Page 92 of Bourbon & Blood

“No refunds,” she added, just to cover her bases.

I held out my hand and her eyes dropped to it.

She took it and gave me one hell of a hearty handshake.

“We have an accord,” I said.

She nodded and turned around to a little metal cabinet mounted to the wall. She pulled down a little ring with two keys on it, leaving a second behind in the box and handed them to me.

“Have her stuff squared away tonight,” I said, and she nodded.

“Won’t be here, after hours an’ all,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said with respect.

By the time I got back on over to Alina and Maya’s place, I found Hex’s truck parked at the curb and spotted Saint, Bennie, and Louie’s bikes backed against it a little further up. I found a spot for my bike and strode down the sidewalk.

I buzzed Alina’s apartment, and somebody buzzed me in.

I took two of the stairs at a time and walked through her open door to sheer chaos – boxes and packing shit strewn all over the fucking place.

She looked up from some of her books that she was carefully packing away, face still red and blotchy, sniffling and tears staining her cheeks.

“Hey, cher,” I murmured, and she broke down crying all over again, reaching her arms up for me.

“Oh, hey now,” I said, and I went to her, pulled her into my arms, and dropped my big ass down onto the floor beside her. She cried it all out again and steady after the tempest of her tears, she looked up at me and said brokenly, “I don’t know where I’m supposed to go.”

“I got you, cher,” I told her. “I always got you,” I said, hugging her tight.

She sniffed and nodded and I sighed.

Wasn’t this just a big ol’ mess?

* * *

First thing first.We boxed up a bunch of Alina’s shit. That done, we took it on down to Hex’s truck once there was enough to fill it and let him and Louie take off and take it on over to her new/old place.

Hex made sure I gave him the keys. I was more focused on my girl than the details like that.

Dorian and what had to be his boyfriend Marcus showed up after a while and they’d gone to my little Alina. All three cried in a huddle while the rest of us kept on hauling shit out.

“What can we do?” Dorian had asked me, and I’d swept an arm out.

“Help us get her the fuck up outta here,” I’d said and the two gay boys pitched right on in.

More of the Voodoo boys showed up, an’ finally Axe with the van. Between the van an’ Hex’s truck, we started takin’ down some of the big shit – her bed and dresser, her bookcases which she tried to stop us on that. I’d just stared at her a minute and she’d sat back on her heels and nodded.

“Those are Maya’s” dying on her lips almost as soon as she’d spoke it. My silent,Maya don’t need ‘em no more,going unspoken.

“You take what you need of hers, baby,” Hex said. “We’ll make sure ain’t no one come after you on it.”

She took all the photos, and certain other things, but left Maya’s room intact for the most part and didn’t touch her friend’s jewelry or nothin’.

I thought about her great-grandmamma’s ring around my neck and vowed to get it fixed soon. I went and found a necklace out of her friend’s box and stowed it away in my cut for later – a day when I knew she might regret not having more of her friend. Why? I knew my little Alina was honest, and a good girl, and despite those facts, I knew she had just enough of the dark in her that she would regret not snaggingsomethingof her friend’s.

I knew, because I’d seen it in her eyes when she’d begged me to kill every motherfucker that had a hand in her friend’s death.

The darkness, the anguish, the pain in her heart, and the desire to inflict that pain back on someone tenfold. I knew what that felt like and it chapped my fucking ass like nothing else that she was feeling it now.

---