Fix Us (Book 2) A Supernatural Story

23- Ice The Devil

Dean enters the bar and looks around, he sees Rio sitting at a table and nods at her as he then heads for a bar stool, sitting right beside Gunner. "Hey" Dean says as he sits down beside him.

"Hey" Gunner says back, "Dean right?" he asks him as he hands Dean a shot.
"Yeah" Dean replies smiling awkwardly.
"Enjoy the show?" Gunner asks him.
"Show was great. Yeah, you were great. After the show, not so much, but—" Dean replies.

"Yeah, I heard. It's a damn shame" Gunner replies as he takes his shot and so does Dean.
"That's uh...kind of why I'm here" Dean says as he show his FBI badge.
"Kind of buried the lead on that one, huh?" Gunner says to him.
"Yeah" Dean says, "thanks" he then says to the bartender as she tops up his glass. "I hear this isn't the first murder at a Top Notch show" he then says to Gunner.

"It's a rough crowd, inside the ring and out" he tells Dean.
"Yeah" Dean agrees.
"'92" Gunner then says as he pulls his sleeve up to show Dean a scar, "I'm leaving the ring and some damn reprobate goes at me with a broken beer bottle" he tells him.

"Well, a couple of years ago a perp got the jump on me" Dean then says pulling up his pant leg, "decided to take a chunk of my leg as a keepsake" he says putting his pant leg back down.

Gunner then shows Dean his hand, "See this right here? Far as I can bend these" he shows Dean his fingers. "Thanks to good old Jonah Rancid and all 400 pounds of him just dropping down on me" he tells Dean.
"Wow" Dean says as Gunner indicates to the bartender for more shots, "Yeah, but you're still out there. Still doing it" Dean says to him.

Gunner sighs, "I've been beat up, spit on, stabbed, roughed up, but I will be damned if I didn't always get back up. One thing I learned, you got to keep on grinding no matter what's thrown your way" Gunner tells him.
"Damn, you're awesome" Dean says as they clink their shot glasses and take another shot of alcohol.
"Tell that to my ex-wives" Gunner says.

Just then Dean's cell rings and he takes it out looking at it, "Yeah, give me a sec" he says excusing himself.
"Hey, what you got?" Dean asks Sam.
"A lot, actually" Sam replies, "Uh, so every stop on the Top Notch tour, somebody turned up dead. It didn't all happen at the venue and most of them look like accidents, but they all had the symbol. Hangman, too" Sam tells him.

"I thought he killed himself" Dean says to Sam.
"Yeah, well, that's what Rio said, but the cops are treating it like an open case. They're thinking, and I quote, 'It's some kind of weird, Satanic crap'" Sam tells him.

"Awesome" Dean replies.
"Yeah, it gets better. I sent a picture of the symbol to Callie, and she was able to scan it into her computer and got a hit. That symbol? Ancient Sumerian said to have the power to 'pluck the spark of life'" Sam says.

"And that means?" Dean asks him.
"Souls maybe" Sam suggests.
"So we're talking demon?" Dean says.
"It's worth checking out" Sam says.

"Well, Rio says that they use locals to set up, so-" Dean says.
"So, it's got to be one of the wrestlers." Sam says.
"Maybe. All right, just get here" Dean then says to him.
"What are you gonna do?" Sam asks.
"I'm working on it" Dean says as he ends the call.

A man walks up to the bar "Yo, sweetheart, hit me again!" he shouts at the woman behind the bar.
"Hey, Harley. Go easy. I think you had enough" Gunner says to him,
"Screw off" Harley tells him.
"Just trying to help" Gunner says.
"Like you helped me in Fort Worth" Harley calls out to Gunner and turns around to face him, "What? You think I don't know you got me kicked off the card?"

"You wouldn't job to Crazy D, and I couldn't abide by that" Gunner says as the others in the bar start to take notice.
"Yeah" Harley says walking toward Gunner. "I think you just can't stand the thought of me stealing your thunder"
"Kid, I got no worries about that" Gunner says.