“And you? How are you doing with it?”
How was he doing? He shook his head and raised his beer glass, eyeing the amber contents appreciatively before downing the few inches that remained. Will nodded like he’d heard and understood the answer, and he raised his hand to call the waitress over for another round.
“I shouldn’t,” Mark said. “I need to drive.”
“You live five blocks from here.”
“I have to stop in and check on my parents.”
“They live three blocks from here. It’s a small town, man, and your family likes central living. Take advantage of the fact.”
“What’s it going to look like if people see my car left overnight in a bar parking lot?”
“It’s going to look like the parish priest has the sense to be careful about drinking and driving. Or, given the piece of crap you’re still pretending is a functioning vehicle, it might look like the parish priest is hoping someone will take mercy on him and steal his car so he can cash in the insurance and get a new one.”
So they had another beer, and then another, and Mark wasn’t drunk but he was pleasantly lubricated when he finally decided he’d put off his parental visit long enough. He was walking behind his friend, heading for the front door, when Will stopped so suddenly that Mark ran right into his broad shoulders.
Will turned to face him. “Let’s go out the back,” he said.
“What? Why?” Mark peered over his friend’s shoulder, searching for an explanation. His whole body froze when he saw it. “Son of a bitch.”
Will shook his head. “Yeah. I know. Let’s just get out of here.”
“They’re having a party,” Mark said. He shifted to the side, staring at the scene in front of him. Three or four long tables had been shoved together like the bar did when sports teams came in after their games, but on this night, no one was celebrating a great pitch or brutal body check. This night, the guest of honor was a blond kid with cold green eyes, sitting at the head of the table with his hand wrapped around a mug of beer. He was smiling at the woman next to him as if she were the most beautiful and charming thing he’d ever seen. The rest of the extended table was lined with laughing, celebrating drinkers welcoming home their prodigal son. The man who had killed Mark’s baby brother was being treated like a hero.
“Let’s get out of here,” Will repeated, and this time, Mark let himself be led away.
He made it out into the parking lot and briefly wondered whether the beer and burger he’d just eaten were going to reappear, but he managed to hold himself together. “A party,” he said softly.
“It’s bullshit,” Will said. “The son of a bitch should still be in jail. He should be rotting in there.”
Mark had worked in prisons, and he still spent a lot of time at the Anglican-sponsored halfway house in town. He believed in rehabilitation, and he absolutely believed in forgiveness. But when he thought of those green eyes, the way they’d stared out from the prisoner’s dock in the courtroom, cold and emotionless, showing no remorse, no regret for having taken a human life? “Yeah. He should be rotting in there.” But he wasn’t. He was here, back in town. And the town just wasn’t that big. “I need to get over to my parents’ place,” he said. He couldn’t do a thing about the killer and his party, but at least he could be with his family.
He stopped suddenly and fumbled for his phone. He was giving up too easily, thinking of himself as powerless. Lucas Cain was a menace. Three years ago, he’d killed Jimmy, and now, on his first night out after serving his laughably short sentence, he was back in a bar, drinking and carousing just as he’d been before. He’d learned nothing, and that meant he was still dangerous. Mark needed to do what he could to lower the risk. And if Cain ended up back in prison where he belonged, that would certainly make things a lot easier for Mark and the people he loved.
“Just a second,” he said to Will. “I need to do my civic duty.”
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Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
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Carry the Ocean
Copyright © 2015 by Heidi Cullinan
ISBN: 978-1-61922-520-6
Edited by Sasha Knight
Cover by Kanaxa
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First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: April 2015
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Carry the Ocean Page 29
