“So where is this chatter coming from?” Joker asks.
Big Dick chews at his bacon and downs half a glass of OJ. “One of Paro’s girls snitched him out to me the other night. She says the girls in the house aren’t happy about losing the club’s protection. They think Paro and his buddies are fucking idiots.”
“When hookers think a guy is out of his league,” Joker says, smiling still, “what can any of us really add?”
“Needs to be dealt with,” Happy mutters.
Joker glances at Trigger then shakes his head. “Naw, we’ll let them play a little longer. See who else wants to join their mutiny before we stomp ‘em.”
Trigger nods at this comment. We finish our meals without talk of payback or territory disputes. My mind remains on it though. If things get bloody, Little Memphis will be dangerous for even normal folks like Shay.
17
Shay
Little Memphis Blues
Darby’s house has three bathrooms. Normally, I use the upstairs one with a tiled shower. It’s a cool bathroom with Darby’s usual eclectic style. Downstairs, there’s a tiny bathroom for guests along with her master bath. To my surprise, Darby offers for me to soak in her clawfoot tub.
A hot bubble bath later, I’m wearing my sweats and drinking coffee with Darby in the living room.
“I teased Joker in the beginning,” she says, flipping through the newspaper. “By the time I gave in, he was like a sex starved maniac and I couldn’t sit comfortably for days.”
Grinning, I sip my coffee. “Ford wasn’t what I expected.”
“How?”
“Nicer, I guess.”
“Ford can be nice. He is with his brother. I remember when I was pregnant with MJ that Joker had Ford come visit because shitheads in the neighborhood were hassling everyone on our block. Anyway, Ford comes by and looks all scary on the porch, swinging his bat. Hell, he took a shot at a squirrel just to let everyone know he was packing heat. I wanted him to stick around until Joker got home, but he said Pax had the flu and he wanted to pick him up soup and meds. It wasn’t just that he said it, but how he said it. Sweet like a kid worried about his little brother. Before that day, I’d never realized Ford had feelings.”
When I frown, Darby laughs. “It sounds bitchy, but some of the guys in the club and the people who work for them are straight off sociopaths. Never forget that, Shay. You didn’t grow up in this world and neither did I. One of the guys in the club is pure fucking evil. He’s also a really charming guy, but I know never to be alone with him. He can be normal one minute and insanely violent the next. Joker never turns his back on the bastard.”
“Who?” I ask.
“They call him Zombie. I doubt he’ll mess with you because of Lucky and Ford. Just don’t go anywhere alone with him. Remember he’s not like a normal asshole. Something switches on in his head and turns him into a rabid animal. If he wasn’t Trigger’s nephew, they’d have put him down by now.”
I shudder at how I’m surrounded by crime I only heard whispers about in Hawthorne. The morning glow of waking up safe with Ford fades, leaving me to accept how I’m out of my league.
“Don’t frown so much,” Darby says, folding her newspaper and setting it aside. “It’s bad for your skin.”
“I grew up poor and I worked in a strip club, but I’m not a tough person. I smoked pot once and spent the next twelve hours thinking the cops were going to put me in jail. I tried shoplifting a few times, but was so scared to get caught that I only took an ice cream bar. I’m not equipped to deal with guys like Ford.”
Darby grins. “I was in the choir all through high school. My parents didn’t let me date until I graduated. I was as protected as a kid can be in the city. Yet I adjusted to the life because I take what I want. My parents shielded me from a lot of stuff growing up, but they also helped me be confident. Not all the girls in my choir group could say the same about their strict parents, but mine rocked.”
Wishing I felt safe like I did with Ford, I sigh. “My mom was a teenager when she had me. She didn’t know what the hell she was doing. Her parents raised me for a while until they got sick. The only real thing they ever told me was not to turn out like my mom. I made it to twenty without getting pregnant, so I guess I lived up to their high expectations.”
Darby stands up and looks out the curtains. “Little Memphis is like most places. There’s good and bad. Certain areas of town are more dangerous than others. You got lucky though, already knowing the right people.”
I stare at her, wanting to share certain things. I don’t know exactly what though. I’m homesick and afraid of the reality of my new life in Little Memphis. I guess I want her to play mom with me and fix my fears.