Night life

A couple hours later on the surface at a roadside biker bar outside of a medium sized city, Sean Thomas walked up to the bar among flashing lights and rock music to order. There was no trace of the darkness from before, he looked like a man near middle-age, thin but handsome with brown hair and beard starting to turn gray which he kept short and neat. He had sharp gray eyes with thick eyebrows, he wore blue jeans with boots and a long sleeve shirt. "Two beers when you get a minute." Sean sat down at the bar and threw some cash down as the bartender sat the beers down. She was a middle-aged woman who appeared to live a hard life but was still very pretty and well built. She had dirty blonde hair that she wore long and curly and had on red lipstick and long fingernails painted to match. She wore jeans and a haltertop and not much else.

"Here you go handsome, is one of those for me? Can't think of any other reason you would order two beers for just you. I'm Nina by the way" She smiled with a seductive look in her eyes and fluttered her eye lashes at him. Sean was a handsome man and well built, he seemed ageless so he was attractive to young women and older both the same.

Sean could tell that she was an experienced woman but he wasn't looking for that kind of night, at least not this early so he replied by draining one beer in about 15 seconds and then looked her in the eye. "No they're both for me Nina, the name is Sean and I'm only here for the beers, at least for now. I might feel more like talking later though, can I get one more?" To reiterate his need he started on his second beer, prompting her to grab another one as he threw a twenty down on the bar. He continued on like that until he had drank a six-pack, belching loudly and ordering one more. "Paint it, Black" by the Rolling Stones played on the jukebox while Sean felt the alcohol begin to take effect on him.

He relaxed for a minute, enjoying the lyrics of the song and threw another twenty down on the bar, "Half of that is yours, tell me when the rest runs out. I'm gonna sit here and enjoy this song, I actually came in here looking for someone. I'm hoping he stops in, he's a regular I'm told. How often does Bones come in here?"

Nina had been wiping down the bar after serving his seventh beer but visibly flinched at the name drop. Sean had planned everything just for that moment, now he knew that Bones did come in there and he also knew that Nina would tell him someone was looking for him. "I don't know anyone named Bones, but I can ask around with the regulars here sometime. Will you be in here tomorrow night? We usually fill up on weekends."

Sean had been expecting an answer like that but wasn't worried, he was sure he'd be seeing Bones very soon. Or at least someone who knew where to find him. It was a regular routine, start out small and use a small fish to catch a bigger one. Wash, rinse and repeat. He just didn't want to have to catch every fish in the pond. "Possibly, if I don't find anything better to do. I'm staying in town for work and figured I would look up some of my old friends while I'm here. Will you be here again tomorrow?"

Nina was comfortable again, thinking to have either roped him in or that he was actually friends with members of the biker gang that frequented the bar. "Yes I'll be here tomorrow night, better tips on weekends. Here for work huh? What do you do?"

"I do construction, I'm actually a general contractor. Here in town to make a bid on a government contract for replacing infrastructure. So much of it is useless and outdated, but the money still spends. Fucking government." With that he finished his beer and sat it on the table with another twenty, "One more for the road Darling, keep the rest. If Bones happens to come around you can tell him Sean Thomas is in town and wants to talk to him. Here's my card, you should give me a ring later. If you want." He flashed his teeth in a sly smile while raising his eyebrows as he finished the sentence.

Nina took the card and smiled back, wondering what kind of man Sean Thomas really was. "I might..." She answered playfully and looked down at the business card he had given her, it was mostly plain and read "Sean Thomas" across the front with a number on the back both printed using some style of old english font. In the bottom right corner was the outline of a bulky wolf. "Why the wolf?" She asked while looking up but Sean was already gone, all she seen was the door closing behind him. "Well ain't that great, I guess I'm talking to myself now." She then turned around to get back to tending the bar and pocketed the card and the generous tip.The feeling of the money in her pocket was reassuring but the name he had brought up was not. Bones was vile man, selling anything he could get his hands on to anyone willing to pay. Most of what he sold was highly addictive and the market was almost entirely controlled by him. He also ran prostitutes through most of the small to medium-sized towns nearby, he treated them like dirt and took from them whatever he wanted. He would get girls hooked on drugs, giving it to them for free or discounted prices until they depended on it. Those he liked he would use himself for awhile before pimping them out as whores for him, paying them with drugs and providing them with "free housing" in one of his rental properties. Most being old run down apartment buildings in seedy parts of town. Most of those girls would never be able to get off his drugs and get away from him. He put them into lose lose situations and if anyone tried to interrupt the status quo then they would be killed. He made money hand over fist on their suffering, on their blood and tears. Nina shuddered thinking about her experiences with him, he had desperately tried to bring her in but she had managed to kick the habit. She shrugged her shoulders and decided to wash her hands of the problem, tacking the business card on the bulletin board in her manager's office. She went back to work afterwards, still thinking about the mysterious man who had disappeared in such a hurry.

Back outside Sean climbed into his truck and put his now half drank beer in the cup holder. Tiberius was waiting for him, "I don't think we're gonna find him tonight boy, but soon. We have more stops to make before we head back to our room and I'm hungry lets grab some cheeseburgers." Tiberius howled excitedly at the mention of cheeseburgers, wagging his tail and shaking the entire truck. Sean petted his head and he whined, "Don't worry, we're gonna eat. Calm down boy. We can't hunt on an empty stomach and we're on the hunt now, I can almost smell the blood on the air Tiberius. I know I'm on the right path, soon the wicked shall be made to pay for their wretchedness." Sean had began to regain his fanatical voice and appearance, he couldn't stop himself from being possessed by his hatred whenever he thought of his mission to provide salvation for the wicked. This only made Tiberius more excited, continuing to shake the truck as he hopped around like a puppy.

"Tiberius, enough. Sit." Sean laughed while he said it and patted his head as he laid across the back seat. "Good boy, now lets roll."

Sean started his truck and made his way out of the parking lot and into town to a drive-through burger joint, cursing whoever made the decision to get rid of one dollar sandwiches. After twenty dollars worth of fries and cheeseburgers Tiberius was full and Sean was most of the way sober and ready to get back to the task at hand. He was driving across town to another hole in the wall bar to fish for information when his cell phone rang.

An hour earlier after Nina's manager had found the card, "What the fuck is this thing? Tina?! Where did this card come from? That name sounds familiar." The manager of the bar was a heavy set man with thinning brown hair and a full beard. He was only about five foot five inches with large and well toned arms, there were several boxing trophies in cases on the walls in his office. Between his trophies and well-toned arms it was obvious he was an ex boxer, that and his cauliflowered right ear.

Tina came walking into his office with an exasperated look on her face, "I don't know Bob, some guy came in and left it. He drank a few beers and said he knew Bones and left that card for him.."

"Hmmm, I wonder how he knows Bones... Have you ever seen him before? I don't why but his name sounds familiar." Bob tapped his face with his fingers while he rested his head on his hands at his desk, racking his brain.

"Nope, never seen him. He said he was a general contractor and was in town to bid on a government contract, that's probably why his name sounds familiar. He seemed like a decent guy, I was thinking about giving him a call later myself." Tina enjoyed teasing her boss and telling him about men in the bar making advances on her.

Bob ignored her as he was used to her nonsense, "Maybe so. I better tell Bones about him, anyone coming around here out of the blue asking about him sounds like trouble to me. I think I smell a cop."

"You don't know that Bob, he could just be an old friend like he said." Tina couldn't care less about Sean but she didn't want anyone to get a bad name with Bones, she knew what he would do if he thought he was a cop of any sort.

Bob looked up with a mischievous grin, "Maybe, maybe not. Its not for us to decide, Bones will sort him out. I'll give him a call first to feel him out, you should get back to work. If you got time to lean then you got time to clean and I don't pay you to stand around." His grinned turned into a smirk.

"Yeah yeah, I'm going. You don't hardly pay me shit anyways." She walked away swinging her hips, knowing full well he was staring at her.

Bob watched her walk away wishing he could get the time of day with her, oh well. Bones provided him with plenty of girls much younger and more receptive than her. His tastes had evolved since he had started letting Bones run girls from his bar. He preferred his women submissive and expendable, if he hurt one too badly then he just had to give her time to heal up before he put her back on the streets. He didn't actually like having Nina working there but no one else could run the bar and keep the waitresses and customers in line on weekends. He had learned that the hard way when he had "fired her", he had rehired her by the next Saturday. She brought in business and the customers respected her so they would rarely get out of line if she was there. She had refused to come back without a raise which he had grudgingly given her.

Bob picked up the business card, staring at it and wondering why the name sounded so familiar. Something was telling him he had heard that name before, it was like an itch he couldn't scratch. He decided to give Bones a call and ask him about it, as the line rang a couple times he thought he wouldn't even pick up.

"Bones here." He had picked up on the fourth ring sounding a little winded.

"Bones. Bob here down at "The crooked wheel" had someone in here asking about you earlier. He left a business card and said you should call him, that he was an old friend. I'm sending you a picture of his card. I don't know why but for some reason the name "Sean Thomas" sounds awfully familiar..."

Author note

The song mentioned in the beginning of this chapter (Paint it, Black) is an original title written by The Rolling Stones and a true classic.