Roger and I had just finished our meeting when Diane called him. Excusing himself to take it, I ask my bartender, Paul if he’s seen Mercy.
“I believe she’s causing trouble in the kitchen with Chaz, sir.”
Smiling at this, I grab my files and drop them in the office before taking the stairs to find Mercy.
I no sooner turn the corner that I find one of my employees, Tanya, crying into her hands. Uncomfortable and unsure what to do I ask, “What’s wrong with you?”
Caught off guard and weary of my presence, since I don’t make it a habit of chatting with those who work for me, she wipes her eyes and asks, “Have you seen Mercy, Mr. Fox?”
“Why?”
“Um,” she hesitates seeking an exit.
“I take it you would like to speak with her?”
“Yes,” she stumbles to say. “I mean, if that’s okay.”
“You don’t need permission to talk to my woman, Tanya.”
When her eyes go wide, I realize my tone was scaring the shit out of her. It seems the only woman not afraid of me was the one I’d claimed. “She’s in here, come on.” Guiding her inside, we both pull up short as Mercy lights a dish on fire yelling, “Opa!”
Jesus, the flame on that son of a bitch could have lit her hair and half the kitchen on fire…
“She’s not afraid of anything, is she?” Tanya whispers in awe.
As far as I knew, there was only one thing Mercy was afraid of and it wasn’t flammable food.
“Dion!” she squeals. “Tanya! Come and try my very first saganaki!”
With Chaz passing out plates, each of us takes a bite and it was all I could do not to spit it out. When she asks, “Well, how’d I do?” Tanya was the first to say, “It’s delicious,” while gagging.
“How much Ouzo did you use?” I ask wishing I could the taste out of my mouth.
“Um,” she scratches her head looking a Chaz for help. “I might have spilled some…”
“It’s potent, I’ll give you that.”
“It’s okay to say it tastes like shit,” she says taking our plates away and before I could get a word in, Mercy looks Tanya over and asks, “Are you crying?”
And just like that the woman starts bawling.
“Oh my God,” Mercy says pulling her in for a hug. “Was it that bad?”
“It’s not the food,” Tanya whimpers. “It’s Rusty.”
When her face goes stony, I step closer and ask, “What did he do?”
Rusty was a member here. Had been since the day we opened and always sought Tanya out. Last I had heard, they were seriously involved. “I want to talk to Mercy,” she says holding her tighter.
“You can trust Dion,” Mercy insists. “But we can’t help you if we don’t know what happened.”
Sucking in a breath she says, “I’m pregnant.”
“Sex has been known to make babies,” she agrees. “But you two are exclusive and talked about living together. I assume the pregnancy changed his mind?”
“I’d say so,” she sniffles. “He called me a whore, told me it wasn’t his and when I insisted it was, he…”
“He what, honey?” Mercy pleads.
“He hit me.”
Calmly and slowly, Mercy calls, “Chaz?”
“Miss Mercy,” he says coming to her side no doubt hearing the conversation.
“Finish my cooking lesson with Tanya, please.”
“Mercy,” she pleads. “I don’t want to cause trouble –”
“Where did he hit you, Tanya?”
Looking at me, then to Chaz and finally to Mercy, she whispers, “My stomach.”
Tucking Tanya into his side, Chaz ushers her away leaving me with an openly volatile woman.
“Get me his address,” she says rolling up her sleeves.
“I’ll do you one better,” I say reaching for my phone. “I’ll have him brought here.”
Nodding to me, Mercy said she was going to check in on Pita and needed a minute.
I knew what that meant. Digging.
Two hours later when Rusty graced us with his presence, he found himself in the lounge with Roger, Chaz, Mercy, and myself. The asshole knew the score and even had the balls to say, “You can’t prove the kid is mine and you can’t revoke my membership because she was too stupid to get knocked up.”
“You aren’t here because we want proof,” I warn him. “And the least of your concerns right now is your status in my den.”
“Then why the fuck am I here?”
Stepping forward Mercy gets in his space and announces, “You’re here because we won’t stand for abuse.”
Chaz was the first to take her side, followed by Roger and then myself. Surrounding her, Rusty laughs, “So what, you brought your woman here to threaten me? Looks like Dion already got the drop on you.” He was referring to her black eye which pissed me right off.
“This is funny to you?” Mercy inquires.
“Yeah,” he sneers at her. “I don’t fear any woman no matter who she belongs to. This shit with Tanya is no one’s business. How I handle her is no one’s business either.”
“Quick question,” Mercy smiles. “What did you have for lunch?”
Before Rusty could formulate an answer, Chaz buried his fist in his stomach and he crumpled. Coughing, and curled into a ball, Mercy kneels down and explains, “I love a good mystery. I love solving puzzles. I’m nosey, and because of that, I’m very good at what I do. So, imagine my surprise when I found out you have a wife and two kids at home.”
“You don’t understand –” he coughs out.
Reaching in her pocket for her phone, she puts it to her ear and says, “Pita, send her in.”
Pissed off and shaking in fury, Rusty’s wife towers over him and says, “I’ve contacted my attorney, sent the police evidence of your heavy hand, and even shared it with your family. Not only did you cheat on me, but you put your hands on another woman too. I should have done this a long time ago but because I was afraid, someone else got hurt. That ends now. You will never hurt me, my kids or her kid ever again.”
Taking her side, Mercy rests a hand on her arm and whispers words only she can hear. Giving Mercy a nod, I watch her reach in her pocket then placing her taser in the woman’s palm. Smiling at Rusty, Mercy says, “This is going to sting.”
And as a group we watched Rusty’s wife zap the ever-loving shit out of him. Leaning down, I whisper into Mercy’s ear, “Justice makes me hard.”
Wrapping her arms around my waist she replies, “I do believe it’s time for the kneeling fox.”