Bad Company

Never Enough - Part 1

"How many bottles of Jack do we have?" Dannie's voice called over the soft country music playing in the background of the bar. We still had an hour or two before the place opened, but Dannie needed to do some restocking and I needed some serious down time away from Colt.

Two days had passed since I was discharged from the hospital, and, in that time, I had seen Colt maybe once or twice. The second we had gotten home, he began pouring himself over copious amounts of documents and files on the Red Devils, access courtesy of a friend of a friend who lived in the trailer of a friend. Or something like that. I wasn't sure. All I knew was that Colt and Dusty were on a warpath, and I wanted to stay a clear ten miles from them.

My eyes scanned the various bottles lining the shelves, counting each one with a tally mark on a sticky note. "Uh...four. We have four bottles of Jack, but one of them is only about a quarter full."

"Okay. Can you come back and grab this new bottle? We can keep it under the bar in the overflow racks."

I set the sticky notes on the top of the bar and headed down the short hallway that led towards the back office. The entrance was propped open with a brick, and the door was that from Dannie's first home, the one she used to live in with her parents, whenever her mom decided to temporarily pop back into in her life anyways. It was like that for several years, Deborah coming and going as she pleased, until Dusty had had enough. One summer, he changed the locks and left a note tacked to the door with divorce papers neatly filed in a manila envelope. That following winter, the papers, and Deborah, disappeared entirely. It was really tough on Dannie, but she made it through somehow. She always had.

As I walked in, Dannie turned to me with a devious smirk and tossed the bottle of Jack at me, the dark liquid pounding against the side of the bottle like a child throwing a tantrum. Adrenaline shot through my veins, and I released a startled cry, throwing my hands outwards to catch the falling Jack. My fingers narrowly managed to wrap around the neck of the bottle, and surprise surged through my body as I realized I had in fact caught it.

"Nice catch, E," Dannie laughed, smiling broadly with humor shimmering in her hazel eyes. She propped her thigh against the chipped desk and crossed her arms over her chest, shooting me a broad, almost mocking, grin.

My eyes fell to the bottle of Jack before bouncing up to Dannie. "Just call me Rose," I teased, holding the bottle victoriously in the air. That earned me an eye roll from Dannie. "Why'd you throw it at me anyways?"

She shrugged her shoulders in honest curiosity and kicked her left foot over her right as she remained propped against the desk. "I don't know. Cause I felt like it?"

"Gee, thanks," I muttered with an eye roll, teasingly jabbing the bottom of the bottle against her stomach. Dannie laughed and lightly batted away the bottle, moving away from me and back towards the locked closet stocked with rows upon rows of alcohol.

I wordlessly left the office and sauntered back out to the bar area, humming along to some Johnny Cash as he crooned to the empty room. I paused in the doorway leading back to the bar and smiled as I glanced over the familiar space. My eyes flickered from the front door, across the empty booths, and over to the abused dart board riddled with holes. It was old and broken and crying for repairs, but it was home nonetheless.

Even though most of the furniture in the room was older than I was, it was what was familiar to me. The heavy scent of cigarette smoke and cheap booze was permanently embedded in the walls, lingering like ghosts of a forgotten time begging to be remembered, only they could never be forgotten.

The song on my lips faltered as a glint of silver suddenly reflected the setting sun pouring through the yawning window. Confusion furrowed my brows, and I froze for a brief moment before slowly rocking back on my heels until the flash of light once again alerted me to something on the wall beside the dart board. What was that?