Until mercy happily ever.., p.7
Until Mercy: Happily Ever Alpha World, page 7
“I’m angry with her, but I know she’s mine, and the messed up part is I know that more than I ever did before. How she ended up in my lap means something. It means everything. Right?”
“Yes, son. The trail is too muddy and there are so many people involved that there is no way divine intervention wasn’t part of this. But you better make sure you find her, and your ass better bring her home to meet your mother and me. Got it?”
I smile as my father lightens the mood just a bit.
“Yeah, you better. Don’t hide what makes you happy from us again,” Mom adds.
“I won’t. Especially when I get her back. I’m going to get her back—no matter what I have to do,” I declare then, and the room falls silent. We don’t talk for a while, and I welcome that. I need time to process it all.
And that’s what I do when I down another beer and pass out from exhaustion on the guest bed. Tomorrow, I try harder than I did the day before and the day before that.
“I’ll find you, baby. Hang on for just a little longer.”
Chapter Nine
Mercy
“Order’s up!” Jake, the cook, yells from the kitchen through the cutout behind the counter. I’ve been in Tennessee for two weeks now, and I found a job right away and a small, rundown place to start a new life. Though I’m sure I may be dead before that happens. The amount of drug deals and drive-bys that happen in my neighborhood is astronomical. But it’s all I could afford, and I thought of all the places I could go where Link would check, this is last he’d think to find me.
I never got a new phone after I ditched mine somewhere in the middle of the Washington interstate, and I plan to stay off the grid. Part of the reason I chose to live here was the landlord. He didn’t need any information from me, just a check or cash at the first of the month. The alcohol on his breath and the mustard stains covering his shirt told me he doesn’t care who lives there as long as he is unbothered and paid.
“Thanks, Jake.” I get paid in mainly tips, and I cash all my checks at a small gas station near my house, so no bank account would have to be opened in my name. I don’t know who Link knows, and I don’t know what resources he’s acquired over the years, but I don’t want to find out, so off the grid as best as I can is all I can do.
Going for the order, I see it isn’t one of my tables. “This is Carol’s table. Where did she go?”
“Oh, probably a smoke break, or another 15 minute break.”
I scoff, a sarcastic chuckle leaving my throat. “That would make it her third one in the past two hours.”
Jake nods, a slight smirk pulling at the edge of his lips. “That’s Carol for you. Do you mind taking it for her?”
“No, I’m used to it already.”
I got this job two days after being here, and within three days, I realized I’m basically the only one here who really does their job. Jake is pretty good, but that’s because his dad is the owner, and Barrett doesn’t let his son slack.
I think they only keep Carol on for nostalgia. She’s been here since it opened twenty years ago. So, alas, I bite my tongue and pick up her slack. Grabbing the three plates with burgers and a side of extra fries, I head to the table. Approaching, I see two men around my age covered in tattoos and one older man, also covered in tattoos, but his hair is a peppered with gray and his wrinkles are in all the right places on his chiseled face. He’s aged very well, but he and the other gentlemen with him scare me nonetheless, even if they are wickedly handsome.
“Gentlemen, I’m Mercy. Carol stepped out for her break, so I’ll be here to take care of you if you need anything.” I place the plates down, and I can feel the older man’s eyes on me, making my skin hot. Call it paranoia, but I don’t trust anyone anymore; no amount of miles can change that. I fear Link and all he’s capable of.
“Thank you, that’s quite a unique name. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone with that name before,” he says, and I swallow back the anxiety as best as I can and finally peer into his eyes. Surprisingly, they don’t bring me any fear. He looks rough, but his eyes tell a gentle giant story.
“Yeah, my—uh parents were kinda like gypsies, and they wanted a name to prove it.” I calm down a bit more when he gives me a wide smile.
“Well, they picked a pretty good one. The name’s Nico. Pleasure to meet you, Mercy.” He outstretches his hand, and I take it with a slight hesitation, not used to the nicety.
“Yeah, nice to meet you as well, Nico. That’s also a pretty unique name.”
“It is. Must mean we were supposed to meet.” He gives a wink and I give a nod in return. We look at one another for a few seconds, and I don’t know what it is, but I get this odd feeling in the pit of my stomach that his words have an ulterior motive.
Stop reading into it, Mercy, I say in my head, realizing I’ve been staring for long enough and getting my mind riled up when it doesn’t need to be.
“Well, I will come back in a bit to check on you guys. If you need anything, just holler.”
“Will do, Mercy.”
I walk away quickly and do my best to forget the exchange. He didn’t scare me, but his demeanor was different and I can’t place it. I guess it’s that southern charm I’m not quite used to. Seattle and Portland are vastly different from Tennessee, so I convince my mind it’s just that.
I keep my mind distracted and start helping Jake with his dishes after all my tables leave and Carol came back to tend to hers. I’m exhausted and haven’t slept much in the past few days. I’ve slept on an air mattress since I got here, and the neighborhood noises keep me up late. I really just want to get home and fall face-first onto that air mattress.
Within two hours, I do just that. Reading one of the romance novels I bought at the grocery store, I fall asleep only a page or two in, the small interaction in the diner from earlier staying with me.
“So, Jake, do you have a girlfriend?” I ask, leaning into the cutout window while he gets the pancakes for my table ready. We opened the diner together this morning, and besides my one table, it’s empty for a Tuesday morning, besides the rush we had earlier.
“If you plan to ask me out, I’m going to have to break your heart. I’ve been dating Sylvie since I was sixteen.”
“Okay, that’s adorable, and it doesn’t break my heart. It’s small talk, genius.”
He winks and grins. “If that’s what you have to tell yourself, then okay. But I know your heart is breaking in there.”
Rolling my eyes, I ignore him and ask him about his girlfriend. “Sylvie and you are high school sweethearts? That’s romantic. You think you’ll marry her?” Jake is young still, same age as me. Twenty-four to be exact, and most guys his age don’t plan to settle down usually.
“Yeah, I want to wait until my dad retires and gives me the business and she’s finished with school. I promised her she’d never want for anything, and I won’t be doing that on a fry cook salary.”
That statement makes my heart flutter. That has got to be the sweetest thing I have ever heard. “What a lucky girl.”
“What about you? You ever been in love?” He places the pancakes on a plate and slides them across the cool metal for me to take.
I hesitate for a minute, thinking of how to answer that without seeming like a jerk-off who ignores it. I would like to make some friends around here eventually.
“Yeah, with a bad guy and a good guy. Too bad they both made it impossible to win. Thanks for the pancakes, I’ll be back for the french toast.” His face looked heartbroken for me, but it also left him afraid to ask for more details, which worked out exactly like I wanted it to.
“All right, Mrs. Hobbs, I have your pancakes and over-easy eggs. And Mr. Hobbs, Jake is just about finished making your french toast, so I’ll be back in just a minute. How about some more coffee while you wait?”
Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs come in every morning at exactly 10:00 a.m. and order the same thing. Pancakes and french toast. Mrs. Hobbs has silver hair she wears pinned back like a classic movie star, and Mr. Hobbs looks like Santa Claus on vacation, a white beard down to his mid-chest and a different Hawaiian shirt each morning.
“That would be great, young lady.”
“Perfect.” Leaving the table, I head for the coffee pot and see we’re running low after we had our morning rush. Bending down, I hear the bell above the door chime, and I holler over the 1950s song playing from the jukebox. “I’ll be right with you. Sit where you like!” I grab the coffee can and stand back up, starting a fresh pot really quick.
I turn and look for my new patron. Seeing the back of a man all the way at the end of the diner from me, I grab a menu and head his way.
“Welcome to Lou and Joe’s Diner. What can I get you to drink?” I don’t look up quite yet when I hand him the menu, searching my pocket for the pen I usually keep behind my ear.
“Well, first off, you can start by telling me why the hell you ran out on me, baby.”
My blood drains from my head in that moment, and my wide eyes find the man I’m sure is not really here.
“Kellan?”
“Mercy, glad to see you still say my name like it owns you.”
I lose my breath and my words. I’m pretty sure I’m about to pass out, because this cannot be real. How did he find me? He looks the same but so different, and all of it overwhelms me. I do exactly what I was sure I was going to. The next thing I see is blackness, and I feel warm, large arms catch me and then nothing.
Chapter Ten
Kellan
Nico called me yesterday, and when he told me he saw her, I laughed. It wasn’t a joke for me to find her, and I thought he was trying to make light of everything before he dropped some bad news. He and I had come up empty-handed with no trace or way to find Mercy, and our nightly check-ins were telling me I was never going to find her.
“She’s here. I found her.”
I replayed those words in my head during my entire redeye flight. I packed two bags on autopilot, and God knows if I grabbed everything I needed, but I found her and I needed to get to her as soon as I could. Trying to plan what I would say to her in my head, I came up empty-handed. Because the truth is, where do I start? Where do we go from here?
Nico picked me up in his fully loaded police truck and we didn’t speak much. He told me how he found her, where we were going, and I listened, my mind more transfixed on getting to Mercy.
“I’m worried about you, son. You haven’t said barely a word or two since you got in. You can’t go in there guns a ‘blazing.” Nico pulls me from my thoughts.
“I don’t plan to burn the place down. I’m terrified to see her,” I admitted, looking outside the window at the town we were driving through.
“Want me to tell you what I think you should do?”
I debated that for a brief pause.
“Sure.” Not sure if I was really ready, but any advice was better than no advice right then.
“You need to make a choice to let go of the pain she left with you when she ran away, or you need to move on. You can’t add more on top of what happened. You don’t know why she ran, but if you two loved each other like you say you did, then her leaving is most likely because she was trying to protect you.”
I knew that now, but there was something else I couldn’t get past.
“It’s trust. That’s what I can’t let go of. Why would she not tell me how deep into this shit she was? Didn’t she think I could help her?” Finally looking over at him, I caught his head shaking. “What? You don’t agree?”
“No, I don’t. Soph did the same thing with me when we met. Women are martyrs sometimes; they are strong on their own and we mistake that as mistrust. You really think all these years that have passed since she left that she hasn’t missed you? Or felt just as much misery as you? She loved you, so much that she sacrificed her happiness, because she didn’t know what to do to keep you safe.” He looked over at me just as he parked in the back of the diner he told me about.
“That’s something you need to remember, and if you want to keep her safe and you want her to open up to you, blaming her for breaking your heart isn’t the way to start out. Get her to let you in, and when you’re ready, you both will be able to say what you felt all this time. Got it?”
I’m a grown man, but for a split moment while he was talking, I felt like I was being taught a lesson as a young man. He was right. Mercy didn’t leave for the reasons I thought all those years ago, and all those moments I felt pain, I know it was because she was missing me and feeling it too. We are and always have been this connected. That never needs to change, and I’ll make damn sure of it.
“You’re right. You’re right.” Nodding, I outstretched my hand and we shook. “Thanks for all your help. Do you have someone meeting you here with a car for me?”
He nods. “Yeah, Harlen. He should be here any minute with his truck.” And as if it were clockwork, he pulled up next to us.
Nico and I both jump down from his truck and I walk around to meet them on Nico’s side.
“Hey, Harlen, good to see you. Thanks for letting me borrow the truck.” Shaking hands, he gave me the keys.
“Anytime, glad we were able to help you find your girl. Still can’t believe it happened like that.” He and all us couldn’t agree more.
“You’re telling me. I know why she’s here though. My girl wanted to be found.” I thought back to that night, the night I told her while she laid wrapped up, skin on skin in my arms, about how I wanted to live here one day. I told her about the happiness it brought me, and the serenity, and that’s exactly why she chose here. This small town is ran by the Maysons and their clan, and she knew that.
She was putting herself in a trap, exposing herself in broad daylight for me to find her by coming here.
“Well, it worked. Good luck in there, man.” As Nico patted my back, I gave them both a final nod and watched as they climbed back in Nico’s truck. I pulled my bags from the bed of his truck and placed them in the back seat of Harlen’s.
Before they left, Nico rolled down his window. “Be careful with her, Kellan. Call us when you guys get everything worked out. We’ll make sure we keep her safe.”
“Thanks, Nico.” With that, they took off and I stood behind the diner for a few minutes, calming myself down and preparing myself for what was about to happen. It had been three years since I last saw my blue-eyed, wild brunette beauty, and I needed to be ready.
With a few deep breaths, a gut check, and a pop of my neck, I headed around the building to the front door.
Taking one last deep inhale, I turned the gold handle and pushed open the door, signaling the bell above it to chime.
“I’ll be right with you. Sit where you like!” That voice—I would recognize anywhere, and it slammed me in the chest like a freight train. My girl. The voice came from behind the counter, but she wasn’t in sight. I looked around and saw the one couple at one end, and they’re the only patrons, so I picked the small booth at the opposite end. Taking a seat with my back to Mercy so I wouldn’t risk the chance of her running before she got to me, I folded my hands in front of me on the table and waited. A minute later, I could hear her coming. I felt her energy, felt that kinetic energy bounding toward me, and suddenly, every fear and all my nerves left me.
I was ready to see my girl.
“Welcome to Lou and Joe’s Diner. What can I get you to drink?”
My fucking heart stops beating. She hasn’t changed, except I swear she’s more beautiful than the day she left me, which is something I believed was impossible, because she defined beauty and convinced me nothing could be more gorgeous than she is. Then years apart made me a desperate man for the sight of her, and now I have it and it’s killing me.
“Well, you can start off by telling me why the hell you ran out on me, baby.”
That steals her breath and gains her attention. Her eyes find mine, and the blue irises turn a shade lighter as they grow wider.
“Kellan?” It’s an erotic whisper that leaves her mouth, both shock and… I know. Arousal? When I hear it dripping from her pouted lips.
“Mercy, glad to see you still say my name like it owns you.” Right as those words leave me, I see the consciousness fading from her and I hurry to stand, catching her as she passes out.
“Baby?” I grab her, and the cook and other patrons come running when I holler for them. “Get me a wet wash rag! She passed out!”
“Oh my, do we need to call an ambulance?” the old man asks.
I check her pulse and see it’s steady.
“No, her pulse is fine. She’s just in shock. She needs a cold, wet rag and some water.”
The cook hurries back to where he came from to grab the things I asked for.
“Baby, come back to me.”
“Baby? Do you know sweet Mercy?” the elderly woman beside her husband asks me.
“Yes, she’s my fiancée.”
“Oh,” they both say in unison when I don’t stutter. She’s still mine, and the moment she said my name, I knew it.
“Here’s the wet wash cloth and some water. Are you sure we shouldn’t call anyone?” the cook asks.
“No, we don’t need to. Give me a minute.” I slide us to the ground and I rest her body against mine, taking the cool wash cloth from the man with no name.
“Baby, wake up. It’s okay now. It’s okay.”
“I’m sorry, but does she know you?” the cook asks.
“Yes, this is her fiancé,” the elderly woman responds for me.
“I thought she said she didn’t have a boyfriend.”
“Because she doesn’t.” I peer up at him and give him a sneer. “She has a fiancé,” I correct.
My demeanor has him changing his attitude faster than you could say bull’s-eye, and he takes a scared swallow. “Oh, sorry. Well, I’m Jake, and I really think we should call some—”
