Page 21 of Dark Alleys

My cousin had bought an old, abandoned school and renovated it and turned it into a really nice place. Everything smelled new and the whole place was shiny clean and high end.

I watched Cindy for a few minutes from the doorway and she was smiling and she seemed to be fitting in with the other girls.

When she turned her head and saw me, she jumped up and came running over with Flint in her arms. “Did you bring me a phone, Lukas?”

“Yep. I put my number in there so you could text me. You doing okay?”

“Yes. Me and Flint are doing real good. Everybody is nice to me, and the other girls are nice too. They give you food here. Like breakfast, lunch and supper. All you have to do is help out with the food prep and the clean-up. It’s easy and I’m kind of learning how to cook. I found out that the other girls are as scared as me.”

“It ain’t right that any of y’all have to be scared. Text me when you need to. I’ll be around and when Neil comes back to Austin I’ll talk to him about getting you a more permanent place.”

“Thank you so much for everything, Lukas. You saved my life and Flint’s too.”

I winked at her and got going to my next stop.

Dragons’ Clubhouse. Downtown Austin.

Nice and polite, I knocked on the door of the Dragons’ shitty clubhouse. A few months before, Blacky had a hard on for the Dragons and decided to knock them down a few tiers. He arrested dozens of them and burned the old clubhouse down.

A definite setback.

This dump they were using in the worst part of the downtown core is where they moved to. An abandoned garage facing an alley lined with reeking dumpsters.

A definite step in the wrong direction.

After fighting my way past a bunch of starving feral dogs, I banged on the plywood door and a kid about fifteen opened it a crack. Joint in his mouth and a gun stuffed into his waistband.

“What do you want, cop?”

“Need to talk to Paco.”

“Ain’t here. He don’t talk to cops anyway. Spits on them and he’ll do the same to you.”

“Like to see him try that with me.”

“Paco will kill your ass. You one of them Donovans he’s always talking about? Hates the works of y’all.”

“Good to know.” I shrugged it off. “I’m not too fond of him either.”

“Don’t give a shit.”

“Who’s here with you? Diaz or Perez?”

“Sarge is here.” He tilted his head a little.

The kid didn’t open the door any wider to let me in, so I gave it a quick, hard shove that surprised the hell out of him. The door knocked the kid on his ass.

He reached for the gun stuck in his ripped jeans and I had my blade at his throat before he took his next gulp of oxygen.

“Bad idea, kid. Get up and show me where Carlos is.” I jerked the Glock out of his hand and shoved it in my own waistband.

“Gimme that. It’s mine.”

“Shut up.” I gave him a shove and propelled him forward into the main room.

“Carlos, you got company. One of them Donovan asshole cops.”

“Thanks for the introduction, kid. I won’t forget you next time I come to kill me a bunch of Dragons.”

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