Mitchell’s Tap
Back of the Yards
Chicago, Illinois

Slowing the Sierra Denali to a stop by the curb, my heart raced as I clenched the steering wheel.  Just as she had been since the beginning of our relationship, Lucy Wylde rode shotgun.  During my hesitation, I wondered what caused it.

Was it Brandon?  Once a lover, turned friend, turned traitor.  Those that betray my trust, my loyalty, don’t normally find their way back again.  I’ll admit, it hurt to learn he’d been working either for or with Lauren, a woman so hellbent on hurting me.  He and I didn’t work out and I know he carried some animosity from that.  It didn’t work out because of Lauren so I’ve found it strange that of all people, she is who he aligned himself with.

Was it Lauren herself?  A once strong and true love that developed fast, but turned cold, bitter and dark almost as fast.  Since the day she left, I hadn’t seen her.  At least not in person and face to face.  Inside, I was tortured by things.  Mistakes I made.  Things I never got to say.  Things I wish I’d heard from her.

Why Chicago?  Of all places.  Yes, I know she was born here and spent her youth here but her youth isn’t something to be proud of.  It’s not something anyone would want to go back to.

”You okay?” Lucy busted through my thought process like a wrecking ball through a brick wall.

”What?” I asked as I turned toward her.  ”Yeah I’m fine,” I replied as it registered what she’d asked.

”I mean you’re kind of white knuckling the steering wheel at this breakneck speed of zero,” she joked in a vain attempt to keep a serious situation lighthearted.

It was only then that I noticed she was right.  Loosening my grip on the wheel, I looked at my palms then wiped the sweat on my jeans.  After killing the engine, I opened the door to step out.  To her credit and maybe a little to my surprise, Lucy was again beside me.  Only then did I realize why the trepidation, the hesitation, the… uneasiness.

I’m a tactician.  In the ring, in business, and most certainly in my former life as a military leader.  Nothing about this was tactful.  Since I set this in motion, I didn’t try to call Lauren, I didn’t reach out to Brandon.  I just jumped on the plane and said “Chicago.”  There was no plan other than hoping Brandon would do the right thing and lead me to my future ex-wife.  I didn’t have much of an idea what Lauren was into, if anything, or why Brandon was helping her and why he didn’t think he could tell me.  I had exactly zero idea what I was walking into.  Lucy and I were goin’ in blind and there was virtually no plan A let alone a plan B.

Lucy slid her hand into mine causing me to look at her.  The nerves, the questions, the apprehension disappeared nearly without a trace.  Two doors down and through, she and I stood inside the confines of ‘enemy territory.’  To my delight, barely anyone noticed except a tall, beefy guy standing far across the bar near a dimly lit set of steps that lead upward.  Bouncer I thought to myself.  He didn’t seem to want to take his eyes off us but I figured he’d never seen us there before so he was just doing his due diligence and keeping a watchful eye on a couple new faces.

Scanning the bar, I found my target.  His laugh gave him away as he schmoozed it up with an older man likely twice his age.  While he faced the man with his right side to the bar, I sat on what would be his direct right.

”Can I buy you a drink?” I asked in a low tone as he took a sip of his beer while chatting up the old guy.

”Hey, I’m talkin’ here,” he said with a thick New York tone without turning… or realizing who he was talkin’ to.

”Sorry,” I said as Lucy leaned against the bar to my right.  ”Didn’t think you wouldn’t recognize my voice.”

Finally, Brandon turned to face me mid-swig and about choked on it when he realized who had been talking to him.  He attempted to stand up in retreat but I slapped my hand on the back of his neck pretty hard and squeezed, rendering him nearly defenseless.  Peering up for just a moment, the big bouncer guy didn’t seem to take too kindly to my somewhat rough handling of Brandon.  Thinking quickly, I figured they must be tied together somehow.

”Hello Brandon,” I said in his ear.  ”Wave off the big guy.  I’m not here for a fight.”

Brandon forced a smile, raised his beer and waved off the bouncer.  The big man retreated backward into the corner.

”Is this a twofer?” asked the older man Brandon was tryna get with.  ”’Cuz I really wouldn’t mind both of you.”

”I would,” Lucy chimed in.  ”Put your dick away, Pappy.”

The unnamed man looked at Lucy, then me, then Brandon.  Brandon shrugged and the unnamed man moved down the bar.

”What are you doing here Thad?” Brandon asked as sweat beads began to form upon his brow.

”I could ask you the same thing,” I told him softly.

”How did you even find me?” he asked as he laid his drink down on the bar.

”Well, I’ve known you awhile now and… I’m not judging you for it, but I know damn well you love anything you don’t have to pay for,” I began.  ”You never quit usin’ your company cell and I track all of my company phones.”

That’s not as sinister and controlling as it sounds.  In past lives, I’ve been the target of many plots and the best way to protect the people that worked for me was to know where they are at all times.  If they went somewhere they shouldn’t, it would raise alarms and we hypothetically could avert disaster.

”I know you’re workin’ for her,” I admitted to him.  ”I don’t know what, and at this precise second I don’t care what.”

”Then what is it I can do for you?”

”First, we’re gonna stand up and you’re gonna wave and smile at big bouncer guy while holding my hand,” I began laying it out for him.

”Why?”

”Because I don’t know who he is, but he seems to think he might know me and I don’t like that,” I explained.  ”So when you smile and wave while holding my hand he thinks you just scored some dick and he’s not calling my wife to tell her what’s up.”

”What makes you think he works for her?’ Brandon asked.

”I don’t know if he does and I definitely don’t trust you to tell me the truth,” I replied.

Down off the bar stools, Brandon did as I instructed and the man smiled and backed into his little corner.  Out on the sidewalk I let go of his hand and wiped his fearful sweat on my pants.

”Thad, listen,” he began as we started toward the truck.  ”I just wanted to clear the air...”

With almost no warning, he triggered my bitch switch and I turned, gripped him by his throat and slammed him hard against the front fender of the black GMC.

”Thing about betrayal, Brandon, is that almost no one comes back from it,” I said through a clenched jaw.  Brandon kicked his legs and clawed at my insanely strong grip trying to pry my hand from his throat.

”I have nothing to say to you about that,” I said as I leaned my face next to his ear.

”Thaddeus,” Lucy said quietly as she placed her hand on my right shoulder and her face against my left.

Turning my head toward hers just a little, I nodded, stepped back and released my hand from his throat.  Brandon lurched forward and hit his hands and knees on the snow covered sidewalk as he coughed and gasped, trying to get the air back that he lost.  Taking a deep breath, I punted him in his ribs.  He reeled away in agony and crashed against the front tire of my truck.

”How’s that for clearing the air?” I asked as he started to get to his feet.

No… I didn’t feel good about that.  I loved Brandon and maybe I should have heard him out, but I’m not in that sort of mood.  One day, far in the future, perhaps we’ll laugh about this.  Today is not that day.

”Just tell me what you want,” he whined as I led him into the cab of the truck.

”You’re taking me to Lauren,” I said as I climbed into the driver's side with Lucy taking her rightful place.

”I can’t do that,” he protested.

”You can and you will,” I insisted as I adjusted the rearview mirror so I could see his face in the backseat.  ”Call her.  Keep it short.  If you let her know it’s me, I’m kicking your ass until I collapse from exhaustion.  Tell her you need to see her at her place immediately then hang up and hand me your phone.”

”Thad…”

”I’m sorry!” I shouted as I started the diesel engine.  ”Did I give you the impression that this was up for debate?  Did I give you any indication whatsoever that you had a fuckin’ choice!?”

Withdrawing his cellphone from his jacket… ”You broke my screen,” he said.

”On speaker.”

Rolling his eyes, he did as I demanded but I saw something I hadn’t noticed before.  Fear.  Not of me, but of her.

”What?” Lauren answered.

”I-I-I need to see you,” Brandon told her.

”Why?” she asked angrily.

Pleasant woman.

”I-I-I’ll explain when I see you.  Be at your apartment in thirty.”

Without letting her reply, he hung up and handed me the phone before turning and staring out the window.  He told me the address which Lucy punched into my GPS.

28 minutes.

A few blocks down the road, I rolled down the window and tossed his phone into a drain at the curb.

”You did the right thing, Brandon,” I tried to reassure him.

”Yeah?”

”I mean, who are you more afraid of?  Her or me?” I asked.  He thought about that longer than I anticipated.

”I’m not sure.”