The Viking Seal

CHAPTER 11 - Prats, Pests, And Poetry

Kenny drove along behind the van grumbling to himself about their not stopping anywhere; puddling around snow covered side streets was cranking up his anger quotient. He didn't want to be driving all over the place sightseeing; all he wanted was for them to park somewhere. He'd have been parked in a minute if the broad had been in his car.

Melanie had caught his eye and his fancy. He slowed as the van pulled into the parking lot of a small mall containing a cleaners, a convenience store and a small restaurant.

"At last!" He hit the wheel and found a parking space at the opposite end out of sight. "Coffee would go good about now," Kenny sang quietly as he checked the phone and hooked it on his belt, hit the remote lock and made his way into the restaurant. He stopped inside the door and looked around not seeing the couple. Confused, he stepped over by the counter and looked down the row of booths. They weren't there.

"What the—?"

"Can I help you?"

Kenny was about to curse when he turned and came face to face with a bright-eyed, fresh-skinned young waitress wearing a tank top that defied physics. "Uh-uuuh, I was just lookin' for my friends. I thought they came in here." He moved next to the counter and smiled his babe-shaker smile.

"There was a couple glanced at the menu outside, but they didn't come in." She rested her forearms on the counter and Kenny felt his eyes follow the jiggle of her chest as it settled on top. "So . . . would you like anything?"

His smile stretched into a leer as he matched her position on the counter, almost nose to nose. "Plenty."

They snickered and then both broke into giggles of laughter. It wasn't until a hairy face with bushy brows pinched down over angry eyes peered out from the kitchen and shouted the girl's name, "Anna!" that Kenny remembered the van. Swearing, he dashed out of the restaurant and looked frantically up and down the lot and the highway. Nothing.

Visions of Moira gripping his hand until it was paralysed scared him into action. He decided there wasn't much point in trying to find them now, instead, he would wait for Moira's call and make up some excuse. What could he say? He looked back at the diner and caught a glimpse of the girl watching out the window. What the hell could he say? Might as well do something positive.

While Anna seemed more than willing to flirt, the hairy face that kept peering out from the back managed to dampen his enthusiasm to the point that after a few exploratory gropes, fended deftly by the girl, he finished up his coffee and pie, paid the bill and shrugged a goodbye.

Sitting in the SUV, he discovered that the phone was off and he swore aloud, realizing that it must have happened when he hooked it on his belt. He quickly turned it on and the immediate ring startled him and he felt his armpits grow damp. Moira barked her orders into his ear with a deadly urgency and he jerked the SUV onto the highway, gunning the engine noisily.

A gust of wind blew a fog of snow across the roadway and as he swung around a short curve the van raced past going the opposite way. Kenny followed it in the mirror and saw that there were four people inside. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" Sweat broke out on his forehead in spite of the chilling temperature.

When he reached the highway, Moira was standing at the end of the driveway shivering with her cell phone still clutched to her ear. Parker was pacing up and down stamping his feet. A sandwich board, reading closed, blocked the entrance.

Kenny looked up and down the road and scooted across, skidding to a halt beside them. They both grabbed the doors open and jumped in and Kenny felt his mouth go dry as his brain raced to come up with an excuse. The best he could manage was, "It musta caught on my belt."