All the Small Moments

presley

The small pebbles crunched under his wheels. Once he turned onto the blacktop, it was as if everything else melted away. It was just him and the open road. The only good thing about today's mission was the drive. It would be nothing but Presley and the open road once he ran one last errand.

Before getting onto the highway, he slowly pulled into one of the two gas pumps at Davis Corner. He glanced inside to see Drucella wiping down the windows. Somedays, Louisa couldn't cover the day shift, so Drucella would have to miss school to work a double.

Presley couldn't imagine the work Drucella had to do sometimes. He shook his head to remember this was Drucella he was thinking about, strong and stubborn. He wondered if she wasn't the only one afraid of him sometimes because no one else talked to him the way she did.

Presley let down the kickstand before sliding off the seat. He opened the glass-paneled door to which Drucella was wiping down.

"The other door is working, Presley." Drucella huffed.

Presley smiled to himself. He loved to ruffle her feathers. "I need twenty in gas. Make it snappy."

A scowl spread across her facial features, making her forehead wrinkle. She threw her paper towel down before stepping behind the counter.

Drucella pressed the keys on the cash register. "Why aren't you in school?"

"I've got a date with fate." Presley stuck out the twenty. Drucella plucked it out of his hands, making sure not to touch him.

She opened the cash register and stuck the bill in its proper place before slamming it shut. She looked down. "Try not to get killed."

Presley was shocked at her concern. He stood still and silent, searching her face. Drucella knew the dangers of being in part of Black Toxin's, but never, not once, has she showed said anything regarding it. She avoids the topic altogether.  

Drucella cleared her throat. "Colter would be inconsolable."

"We can't have that now, can we?" Presley flicked off an invisible piece of lint from his jacket sleeve. "Don't worry, your pretty little head. I will be fine, per usual." He rushed out of the store. Quickly filling up his tank, he never looked back into Davis Corner.

The wind raced through Presley's thick, raven hair, whipping it back from his face. The sun was beaming down, causing heat to rise from the two-lane road. Presley took each curve gracefully, leaning one way and then the other.

The red rocks rose before him while cracked, parched earth loomed at the bottom. The little rainfall wasn't enough to quench the thirsty ground. Tumbleweed skipped across the pavement while hawks circled a dead carcass nearby. The desert wasn't for everyone, but Presley couldn't imagine living elsewhere.

Presley rolled into Rock's Diner parking lot. The diner served great food along with someone's next hit. He swung open the door, and a bell rang overhead, alerting everyone to his presence. 

Presley makes his way to the counter. "Tell the tycoon I am here to see him."

The waitress sat down the glass she was drying off to go to the back. Shortly after, she came back out. "He said to come back." The diner was full of people chatting over their lunches, paying no mind to the sketchy business under their noses.

The tycoon lounged behind his desk in an oversized brown leather desk chair. He crossed his arms. "What do I owe the honor, Mr. Hayes?"

His two guards stood beside him. "Tell your pets to leave. We need to talk privately." The tycoon waved them off. He knew he couldn't say no to the ones who supplied his business.

Presley walked, scanning the bookshelves that lined the dark office. Locking the door without giving himself away. "Freeman knows of your mistake."

"Mistake?" The tycoon adjusted his tie and then laid his palms on his desk.

Presley turned around so fast, jerking out his knife. He slammed his knife into the tycoon's hand in the blink of an eye. The tycoon screamed.

His guards tried to enter, shaking the doorknob and banging on the door. "Never betray the Black Toxins again, or this is the least of what we will do."

Presley jerked his knife out of the tycoon's flesh, swiftly cutting off the tip of his pinky finger. Blood squirted all over the tycoon's nice suit. The tycoon brought it to his chest, gasping. He tried to hide his pain, but sweat beaded on his temples.

Presley picked up the tip of the finger, wrapping it up in the handkerchief he pulled out of his back pocket. He tucked it into his vest that carried his gang's patch. The tycoon was grasping his hand. Presley pulled out another handkerchief. "Clean up. You wouldn't want your customers to see you all bloody." He threw the handkerchief in the tycoon's lap.

Blood trickled down the tycoon's suit sleeve and white button-up shirt. "You little..."

Before the tycoon could get the words out, Presley cut him off. "I'd be careful if I were you. Or you may lose the whole finger. Do not, I repeat, do not betray us again. You know the rules. If one more death is linked to you, Freeman will be here instead of me. I am an angel compared to him."

The tycoon's eyes widen then a manic laugh escaped him. "Me making a mistake? Maybe you need to be asking more questions before cutting peoples finger's off. I would have your body dumped on your dad's doorstep but you can be an important assesst to me in the future."

 Presley's Adam's apple bob in his throat. "Have a nice day, tycoon." Presley unlocked the door and stepped past the guards without glancing their way. His hands and knife still had blood on them, but that was even more proof to show his dad that the job was done.

This was the first time he had to bring back his dad a souvenir. He has brought blood to someone before but never done violence to this excint. Presley didn't know what bothered him more; that he just cut off a mans finger or that it didn't affect him whatsoever.

His dad would take him along on trips to show him the trick of the trade. Presley never batted an eye to the gore and violence. The ways of the gang were something that must have been instilled into Presley in the womb.

As Presley rode back, he thought about the comment Drucella made. Colter would be happy to know he made it back in one piece.