Savage (A Blood Feud Novel)

Chapter Eight

Shea stopped the car at Gilligan's. The place was smoke-filled and eerily quiet. Only two other patrons were inside. James sat at a booth and Shea went to take a leak.

A bartender named Travis, a scruffy looking man with a full orange beard and thick eyebrows, asked, "What it'll be for you, young lads?"

James was nearly put off by the eyebrows. "Two glasses of Jameson sir."

The bartender nodded and got to serve the drinks. When Shea came back and saw Travis, who was in chatter with one of the two patrons he looked at James who could only shrug.

"Is that actually how he looks?" he whispered as he slid next to James.

James shrugged again. He wasn't really in the mood for a conversation. It was nothing against Shea or having paid for the drinks. It was what the girl Alana had told him a week ago; he still had not come to terms with it and had stopped picking her calls.

Shea noticed that something was bugging his good friend. "Hey mate, earth to Jamie. Um, your drink is getting warm.

James lifted his glass and drank. To his surprise, he swallowed his glass in one swoop. Travis saw the empty glass, smiled and quickly gave James another round.

"Thanks," James said as he began on his second glass.

Shea placed the glass down. It was the first time he had ever come to this bar. Shea wasn't much of drinker compared to James. He was the younger and soberer of the two.

"I fucking hate this town," James muttered at him. He drank a sip of the glass this time, careful not to endure another swoop of the glass like the first one.

"Why is that?" Shea asked.

"I don't know," said James. "I mean, gosh, I wonder how the fuck you'd stand this place."

"I've only been here for a year Jamie," Shea said. "It's not that bad."

"Well, maybe for you, but you haven't had to deal with the sort of shit I've had to deal with."

"Like what?"

"Like... like what Alana just told me momentarily ago."

"Which is?"

James could sense Shea was intrigued. He wanted to slap himself up the head. He didn't mean to get his girl on the side pregnant. It was a fling, a one-off. But she persisted. She phoned the sucker for weeks on end. If he had known she was that clingy, he would never have screwed her. Maybe she had even gotten herself pregnant deliberately he thought.

"She's expecting," James said quietly.

"Expecting what?" Shea asked.

James took a deep breath, glanced down and said quietly, "She's fucking pregnant!"

Shea nodded and scoffed. He drank the rest of his first glass quietly then asked the bartender for two more.

"It can't be mine. I only screwed this girl because she was available.

"Third glass is on me," the bartender said to Shea. "I overheard your friend. Congratulations!"

Shea said, "Nah, he's not happy about it. He says it was a one-off with her and the chick tends to get crazy."

James turned back, glared at Shea, and then to the bartender, "I'm not the father. She's just pulling my leg because I've refused to see her."

He didn't know why he said that to the bartender. Never mind inviting a bloke like a scruffy bartender into your business.

"How did you know?" he asked Shea.

Shea handed him another glass of Jameson. James was still two quarters away from finishing his second glass.

"She told me last night," Shea said. "Your girl bumped into me while I was out about. She asked if you were around town, told her I hadn't seen you in a while. She was pissed, James. She thinks you're shafting her."

"Well, the fuck!" James blurted. "She's fucking with me. I don't want the baby."

"Why, cause Rachel would find out?" Shea asked half teasingly.

James said nothing.

Rachel Gardner was James' girlfriend, an older woman he met in town about a year ago. He usually did not dig older chicks, but Rachel was out of the world. Things had been going alright with her until she took an unexpected turn a few months ago.

"I don't want to think about it," James said. "I can't control her nor can I tell her what to do at times."

Shea shook his head, feeling amused. "That's what you get with an older woman, mate." He quickly drank down the rest of his second glass and started on the third.

Shea decided after he finished drinking.

He'd probably drive James home even though they were riding in James' car.

The alcohol took James mind off the trouble he was in, but he knew soon he had to settle it. An abortion was the only thing that came to his mind.

He wasn't interested in being a dad, that meant child support and that was the last thing he needed. The challenge now was to convince Alana had to get rid of it.

The spoilt brat had her head in the clouds that they would get hitched. He scoffed, not if Rachel got to her first.