One Rough Man (14 page)

“I live at the marina, but I don’t need a ride. My bike is down the street. I’m sober enough to drive.”

“Are you nuts? Even if you were stone-cold sober, you’d probably wreck from the beating. Come on. I’m offering a ride for free. No strings attached.”

“I don’t need a ride. Worst case, I’ll just walk. It will do me some good.”

The penetrating gaze was back, forcing her to glance away.

“Walk? It’s like five miles away. Quit bitching and get in.”

He closed the gap between her and the car. With the car preventing her from moving away, he leaned into her personal space.

“Why do you feel compelled to help me out? You don’t know anything about me. The world is full of monsters, why do you think you’re immune from them? Do you think that just because you made some pathetic attempt at ‘helping’ me out I won’t rape you? How long do you think it would have taken the bouncers to get to me? About a half second after you did? Don’t flatter yourself. I didn’t need the help then, and don’t need it now.”

He was towering over her, his eyes radiating anger. For a split second she was afraid, wanting to bolt, wondering if she had made a terrible mistake. But her fear quickly gave way to irritation. What the hell was this all about? All she was trying to do was to help him out. He definitely wasn’t a charmer, but he didn’t seem like the type who would smack someone around just for the hell of it. After living with her husband for four years, her antenna for that sort of thing was fairly well tuned. Either way, she’d had enough.
Ungrateful son of a bitch.

“Back off! What the hell is your problem? If I thought you were going to attack me I’d have let Tad crush your ass. If you planned on raping me, why on earth would you tell me beforehand? Oh, and yeah, I did save your ass. In case you didn’t notice, Tad was giving you a beating that was about to be the difference between a ride in my car and a ride in an ambulance. Thanks for your appreciation, now get the hell out of my way and start hoofing it to the marina, superman.”

She pushed him back from the door, yanking it open and banging her head as she tried to get inside the small cockpit of her car. She reached over to close the door when he leaned in and stopped her.

“My name’s Pike. Pike Logan.”

“Pike? What, are your parents Romanian vampires or something? Thanks for the information, but at this stage I really don’t give a shit. Please let go of my door.”

“That’s just what I’m called. Look, I apologize. I haven’t had a good day and took it out on you. I could use that ride.”

When she looked back up at his face, she saw the intensity had been replaced by pain and confusion. Maybe shame. She was left with the impression that he hadn’t apologized to anyone in a long time, and he was waiting to see if the gesture was worth it.
Shit. I know I’m going to regret this.

“Get in. I’ll take you home.” Once he was settled in the passenger seat, she stuck out her hand and said, “I’m Jennifer Cahill. What’s your real name?”

He took it, saying, “I told you, it’s Pike. Pike Logan.”

She started the car and pulled out of the parking lot, keeping the conversation going. “Really? If I were going to book you for assault, that’s what I’d write down? What was the name written on your birth certificate?”

“I’ve been called Pike for a long time. It’s my name now.”

They rode in silence for a few minutes before she tried again.

“If you live at the marina, you’re either passing through or working as a sailor. Which is it?”

“Neither. I moved here about two months ago. I don’t like paying rent and couldn’t afford a house. A guy was selling a beat-up thirty-seven-foot boat that needed a lot of work. The plumbing was okay, and the slip was paid for a year. I bought it, and now I live there.”

“Wow, that’s pretty romantic.”

“It puts a roof over my head.”

Jennifer waited for more, but he said nothing.

“That’s it? Nobody buys a boat just to live on. They buy it for a reason. Come on, what’s yours?”

She saw him grimace at the question.

“I told you why. There isn’t any deep meaning. It’s just a damn boat. A place to live. Do we have to keep talking about it?”

She let it go. Luckily, they had turned onto Forty-first Avenue and were only seconds from the marina. The rest of the ride was spent in silence.

“All right, we’re here. Where do I go?”

“Just park it anywhere. I can walk in from here. What do I owe you for the ride?”

Jennifer hesitated, and then said, “Does your boat have a bathroom? I really have to go.”

She regretted saying it as soon as it came out. She really just wanted to use the bathroom but was sure he would take it a different way. She didn’t want him to think she was attracted in any way. When she saw his face, she realized that he was embarrassed as well.

“Ahh . . . yes . . . I do have a bathroom, but it’s a dinky thing that requires you to pump it to get it to work, sort of like a floating outhouse. You’re welcome to use it, if you want. Just don’t complain about the mess.”

“Okay. If you don’t mind, I’ll use it and go on home.”

Jennifer walked down into the galley of the boat and was repulsed by the mess.
Doesn’t this guy know that underwear doesn’t wash itself? Man, how could he live in this filth?
She was really wondering what the toilet would be like, and figured she’d be doing the squat-and-hover like she was at a sleazy truck stop in between Mississippi and Louisiana. She looked around in an attempt to find something to talk about to break the awkward silence. She was just about to ask him if dirty socks were commonly used as insulation when she saw a picture of a very pretty woman on the shelf above the foldout bed.

“Is that your girlfriend? She’s gorgeous.”

“That’s my wife. She’s dead, and I don’t want to talk about that either.”

The words hit Jennifer like a cold shot of water. Next to the woman in the picture was a small child. She wisely decided not to ask who that was. Pike showed her the toilet, which was surprisingly clean, and how to operate the pump that flushed it. After she finished, she came out, trying to look cool leaning against the doorjamb, saying, “Thanks. I guess I’ll head out now.”

There was another moment of awkward silence. It looked to her like Pike didn’t know what to say. She was wondering if he was going to spit out some sort of Tourette’s syndrome rant when he finally said, “Well, I appreciate your help tonight. Thanks again for the ride.”

With a wry grin, Jennifer said, “You don’t lie very well. Thanks for the use of your bathroom.”

Pike gave her a smile that reached his eyes for the first time. The effect diminished his Halloween mask appearance.
He ought to do that more often
.

“You don’t lie very well either,” he said. “I meant it.”

Jennifer left the boat, wondering if she would ever see Pike again. She also wondered why she cared. He was attractive enough in a weird, Grizzly Adams sort of way, but he had a personality that seemed to swing between outright asshole to limited tolerance. He had moments of humor and kindness that almost seemed to be fighting their way out.

She had reached the front of her car before she saw the two men standing behind it.

She stopped where she was, immediately feeling unease and toying with running back to Pike’s boat. “Can I help you guys?”

The taller of the two moved to the driver’s side. “You can help yourself, that’s for sure.”

The shorter man, surprisingly fast, circled around behind her.

I
pulled out my bed and sat down, thinking about Jennifer.
What in the hell was that all about? Who throws their body on a complete stranger in a bar fight? And then offers to take them home afterward? Especially someone like me?
That took a lot of guts—or stupidity. I wasn’t sure which, but I was leaning toward guts. She didn’t act stupid. I was starting to feel a little bad about the way I had treated her. I thought about the vile things I had yelled at her by her car and felt a wash of shame.
Jesus, what an asshole.
I was surprised she’d let me in her car.

I looked in my small mirror and felt the anger come back at the sight of my beaten face. Lately, after I get a few beers in me, I begin thinking about beating the hell out of someone just to release a little of the pain. I hadn’t sunk so low as to simply punch the first person I saw, but I could usually count on some blowhard to be around as the night wore on. I had found out early on that I must look like a mean bastard, because blowhards usually backed down when I confronted them. I solved that dilemma by acting like I was too drunk to brawl. The problem with this cycle was that some sort of switch goes off after I pick the fight and I end up taking an ass-beating. I just can’t bring myself to crush whoever I’m fighting. That’s probably a good thing. All it would take is one fight to get out of control, and I would then be viewed as a menace to society, the fall from grace complete.

Outside, I heard, “Pike!”

Scrambling up onto the deck, I saw Jennifer running flat out down the gangway to my boat, followed by two other men.

Before I could say anything, she ran right by me, shouting, “Help me!” as she went down into my boat. I turned back around and faced the men.

They had reached the deck of my boat and stopped. They looked completely out of place for a marina. One was squat, with a bullet head and no neck. He had a ridiculous hoop earring in one ear. The other was taller, and more distinguished, with glasses and a little gray at the temples. Both were wearing suits.

The taller one spoke. “This is none of your business. Just step aside. We’re her cousins. We told her some bad news about her uncle, and she took it the wrong way.”

They both advanced onto my deck as he spoke, with the Neanderthal guy circling to my left.

“Get the fuck off of my boat.”

Neanderthal spoke for the first time. “No, you get off. I promise, I’m much worse than that pissant college boy that kicked your ass. I’m not going to stop with a couple of punches. Step aside.”

From Neanderthal’s position I was having a hard time keeping both men in sight. They clearly had done this before, and I could almost smell Neanderthal’s eagerness to tear into me. The fight was coming, because there was no way I was getting off my own fucking boat. I gave one attempt to stop it, since it wasn’t really fair for Neanderthal to think the frat boy had won on skill.

“Look,” I said, “I don’t want any trouble. Just leave and there won’t be any need to call the police.”

Neanderthal said, “You’ve already got trouble,” then swung a hard right cross.
Idiot
.

I raised my left arm, forming a triangle against my head in order to protect it. I took the brunt of the blow and wrapped my left arm around the man’s right, trapping his elbow. I brought my right arm underneath the elbow and wrenched against the joint with great force, causing it to splinter upward, against the direction it was intended to go. Before the damage had even registered in Neanderthal’s brain, I put his head between my arms at waist level in a guillotine choke, preventing him from harming me while I tried to determine what the other man was doing, an unknown threat still on the loose.

While we danced around, the taller man pulled out a double-edged Gerber Mark I boot knife.

“Let him go, or I’m going to carve you up.”

I stared at the knife to make sure it was real, feeling a perverse sense of joy. In fact, it was more like elation, as if I had just rubbed off a winning lottery ticket. He had pulled out a lethal weapon, which legally allowed me to escalate to lethal force.
I can let the beast loose
.

I locked eyes with the knife-wielding man and grinned. Instead of cutting off the blood flow in the Neanderthal’s carotid arteries and simply causing him to pass out, I jerked upward with all of my strength, snapping his neck cleanly. I continued to pull until I felt his vertebrae separate and his neck begin to stretch like a weak rubber band.

I dropped that lifeless sack of shit and took off at a dead sprint toward the tall man. He looked at me in amazement and brought his knife hand up, preparing to rip me open. I faked in, causing him to slash early. I dodged the sweeping blade and trapped his knife hand in between my own two hands. Controlling the blade, I ducked under his arm, bringing the knife with me and turning his arm into a pretzel. I continued to rotate until his joints gave, first at the elbow, then at the wrist. It sounded like a kid twisting bubble wrap. I completed the circle and ended up facing him head on, still holding his knife arm, which had turned into a useless piece of bone and gristle. I looked deep into his eyes and rammed the blade straight into his fucking skeevy heart.

He remained standing for a full second, his mouth a perfect O, looking down in disbelief at the knife sticking out of his chest, still held by his own destroyed arm, his hand facing the opposite of where it should be. He fell over backward onto the deck.

I looked around for other threats and found none, either on the boat or on shore. All I saw were the two people I had butchered. My rage disappeared. I knew that I had crossed the final threshold.
I’ve just killed two people in cold blood. I’m a fucking psychopath. I’ll be put down like a rabid dog, and I deserve it.

I wasn’t sure what to do. I figured I’d better call 911 but decided to check on Jennifer first. I called her name and descended into the galley. She came flying out of the forward hold, hugging me and crying uncontrollably. She stopped sobbing and began babbling something about her uncle and the danger he was in.

I held on to her arms and pushed her back a little until I could see into her eyes, saying, “Whoa. Slow down. It’s okay now. What did those guys want?’

“I don’t know. They said that my uncle was in trouble, and that if I wanted to help him I had to give them a package he had sent. I don’t know what they’re talking about. I never got a package, but when I told them that, they said that it was going to be very painful for me if I continued to lie. The shorter one began talking about what he was going to do to me if I didn’t give them the package.”