Chasing Violence

Nyle Hamilton was the sole offspring of a nuclear family that took refuge in the social and polite confines of middle Tennessee. An upper middle-class neighborhood where fathers worked long hours and mothers stayed close to home, and they quietly argued at night over sexual transgressions. Children wasted hours in classrooms and afterward battled the emotional solitude of their everyday existence with whatever drug they could get their hands on. Boring is safe was the mantra preached to them almost daily. Nyle watched his self-proclaimed anarchist girlfriend pull on her black leather gloves. She then turned and roughly grabbed the back of his head, kissing him full on the mouth. He could taste the wine they drank hours earlier as she rolled her tongue around the inside of his mouth. Her breaths were ragged with lust and anticipation not necessarily sexual; she pushed her body closer to him.

"You guys can fuck afterward." Evan said pulling on his own gloves.

"Screw you." Nyle playfully insulted. "You just better not pussy out."

There were four of them huddled together in the alley behind the only Turkish restaurant in town. Dressed all in dark colors black and navy blue brandishing cold steel weapons in their young gloved fists, they resembled phantom harbingers to an ancient philosophical evil. Evan and his twin brother Charlie first met Nyle at Tennessee Tech University. The three quickly bonded over late night study sessions and Titan's football games. Rachel was discovered during a pub crawl in Nashville one night. She locked onto Nyle's confidence pegging him as the alpha male of the trio and noticed that those attributes followed him in most social interactions. His boyish good looks and traditionally masculine attitude played off her own feminine wiles, and soon the two became one nihilistic entity.

Charlie swayed on his feet a little due to the oxycontin he washed down with his earlier wine at dinner. Being the most skeptical of the group he needed the opiate fog to quiet the doubts he had about what Nyle and Rachel had proposed to them. His brother Evan dabbed at the sweat on his forehead and grabbed his shoulders to steady him.

"Charles you dummy you took too many pills." Rachel giggled. "You may not even appreciate this fully like the rest of us."

"He'll be fine. You have to admit this shit is pretty crazy." Evan responded for him.

Nyle Hamilton quietly gazed around the corner of the restaurant down the abandoned alley through a pair of infrared night vision binoculars he bought off the internet. It was well after midnight and a cold white moon was arrested behind a dense wall of clouds, as if even the course of nature nodded it's approval of the madness they came to bring.

The streets were empty the four ghouls discovered as they marched single file out from behind their hiding spot. Their targeted house was only a few blocks away, so it was decided to park their car and venture in on foot. Rachel grew restless with each step she took getting closer to the hot red moment before them. She was inebriated just enough to dampen impulses, but not rob her of the full ecstasy of the experience. After all it took her months to even gather the courage to bring the idea to her lover. They stumbled out of some dive bar in Cookeville one night after three hours of heavy drinking and snorting a few rails of coke in the bathroom. She had looked up at the stars that night and saw something she knew no one else would ever see and was swept away by the sadness of it. Word vomit was the only way to describe it as she drunkenly blurted her heart and secret desires to him. He being equally intoxicated didn't really understand her but was touched by her passion and moved by her tears. Despite the chemicals in their blood they fucked for hours that night. In the morning she repeated herself and waited to be rebuffed, but the honey blonde locks and dimpled chin on his smooth baby face masked and sheltered a force of equal darkness, and he just smiled back at her as he ate his morning bagel.

"Tell me how much again?' Evan asked Nyle as he walked behind his brother to steady him.

"Relax it's not just about the money bro." Nyle turned to answer him. "Take it all in from this moment on my friend."

"Yeah, don't ruin this with your capitalist ideologies." Rachel added.

Charlie just nervously belched and stopped to dry heave as the bile came up to scorch his esophagus. Rachel rolled her eyes as they stopped so the younger twin could regain his composure. She flipped the five inch kitchen knife from hand to hand learning it's balance getting used to the cheap walnut grips. A black hunger was birthed in her gut and radiated to her limbs, heightening her senses. The goober twins only saw green, she wanted to wash it all away with waves of dark red, hoping that her lover would follow and be able to bring her back to the shores of sanity.

"You good Chuck?" Nyle asked without a hint of judgment or displeasure. "We can go it alone if we have too. We're just trying to share something with you two, out of love."

Charlie straightened up and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "I'm good bro, just fucked up off those pills."

"Then let's get to it." Nyle Hamilton said marching them deeper into darkness.

***

"Nyle Hamilton. Got pulled over for a DUI but happened to have some pills in his pocket." Kenneth Waters declared slapping a manila file folder on his desk. "Failed to show up at his court date, out on a ten-thousand-dollar bond."

Gilbert Swatz sat across from him picking his teeth with a mint flavored toothpick. "This the kid from Cookeville?" He asked flipping through the file.

"Yeah but he got busted in Nashville." Kenneth answered taking a bite of his pungent tuna salad sandwich. "Mom put her brand new Nissan Pathfinder up as collateral."

"No shit? She must be beside herself." Gilbert chuckled. "What's daddy think about his little problem child?"

"All but given up on the little shithead. Spoke to him earlier today, mega pissed about possibly losing that SUV." The slim bail bondsman offered around bites of his lunch. "Said his boy changed after going off to college, more recently got worse after hooking up with some girl out of Nashville. She's over at Vanderbilt University, good place to start but don't have an exact address."

"She staying in the dorms or an apartment off campus?"

"Not sure. He said he only met her a few times at their home."

Gilbert, a senior bail enforcement agent and half of a two man team sat back in his chair and looked around the small office they were in, letting the possibilities play out in his head. Water Under The Bridge Bonding was a square brick building that squatted in the shadow of the Electric Company building in downtown Nashville. Kenneth cleverly pieced his company's name together with the help of his third wife, who happened to talk him into financing her enterprise after binge watching some actor perpetrate the role on a reality television show. She gutted it out the first four years before slowly becoming increasingly absent until finally dumping the entire charade into her husband's hands, trotting off in search of the next fad. She was also the culprit behind the sandwich Kenneth fought down.

"Let me know something because I got some new guy sniffing around looking for a chance. Say's he'll go as low as three percent on the bond." He warned the experienced bail enforcement agent.

"Yeah this kid sounds like a fuck up, still enrolled in school too, shouldn't take too long to track him down." Gilbert answered him. "Justin is running down a lead on this other thing. I'm supposed to catch up with him later this evening."

Wiping his mouth with a cloth napkin. "Get him up to speed and keep me posted."

***

Not being full law enforcement officials caused a lot of issues mainly the lack of any real authority they could wield, Gilbert Swatz lamented. He had sent his partner Justin Hernandez over to the Vanderbilt campus to try and get a location on Nyle Hamilton's girlfriend Rachel but was legally unable to gain any ground. After three days of hanging around Justin left a few business cards wrapped in twenty dollar bills with a few key people promising to call if they spotted the raven-haired beauty. Gilbert had done pretty much the same thing for Nyle at Tennessee Tech University after learning that he had not attended classes in well over a week. He finished his cheeseburger that his wife had made him at home as Justin slowly pulled into a parking garage in the metro area of Nashville, Tennessee. Gilbert unbuckled his seat belt and just looked over at Justin behind the steering wheel and gave him that bloated helpless look he often did after being forced to eat on the go.

"What?" Justin asked lighting a cigarette. "Your wife sent you out of your house with two fucking burgers."

"I know, I know but that's only because I couldn't take any of the tater tots she made too." Gilbert nearly whimpered.

"Bullshit, you are a fucking tater tot. One of those burgers was for me I know Carol and she knew I was coming to pick you up."

The heavier bail enforcement agent pondered the accusation but only for a minute. Justin Hernandez climbed out of his Ford Raptor pick up truck and flicked his half smoked cigarette back behind the car parked next to them.

"Finally got a bite. Like I was telling you that Rachel girl has an aunt that she's kind of close with that works at this hemp shop around the corner from here." He explained to his partner Gilbert while press checking his Glock seventeen to ensure that it was chambered, before re-holstering and covering it with his light denim jacket. "Girl who works evenings there called and told me she could almost swear that she saw Rachel's car parked in this lot the other night."

"Green Kia Soul right?" Gilbert asked. "Vanity plate in the front that reads bitchy but spelled funny?"

"Yeah b-y-t-c-h-y." Justin spelled while taking a look around the third level of the packed parking garage. "Anyway the aunt found out her employee snitched so she called me ten minutes later and said she would meet us down here and explain a few things."

"You tell her we don't really give a rat's ass about her niece, that we just want her asshole boyfriend?"

"Didn't come up." Justin smiled. "She thinks her sweet niece is in deep shit with the law and she's willing to jerk us both off to set her free."

"Don't be so crass." Gilbert warned with a smirk.

"Yeah she sounded like she had a few miles on her anyway." Justin laughed. "She sounded real panicked, there's a good chance we can squeeze a location out of her."

"Look sharp." Gilbert Swatz belched and nodded as a woman he would of have privately described as a milf got off of the elevator at the far end of the parking garage.

Beverly Wright was a reformed housewife who suffered a passionless marriage for twenty years before calmly explaining to her ex-husband that she had reached her sexual peak at the ripe age of thirty four. She followed up with a visual tutorial of her voracious appetites in the form of cuckolding her prudish oaf of a husband with his much younger co worker, on their anniversary of all nights. A sumptuous meal at a steak house on the Broadway strip of Nashville was followed with a room key to a seedy motel on the sketchier side of town. It was the very same motel they frequented together while they dated in high school. Beverly, in the heat of a newfound sexual maturity waited until her husband was securely handcuffed to the cheap wooden headboard before answering a strange knock at the door.

"Hey." Gilbert called out as he exited the truck. "Over here."

Beverly Wright noticed the two men standing beside the black pick up truck as she hurried from the elevator. She ignored the heavier man waving her over and zeroed in on his younger Hispanic partner.

"Are you the man I spoke to on the phone?" She asked Justin, taking in his shaved head and lean muscular build.

"Rachel's aunt right?" He answered with a question.

"Oh no I'm not a blood relative me and her mother are just really close, like sisters. I was there the day she had Rachel actually, it was more than her father could manage." Beverly clarified. "So what kind of trouble has that girl gotten into now?"

"Horrible taste in the company she keeps I'm afraid." Gilbert answered. "Do you know her boyfriend Nyle Hamilton?"

"She mentioned him a few times but I've never personally met him. Look officers whatever is going on you need to understand it's not Rachel's fault she's a good girl, but she's a fighter and she is in survival mode right now."

"Care to elaborate?" Gilbert asked. "Also we are officers of the court, but we're not cops."

"Oh." She put a dainty hand to her heavy bosom. "What exactly does that mean?"

"You first." Justin interrupted.

"Well Marla and I, that's her mother's name, have done the best we could to raise that girl. Everything was fine despite the fact that her father never claimed her, didn't even show up to sign the birth certificate. She still had a pretty decent childhood though. Once Rachel was halfway through high school Marla met this guy Harold and well..." She trailed off, biting her glossy lower lip.

"Well what?" Gilbert prodded. "He do something inappropriate with her or something?"

"No, no, the complete opposite actually. He loved that girl like she was his own. Harold just had a different way of doing things I guess. Marla told me he was from Memphis and had a pretty rough past. She didn't tell me that he still sold drugs, Rachel told me about that part making it sound almost cool."

"Don't you sell drugs too?" Justin asked, lighting a cigarette.

"I sell a legal product." She snapped. "It just so happens to contain low levels of THC. Harold was pushing pills with the help of a nurse friend he kept in touch with from Memphis. He spoiled Marla and Rachel, treated them like the family he always wanted."

"So what's the problem?" Gilbert asked.

"Rachel never had a male role model before and she really took to Harold, but like I said he had a different way of doing things. He had a temper too and I'm pretty sure Rachel witnessed him pistol whipping a guy one time." She explained.

"So you're saying step daddy Harold started rubbing off on her?" Justin asked, exhaling smoke up in the air.

Beverly pushed back the stray locks of her honey blonde hair and fixed Justin with her warm brown eyes. "Worse. I think he was teaching her."

"Bullshit." Justin chuckled. "He was showing her how to be a drug dealer?"

"I don't know anything specific because Marla refused to acknowledge it but Rachel's behavior got so much worse. She kept getting into fights at school and I know she sold some of Marla's leftover muscle relaxers to her friends. Then once she graduated and took off for college we hardly ever heard from her."

"Except she knew to come see aunt Beverly when things got a little dicey for her." Gilbert chimed in.

"Whoops." Justin added softly. "Tell us about that conversation."

Beverly backed up defensively. "Nothing to tell really. She said she needed some money for next semester and was wondering if I could use her help at the shop."

"Well shit." Justin exclaimed, flicking his cigarette to the ground. "That's that I reckon. Sorry to worry you."

Beverly warmed back up and took a few steps closer. "Now what is it that you do exactly? The officers of the court stuff?"

"Bail enforcement agents." Gilbert answered with his stern cop voice. "We're actually just looking for Nyle Hamilton. He skipped his court date and we were told he might be with his girlfriend."

"Rachel? Are you shitting me?" She laughed in an oddly arousing matronly tone. "I thought she had maybe sold something to an undercover cop or something. Oh my goodness."

"Since her ass isn't on the line, figure you could maybe help us out and get us in touch with her?" Gilbert gently asked.

"I would love to officer." She answered coyly twisting her honey locks of hair with her index finger and setting her eyes on Justin. "But I just don't know anything. Catch her on campus over at Vanderbilt or wait until she comes back here to start work maybe. How about I call you if she stops back by, I'll explain to her that she's not in any trouble. Right?"

"Not that we know of." Gilbert answered, enviously watching her flirt with his partner.

He compared his wife Carol to the middle aged sexpot with honey blonde hair framing a naturally pretty face, and a busty housewife body to match. Her curves were not lost under her plaid shacket, nor the way her tight jeans lifted and framed her thick hips and ass.

"I don't get it." Justin pondered. "Why sell drugs? Why not just start an OnlyFans account if she needed money so bad?"

Beverly blushed at the suggestion. "Well actually..." She pulled a phone from her purse and scratched her pink manicured nails across the screen before holding it up to Justin's face.

"Fuck me." He softly muttered as his face fell in shock. "That's you."

"Yes it is. I started a page a few months ago. Just tasteful nudes nothing gross or too sexual." She pushed up right beside him scrolling through a few more pics for him. "So, I have your number. Should I give you a call?"

***

Nyle Hamilton finished his beer and set the empty bottle down on the glass coffee table in front of him. "So what's good?" He asked placing a large green duffle bag on the table beside the bottle.

Richard Hughes was an old acquaintance from high school. His parents were senior partners at rival law firms so where Nyle was upper middle class with a strong likable personality, he was actually rich and surrounded by opportunists lured by his wealth. Despite their differences a genuine friendship was forged between them, and Nyle and his entourage were invited to stay in one of his parents three hundred thousand dollar rental properties in Mt. Juliet Tennessee.

"Nyle listen it's not that simple mi amigo." Richard began sitting forward on the couch opposite his friend.

"What's good?!" Barked the tall skinny black man brooding right behind Richard. "Fuck you mean what's good?"

Richard startled and swung around in his seat to calm his associate. "Chill Curtis he wasn't being flippant, he's just a little nervous probably."

Nyle Hamilton unimpressed merely sat back on the love seat and crossed his legs casually. Rachel came from the kitchen and sat beside him offering her lover another beer.

"Curtis isn't accustomed to new faces it puts him on edge." Richard explained turning back to his friend. "He's been running the same route for roughly three years now and..."

"Three and a half dummy." Curtis corrected. "I been driving them same pills up from Memphis for years now and leaving them with the same muhfucka. Now I got his kid and some hoe ass white boy asking me to what, take them back?"

"Look bro we're not drug dealers you can obviously see that." Nyle started.

"Bro? Bitch you got one more time!" Curtis growled clenching his fist. "So what 'cause I'm black I must know all the drug dealers?"

Nyle simply shrugged and hid a smirk behind his beer bottle as he took a drink. "My guy I'm just trying to make something out of a shitty situation. I'm not trying to offend or piss anybody off but the facts are right here on this table, and I'm not equipped to handle them."

Richard winked at him in praise of his naked honesty before stuffing a bud of marijuana into an old fashioned cherry wood pipe and lighting up.

"Didn't I tell you stop using that silly ass thing to smoke weed?" Curtis distractedly asked. "Anyway, how the fuck is this my problem, and what did you say happened to Harold again?"

"He and my mother had another fight and he got locked up on a domestic." Rachel answered. "He told me where he kept his stash and said he needed some bond money."