“I see that, honey,” I murmured to her as I got closer and closer to Mitch.
She kept tugging at me. “Isn’t it great that he’s here so he can see my outfit?” she asked.
“It’s awesome,” I muttered as we stopped in front of Mitch.
“I know,” she breathed.
“Mara,” Mitch greeted and his face was closed, no warmth, no smile, nothing.
Yep he’d figured it out. Ten Point Fives didn’t give Two Point Fives warmth. Disdain, often. Shared breathing space, yes, but only because everyone needed oxygen. Warmth, no.
That knife that I hadn’t had time to pull out of my heart twisted.
“Mitch,” I replied.
“You got a place we can talk privately?” he asked.
I stared up at him wondering what this was all about. Then I decided my best bet was to find out and get him on his way as fast as I could. So I nodded.
“Break room,” I answered and bent to Billie. “Do me a favor, baby, and go sit with your brother.” She nodded up at me and I added, “And no jumping on beds or racing through the showroom. Just sit quiet with Billy until I come back. Can you do that for me?”
“Sure, Auntie Mara,” Billie chirped, grinned at Mitch then skipped toward Billy who was still staring at Mitch with his hard face. Billie climbed up on the bed then landed full body on her brother.
She was so totally not going to do that favor for me.
I looked back at Mitch to see his eyes were on Billy. “If you’d like to follow me,” I invited and he tore his gaze from Billy to nod at me.
I led the way to the door of the back hall, punched in the code, opened it, moved through the back hall with Mitch following me and then I turned us into the break room.
I flipped on the light and Mitch closed us in.
I sucked in breath when my eyes hit his no longer soulful, now expressionless, still beautiful ones.
Fast. I needed to do this fast.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“We got a problem.”
Oh boy.
He kept talking before I even had time to brace.
“Remember I said that if your cousin was all the kinds of messes you know then he was probably all the kinds of messes I know?”
This wasn’t starting out so great.
“Yeah,” I replied hesitantly.
“Well it’s confirmed. He’s all the kinds of messes I know.”
I felt my body grow solid, my eyes locked on his and I whispered, “Oh shit.”
“That about covers it,” Mitch agreed.
“Tell me.” I was still whispering.
“Bill’s had a bad coupla days. He’s detoxing and it hasn’t been pretty mostly because he’s hooked on smack and he’s hooked on speed and he’s a drunk and there’s likely other shit he’s hooked on. He’s a user and he’s a dealer. He’s real good at the first, sucks at the last. Not popular with the suppliers in Denver mostly because he’s fucked half of them over and the other half he owes money. He also owes money to a variety of other people, none of them people you wanna owe shit. He’s recently devolved to selling information which makes him even less popular and he was already pretty fuckin’ unpopular. And if that wasn’t enough, when they went through his house they found a shitload of H and E, enough that he’s been charged with intent to distribute. And proving he’s not just an assclown but a serious fuckin’ assclown, they also found stolen property that we reckon he either stole himself, he stole from someone else who stole it or he was gonna fence it for somebody.”
“This doesn’t sound good.” Still I was whispering but now it was because I was more than a little scared for my cousin.
“It isn’t,” Mitch confirmed. “The good news is, you got the kids out in time and we got to him in time.” He hesitated, studied me a moment and then continued, “But you should know, Mara, once he detoxes and goes to lockup, he’s got so many enemies, it isn’t likely he’ll be real safe there. That said, we know this and he’ll be placed in protective custody so at least he’s safer there than he was out on the street. And Billy and Billie are a fuckuva lot safer with you than they were with him because there was a good chance they’d be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their home was the wrong place to be and, until you intervened, they had no way to avoid it.”
“Great,” I muttered, looked away and bit my lip.
“Look on the bright side, Mara,” Mitch’s voice came at me, “right now everyone is safe.”
I nodded, trying to find the bright side. “Okay.”
“Got more to tell you.”
I looked up at him and scrunched my nose not wanting to hear more but I still repeated, “Okay.”