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  “I haven’t seen your Dad,” Bear said by way of greeting.

  Not good.

  “Bear…” I started but then the door opened and Lavonne appeared.

  Lavonne dyed her bobbed hair an ultra-fake-looking black. Her roots were steel-gray, she was two inches shorter than me and at least thirty pounds lighter, if not more. She was petite, wiry and had a two pack a day smoker’s voice.

  “What’s goin’ on out here? Jet! Ohmigod! Look at your hair. It looks great!”

  She rushed forward, always a bundle of energy, and gave me a tight hug.

  “It’s been too long,” she said and then her pleasure at seeing me started to dissolve as she looked around, took in Indy, Ally and especially Tex. Everyone stared at Tex. Tex was a sight to see.

  Then her gaze settled on Bear.

  “What’s goin’ on?” she asked again, reading the situation like only a mother, or the wife of Bear, would.

  “Nothin’,” Bear said.

  “I’m lookin’ for Dad,” I said at the same time.

  Lavonne looked at me.

  “Your Dad was here just this morning. Hasn’t he been to see you?”

  I looked at Indy. Indy looked at Ally. Ally looked at Tex. Tex looked at me.

  “What’s goin’ on?” Lavonne asked for the third time.

  “Can we come inside?” I said.

  Lavonne’s mouth tightened, she turned and we all followed her inside.

  The inside of Lavonne and Bear’s house could not have been more different from the outside. Lavonne had strict rules about what was a woman’s domain and what was a man’s. The man tended the yard, garbage and car. The woman tended the house, food and laundry.

  Lavonne’s living room was neat and tidy and overly decorated in hearts. There were bent twig hearts on the walls tucked with dried flowers, heart wreaths, little painted-wooden hearts, heart toss pillows on the couch, heart frames filled with pictures of her kids.

  I did a round of introductions, Bear sat on the sofa, Indy and Ally took armchairs and I stayed standing. Tex positioned himself close to me, like a guard. Lavonne stood by Bear and lit a cigarette.

  Everyone listened to my latest tale of woe.

  Then Lavonne’s hand streaked out and she flicked Bear upside the head using her middle finger propelled by her thumb.

  “Yo woman!” Bear yelled, arching away from her.

  Lavonne turned to me and said, “Ray’s been stayin’ here the last two nights. I didn’t know any of this was goin’ on.”

  Lavonne’s tone said Lavonne was pretty unhappy.

  Then Lavonne’s hand came out and she flicked Bear again.

  “I said yo!” Bear shouted.

  She had one hand on her hip, the other one holding the cigarette aloft and the glare she directed toward Bear was evil.

  “What’s this all about, Bear? And I’m warnin’ you, you spill or this time I ain’t leavin’. This time, I’m packin’ your bags.”

  This was clearly not an idle threat because, without any delay, Bear started talking.

  “Gambling.” Bear looked up at me, “Your Dad’s been gambling. Got himself in a financial situation, so he went to Slick, who’s a loan shark.”

  I sank down on the arm of one of the armchairs, next to Ally, hopping to get my heart started again.

  “He had a windfall a couple days ago, bought himself into another game to make back the money he owes Slick. Instead, he lost and now he owes Marcus.”

  Tex, Ally and Indy looked at each other.

  I didn’t know what their look meant but I’d worry about that later. I already had too much to worry about.

  The windfall Dad had was my hard-earned five hundred bucks.

  I felt like crying.

  “How much does he owe this Marcus?” I asked.

  “Fifteen grand.”

  Ally’s hand came out and grabbed mine.

  Fifteen grand? How did five hundred pocket money become a debt of fifteen grand? That was forty-five thousand dollars in total. Even if I started stripping, sold everything I owned and sold my plasma every month for a year, I couldn’t come up with forty-five thousand dollars.

  Lavonne flicked Bear again.

  “Why didn’t you tell her this yesterday? And where’s Ray now?” she snapped.

  “Ray asked me to keep it quiet and he’s out tryin’ to fix it.” Bear’s eyes swung to me, “I swear, Jet, he’s tryin’ to fix it.”

  I stood up and shouted.

  “How? Gambling? Stealing? He’s sure as hell not going to get a job waiting tables at Bennigan’s and make that kind of cabbage!”

  Bear stood up too.

  “He’s tryin’ to do right!”

  Lavonne reached high and flicked him.

  “Don’t yell at Jet,” she snapped.

  Everyone looked at Bear and Bear’s face got red, then he exploded.

  “Why is everyone mad at me? I didn’t get forty-five K in the hole playin’ poker. It ain’t my fault.” Then he decided the smart way forward was to deflect attention from himself, “Anyway, Jet’s workin’ at a titty bar.”

  Damn.

  Everyone held their breath as Lavonne’s wide, angry eyes turned to me.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Lavonne—” I started but she interrupted me.

  “You’re workin’ at a titty bar?”

  Wonderful.

  “I’m not dancing, just waiting tables,” I assured her.

  Lavonne didn’t feel assured.

  “A titty bar’s a titty bar. You’re not the type of girl who works at a titty bar. I know your mama didn’t raise you like that,” she retorted.

  I pulled my back up.

  Firstly, there was nothing wrong with working at a titty bar. It was good, honest work and good, honest people worked there (okay, maybe Richie, one of the bouncers, was a bit of a jerk). Secondly, on her dresser, Mom had a framed picture of Lottie sprawled across the top of a Corvette with her naked boobs pressed against the hood and her ass in a glorified thong pointed skyward. Mom totally raised us like that.

  “There’s nothing wrong with working at a titty bar,” I said.

  Lavonne deftly sidestepped my defense of titty bars.

  “Your mother know about this?” Lavonne asked.

  I nodded.

  “What’s she say?”

  I hesitated, sighed and sat back down on the armchair. Then I gave Lavonne the rest of the story.

  When I was done, she walked to a little desk in the corner (which had hearts carved into it) and took out a piece of paper and handed it to me. Then she went back to the desk, popped her smoke between her lips and spoke with the cigarette bobbing precariously.

  “You write down your address and phone number on that sheet. Girl, I cannot believe you did not tell me Nancy had a stroke eight months ago. What must Nancy think, none of her friends poppin’ ‘round?” She was digging through her desk and grabbed something and started writing. “Always took too much on yourself, even as a little kid. Never sharin’ the burden. Lettin’ people get away with murder. That father of yours takin’ advantage, Lottie off enjoyin’ herself without a care in the fuckin’ world while you mopped the kitchen floor. You’re fuckin’ Cinderella, is what you are.” She ripped a check out of a checkbook and handed it to me, taking the cigarette from her mouth and letting out an enormous plume of smoke, “‘Cept Cinderella didn’t have a choice, you do.”

  I took the check and looked at it. It was for five hundred dollars.

  “Lavonne! I can’t take this!”

  Lavonne smashed the cigarette out in a heart-shaped ashtray and crossed her arms on her flat chest.

  “You can, you will, you’ll cash it and you’ll use it.”

  I stared at the check, then I stared at her.

  “I know you don’t have this kind of money.”

  “Yes I do. It’s my Christmas Club. Been savin’ up all year to buy this moron a flat screen TV. After today, he ain’t gettin’ no flat screen TV.�
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  Bear collapsed on the sofa and put his hand to his forehead.

  Lavonne nodded to me, “Merry Christmas.”

  I tried to hand the check back to her.

  “Really, I can’t.”

  “Your mama know Ray’s in town and all that’s happenin’ to you?” She asked.

  Uh-oh.

  I shook my head slowly.

  “She’ll go on not knowin’ if I see that check’s been cashed.”

  Wow. Lavonne was good.

  “I don’t know what to say,” I told her.

  Her face softened the tiniest bit and her lips turned up. “Say thank you and keep yourself safe. If we see or hear from Ray, we’ll call you.”

  “You too?” Tex boomed and everyone jumped. Surprisingly, I’d forgotten he was in the room. He was looking at Bear, his brows were knit and his eyes were narrowed.

  “What?” Bear said.

  “You see her Dad or hear from him, you call her. Yeah?”

  Bear waved his hand, still coping with the loss of his flat screen TV.

  “Yeah,” he said.

  I wrote down my address and phone number and gave it to Lavonne and she walked us to the door.

  “I’ll pop by and see Nancy, soon as I can,” Lavonne told me.

  I turned and smiled at her. “She’ll like that.”

  Lavonne and I hugged, everyone said good-bye and we got in the Mustang.

  “I think I want to be her when I grow up,” Ally said. “Except, without the good-for-nothin’ husband.”

  I smiled at Ally and my cell phone rang. I pulled it out of my purse and looked at the display.

  It said, “Unknown number”. I flipped it open anyway, hoping it was Dad.

  Before I could say a word, I heard, “Where are you right now?”

  This was said by Eddie, or, I should say, a not very happy Eddie.

  I panicked and to buy time, I said, “Um.” But I drew it out as long as I could.

  Indy was sitting next to me in the backseat, passenger side. There came a knock on her window and everyone jumped.

  My head swiveled around and so did everyone else’s. Through the window, I saw a pair of narrow hips wearing jeans. My heart stopped, thinking it was Eddie, then Lee leaned over, looked through the window and crooked a finger at Indy.

  Lee looked about as happy as Eddie sounded on the phone.

  Damn.

  Damn, damn, damn.

  “Holy shit,” Indy whispered.

  She was right. It was a holy shit moment. Not to mention, obviously Lee saw us and called Eddie. This was not good. At least, it appeared not good for Indy.

  Well, the good news (for me) was, Eddie was on the phone instead of with Lee.

  Then there came a knock at my window.

  Everyone’s head swung around and, through my window, I saw a pair of narrow hips wearing jeans and a familiar silver belt buckle.

  “Get out of the car, Jet,” Eddie said into my ear and then there was a disconnect.

  My heart stopped. Unfortunately, I’m afraid, “holy shit” didn’t cover it.

  Chapter Nine

  For Me, If It Can Get Worse, It Will

  “How’s it hangin’ boys?” Tex asked when he swung out of the car.

  Ally got out too and left the driver’s side open. Her seat was pulled forward, a man’s hand came in and grabbed mine and I was “helped” out of the car.

  I no sooner got my sandals on the sidewalk when I was tugged forward by a fast walking, pissed off Eddie Chavez.

  I passed a good looking black guy, lean, tall, with twists in his hair, looking at me with a grin on his face that went from ear to ear. I didn’t get time to say hello as Eddie kept pulling me along.

  I looked over my shoulder. I don’t know why, maybe to shout “help”, and I saw that Lee was pulling Indy in the opposite direction.

  Wonderful. Now I’d got Indy in trouble.

  Eddie stopped a couple houses down, turned and pulled me around so his back was to everyone and he was in my way.

  “What are you doing here?” we asked in unison.

  Eddie took a step closer, eyes glittering.

  “Me first,” he said, looking down on me.

  “I was visiting some friends,” I answered and it wasn’t entirely a lie.

  Eddie’s eyes narrowed.

  “So, this doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that your Dad’s been spending the night here?” Eddie asked.

  Dear Lord, how did he know that?

  I decided not to ask and not to answer. Instead I thought maybe I should try being vague; I hadn’t tried that tactic before.

  “Um…” I mumbled.

  I saw his jaw clench and I was pretty sure he was about to yell.

  Count vague out.

  “It’s my Dad, Eddie,” I said quietly.

  Then (I swear I couldn’t help it), tears filled my eyes.

  Maybe I could have controlled myself, but Eddie’s hand wrapped around the back of my head and he pulled my face into his chest.

  He smelled good, he felt hard and strong and, being held against his chest like that, I could pretend he was the only thing in the world. I felt safe, maybe for the first time in my life, definitely for the first time since I was fourteen. So, I grabbed onto the material of his t-shirt at his sides and let the tears flow.

  “I take it you know about Marcus and the extra fifteen K?” Eddie asked.

  I didn’t know how he knew about that either but I was crying so hard, I didn’t have the voice to ask so I nodded my head.

  He said something in Spanish and his other arm wrapped around me, but he kept his hand in my hair, my head held to his chest.

  When I got myself somewhat together, I said, “My life sucks.”

  His arm around me tightened.

  “I have to agree with that, Chiquita,” he murmured.

  “I… I… don’t think I can fix this, Eddie,” I stammered against his chest, admitting out loud what I’d been thinking for days, burrowing closer and wrapping my arms around him. “I keep trying to think of a way out, but I can’t.”

  “Let me handle it,” Eddie said.

  My head came back and I looked up at him.

  “How’re you gonna do that?”

  Then I looked around me and realized he hadn’t answered my previous question so I pulled back a bit and Eddie’s hand fell from my hair to wrap around my back.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  “I was lookin’ for Ray.”

  Not good.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “A variety of reasons,” he answered.

  Now Eddie was being vague.

  “Those would be?”

  He lifted his hand and placed it on my cheek, his thumb wiping my tears away. Then he ran his knuckles down my other cheek on the same errand. He watched his hand work and then his eyes came to mine.

  “There’s this girl, see, I wanna get to know her, not to mention do other things with her. Until this mess is sorted out, gettin’ what I want is more of a challenge than I normally like. So, I’m gonna sort it out.”

  I felt a thrill race through my belly.

  “But, don’t you have a job?”

  “They let me go my own way.”

  The Denver Police Department didn’t let Eddie go his own way. Indy told me that Eddie just went his own way and then put up with the consequences.

  “Let me do this for you, Chiquita.” His voice was soft.

  “It’s a family problem, I can’t ask you…” I stopped as it hit me, “What’s Lee doing here?”

  We both looked over Eddie’s shoulder. Lee and Indy were two houses down on the other side of Bear and Lavonne’s, both with hands on their hips and it didn’t look like a loving conversation.

  Eddie looked back at me.

  “Lee’s workin’ a connected job for some clients. I pulled him in the Ray search.”

  My eyes bugged out. “I can’t afford Lee!”

  “You don�
��t have to afford Lee. He’s mi hermano and Indy’s your friend and his woman, this is a freebie.”

  “I can’t…”

  “Would you stop saying ‘I can’t’?” he said.

  “Well, I can’t,” I pointed out.

  “You can, Jet. These are your friends. Do you think they’re out here for thrills?”

  I looked back over Eddie’s shoulder and took in Ally and Tex. Ally and the black guy were leaning on the Mustang and talking. Tex was obviously impatient and scowling back and forth between Indy and Lee and Eddie and me like he was watching an annoying tennis match.

  My heart clenched and I got that strange pleasant feeling, like the one that kept coming at me during my Eddie Date.

  “I think they’re partially out here for thrills,” I tried to cover up how moved I was by this show of support.

  When I looked at Eddie again I saw the dimple was out.

  “I expect you’d be right about that.”

  I decided to change the subject. “Who’s the black guy?”

  “Mi otro hermano. Darius. We all grew up together.”

  “He doesn’t come into Fortnum’s. Is he a cop too?”

  Everyone in Eddie, Lee and Indy’s circle were cops, private investigators or crazy people. Darius didn’t look crazy so I took a wild guess.

  “Drug dealer,” Eddie said like he would say “shoe salesman”.

  I stared at him.

  “Really?” I breathed.

  He nodded.

  “Why don’t you bust him?” I asked.

  The dimple was back, this time with a full-fledged smile.

  “I don’t bust him because he’s my brother.” Eddie’s arms tightened around me and his head dipped down, “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you sometime when we’re not yellin’ at each other, sleepin’ or fending off our nutcase families.”

  My belly curled.

  “Okay,” was all I could think to say.

  He watched me for a beat. “Can I trust you not to go after your Dad?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  “Does that nod mean I can trust you or you’d rather not lie out loud?”

  I couldn’t help it, he figured me out, so I smiled at him.

  His eyes warmed.

  “I could fall in love with that smile,” he murmured as if he was talking to himself and I wasn’t even there.