Shooter (Burnout)

by West, Dahlia

“Are you really gonna lie in your bed tonight, with little Donna Reed next to you, and think she can make you happy?”

  “What’s the matter Deanna? You worried? You hit the big three-oh uh-oh and now you’re afraid someone younger and prettier is gonna come up steal your spotlight?” He smirked down at her chest. “You got, what, another year or two with those tits before they fall down and you need to buy new ones?”

  Deanna was an easy lay, too easy, and Chris hadn’t picked up on the fact that over the years it was now bordering on desperation. He’d thought since they’d known each other a while and she knew he hadn’t been looking to settle down, that they could have some fun, like Tex said, take the edge off so things never even approached crossing the line with Hayley.

  In the harsh light of day he could see that Deanna’s makeup was just a touch too heavy, her clothes were a little too snug, a little too revealing. She had on heels that were just a little too high for her age. He actually felt a twinge of sympathy for her. If she’d stop trying so damn hard to look 21, she’d be fucking gorgeous. She should just accept that she was getting a little older and grow into it gracefully. She’d still be a knockout. She’d still snag a husband if that’s what she wanted, if she didn’t need that personality transplant.

  “She’s not that young!” Deanna snapped and Chris knew women weren’t the only ones who knew what buttons to push.

  “No. But at least she’s human.”

  Deanna slapped him. He saw it coming, but he let her have her little drama queen moment. He shook his head and laughed at her.

  “You’re pathetic, Deanna. Go home. Don’t show your face again. And scrub off that clown makeup.”

  She reached up to slap him again but this time he caught her wrist. “You get one, bitch, because I feel sorry for you. Don’t raise your hand to me again.” He shoved her lightly and she staggered back. “Go,” he ordered.

  *****************************

  Hayley heard a knock on the door and wiped her face on the towel. “Out in a second,” she called.

  “Hayley, open the door.” She sighed. It was Easy.

  “I’m fine,” she replied. “Everything’s fine. Just looking for band-aids.” She hadn’t really looked too hard. There weren’t any in the medicine cabinet and she was making do with toilet paper. It seemed like a dangerous endeavor to go looking through Tex’s things. God knew what might turn up. Hayley was just fine with the kinky version of “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

  Another rap on the door. “Open up.”

  Hayley sighed and flipped the lock on the knob. Jimmy came in and shut the door behind him. He frowned down at her thumb. “You didn’t find anything?”

  “No, but it’s almost stopped. It’s not so bad.” She sighed and sat down on the floor, next to the tub and laid her head back on the rim. “This is a nice bathroom. I should’ve just hung out in this bathroom the whole time.” The smooth white surface of the claw foot tub felt good on the back of her neck. “This is a serious bathroom.”

  Jimmy set the lid down on the toilet and sat on it. “That bitch is evil,” he declared.

  “Don’t,” she said quietly. “It’s okay.”

  “It’s not okay, Hayley. It is not okay.”

  “It’s not like I didn’t know. I knew. That he had…girlfriends. I just never thought one of them would actually have anything to say to me.”

  “It wasn’t right. Her doing that. God, she’s so nasty. His right hand is better than that-”

  “Jimmy.”

  “Sorry.”

  Hayley sighed. “Are you having fun at this party?”

  He snorted. “No.”

  “Do you ever have fun at parties?”

  “Not anymore.”

  “So you wouldn’t be too inconvenienced if I asked you to drive me home?”

  Jimmy held out his hand to her.

  On the way out the front door, she was surprised to see Chris standing in the driveway talking with Tex. Jimmy grabbed her uninjured hand and pulled her along. “Taking her home,” he announced.

  “I’ll do it,” Chris replied.

  “She asked me,” Jimmy snapped.

  “Really, we’re fine,” Hayley intervened. “Jimmy wants to leave anyway. So we’ll just hang out at my house. You stay. Have fun.”

  Chris stepped in front of them. “Hayley she’s gone. She’s not gonna bother you again.”

  Hayley shrugged. “She didn’t bother me. She just interrupted me while I was chopping onions. That’s all. And you can go see her tonight. I’ll get a night off from making dinner.”

  “Hayley, I’m never seeing her again.”

  Hayley bit her lip. “You don’t have to do that. It’s fine.”

  Chris shook his head. “I would never let someone treat you like that and get away with it.”

  “She didn’t do anything. All she said was she spent the night with you last week and she’d like to see you again.”

  “That is not all she said, Hayley,” Jimmy growled. “Don’t take up for that bitch.”

  “Well, that’s really the only part I heard,” Hayley lied while smiling. “Because I cut my thumb and after that I wasn’t really paying attention.”

  “Well, I heard,” Jimmy announced. “I heard her loud and fucking clear. Especially that part where she said she’d lick his cock clean after he barebacked her and then she’d send him home to you.”

  “That’s enough,” Hayley told Jimmy.

  Jimmy’s jaw tensed. “Don’t sugar coat it, sweetie. I won’t. I’m not gonna stand here and let him think that shit wasn’t calculated and vicious.” To Chris he said, “And it better be over. And you better get yourself checked out at a clinic. I bet crack whores have cleaner twats. She for damn sure has a filthy mouth, I know that much.” To Hayley he said, “Get in the truck, honey. I’m taking you home so you don’t have to deal with this shit anymore.”

  Hayley, not knowing what else to do, moved around Chris without looking at him and made a beeline for the truck.

  Jimmy and Chris argued a little more, but she couldn’t hear what they were saying, which was just as well. Soon, Jimmy stalked to the truck and slid in behind the wheel. They rode the rest of the way to the little blue house in silence.

  “He’s not the great guy everyone thinks he is,” Jimmy announced at her dining room table while she poured him a glass of tea. “He breaks promises. He hurts people.”

  “He never made me any promises, Jimmy,” she informed him, sitting down next to him.

  Jimmy snorted. “Well, don’t believe him if he does.”

  Hayley played with the placemat in front of her. “What promise did he make to you?

  Jimmy scowled. “Doesn’t matter. He didn’t keep it and that’s all that’s important.”

  “He really didn’t promise me anything,” Hayley repeated.

  “Where did he tell you he was Saturday night? Sleeping with her? And you just said okay?”

  “It’s none of my business.”

  “What did he say?” Jimmy insisted.

  Hayley tugged at the corner of the placemat. “He said he was working late at the garage.”

  Jimmy snorted again. “Yeah. See? He lies.”

  “But it’s none of my business!”

  “Did he say it was none of your business? No! He didn’t. He lied!”

  “He doesn’t owe me anything,” Hayley said.

  “Not even the truth?”

  Hayley scowled at the placemat.

  Chapter 17

  Chris got out of Hawk’s truck practically as it was rolling to a stop on the curb. He’d let Easy and Hayley go because getting into it with Jimmy on Tex’s front lawn was not how he wanted to spend his day. He felt like an ass for getting busted lying to Hayley, then again for not protecting her from Deanna, and also because Hayley was getting caught in the crossfire of his problems with Easy. That was no place for her to be.

  He saw her front door standing open and headed there first. He climbed the st
eps of the front porch and through the screen door saw Easy and Hayley standing in her kitchen. Hayley was washing dishes. Easy glanced up and noticed Chris making his way to the front door. He grinned, grabbed Hayley by the upper arm, turned her to him and pressed his mouth to hers. Chris saw red and nearly tore the screen door off its hinges.

  Hayley shrieked, whether from Easy’s advances or the sound of the door bouncing off the side of the house, he wasn’t sure. He crossed the living room at a dead run, grabbed Jimmy and hurled him backwards and into the kitchen table. Jimmy recovered easily and launched himself at Chris. Chris grabbed him around the waist and the both of them crashed through the other screen door and they landed in a scuffle on the deck.

  “Why’re you pissed, Shooter?” Jimmy yelled out derisively. “You don’t want her. Maybe I do!”

  Chris punched Jimmy in the stomach and Jimmy clocked him in the jaw for his efforts. “You don’t!” he shouted to Easy. “You’re just fucking with her to get to me!”

  “Is it working? Don’t see how,” Jimmy growled, landing a blow to Chris’ ribs. “What with you sticking your dick in anything that comes along! Can’t see why’d you care much. Or are you just mad because you got busted lying? Again. I told her she can’t trust you. She knows what a lying bastard you are!”

  Chris grabbed Jimmy’s arm and twisted it, flipping the slightly smaller man face down onto the deck. “I was protecting her from the truth! And I’m sorry, Jimmy. Okay? I’m sorry it went down the way it did. I did what I had to do and I stand by it. You will get over it. You will. But you do not use her. Don’t do it. That’s not the kind of man you are, Turnbull. That’s not the man I served with. You’re pissed. I get it. You’re pissed at me. You’re pissed at the whole goddamn world. It’s allowed.

  “But what’s not allowed is using Hayley as a pawn. She got hurt today, and that’s on me. I admit that. But you filling her head with bullshit, that’s on you. She doesn’t deserve it.”

  “Fuck you!” Easy bellowed. “You walk around this town like you own it! You’ve got your house, no, your two houses, your garage, your bike. Walking around like your shit don’t stink when I only ever asked you for one thing. One thing! And you reneged. You think you deserve this life you’ve got? You think you can just live on this Earth, playing God, and no one’s gonna call you on your shit? Well, guess again. You’re not my brother. You don’t deserve brothers. You don’t know what the word means!”

  *******************

  When Chris had flung himself and Jimmy through the screen door, Hawk had taken Hayley by the arm and kept her from trying to intervene.

  “This isn’t about you,” the giant of a man had told her quietly. “This is a storm that’s been brewing a long time, Slick. Best to let it play out. Sorry you got caught in the middle.”

  Hayley could only watch helplessly as the two men traded punches. When Chris had Jimmy pinned down, the look in both men’s eyes was murderous and she was terrified not knowing what would happen. Chris finally got to his feet and stomped over to the table on the deck and slumped into one of the chairs. Hawk opened the screen door, probably only to be civilized since it was less a door than a huge, gaping hole, and hauled Jimmy to his feet. He told Jimmy quietly that it was time to leave and Jimmy stormed through the house to the front door, not bothering to acknowledge her. Hawk gave her a nod and a thin smile and followed him out.

  Hayley picked up a roll of paper towel and began mopping up the tea and broken glass that had fallen off the table and broken when the men tumbled into it. As she worked to mop up the debris, a shadow darkened over her from the back door but she couldn’t really bring herself to look up. She heard him cross the floor and he knelt down beside her. “I’ll do this, Slick,” he said quietly.

  “No, it’s okay. I got it.”

  He sighed. “Rule is, you bust up someone’s house, you make it right. And you already got cut today. Don’t need you around broken glass, too.”

  “It’s fine. It’s almost-”

  “Don’t bust my balls.” Normally this phrase was delivered in an angry or teasing tone, but this time he sounded so bone-weary that it actually scared her a little and she looked up at him. Chris looked about as broken as the glass and the screen door combined. She pressed her lips together tightly, handed him the paper towel and moved out of his way.

  “There are things I should tell you,” he announced while concentrating on his task of plucking up shards with his fingers.

  “You don’t have to-”

  “I decide what I have to do and what I don’t,” he bit out and she once again pressed her lips together.

  “First. Deanna. I didn’t lie to you about needing to work late. I did. And she drove by, happened to see my bike, and stopped at the garage. I’ve known her a long time. Hadn’t seen her in a while. Didn’t think she’d just show up at Tex’s house uninvited and start trouble. Most of what she says is bullshit. I don’t do her without a condom. I’ve never done a woman without a condom. Not even my high school girlfriend when I was young and stupid. I was never too stupid to know better. Had a few break. Worked out okay.

  “And, no, I don’t know why I’m telling you that except that it seems to me that kind of thing goes along with being a lying bastard, planting my seed all over town with no regard for the consequences. That’s not me. That’s not who I am. I’m sorry she confronted you. I’m sorry she spewed a lot of hateful shit at you. She will never bother you or any one of us ever again. I can’t do any better than that.

  “And Jimmy.” He paused, looking at a shard of glass in his palm. “I don’t know what to do about that.” He placed the sliver of glass on the towel, folded it up and took it with him to the garbage can. Frowning at the receptacle he said, “He was our Sapper, our Combat Engineer. He only just graduated from Ranger School and got his tab. He wasn’t officially assigned to the 75th yet, so he never got his scroll.

  “Ranger training is the most difficult combat course in the world. Some guys don’t even survive to graduate. They drown, or freeze to death. Hawk and Tex were out to prove who had the bigger dick and I went along for the ride, that’s the only reason we signed up for the course. But Jimmy was a lifer. Had his heart set on being an officer.

  “His old man wasn’t really his old man. Or at least that’s what his mother used to yell when she’d get drunk. So he had a hairy eyeball for Jimmy ever since he was in diapers. Jimmy thought he’d go back to New Orleans in his dress blues and show the old man that he was a son worth claiming, blood or no. When the bomb went off, we all scattered. Jimmy, Doc, and I got pinned down away from the rest of the unit when we came under fire. Doc had his kit and we were trying to stop the bleeding. But it was bad. And we knew it. And worst of all, Jimmy knew it. He was terrified, and kept looking at his leg, and finally he looked at us and begged me to shoot him.”

  Hayley gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

  “Tex was on the radio, called out that calvary was on its way, fighting through enemy fire to get to us. But they weren’t far out, Tex said. ETA was only ten minutes. So I told Jimmy that I would kill him. But that he deserved better than a bullet to the head like a lame horse. So I held his hands. And he closed his eyes. And we prayed together. And while his eyes were closed, I gave Caleb the signal not to do it.

  “So Jimmy never got the lethal dose of morphine he was begging for. Caleb only gave him enough to settle him down. Jimmy woke up in the hospital, missing his leg, knowing he’d never wear those dress blues, and that I had betrayed him. Jimmy’s a Catholic. Don’t know much about that except I’m assuming somehow that asking someone to kill you is a kind of suicide loophole they’ve got, because Jimmy doesn’t seem to be able to finish the job on his own. Not that I would ever want him to. If he just looked around and saw what was waiting for him...

  “He’s got his mind. He can walk. Could do it even better if he put some real effort into it. He’s got his hands, for working on engines, which is about the only thing he ever re
ally loved. He’s even got his left foot, so he could easily ride if he wanted to. He won’t go home, ‘cause he doesn’t want to face the old man. So I set him up here for his recovery and offered him a job he won’t take and a house he won’t live in. I don’t know if he’s staying to punish me, or what the hell he’s doing. I gave him a photo of our unit, like you said. The five of us and the four that didn’t make it. To let him know we didn’t forget.

  “And I thought it worked a little. But the other half of his problem is that because of me, he has to go on living this life that he absolutely did not want and that scares the living shit out of him. And you got caught in the crossfire, because I’m pretty sure next to dying, the only other thing Jimmy wants is to prove to everyone that I’m the rat bastard he thinks I am.”