Adrift: The Complete Novel Read Online Free Page A

twenty odd tables held customers. No one looked up as I approached.
    “Excuse me, is the owner in?” I said to the girl behind the counter, who was turned away from the bar, grabbing a handful of beers.
    She swiveled around carefully, somehow holding six beer bottles in her tiny hands. Her eyes met mine, and she startled, almost dropping everything. “It’s…it’s you,” she said, almost in a whisper averting her eyes, one of which I noticed was ringed in red and purple. A new injury.
    “I’m sorry, have we met?” I asked.
    Before she could answer, someone called out from the kitchen, “Kelly, get on back here and pick up this food.”
    She looked at me furtively, purposefully trying to hide her black eye with her streaked hair. “I’ll tell Wally you’re here.”
    I nodded and took a seat.
     
    +++
     
    “Why didn’t you follow him?”
    “You told me to stay put, Johnny.”
    Johnny fumed. His idiot cousin didn’t know how to take a shit without permission.
    “You sure it was him?”
    “Yeah. Blonde hair. Same guy.”
    “Which way did he go?”
    “Headed towards highway ninety.”
    Johnny pictured the roadways in his mind, ruling out destinations. “Was Hollie with him?”
    “No.”
    “There aren’t many places he could’ve gone. Call me if he comes back.”
    Johnny put his truck in reverse, squealing out of the drive.
     
    +++
     
    A man emerged from the back, wearing a grease-stained white apron. He scanned the dimly lit bar, his eyes finally settling on me. They went wide.
    “You shouldn’t be here,” he said.
    “I don’t mean any trouble. I just wanted to stop by and apologize for the other night and see if there was any damage I could pay for.”
    The owner looked at me, deciding which way to take it. On one hand, I was offering him money, something a bar owner never said no to. On the other, he was probably risking the wrath of the town’s thugs.
    He pointed to the opposite end of the building where a jukebox pumped out an old Johnny Cash hit. I followed him over.
    “You seem like a good kid, kinda drunk the other night, but you stuck up for Kelly…”
    I put up a hand. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to interrupt, but my memory’s a little hazy. Can you tell me exactly what happened?”
    He looked shocked, but only for a moment. “Didn’t think you were that drunk.” He shook his head. “It went down like this: Johnny Laney was in his usually seat,” he pointed to a table near the bar. “He’d been drinking most of the afternoon. You came in at some point, don’t remember exactly when, sat at the bar and ordered a drink. Whisky, right?”
    I nodded.
    “Anyway, a little time goes by and Johnny and his cousin start getting loud, singing along with the music. No big deal. Happens all the time. Well, Kelly brings them a new pitcher of beer, and Johnny accidentally knocks it off the table. Kelly knows better than to piss him off, so she goes to grab a mop to clean it up. Johnny gets mad. Wants another beer right then. Kelly tells him she had to clean it or someone will slip. He doesn’t care. That’s what she told me. I was behind the bar.”
    A faint trace of recognition. Nothing concrete, just a shadow of a memory.
    He continued, “Once Kelly got them more beer and finished cleaning up the mess, things went back to normal. That was, until Johnny asks Kelly to sit in his lap. She’s a pretty little thing, I get it, but she’s a good girl. She says no. Johnny didn’t like that. He grabs her by the backside and puts her on his leg. Somehow she gets away, Johnny and his cousin laugh as she makes it back to the bar. I tell her I’ll take care of their orders for the rest of the night.
    “A couple minutes later, Johnny yells for more beer. I take them another pitcher and he asks where Kelly is. I tell him she’s busy tending the bar. He doesn’t listen. Johnny gets up, marches over to the bar, and points his finger in Kelly’s face, telling her she better get over there and