you’re ready for it.”

  “I understand.”

  That night Shayla, Dax, and Savannah came over to see my apartment. I tried to tell them I didn’t want company to keep them away, but they refused to believe that. All of them knew about my break-up with Steele. They complained about having to sit on the floor, but after we had a few shots of the Jack Daniels Dax brought over, they didn’t seem to mind any more. It was good to have them around.

  I continued to adjust to living on my own over the next several months. Fuzz came over everyday to help me train, and my apartment slowly started to look like a home, but nights were never easy. I stared at pictures of Ollie and me on my phone and cried myself to sleep. My sleep was filled with nightmares, which in most cases, I would wake up screaming.

  The humidity of summer made it almost unbearable to go outside. I hadn’t gone back to the training camp since that horrible morning we ended our relationship.

  My cell rang, as I watched a recorded episode of the Bad Girls Club. I paused it and glanced at the caller ID. “What’s up, Dax Newsome?”

  “Not much. What are you up to tonight? I’m bored as shit here.”

  “Shayla is supposed to come over and hang out. You’re more than welcome to come over too, if you want.” There was a pause, and I heard voices in the background.

  “Oh, so Shayla is comin’ over, huh? That’s sounds like an awesome time, Reese.” With the way he said our names, I knew Jace and Steele were the voices. “I’ll be over around six. Be ready to get sloppy tonight.”

  “Okay, Dax. See you at six.”

  Promptly at six, there was a knock at my door, and Dax stood on the other side of it holding a bottle of Crown. “Dax, you’re my new hero for bringing some booze,” Shayla exclaimed from the living room.

  “I didn’t think you were serious about the drinkin’ part …” I said as he came in and went straight for the kitchen.

  “Hell yeah I was serious. Y’all have been sooo borin’ since you split with those two. It’s time to livin’ things up. I bet you haven’t even drank anything in this apartment since that first night we came over, have you?” I scrunched my face and shook my head. “Damn skippy, we’re about to get crunk up in here tonight.”

  “Dax, you know I’m down,” Shayla said as she entered the kitchen.

  “Cheers,” he said as we tapped our glasses together. We downed our shots. It burned going all the way down. It was a feeling that was long overdue.

  “So when I got off the phone with you today, Jace and Steele were tryin’ to ask some questions about what I was doin’.”

  “What did they say?” Shayla asked, pouring another shot.

  “Well, they were tryin’ to act like they weren’t listening to me on the phone. They asked what I was gonna do tonight. When I said I was comin’ to hang out with y’all, they were like, ‘Oh, yeah. How have they been?’ I said you two were doin’ awesome and that I was meetin’ some dudes y’all had been hanging out with. Of course, Steele knows it isn’t Sim because he’s been stuck at that place unless he leaves with someone.”

  “Why would you tell him that, Dax?” I asked. I didn’t want him to think I was with someone else. I didn’t want to hurt him any more than I already had.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t think he needed to know you mope around here all day.” He had a point. If he knew that, he might stop by. “But the problem is I said we might be goin’ to The Pine tonight not thinkin’ they’d say anything about it, but they kinda said they might see us there. I think they wanna see who you’re there with.”

  “Well, that’s just peachy fuckin’ keen, Dax! Where are we supposed to get some random dudes from to make them jealous?” Shayla asked. Dax shrugged.

  “If we don’t go, then they’re gonna know he made that junk up. Maybe if we go down there we can find a couple of randoms to talk to. We can laugh really loud and act like we came there with them,” I suggested.

  “I guess it’s our only option at this point because I have no idea who we could get that they don’t know,” Shayla said.

  “I’m gonna need to be lit to make this junk work.” I poured more shots and we turned the
m up.

  An hour later we stumbled into The Pine, a downtown bar. It was hugely popular for the locals and people in the surrounding area. Neon signs lined the walls of the inside that held a bar wrapped around one wall. There was a hallway that led out to a back patio that housed a stage and another bar. Lights were strung overhead with a few tables scattered about for seating. We took a table near the stage, and instantly Shayla and I started scanning the crowd for both Jace and Steele or some potential guys to make this mission work.

  “I think this is gonna be a lost cause. I don’t see anyone in here we can use. We went to school with most of these people,” Shayla said. She waved at a nearby table. “Wait a minute, is that … I think it is. I’ll see you guys in a little bit.” She got up and headed straight for a table in front of the bar.

  “Who’s she talkin’ to?” Dax asked. I squinted, trying to focus through the dark lighting. I focused in on Damon Young, a guy a couple of years older than us. His soft brown hair was cut shorter now and was spiked out in different directions. He stood to give Shayla a hug, and she sat in the seat next to him. I noticed her scooting it closer to him as she shifted in her seat.

  “Damon Young. Shayla had a bad crush on him in school. Maybe she’ll luck up with him tonight.” I looked down at my drink, starting to wish we would have just stayed at my apartment and watched a movie.

  “Don’t freak out, okay?” Dax said, drawing my eyes up to his worried expression. He glanced behind me, and I turned to see what he was staring at. Steele and Jace had just walked through the door to the back patio, only they weren’t alone. Two brunettes were laughing and chatting it up with them as they scanned the room for a table. My stomach churned at the sight of them. How could he come here just to try to piss me off? I wanted to kill him and her.

  “Oh … my … God! I feel like I’m gonna be sick,” I said. I grabbed my drink and downed it. “I’m goin’ to the bathroom.” I stood and swiftly walked through the crowd, shoving into the back of a tall guy. He was wearing a green t-shirt with some kind of design on the back.

  “Whoa!” he shouted as he spilled the beer he was holding. He turned toward me and I tried to place his face. I knew I had seen him before, somewhere, but I couldn’t place it. “Wait, don’t I know you?” he asked. I noticed Steele watching me out of the corner of my eye, while the brunette was busy chatting away to him.

  “I was thinkin’ the same thing,” I replied, stepping closer to him. Even if I couldn’t remember where I knew him from, I needed to act like I did. He was perfect. Very hot.

  “You came and saw Zeke one day at the shop, right?” Then it hit me. He was the guy under the car covered in grease the day we had to find out where Eight Ball was. Now that he was cleaned up, I could actually see what he looked like. Shoulder length goldish blond hair that was tucked neatly behind his ears, stubble ran along a strong jaw line, and his warm hazel eyes searched my face waiting on my reply. He was tall and buff, even though his hunter green t-shirt was loose, I could tell that. “Did you hear me?” he asked.

  “Umm … yeah. That was me. So where are your friends at tonight?” The corner of his mouth curled.

  “What, a guy can’t go out without his friends? I mean once you work with them every day and then live with them, sometimes you need a break. I come down here every now and then to catch a game or somethin’ on the sports channel.”

  “And pick up on the ladies?” He gave me a funny look and glanced around the room.

  “Oh yeah, because there are so many hot catches around here. Seriously, I don’t study the girls in this town. They’re not worth the time.”

  “Hey now, you’re talkin’ to one of the girls in this town.” He started laughing, and I couldn’t help but melt looking at his absolutely perfect smile and the way it pulled back revealing his dimples.

  “Sorry about that. I guess I should make it up to you … do you want a drink?”

  An obnoxious laugh stopped me from answering his question. The brunette was leaning in toward Steele and her hand was slowly creeping up his thigh. I didn’t want to see anymore. Without saying a word, I spun around and headed for the door. “Hey!” I heard the guy shout. I didn’t stop until I reached outside, running into a couple of girls that were obviously too young to get into this place. They were attempting to look older, huddled together, sharing a cigarette. They gave me a nasty look, but I ignored them. “What’s the deal?” I turned to find the guy from the mechanic shop behind me.

  “I’m sorry … it’s just that there was someone in there with someone else. I just couldn’t really take anymore … I’m sorry, I can’t remember your name.” He nodded.

  “It’s Harley. You are …?”

  “Reese.”

  “Well, Reese, since I couldn’t buy you a drink, then I can offer the next best thing, to take your mind off of everything that seems like a big bag of shit?”

  “What’s that?”

  “Follow me.” He turned and started walking toward the darkened parking lot to the side of the building. I hesitated. There was a lot that could happen with a stranger in a dark parking lot. Then I thought back to my training and felt a surge of empowerment.

  Bring it, I thought.

  I fell into step behind him until we made it to the back of the lot. “This always clears my head.” He moved to the side and there sat a jet black chopper.

  “You want me to get on that?” I asked as my eyes bulged at the beast of a machine.

  “Are you scared to take a ride with me?”

  I scoffed at his question.

  “No, but don’t I need a helmet so the police won’t stop us?” He rolled his eyes.

  “Fuck the police. Now get on, let’s go.” He climbed on and turned the key. The engine growled to life. I shrugged and climbed on behind him. He grabbed my arms and put them around his midsection. “You’ll need to hold on unless you wanna fly off the back.” I raised a brow at him and loosely held on.

  We slowly rolled through the lot, pausing for a moment to check for traffic. He turned toward the bar. Standing out front was Steele and Jace with the girls nowhere to be found. Harley gassed the bike, sending the deep sound of the engine screaming through the night. I gripped him tightly, making him laugh. I felt a huge weight lifted off me as we pushed the bar farther and farther into the distance. Once out on the highway, the night air whipped my hair around in a worry free frenzy. He was right; this was exhilarating, which made me forget about everything. There was only me.

  I leaned back and stared at the black sky specked with tiny diamonds twinkling down at me. We slowed as we started across a bridge. The full moon cast a romantic glow over the river water below. I laid my head on his back as I watched the waves crash against each other. This was the first time in months I felt happy. I smiled. Maybe I was going to be okay from this. A few miles later, we turned around, and headed back toward town. He gently patted my hand that had been locked around him. “Which way is your house?” I pointed in the direction of my apartment, slightly bummed that my ride was coming to an end. We pulled in and stopped. He let me climb off the back and then followed me.

  “Oh, you don’t have to get off … unless you want to. I mean I can walk around to my door by myself,” I stammered. I was nervous. He made me incredibly nervous. Why?

  “I’m not lettin’ you walk in the dark alone. I brought you home, and I’ll escort you to the door.” I blushed.

  “Okay.” We started along the path that led to the back side of the building and my front door.

  “So, did you enjoy yourself?” he asked.

  I nodded. “It was incredible, and you were right. It made me forget everything. I needed that. You have no idea how bad.”

  “I’m glad I could help. You look a lot better than you did when you were standing outside the bar. A beautiful girl should never look that sad.” There went that blushing again.

  “This is me,” I said as I stopped in front of my door. I didn’t know what he was expecting. “Do y
ou … do you … wanna come in and hang out or somethin’?” I melted once again as his dimples reappeared with his smile.

  “I think we need to end this night here. We don’t wanna ruin somethin’ that’s perfect, do we?” I shook my head and looked at the ground. “I had fun,” he said.

  “Me too.” This was at the point of being weird because I didn’t know if he was going to try to kiss me. Even though Steele and I were over and he was out with another girl, this didn’t feel right. The truth was I was curious more than anything. Something about him drew me to him. He stepped forward, and my breath hitched in my throat. He looked down and took my hand in his. He kissed the top of it and patted it softly.

  “Until we meet again, Reese.” He turned and walked away. My mind was blank. Think of something to say, fast!

  “Goodnight,” I called. He turned and gave me one more smile before he disappeared into the darkness.

  “WHERE DID YOU DISAPPEAR off to last night?” Shayla asked as she shoved another spoonful of Fruity Pebbles into her mouth. I grabbed the box, poured a bowl, and joined her at my bar. I didn’t like the fact that the two of them crashed at my place. It was the first time anyone, a side from me, stayed here. I wanted to limit my time with them as much as possible, but they were drunk, and I couldn’t let them leave.

  “I ran into one of those guys from that mechanic shop, and he took me riding on his bike.”

  “Whoa … which one? Please don’t say Zeke. I think you’d have your hands full with that one.”

  “Pssh … I’d rather have him than that big one that acted like a dick.” Hollywood was a complete douche the day he greeted us in the mechanic shop. His split tail comment still pissed me off.

  Shayla cocked her head. “He was kind of tasty. So it is Zeke!” she said.

  “No, it’s not. It’s the one that was under the car. Remember he told Hollywood that Zeke was blowin’ the bathroom up? His name was Harley.” I could practically hear him singing the Led Zeppelin song from that day.