Mercy (Queen's Birds of Prey 1)

Saul waited outside the hotel off and on for two days. Nothing. Not even a bottle of water from Joel. What the hell was he thinking?

“He’s not, that’s what he’s doing. Not thinking of me out here all by myself without nary a drink and nothing to fill by belly.” If he wasn’t going to do it all the time, Saul thought to himself, he shouldn’t have started it. “Bastard.”

But he did have a plan in place now. He knew just where the kid was every Monday and Wednesday. She was driven right by his place on her way to the hospital. Saul figured that she’d need to be cleaned out or something. He didn’t know what was wrong with her, other than she was in a chair all the time, but he figured that no one would want to clean up her mess she’d have to be making in that chair all the time.

Looking out the broken window frame, he looked at his cell phone when she went by. She’d be back by this way in two hours and ten minutes. Saul had it all planned out, too. He just needed a gun. And he had until Wednesday to find one. Then things would start looking up for him.

When his brother didn’t show up for the fifth day in a row, Saul made his way into town. He had a few bucks now. It hadn’t occurred to him to rob the vending machine of the coins in it. The only problem with the money he had on him was that it weighed his pants down. And with him not having much in the way of a decent meal in a while, his pants no longer fit as they had before. He figured that he’d lost a good thirty pounds, weight that he could barely afford.

The walk did him some good, he supposed. He found an apple tree right off the road that was full of the nice ripe fruit. Also, there was a peach tree, he thought, but there wasn’t anything on it worth the trouble. The fruit was about as big as one of the quarters in his pocket, and hard as a stone.

“All this eating of good things is sure making me cleaned out too.” Laughing at his own little joke, he thought of what his body had been up to the last week or so.

Saul had noticed that he was abundantly thirsty all the time. It made him glad that he’d saved one of the water bottles that Joel had brought him, so that he could carry it around all the time.

His vision was messing up too. Just last night he’d not even been able to see the article on the newspapers he’d been spreading out for the kid. He was going to have to get that checked out before long, he told himself.

Turning his back to the road, he thought of how much he was peeing lately. And how he figured that it was due to the drinking water all the time. But damn, getting up in the middle of the night to take a piss was annoying as hell.

While he was standing there, he tried to think if he should bother with wearing his shoes all the time. He was forever trying to rub the tingling in them out. Not sure what that meant either, he wanted to rip his shoes off right now and sit there on the cold ground and massage them. He figured it had something to do with the food that Joel had given him. He’d given him some kind of poison or something, Saul just knew it.

Having to stop all the time to get to his feet was annoying the shit out of him. But he went on, knowing that he had to get himself a gun to take care of the girl and to get money from Joel. He’d hand it over too, if he thought that he’d get his child back. Saul wasn’t going to be around when Joel figured out that he’d killed the kid.

“He should think of it as me doing him a favor.” Saul would have if he’d been saddled with a cripple. Joel had never mentioned having a child, not in all the years he’d tried to get him to go into business with him. Of course, none of those had panned out, but he was always hopeful that one day he’d make it. And this was going to put him at the top of his game.

Finally getting to the town, he sat down on one of the benches and rubbed his feet once again. He had noticed that his hands were taking on the odor of his feet, and that made him slightly ill. But there wasn’t any way that he’d be able to walk at all if he didn’t rub them down once in a while.

People hurried by him, and he wasn’t proud of that. He was a grown fucking man sitting on a bench in too baggy pants and with his shoes off. Saul was sure that his hair was out of kilter, and he needed to shave off the month long growth that he’d acquired. In a word, he was a mess. A haggard mess, as a matter of fact.

Putting his shoe on was harder than it had been. He was dizzy—he attributed that to not eating today—and he needed to pee. Saul thought that he could drink an entire ocean right now, but all he had was an empty bottle.

“Excuse me. I need to find something to drink. Can you tell me where the closest shop is?” The woman didn’t even give him a second glance as she hurried by him. “Listen, bitch. I was nice to you. The least you could have done was say something.”

He staggered to the store, which wasn’t that far away. As he stumbled into the shop, he stubbed his toe on the rack displaying some kind of Christmas shit. His foot felt like he’d rammed a rod into it. Going to the refrigerator section in the back, he pulled out the first drink he could touch and drank it straight down.

“You have to pay for that.” He pulled out a fistful of quarters and dimes and shoved it at the man as he pulled out a second, then a third drink. “Christ, mister, you been in the desert? And I don’t know your name. Get it? I made a funny.”

“Yeah, you’re a funny guy. How much money do I have left after drinking these four drinks? And do you have any juice? I could use a big glass of orange juice right now.” He told him only what was in the fridge. He told him how much he’d spent and how much more he had in his hand.

Saul thought about just walking out, but that would mean that he’d not have a thing to drink after this. And he needed a drink like he needed his next breath. His foot wasn’t hurting anymore, but he did glance down at it. He thought he must have spilled something on his shoe, as it was stained now.

“You can get two more because they’re on special. And if you get six, which I’m guessing you will, they’ll be cheaper.” He said that he’d take six now and six as he was leaving. After getting the total, he counted out the change and left with his six pops and his empty bottle o

f water. Saul had forty-five cents left and was still thirsty as fuck.

“You don’t look so good, Saul.” He stared at the person that spoke without any idea who it was, much less if they were male or female. “It’s Remi. I’m one of the sisters to Mercy. I don’t think you’re well.”

“I’m thirsty. Like I’m dying thirsty.” She said that she could see that. “And I need to pee all the time. I don’t know what is wrong with me.”

“I’m calling an ambulance.” He told her not to bother, it was probably poison from his brother. “Joel? He’d never do something like that. That’s more along your lines, killing people off. At least sit down.”

He thought that he had been sitting. Looking around, he saw that he’d drawn a crowd now, something that he hated more than being ill. He looked at the woman again when she asked if she could call an ambulance.

“I told you no. I’m going to be all right. I got shit to do today, and it doesn’t matter that I’m a little under the weather right now.” He couldn’t make out her face or what she was currently doing, but Saul stood up and held onto the wall of the shop for support. “See? I’m just fine. Go on away from here and leave me alone.”

Brave words, he realized a few minutes later when he didn’t even know where he was. Or for that matter, how he was going to get back to his hotel. But he needed a gun, and he had to find someone that could help him.

Saul had no idea how long he walked around the town. He knew that he’d stopped a few times to massage his feet and to take a leak. Twice he’d been told that he was exposing himself to others, but at this point, he could have been taking his dick out in front of the king of the world and he’d not care. He was aching like he’d never been before.