Meagan's Marine (Halos & Horns)

by Lori Leger

  “Mm…how about Jagermeister?” Groans from the two men had her spinning around. “What’s wrong?”

  Tex shivered in revulsion. “Bad drunk, sis. Believe me, I know.”

  “Okay then, Hot Damn!” This time Meagan’s groan caught her attention.

  “Even worse. Want my advice? Keep it simple. You can’t go wrong with Crown, JD, or a good brand of tequila. On the other hand, you could try the new rum made right down the road from here. Bayou Rum is made from Louisiana sugar cane grown by area farmers. Smooth enough to shoot straight and it’s got a real fine aftertaste.”

  Haley seemed to consider her words. “Hmm…I’ll have to think about it. For tonight, I’ll just have a beer please. Why don’t you surprise me? My brother’s paying.”

  Tex balked. “I am? After you walked away with first place in barrels today?”

  “College money, big brother. Mom says I can’t use it for any other purpose but college.”

  He frowned at his sister. “Oh sure, bring mom into it to make me feel guilty as hell.”

  Mitch laughed at the siblings’ antics, wishing his own mom was around to make him feel guilty. His mood took a dark turn, remembering he already had plenty enough reason to feel guilty where his parents were concerned. He’d never really been there for either of them during their illnesses. Sarah had shouldered their health problems alone.

  ****

  Meagan glanced at Mitchell, taken back by the look of dark brooding covering his face. She placed an icy cold bottle of Dos Equis with a slice of lime tucked into the neck in front of Haley. “Here you go, sweetie. Enjoy your birthday, and I’m honored to hand you your first legal beer. And take my advice…if you’re going to drink alcohol, drink responsibly and always have a designated driver who isn’t drinking.”

  Haley lifted the beer and tipped it at Meagan. “I certainly will, and thanks.” She sipped the beer, closing her eyes in appreciation. “Mmm…good and cold. I like the lime.”

  Meagan planted a second bottle in front of Mitch. “A beer for your thoughts, Marine.”

  He cocked his head at his companions. “Thanks, but after this it’s water or soda for me. You’re looking at their designated driver for the night.”

  “What’s on your mind, Mitch? You look kind of sad.”

  He gave a casual shrug. “I was just thinking about my own folks…wishing I’d been man enough to be there for them when it counted, instead of letting my baby sister do all the heavy lifting.” He scratched at the corner of the label. “It’s too damn late for anything but regrets.”

  “It’s never too late to make up for past neglect, even though I doubt anyone else sees serving in the military as neglecting your family. Even if the people you think you neglected aren’t around anymore, just do unto others. And I know, for a fact that you have been.” Meagan placed a hand on his arm. “Have I told you how grateful I am for you showing up at the park the other day? Buck had so much fun.”

  “Aw, hell. I had as much fun as he did. It was nothing.”

  “It was a lot for a kid without a dad. That boy is still toting that kite around the house…climbs up on the couch and jumps off so Mitch can fly.” She laughed as Mitchell’s brow furrowed. “Yes, he named his pterodactyl kite after you. There is simply no way to interpret the thoughts or actions of an almost four year old boy.” She grinned when his face lit up with the news.

  “Thanks for telling me, Meg. It’s nice to know I made an impression. Buck’s a great kid.”

  “I think so,” she beamed at the thought of her son, and turned away to wait on a fresh group of customers. She couldn’t help but think about the butterflies in her stomach at her first sight of Mitch tonight. He’s just a friend. The good Lord knew she was juggling too much as it is. No way…no way in hell could she add a relationship to the mix.

  A packed house always made for a time-flies-by kind of night, and tonight’s crowd had the building almost at capacity. As a result, she barely got to visit with Mitch and his friends. A full two hours later, a prickle at the back of her neck made her look up toward the dance floor. Just in time to see Haley, struggling with a guy who seemed to have eight hands…and every one of them was all over her. As soon as she’d push one off her breast, another landed on her butt.

  Meagan scanned the area searching for Mitch or Tex, with no luck. Just as she was about to radio the bouncer for back-up, she saw a much taller young man place a hand on the shoulder of the human octopus and say something to Haley. At her nod, the tall young man leaned in to speak to the other guy. Mr. Octopus shoved hard at Dudley Do-Right and grabbed Haley’s arm.

  Hoping to keep Haley’s birthday from turning into a free for all if her brother caught wind of the situation, Meagan stepped around the corner of the bar. She approached the trio in time to hear the taller guy speak, his voice steely and determined, as though trying hard to control his anger.

  “Let her go man, you don’t want to do this tonight.”

  “What I wanna do tonight doesn’t include you, so why don’t you buzz on outta here before you get hurt…junior.”

  The guy had an iron grip on Haley’s arm and, judging from the look of it, she’d have a bruise tomorrow. Megan stepped between the two and turned to the shorter, well-muscled stocky man. “Let her go then get on out of here. Your time here is up and if you don’t want it to be forever you’ll leave without another word.”

  He turned his icy glare her direction, seemed to consider saying something for a split second, but turned to Dudley Do-Right again. “You don’t want a piece of me, bro. You Louisiana boys don’t know dick about getting the better of somebody like me.” He shoved hard at Dudley Do-Right’s chest, his eyes widening perceptibly when his target barely shifted an inch.

  The bouncer pushed his way through the gathering crowd’s nucleus, packed tight with onlookers. “Break it up, now.”

  “Micky, that’s the one causing all the trouble.” Meagan pointed to the man still gripping Haley’s arm. To her horror, she saw him take a swing at Haley’s defender, who’d taken his eyes off Mr. Octopus for an instant. Before she could warn him, the taller man had grabbed the guy’s fist, twisted it neatly with his left hand and whipped it around. As smooth as any dance move she’d ever seen, he’d pinned both of his arms behind his back, rendering him defenseless. He held him there as he spoke.

  “I’m gonna let you go, okay buddy? Just go on home now and leave the lady alone.”

  “Yeah, okay!” the guy groaned. However, lacking the good sense God gave him, the second his captor freed him, he took a healthy swing at him.

  Meagan winced, expecting to hear the thud of fist connecting with unsuspecting facial tissue. She heard the empty whoosh of a swing and miss, then a trio of lightening quick pop…pop…pops. Mr. Octopus groaned, and would have hit the floor if Micky hadn’t been there to catch him.

  “Can’t say you weren’t warned,” Micky chided Mr. busted nose, as he ushered him toward the exit.

  Meagan spun around to tend to Haley, but saw her rescuer guiding her away from the scene with a gentle hand to her lower back. The crowd parted for the two of them like the Red Sea before a staff-wielding Moses. He settled her into an empty chair on Meagan’s end of the bar.

  She pushed her way to the two of them. “Haley, are you all right? Did that guy hurt you?”

  “She needs ice on this. I doubt if it’ll stop it from bruising but it may keep the swelling down.”

  “Right away!” Meagan scrambled to fill a freezer bag with crushed ice and wrapped it in a dishtowel. By the time she returned, Haley and her rescuer were already deep in conversation. “Keep this on your arm. You sure it isn’t fractured or anything? That guy seemed to have a pretty good grip on you.”

  “Ben says it’s not, and it doesn’t hurt like it’s broken.” Haley’s eyes glittered with excitement.

  “Ben?”

  The man of the hour turned to face her, all big hazel eyes set in a chiseled, handsome face.

  “Yes
ma’am, Ben Bonin.” He extended his hand, giving her a strong handshake.

  Meagan winced at the title. “Well it sure is nice to meet you, Ben Bonin, but if you call me ma’am again I might have to hurt you. I’m Meagan and I’m only twenty-seven. You’re what…twenty-three or so?”

  “Twenty-two, ma’am.”

  “Meagan,” she insisted.

  “Meagan…ma’am.” He stood straight, tall, and unapologetic.

  She studied his haircut, military high and tight, the rod-straight back, the politeness…all so very familiar to her. “You’re a soldier aren’t you?”

  His brow furrowed just a little. “No ma’am!”

  She grinned, pegging him with one simple question. “Ah…then you must be a Marine.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Active or Veteran?”

  “Active, ma’am.”

  She nodded, checking out the handful of friends who’d gathered around to come to his defense if needed. “Pre or post-deployment?”

  “Pre-deployment.” He opened his mouth and closed it again, seemed to ponder her familiarity with military terminology. “You have someone over there, ma’am…Meagan?”

  Right on cue, the familiar tightness appeared in her chest, although not nearly as severe as in the past. “I had someone.”

  He stared at her for several seconds before nodding slowly. “I am sorry.”

  She smiled at him. “Thank you, but I’m glad you’re here, Ben.” Meagan couldn’t help but notice Haley stealing glances at him behind his back. “I have a feeling she is, too. You gonna be around here tomorrow night?”

  He cast a glance over at his friends. “I don’t think so. I believe they have a pool party and a fish fry or something lined up at another buddy’s place.”

  “FYI, Haley will be here tomorrow night to collect her free birthday shots. She can’t do it tonight because she’s competing tomorrow. Just sayin’.” She gave him a wink and returned to her spot behind the bar.

  The steady flow of customers didn’t let up enough to enable her to relax for another two hours. At a quarter to midnight, Meagan finally got to sit for a few minutes as she readied to leave for the night.

  “You out of here at twelve?”

  She looked up at Mitchell’s approach. “Sure am. Tonight flew by.”

  He gave her a hangdog expression. “No chance you could hang around just to visit with us for a bit?”

  “I can’t Mitch. I need to get home.”

  “Isn’t your roommate there with Buck? I’m sure they’re both asleep by now.”

  “It’s not as simple as that. Niki doesn’t care to st…” She stopped suddenly, knowing she’d said too much.

  “Stay in the house at night,” he finished for her.

  “Well, not without me being there with her.”

  “The ‘sad man’ still making his presence known, is he?”

  She bit her lip, thinking that maybe it wasn’t such a good thing that he knew so much about her home life. “This isn’t the place to be talking about this.”

  He opened his mouth to speak then snapped it shut again. After seeming to mull things over he finally spoke, breaking the uneasy silence between them. “Do you still have my number from last year?”

  She pulled her phone from her pocket to check, and nodded. “I do.”

  “Don’t hesitate to call me if something happens that you can’t or don’t want to handle alone. There’s no shame in asking for help, you know. That’s what friends do.”

  “I’ll call if anything comes up.” She hefted her backpack onto one shoulder and waved as she headed out.

  CHAPTER 9

  Fear of Flying Photos

  As soon as she pulled into her driveway, she suspected there had been some trouble. If the fact that it was lit up like the Vegas strip didn’t clue her in, seeing Niki curled up on the couch with Buck certainly did. Though Buck was sound asleep, Niki’s eyes were wide open, glued to her as she approached.

  “What happened?”

  “Jesus Christ, Meg. Maybe you ought to ask what didn’t happen.”

  Meagan lifted her son gently and walked down the hall, stopping to open the closed door of his room. She stood for a moment to check its condition before tucking him into his bed. She heard her roommate’s sharp intake of breath at the doorway and met her gaze. “What Nik?”

  “It’s warm again.” Niki, her voice shaky and faltering, stood at the threshold, stiff as a rod. “The last time I was in here, my nipples practically had icicles on ‘em.”

  Meagan checked the room again. “It seems to be fine now.” She walked over to the picture frame of Christopher lying face down on the dresser. She picked it up, startled to see the cracked glass covering his handsome face. “What happened?”

  “It, uh…flew off the dresser and broke.”

  “You mean it fell off the dresser?”

  “Hell no!” Niki hissed. “When I tell you that thing flew off the dresser, that’s exactly what I mean.”

  Meagan caught her friend’s reflection in the mirror and knew she was telling the truth. Nik’s face was a masque of terror wrapped in a façade of nervous tension. Her thin arms hugged at her middle as if she struggled to keep from falling apart. It was as though it took every ounce of strength she possessed not to bolt in the opposite direction of Buck’s room.

  Meagan took one last look at Buck before approaching her friend. “Come on back to my room with me. I want to hear everything.”

  They stopped in the kitchen to pull a chilled bottle of cheap wine from the fridge and two glasses off the shelf. “I’m gonna need this to sleep tonight, hon,” Niki said, twisting the cork out of the previously opened bottle. She filled her glass to the brim and took a huge gulp before settling on Meagan’s bed.

  Meagan filled her glass halfway and settled back against the headboard. She took a sip then faced her friend. “Tell me.”

  Niki took a deep breath as though to build her courage. “Everything was fine, Meg. I fed Buck his supper and gave him a bath, and he fell asleep watching Prancer. He didn’t give me a bit a trouble, as usual.” Her big green eyes seemed to grow even larger and brighter as she continued with her story. “As soon as I tucked him into his bed, all hell broke loose.”

  Niki gulped her wine and held the glass to her chest with both hands. “When I turned around to leave the room, the temperature dropped.” She shook her head in a violent, jerky movement. “That doesn’t describe it nearly good enough. It was more like running smack dab into a wall of icy air! From one second to the next I was blowing smoke, Meg. Then…that picture fell on its face. I went to pick it up and it slid all the way to the other end of Buck’s dresser…a good two and a half feet, I tell ya. And fast!” She stopped long enough to throw back the rest of the wine and refill her glass.

  “I went to pick it up again and the damn thing flew across the room, Meagan, I swear to God. It smashed right into the wall on the opposite side of the room. It about scared the life right out of me! I couldn’t help it, Meagan. I screamed and it scared Buck. He woke up screaming. I picked him up and left the room with him. It took me a good fifteen minutes to calm him down. As for me, well hell I’m still trying to calm down, as you can see.” Niki raised her wine glass and took another swallow before resting it on the nightstand. She sat in a ball against the headboard, hugging her knees to her.

  Meagan groaned and reached out to rest a hand on her friend’s arm. “Now I know why you closed the door of his room.”

  Niki shook her head. “I didn’t. He did.”

  “Buck?”

  Nik’s eyes were saucer round and filled with terror. “No—him—the sad man. He slammed it closed as soon as I walked out of there with Buck…who told me he saw the sad man do it.”

  “Holy crap.” Meagan lifted both hands to her face. “What the hell am I gonna do about this?”

  “I called Elvinia and told her everything that’s been going on.”

  “Who?”

  �
��My friend, Elvinia. The one that’s been on vacation? She made it back last week but has been too busy playing catch up to call me back. So, I called her. She’ll be here the day after tomorrow.”

  “What do you think she can do, Nik?”

  “I’m not too sure—communicate with him, maybe? Find out what it is he wants or needs from you. If you give it to him maybe he’ll leave you in peace…go to wherever he should have gone after he passed on.”

  “What if what he wants is too much to give him?” Meagan shuddered at the one thought she was too afraid to put into words.

  What if he wants Buck?

  CHAPTER 10

  Cowboys, Crowds and Competitions

  The muffled thump of bass blasted to a driving beat as Mitch pulled open the door of Red’s club. He followed his houseguests, Tex and Haley, along with Trevor, a dick with a perpetual attraction to pretty cowgirls, into the building. After a quick scan of the bar, he found Meagan in her usual spot, tending to the area along the east side of the establishment.

  He took the lead as they painstakingly made their way to her.

  Meagan looked up at them and grinned. “Hey, I’m glad to see y’all back.”

  Mitch pointed his thumb at Haley. “She’s coming to collect her birthday shots.”

  “Ah, that’s right! If my memory serves me, you wanted to think about it. Have you come to a decision, yet?”

  Haley gave her a huge grin. “Actually, I believe I’ve decided to support the Louisiana sugarcane farmers. Ben said it’s real smooth.”

  Meagan beamed at her. “Ben would be correct. It’s fabulous mixed with cola, but smooth enough to shoot straight. I highly recommend it. You want the Silver or Spiced?”

  “Let’s start with the Silver, please.”

  Meagan set out a large plastic tray, placed the bottle in the center and added a few cans of coke and four shot glasses.

  No sooner had they taken the set-up to an empty table, than Mitch came back to the bar, asking for a beer.