by Jackson, Meg
“That’s her. Little Mayor,” Kennick said as Damon began to strum, filling the air with the soft sound of an old song. Cristov snorted, taking a long swallow of his beer.
“If that’s where you’re setting your sights, Kennick, you might as well buy some binoculars, ‘cause that possibility is a long way off,” he said.
“Not everything is about getting laid, Cris,” Kennick said, growing impatient with his younger brother’s one-track mind. To be fair, Cristov hadn’t gotten any in at least a month; with their father’s death, the move, and the bustle of setting up camp and getting their businesses up and running, there’d barely been time to eat, never mind troll for girls.
And the girls in their kumpania, who were usually up for a good time as long as there wasn’t any blood relation, had been avoiding the brothers out of respect for Pieter and Baba’s passing. It would be a while yet before the deaths in their family were no longer considered a hindrance to matters of the heart – or, more accurately, sexual organs.
The truth was, Cristov was the least likely of the three Volanis brothers to have a one-night stand. The boy was loathe to admit it, but he was a hopeless romantic. He always fell for the girls he slept with, got cranky and moody when they didn’t stay. He’d been chasing Rom girls all his life, but his mooning, adoring behavior scared them off more often than not. He was the jealous type, and like all Rom, the women treasured their freedom.
Damon, on the other hand, the middle brother, was so uninterested in chasing tail or finding a woman that his brothers had once wondered if he was actually gay. That would have been fine with them, but when asked he merely shook his head and smiled slightly. Damon had been known to bring a girl home on occasion, and from the sounds that reverberated through the paper-thin walls of their trailers, he was quite skilled in the bedroom. His silent nature, dark eyes, and strongly set jaw had attracted more girls to his door than both his brothers combined, but he turned most of them away with a kind, platonic pat on the back and a wan smile.
It drove Cristov crazy, but he’d managed to convince at least a few of those girls back into his own bedroom. Damon didn’t have a type that either of his brothers could figure out; the few girls he selected to spend the night with came in all shapes and sizes and ethnicities. When asked, he shrugged. Mina told Cristov and Kennick that it was in the girl’s eyes, which only left them more baffled. The pleased smile Damon gave Mina when she said it spoke volumes.
Kennick fell somewhere in the middle, with a healthy appreciation for fly-by-night encounters and a few serious relationships under his belt – though, to Kennick, a serious relationship meant six months. Six months, no one had lasted longer than that. He didn’t imagine it would get any better now that he had taken his place as rom baro, patriarch of the clan. It would take a strong woman to help him shoulder that responsibility. A woman who could lead, with a level-head, and a fierce heart. None of the Rom women he knew fit the bill. At least, none of the single Rom women.
“Alright, so what’s Little Mayor done that’s put you in such a good mood?” Cristov ask, accepting his brother’s withering glance with a shrug.
“She’s going to help us clear Dad’s name,” Kennick said, smiling when he remembered the way she’d followed after him, taking small steps, promising to help – and to come back.
Damon looked up with interest, hands idly strumming out the same tune, clean and neat and drifting along the colors of the sunset. His fingers were calloused, knuckles showing even worse wear. He had a fight tonight, out in Dover. Cristov and Damon had been sparring earlier in preparation. Until the strip club was up and running, with a basement to use for the brothers’ off-the-books fight club, they’d have to travel for Damon's fights. Kennick was confident about the night’s outcome; Damon had never lost a fight. A win meant an extra five grand in their pockets.
“How’s she gonna do that?” Cristov asked, his let’s-get-laid act put on the back burner while more pressing matters needed discussion.
“Her sister’s on the newspaper,” Kennick said. “She was interested in what I showed her, and she said she could get her sister to write something up for us.”
Damon’s brows fell to a line above his eyes, mouth set straight.
“Will that be enough?” he asked. “An article in the paper?”
Kennick sighed and shrugged.
“Probably not,” he said. “But it’s a start.”
Just at that moment, Mina burst from the trailer, singing loudly along to the tune Damon had been strumming. She held out two plates of steaming food and Kennick and Cristov both took one. Damon refused to eat before a fight.
“Mina,” Cristov said, sneering down at his plate of burnt hamburger meat mixed up with egg noodles and some anonymous white, creamy sauce. “What the hell is this?”
“It’s dinner,” she answered primly. Dressed in a long, flowing skirt and a black tank top, she put her hands on her hips. Her curly red hair fell around her round cheeks, her green eyes sparking defiantly as she held her brother’s glare.
“It’s disgusting,” Cristov retorted, but took a bite all the same, a grimace on his mouth as he turned his face upward and chewed loudly, open-mouthed, in her face. When Mina grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked slightly, his eyes widened and his mouth snapped shut.
“Swallow it like a good boy,” she said, giving his hair a slight shake. Still sneering, he gulped, then stuck his tongue out at her. “And thank your beautiful sister for making you dinner.”
“Thank you, your highness, for the swill,” he said sarcastically. Mina released him, turning to Kennick now. The look on her face betrayed her confident nature.
“Is it really gross, K?” she asked. He had just put a second forkful into his mouth and swallowed hard.
“It’s really, really bad, Mina,” he said with a shrug. “But I appreciate it all the same.”
Her face fell, but not for long. Mina had an indomitable spirit. She smiled a moment later, shrugging her shoulders.
“Well, no one ever said you have to be a good cook to live a happy life,” she said cheerily.
“Except maybe your future husband,” Cristov said, raising his plastic fork to examine some unidentifiable, dripping vegetable.
“My future husband can cook for me,” Mina said, hopping down the trailer’s stairs. As she walked in front of Cristov to stand by Damon, he took aim with the soggy vegetable, pulling back on the head of the fork. He released. It went wide – far wide. Kennick stifled a laugh.
“You’re gonna be safe tonight, right, Damon?” Mina asked, draping her arms around her brother’s shoulders, forcing him to stop playing the guitar for a moment.
“Aren’t I always,” he said, gruffly, but with love behind his words. Mina sighed, satisfied, and raised herself up.
“I’m off to the pussy palace,” she said, referring to the trailer she shared with her best friends. All three men cringed. To them, although she was 19, Mina was still just a little girl, and to hear her use the word “pussy” was like nails on a chalkboard. The whole reason she didn’t live in the trailer was because they couldn’t stand the idea of her bringing guys home, and because knowing she might be listening to the girls they brought home was embarrassing.
“Shall we?” Kennick asked, rising with a stretch and placing his half-eaten plate of half-edible food on the ground. Damon put the guitar back in its place and rose with a nod.
“Can we stop for real chow?” Cristov asked, looking up at his brothers, though the dinner Mina had prepared was nearly gone from his plate.
“How can you still be hungry?” Damon asked, a smile playing on his lips.
“It’s a gift,” Cristov responded, belching loudly as he hopped up and strode towards the car that would take them to Dover, where a man waited to be graced with the brutal honesty of a gypsy fist.
Chapter Fourteen
Kim began her Monday in the same way she’d started a hundred Mondays before. In fact, the only thing that separat
ed this Monday from every other Monday since she’d reached adulthood was that it would end in a date with Kennick Volanis. A date that made her stomach twirl and flutter with butterflies each time she thought of it.
Luckily, there was plenty to deal with at work that she could afford to ignore the impending date for the most part. She’d been right in her assumption about the business proposals being dealt with quickly; the Town Clerk’s office was in touch all morning, letting Kim know where each application stood. Most would be verified and approved without question. The strip club was the only dark horse – and the application was being tabled until it could go before the Town Board. Kim was happy to know she’d have some good news to share with Kennick that evening.
And commence the fluttering.
She had just hung up with Pat over in the Town Clerk’s office when the doors to the office slammed open with the force of a hurricane. Kim’s neck nearly snapped when she jerked her head up to see what had happened; it wasn’t a what, though. It was a who.
She groaned, deep in her throat. Pastor Hendrix was standing across the room, red-faced and clearly fuming. She wished that he’d had better timing. Mayor Gunderson was on lunch, which meant that there’d be no friendly buffer between her and Pastor Hendrix’ white hot, pseudo-righteous rage.
He and Mayor Gunderson had both served on the force long ago, before Gunderson ran for office and Hendrix took up the cloth. They regularly played golf together. Pastor Hendrix had never been anything but kind to Kim when their paths crossed, but she’d long heard the rumors of his ferocious temper. And it only took one look at the meek woman he called his wife to know that temper mostly showed itself in their home. The gossip around town was particularly vicious when Mrs. Hendrix wore her sunglasses in the middle of winter or a scarf in the middle of summer.
Now, as he stood red-faced in front of Kim’s desk, she felt the anger radiating off him in waves, and pitied his wife dearly.
“Are you aware, Ms. James, that those damn gypsies are planning to open a damn brothel in our town?” he hissed, barely keeping his rage in check as his hands closed into fists on the countertop. Kim swallowed hard but managed to maintain eye contact.
“Pastor Hendrix,” she said as calmly as she could. “We are aware that a business proposal for a gentleman’s club has been submitted by our new residents. But it won’t be a brothel, and it won’t actually be in town limits. If you want to take issue, there will be a discussion at the next town meeting, and you can propose to deny the application…”
He slammed his fist hard against the counter. Hard enough to spill the cup of pens and pencils onto Kim’s desk below.
“This is absurd! How can anyone even entertain the notion that such an establishment belongs in Kingdom? Why, those criminals should be exiled! They will do nothing but bring crime, and immoral activity! They’re thieves and con artists…and murderers!”
His eyes narrowed as he spat out the last word. Kim sighed and wished Mayor Gunderson would pick this moment to return from his lunch break. She was the only one in the office, and Hendrix was starting to look more like a rabid animal than a man of God. By the way the vein on his forehead throbbed, he looked like he was either going to jump across the desk and throttle her or have a heart attack. Secretly, Kim wished for the latter.
“They’re not murderers,” she said quietly, knowing that wasn’t the most tactful way of handling the situation but feeling oddly protective all the same. Pastor Hendrix’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head as his jaw worked in small circles.
“You know nothing,” he said, his voice low and shiver-inducing. “Violence begets violence. Thirty years ago, one of them killed one of us. ‘Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.’ Proverbs!”
“’The righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.’ Ezekial.”
The voice surprised both Kim and Pastor Hendrix, who whipped around to take on the new challenger. To Kim’s delight, it was Ed Kerry. Ed had no small beef with Pastor Hendrix, who made it clear what he thought of Ed’s “lifestyle choices.”
“Surprised one of us residents of Sodom can quote the bible? They teach the scripture in Catholic Church too, you know,” Ed said, shouldering his way past the Pastor to the counter. Pastor Hendrix looked like he wanted to throw holy water on him.
“Not enough of it, apparently,” Pastor Hendrix hissed. “Leave it to a sinner to defend sinners.”
“Blow it out your ass, Jimi,” Ed sneered, using his favorite taunt. The Pastor was sensitive to the counterculture icon that shared his last name; he considered it some sort of modern-day cross to bear. Kim bit back a laugh as his eyes widened further, but when he turned back to her, her blood ran cold. Pure, unadulterated violence lingered behind those eyes.
“They’ll get what’s coming to them. You all will. All you who defend them,” he said. “Just like she did. She lay with one of them, out of wedlock, and look at her fate. Any of you who support their immoral, criminal activity will meet a similar end, one way or another.”
Kim’s breath caught in her throat. He did not just say that. Even Ed seemed shocked as he watched Pastor Hendrix shake with rage.
“You’ll see! You’ll all see!” he said, backing away from the desk. Kim wondered if he was so crazed with rage that his own words hadn’t even hit him yet. “And once that Mayor of ours gets back, I expect a call. You tell him Dick Hendrix deserves to be heard!”
“Holy shit,” Ed murmured as the man slammed the door shut behind him.
“Literally,” Kim said, equally stunned – and still angry about the way he’d threatened Kennick and his brothers. “So…how can I help you, Ed?”
“Came by to speak to Tom,” he said. “Guess he’s not here?”
Kim shook her head.
“Well, I’m glad I came by anyway. Asshole. You alright? Look a little shaken up,” Ed said, rolling his shoulders as though Pastor Hendrix’s presence had put a knot in them. Kim wouldn’t have been surprised if that was true. Pure rage could have that effect on a person.
“It’s just…did you hear what he said? I mean…wow,” Kim said, shaking her head slowly. Ed offered her a sympathetic smile.
“Men like him want to call everyone a sinner,” he said. “Even the victims. But you…you have a personal stake in the matter, don’t you?”
Kim blushed. Of course Ed Kerry knew. He and Ricky were gossip buddies. They had a deep dish session at Sid’s Diner every Monday morning to go over everything that had gone down over the past week, and Kim had told her sister about the date on Sunday night, so it was fresh in her mind. The two most incorrigible gossips in town – and Kim had the luck to be related to one.
“Well, just so you know,” Ed said, leaning close with a twinkle in his eye, “I can’t say I’m not a little jealous. Those are some fine specimens of men. Even if they don’t wash behind their ears.”
“Wish everyone was so accepting of them,” Kim said with a sigh. “I have a feeling things are going to get rough around here. And I just don’t want to be waltzing myself into the middle of it all.”
“It’s a small town, people will come around when they see nothing’s amiss,” Ed said confidently. “I mean, maybe not everyone. Just don’t get Pastor Hendrix to officiate at the wedding.”
Kim laughed.
“I doubt it will get that far, Ed.”
“Hey now, don’t go stomping all over my fantasies. You ever seen a gypsy wedding? Those things are awesome. You better invite me.”
“You can walk me down the aisle if it happens,” Kim said. “But it won’t, so don’t get your hopes up.”
“You never know. I saw the way that big man was looking at you in the bar. He’s got something more than knocking boots on his mind. Trust me. I’m a man.”
“I barely know him!” Kim couldn’t help but laugh as she blushed harder.
“Well, Sleeping Beauty didn’t know
Prince Charming from Mr. Clean before he smooched her. And honey, if ever there was a Sleeping Beauty in Kingdom, it’s you.”
“You’re awful. Get out of here. Don’t you have a supermarket to run?”
“You never let me have any fun,” Ed faked a pout but turned around, only to open his arms as Mayor Gunderson entered the room. “Perfect! Just the man I came to see! And wouldn’t you know, this woman here was going to make me leave?”
“I’m sure she had good reason,” Mayor Gunderson said, flashing them a million-dollar grin while he held his hand out for Ed to shake, adding an amiable pat on the back to the greeting. “What can I do for you, Eddy?”
“I was just checking in after the other night,” Ed said, his tone softening. Kim saw Mayor Gunderson stiffen slightly, but a moment later he was his old easy-going self. “You were a bit keyed up. Should we go into your office?”