Broken Highway: A Thomas Highway Story Page 2

  “I’ll take the usual.”

  He waved his hand dismissively. “Orange chicken with white rice. Always the orange chicken with white rice. You need to try something new, Highway. You too boring.”

  We went through this same thing every time I ordered, which was pretty much every day. It was a ritual. One of the few things that made me smile anymore.

  “What can I say? I like what I like.”

  “But how you know you don’t like something else if you never try?”

  “I’ve tried all those other things,” I said. “And I don’t like them as much as the orange chicken.”

  “Bah,” Dat said. “Go sit. I bring you the food when ready.”

  “Thanks, Dat.”

  I headed toward my customary table, in the far corner of the restaurant, adjacent to the hallway that led to the back door, just in case. Old habits die hard, even with someone like me. Oh, who was I kidding. Especially with someone like me. Habit is all that I had left. It was all that was keeping me functional. Without it I would have nothing.

  Dat brought me my food a few minutes later. I had barely started on it when I heard the front door chime. I looked up and saw Dave Willis, my one and only true friend, walking in. He took one look at me, shook his head, and headed over.

  Willis was a huge man, standing 6’5” and weighing in at around 260 pounds. We’d played baseball together and roomed together in college. After we graduated, I went off to the Navy and he went on to the minor leagues. After a few years he flamed out due to injuries and opened a Security and Investigation firm with his dad, an ex-cop, right about the same time I’d gotten bumped out of the SEALS because of my own injury. He’d been trying to get me to do work for him ever since.

  Willis sat down on the other side of the table, grabbed a piece of orange chicken, threw it in his mouth and chased it with a long drink of my soda. Belligerent as hell. Just like always. I laughed under my breath and shook my head. Willis smiled widely. He did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, heedless of society’s conventions. Always had, always would. Just like me. Which is why we got along so well.

  “How’s it hanging, brother?” he said.

  “Down to my knee,” I said.

  “Bullshit,” Willis said. “I’ve seen your pecker. You’re hung like my pinkie.”

  “Shit, I wish I was that big.”

  “Don’t we all, my friend. Don’t we all.”

  Willis smiled and clapped me on the shoulder, nearly spilling me from my seat. I smiled back. I couldn’t help it. Willis always had that effect on me. On everyone, really. Unless you got on his bad side. Then you’d better just start running.

  “To what do I owe this visit?” I asked.

  “I just wanted to stop by, see how you were doing. Make sure you weren’t banged up too bad.”

  “You heard about that little spat I had last night, didn’t you?”

  He shrugged and flashed me a “what can you do?” look.

  “How?”

  “A little birdy sang to me early this morning.”

  “Uh-huh,” I said and dropped it. He had more connections than most people had hairs on their body. Dude knew everything, all the time. I didn’t know how he did it but I knew he’d never tell me.

  “But that’s not the real reason I’m here,” he said.

  “What is?”

  “I need your help on a job I got.”

  “I told you before, I don’t need your charity.”

  “Bullshit you don’t,” Willis said. “I’ve been down to that cave you call a home. You need all the help you can get, brother.”

  “I’ve got all I need down there.”

  “Don’t give me that crap, Highway. You’re killing yourself down there, one day at a fucking time. It’s just a matter of when, and you know it. One of these days I’ll come looking for you and find nothing but a body and gun and a red stain on the wall.”

  I didn’t disagree with him. There was no reason to. He was right. We both knew it. I just chose not to think about it.

  “Besides, it’s not charity,” Willis said. “It’s work. The kind of stuff you used to do. The kind of stuff you were good at.”

  “Whatever it is, I’m sure you can handle it.”

  “Normally I could,” he said. “But my back’s been acting up again. I’m due for surgery in a couple of days and my doc said not to do anything strenuous. And this job is shaping up to be strenuous as hell.”

  “Then call it off,” I said. “Give it someone else.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I said I’d do it.”

  “So now tell them you can’t,” I said.

  “Not going to happen, Highway. You know that.”

  I sighed, closed my eyes, and shook my head. Freaking Willis and his misguided sense of honor. The dude had no issues with sleeping with a different girl every night or putting someone in the hospital for looking at him wrong, but going back on his word? It would never happen. People were always saying their word was their bond and all that shit but Willis was the only person I knew who actually backed it up. Every time. Well, except for me of course. The difference was I rarely agreed to do anything.

  But I knew I was going to agree to help Willis out in this case, even though I didn’t want to. I just couldn’t leave him hanging, not after all we’d been through. Especially not for selfish reasons. Which was what they were. Selfish reasons, and stupid ones, when you got right down to it: I just didn’t want to care. About anything. And if I had a job to do, a purpose, then I’d be forced to care, at least a little bit.

  “Come on, Highway. Do it for me. As a favor. I’ll do all the dirty work. I just need you to cover my ass.”

  “Fine,” I said. “Anything to stop your begging. But I’m not taking your money.”

  “Who the hell said I was going to pay you?”

  I laughed. Willis did the same.

  “So what’s the job?” I asked.

  “We’ll get to that in a bit,” he said. “First, we’ve got some people we need to meet.”

  “People? What do you mean, people? I didn’t agree to meet any people.”

  “Trust me,” Willis said. He was grinning like the Chesire Cat. “You’ll like these people. I promise.”

  3

  He was right. I liked them. A lot. Or what I could see of them, anyhow. Which was all the important parts.

  We were sitting at a table in the corner of Shooter’s Restaurant in downtown San Diego, in the heart of the Gaslamp District. Shooter’s was known for its waitresses—gorgeous twenty-something females flashing lots of skin—and the vast majority of the middle aged men sitting at the tables came in strictly for the scenery. Despite the copious amounts of beer and food at each table, their sly glances were proof of their true intentions. Or dreams, more like it. Because none of these sad sacks had any chance with the ladies at this place. Well, none except Willis. And by extension, me.

  “Tori! Come on over here girl,” Willis bellowed to the blonde honey standing at the bar with roller-skates on her feet in lieu of shoes.

  “Hey Willis, what do you want?” Tori said in a southern twang as she rolled up. She had on tiny jean shorts that barely covered her ass, along with a cut-off t-shirt and no bra. She also wore a wide, sultry smile that momentarily took my eyes of her large, perfect breasts.

  “Bring us a couple pitchers,” Willis said. “Coors Light for me and Killian’s for my buddy. Plus we’ll take some wings,” Willis said. He looked at me. “What? Twenty? Thirty?”

  “Whatever,” I said.

  “Make it thirty,” he said.

  “You want ‘em Chernobyl?” Tori asked.

  “Of course,” Willis said. “You know I like ‘em as hot as I can get.”

  Tori rolled her eyes towards me as if to say “can you believe this guy?” But you could tell she wasn’t offended. In fact, from the look on her face she appeared to enjoy it. Which was no surprise. Willis had that
effect on women. He could say the cheesiest thing and they ate it up. I didn’t get it. Never had, never will. It was one of his many gifts. A gift I definitely didn’t share.

  “And what about you, honey? You like ‘em super hot too?”

  “It doesn’t matter to me,” I said, playing the straight man. “As long as they got a good personality.”

  She laughed and shook her head then turned gracefully and skated away, the bottom of her tan, tight ass peeking out of her shorts as she pumped her legs forward.

  Willis watched her until she disappeared, then turned his attention back to me. “That chick is a freak,” he said. “She’s got an appetite like you wouldn’t believe.”

  “You mean, you’ve—”

  “Fucked her?”

  I nodded. I wouldn’t have put it so crudely, but Willis wasn’t one for beating around the bush.

  “A couple times,” Willis said.

  “What about that girl you were seeing?”

  “Who? Heather?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “What does Heather think of you banging Tori over there.”

  “Who do you think introduced us?” Willis said with a smile. “Hell, Heather’s had every girl in this place. She used to work here.”

  I laughed under my breath and shook my head as another waitress in a cutoff top and a short jean skirt set a couple of pitchers down on the table. Her nametag identified her as Amber.

  She was just my type, at least, when I still had a type, back before my depression had robbed me of most of my sexual urges. Tall, athletic body, long, light brown hair, sharply lined face, small, firm breasts and long, shapely legs.

  “Who gets the real beer?” she asked.

  “That would be me,” I said.

  She slid the Killian’s over to me. “And this crap must be for you, right Willis?” she said as she handed him the other pitcher.

  “Hey,” Willis said. “There’s nothing wrong with Coors Light.”

  “Nope,” Amber agreed, “Nothing wrong with it at all if you’re looking to drink water.”

  “Ouch,” Willis said. “That hurts.”

  “The truth does sometimes,” she said, flashing him a quick smile. She sat down on the empty chair between us and crossed her legs, causing her skirt to ride up almost to her hip, flashing tons of skin. Deliberately, no doubt. “So, Willis, I hear that you and Heather are coming over tonight for some drinks.”

  “Really?” Willis said, placing a hand on her leg just above the knee. “This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

  “Yep,” Amber replied. She lifted Willis’s hand off her leg and put it back on the table then turned her attention to me. Her eyes ran up and down my body as if inspecting a piece of meat. The tip of her pierced tongue was sticking out of her mouth and she played with the silver rod by pushing it up and down with her lips. “You can bring your friend too, if you like.”

  “We’ll have to see about that,” Willis said. “Highway here is a little shy with the ladies.”

  “Oh, I think we can take care of that,” she said with a smirk, still staring at me. “I like to break ‘em in.”

  I flashed an embarrassed smile that was only partially fake but didn’t say anything, content to play the role Willis had set me up in. Amber just looked at me, her smirk turning into a full-fledged grin. Willis started to laugh and Amber joined in.

  Tori skated over with a large tray of wings in her hand and set them on the table. “Okay boys, here are your wings.”

  The smell of curry and hot sauce overwhelmed my nose, nearly causing me to cough from the potency. “Do these taste as hot as they smell?” I said.

  “I know I do,” Amber said with a wicked grin. She leaned over and set her pinkie on Tori’s exposed midriff and moved it slowly around her belly button. “Although I can’t speak for the other girls . . . well, maybe just a few of them.”

  Tori laughed and skated off. Willis just sat there smiling. I didn’t say anything, I couldn’t have even if I’d wanted to.

  Amber giggled and stood up slowly, staring intently at me all the while. “I’m looking forward to seeing you tonight.” She gave me a wink and turned around, leaving me to stare at her perfectly proportioned backside as she walked away.

  “There you go, man,” Willis said. “You’re going to come tonight, right?”

  “Twice, I hope.”

  Willis exploded with laughter. “That’s the Highway I remember,” he said as dove into the wings with both hands.

  Twenty minutes later the scattered remnants of all thirty Buffalo Wings were strewn about the table in a mess of bone and gristle. Both Willis and I were finishing off our second pitcher.

  “Damn those wings were hot,” I said, wiping the sweat off my face with a wet nap.

  Willis was sitting back in his chair looking content and showing absolutely no ill-effects from the wings.

  “How can you not be feeling anything?” I said.

  “Oh, I’m feeling it,” Willis said. “I’m just not showing it.”

  “Playing the tough guy, huh?”

  “No need for me to play,” Willis said. “It just comes natural.” He flexed one of his massive biceps. “Like these.”

  “Shit, ain’t nothing natural about those,” I said. “How long do you spend in the gym every day to keep them looking like that?”

  Willis shrugged. “An hour or two.”

  “All for show muscles,” I said. “Doesn’t seem worth the effort.”

  “Come on over here and I’ll show you what these muscles can do,” Willis said.

  “I would if I wasn’t so full,” I said, both of us knowing full well I wouldn’t dare. We’d gotten into it once back in college after too many beers. It hadn’t gone well for me. And it wouldn’t if I tried it again. I could handle my own against almost anyone but Willis was a freak of nature. Ridiculously strong, and with the attitude to boot. It was a scary combination when he lost his cool. Luckily it didn’t happen often.

  “So are you going to tell me about this job or what?” I said.

  “Listen to you, always thinking about work.”

  “Hardy-fucking-har.”

  Willis smiled and leaned forward, elbows on the table. “It’s an easy job, really. Well, maybe not easy, but simple. Uncomplicated.”

  “Consisting of what?”

  “An extraction,” Willis said. “Although I guess it’s more of an exfiltration, if you really want to get technical. Maybe even just simple kidnapping, depending on how—”

  “Quit rambling and just tell me what I need to do.”

  “Help me grab someone off the street.”

  “Who?”

  “Some scumbag named Pedroza.”

  “What for?”

  “To make sure he shows up for his trial.”

  I glared at him. “Are you serious?”

  Willis nodded sheepishly, which was completely unlike him. I don’t think I’d ever seen him do anything sheepishly.

  “That doesn’t sound like your kind of thing,” I said. Willis came from a family of police officers and generally stayed away from crossing the line to helping criminals.

  “It usually isn’t,” Willis admitted. “But this is a special case.”

  “Why? Do you know this Pedroza or something?”

  “Nope, not at all.”

  “Then why are you doing this?”

  “Because his lawyer asked me to,” Willis said, averting his eyes.

  “You’re working for a defense lawyer?”

  “Pretty crazy, huh?”

  “I’ll say. How the hell did you get involved with a defense lawyer?”

  “She’s a friend of a friend,” Willis said.

  Ahh, so there was the rub. “The lawyer’s a woman, huh?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And let me guess, she’s good looking.”

  “Not just good looking,” Willis said. “Smokin’ hot.”

  “And you’re hoping that by doing this job for her you can get in her pa
nts.”

  “Nah, man, it ain’t like that,” he said. “She’s not my type.”

  “They’re all your type,” I said.

  “Not this one. She’s way too smart for me. And ambitious. And real. You know me. I like my girls dumb and lazy and fake.”

  “That’s true,” I said. “But why take the job then? I don’t get it.”

  He sighed. “Neither do I, Highway, neither do I. It was like she had some spell on me, you know? She told me all about the situation, straight-up with no bullshit, then asked me if I’d help her out.”

  “And you just said yes.”

  “That’s right. I didn’t even mean to. My mind was thinking no way in hell, but when I opened my mouth, out came yes.”

  I smiled and let him have it. I had to take advantage of opportunities like this. They didn’t come around often. “You were spellbound, my friend. Lapping out of her hand like a puppy dog. Owned by a girl. Letting yourself—”

  “Yeah, yeah, rub it in all you want,” Willis said. “All I know is you’re the one doing the job now, so I’m off the hook.”

  “And I’m on it,” I said.

  “That’s what friends are for, to pick us up when we’re down.” Willis nodded his head to the right, towards Amber and Tori, who were walking up to the table. “And speaking of getting things up, here come the ladies.”

  Amber and Tori arrived. They were still in uniform but it was obvious from their demeanor that they were off the clock.

  “You boys ready to go?” Amber said. “Heather’s already at my house with a bottle of Jack Daniels and a case of beer.” She sat on the table, facing me, her legs spread slightly to give me a good look. “So what do you say? Care to come with me?”

  “Now there’s an offer I can’t refuse,” Willis said as he stood up. He was smiling from ear to ear, the previous conversation about the job all but forgotten already. “What about you, Highway?”

  “I can’t pass up free drinks,” I said with a straight face. I rose from my chair. Amber held her arms out to me and I lifted her off the table. “Let’s roll.”

  4

  The next day I woke up in a strange bed. I sat up at the waist and felt the familiar rush of blood to my head like a herd of thundering buffalo. Too much to drink the night before. Again. I uttered a low groan and fell back into the pillow and rubbed my temples.