by Jessie Cooke
“But the mother did, right?”
“Yeah. She never gave up on the piece of crap. She was even still trying to defend him after he almost killed his father. But still…Matthew Bledsoe died in that accident too.”
Levi knew it didn’t make sense. First of all, why cut his dad’s brake line and not his and second, Zack was right…why would Bledsoe put himself right in the path of the bike? “Yeah…now I’m really confused.”
“Tell you what, GM was pretty close to the old man too. I’ll go by and see him today and see if there’s anything he can tell me, and I’ll keep you posted.”
“Thanks, Zack. I’m sorry to even ask you to get involved in this…but I need to know.”
“No problem. Try not to let it drive you crazy, though. Just getting past the grief has to be hell.”
“You lost your father not too long ago too, right?”
Zack made a face that was a cross between a sneer and a smile. “Yeah, but that was so not the same thing. Anyways, I’ll be in touch soon.”
Levi thanked him again and then headed for the clubhouse to see what kind of shit Cheney had for him that day. When he got there, Cheney was in a meeting with someone else, so he sat down at the bar and had a drink with Mickey.
“How are you doing, kid?”
“I’m hanging in,” he told Mickey.
“When you have a chance, bring your bike out to me. I’ve got everything salvageable from Mac’s bike cleaned up and ready to go.”
Levi smiled. It was really nice of Mickey to do all of that. “Thanks, Mickey.”
“Happy to do it.”
“Levi!” Jackie D bellowed at him from across the room. Levi finished what was in his glass and tried not to roll his eyes as he turned around. “Cheney’s ready to see you now.”
“Wish me luck, Mickey,” Levi said, softly.
“You in trouble, kid?”
“Nah,” he said as he stood up off the stool. “Not yet, anyways.”
Mickey laughed as he walked away. When he stepped into the office, Jackie D closed the door behind him. “Have a seat, Levi,” Cheney said. “Good job last night, by the way.”
Levi nodded and mumbled a “Thanks.”
“So, we have this small-time dealer that spreads love around the city for us. He got himself into some trouble a few days ago and he’s hiding out from the cops. We can’t keep him here— we don’t want to invite the law into the clubhouse. I need you to put him up for a week or so, until we can get him out of town.”
“Put him up?” Levi asked, hoping that he misunderstood what Cheney was telling him.
“Yeah, the cops would have no reason to look for him at your place. He’s a chill guy, you might like him.”
“I don’t want some meth dealer living in my apartment.”
Cheney rolled his eyes and said, “You know, you get more and more like your old man all the time. Why do you fucking want to argue about everything like maybe I’m giving you a fucking choice?”
“I choose not to live in the clubhouse because I want my private life and this life to be separate,” he said. “Taking a drug dealer home doesn’t work for me.”
“Again,” Cheney said, lowering his voice. “I ain’t giving you a choice. You’ll go pick him up and take him to your place and keep it on the D.L. until we get him the hell out of here. If this asshole goes to jail for attempted murder, no telling what he’ll tell the fucking D.A. to try and get a deal.”
“Attempted murder?”
“Claims he was having a spat with the old lady that got out of hand. He shot her.”
Fuck! Cheney was talking about the guy that shot Zoe. His thoughts were racing…should he tell Cheney…or should he deal with this asshole himself? That thought was just way too tempting to pass up. “Okay. Where do I pick him up?”
Chaney and Jackie looked at each other. “That was a quick about-face,” Jackie said.
“Like Cheney said, I don’t have a choice, so why argue?”
“Well, good,” Cheney said. “Glad to know you’re capable of getting it.” He handed him a piece of paper with an address on it. “He’s holed up there for now. He’ll be expecting you by four.”
Levi looked at the clock on the wall. It was just after two. That should give him time to stop by and see Zoe on his way. He smiled and tucked the paper in his pocket. This was going to be fun.
Levi stood in the doorway of the hospital room, watching Zoe sleep. He’d run into her grandparents in the lobby and shamefully, he was glad that they were on their way out. Her grandmother greeted him warmly and made a big deal over the little bouquet of flowers he’d stopped and bought on his way over. Her grandfather said hello, but then just gave him the hard stare.
He had been standing there for a full two or three minutes when her eyelashes fluttered open. Her dark eyes landed on his face and he saw her skin flush, almost like she was embarrassed. “Hey,” she said, in a raspy voice, trying to push herself up into a sitting position.
“Hey.” He walked all the way into the room. Zoe was looking at the flowers then so he said, “It’s not much…I don’t know a lot about flowers…”
She smiled. “They’re nice,” she said. “Thank you.”
“Sure. I’ll just stick them in this vase.” He put the flowers with another bunch of them in a vase on the bedside table and then turned back to her. “How are you feeling?”
“Honestly?” He nodded and she said, “Like shit.”
He chuckled. “You look good.”
She reached up and brushed her hair off her forehead with her fingers and said, “Liar. But, thank you. Have a seat.”
He sat down and for several seconds they sat in uncomfortable silence. Seeing her in person made his mind go back to his latest dream. He finally broke the silence by saying, “That guy…Patrick…what does he want?”
She looked even more embarrassed then. “I told you, Levi, it doesn’t matter.”
“I think it does. What’s to stop him from coming back? He was making threats against your grandparents that day too, wasn’t he?”
“He won’t follow through with that. I’ll take care of him.”
Levi cocked an eyebrow. “You’ll take care of him…how?”
“I’m sorry, I really don’t want to be rude, but I just don’t see how this is any of your business, Levi.”
“Maybe it’s not, but I’m still going to worry about you. Why don’t you just tell me and maybe I can help?”
“I owe him some money,” she said. “Some drugs I was carrying for him went missing. They were stolen from me…and that made me responsible for the money.”
“How responsible?”
“A thousand dollars’ worth,” she said. “But I’ll have it, soon.”
“And you think you’ll just pay him and he’ll go away?” She nodded and he asked, “How long have you been on the streets?”
“Don’t make fun of me. I know Patrick. I can handle him.”
“I’m not making fun of you, Zoe, but damn it, he shot you.”
“He was trying to shoot you.”
Levi laughed. “Po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe. My point is that he’s dangerous. Zoe, I work with these kinds of guys every day. Greed is what drives them and they’ll do anything to satisfy that greed. If he is not in jail…or dead…you are not going to be safe.”
“I’m not sure why you care so much,” she said, almost in a whisper.
“Neither am I,” he said, truthfully. “But I do. I feel stupid just saying this out loud, Zoe…but I think you and I found each other only because Krissy wanted us to.”
“You think your dead girlfriend…” He winced when she emphasized the word “dead” and she said, “I’m sorry. But, you think she is somehow guiding us toward each other…Why?”
“Maybe because she thought I’d need someone to help me through this…or she thought you needed someone to help with what you’re going through, I don’t know. I know it sounds crazy. Krissy was really perceptive, and really go
od with people. Maybe she sensed something when you touched her that night…on a level that we don’t understand…Shit. You’re probably thinking I need to have a psych consult while I’m here, aren’t you?”
She smiled. “No…Actually, Levi, I’m a little bit relieved.”
“Relieved?”
“The coincidences and the dreams I’ve been having…”
“Dreams? What kind of dreams?”
Her face went from light red to scarlet as she said, “Just…um…you know, dreams that you’re in, and sometimes Krissy.”
Levi was about to ask her to go into more detail just as a nurse walked into the room. “It’s time for your medication, honey. Are you sure you don’t want the morphine? I heard you moaning a little in your sleep.”
Zoe smiled. “No, Brenda, it’s okay. I’ll just take the antibiotic and the Tylenol, thanks.”
“Okay, honey. I’ll be right back with it.” Levi waited until the nurse was gone and he said:
“I’ve never been shot, but I can’t imagine two days post-bullet-removal that you’d be ready to forego the heavy-hitter pain meds.”
“I’ve been foregoing them as long as I’ve been alert. They snuck them in after surgery when I was too groggy to realize it. I don’t want to risk having to go through withdrawal again. That was a bitch, to say the least.”
“Well, you’re a better woman than me.”
She laughed. “Good to know.” Levi looked at his watch and sighed.
“I have to get going. I have a job to do. Maybe I can come by tomorrow, if you don’t mind?”
“I wouldn’t mind,” she said, “but I’m really hoping they’ll release me from this place in the morning.”
“I could come see you at your grandparents’ house.”
She looked like she was biting the inside of her cheek as she said, “I’m not sure that would be a great idea.”
“Why not? Nana loves me.”
She giggled. “I guess I’ll give you that, but Nana’s the easy one. It’s Papa Bear you have to worry about.”
Levi stood up and waved a palm at her. “Give me a little time, I’ll have him texting me, asking me to come over and hang out.”
She laughed again. “I’d love to see that.” He bent down and kissed her on the cheek. He got a whiff of her hair and realized that it smelled just the same as it had in his dreams. He shivered as he stood back up. For a few seconds their eyes locked into one another’s and at last he cleared his throat and said:
“Get some rest, I’ll see you soon.” He started to walk out and before he got to the door she said:
“Levi?” He turned back toward her. She looked like she had tears swimming in her eyes as she said, “Thank you. I don’t have many friends—any, really. I appreciate you taking time out to come and see me. The flowers were really nice too.”
“No problem. You have a friend now, okay?”
“Okay.” He fought the urge to go back over to the bed and really kiss her. It was still too soon, but at least now he knew she was having some strange dreams too. He’d like to explore that further, as soon as he took care of Patrick, his new red-headed roommate.
29
Levi pulled up in front of the house where Cheney had told him to pick up Patrick and turned off the bike. The house was in one of the worst neighborhoods in Memphis…almost as bad as the one the crack house was in. The front porch looked like it was rotting in places and the screens were either missing or hanging off the windows. The weeds in the yard were knee high and looked like they had choked the grass out years earlier. What paint was left on the house was an ugly teal green and underneath that, it was yellow.
Levi left his skullcap on, covering most of his hair, and his sunglasses. He had his leather kutte on and a pair of black leather chaps over his jeans. He didn’t think Patrick would recognize him from the diner…at least he hoped that he wouldn’t…he planned on having some fun with him first. He got off the bike and started toward the front door. He saw the sheet covering the inside of the window move slightly…someone was watching him. He put his hand on the small of his back, covering where he kept his gun as he got closer to the door. He raised his other hand to knock and it was cracked open. “Hello?” Levi didn’t see anyone at the door, but the screen was closed and it was filthy.
“Hi.” The little voice took him by surprise. He looked down and a tiny little girl with bright red hair was looking up at him. She couldn’t have been over five or six years old.
“Hey, is your daddy here?”
“My mommy is here, but she’s sleeping.”
Fuck. Levi’s stomach rolled at the thought of a child living in this dump, much less with a junkie mother and someone like Patrick coming in and out. He wondered if the little girl had gotten all that red hair from her “daddy.”
“Is anyone else here, honey? I’m looking for a man named Patrick. I’m Levi.”
“He’s sleeping too, with Mommy.”
The rolling stomach was joined by bile rising up in the back of his throat. “Can I come in?”
He expected her to say no. When she didn’t, he was even more pissed off. He couldn’t even imagine the things this little baby girl had seen in a place like this. She reached up and unlocked the screen door and pushed it open. Levi stepped inside. The living room had a couch that may have been beige at one time. It was filthy, stained with God only knew what and covered in bits of trash. The coffee table in front of it had old food containers on top of it, but that wasn’t the worst thing. There was what Levi knew that junkies called their “kit.” It was a Hello Kitty make-up bag in this case, unzipped and showing a burned silver spoon, several insulin needles, and a few cotton balls. A tourniquet, lighter, and used needle lay next to it. He had plans for Patrick, but following through with those plans would require walking away from that house and leaving the little girl alone there with her junkie mother. He looked down into her big green eyes and her dirty face, thin arms, and stained and dirty clothes. She didn’t have on any shoes and her feet were filthy.
“When was the last time you had something to eat, honey?”
“I had some French fries a minute ago,” she said, pointing at a cardboard container on the table. It was dirty and there was no telling how old the fries she’d just eaten were. He couldn’t do it…no matter how badly he wanted a piece of Patrick. He took out his phone and looked up the number for Memphis P.D. The little girl watched him curiously for the next fifteen minutes or so while he was passed from one person to the next before he finally reached the person he was looking for.
“Is this about Zoe?”
“Mr. Bennett, thank you for taking my call.”
“You can stop kissing my ass, boy, and just tell me what you want. I have work to do.”
Levi smiled. “I found Patrick.” There was a long pause and then:
“Where?”
Levi gave him the address and told him the situation in the house. As he talked, he made his way through the house. The little girl had grown tired of watching him and was now sitting on the dirty floor, playing with a dirty little stuffed animal. Levi checked the first room. It had a small mattress on the floor and piles of dirty little-girl clothes all over. A blanket covered that window. There was a bathroom across from that and it looked like someone was growing bacteria, fungus, and mold in the tub, sink, and toilet for a science experiment. The door to the last room in the hallway was propped open slightly. Levi used the tips of his fingers to push it open. A woman with stringy blonde hair lay face down on top of the covers. She was dressed in a bra and underpants and she was so thin that he could almost count her vertebrae. The man next to her was underneath the covers and his dirty red hair lay almost glued to his face with sweat. They both looked like they were sleeping and both of them also looked like they were breathing. He went back down the hall to the living room. The little girl was still in the same spot.
“He’s in the bedroom with the girl’s mother. Please tell whoever comes that there is
a child in the house.”
“Will she leave with you?”
“Probably, sadly,” Levi said.
“I’m sending a couple of black and whites now and I’m already in my car. Can you take her somewhere away from there, get her something to eat or whatever?”
“Sure, I saw a little drive-in down the street.”
“Good, wait there with her. I’ll text you when we have him and we’ll get her over to DCFS.”
Levi really wanted to be there when they busted in and put that asshole Patrick in cuffs. But Bennett was right. Levi had seen more than one raid in his lifetime and it was going to be nothing the little girl needed to see. “Okay.” He gave the older man his cell phone number and then Bennett said:
“I don’t know how you found this asshole and honestly, I don’t care. I’m glad you did. Thanks for calling me.”
“Sure.” Levi was going to pay a heavy price for what he was about to do whenever Cheney found out…but fuck ’em. There was no way he could live with himself if he walked away from that little girl. He finished up with the phone call and went over to the little girl. “What’s your name?” he asked her.
She looked up at him. “Susie.”
“Susie, how would you like to take a walk with me? I saw a little place down the street where we could get a hamburger…and maybe a milkshake?” Her dirty little face broke out in a wide smile.
“Chocolate?” she asked.
“Whatever you want, honey.” She got up on her feet and reached for his hand. It was way too easy for him to lead her out of the house. Once they got outside, he picked her up and carried her since she wasn’t wearing any shoes. She was as light as a feather, obviously undernourished, and so lonely and starved for company and food that she was willing to leave her house with a complete stranger, triple her size. It made him furious. Patrick was probably a hell of a lot better off that the cops were going to get their hands on him before Levi did.
30
Levi watched the little girl eat her hamburger like it was the first real meal she’d had in months. He was having a lot of mixed emotions. He knew that DCFS was going to take her to a foster home, at least until her mother was out of jail…and hopefully clean. He knew that she’d have to be better off there than she was in that dangerous pigsty she was living in, so he was happy about that. Krissy had grown up in foster care. She never knew who her parents were or why she was left, abandoned at a fire station when she was three years old. Krissy’s spirit and her love of life kept her from being bitter or angry about that. She decided when she was just a little girl that the people who gave her life had been trying to do what was best for her. Her life in the system hadn’t always been easy, but even when she told Levi about the bad things, she always tried to put a positive spin on them. Growing up in foster care had made her tough…but it hadn’t hardened her or made her bitter. He knew that a lot of kids who grew up there weren’t that lucky, and as he sat and looked across the table at little Susie, he wondered what it was going to do to her. As he was pondering that, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at the face…it was his friend Casey, the woman that had taken Krissy in and given her a place to live when she first got out of foster care and had no place else to go.