Chapter 8 Debt #2
Both men made faces. Sketch and Poke remained behind to handle the car and get info to blackmail my brother with.
Poppy was out of the truck, baseball bat in hand when we roared up. I quickly took it from her and tossed it in the bed so she wouldn’t go to jail. “Go over there where you’re safe.”
“I don’t have to listen to you.” She tried to reach for the bat again, but it was out of her range.
“Yeah asshole, she doesn’t have to listen to you!
” Lily yelled from the cracked concrete slab of Jewel’s front step.
There were clothes and broken knickknacks, even a laptop that was in no fewer than five pieces.
Jewel came back out and threw a boot at her daughter.
Then switched its mate to her throwing hand and spit out her venom.
“Ungrateful bitch!” She noticed the bikes and her eyes caught on me. “You! Fuck you. I’m charging double next time.”
Sprout caught the shoe she aimed at me and stomped up into her face. Then he kept going as Jewel backed into the trailer. Griz was right on his six. “What you need from here, Lil?” he asked before diving into the fray.
“My jewelry and I have an iPod in there somewhere. Thank you, Griz.” She singsong’d it in a tone too close to Jewel’s for comfort. Meanwhile, I stayed between her and Poppy in case violence erupted on that front.
And it didn’t take long before Lily whipped around and spat at us. “I can’t believe you two. What is this, Torture Lily Day? Fucking dick. Cunt!”
That wouldn’t fly. “Apologize to your sister.”
“Fuck you!”
“Lily—” Poppy tried to diffuse the situation, but her sister was fired up.
“I sucked your dick.”
“Yeah? How’d it taste?”
“Fuck you!”
Poppy didn’t need to hear this shit. It was long past due to set the record straight. “You think you know my dick so well… what’s tattooed on it?” It was a long shot, seeing as my brother had ten years to get it removed.
“Inch marks. Nine for each god-damned inch.”
“Poppy?”
Her mouth hung open. Then it was like the sun came out and shone on the land after a heavy thunderstorm rolled into the distance. “You don’t have anything on your dick.”
“Prove it,” Lily dared.
“Don’t have to.” I rolled up my sleeve and flashed my prison tats at her. “Does my twin Andrew have these?” I knew for a fact that he didn’t. We’d stripped his coat when searching him.
Her mouth dropped open slightly. “Twin?”
“Yeah, identical except he’s a douche bag.
He’s an asshole who likes picking up hookers when his wife is out of town.
But when he’s broke, he takes them much younger.
Picks ‘em up at bars. Goes to a motel and ditches them there when he’s done.
He likes to disable their car, too.” I held the matchbook up in the air. “Does the Leisure Inn ring a bell?”
Her face paled. “He’s married? Oh God. I’ve become my mother.” She collapsed onto her ass in the middle of her broken shit. Poppy began picking up the strewn clothes and piling them into her truck.
Lily rocked in place, holding her stomach. “I don’t feel good.”
“I hope you don’t. You put your sister through hell.”
Poppy walked past us with her mouth twisted shut. When she returned to put the armload of crap into her truck she kept her voice low. “I don’t need you fighting my battles. If I want to bitch at my sister, I will. Right now? Let’s get her home where she’ll be safer.”
“She’s milking this.”
Poppy paused. “Probably. But let’s be the bigger person here and let her. Remember, she’s barely eighteen.”
“And when she’s twenty-five and still pulling this shit?” My voice got a little too loud. Lily moaned and sobbed as she kept up her theatrics.
Right then Jewel came out. “And who’s going to give me my car back?”
Poppy tossed her armload into the bed of the truck and whirled on her. “That isn’t your car. My father, our father bought it for her, not you.”
I’d never seen Poppy so angry. Funny, she’d let Lily slide on everything, but Jewel? No.
Sprout reached around Jewel and waved a hand between them. “Yo, flag on the play, back up. Ten yards for unsportsmanlike conduct and all that fucking shit.”
To insure everyone listened, Griz and I flanked our respective corners and guided the women apart.
“I need a car!” Jewel kicked gravel at Lily.
“Why don’t you go fuck someone for one!” Poppy tried to scramble out of my hold and was doing a good job of it until I wrapped around her and picked her up. Her feet kicked in the air.
“I think I will. How about it, Andrew? I’m free. You got cash?” Jewel stared right at me.
“You fucked my brother, not me.”
Sprout snapped his fingers and said to Jewel, “You know only brothers get a pass, where’s our percent?”
“They look the same.” Jewel’s mouth clammed shut as she indicated me.
Meanwhile, Lily moaned again and then puked into the dirt.
“Put me down!” Poppy practically bit my arm off. I let her go, and she ran to Lily to help her move to the shaded grass by her truck.
“God damn bitch is probably high on my stash.” Jewel wasn’t helping with anything except escalating the insanity. Worse? She didn’t move a muscle to help Lily.
“I want to go home.” Lily sobbed into Poppy’s chest.
And Poppy let her. She smoothed back her hair and rocked her as Jewel spit out vile lies.
I motioned to Sprout and Griz to finish moving Lily’s shit into the truck.
Meanwhile, I fished a tarp out of a junk pile near Jewel’s hovel and used what I could to tie it over the loose clothes and crap we’d collected.
It all smelled like Jewel’s mobile home.
There was a musty-tang to the odor. Like bad dirt weed mixed with mold, old sex, and smelly shoes.
It wasn’t that far removed from the RV I’d slept in a couple of nights.
“I think that’s everything,” Griz said.
Poppy helped Lily into the truck. She looked at me like this was goodbye. And I couldn’t let it be that way. “I’ll follow and help unload. Guys?”
“Sure thing.” Sprout said.
“I’m calling the cops on all of you for stealing my shit.” Jewel still hadn’t quit.
We looked at each other, deciding whether to take her seriously or not. Finally, Sprout ordered Griz to remain as a threat to Jewel should she do something stupid like ratting on Destroyers.
Two hours later, Lily was in her room, clean, but tired, and Poppy had started laundry.
Sprout stood in the living room with me as we discussed next steps. “Later when shit settles, we’ll take a little ride. Maybe hit up that nice brick rancher on Sherwood with the green trim and the cute bird mailbox, what do you say?”
Poppy froze in the arch between the living room and kitchen. “You’re not going to go after your brother, are you?”
Sprout played innocent. “Naw, we’re just goofing around, right, Smoke?”
I stared at him for a full minute. I had to stop doing stupid shit. “Getting even with him is what lost me ten years. I’m out.”
I didn’t have to look, because I could feel Poppy’s smile.
Sprout arched an eyebrow. “It’s like that?”
Yeah, it was. “I wanna be here for my girl and her family, if she’ll have me.” I cast a glance over my shoulder to Poppy. She scrunched up her nose and nodded.
There was a crash that emanated from the hallway. Poppy was faster than both of us. Lily was on the floor, shaking and sweaty. A photo of her and Poppy was on the floor. I picked it up and moved it to the side.
“She’s burning up.” Poppy ran to the bathroom to get a cloth.
“Probably ate something at Jewel’s.”
I glared at Sprout. “Make yourself useful. Call an ambulance or some shit.”
“Whoa, I was kidding. Really?”
I picked Lily up and carried her to Poppy’s truck. Poppy followed me and grabbed her keys as I struggled to get the door open and move the baseball bat out of the cab so we could all fit. I yelled at Sprout. “Not enough time for an ambulance. She’s unconscious. I’ll ride with Poppy to help.”
“Dude, I’m following on the bike. The cops try to pull you over, don’t stop, I’ll deal with them. Go!” Things like that made Sprout more of a brother to me than my own.
Meanwhile, I had more to worry about. Poppy had frozen in place. Her face a picture of heartbreak and fear. “Poppy, are you okay?”
She nodded and jumped into the driver’s side.