Chapter 10 #2
The plan was somewhere between phase two and phase three of everything.
The fourth and final phase involved opening up the distillery to the public and establishing a storefront in The Quarter.
We’d scouted a location for lease for the latter right across the street from where Swamp Witch Designs was going in to replace The Mystic’s Dream.
It was a crazy amount of work, but we’d made progress, surprisingly enough, despite everything.
We kept expecting violence, that the Bayou Bitches would target the storefronts.
You couldn’t keep shit about fuck quiet in the French Quarter.
The denizens there spread information about what was going on in the neighborhood like fucking wildfire, so while we’d done our best to keep shit on the down-low, it didn’t matter in the long run.
We shut off the bikes just as the garage door finished its descent, and Genesis hopped off from behind me, already working off her helmet. I pulled mine off and hung it on the handlebar, then got up and took hers, putting it on my bike’s seat.
“Welcome to the lair,” Hex called jovially in her direction, and she laughed lightly and said, “Thank you! I’ve always been curious. Not going to lie.”
I smiled at that. “Sounds a lot like some stuffy citizen broad saying ‘Oh, well, you know. I’ve always wondered what the inside of this house looked like.’ But it’s true.” She smiled, and Hex laughed a little.
“Chainsaw might’ve mentioned you grew up in the life,” he said, wandering closer to her.
“My father,” she said, nodding. “Disciples of Sin, up in the top half of the boot. A small club, mostly kept to themselves in our small town.”
“Well, alright, then. I’ve not heard of ‘em.”
“I have,” I said. “It’s as she said.”
“I have, too,” LaCroix intoned. “Did time with one or two of ‘em… gun charges, if I recall.”
“That would be them,” Genesis said quietly. LaCroix gave a nod.
“Well, let’s get to the chapel then, shall we?” Hex jerked his head in the direction of the swinging door that led to the front half of the club.
I nodded and said, “Be right back.”
“Sure.” Genesis smiled, but it was brittle. She knew we were going to be talking about her and her… situation.
“Don’t you worry, now. We’ll take good care of her,” Sandy declared with a wink, hooking her arm through Gen’s. I smiled and shook my head.
“Don’t you be tellin’ her all our secrets now, y’ hear?” Bennie leaned over and claimed a kiss from his woman.
I smiled and slipped off without another word, following LaCroix and Hex toward the chapel. Axeman fell into step beside me. “That’s her, eh?”
“Yep,” I said shortly. I was waiting to get into the sanctity of the chapel to fully discuss.
“She’s hot,” he said. “Didn’t expect that.”
I snorted and shook my head.
“What the hell did you picture?” I asked.
“I dunno. You said she was a doctor. I pictured…” he held the door open for me to slide by and into the hall, finishing his sentence as he followed me through, “Frumpy, I guess.”
“Frumpy?” I echoed.
He shrugged. “Hell if I know. I thought doctors were nerds. I picture nerds as frumpy. Like Velma outta Scooby Doo or some shit.”
I laughed and shook my head.
“You’re fuckin’ weird, man.”
He grinned. “Aren’t we all?”
“True dat,” Bennie said, pushing past us to head up front to the bar. We followed to drop our phones off and grab a drink.
It was never too early for a beer.
We got our choice and headed into the chapel, taking up our places around the table. All of us were here, which was good. LaCroix banged the gavel, and we were in order, just like that.
“What’s the full meal deal on the good doctor?” Hex asked without any preamble.
I explained about how I most definitely owed her and about her little problem.
Saint gave a low whistle.
“God damn …” he said. “A bona fide serial killer?” he asked.
“Ah, yup,” I said. “Look, I know that this couldn’t come at a worse time, and I’m not even sure how to begin handling this with everything we’ve got going on, but the threat is credible and real.
I got to her place last night, and this sick fuck had an entire family of a mamma cat and her kittens disemboweled, heads on her fuckin’ fence out front of her house, like heads on pikes.
Even took the time to string the guts along like garland or beads. It was sick as fuck.”
“Cops ain’t doin’ shit about fuck, I reckon,” Hex said, tracing designs against the table from the condensation ring left by his bottle.
“Got that right,” I grunted.
“Worst possible fuckin’ timing,” Collier mused.
“When is something like dat any kind of good timing?” Cypress asked, and he met my eyes with a cold fury in his.
I’d bet he was picturing his sister in Gen’s place.
Jessie-Lou Gaudet was tough as nails, though, and probably would have strung this motherfucker’s guts for garters for harming animals before cleaning the bones of the cats and using their skulls for her art.
Waste not, want not in the swamps, as she’d say.
“Cut the shit,” LaCroix said quietly. “Get to the point. What’re you asking for?”
I leaned back in my seat and shook my head.
“I ain’t asking for anything. I should be able to handle this on my own.
I’m just lettin’ y’all know that’s the tea.
Only changes on my end are I’m swinging by the swamp house to pick up some of my shit, and until further notice, I’ll be stayin’ in the Garden District.
My patterns of movement are changin’ up in that I’ll be closer to the club an’ pickin’ her up and droppin’ her off to work.
She knows the life, doesn’t ask questions.
I figure before long, this fucker’ll make a move, and when he does, I’ll be there to handle it. ”
LaCroix looked thoughtful, and Hex looked… bored. He’d probably run through the calculations on how much things would change where I was concerned lightning quick.
“Sound like me,” Axeman muttered.
“What’s that, now?” Hex asked, frowning.
“Still been checkin’ up on that chickie from the Lavender Lounge thing y’all sent me out to deal with a while back. She’s a sweet thing, not too bright, but eh…” Axe shrugged.
All eyes were on him now, though. We didn’t know shit about fuck when it came to this little revelation, and if Axe was playing things this close to the vest, there was something there… But with Axe? Shit. All in good time.
The table was silent, and the longer it stretched, the more I started to worry that I’d be told to drop it.
“I got this. No interference with club business. I swear,” I said.
“The benefits of you stayin’ close outweigh the negatives. Still, I don’t like that Cy’s out that way by himself most of the time. You were the more constant in the ol’ bayou house.”
It was true. Axe, Cy, and I had all moved into LaCroix’s daddy’s old house.
Mostly, it saved us a gang of money to do it, which was great.
But Axe was taking care of club business in the city more often than not, and while Cy and I hadn’t really questioned where the fuck he stayed, it was lookin’ like he was in with some chick from the freak show that was the Lavender Lounge.
A secret squirrel underground BDSM club that contracted the club to deal with any…
problems that ol’ Lucifer, the club’s bouncer, couldn’t handle on his own, bein’ he needed to stay on the property.
We made a tidy sum monthly off ‘em to run protection and to deal with any problems they had that required outside muscle – which, honestly, Axeman handled the last call, but that was months ago. Around the time that Bennie and Sandy got together, so I thought that shit’d been squashed.
I guess not, though… curious , but none of my business. I have my own shit to handle.
“I’m good,” Cypress said and sniffed. “LaCroix comes by often enough, an’ if I have to, I can always head on up the road an’ stay with you an’ my sister ‘til Chainsaw gets this shit handled. I get it, man. That’s a serious debt owed.”
I nodded and said, “Thanks, brother.”
“Should be thanking me ,” Collier grumbled. “Hard to get it on when your woman’s brother is in the house.”
I snorted, and Cypress gave Collier the finger.
We worked shit out, but still, LaCroix and Hex, predictably, wanted to cover all the bases. LaCroix said to me, “Bring her in.”
I nodded and rose.
Here went nothin’…