On Tenterhooks (40 page)

“W
hat’s going to happen to us next,
” Steve asked, “if we say we do
?
”

“All in good time, bro.”

Concern twisted Steve
.
He wanted to believe Biker
.
He wanted to believe that there was still some good in a world that had
grown
so utterly gray for him
.
He looked around the table
.
He could see it in each of them.
They all wanted it.

As they looked back at him, he knew they were craving his signal
.
They wanted to believe Biker’s story, but they
trusted
Steve
.
He knew he had that power and that it boiled down to this minute and this decision.

We’re all the same.
We all have
this same pain and this shared desire to see and feel something warm again
.
Julie would tell me to go for it
.
She was always wh
at kept me from standing still.

He could
see
her now
, in his mind’s eye
.
Her hair was tousled and tie
d
-up
in a sloppy ponytail
.
She was wearing one of his old
concert
t-shirts and
her favorite threadbare
jeans, beautiful as always in her tomboy
persona
.
“Go for it Steve,” she’d say
.
“Go get some mud on the tires!”

God, she looks beautiful!

They watched
him
as he reminisced
.

“Steve,” said Biker, “don’t say anything yet
.
This takes a commitment, a full
heart
.
It’s a lot to take in. I know that.
I’ve got some other stuff cookin’ that I need to check on.
I’ll come back around tomorrow
,
and we’ll talk more.”
Then he
stood to leave, surprising all of them with his suddenness.

“Wait,” said Abby, “what about Preacher?”

“Don’t worry about him.
S’long as I’m around, he won’t
come
near you. And I’ll be around, close
by
.
I’ll give you room to breathe, but you need to take some time, do some h
onest to goodness soul-searchin’
on this one.”

He looked around the table at the foursome.
“All of you need to
.
This here can’t be no solo act we’re talking about.”

He took his
sunglasses
out of the front pocket of his leather jacket.
“
Until tomorrow, then.
”
He
smiled at the
m, turned and
walked to the door of the bar.

“
¡
Adios, Pedro!” he called over his shoulder.

“
¡
Adios,
S
e
ñ
or!”

Biker opened the door and waded into the
knot
of tourists
on the street
.
As the door closed be
hind him, it muffled the brightly setting
sun and loud noises beyond.

Chapter
3
6

They left the bar s
oon after Biker. The first few steps into the bright sunlight of the street sent Steve’s pulse racing once more
,
as he
kept close watch on anyone moving near them
.
He led
them
through the street, avoiding alleys and anything that looked to be a tigh
t squeeze
,
as they
moved
steadily back to the Carmelita. Martin and Abby followed behind
Steve
,
while
Veronica
kept a close rear guard
.
H
er hand
was
in her pocket
with a fierce grip on the gun.
Biker
had told them not to worry, but no one in the group was willing to let down their guard just yet.

Steve entered the lobby first and scouted the corners twice before signaling
to
the group
.
The lone clerk at the tiny front desk stared as they passed
.
They climbed the stairs and went to
Veronica
and Abby’s room.

“Let me go first,” said
Veronica
.
Steve nodded. She handed
Steve
her key,
took the gun out of her pocket and released the safety
.
Steve put the key in the lock and turned the handle
.
He pushed the door open and stepped aside
.
Veronica
held her
breath and peeked into the room
.
When she
took a few steps forward
,
Steve followed
.
She searched the room, under the beds, the closet and the bathroom.

“It’s clear,” she called into the hallway
.
Martin and Abby
came in, and
Abby sat down on the bed.

“Martin,” said Steve. “Why don’t yo
u order us up some room service?
  I don’t think anybody feels like going out anymore, right?”

“No way,” said Abby. “I think we should stay put.”

“Same here,” said
Veronica
.

“Okay,” said Steve
.
“
Veronica
, how about coming with me next door so I can get our stuff? Martin and I can sack out here on the floor.”

“Good idea,” said Martin
.
He picked up the room service menu from the desk.

Veronica
and Steve walked next door and repeated the search
.
After the all clear, Steve began gathering his and Martin’s gear
.
Veronica
stripped the beds and wadded
the linens
together to carry back to her room.

“So,” she said. “What do you think?”

“About Biker?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, Biker, the story, the whole thing.”

Steve shrugged.

“
T
he more I think about it, the more it seems to make sense
.
No, not
make
sense
.
More like, i
t
just
seems to fit.
It’s l
ike I was working on a puzzle and
couldn’t find a piece
,
and then all of the sud
den it
’
s right
there in front of me
.”

“
Yeah, I get that too,”
Veronica
said
, nodding
. “It’s an impossible story, y’know? I mean, I never paid much attention in church.
I believe in God, but I never was much for the organized ritual of it all
.
And I always thought the Bible was this nice book of stories with morals
.
I never
took it literally
.
I never thought there were
actual
angels.”

“Do
you
believe him?” Steve asked, as he gathered pillows and blankets.

“When that
preacher
comes around, I freak out
.
I’ve never done that before in my life
,
and
now
it’s happened three times in the last three days.
It's like a vise around my windpipe.
I get all sweaty
.
I feel my energy draining
.
I didn’t get that feeling with Biker. Once I calmed down from our run-in with Preacher, I started to feel good listening to Biker
.
It was like he had, I dunno, a positive vibe or something
—
made me feel strong
and
confident, I guess.”

Steve took one last look around the room
.
“That’s it,” he said. They walked out into the hall
,
and he shut the door behind them.
“L
et me ask you something,” he said as they reached
Veronica
’s room. “I went out on a limb back there, about you shooting Biker
.
Would you have done it, like I said?”

“If
he
were
a real threat to us?
Absolutely.
Look, w
e might have a whole swarm of shit flying around us, but I know that you three are real. Of
that,
I am sure
.
If I thought he was gonna hurt us, like the way Preacher hurt Abby
back
there
, I would’ve pumped hi
s ass full of
all the
lead
that gun holds
,
and then
I w
ould’ve kicked him in the
nuts
, just to be sure
.”

“Good to know,” said Steve.
He
dumped the blankets on the floor and
opened the door
,
gesturing
for her to enter first.
She dumped the sheets, blankets and pillows in a heap in the corner
.
Steve put their
bags in the floor of the closet and returned to the hallway to retrieve the pillows and blankets.

“Food is on its way,” said Martin
.
“They said it’d take a few minutes
,
though
.
I believe I literally ordered at least one of everything on the menu
.”

“Yeah, my bad,” said Abby, lying on the bed
, staring up at the ceiling
. “When you all started talking about food, I got majorly hungry, so I put in a few special requests.”

Thirty minutes later,
their
food arrived
.
After a safety check,
Veronica
opened the door
for
three waiters, each pushing
a cart crowded with covered dishes
.
They pulled the
corner
desk to the middle of the room and made a makeshift dinner table.
They
devoured the meal, tired and starving
, and
barely
speaking
as they sampled a dozen platters
.
Forks clinked on
the bright ceramic plates
,
and
glasses were filled
as they passed a pitcher of chilled juice
.

F
ifteen minutes later, the foursome had managed to make a significant dent in the piles of
tacos
, nachos, quesadillas and burritos
.
They had pushed away from the table and sat, resting and digesting, thoughts straying from the meal before them to the future that lay ahead.

“Now that, my friends,”
said Martin,
patting his stomach,
“was a meal worth sharing.”

“I think I just ate a whole week’s worth of food,” said Abby,
gingerly
stretching arms above her head.

“There’s no
think
about it,” said
Veronica
, smiling at
her
. “I watched you eating
.
I don’t understand where you put it all!”

Abby laughed.

Steve was happy to see
her
eating and joking
.
Her
run-
in with Preacher
had scared them all
.
S
he’d been very
subdued,
as they had listened to Biker in the bar
.
Now, she
seemed to be bouncing back, at least a little bit, to her former carefree self.

“So
,
people,” said Steve. “I hate to put any damper on a good meal with friends, but we’ve got some talking to do.”

They were silent, nodding in agreement.

“Biker gave us a whole lot to think about today
.
If we take him at his word, then it means that we are smack da
b in the middle of something we
never thought possible. According to Biker, Preacher killed our families
.
The fact that something with that much capability and hatred is after us is enough to make anybody scared. On the other hand, we also know we’ve got a support system designed to protect us.”

“Yeah, but look how that turned out for those around us!” injected
Veronica
.

“Yeah.
It’s a support system with flaws, no doubt.”

“But his story,” said Martin, “it does make sense
.
All of what he said seems to fit with the things we’ve already seen and fel
t
—
the recurring nightmares
with
Preacher, the irony of their deaths, the supernatural hold he seems to have over
us .
.
. it
all fits!”

“It more than fits,” Abby
insisted
. “It’s the truth
.
That’s why the doctors couldn’t explain why Zack died the way he did
.
Preacher had some kind of hold over things and ‘made’ it happen that
way;
otherwise
Zack probably wouldn’t have been killed in the accident
.
Biker’s
telling the truth, Steve
.
I can just feel it.”

Steve looked at
Veronica
.

“I can’t argue with what you all are saying,” she said
.
“I get the same feeling
you do
.
However, I still think this is dangerous ground we’re
treading
.
If he is an angel, a representative of God, how did this happen to us under his protection?
S
ayi
ng
‘Oops, my bad
that y
our mom died
’ doesn’t do much to raise my confidence in him.”

“Come on,
Veronica
,’ said Steve. “Give
him
a break
.
He gave a pretty convincing argument today about what he is facing and why he does what he does
.”

“I guess even for angels, there are no guarantees in life,” said Martin.