Revenge (11 page)

Tank slammed his head against the wall.
 
“You’d better be lying.”

The big man dragged Mercer over to the sink.
 
He put in the plunger and filled the sink with cold water.
 
He took Mercer’s head and dunked it under.
 
He held him there for twenty seconds, then brought him back up.
 
“Money, Mercer.
 
Where the fuck is it?”
 
Without waiting for an answer, he dunked Mercer’s head back under.
 
This time he was under for half a minute.
 
When Tank lifted Mercer’s head back up, he was gasping for breath.
 
Mercer slapped at Tank but was unable to get free.
 
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his gun.
 
He tried to aim at Tank, but only managed to get shots into the ceiling.
 

Tank went for the gun, but Mercer threw it behind him.
 
It skidded across the floor.
 
Danni picked it up and aimed it at Tank.

“Let him go,” she said.

Tank released Mercer.
 
He fell to the floor, soaked and gasping.
 
The giant moved towards Danni.

“Give me that gun, girl.
 
You won’t use it.”

Danni’s hands shook, but she looked to Mercer.
 
She saw the fierce look in his eyes and knew what she had to do.
 
She fired and hit Tank in the side.
 
The bullet went out his back and shattered the window over the sink.
 
Tank called out and grabbed his side.
 
He took his hands away and looked at the blood.

“You fucking shot me.”

He lunged and grabbed the gun.
 
Danni stumbled back, unable to believe he was still standing.
 
He really was a monster and he couldn’t be killed.
 
He was coming for her and she was going to die.
 
There was no stopping it.
 
Just when Tank was on her, his dark eyes went wide and he screamed.

He turned.
 
Mercer was standing behind him.
 
As he turned, Danni saw a large piece of glass from the window sticking out of his back.
 
He grabbed for Mercer, but Mercer moved quickly to the side and kicked Tank’s side hard, making contact with his bullet wound.
 
Tank stumbled back, but still didn’t drop the gun.
 
Instead of going down he regained his balance and charged Mercer.
 

Mercer sidestepped Tank, grabbed his leather cut, and used the big man’s momentum to hurl him out the second floor broken window.
 
Tank screamed on his way down until there was a wet thud on the pavement and the screaming stopped.

Danni grabbed onto Mercer and the tears started.
 
She couldn’t stop crying and he held her, not letting go until she calmed down.
 

“Are you OK?” he asked.

She nodded and sat down in the big chair.
 
Mercer lit two cigarettes and gave one to her.
 

“Call Harvey.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah.
 
We can’t cover this up.
 
Call Harvey and I’ll talk to him.”

H
arvey Ellis showed up with half a dozen other deputies.
 
They blocked off the area of the street with Tank’s body and started a crime scene investigation.
 
Mercer and Danni were taken to the sheriff’s station and questioned separately, but they both said the same thing.
 
Danni had been home alone when the big man had smashed in her door and taken her hostage.
 
Mercer had been planning to come over, and when he showed up, the big guy attacked him and tried to shoot him.
 
He had dropped the gun and Mercer had gotten him in the stomach in total self-defense.
 
The big man had charged Mercer and fallen through the window.

“That’s the whole story, huh?” asked Ellis.

“That’s all I know,” said Mercer.

“So you don’t know anything about the other three dead bikers in town?”

“No, I don’t know anything about it.
 
I think the big man came to town with his friends, roughed up the Witherspoon widow, and then they had a falling out, probably over money.
 
The big guy killed the other three.”

“That’s quite a story.
 
Any evidence to support it?” Ellis asked.

“Not really, but I’ll bet if you check the ballistics of that gun you’ll find that it killed those other bikers.
 
It makes sense. The big man had the gun on him when he came into Danni’s apartment.
 
Ask her, she’ll verify it.”

It took a long time and Ellis made Mercer go over his story again and again, but eventually had to release him.
 
Ellis escorted Mercer to the front of the building, where they found Danni waiting outside.

She ran to Mercer and threw her arms around him.

Ellis watched them. “So that’s how it is?”

“That’s how it is.”

Ellis turned back to Mercer. “You know something strange?”

“What’s that?”

Two of those men had bad burns on them.
 
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it looked like someone blew up a damn firecracker in their faces.
 
Thing is, fireworks are illegal here.
 
Of course, everyone knows Crazy Ivan sells them.”

“Crazy Ivan?
 
He’s still around?
 
Did you question him?”

Ellis looked at Mercer for a very long time before answering.
 
“No.
 
I doubt he’d be very much help to the sheriff’s department, but if you don’t get out of town tonight and stay gone forever, I will haul his ass in and sweat him under the lights until he tells me everything he knows.”

“Harvey, you and I finally agree on something.
 
I’m leaving and never coming back.”

***

They had one quick stop to make before leaving town.
 
Danni’s apartment was technically still a crime scene and they weren’t supposed to go in, but no one was guarding the smashed in door.
 
Mercer stood in the living room while Danni collected a few clothes and other things she couldn’t leave behind.

A man came up to the door looking wild eyed.
 
“What the hell happened here?”

“Who the hell are you?” said Mercer, forcefully.

“I’m Ben, Danni’s friend.
 
Who the hell are you and where’s Danni?”

“Names Mercer.
 
Danni’s in the back getting some stuff together since she’s not coming back.”

Ben looked more confused at what Mercer had said than he did about the destruction in the apartment.
 
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means you’re not her friend anymore, so take off.”

“I know who you are.
 
Mercer Hawthorne.
 
The guy who killed his best friend.”

Anger flared through Mercer.
 
He grabbed Ben the the jacket collar and yanked him down the steps.
 
He threw him against his car roughly.
 
He didn’t tell him to get lost.
 
He didn’t have to.
 
He was Mercer Hawthorne of the Black Ice motorcycle gang and he got his point across.

Mercer got back into the apartment just as Danni appeared from the back.
 

“Did I hear you talking to someone?”
 

“Just some asshole.”

“There’s a lot of those in this town,” she said.
 
“Let’s find someplace better.”

They went into the cool night air and strapped her bag to the back of the motorcycle and climbed on.
 
The engine roared to life and they rode down the street into the night.

“S
o how did Tank know where you were?”

Mercer opened his eyes.
 
The sunlight was streaming through the trees.
 
He had almost fallen asleep in the hammock when she spoke.
 
He stretched and rolled out of the hammock.
 
He’d left his jacket on his motorcycle near the cabin they had rented.
 
They’d been there for almost three weeks, resting and recovering from the events in Calumet.
 
At first they hadn’t spoke of the events, but as more time pass they could talk about it.
 
He searched his pockets for cigarettes, found them, and lit one.

“He put the word out to every MC he knew.
 
Gave them a description of me and my bike.
 
When I was running I would stop into biker bars, like I pretty much always do, and when someone saw me they’d send him a message.
 
Then Glass got to town early and robbed the widow.”
 

“God, I really thought maybe Tank was a real monster, like a supernatural creature who could track anyone.
 
Like how he found me.”

“He found you through me.
 
He went to Stax figuring I’d go there.
 
Damn barflies told him all about us.”

She shuddered at the thought of Tank.
 
His eyes had haunted her and it was only a week ago she’d stopped waking up crying in the middle of the night.
 
Mercer put his arms around her.
 
She nuzzled into him, but instead of resting her head on him, she kissed him and pulled his shirt over his head.
 
She unbuckled his pants and started pulling them down.

“Let’s go inside,” he urged.

“No one’s around for miles.
 
I want you here and now.”

They laid on the soft grass and made love in the sun; starting slowly and building passion until their urges overtook them and love turned to lust.
 
She was excited to be with him every time.
 
They had gotten past the point of learning about each other.
 
Now they were exploring their desires.
 
She felt safe doing that with him.
 
There was no judgment.
 
They agreed anything could be tried once, and if they both liked it, they would do it again.

When they collapsed into each other, spent and breathing hard.
 
She nestled it his arms.
 
She loved it there.
 
So peaceful and quiet.
 
There were times when it seemed like they barely spoke at all, but they were always aware of each other, like they were communicating on a deeper level than speaking.

“Do you feel guilty?” she asked.

It took him a while to reply.
 
“No and I don’t think we should.
 
Something I’ve learned over the past few days is we can’t live in the past.
 
We loved Specs in our own way and he loved us, but he’s long gone.
 
It’s sad, but he’s dead and we’re not.
 
I’m tired of running and putting my life on hold because of a ghost.”

“I’m not guilty either and I think that’s making me feel worse.
 
Like I feel bad because I don’t feel bad.
 
Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, it does, but don’t feel that way.”

“I’m trying not to, but it’s hard.
 
I never even realized how much I thought about Specs.
 
For the last ten years I think I was doing everything according to what he would want.
 
I think that’s one of the reasons I didn’t leave town.
 
Kind of like I would be abandoning him if I left.”

She let out a deep breath and he tightened his arm around her.

The sun was setting behind the trees and the air was getting cool, but Danni didn’t want to move.