Page 56 of Butcher

“Dammit Toxic,” Butcher muttered. “I could’ve fucking shot her.”

“I didn’t know she could get lost in such a small fucking room, let alone find her wayoutof my room and into, well…yours,” he complained, as he moved past us to help the woman up. He sniffed the air. “Glad she found your closet instead of mine.”

“Keep your fucking strippers contained to your room,” Butcher snapped. “And you’re buying me new of whatever she pissed on.”

“I have a rubber mat in my closet, I’m surprised you don’t have one.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Drunk women,” he replied as if that answered my questioning look.

“I don’t let mine stay the night,” Butcher said matter of factly, then recognition dawned and he turned to me. “I mean, I have no need for something like that, because…”

“Quit while drowning, Big Guy,” Toxic told him with a pat on his shoulder.

I should have scolded Butcher but I just had to ask, “Toxic, does this happen often enough that you really need a pee mat in your closet?”

He was trying to pick the girl up. She went from sobbing and peeing to unconscious limp jelly fish in just a couple of seconds. He juggled her body, trying, and failing, to get her off the ground without getting any pee on himself. Her head lolled back as he shifted her until he was holding her comfortably in his arms. “Oh yeah, you’d be amazed. One in three is a closet pisser,” he told me. He didn’t seem at all fazed about what was happening.

“Seriously?” I asked, so stunned, and slightly disgusted, at thewhole thing that I just about forgot that I nearly stabbed an innocent woman in the closet.

His smile was borderline evil as he tried to reposition the woman. “You thinkwe’rea bad, rowdy bunch, but drunk women, heh, y’all can’t handle your liquor.”

There was something else there in his eyes. He was hiding something. “One in three? There’s like six other women living here.”

He had the woman up off the ground again, non pee side in his arms. He winked at me. “That’s right.”

“That would mean…”

Now his smile was infectious. “I’m not the only one with a rubber mat in his closet.”

“Enough!” Butcher bellowed. “Get her the fuck out of here. And make sure that tomorrow my closet doesn’t smell like piss.” Butcher looked over at me and caught the expression on my face. “He’s kidding,” he told me, then paused, “I hope.”

“At least go grab my door for me,” Toxic complained.

“Why’d you shut it?”

“With the hellions on the loose?” Toxic asked as if that was a dumb question. “They’d rob me blind.”

“Like they can’t work a door handle,” Butcher muttered as he stalked after Toxic.

“Watch her head-” I winced as Toxic cracked the woman’s head against the doorframe. “Never mind.” She was going to have a hell of a headache tomorrow, among other problems.

Shaking my head, I scrunched my nose as I went back and sat on the bed. I was just glad I didn’t sleep in the nude. That would’ve been a hell of a situation if I’d just had to have that conversation while naked.

Murder crawled into my lap, laying her head on my thigh as we waited for Butcher to come back. Enough time passed that I was just about to get up to go find him when he and Priest came through the door.

“Damn. That stinks,” Priest muttered.

“That’s why we need a new room for the night,” Butcher told him. “Any available?”

“Of course. There’s an apartment next door that’s empty. You can take that one. Sheets, blankets, and pillows are in the closets, you just have to make the bed. Jenny goes through every couple of weeks and washes everything to make sure it’s all clean and ready to go for anyone who needs it.”

“Remind me to thank her,” Butcher told him. “I can sleep on the floor if necessary, but I’d rather not make Isla do that.”

Priest laughed, shaking his head in bemusement.

“What?” I asked, curious why he looked so perplexed.

“Just never thought I’d see the day when Butcher would care about a woman’s comfort. At least not one he was keeping. Really never thought I’d see him claim one,” Priest replied.

---