Callie gave a frustrated sigh as she put away her grocery's in the galley of the ship. A large tan dog lay at her feet, lifted his head up at her sigh. His brown eyes looked at her with love and what she always thought was a bit of laughter.
"You know, if I didn't have to lug your stupid dog food all the way down the dock, I would have been able to catch my own damn hat then I could have avoided running into little miss Audrey Parker and Dudley do right Nathan Wournos."
The large dog crawled his way to her wound his way between her legs, tripping her up as she went to put away the sugar. She rolled her eyes as she braced her hand against the counter, and placed the sugar there. She reached down and ran her hand through his short fur. He butted her legs with his head and she laughed as she sat down. The large dog, settled himself down across her legs, resting his big head in her lap.
"Guess, we're going to have to be a bit more careful." Callie rubbed between his ears, in the spot that she knew he liked. " I really would hate to have to bail before the rent is done on this floating rust bucket, Max."
Max rolled onto his side and gave her a goofy doggy grin. Callie stared down at her one constant thing in life with a smile. She rubbed all of his favourite spots and giggled as his leg twitched when she hit his one favourite spot. Max came into her life as a surprise, he was abandoned on the side of the road, starved and beaten. He was wary of her, but she recognized something in his eyes. It was the same look in her eyes, and that was the longest she stayed in one place trying to convinced a broken dog to trust her. Max was the only thing she'd never cut and run on. He was her friend, companion and her family.
"Well, I guess we should put away the rest of the food. I think we're going to get one of those famous winter storms tonight." Callie sighed, pushing her self up off the ground and gave Max one last pat. "And we both know, your going to keep my up all night long. Aren't you?"
Max gave her his best, ' I know I am a pain in the ass, but you know you love me' look. It worked every time.
"I don't know how such a scary dog like you turns into a pussy when you hear a bit of thunder." Callie put away the last of the dry food and tied the cupboards closed like she was instructed by Macalister when she first rented the boat. She did the same to the fridge when she finished putting away the assorted items that needed to be stored the old ice box that she was sure was from the fifty's.
After feeding Max, she settling in for the night with a glass of cheap wine, a good book and a bag of her favourite cookies by the electric heater she bought a month ago. Max settled down by her feet on the worn out rug, rolled over onto his back and was out cold in a matter or minutes.
"I get my sleep too bud, since we both know your going to be howling like a pansy in a few hours." snorted Callie as she opened the paperback she had picked up at the second had store last week.
Max had indeed started howling at the thunder around three am. Callie thought for sure this one time he would sleep through it, but between the rocking of the boat and the booming of the thunder above them she wasn't getting any sleep and neither was Max. It was just going to be a repeat of another bad night in a strange town.
Callie watched as Max paced back and forth from one end to the other of boat cabin, howling and whining.
"Max, you such a big baby!" sighed Callie swinging her legs out of her bed. She reached for her glasses and out them on. She normally wore contacts during the day but at night she wore her glasses. She walked over to where Max was pacing and gave the big goof a rub behind the ears.
Max stopped pacing, his body was tense and stiff. He went to the cabin door and began scratching at it.
"You have to go to the bathroom now?" Callie reached for a hair tie and tossed her hair back into a pony tail. She reached for her jogging pants and threw them on over her panties before grabbing her windbreaker. She shoved her feet into her dc kicks and opened the door for Max.
Max was out of the cabin before Callie could do up her jacket. She grabbed a baseball cap before shutting the door behind her. She caught up with Max as he was half way down the dock doing his business off the side of the wooden dock. She was soaked within minutes of stepping out into the rainstorm. The wind was blowing the water over the dock and she sent up a pray that she or Max wouldn't end up in the water.
"Damn it Max!" Callie yelled over the blowing wind that almost knocked her off her feet and flat onto her ass. The wood was soaked through, and slippery as hell. She barely caught her self before she fell on one of the wooden pillars. "Only you would go to the bathroom in a fucking hurricane!"
Max trotted back to her, and she grabbed his collar to steady herself as they turned back towards the boat. She could see a set of lights on in the distance and wondered who was so lucky they had a generator as she had lost power a few hours into the storm. And by lights she meant shinning flickers of light in the distance as the rain was coming down so hard she was having trouble seeing in front of her face.
They were almost back at the boat when Max stopped. He pressed himself against her leg, and she couldn't hear him growling above the wind and thunder but she could feel his body vibrating. Callie ran her hand over fur and could feel Max's hackles up.
"Whoa homeboy, what's got you all fired up?" Shouted Callie as she bent down to pull him in towards her. She felt him brace himself before he launched himself down the dock. " Shit. Fuck, damnit all to hell."
Callie chased after Max, loosing him in the rain. Since the storm knocked out the power, the lamps that lit either side of the dock were out and with the thick rain pouring down she could barely see two feet in front of her let alone down the dock where her lousy dog took off.
She slipped and slid down the dock, almost took a tumble off the dock when a wave of water swept up over the dock and almost took her back into the pitch black water. Callie pulled herself up by holding onto one of the wooden posts that held the dock in place. She cursed Max and her attachment to him. Her jogging pants were starting to drag with the weight of the water they had soaked up. She pulled tight on the draw string and tied them in a double knot in order to keep them on.
It took her ten minutes to make her way down the dock towards the lights, and Max who stood growling at the boat.
"Well Max, thanks for waiting." Callie said as she reached out to grab him back by his collar. Max looked at her before leaping onto the boat and disappearing on her again. " And here we go again."
Callie followed Max onto the boat and went ass over tea kettle on the slippery surface. She pulled herself up off the ground and followed Max down some stairs. She heard shouts from below and the sounds of someone getting their head smacked in. Max let out a low growl, as she hushed him and turned back towards the upper deck.
Her hip was hurting and she knew that it would burse like bitch in a few hours. She remember seeing a piece of pipe laying on the deck among boxes, lobster traps and other things she could identify. Her mama didn't raise no fool. Callahan rule; you bring a knife to a gun fight; and you don't go out to play with the neighbours children unless you got something to swing. And she didn't intend to.
Callie found the pipe and ran her fingers over it. She felt the weight in her hand, and picked it up. She tossed it back and fourth between her hands as she walked back to the stairs. She held in her right hand, tucked up along her right arm. It was hidden in the sleeve of her windbreaker, no point showing off what you got.
As she made her way back to where she left Max, she pushed the hair out of her face that managed to escape the hair tie with the blowing wind. Max looked at her with what she thought was a look of annoyance.
She gave him the hand signal to follow as she walked ahead of him. Callie walked down the stairs to the lower level of the boat. They stopped when the came to a door that was ajar just enough that she could see three men and her 'well to do good' neighbour Mr. Duke Crocker. And unfortunately for Mr. Crocker he wasn't on the good end of the conversation they were having.
"I am going ask you once more, Duke." a rather large man said leaning over a tied up Duke. He had one ham sized hand on Duke's bloody face, holding it up so Duke's one good eye could look at him. " Where is the box?"
"Sorry boys," Duke replied with a laugh that Callie thought most wouldn't have in his situation. Clearly, Duke was amused by something that Callie couldn't see." Last I checked, your name really wasn't on the box."
The big burly man with the hands the size of hams, gave Duke what looked like a hard love tap but sounded like Duke's nose breaking. Callie caught a glimpse of light flash off a gold around the man's knuckles. At first she thought it was rings but as he turned she saw that it was brass knuckles.
"I think we should move this show on a little faster, Anderson." A smaller man said to the brass knuckle wielding man. The speaker was two inches taller then Callie, leaner in build and dressed better then the other two. He looked like he was higher up on the pecking order of things compared to his friends.
"I think we should cut off a couple of his fingers and see how willing he is to talk then. I think I like that idea very much, Markus. What about you Anderson?" The third man pulled out what Callie thought was a cigar cutter. He held it up to Duke's face so he could get a real good look at it.
Callie bit the inside of her mouth. There went the rest of her rent for the floating rust bucket. She turned to look at Max and gave him two signals as she moved to the left of him. Max let out a loud bark and nosed his way into the door.
The four men in the room stared at him for a moment before one of them cursed and went after him. Max backed out of the door way as the man with the cigar cutter came through the door way.
Callie swung as soon as she saw the man round the corner of the door. The pipe hit him full in the face, breaking his nose and she was sure part of his jaw. His hands went up to his face as he head went down and Callie brought the pipe down on his head with everything she had. He hit the floor the thud.
Callie stepped into the door frame, leaned against the side with the pipe tucked up the inside of her sleeve again. The two remaining men, stared at her with shock and Duke's one good eye was wide with surprise.
"Sorry to break up the sausage party boys," Callie said giving her best smile. "But Crocker here, did promise me dinner and I'm one hungry girl."
"Your going to be one dead girl, soon." Anderson replied moving towards her.
"Get in line fugly," Callie said as she ducked under his reach and swung the pipe at his head. She would have connected if the other man hadn't tackled her mid swing. The pipe smashed into the man's neck, dropping him to his knee's dazed but no unconscious.
Callie hit the ground hard, as the man she thought was called Markus grabbed a fist full of her hair and smashed her head into the ground while bashing her hand against the floor. She let got of the pipe and smashed her left fist into his head repeatedly. She could hear Max growling and the scream of the other man.
"It's going to be real fun killing you, my pretty little bitch." Callie felt his hands close over the throat, squeezing in a way that reminded her of a boa constrictor. She could feel her air being cut off and tried to pull his hands off her throat with no success. She gave up trying to pull his hands off her instead closed her eyes and pressed her hands to his chest.
Callie ignored the panic that welled up inside her, and pushed. She pushed everything she had to her hands. And when she had enough power there, she pulled back her barriers and pushed it into his body.
Markus's hands were ripped off her throat, and he flew back into metal wall.
Callie rolled over, coughing and gasping for air as she blindly reached for the pipe as her glasses were knocked off her face when she went down. She heard a yelp and then silence. She looked around for Max, knowing her dog was in trouble and all she could see was blurring object and the obscure outline of one Duke Crocker.
"Max?" Callie called out trying to push her self up. She was half way there when a strong hand wrapped itself around her hair and drove her face into the metal floor. The was a flash of burning pain and then there was nothing.