by A. R. Case
“Hi baby.” I leaned toward him for a kiss.
“Your mom?”
“Yes, kiss.” I was being demanding, but fuck it. I liked Indy’s kisses. Getting one from him was easy, but he was distracted, and that made him moody. That meant unless I broke through, he’d be somewhere else all night. That would suck, because then I’d have to change outfits, and I really liked this one.
He smiled, and took the kiss. Then deepened it, and added tongue. It was possessive, and so damn sexy.
Indy
Night three at Edie’s. It wasn’t conscious making the choice for night two, but tonight was definitely premeditated, and invited. That morning I’d watched her. She was uncomplicated, if that’s a word you can use for artists. Comfortable in her skin was probably a better description. But under all that, I got the impression she was genuinely happy with me disrupting her space.
It showed in the way she would reach out. Something dark was in the back of her eyes. Fear or sadness. Someone had once hurt that beauty she created. I knew his name now. Despite never meeting him, I hated Edward Morrice Krupps. It was pretty much disgust when I found out he’d been the one who was driving the car when her daughter died. It turned into that deep kind of hate, because I saw the pain in Edie’s eyes. That pain would soften and disappear as she looked at me. It was magical, and I didn’t deserve that kind of magic. But I’d learned long ago to suck in all the good stuff because it was too rare to be careless with. Edie was just as careful with the good stuff.
Coming back to her house after wrapping up details at the club? Not in question. I would do this until I wasn’t welcome.
Edie could totally rock the high platform shoes she made for my girls. I was greeted at the door by Edie in a lacy black wrap and six-inch stilettos with chainmail heel guards and silver toe guards. She didn’t have to walk back to her bedroom because I carried her. The shoes stayed on. The wrap, didn’t last five seconds.
In the aftermath, she whispered into the dark. And, yeah, I heard those three little words topped with my name. If I had those words in me, I’d have whispered them back. Despite wanting to be there, despite my contentment, and despite my willingness to say them, those words were blocked. Because of that, I pretended I hadn’t heard her. She didn’t double down on them when I tried to get her to repeat them.
We were gearing up for round two about four a.m. when my phone rang. It was Walt.
Three words, “Gear up. Hospital.”
Four a.m. Walt said hospital, not our usual place. Hospital was serious shit. Hospital was life and death, and questions and cops. Serious, serious shit.
I got my pants, dug into the bag I’d placed in Edie’s closet and took out a thermal. Over that went my vest.
My knife sheath went into its concealed spot at my waist. Another went around my wrist. Over it all went my jacket, concealing the lumps. My gun was safely locked away at the compound so I wouldn’t be caught with it. I felt its absence.
“Baby?”
“Trouble.”
“Who? or what?”
“Don’t know. Walt said hospital though.” I looked at her. The words were sinking in.
“You shouldn’t take … I mean, you won’t need knives at the hospital.”
Thank you, Captain Obvious. I stared at her. “Won’t be back for a bit.”
She blinked.
My phone rang again. It was TomTom. My heart went into overdrive. TomTom was off tonight. “Is Vega okay?” I said, instead of a hello.
“She’s fine.” There was a pause. “Mary.”
Fuck. Walt. “How bad?”
The pause almost went too long. “She’s in surgery.”
Ten years ago, I’d been stabbed in prison. I was mere months from getting out, so couldn’t retaliate. I had to endure the pain and the helplessness of being vulnerable because of having something to lose.
This felt worse. Instead of a knife and helplessness, it was a sledgehammer to my gut. I doubled over.
Edie was at my back, smoothing out the pain and stepping up. “Honey, phone. Get details, I’ll drive.”
My voice was hoarse as I got details from TomTom. She’d finished the shift. Gotten escorted out. Was in her car on the way to the compound to meet Walt, and had a flat tire. Her attacker may have followed her from the club, or maybe it was random. No one had those details yet.
What was known, was she was calling Walt when it happened. He was first on the scene, and had roused a recruit to call a tow truck which arrived about the same time. After getting Mary into an ambulance, he raised the troops.
The tow truck driver wasn’t our usual guy, and he’d called the cops.
The knives went back into my saddlebags, and into Edie’s truck. We both drove. I’d need my bike later, and she’d need a way home.
A recruit was at the emergency entrance. Edie and I walked up together. I’d filled her in as much as I could, and she insisted on sticking around. If not for Mary, for Vega, who was in the public waiting area with Walt and TomTom.
Walt looked at me, then Edie. “Good to have you here for Mary.” He said to her, then nudged his head and signaled me toward the door. “Outside.”
TomTom followed. The recruit stayed with the ladies.
Walt used the excuse of a smoke to walk away from the building. “Tow driver called it in.”
“So I heard.”
“Slows us down.” TomTom commented.
My mind started working. “Do you think it started at the club?”
Walt skewered me with his gaze. “I know it did.”
“How?”
His jaw got tight. “Cherri left the phone on. It will come out when they subpoena the voice mail.”
“We have a description or name yet?” I was moving into that glacial place where my reflexes thought faster than my brain. I needed to slow down, get details. Plan.
Walt shook his head. “Just what she said. ‘Did you follow me?’”
“She knows who it was.” TomTom said.
Walt nodded.
“I’ll get the tapes from security.” I turned to TomTom. “We cooperate fully. You take Vega and ghost when it makes sense. Don’t want your faces lingering in the cops’ heads.”
TomTom stepped closer. “I need to be in on this. For Vega.”
I stared at him for a moment. A plan was forming and reforming. “I’ve got a way for you to help.”
His face brightened. It reminded me of how young he was. Damn, maybe he wasn’t ready. I made a quick adjustment to the plan in my head.
“Walt, you give the cops your phone with the message. We do this by the book. Get more of the crew to stop in and out so they get used to people coming and going.”
He started to turn red, “They’ll tear her up in court.”
“It won’t go to court.” I looked at TomTom, and he nodded.
“TomTom, go back inside. Check on the women,” Walt said.
“I’m in this, though, right?” He looked to Walt, then me. I nodded at both of them. It was going to need a bit of thinking to work out all the details.
Walt turned to me, “Bad time for our enforcer to be on a fucking honeymoon.”
“I got it covered.”
They could catch their man. We could nail him down cold with the crime. He’d make bail, or go into holding. There’d be two opportunities to take him out. One inside, harder and worse for keeping distance from the club. The other way, Walt would hate, but we’d make it happen. I’d make it happen, the trick was keeping the club out of it. Therefore, we needed to be “in” it, right in the thick of it so the cops were watching every move, just not the right people.
Chapter 5: Black
Edie
Vega was crying. She’d broken down without TomTom to lean on. Luckily for me he came back quicker than Indy did. He sat a bit away from the few people in the waiting room and was trying to console her.
“I know it was him. He always creeped me out. Mary would dance for him, but I couldn’t.” V
ega’s voice hitched.
TomTom’s voice was low, but I overheard a snippet. “We will get him. You don’t worry. There’s no way that guy will see anything but dirt a month from now.”
There were more words, too low to hear. The recruit was sitting across from me, his eyes cut to mine. “How long have you known Indy?”
“I’ve known about him for about three years. We didn’t meet until last week.” Technically. Saturday was last week.
He was quiet for a moment. “You seem close, not the typical flavor of the week.”
My skin grew hot. He’d warned me he was not a man for commitment. However, we’d walked in, holding hands. When he stepped outside to talk with Walt and TomTom, he kissed me. It seemed natural at home, but public affection was all new for me in more ways than one. But flavor of the week, I had never been.
Vega chimed in, “Indy took the fall for once.”
The recruit shook his head. “I don’t believe it.”
“I saw them leave together Saturday night.” Vega added.
His eyes narrowed on me. “What’s his real name?”
“Nicholas Allen Jones.”
“Huh.” He leaned back in his seat. “He tell you that?”
“No, I looked at his driver’s license.” Monday morning we’d traded a lot of that information.
“No kidding? I mean, I knew his last name was Jones, because it’s on the club license, but...” Vega cut in.
TomTom snorted.
“What, I bet you didn’t know Indy’s name either!” She hit his arm as she spoke.
He said something that I couldn’t catch. TomTom was a quiet man, but he looked deadly. So did the recruit, but in a nuclear bomb sort of way. There was a lot more energy around him than TomTom. But I bet, in a fantasy world, TomTom could disappear easily and attack at will. The recruit would never blend in like that.
He didn’t lose his focus on me. “What’s his favorite color?”
“Black.”
It maybe wasn’t. But I never saw Indy in anything of color outside of blue jeans. His clothing was black or dark grey. He wore silver, and sometimes white gold. There were no gemstones in the rings, nor anything flashy, just quantity of precious metal.
“He any good in bed?” Vega asked.
I blushed just thinking about it. Thankfully, that got interrupted quickly.
TomTom got up and pulled Vega with him. “You did not just ask that. But thank Dog you don’t know.” Then he pinned me with a stare. “And you do not need to answer that.” A small smile passed over his face like a whisper then it was gone. “Let’s go find coffee. Anyone else want some?”
Hospital coffee. I shuddered and shook my head. The recruit declined too.
The room was very quiet with Vega absent. There was a lone staffer at the desk. An old woman slept in one of the chairs near the corner, a janitor had just departed through a set of double doors. Besides that, the place was empty.
“Less than a week.” He started.
“We met at the pit beef place. Fin and Betty Jo took me there.”
“How is Betty Jo? I haven’t seen her in a while.”
“Doing well. We’re working on inventory for this fall.” Talking about work made it easier to open up.
“Inventory? Leather?”
I shook my head. “The costumes, and Fin does work for me, too.”
“That medieval shit?”
“Yes, I design costumes for the fair, and armor. Also costumes for the girls at Fantasies.”
“Wait, you’re Krupps…that Edie? I fucked a stripper who had a pair of your shoes…” he stopped and turned bright red.
My shoes were legendary in the bedroom. I blushed too, now knowing first hand their magic.
“Huh.” He was now looking at me differently than he had before.
The quiet stretched out. My fingers itched for a sketch pad or something to do.
A man in medical clothing came out. He glanced around the room. The old woman was dismissed. He glanced at the pad in his hand. Then he approached us. “A man came in with Mary Bayne. Are you with ...”
I popped up, needing the excuse to avoid more conversation. “I’ll get Walt.”
“He’s the boyfriend?”
The recruit snorted. “I’ll get Walt. Boyfriend, my ass.” He didn’t waste time.
“Does she have any relatives here?”
“She doesn’t speak with her family.” I told the doctor.
He frowned. “She’s in recovery now, and asking to see Walt. We’ll transfer her upstairs soon. I’d like to limit the people in her room for tonight. Two, maximum.” His jaw flexed. “I’ll keep the police from her room for now. She needs to rest.”
There was a longer pause as he looked around the waiting room. “You may want to wait with her just in case.”
In case? “Of course.” I gathered up my coat. “Does Walt know where to go?”
“I’ll tell the desk, then you can follow me.”
I hovered as he gave instructions to the lone clerk. Then we weaved between the clusters of chairs, passed through a set of double doors, through a beige hallway, another set of doors, and another beige hallway. It seemed every hospital was a warren of beige, tile, and stainless steel. How anyone could get better in a labyrinth of man-made depression mystified me.
Then again, my own hospital experiences had been limited to Tinny’s birth, and the aftermath of her death. The latter was much more present in my mind. Her birth had been a blur of worry, loneliness, stress, some joy, and a lot of balancing between my parents, Eddie, his mother, and my own exhaustion. It was almost a relief to be home and alone with my little girl after all that. That contrasted sharply with the crushing loneliness of returning home from the hospital once more, that time completely alone.
I’d taken a cab after signing myself out. Eddie had taken my van to the funeral home to make arrangements.
The physician pointed to a regular hospital room.
I peeked in. Mary looked pale. There were bandages visible at her neckline. She also had one arm wrapped up from hand to elbow. Defensive wounds. Yes, I knew those. Nothing as terrible as a knife, just bruises, and one broken finger once. She was bruised in places that didn’t have bandages. The IV was in her other arm.
“Hi,” I said.
“Edie.” She smiled, so I smiled back. “What you doing here?” Her voice sounded groggy.
“Walt and TomTom called Indy.”
“Oh.” Her face fell. “Then you know.” She tried to pull the sheet higher over her neck. The IV made it very difficult for her. I got up and helped her get it almost to her chin. She turned away from me as soon as it got settled.
I felt horrible. “You are probably in a lot of pain, I can go get Walt or something if it is too much.” I made to leave.
“Edie, wait. It’s okay. I’d almost rather have you here than Walt right now.”
What do you say? “I don’t know much about things, except you got attacked. And you just got out of surgery which is horrible, but the fact that you’re awake, and can take visitors is a good thing.” That’s what Eddie’s mom had told me. I cringed remembering.
They sedated me because I was crying and screaming at the doctors. I also had gotten out of bed and got lost trying to find the morgue.
I curled into the chair near the bed. “I’m no good at this, you know.”
She smiled again. “You’re actually better than most. At least you’re honest. I would rather have that right now, than a whole lot of bullshit shoveled down my throat.”
“I thought it was nasty flavored Jell-O.”
She laughed, but winced.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have made you laugh.”
“I think Indy is already rubbing off on you.” Her voice was getting a little groggier and her eyes closed.
I reached over and held onto her good hand. “He’s a good man.”
Her eye cracked open. “Oh honey, if you only knew.”
There were footste
p noises coming down the hall.
“If that’s the cops, I haven’t woken up. Got it?”
She faked sleep. It was pretty good; her hand went lax and her breathing was even.
A uniformed officer poked his head in. “Is she awake?”
He didn’t bother to lower his voice. Jerk.
“She’s asleep.” My heart rate picked up. I tried very hard to act calm.
He stepped into the room and began to open his mouth again.
I shushed him. “Are you supposed to be in here?” My whisper was fierce. “The doctor wants her to rest.”
“I was just going to ask her some questions.” He had the decency to whisper that.
“You’re just going to wake her up, and upset her. That’s not nice.” It wasn’t. And I was getting angrier by the second. I’d been asked questions. Eddie had lied. He’d said I’d been driving. It was horrible, being caught between grief, and finding out my husband had said I’d killed my daughter. The hundred different ways they’d tried to catch me in a lie flashed back into my memories. I let go of Mary’s hand, and stood up. “Get out.”
I placed my body between hers on the bed and the cop’s.
He listened.
Once the footsteps retreated, I sat down in shock. Edie the mudhen had won.
“That was awesome.” Mary whispered at me.
“I think I’m in shock.”
She giggled. “Better you than me. On second thought, I’m in shock, officially.”
I nodded, commiserating with her. “Why didn’t you want to talk to him?”
“Edie, you don’t talk to cops.”
“But, you’ve done nothing wrong.” If anything, a whole lot of wrong had been done to her.
“You don’t talk to cops. Indy should have told you that already.”
He hadn’t. Was that because we wouldn’t be together long enough to learn that, or because he hadn’t gotten around to it, or because I didn’t need to know that?
The men were not quiet coming down the hall. There were now more than four in the group. Indy was right next to Walt outside the door.
“Easy and soft,” he warned Walt.
“I ain’t got easy or soft in me right now.” Walt growled.