Execution Style

by Lani Lynn Vale

  “I put ketchup on everything. Even my ham and cheese sandwiches.”

  He made a fake gagging gesture and shoved twelve fries in his mouth.

  “Have you thought about when you’re going back to work?” He asked curiously.

  I nodded. “I don’t actually ‘work.’ I supervise. I call around, pay bills, collect payments. Which I’ve been doing from underneath my comforter since…,” I hesitated and grimaced, but he nodded in understanding.

  “That’s kind of cool, what you’re doing. How did you get that up and started?” He questioned, taking a sip of his drink.

  I eyed my to-go cup, but took a drink anyway, trusting him.

  He’d spent a lot of time with me in the last week, and knew exactly what I liked.

  I smiled when I tasted not one, but four drinks. “You got me a suicide?”

  He nodded. “I felt like a dork getting a little bit of every drink they had, but it was fun. I don’t see how you mix all those carbonated drinks, though.”

  I shrugged. “YOLO.”

  He turned his head in confusion. “YOLO?”

  “You know, YOLO? You only live once? The song?” I confirmed.

  He shook his head with exaggerated slowness.

  “Not a fuckin’ clue,” he said with wide eyes. “Then again, if it’s pop or R&B, I don’t listen to it. I’m more of a classic rock kind of man. I only listen to it when I’m working out and lifting weights. There’s a certain ‘tone’ one should set while doing that. It should get your adrenaline pumping. Not make me want to be a girl.”

  I stuck my tongue out at him and he laughed at my reaction.

  “You’re horrible,” he muttered.

  I shrugged. “Do you want to watch a movie?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. I want to play some cards.”

  I leaned forward, my bare breast touching the cool wood of the coffee table, causing me to shrink back in surprise.

  “Shit,” I hissed.

  “Out of curiosity, why aren’t you dressed yet? I was gone for nearly twenty minutes,” he asked as he finished the last of his fries.

  I blinked, wondering how I should tell him that I’d been wallowing over the fact that he’d left me.

  “Umm,” I said. “I was…ummmm.”

  He grinned.

  “You thought I’d left, so you were laying there in a depression?” He offered playfully.

  “More like I was trying to think of ways to torture you for leaving without a backwards glance,” I said dryly. “You’re saying I couldn’t do a thing to you to torture you?”

  He shook his head. “I’m a SEAL, baby. You can’t do anything to me that I haven’t experienced before.”

  I launched myself at him.

  Challenge accepted.

  ***

  We laid there in silence for a few moments, both of us allowing our heart rates to return to normal before either one of us moved.

  I was now wearing Miller’s button up shirt, and he was tickled to death. Or so he said.

  I’d worked up quite a sweat trying to convince him that I could torture him to death with tickles. But it’d worked differently than I’d expected. He’d started laughing at my inability to tickle him, and I’d taken it upon myself to prove to him that he was ticklish somewhere.

  In the end, it’d been his laughing at my failed attempts that got him.

  “Do you think you’re pregnant?” He rumbled quietly.

  The sweat on my skin was cooling rapidly, and goose bumps started to roll over my skin.

  Was it bad that I wanted to be pregnant with his child?

  I’d always wanted to be a mother.

  In fact, when I’d originally entered the relationship with Mitch, I’d been thinking about that going into it.

  My biological clock had been ticking, and at the age of twenty nine, it was time, at least, in my opinion. I was ready to be a mother.

  That’d been why I’d chosen Mitch.

  He was stable relationship material.

  Everything I thought I’d wanted.

  What I hadn’t realized, though, was that I would be placing myself with a man that wasn’t mentally stable.

  My first clue should’ve been the way he’d refused to move out of his mother’s house. The second should’ve been his mother herself.

  “I don’t know. I want to say yes…” I said softly.

  “I hope you are too. You’re not the only one that wants a baby. A family to call his own. You and I aren’t so different. I have my scars that I don’t want brought out into the light, and you have your scars that you wish were taken back into the shadow. But I guarantee you this,” he said softly. “I won’t ever leave you, and I won’t ever do anything to you that’ll hurt you. I’ll be your shadow that makes sure you’re always protected. This I swear to you,” he rasped against my forehead.

  I love you, was on the tip of my tongue, but instead I just hugged him. Hard. Or as hard as I could. He didn’t seem too affected by the severity of my hug, though.

  Something must’ve been on the tip of his, too, because when he leaned back and looked into my eyes, I saw questions there. However neither one of us said a word.

  He held me. Spoke to me. Teased me.

  And let me tell you something, it was perfect. Exactly what I’d needed at that point in time.

  One thing was clear, though.

  It’d be nearly impossible to be so close to him and not do anything with him again.

  One time was not going to be enough. At least not for my body.

  Chapter 9

  I want to play hide and seek. And your penis and my vagina are the two main players.

  -Mercy’s secret thoughts

  Mercy

  I returned to work, for real, a week later.

  The night before had been fraught with nerves, and Miller had held me throughout.

  I was nervous to be seen.

  Life went on like it’d never even happened, yet I still got looks.

  An inconspicuous glance here, a sly glance there. They thought I didn’t see, but I did.

  And I wanted to kick their ass.

  Even the bitch, Sarah Higgins, who was currently sitting across the diner from me snickering into her menu as she spoke to her husband, Devon Higgins.

  I pulled out my phone and texted Miller, even though I knew he was working today.

  Hey, he said to text him anytime! This counted, right?

  Mercy Me- I’m getting made fun of by two grown adults. One of which is the man I dated in high school.

  Miller answered nearly immediately.

  Miller Genuine- Where are you?

  Mercy Me- Catfish Charlie’s.

  His response took longer than I thought it would, so I put the phone into my pocket and started to fish out some money for the drink I’d ordered.

  I’d yet to get any food because the waitress was too busy talking to her fellow coworkers and casting me covert glances when she thought I wasn’t looking.

  Well, my first solo outing had turned into a big pile of shit. Maybe I wouldn’t be going to the Greater Business League of Kilgore’s big dinner tonight. In fact, I might come down with a stomach bug between now and then. Especially when Devon got up and started heading my way.

  Fuck!

  He slid into the booth on the other side of me and smiled his ‘I’m so charming’ smile. It was the one that had gotten him every girl he’d ever wanted…everyone except for me.

  He would’ve gotten me, too, had I not overheard him talking to his friends about how he was going to ‘tap that bean-pole’ after the football game.

  Now, I know that I’m not the curviest woman on the block, and eleven years ago I was even worse. But you didn’t act like that. Not when you’d sweet-talked the girl into going out with you with your silver tongue.

  He’d been pissed when I’d stood him up for his date, and then had refused to talk to him anymo
re. I think it was more because his ego was bruised rather than him being truly upset.

  He’d gotten over it quite quickly, mostly by fucking the most popular girl in school, Sarah Higgins. They’d been married for a long time now, and had three beautiful kids that they ignored.

  “Devon,” I greeted him neutrally.

  He grinned, giving me a glimpse of his straight white teeth.

  “How are you feeling, Mercy?” He asked casually.

  Way too casually. He was either fishing for something, or here to rub my nose in it.

  “I’m fine. Your wife looks pissed that you’re over here,” I said, chancing a look in Sarah’s direction to see her glaring daggers at me.

  Jesus, but the woman really hated me! It’s not like I ever went out with him! I accepted a date, and then never went! That should be the end of it, yet it wasn’t. The rivalry had gone on for nearly eleven years now.

  I got a new car, she got the same kind but with more options on it.

  I got a new house, she bought the one next door and added an addition on it.

  I went to the community college to get my business degree, she went to a four year college and got her bachelor’s degree in the same.

  On and on it went. Sure, they could be coincidences, but they weren’t. I knew she was doing it just to show me that she could.

  I wasn’t even anything.

  I still couldn’t understand it.

  Why me?

  “She and I have a bet. She says you have a boyfriend and I told her the boyfriend was the one…”

  His words froze in his mouth as he got a look at something over my shoulder.

  “Move,” Miller’s very pissed off voice said.

  In fact, words couldn’t even do justice to how pissed off he looked.

  Devon startled.

  I did as well.

  Miller just kind of showed up out of nowhere. I hadn’t even heard the bell on the door jingle with his entrance.

  Devon stood slowly to his full height.

  I’d always thought that Devon was what I would consider ‘big’ and ‘built.’

  That was until I saw Miller, in the next moment, make his way up to within inches of Devon.

  It was like night and day.

  Devon wasn’t built. Miller was built.

  He looked unbelievably sexy.

  I’d also thought the same that morning when I’d seen him dress.

  I’d watch the meticulous process from start to finish, me in the middle of the bed with my comforter up over my shoulders and around my front.

  He’d started first with a basic pair of white socks.

  Then he’d put on his underwear, followed by these black pants that had to have at least a million pockets.

  Then he’d started filling those pockets. Wallet, phone, keys with no less than fifteen keys, clips filled with bullets, change, and what looked like a Leatherman, but he’d called it a Raptor or something.

  Then he’d started on the gun belt, and I’d watched, just as enraptured, as he put on the different odds and ends onto his belt.

  He’d followed the belt up with a white t-shirt, a Kevlar vest, and a plain black polo.

  He was in much the same as he’d left with this morning, except now his shirt was covered in what looked like dirt, and he had a small tear where the shirt buttoned.

  Then I started to take closer stock of his body, comparing him to Devon, and I was in awe.

  Devon had been the high school football star, and had kept up the body he’d had in high school, even going as far as to add on more muscle. He wasn’t a small man, but compared to Miller, he looked like a freakin’ runt.

  Miller’s muscles bulged as he raised up his arm and held his pointer finger only millimeters from Devon’s chest. “How about you keep your bullshit to yourself, and the next time you think to come and harass my girl, you think twice. Maybe think about what it’ll feel like to have my fist planted in that pretty little face? Hmm?”

  Devon held up his hands. “Sorry, man.”

  He didn’t sound sorry, but we were starting to draw the attention of every man, woman, and child in the diner, as well as outside on the street. So, with shaky legs, I stood, tossed my dollar fifty down on the table to pay for my drink, and grabbed a hold of Miller’s bicep.

  My fingers couldn’t even touch as I wrapped them around his bulging bicep. Not even close.

  His muscles jumped under my touch, but he never took his eyes off his target.

  And Devon was trying really, really hard to hold up under Miller’s scrutiny.

  “Baby, are you okay? Do you need me to call the police?” Sarah asked in her nail-against-chalkboard voice.

  I’d hated that voice for eleven years now, and if anything else, it’d only gotten more annoying.

  My hands tightened on Miller’s arm, and he finally looked down at me to see what was wrong.

  His eyebrows lifted when he saw that my eyes were directed to the woman over his right shoulder. Which caused him to turn slightly to keep both of them in his sight.

  Taking me right along with him.

  “I am the police, lady,” Miller snapped.

  Sarah raised her eyebrows at me. Those perfectly sculpted in black pencil eyebrows that I’d wanted to rip out for my entire life arched like they did when she was about to say something snotty, and she didn’t disappoint.

  “Well,” she said in a huffy, fake Southern voice. “It’s obvious that, if you’re with her,” she said, pointing at me. “Then you’re not a worthy police officer. Surely you could find someone that hasn’t been used so…thoroughly.”

  I started forward almost before I even realized I was moving, startling both Miller and Sarah.

  My hand cracked across her face with a sharp ‘clap,’ causing her head to whip around comically.

  Heh, I hadn’t ever slapped someone before, but damned if it hadn’t felt freakin’ awesome! My hand stung slightly, but overall it didn’t hurt like I’d seen in movies.

  And during my contemplation of this, Sarah had tried to retaliate, but Miller stopped her before her hand could move more than a foot from her body.

  I smiled secretly inside, nearly dying in laughter as she gave Miller the most venomous look she could muster with her face streaming tears and a red hand print over her face.

  Devon, who’d been watching in silence, finally started forward when Miller had Sarah’s wrist pinned to her body.

  Miller started to move her away from me, but Devon, not one to be shown up, threw himself into the fray.

  “Get your hands off my wife!” Devon roared.

  “Oh, dear,” I said, pulling out my phone and calling Foster.

  I could see this going into dangerous territory really quick, especially with the way the citizens dining in the café and standing outside started to encircle us, their voices rising.

  “Hello?” Foster asked questioningly.

  “Uhh, hey this is Mercy. Your brother and I are at Catfish Charlie’s, and we have about fifteen people surrounding us. I think we need some backup,” I said hurriedly.

  I could hear Foster move in the background, and then what sounded like a door slamming shut, followed shortly by the sirens turning on in the background. “Be there in less than two minutes. Keep me on the line.”

  He sounded exactly like his brother with his bossiness.

  Keep me on the line.

  As if I would’ve done anything differently!

  Soon the crowd went from fifteen people to even more, and I was pushed back until I wasn’t even within arm’s reach of Miller anymore.

  Knowing he’d be able to handle the situation better if I got myself out of the way, I moved until I was behind the swinging door that led behind the counter, and then went even further to back into the space between the ice machine and the cash register.

  I could still see everything that was going on, but they couldn’t get to me unless they
jumped the counter.

  Which I didn’t think they were going to do since they all seemed interested in was Devon yelling at Miller to let his wife go, all the while his wife tried to slap Miller for ‘assaulting her indecently.’

  “You’re trouble,” an older male’s voice said from the window that led into the kitchen.

  I looked up to find Jimmy-John, the owner of Catfish Charlie’s, looking at me accusingly.

  I held up my hands and said, “I didn’t have anything to do with it!”

  He shook his head. “Mercy girl, I’ve known you since you were barely old enough to stand. You’re always in the middle of everything, whether you mean to be or not.”

  I couldn’t help it, I laughed.

  Which caused Miller to whip his head around and look at me. Which then caused Devon to take a swing at Miller while his head was turned.

  Miller’s head whipped around with the force of Devon’s punch, and he turned back slowly to glare at Devon while still trying to restrain Sarah.

  Miller threw one perfectly timed punch straight to Devon’s temple.

  Devon dropped like a brick.

  And the crowd went wild.

  ***

  I sat in Miller’s padded office chair as I listened to him and the chief speak.

  Well, Chief Rhodes, a veteran officer of thirty five years, was the one doing the talking, and it was more yelling rather than ‘talking.’ I’d known him for twenty nine of those years, since he was my father’s best friend, and I’d never heard him yell at another officer like that.

  I started to rock forward, unaware that everyone could see me.

  Tears poured down my face as I listened to Miller take the brunt of the blame for me. Something I should’ve never brought him into.

  I should’ve called 911. Maybe then I wouldn’t be hearing my boyfriend get yelled at and put on probation.

  “Shit,” Miller hissed.

  I heard his boots pounding on the floor as he came into his office, and then dropped onto his knees in front of me.

  My head snapped upwards, and I watched with tear filled eyes as he reached forward, pulling me into his arms.

  I went willingly, seeing the horrified look on the chief’s face.