“She’s…” Tater rubbed a rough hand over his head, fingers tangling in his hair. “It’s bad, Bones.”
Striding down the hallway to where the few residential apartments were, he stopped in front of the only one with a closed door. Arching an eyebrow in a silent question, he got a nod from Tater. Hand to the knob, he turned it and pushed, keeping his feet outside the room until he could get a look at what had Tater so spooked. It wasn’t hard to see, because Tawny lay on the floor next to the bed. Even without the fresh track marks trailing up her arm, the visibly gray tint to her skin told the gruesome tale. The rancid stench of vomit tainted the air, and Bones looked around to see her kit on the floor next to the dresser. There was a box half pushed underneath, and he suspected when examined, they would find whatever stash she had left tucked inside.
“Fuck.” Bones stared at her, remembering all the times he’d seen her around the clubhouse. Years of her life spent here, surrounded by men who liked her, but didn’t love her. She’d looked for it, too. But she’d also looked for friends. He remembered Gypsy’s story about her using him as a haven, and that wasn’t the only member who had protected her in that way, giving her a safe place to lay her head until Bones had ordered a dedicated room be made available to her. A space in their house that was solely hers. She’s earned it—that’s what he’d told Red at the time, and the man knew Bones wasn’t talking about working on her back. She’d earned it through her loyalty and support of the club.
He swallowed hard. “Did she have family?”
Myron’s voice sounded from a distance up the hallway. “Ester, hold on. No, honey.” Bones felt the rapid tattoo of Tiny’s stride through the soles of his boots, and knew his woman would be chasing his dog.
He wasn’t quick enough to derail Tiny’s fast entrance into the room; the dog ducked his hand and skidded past, slippery as an eel. Ester was right behind the dog, and Bones stopped her with an arm around her shoulders. “No, baby. This is not for you.” Tiny barked loudly, the sound echoing out of the room. Bones turned his head, expecting to see the dog barking at Tawny, but he was angled towards the closet instead, gaze focused on the closed door. “Myron, please.” Ester’s hands fell away from his waist where she’d been gripping his belt, and he turned, striding into the room.
He studied the dog for a moment, then pulled his gun from the hidden holster at his back. He glanced back to see Red and Tater crowding the door, but Ester was in front of them. She was staring at Tiny, not seeming to notice the body on the floor. “Get her out, please.” He turned back to the closet and jerked the door open, then froze in place.
Tiny didn’t suffer the same impediment, bounding forwards with high-pitched whines. Chest to the floor, his ass was lifted high, tail whipping back and forth. He had his nose running along a small pair of arms holding skinny knees against a slender chest. Head bowed, face buried, the only thing visible from the top was a mass of red-gold hair, curling into an untidy mess. Tiny poked again, his entire head disappearing under the wave of hair, and then Bones heard the giggle. Soft and quiet, but somehow so bright it lit up the entire room.
“Oh.” Ester pushed past him, carelessly shoving his weapon to the side as she fell to her knees. “Tiny, what did you find me today?”
Bones stared at her for a moment, then tucked the unneeded gun back into its holster. The child, because surely it was one, had hair the exact shade as the dead woman. Fuck.
Ester cooed, “Tiny, you’re such a good finder.” More giggles, then the head covered in tawny hair lifted, and he saw the most beautiful pair of blue-gray eyes he’d ever seen staring up at him. They held his gaze for a moment, then turned their attention to Ester sitting on the floor with her legs crisscrossed. “There you are.” A yip from Tiny, who was now lying on his side across the little girl’s feet. “That’s Tiny. He’s a doof today. I’m Ester.” A pause, then Ester asked, “Do you have a name?” The child shook her head, gaze darting back and forth from Ester to Tiny. “That’s okay. Some names take longer to find. Those are the big ones.”
The big dog rolled to his back, wrestling with what might have been a white cotton ball, if Bones hadn’t seen the button black eyes and nose, lip lifted to show tiny white teeth, nipping at Tiny’s nose again.
“What the fuck just happened?”
Chapter Four
Bones
“She had no family? There is no one?” Dismissive shakes from around the table made Bones lower his head to his closed fist again. They were in the clubhouse meeting room, the connecting door to the larger main area closed. Ester and the little girl were out there with a dozen trusted people, and Bones was in here, trying to make sense of everything that had happened. Eyes closed, he rubbed his thumb across his forehead. “Did any member know of the girl?”
At the continued silence he lifted his head, pinning each man in turn with a glare. “No one?”
“Not so far,” Red said with a shrug. “About four years ago, she came to me for a morning-after pill. I got what she needed, and she didn’t say anything else. I assumed what anyone would, Bones.”
“Someone had to have seen, or noticed when she was carrying the child.” He shook his head, angry at the idea that Tawny had been so invisible to all of them. Much as homeless people were in the city, commuters striding past on their way to the next moment of their orderly lives. Much as Ester had been, he thought. But I saw her. No one, it seemed, had seen Tawny. “A child and a dog, and an addict.”
Myron rested his hand on the table, palm flattened. “People get caught up in their own lives, brother. It’s not a failing; it’s just a fact. If she’d wanted to be caught, she would have been. Clearly she wanted to keep secrets.” Inside the closet, they’d found a tiny pallet of blankets for the child. A small shelf had been stocked with easy-open toddler food, something the girl should have outgrown by now, but it was tasty and relatively cheap. Dog food was in an airtight container, and as growly and fierce as the puppy had seemed, he hadn’t barked yet. Not even when prompted to by Tiny, who had latched onto the tiny fluffball much as Ester had the child.
“We callin’ a bus?” Red’s question was quiet but held a lot of pain. Bones studied him a moment. “Just seems wrong, leavin’ her lyin’ on the floor.”
“We call an ambulance, we might as well swing the doors open for LEO.” Bones shook his head. “We need to find an alternate location to arrange for her discovery. I will not risk the club. If she were yet alive and fighting, yes, brother, we would have made that call before anything else. But she overdosed in our clubhouse, and the first thing LEO will assume is the drugs were a result of her residence here. I know different, and so do you, but we are not fools, you and I. We have been through similar processes before, and know the authorities are quick to dig in, but slow to retract their claws.”
“I know, Bones. It just ain’t right.” Red gritted his teeth as he snarled silently. “It’s gonna eat at me, so let’s make some decisions here.”
“We are agreed on most, and I will handle the details on Tawny.” Bones skimmed the top of the table with his hand, back and forth, as if sweeping crumbs together. “We know there was no wrongdoing, and we’ll ensure she’s found quickly. But what of the girl?” Silence and head shaking from around the table. “Tawny was RWMC. She belonged to us.” More silence. “Is that not true?”
“No. I mean, yeah, you’ve got the right of it, Prez.” Tater pressed his lips together tightly. “Just, what are we gonna do with a little girl? We don’t know if she’s got family or anything.” Even before he said the next words, Bones read what would be suggested, and in his gut, he knew he wouldn’t allow it. Couldn’t. Not knowing what Ester had gone through. “CPS would be the best place to start.”
He stared at Tater, then looked at Shades and Myron, both of whom had experiences with the system. Myron from the inside, much as Ester had, and Shades when he rescued his brother’s orphaned children from an abusive foster home. “Child Protective Services is understaffed.�
�� He took a breath. “There are well-meaning people within their ranks, but we are not guaranteed this child would be assigned to such.” He shook his head. “We have the benefit of our expert and resident geek. Why should we not try to surface such relatives as this little girl might have ourselves?”
Myron’s head jerked up, and he nodded quickly, eyes going round. “I don’t need much, brother. I can get a start with Tawny’s info.”
“Make it so.” Bones lifted the gavel and brought it down once. “I will pay respect to Tawny in the only way left to me.”
Chairs scuffed across the wooden floor as the men pushed back from the table one by one. Bones stayed seated, chin propped on his clasped fingers, elbows to the surface. He stared absently, eyes not focused on the scarred table. Instead, his mind alternated between two things. His thoughts bounced back and forth from the memory of seeing Tawny on the floor, dead, in his house, under his care, on his watch…and how Ester had looked as she sat in front of the little girl, eyes bright, shielding the child from seeing her mother by deftly boxing her in with her body, the enormous Dane and miniscule puppy wrestling between them.
It didn’t matter to Ester who the girl was, who she belonged to, or why she was there. All she knew was the potential disaster, and she’d moved to derail it, protecting the girl. The same thing she’d done with every child he’d ever seen in her presence, how she was with the dogs at the rescue, and more especially with Tiny. Myron hadn’t skimped on his story of how she’d reamed the man who’d called, and from how she’d acted on the phone, speaking confidently into the device for the first time he could ever remember, Bones believed every word.
She’s strongest when she has something to protect. He swallowed hard. “Ester has good instincts.”
Myron cleared his throat. “Yeah, she does.”
“That child cannot go into the system. That is one of Ester’s worst fears.” He didn’t shift, didn’t change position, muscles vibrating with the need to hurt someone because of the things Ester had survived. In the past, but present in the way she still ached over the betrayals. “She still dreams of it, you know? The things that went on behind her foster family’s door.” His hands gave a twinge of pain, and he realized he’d been tightening his fingers, over and over, clenching down. “They are not good dreams, Myron. I cannot—” His voice broke and he stopped, struggling for a moment to regain control. “CPS cannot have her.”
“What are you gonna do?” Red asked from the doorway, hovering, probably waiting to assist with the removal of Tawny’s body.
Bones looked up finally, locking eyes with Myron as he answered his long-time friend, his brother, one of a handful of men he trusted with his life. “Ester needs a child to be whole. If you do not find a loving father waiting in the wings…if you do not find a family that deserves her, then that child will be ours.” Myron shook his head and Bones shoved the chair back, fists propped on the table as he leaned across, jutting his chin out aggressively. “Do not naysay me on this, brother. You find a worthy family, then I will say and do no more. But if that child needs us, we will not turn her away. And I will lean on whomever I must to make it happen.”
“Brother.” Red’s voice held caution, and Bones swung to face him. “You can’t promise something like this to Ester, not if there’s a chance of taking it back. You can’t do that to her, man.”
“You think I do not know my own woman?” Drawing himself up to his full height, he stared at the man. “I would sooner cut my own tongue out than make promises to her such as that. Do not count me as a fool, Red.”
“No fool, but you want something bad enough, it’s easy to get ahead of the process.” Red shook his head. “Just…come see this, brother.” He waved towards the open doorway beside which he stood, gesturing out into the main clubhouse room. “Come see.”
Bones made his way around the table, stepped up beside Red, and locked in place. The meeting had been longer than expected, and what greeted him was a vision he’d never once allowed himself to imagine.
Ester lay lengthwise on a couch, a blanket thrown over her legs, head on a pillow someone had brought from upstairs. Between her and the back cushions was the child, her head nestled on Ester’s shoulder, their hair spreading together into an unruly heap. Tiny had made himself small enough that he could rest on the other end of the couch, while the white puppy curled up on top of his feet. The Great Dane’s head was laid on top of Ester’s leg, and Ester’s arm thrown over the child, so they were all connected.
His heart stuttering in his chest and throat tight, he told Red, “I see. Oh, brother, I see.”
***
Ester
I woke with a creaky neck and Bones’ lips on mine, so I counted it good. “My Ester,” he said to me, and I wasn’t done tasting him yet, so I stretched upwards until he kissed me again, chuckling against my mouth. That counted as better.
“Hey.” My response wasn’t pithy, or smart, but he smiled at me and that spot just in the center of my everything warmed.
“You have a friend.” He tipped the top of his head to the back of the couch, and I angled my head to see her. Still sleeping, which was good. She’d been scented by exhaustion when I’d picked her up from the floor of the closet earlier. I’d fed her, and helped wash her hands and face, but the smell of soured sweat and hunger still clung to her skin. “Do you know her name?”
Eyes still on the small girl, I shook my head. She’d been quiet, too quiet, a silence I knew too well weighing on her tongue to keep it from moving. Her not telling wasn’t a malicious thing, and I wanted Bones to know so he kept looking at her with those warm eyes. “She didn’t lie. She just didn’t speak.”
“Most likely she has been through a lot.” I tipped my head back to look at him. His mouth twitched, but not in a smile, which meant he was measuring his words for the right fit. “Do you think she had been here for long, Ester?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask me what you want to ask? Stop waiting. Just ask. I won’t break, Bones.” His caution made me angry as it hadn’t done before. “Give it to me. Come on.”
“Ester.” He shook his head slowly. “You saw her mother.”
The memory hit me then, the reason I’d run to the tiny human. I’d smelled the death in the room, smelled it and chased Tiny, thinking that was what he wanted to protect. A dead woman who didn’t need anyone’s protection anymore. Then I’d heard the sound. Heard her. Lilting on the air like birdsong, and I’d had to see. Had to see and keep safe, because as brilliantly sweet and innocent as the giggle had been, I knew the person who produced it was the same.
“I wanted to keep her from changing.” I’d seen dead people before, lots of times. It was a rite of passage for street people, ever-worsening tales told over trash can fires deep in the bitterest winters. “I didn’t want her to carry that with her forever.”
“But you understand, yes?” His hand coasted across my cheek, fingers pushing into my hair to cradle the back of my skull. “If her mother was all she had, then things are…” He measured his words again, lips moving sideways twice before he found the right one. “Precarious.”
“I know you.” He blinked. “I trust you.” With my life, I told him with my eyes. “You’ve never failed me.” I rolled my head to look at the girl, and found her blinking sleepily at me. “You won’t fail now.”
***
We sat on the floor of Bones’ study, she and I. We and the pups, and Bones behind the desk. He worked at the computer and was wordless. The only sounds in the room were the gigantic breaths Tiny kept huffing at the furiously growling puppy, and that quiet, rhythmic tapping of the keyboard.
She handed me the sock toy back, and I watched the puppy’s eyes track it from her hands to mine. Dangling one end in front of his nose, it wasn’t but a moment when he took the bait and lunged upwards with a fierce grrr, teeth latched into the stretchy fabric. On his feet, spine bowed, he jerked backwards with a series of grunted growls, each breathier than the next.
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“Oh, he’s a fierce one.” The little girl nodded, her eyes on Tiny. I glanced his way to see a version of his happiest face, doggy grin wide with his broad tongue lolling over his teeth. “That’s Tiny,” I reminded her, and she nodded. “What’s the pup’s name?” She ducked her chin to her chest, hair falling over her face. Instead of trying to pry it out of her, which would surely be impossible if she were as stubborn as I was at that age, I decided to run a different route.
“Buttons.” Head tilted to the side, I grinned at the pup who hadn’t ceased in his efforts to dislodge my hold on the sock toy. He’s as stubborn as she is. “His nose is black, and his eyes are dark. They look like buttons.” From the corner of my eye, I saw the head shake, vehement in her refusal of that name for her pup. “Okay, not Buttons. It can be hard sometimes to find a heart-name for someone.”
“Heart-name?”
I heard Bones’ indrawn breath, but I didn’t respond to him. She’d asked her question, and I’d give it the right weight of consideration. “Yeah, the name inside that’s the truest of things for them. People have them; dogs have them.” I flicked a finger behind me towards Bones. “That man? His heart-name is Bones. His friends think it came from a silly game. A saying uttered once and forgotten by most. But the truth, his heart-truth? Bones is Bones because he is the solid framework of everything needed, slowly built up layer by layer. A framework he put in place to protect people he loves.” I tugged at the sock toy, dragging the puppy back towards me by a couple of feet, grinning when he growled louder at the loss of progress. “He loves me. I’m his Ester.”
There was silence in the room from all the humans for a minute, and Bones started tappity tapping on the keys again. “Puffball.” I snaked the sock toy back and forth, playing whip with the puppy as a movable anchor. Tiny thudded a foot on either side of the small dog, helping him not slide so far. “Cheater,” I complained to him, and he panted dog breath in my face. “Ox. He’s stubborn as one. Does that fit him?”
Christmas Doings Page 7
