Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
G enesis…
The ladies and I were talking about the art and murals on the walls inside the space back here.
One of the brothers, Saint, was responsible for the murals.
His was apparently the only old lady who was absent.
She was working today – crime scene cleanup.
I had some thoughts on that… mostly that she and I had something in common.
We both dealt with the aftermath of crime and violence, just in two very different ways.
She dealt with the scenes, and I dealt with the victims.
I was curious about that, though. How on earth did someone in crime scene cleanup end up with a man who more than likely caused some of the scenes she had to deal with?
That was a huge riddle and a mind-bender to me.
I looked forward to meeting her, but I wasn’t sure if I would.
I guess it depended on a bunch of things.
I didn’t really know what my classification was when it came to the Voodoo Bastards, but friend of the club was honestly the best fit. It was an honorific that came with privileges, but I wasn’t brand new here, either. It also came with a cost.
If it got Lucas Levi Belmar out of my life and off the streets for good, I could certainly handle that cost. I didn’t honestly know what the worst that could happen was, being connected to a club of the caliber of the Voodoo Bastards, but I imagined that I would be patching holes and providing stitches in my future. So, same shit, different venue for me.
I was more than alright with that.
I’d honestly thought ahead on things before I’d even made the call.
I’d seen it all before, at home, but that was part of it…
I didn’t want to live on eggshells anymore, wondering who was going to show up drunk or beaten to hell.
Who was going to prison or would be there one moment, and gone the next…
I knew it was part of life, even outside of club life, but it was a lot less likely outside of club life, and the risk inside it was exponentially more.
“Dr. Bordelon, the boys would like a word if you don’t mind.”
I pulled out of my silent machinations and back to the present, looking over to Chainsaw in the doorway that all the men had gone through.
“Looks like formal introductions are in order.” Corliss winked at me, and I plastered on a smile.
“Looks like,” I agreed.
“Just be yourself. You’ve got this,” Sandy said, and I laughed a little nervously. Boy, wasn’t she optimistic? Alina said nothing, and her eyes were unreadable as I slipped past her and headed for Chainsaw and the door.
Just be respectful and everything will be fine, I told myself.
The anxiety bubbling in my chest said a whole lot different – but that’s a different story and one I firmly ignored.
“Hi,” I said faintly while Chainsaw closed the door behind me. He threaded his way behind chairs to take his empty seat at the table. There were some empty chairs way down at the end, and LaCroix motioned to the one far down at the end of the table across from him. I nodded and went and took it.
“Why don’t you go on and tell us in your own words your situation, an’ why you called Chainsaw,” LaCroix said.
I opened my mouth to speak when Hex waved me down and interrupted, saying, “Now, boss, how about we mind our manners and make proper introductions first? Let her know who all she’s talkin’ with.”
LaCroix nodded, and Hex smiled genially. “Dr. Bordelon, is that right?” Hex asked.
“Yes,” I said simply.
“Well, welcome on in. You know I’m Hex, that there is LaCroix, an’ this here is Saint.” A tall broad-shouldered man with long hair gave a nod.
“Your artwork is amazing,” I said quietly, knowing that the Baron Samedi looming at my back was likely his work even as I was keenly aware that I sat with my back to the altar to him. I didn’t know how I felt about that.
Saint only nodded a bit deeper at the compliment, his face unchanged and inscrutable.
“You’ve met Bennie,” Hex said, and Bennie raised his hand off the table in a slight wave. He sat across from Saint, so it seemed we were going back and forth and down the table.
“That there is our road captain, Cypress.” A man with a neck as thick as I’d ever seen lifted his chin in acknowledgment of my presence.
“You know Chainsaw.” Chainsaw simply ran his eyes over me from my head down to the table and back up. “Over across from him is Axeman. An’ last but surely not least, that’s Collier there.”
“Nice to meet all of you. I’m Genesis Bordelon. Please no formalities – just call me Genesis or Gen. I’m Doctor Bordelon at work.”
Hex laughed, and several of the other men broke their frozen expressions with a slight quirk of lips into a smile or a light chuckle.
“Cut the shit,” LaCroix said firmly but not necessarily unkindly. “You called Chainsaw. Why?” he asked.
I took a fortifying breath and told them everything about Lucas Levi Belmar.
About how I’d caught him killing innocent patients, how he’d been fired, but how the hospital and local PD had basically, by all appearances to me, chosen cover-up over justice, and how I’d been tossed right under the wheels of the bus in the offing.
“They told me to buy a gun if I was so worried about it, and to call them when something actually happened. They basically said there wasn’t enough evidence that it was Luke who was stalking me, but who the hell else would it be?
It’s not like I have much of a social life or any angry ex-boyfriends.
I’ve tried really hard to become a healer, and I don’t know that I could pull the trigger if he did come after me.
And if I can’t? I’m not one hundred percent sure I’d survive. ” I swallowed hard.
“I grew up in the life, and I think that’s what made me hold on to Chainsaw’s card in the first place. When I got home last night and saw what he did with the cats, I took the chance and called him. I have too much work to do saving lives to lose mine at the moment. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Fuckin’ useless-ass pigs,” Saint muttered.
“Word,” Chainsaw said, and he was staring off into space, gaze fixed on a point somewhere none of us could see out over the table as he thought about things.
“You need a hand? You let me know,” Axe told him, and Chainsaw, while he didn’t change where he was looking, he nodded slightly, and his lips quirked into a smile.
“Bet,” he intoned.
“Thanks for your candor, Gen,” Hex said. “If you wanna go on for a minute, we’d like to discuss.”
“Of course,” I said, and rose from my boardroom chair, edging carefully between the table and the altar behind me.
When I passed behind Chainsaw’s chair, he stood, and I admit, I jumped or flinched some, especially under LaCroix’s dark scrutiny.
Chainsaw escorted me out, giving me a wink as he closed the door behind me, shutting all the men inside.
I shook my head, my heart thundering against the inside of my ribcage, and in a slight daze, went back the way we’d come and back to the garage.
In all my existence in and around club life, that was the one and only time I’d ever been brought into a chapel during church, and I knew what an auspicious occasion that was.
Wild.
“You good?” Alina asked, and I blinked and looked her way, giving a nod. She nodded and exchanged a look with Cor and Sandy.
“First time?” Alina asked.
“Going into church like that?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Sandy said.
I nodded.
“None of us ever has. The vibe I’m getting is ‘scary as fuck,’” Sandy said.
I nodded, mutely.
“Maybe it’s a good thing they cut us out,” Cor said, and I nodded quickly.
“I grew up in the life. My dad was club since before I was born, and my mom never left him or the club, even when he was in prison. Trust me when I say, the less you know, the better when it comes to a lot of things.”
“We already know too much,” Alina said, and I nodded.
“We always do,” I said. “Even as a kid, listening to my mom and the other old ladies – you overhear things you shouldn’t when your dad and uncles are drunk and talking and think you’re upstairs and asleep.
I tried to put a lot of it behind me when I left for college, but it’s…
I don’t know… It’s like once you’re marked by it. ”
I sank into a seat, hands starting to tremor from the oncoming crash in my adrenaline.
I was used to the adrenaline shakes. I got them at work plenty of times after a tough case. It was part of things.
“I know that’s right,” Sandy said unhappily.
“I think it’s time to swap some war stories, girls,” Corliss said.
“Trauma bonding… yay.” Sandy rolled her eyes, and Alina and I both snorted and covered our laughs at the same time. And just like that, the ice was starting to break up.
“My dad spent fifteen years in prison on illegal weapons charges. It was me and River, by my dad, but my mom took full advantage of the prison clause and, surprise, surprise, ended up pregnant with my half-brother, Rigel. Dad got out and surprisingly didn’t treat Rigel any differently than me…
but while he was away, we lost River to a drowning accident.
” I swallowed hard. I didn’t talk about River much.
It was too much. He and I had been thick as thieves as kids, and losing him had hurt bad.
It was another reason I’d gotten into emergency medicine.
The paramedics had tried so hard to revive him, but couldn’t.
I felt like if I had just known what to do – had been able to administer life-saving measures before even the paramedics had gotten there, he would still be alive.
I also thought it was one of the big reasons I hadn’t allowed myself to get close to Rigel.
“My family belongs to a cult,” Sandy said flatly.
“Where women are meant to be seen and not heard. Life is all about being barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, crapping out as many kids as possible while the boys are favored and can do no wrong. The girls are kept for breeding stock and bargaining chips to be married off to other cult members when the time is right… usually before they’re even eighteen.
I said fuck that noise, ran away, and they’ve low-key been trying to drag me back, kicking and screaming ever since. ”
“I was pretty much one hundred percent foster care raised,” Corliss said with a sigh.
“Got my teaching degree, moved back to this area with my fiancé, and found a job working as a high school English Language Arts teacher. I was attacked by a student, stabbed, raped, and cheated on by my fiancé during it all, and now I’m here.
Lucky enough to have made friends with Hex, who was our school janitor at the time.
He found me and the psycho who attacked me and saved me – stuck with me, and has helped me every excruciating step of the way. I’m grateful.”
“Oh, shit – I remember that case! It wasn’t mine, but you came through our ER. I was on palliative care at the time and finding out all this shit about Luke.”
“Okay,” Sandy said. “Who’s Luke?”
I chewed my bottom lip and said, “In for a penny, in for a pound, I guess.” I filled them in on why I was here and how I’d called Chainsaw for help.
Alina remained silent, just taking it all in.
“I was raised by my grandmother,” she said.
“My mom was an addict—” Corliss raised her hand, and I nodded, taking her understanding as to why she was in foster care.
“…anyway, sob story aside on my raising, I had a best friend. She really taught me how to live, you know? She disappeared, and I lived across the street from the club. No one was looking for her, no one was helping, and so I went to LaCroix and made a deal. Turned out lucky, I guess.” She made a rueful smile. “Was the best deal I ever made.”
“Can I be honest, and sound rude, even though I legitimately don’t want to sound rude, but I’m afraid it won’t come across as any other way?” I asked.
“Let me guess, you don’t know how I do it, and he’s terrifying to you,” she said.
“Exactly. Took the words right out of my mouth,” I replied.
She smiled, and it was genuine this time.
“He’s different with me when we’re alone,” she said. “I know, without any shadow of a doubt, that man would burn the whole fucking world to make sure I was safe and whole, and it’s a crazy feeling.”
I had to smile then.
“Sounds really nice,” I said honestly.
“You have no idea,” she replied, and her whole face transformed. She was genuinely in love with the formidable man, and it was so… nice to see.
“Maybe someday,” I said wistfully, and the girls exchanged a look. I laughed and said, “Oh, don’t you dare try to ship us. I legitimately don’t even know Chainsaw!”
“Well, you’re going to have plenty of time to get to know him,” Sandy said with a shrug.
“You could do worse,” Corliss said, amused.
I rolled my eyes and sighed, and the three of them flew into a fit of giggles.
“Are you three the only three?” I asked.
“Old ladies?” Alina asked for clarification.
“Yeah,” I said.
Sandy shook her head. “There’s Jessie-Lou, who’s with Collier and is Cypress’s sister, and Velina, who’s with Saint.
“Right, you mentioned her, crime scene cleanup, right?”
“Right,” Alina said.
“What’s Jessie-Lou do?” I asked, curious.
“She’s a butcher part-time, but she does the skull art and is part of Swamp Witch Designs , too.” Alina leaned back in her chair.
“Skull art?” I asked.
“Yeah, she takes animal skulls, carves, paints, and sometimes sets semi-precious gemstones into them. They’re really cool. You should come by the shop sometime to see them,” Sandy said.
“I’d like that… to see the shop.”
“I don’t know how we’re going to fit it all,” Corliss said, rolling her eyes.
“Like most Quarter shops, it is pretty small,” Sandy agreed.
“Maybe we do well enough, we can expand into one of the empty spaces to either side,” Alina murmured. She looked stressed, though.
“I’m sure it will do great ,” I said. “It sounds really neat. I can’t wait to see it.”
“Hopefully, we’ll have our grand opening sooner rather than later,” Alina said hesitantly, and Cor reached out, giving her arm a squeeze.
“We will, and you worry too much. It’s not going to bomb.”
I smiled big. “It sounds right up NOLA’s alley and the tourists will love it,” I said.
“See, she hasn’t even seen it, and she gets it,” Sandy said.
Alina smiled and nodded, but she looked tired.
“It’s been a lot,” she confessed.
“Yeah,” Cor agreed. “There’s been a lot to worry about on top of opening two new businesses.” She sighed.
I didn’t know, but I had hints through the gossip grapevine. I simply nodded like I did know, because even though I didn’t, I at least understood.
Better than I wanted to.