Jailbait

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  “You took his meal away.” Ignacia sniffed. “What did you think was going to happen?”

  “What I think,” I snarled, “is that you need to control your motherfuckin’ dog!”

  I ended that last part on a roar because the goddamn dog lunged at me again.

  Luckily, this time I think Ignacia realized that I wasn’t fucking kidding.

  She finally caught hold of the dog’s collar—something she could’ve done in the very beginning—and contained him for the most part.

  “Leave,” I snapped. “Leave now, and I won’t ask questions about why the fuck you’re in my alley. Which, might I add, I own. You being back here is like you trespassing on my property. You have your second warning to leave. The next one I’ll be calling the cops and pressing charges since you can’t seem to stay off my property.”

  My hissing words seemed to fall on deaf ears, but I didn’t fucking joke.

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket and had 9-1 dialed into the phone before she growled under her breath and turned to leave.

  “Don’t you dare come back!” I called out, voice cracking.

  Ignacia gave me the middle finger, and I steeled my spine to look at the poor cat in my arm.

  I could feel his warm blood leaking all over my shirt, and I just knew it was going to be bad.

  I looked down and instantly saw some of the damage.

  His left front leg was holding on by tendons.

  The second eye was almost gone, and oh, God. There were so many holes where he was bleeding from.

  “Tater,” I cried as I cuddled him closer. “Oh, Tater.”

  The cat wasn’t going to survive.

  There was no way in hell.

  But I got my keys anyway and ran out to my car.

  I was crying profusely now, and the solid thump-thump of my walking boot slamming onto the asphalt sounded like death.

  I hadn’t driven since I’d gotten the walking boot. With it being on my right leg, that meant it was kind of hard to do.

  I was in sore need of not only groceries, but a run to Sephora.

  Yet all of those things would have to wait.

  Yanking my boot off the moment we got into the car, I tossed it in the passenger seat floorboard and then gently placed the cat on the seat beside me, thankful that there were a couple bags of towels I’d purchased from Target before I’d done the whole breaking my foot thing.

  Tater let out a pitiful moaning sound when I started the car, but ultimately didn’t make another peep.

  I’d just turned onto the main road that led out of downtown and frantically thought about where I’d seen a vet clinic.

  The first one that I knew of was clear across town, and I contemplated pulling over to Google one that was closer when I realized I could barely see due to my tears.

  Tater meowed, and I turned my face to see him with his eye open.

  “Oh, baby,” I said, leaning over and pressing my hand to his chest. “I’m so sorry, baby. I’ll get you to a vet. We’ll get you to stop hurting.”

  And that only made me cry all the harder.

  At one point, I passed a biker, and it was as I saw him that I realized that the man that I’d been trying not to think about all day would be losing a friend.

  God, Trick had lost everything.

  Not only had I put him in jail, I’d taken away his life along with it. Everything that he planned on doing was now no longer a possibility for him because he was a felon.

  I was so lost in my thoughts, crying my eyes out, thinking about this poor kitty and driving to the vet that I hadn’t realized that Tater had moved until I felt something move into my lap.

  A cry of sadness left me as Tater crawled all the way into my lap, curled up, and started a broken purr that almost tore my heart out as fast as Trick had earlier this year when he’d told me to stay away from his sister.

  I placed my free hand on the cat’s head, being careful of his wounds, and knew right then and there that I’d exhaust my bank account to make sure that he lived.

  CHAPTER 16

  Don’t be ashamed to fart while you pee. There is no rain without thunder.

  -Things not to say to your girlfriend

  TRICK

  “So tell me about this boy that you met,” I ordered, looking at my sister.

  Auggie blinked. “What makes you think there’s a boy?”

  My sister had a child-like innocence to her.

  One that she’d clearly never grown out of, not even in the twelve years that we’d been apart.

  When I’d come back into her life a couple of months ago, she’d acted like twelve years hadn’t passed at all, and that had broken my heart a little.

  Auggie had what was the equivalent to a fifth-grade level of education. Though she advanced through the grade levels, she was not at the level she needed to be to truly pass them. Sadly, when she was growing up, Auggie never received the care and help that she needed to improve more than that level.

  Meaning, she was a lot further behind than she could have been had my parents actually given a fuck.

  She knew the difference between right and wrong, she could make general decisions about her life, and though she couldn’t manage her money on her own, she had control of a credit card that had a small spending limit that would allow her to get anything she wanted within reason.

  “Because you have a boy’s necklace around your throat,” I teased. “With a boy’s initials on it.”

  Honestly, I didn’t mind my sister seeing a boy.

  I wanted her to be happy.

  “How do you know they’re a boy’s initials?” Auggie shot right back.

  I held up my hand. “I never said that it was against the rules to love a girl, but you’ve been mooning over boys since I was a kid. I know that you like boys.”

  Auggie’s eyes twinkled, and she looked around, biting her lip.

  God, I’d missed her.

  Some would think that she was a lot of work—and she was—but she was also the first person to make me smile. The first person I thought about seeing when I got out. The first person that would be there for me, no matter what it was that I needed.

  “Okay, you’re right. It’s a boy.” She giggled. “He wrote me a note, and we’re talking back and forth that way. We pass them during lunchtime.”

  I smiled.

  “That’s great, Auggie,” I said.

  She looked at me, and if we were in a cartoon world, I would’ve seen those floating hearts around her head.

  “Do you like this new place you’re in?” I asked curiously.

  Auggie immediately nodded her head. “Swayze did a great job finding it. I’m so glad that she fought Mom and brought me here.”

  “She fought Mom?” I all but fell over.

  Auggie’s eyes were serious. “Yes. They yelled really loud. Did you know that she moved up to our hometown while she was in school? She said that you sent her. You were good to send her. Mom was mad that you didn’t come home to help with me. She was kind of mean.”

  Kind of mean. Auggie’s version of ‘kind of’ and my version of ‘kind of’ were two completely different worlds.

  Auggie didn’t ‘see’ the problem with Mom talking down to her. With Mom smacking her around when she didn’t get out of her way fast enough.

  Auggie saw the best in people always.

  Even when those ‘people’ were not being nice.

  “That’s good, Augg,” I croaked. “I’m glad that she was there for you.”

  When I couldn’t be. And did the things that I’d always wanted to do but didn’t know how to do.

  “She’s great. I miss her. Where is she?” Auggie asked.

  I felt a tightness in my belly.

  I’d done that.

  I’d also undo that.

  It was obvious that Swayze would never, not ever, do anything to hurt my sister.

  Not when she went to all the trouble of bringing her here. I should’ve seen that in the beginning wh
en I’d first gotten out. Instead, I’d been pissed off and had lashed out.

  “Mom calls me all the time and asks me to come home. My boyfriend, Dazzle, says it’s because she wants my disability checks. You don’t think that’s why, right?” Auggie asked.

  Dazzle?

  “Dazzle?” I asked, unable to help myself, and also hoping that I could distract her enough that my mother’s motives wouldn’t have to be explained. That was sure the fuck the reason that my mother wanted her back.

  Auggie was low-maintenance when she was being cared for by my mother. Mostly, Auggie could take care of herself, and if my mom had a television there for her, she left everyone alone.

  She didn’t do anything with her or take her anywhere. She wouldn’t even take her to her doctor appointments because ‘why should she when she wasn’t sick?’

  “Dazzle is his street name,” Auggie covered her mouth with her hand, as if she was letting me in on a secret. “He’s my age. And we live in the same home. He used to be normal, but then he was in a car accident, and now he thinks differently. Dazzle is short for Derringer.”

  I could’ve seen Derrin, or Rin, but not Dazzle.

  “Interesting,” I said. “Well, I’ll have to meet this ‘Dazzle’ you speak of.”

  My sister’s cheeks flushed.

  I picked up my burger and took a bite right as my phone rang.

  “Yo,” I said around a bite of burger.

  Auggie giggled in front of me, and I winked at her.

  She was amused by the littlest of things.

  “I just saw your woman, bawling her eyes out, driving down the road,” Zach said. “You might want to go check on her.”

  Something inside of me stilled.

  “Where was she?” I asked.

  “I turned around and followed her. She hasn’t stopped yet, but…” He paused. “She just pulled into the vet clinic. Oh, fuck.”

  That ‘oh, fuck’ had me stiffening in my seat.

  “She’s covered in blood, man,” he said. “And she’s carrying something brown and black.”

  “Will you stay with her?” I asked. “I’m out to lunch with my sister. I can be there in like… twenty minutes.”

  I had to drop Auggie off first, because the only thing that I had on me was my bike, and Auggie was scared of the bike. Plus, I couldn’t leave Auggie there without me knowing when I’d be back.

  “Sure,” Zach said.

  Then he hung up, leaving me staring at my sister with a burger in my hand that felt like a lead weight.

  “What’s wrong?” Auggie asked, her voice filled with concern.

  “Something’s wrong with Swayze,” I answered. “Come on, grab your things. I’ll call you an Uber.”

  She’d gotten here via the shuttle that ran for the community that she lived in. Once every couple of days the shuttles would run for the people that wanted to spend a day on the town—and could safely do it on their own—which was how she’d gotten here today. The only problem was, that shuttle wouldn’t be back for another hour or more, and I had a feeling Swayze needed me now.

  That, and I didn’t like the idea of her crying her eyes out and covered in blood.

  “You go, I’ll stay.” She patted my hand.

  I hesitated. “Are you sur…”

  My question was cut short when a smiling young man came out of the crowd and headed toward us. He had an adult with him that looked like she was a bit frazzled.

  “I’m so sorry,” the older woman said. “This is my son, Derringer…”

  “Dazzle, Mom! Dazzle!”

  The older woman rolled her eyes. “Dazzle then. This is my son, Dazzle, and he really, really wants to come eat with y’all. I’ve put him off for twenty minutes now, but it’s getting a bit tough to control his… exuberance.”

  I shook my head. “I was about to leave. I have an emergency and I’m calling an Uber for my sister. You can stay until then, though.”

  “Oh, Augg-Wogg can come with me!” Dazzle looked at his mother pleadingly. It looked like a look he’d perfected over the years. “Please, Mom. Can she come with us?”

  The older woman rolled her eyes and turned a smile onto me.

  “I don’t mind if you don’t.”

  I looked at my sister who was looking at me with her hands underneath her chin in a praying position.

  I sighed. “That’s fine, but let me know when you’re home, okay, Augg?”

  Auggie nodded energetically. “I will, promise.”

  When I looked back to the woman, she was holding out a card.

  “My name is Melissa Black. I’m married to Senator Black. This is my card. If you want to check on her, give me a call. I wrote my number on the back of the card,” she said, holding out her hand.

  I took the card from one hand, and the hand with my own and shook it.

  “Nice to meet you, ma’am,” I said. “Auggie’s had a lot of good things to say about you.”

  I got a text and winced when I read it.

  There’s a cat. Pretty sure that thing is dead. But she’s throwing a fit saying they have to save it because it’s her ‘man’s cat’ and he ‘can’t lose anything else’, read Zach’s text.

  “Go,” Mrs. Black urged. “We’ll be fine.”

  The older woman was everything that I always wished that Auggie would have for a mother.

  It sucked.

  “See you next week, Auggie,” I told her. “Love you.”

  Auggie looked at me, color tinging her cheeks. “I love you, too, big bro.”

  Then I was taking off across the outdoor seating area and hopping over the small fence that separated the restaurant from the walkway outside.

  A minute later I was on my bike and heading toward the vet that Zach had indicated Swayze was at.

  When I arrived five minutes later, possibly breaking a few traffic laws, it was to find Swayze standing in the middle of the lobby bawling.

  Zach was standing beside her, looking uncomfortable as hell.

  He saw me and walked toward me.

  “So I got the gist of what happened,” he said, explaining what he’d heard from Swayze. “I’m going to go and look up the security cameras for your bar, though. Maybe we’ll see something. I don’t like that she was over there. Especially after what they suspected she did to you two nights in a row.”

  I sure the fuck didn’t either.

  I offered him my hand. “Thanks, man.”

  He nodded once and gestured toward where Swayze had her face buried in her hands and was shaking with sobs.

  “Take care of her,” he said as he walked out the door.

  I walked over to Swayze and pulled her into my arms.

  At first, she stiffened.

  But when I said, “It’s me,” she all but fell into my arms.

  “Oh, God. Tater. He was hurt really bad, Trick,” she whispered brokenly. “And fucking Ignacia. She just let it happen. Your poor kitty!”

  I didn’t like hearing that at all.

  Even worse, I didn’t like the sobs wracking her chest.

  It was one thing to hurt me.

  It was quite another to hurt the woman that I was beginning to realize meant a whole lot more to me than I ever realized.

  These last twelve years I’d told myself it was hate.

  But after spending time with her, I realized it was something altogether different.

  “Start over,” I said soothingly, pulling her closer into my arms and burying my face into her hair.

  This morning, when she’d had to get up to go to work, I’d wondered if this thing between us would be awkward. If she’d put distance between us after everything that we’d had happen over the last couple of days.

  But she didn’t feel awkward at all in my arms. She felt like she was exactly where she needed to be. Exactly where I wanted her to be.

  Where I’d wanted her back since I’d watched her walk out of my apartment this morning.

  “So I heard this yowl when I was in my office p
utting my chair together,” she paused. “Thank you for bringing that inside, by the way. I can’t believe you picked that up all by yourself. There’s no way I would’ve gotten that in the door without help.”

  I looked down, and that was when I realized she didn’t have her damn boot on. She was standing there in one shoe. Bootless.

  “Son of a bitch, Swayze,” I growled. “Where’s your fuckin’ boot?”

  She winced. “I left it in the car. I couldn’t drive with it on.”

  I growled, picked her up, and walked her to the waiting room chairs.

  Then I was walking toward her car with purpose in my step.

  I found her boot on the floorboard of her car and winced when I saw the cat’s blood streaked all over everything.

  I grimaced and slammed the door closed, knowing that that would need to be detailed. There was no way in hell that it was going to get clean by a non-professional.

  Pulling out my phone and stalking back toward the vet’s office, I dialed and waited for it to ring before going inside.

  Once it did and someone answered, I pulled the door open.

  “Yeah, man,” I said, calling the number by heart. “Can you look up some people for me? Ones that are professionals, and can clean blood out of light gray upholstery?”

  “Sure,” Hunt grunted. “Why?”

  I explained to him what was going on as I handed Swayze her walking boot.

  “That fuckin’ sucks,” Hunt said. “That why Zach just pulled up with a pissed off look on his face?”

  “That’s why,” I confirmed. “Where did it happen, baby?”

  Swayze bent over and put her foot into the walking boot, then stood up.

  “Literally right outside of my back door,” she explained. “The big metal door, in between the trash can and the fence.”

  I relayed what she’d just told me, but Hunt was already clicking away on his computer, obviously hearing her answer without me having to relay it.

  “I’m forwarding the five-minute clip of her in the alley to you,” Hunt said a moment after that. “She comes in from across the street. Parks her car two doors down from your bar. Crosses the street with her dog, then disappears into the alley. Switching camera views to the one that goes down your back alley and faces hers, you can see her walking up and down looking behind the dumpster. Then her dog finds the cat behind the dumpster and she just allows him to eat the cat.”