Personal Possessions (18 page)

Suddenly, the man punched
Bear once straight to the ribs. The men that were holding Bear, let
him fall to the ground. After giving him a good beating, they began
walking away. Not to the back of the club, but to the
front.

“That’s it boys, come to
the light,” Kip said in a Carol-Anne-Poltergeist
impression.

As soon as they walked
into the light my mouth dropped open. “Well I’ll be
goddamned!”

Kip dropped his binoculars
and turned towards me. “You know them?”

Tearing my eyes from the
guys I looked at Kip, “Fedora, that’s Earnest. Earnest Ray.” I
looked back out to the street, and just shook my head. “The other
guy is Bear’s brother, Bubba Jackson.”

“Well, I’ll be dipped in
shit and rolled in bread crumbs”

I couldn’t believe some of
the sayings this man came up with. It was like he was King Redneck.
“Fuckin’ really, Kip?”

My eyes went back over to
Bear, who was now crawling over to the woman who didn’t seem to be
moving at all. He picked her up and cradled her head. I couldn’t
hear him talking, but could see by his actions, that he loved
her.

His hand was brushing her
hair up off of her face. I was fuming inside. I wanted to know what
the fuck was going on and why. I went to get out of the car, and I
heard Kip take a breath.

“Don’t go, never know if
those men will come back.” Kip pleaded.” I have to go and at least
talk to him.”

Kip took another breath,
and I opened the door to head over across the street. It was really
dark out now and I was wearing black, I didn’t think anyone was out
to even wonder who I was.

Bear’s back was to me
which made my arrival into this situation even better. He must’ve
heard my shoes crunching on the loose asphalt, because his head
flipped around as he flew up as fast as someone with broken ribs
could.

If this didn’t feel like
déjà vu, I don’t know what would. Here we were face to face,
seventeen years later.

“Well - well, the prodigal
son returns,” Bear stated as he wiped the blood from his cheek. I
looked at him, and could still sense the envy and wariness all over
him.

“Bear, looks like you’ve
gotten yourself into a bit of a mess here.” I looked at him and
then I looked down at the skank, who looked more like a man in
women’s clothing. Her eye was already swollen shut, and her hair
was knotted all up and soaked in blood from where Bubba’s man
struck her.

She had ruby red lipstick
smeared all over her pale white skin, which eventually mixed with
the mascara that was now running down the sides of her neck. She
looked like she hadn’t bathed in weeks, and considering all I could
smell was cheap perfume and rancid body odor, I’m thinking that she
in fact hadn’t bathed in weeks.

“Elle, have some work
done? Cuz, last time I seen ’er, she wasn’t that jacked up,” I
asked without saying that I had seen Elle. This was straight the
fuck up common sense, there was no way in hell Elle would mature
into that.

“How bouts you turn your
ritzy ass right back ‘round, and head back to where you came from,
huh? Cuz I’d really hate to have to beat your ass twice in this
life.”

“Really…Bear, you couldn’t
fuck with a fly right now.”

Suddenly, Bear rushed me
just as he did seventeen years ago, but this time I was ready. He
wasn’t steady on his feet so when I moved, I caught him around the
neck, wrapping my forearm around until I could hear him wheezing
for air.

“Now - all the sudden this
doesn’t feel like a repeat of last time.”

Bear was jerking and
tugging, doing all he could to get out of my hold, but he wasn’t
going anywhere. “What are you doing, Bear?”

“Fuck off, rich
prick!”

I let him go, and pushed
him away from me. He almost dropped down to his knees as his lungs
fought to take deep enough breaths. I could tell he was on
something, what though, I had no clue. But his color wasn’t good
and he was tweaking something fierce.

“This lady needs to be in
the ER, and you should be home with your wife and family,” I said
as I went to turn around and walk back to my car.

“Yeah. That’s right,
she’s
my
wife and
they’re
my
kids,
fucker! You’re just pissed off because she’s the one sucking my
cock at night.”

I was feeling bad for
wanting to kick a man when he was down, but after that comment -
fuck it! I walked over to him, and it took all of me not to break
his neck right there.
I don’t know who the fuck he thought he was to have the love of my
life sitting at home, waiting on him hand and foot and treat her
with this kind of disrespect.

“Pretty shitty way of
showing how much of a husband you are to her, huh?” I gritted
through teeth that didn’t want to move, throwing my hand in the
direction of the two of them to point out the scene I had walked up
on.

“Let me tell you about how
good she feels-“

He didn’t get anything
else out of his fucking mouth because I raised my fist and landed
right against the side of his face. Bear fell to the ground with
an, “Oomph” and I barreled down on top of him.

“You don’t deserve her,
you piece of shit!” I yelled as I continued knocking into him. Bear
kept trying to get me in a wrestling move, but because his reflexes
were slow, I kept getting free of it. All the sudden I felt someone
pulling me off of him. I got up to my feet, and realized it was
Kip.

“Jesus kid, I’ve been
trying to get you off of him for a ‘time! You need to chill the
fuck out.” Kip kept looking behind him to see if anyone from the
club had come out, it wasn’t as though we were silent. “You,” he
pointed at Bear, “go home, I’ve called an ambulance for her. If you
don’t want to be questioned on what the fuck happened out here
tonight, I suggest you make like a banana and scram!”

Did he really just say
that?

I wiped my face off. He
didn’t hit me, but I was sweating from avoiding getting hit. I
turned and started stalking to the car.

“Hey rich boy, if ya’ll
know what’s good for ya, you and Gramps better head out of town
now,” Bear yelled back. This time it was me holding back
Kip.

“Obviously, he ain’t got
it in ’em to teach you sons-a-bitch to keep yer damn mouth shut. I
got yer gramps right here!” Kip said winding up to nail Bear, as I
pulled him towards the rental car.

Ole’ Kip was raring’ to go
now, and I couldn’t help but laugh at ‘em.

Finally getting him to the
car, I hopped in and drove back to my hotel. I guess my night of
CNN was a washout.

“Where you stayin’
tonight, Kip?” I asked, but insisted he tell me.

“I aint stayin’ with you
if that’s what yer gettin’ at,” He griped as he lit up a
cigarette.

“Look, I’ve got a full
bar, it’s late. You can sleep in the other suite. I just want to
make sure he doesn’t come after you, I wouldn’t put anything past
Bear and Bubba now.”

Kip sat there a minute,
contemplating what I said to him, I thought maybe he was worried
about Bear coming after him.

“You say you got a full
bar?”

Really, that’s what he’s
thinking about? Hitting the bar.

“Yeah, I got a full bar.
You’re welcome to it.” I tried not to laugh. I was starting to
think I’d hit it a time or two as well, needing to get that douche
out of my head.

Needless to say, we went
through a whole bottle of Patron and a half of bottle of Jim Beam
when we got back. Nothing felt better then sleeping with no dreams
and no thoughts. There was no way anything was going to be on my
mind that night.

Chapter 11

I opened my eyes to what
sounded like world war three taking place out in the other room. It
took me a minute to adjust to my surroundings. Traveling as much as
I did, the adjustment period seem to dwindle every day. It wouldn’t
take me as long to remember where I was, seeing as I never really
had more than a couple of days of catch up at my place of
residence.

I sat up in bed, realizing
that Kip was attempting god knows what out in the kitchen. Pots and
pans were being banged around, while profanity and idol redneck
threats filled the air throughout the entire suite. Deciding to
pass on coffee, I hit the shower.

Now that I had time to
think about last night, I couldn’t believe what I had done
.
I felt guilt-ridden. Having just fucked up the
whole plan that I had been scheming for close to two years now. I
didn’t want Bear to know that I was in town, and I sure as shit
couldn’t allow him to put two and two together about my involvement
in the factory’s takeover. This was a small town, and news flew
around like northern birds flying south for the winter. I didn’t
need to add fuel to the fire, and that was precisely what I had
done last night.

I let the hard jets of
steaming hot water pulse down on the back of my neck as I laid my
forehead on the shower wall. I ached all over from last night’s
performance but damn, I didn’t regret one single minute knocking
that asshole’s head around. He had it coming, and he still would be
receiving much more.

“Smart Trevor, real
smart,” I scolded myself, turning the water hotter to let the burn
attempt to disguise my stupidity. It didn’t work.

Thoughts of yesterday
rolled through my mind. Seeing Elle, brought a smile to my face.
Somehow, I didn’t feel the sting from the burning water
anymore.

My cell began ringing from
where I had set it out by the sink. The chimes would last their
normal four cycles, then go to voicemail. This call would stop, and
then begin again. I was waiting on a call back from a local realtor
that Kip had recommended to me. I was looking to buy a place down
here, but I didn’t think that would be the realtor calling off the
hook like that. I hurried, shut off the water, and grabbed a towel.
The ringing began again. I dried off as best as I could, and
reached out not even looking at the caller ID.

“Trevor-“

“I don’t know what you’re
planning, Trev when it comes to Elle, but whatever it is you’ve got
in that skull of yours better be good and it better happen fuckin’
fast!” That was all Rachel whispered as she hung up without another
word.

I could hear her sniffling
as though she was crying. Wait. What was this Rachel was crying?
Rachel never cried, and when I say never, I mean never. Rachel was
a tough bitch to break. Tough as fuckin’ steel. I remembered as
kids pulling her around the playroom by her hair, eventually
letting her go. She would stand up with not one drop of water in
her eyes. She’d beat the shit outta me when she got ahold of me,
but there was never any tears. Family members had come and gone,
never a tear at their funerals. Something was wrong. Very
wrong.

I pulled the Blackberry
away from my face and just stared at the screen. “What the hell was
that?” I asked aloud to no one. I would find out. Sooner rather
than later.

***

I smelled the remnants of
what I’m sure Kip recognized as a food group. The smell of burnt
bacon, over cooked eggs and maple syrup lingered in the air but
yet, I could sniff the aroma of a decent cup of expensive coffee. I
immediately started my short journey to find myself with a cup of
it in my hand.

“Mornin’, McHale!” Kip
exclaimed as he lifted a piece of what looked like beef jerky to
his lips. I was taking it that was the bacon.

“Morning.”

I made my way to the
coffee, pouring myself a cup, and popping two pain relievers in my
mouth. Kip looked at me and just shook his head.

“Tequila Hangovers?” It
was as if he was asking. I refused to answer, he was there sitting
next to me, doing the same amount of shots I was. He knew the
answer to that question. Therefore, I just stared at
him.

He nodded once and
continued on as if he was going to take a bite of the sustenance
that he considered a breakfast on his plate.

“…
those shittin’ things
are about as easy to get over as a pregnant woman on a pole
vault.”

I know he couldn’t miss
the look on my face. “Do you make that shit up, or do people really
say that where you’re from?” I asked.

I couldn’t help it, I
really couldn’t believe I was even concerned about something so
asinine, but for some god awful reason, I really needed to be
enlightened on this subject.

He just laughed, while I
sat there.

I took a sip of my coffee,
and closed my eyes allowing my tongue to savor every flavor that
the robust blend produced on my palette. I went over my daily
schedule in my head, and knew that it was going to be a busy day
today.

I had a feeling with how
the day was starting out, I was going to need a lot more
coffee.

“Yes, that’s right. A
reservation for two please, and I want it to be private. I want one
waitress and one waiter. I want them to leave us until we call for
them and need their assistance. I want to be in a quaint private
area if you have it, and I do not want to be disturbed for any
reason whatsoever. Is this going to be a problem for your
restaurant? If so, I’m sure I can call up another café and they
would be happy to meet my demands. If I have to pay extra - charge
it to my suite.”