It was dark out when Arthur woke up again. His whole body ached. Nurse Duckett was sitting in a chair in the corner doing a crossword. She smiled at Arthur and set her puzzle aside. “How are you feeling?”
“Where’s Sam?” Arthur asked. “I need to see if Sam is alright.”
“She is fine,” Nurse Duckett assured him.
“Where’s her room?” Arthur sat up, which was clearly a mistake because colors swirled in front of his eyes, but he had never let good sense stop him before. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and mentally prepared himself to stand.
“For heaven’s sake! Are you always this stubborn?” She stood to push Arthur back down.
“Nuh-uh! I bite!” Arthur warned her when she got too close.
Nurse Duckett pursed her lips. “You are going to fall on your face if you do not let me help you.”
“Then I will crawl,” Arthur declared. He stood up and immediately fell on his face. He groaned more than he would have liked to admit, the fall had been quite painful.
Nurse Duckett tsked disapprovingly. “I told you that you would fall, silly American boy.” She knelt and helped him to his feet.
“No!” Arthur squirmed in her iron grip. “I need to see Sam for myself!”
“Stop fighting me,” she ordered calmly. “I am taking you to see her.”
“Oh.” Feeling foolish, Arthur let Nurse Duckett lead him out into the hallway. He found himself leaning against her for support as they walked.
Nurse Duckett opened a door to a room that held Sam and Nurse Cramer. Sam appeared to be sleeping soundly as Nurse Cramer watched over her. Arthur stumbled to Sam’s bedside and held her hand.
“How is she doing?” Arthur asked fretfully.
“Surprisingly well,” Nurse Cramer said. “The doctors say she will make a full recovery.” She rose from her seat and stood very close to Arthur. “Perhaps you would be so kind as to tell us what happened to you and your friend?”
+
“You are not the best, you are what I have left, do you understand? My asking you to do this does not make you special or favored in anyway. If you perform this task exceptionally well, then and only then will I feel inclined to grant you such kind feelings.” Varner took a sip of bourbon to dull the pain in his shoulder.
“Yes, Mr. Varner!” Teddy Peterson nodded eagerly.
“Good. Here is the girl’s picture, you’ve seen Arthur around here and you know what he looks like. If they’re smart they’ll have left town, check the bar she works at to see if anyone knows where they went. After that ransack their homes, the addresses are on the back of the photo. Now get out of my sight,” Varner commanded.
Teddy hastened to leave Mr. Varner’s office. He looked down at the photo Mr. Varner had given him. She was pretty, with bright red hair and feisty green eyes. Practically giddy for the opportunity to finally impress Mr. Varner, Teddy hurried out to his car and drove over to the Tipsy Slug to look for signs of Sam and Arthur.
Having spent the previous two years making minimum wage in Mr. Varner’s grocery store, Teddy had been delighted to be recruited earlier this year as a low level enforcer in Mr. Varner’s other business. And now he finally had the chance to make it to the big time!
Teddy checked that his gun was easily reachable in the shoulder holster hidden by his jacket, and entered the bar. Looking around, he was momentarily distracted by a girl with a great ass squeezed into jeans at least two sizes too small. Teddy knew how to appreciate a woman with curves so he took a second to admire her. When she turned around Teddy’s jaw dropped.
He held up the picture of Sam and looked from it to the girl with the nice butt and then back to the photo. Obviously, it was a fairly old photograph, because Sam had put on at least thirty pounds and dyed her hair brown since it had been taken.
Teddy walked up to Sam and discretely drew his gun, pressing it against her back. “Listen very carefully to me,” Teddy whispered. “Come with me and-”
“Is that a gun? OH MY GOD! HELP!” Sam screamed.
Teddy panicked. He hit Sam over the head with the butt of his gun and dragged her towards the exit. The pudgy idiot working behind the bar shouted at him and tried to grab Sam away from Teddy, but all he had to do was point his gun and the bartender backed down.
Drenched in sweat from the unexpected fear and excitement, Teddy threw Sam into the trunk of his car and raced back to the grocery store.
When he arrived in the rear parking lot, Teddy sat in his car trying to calm his hammering heart. “Shit, shit, shit!” he whispered to himself. He was supposed to have captured Sam and Arthur discreetly and then brought them back to Mr. Varner without causing a big fuss. Instead he had kidnapped Sam in the middle of a crowded bar full of witnesses and they had all seen him do it!
He was so screwed.
+
Jimmy wasn’t the last person that Arthur wanted to burst into Sam’s hospital room. But he was close.
Babbling incoherently and making a variety of animated arm gestures, Jimmy tried to communicate something he felt was important to him.
After about two minutes without a single understandable word having been uttered, Arthur decided he was in no mood for patience. He slapped Jimmy across the cheek.
It had the desired effect. Jimmy shook his head to clear out the last remnants of panic and finally explained himself. “Macy’s been kidnapped! A guy with a gun just walked into the bar and grabbed her! I called the cops, but they just said they’d look into it as soon as they were able to!”
Nurses Duckett and Cramer exchanged a confused look. “Your police did not respond immediately to an armed kidnapping?” Nurse Duckett asked.
Arthur sighed. “That means Varner is behind it. He basically owns the police station.”
The nurses shared another look. “The same man Sam too to the barn to shoot Priscilla?” Nurse Cramer asked pointedly. It was odd, as soon as Arthur had told them what happened at the barn she had ceased flirting with him. Relieving, but still odd.
“The very same,” Arthur told her.
Nurse Cramer said something in russian to Nurse Duckett that made Duckett shake her head and Cramer continue angrily in russian. Evidently Nurse Cramer won the argument, because she turned smugly to Arthur and declared, “We shall help you rescue Macy.”
“Yay!” Jimmy hopped up and down gleefully.
“Um...no offense, because I truly am grateful for the offer, but what exactly will two nurses, an idiot bartender, and a guy who just got shot in the ass do against Varner and all his hired guns?” Arthur asked.
Nurse Cramer smiled slyly. “We have not been exactly truthful with you. We are not nurses, rather...how do you say...hit women.”
+
Macy felt bad for her kidnapper. He had taken her into what looked suspiciously like the back of the town grocery store and then some old dude had gotten really upset with him and shot him in the groin. He was still alive, but in a lot of pain. He kept moaning. Macy wanted to help him, but she was tied up now next to a pallet of cereal boxes.
“Can I go home now? I have a headache and I’m hungry,” Macy complained.
“No. And shut up,” the old dude said meanly. He seemed like a really cranky guy.
“But I’m hungry and we’re in the grocery store!” Macy whined. “There’s so much ice cream here it’s making me sick just thinking about how close it is!”
The old dude just glared at her.
“Please! If I don’t eat any ice cream I’ll explode! That happens to me sometimes,” Macy explained.
“Fine! Jenkins, get her some damn ice cream,” the old guy snapped.
“But I’ll have to untie her to let her eat it,” Jenkins pointed out hesitantly.
“Then untie her!” old dude roared. “Does she look like a God-damn mastermind that’s going to escape quickly?”
“No, sir! Sorry, sir!” Jenkins ran to get some ice cream.
“Thanks, mister! What’s your name?” Macy asked.
“Just shut the hell up, Macy.” He shook his head perturbedly.
Macy gasped. “How do you know my name?”
“I know your cousin. In fact, you aren’t supposed to be here, she is.” He ran a hand through his grey hair in frustration.
“You know Sam? She’s so nice! Except that she doesn’t let me have ice cream. But other than that she’s good!” Macy exclaimed.
“Yes, I know. And you’re sure you don’t know where she is?”
Macy shook her head. “She hasn’t been home since last night and she won’t answer her phone. I got bored so I went to visit Jimmy at the bar. Jimmy is my new boyfriend. He’s super cute and he doesn’t care if I eat ice cream!”
The old dude grumbled some curse words to himself and then turned to one of his men. “Keep feeding her junk food to keep her quiet. I don’t want to be able to hear that annoying voice in my office!” He walked away briskly and slammed his office door.
“My voice isn’t annoying!” Macy shouted after him. “It’s just high pitched and I talk a lot!”
“Here’s your ice cream.” Jenkins had returned. “I wasn’t sure which kind you liked so I got five of them for you.”
Macy’s eyes grew wide. “Don’t tell Jimmy this, but I think I love you!”
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