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“I thought that might be your answer. Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” He said, while glancing in my direction, still holding onto the two pieces of the pool stick which had cracked into two during the fight.
His hands became a lethal whirlwind of movements and he easily brought the man to his knees. Bleeding from his lips, with one tooth hanging loosely in his mouth, he looked dazed and confused but the battle had been won quite convincingly. Callan could’ve left it at that and earned his respect but that wasn’t the main objective. It didn’t surprise me when he spoiled his victory by turning his attention to the biker’s brothers.
Crosby was about to intervene, playing the good brother with the tactical training. I put my hand in front of him and shook my head, giving him the indication I knew exactly what Callan was up to.
“I know this goes against the code but you need to let this play out. He has a plan and even though he hasn’t shared it with us, doesn’t mean it’s not going to work. He wants an all-out brawl to mask the kidnapping of Haven. Watch for your cue,” I advised and could tell how Haven wanted to get into the middle of things but was waiting impatiently with his fingers drumming on the table in frustration.
“Callan's always been a bit unpredictable. The man can be his own worst enemy.” Crosby signaled Wesley and he was already moving through the throngs of people without any untoward movement.
They were soon standing together and then all hell broke loose. People were already a little tense looking for a way to blow off some steam. Drinking and playing games were nothing compared to a good old fashioned fight. The fists were flying, with tables overturned and glasses of beer spilled on the floor. Nobody would remember how it happened and their recollection would be spotty at best. Each story would be embellished, using the influence of alcohol to fuel their need to become the center of attention.
Zenith and the bouncer jumped into action with baseball bats to stem the violence but it had already gone past the point of no return. Callan became a one-man wrecking crew and it seemed he was having the time of his life. Nobody could put a finger on him, it was almost like he knew exactly what they were going to do before they did it.
Wesley and Crosby surrounded the target and they were soon dragging his kicking and thrashing body down the hall, into the shadows leading to the exit. They were stopped by a big man coming out of the bathroom, wiping the sleep from his eyes, until he was able to focus on the bigger picture.
Wesley shoved him back inside and the door began to rattle with muted screams of agony coming from inside. It was over within seconds and he came out wiping his mouth of the blood coating his lips. I stayed behind to make sure nobody recognized that this was a ploy to get to Haven.
Zenith and the bouncer had their hands full trying to restore order to an otherwise chaotic environment.
The man at the bar with Haven was looking around frantically, trying to spot his charge. He slammed his beer bottle down onto the bar before going for his phone, which was the last thing we wanted him to do. Reinforcements could arrive before we had a chance to speak candidly with Haven using measures that would be considered inhumane.
It was outrageous but I had to pretend to be drunk and stumbled back to, accidentally on purpose, knock his phone to the ground smashing it to pieces. My platinum hair was out of a bottle giving me the look of a chameleon hiding in plain sight. Crashing into him was orchestrated and amazingly skillful, if I did say so myself. He got a little upset but I was slapping his chest, with my eyes glazed over, taking on the guise of a woman with very little good sense and judgment.
“I would like to party with you and your friend. Where did he go?” I twisted around bashing his nose with my head in the process, making the blood gush in abundance all over his hands.
He stumbled back looking astonished and confused by this turn of events. A right cross came out of nowhere and turning my thumb inward prevented me from breaking any bones. His jaw was like glass and he raised a finger in protest, before collapsing at my feet. I gave him a swift knee to follow through on what I had already done. He dropped like a sack of cement, face down in a pool of his own drool and whatever beer had been spilled on the floor.
Discretion was necessary and I stumbled through the crowd, apologizing profusely every time I made incidental contact with somebody. I was soon crawling through their legs within the melee of flying fists and debris. Things had gotten way out of hand and there was going to be an influx of emergency patients within the hour. This wasn’t what I had in mind when I had pooled my resources with Zenith.
She was going to become my secret weapon but I didn’t account for how Callan might jump the gun. He could’ve shared his plan but maybe he was doing things spontaneously.
I felt a hand on my shoulder when I got to the door and turned to face Zenith. There was one second where I thought she was going to strike me down for starting a riot. Instead, she passed me what was left of the man’s phone with the Sim card still intact. It could easily be placed into another phone and I would have all of his contacts, including past phone calls he had made.
“Take it, it’s not like he’s going to miss it where he’s going to be spending the night. Give me a number where I can reach you in case of emergencies,” Zenith urged and I produced a pen from my purse to scribble my digits in the palm of her hand.
“I just need to know if somebody arrives looking for him. Any kind of heads up would be helpful. Don’t do anything stupid but maybe you can keep him from alerting anybody else until the cops arrive. I’m sure you can be very persuasive. Everybody here respects you and I count myself at the top of the list. Money might be the reason why you are helping me but I think you really want to do the right thing. It just takes some people a little longer to recognize what that is. Don’t forget you are one of the good ones.” I looked into her eyes and could see how she was trying to make sense of what was happening.
I had this sudden inspiration and I kissed her. It was plainly uninvited but welcomed with the feel of her tongue in my mouth. It only lasted a few seconds and I would have kicked myself if I hadn’t initiated it. Life was about living and her lips were begging for some affection all night. I wasn’t into girls but I could admire a fine form in a tight-fitting outfit.
I was whistling “I kissed a girl and I think I liked it” under my breath, with my purse swinging back and forth beside me, on my way out the door.
I had shattered the illusion and had broken from the mundane. The emotional feedback from the kiss was a tingling sensation on the bottom of my lip.
“Come back any time and the first drink is on the house. I’ll make sure to keep him occupied long enough for you to make a clean getaway.” A little honey went a long way to secure her cooperation and she was certainly going above and beyond the call of duty.
Chapter Twenty-two
The three of them were waiting for me in the black suburban and we drove out of the parking lot as casually as possible, trying not to attract attention. Nobody said anything and the man hogtied on the floor with a gag in his mouth was staring daggers at all of us. He struggled to break free of his bonds but the knots had been securely placed to get tighter every time he tried to struggle free.
We didn’t drive very far, apparently, Callan had already staked a place out for the interrogation. It was an abandoned fuel station off the beaten track, away from the main highway. There was no point in questioning why Callan had made these unilateral decisions.
“We didn’t get a chance to finish our conversation. This is probably not a good time but I don’t see how it’s going to get any better than this. What you told me is still making my head spin but I know there’s more. You don’t have much of a poker face and couldn’t bluff your way out of a paper bag.” Crosby was underestimating me but I didn’t feel that I had to prove anything to anyone.
He hadn’t seen what I had done but my knuckles were a little scraped as a result. I still had a headache, since my technique for slamming into his nose was a little awkward and inexperienced. The bright spot of the evening was kissing Zenith and I didn’t regret a single moment of that. She was tough as nails and reminded me of my three lovers in feminine form.
I looked out the window trying to compose my thoughts and having very little luck. There was no easy way to soften the blow of the information I had on the tip of my tongue. I didn’t know whether I could trust Crosby to keep it to himself but he would determine the best path to take. He was a soldier, born and bred to fight on the front lines without asking for anything in return for his loyalty. They all had qualities which made me love them each differently in my own way.
The door to the abandoned station opened when Wesley got out, making us disappear from the road as quickly as possible. The clanging of the chains grated on my last nerve, it felt like somebody’s nails down a chalkboard, which always gave me chills down my spine. Learning to control those tendencies in school wasn’t easy when I wanted to lash out at the first person to look at me the wrong way.
