Dawn Patrol

49

Mick Penner should have.

Bailed, that is.

Should have taken Boone's advice, thrown his shit into a bag, gotten into his beloved BMW, and hit the highway.

He doesn't, though.

He intended to. One of those “road to hell” deals. He meant to get moving, but then he decided that one beer and a quick toke would help him get his shit together. He's on his third Corona when the door comes in.

Dan Silver's first punch goes into Mick's liver and crumples him. Mick's on his knees, hunched over in agony, sucking for air, when the kick comes into his solar plexus and makes breathing an impossibility.

Mick flops on the floor like a fish on the dock.

Then they're kicking him, shoes and boots smashing into his thighs, his shins, his ankles, his ribs. He rolls over on one side and pulls his arms over his head and manages to blurt out, “Not my face. Please, not my face.”

His face is his living, and he knows it. Knows now in one of those stark moments of clarity that he's never going to be “SCRNRITR,” no matter what his license plate reads, that the best he can hope for is a few more years of being a parking valet/male whore.

But he doesn't even get that if they fuck up his face.

They pick him up and set him down on the sofa.

“You don't want your pretty face messed up?” Dan asks. “You better tell me what I want to know.”

“Anything, man.”

Except what he wants to know is how to find Tammy.

Love is a powerful thing.

Elusive, ephemeral, enigmatic-love can make you do some fuckedup shit. It can drive you to depths you never thought you'd go; it can lift you to heights you never knew you could climb. It will show you the worst and the best in yourself. Love can strip you down to bare shame; love can reveal pure nobility.

Mick holds out a long time.

He loves her, he knows that these guys want to hurt her, will hurt, maybe kill her, and he loves her. In the end, he gives them everything they want, but it takes them a while to get it. He gives them Teddy, gives them the motel in Oceanside, gives them Boone.

He gives up everything and hates himself for it.

Dan leaves almost admiring the dumb shit.

Had to fuck him up real bad before he caved.