• Six •
· Six ·
We needed to start packing.
Briar
Dovie was curled up beside me in bed, asleep, when I woke up this morning. For a moment, I was confused until I moved, and the pain in my shoulder brought it all back to me. The party, Jameson, the gunshot, and Storm. I just wasn’t sure how I had gotten in bed. The last thing I remembered was texting Dovie that I had been hurt and needed Maurice, our nighttime security guard, to help me up to the apartment when I arrived. Hopefully, that was what had happened. I’d fallen asleep while Storm was driving me home.
Trying to make coffee with one hand was more complicated than I would have imagined. At least it was distracting me from all the things slowly coming back to me that I wanted to forget. Mostly what I’d said to Storm in his SUV until he turned up the radio. Thank God for that. Except I hadn’t been able to stay awake when I wasn’t talking, and now, I wasn’t sure if Maurice had brought me upstairs or if Storm had.
Dovie’s footsteps alerted me that she was walking into the kitchen. I spun around to see her sleepy expression.
Her eyes went to the sling my arm was in, and then she signed, “What happened?”
I walked over and pulled out a chair from the table and motioned for her to sit while I took the seat across from it. She did as I’d asked without question, then stared up at me, waiting.
“Jameson was—or is—in trouble with some dangerous men. They came to get him at the party, and he thought I was with them and shot me, but one of the men realized it before it happened and moved me out of the way, but the bullet grazed my shoulder. I’m stitched up, and it did cut into some tissue, but mostly, I’m just sore, and it burns. Nothing serious.” It all came out in a rush, but I’d been trying to reassure her.
Her eyes were wide as she stared at me. “He shot at you?” she signed, clearly horrified.
I nodded. “Yep. But it’s fine. I promise.”
“We need to move. He can come here and shoot you again,” she signed.
I doubted he was still breathing. “Those men who came to get him are taking care of him. He won’t be a problem. But I do think it might be best if we move. I’m sorry about that. I know we’ve not been here that long.”
She stood up, shoving her chair back. “We need to move today,” she signed, looking panicked.
“We can’t move today. I signed a six-month lease. I’ll have to find someone to sublet to or see if there is any way I can buy myself out of it. Then, I’ve got to figure out where we are headed next.”
Dovie looked toward the door to the apartment as if someone were going to burst through at any moment and shoot me. I shouldn’t have told her, but I also didn’t think it was smart to lie to her. She had to know the truth if I was going to keep us safe. Much like me, her childhood had been taken from her at an early age, and that wasn’t something you could get back. Once your innocence was gone, it never returned.
“Who brought me inside last night?” I asked her.
She looked back at me and signed, “M,” which was her short answer for Maurice.
I nodded, relieved.
“You can’t play the guitar with your arm like that,” she signed.
“I know. I’m going to sell the things that Jameson gave me. That should help for a while. As long as they aren’t knockoffs.”
From now on, I was going to have my gifts checked for authenticity before continuing an arrangement with a man. If I had to do this, then I needed to make sure I would have the payoff in the end.
“We could live somewhere less expensive,” Dovie signed. “You don’t have to do this anymore. You can perform in bars for money.”
I shook my head. “That’s not enough.”
It would be enough to live, but not enough to stay somewhere with security like this, and it wouldn’t pay for the help I wanted to get her when she turned eighteen.
Roger had taken her innocence. He’d left her with the same demons I fought daily. I’d be damned if he was going to take her voice too. She’d get it back. I’d do everything I could to make sure of it. That was something I could get back for her, and I would do it. If I had to continue dating wealthy men I knew I had no future with, then so be it. There was no saving me. Not anymore.
But Dovie, I could give her another life, and I would.
“I can keep myself safe. We can go far away. Out of the South. Somewhere they’ll never find me.”
There was no “they” anymore. Just her mother. But telling her that I’d killed Roger was more than she needed to know. She didn’t need to know I was capable of taking a life. She wasn’t old enough for that kind of information yet.
My phone rang, and I slid my hand into the pocket of my sweatpants to get it out. Front-desk security lit the screen.
“Hello?” I said, clutching the phone tighter than necessary.
“Miss Landry, it’s Dan. You have a visitor. A Mrs. …” He paused.
“Maeme,” the familiar voice said in the background.
My eyes shot to Dovie.
“Uh, Maeme,” Dan, the daytime security guard, said.
I couldn’t turn that nice woman away, but I also wasn’t letting her see Dovie. Maeme seemed sweet, but she had the Southern Mafia in her house, calling them her boys, with a doctor’s office in her basement with legit hospital equipment in it. She was a part of them even if she seemed like a perfect Southern grandmother.
“Yes, uh, send her up. Thank you, Dan,” I replied, ending the call and pointing to Dovie’s bedroom door. “Go get inside the closet. Take a book and don’t come out until I come to get you.”
“Who is that?” she signed, not moving.
I put my hand on her back and began pushing her toward her room as I scanned the one we were in for any sign of a teenage girl. “I think she’s the grandmother of one of those dangerous guys or all of them, but she was nice to me. She’s who took care of me and got the doctor to stitch me up. She’s here to check on me. That’s all. Stay hidden.”
Dovie didn’t look convinced, but she nodded, then went into her room.
“Lock the door,” I called out when she closed the door.
When I heard the click of the lock, I hurried back to the living room and did a quick check of things. I grabbed a pair of Dovie’s fluffy pink socks and stuffed them under the sofa, although those could have been mine. After straightening the throw over the chair, I ran my hands through my hair just as the doorbell rang.
This was fine. She wasn’t here to search my apartment. She was checking on me. I took a deep breath and forced myself to relax before going to open the door.
Maeme stood on the other side with a basket in one hand and a friendly smile. “Good morning,” she said, stepping past me to come inside. “I came to check on the patient and bring some baked goods. There’s also a container of my chicken salad and fresh croissants, along with a cucumber pasta salad.”
She’d brought me food.
A real smile curled my lips as I looked at the basket and back to her face. “Thank you. That’s so kind of you.”
“You’re welcome. Now, let me see that shoulder,” she said, walking over to the end table in the living room and setting the basket down. “I know Drew is gonna check on it in a week, but I didn’t want you leaving last night, as you well know. I wasn’t gonna be able to rest my mind until I laid eyes on you and made sure you were okay. I also brought you some eight-hundred-milligram ibuprofen for the pain. They won’t make you feel all drugged, but they will kill the pain. I suspect you’re hurting real bad this morning.”
She was moving my shirt over and pulling back the bandage as she spoke. I stood there and let her because I didn’t imagine many people argued with this woman.
“Looks good. But then Drew is the best,” she said, stepping back from me. “Now, let me take this food to the kitchen. I’ll put the cold stuff away and fix you some breakfast. The blueberry muffins in here are nice and warm still.”
She started in the direction of the kitchen. “This way?” she asked, not slowing down.
“Uh, yes,” I replied, then hurried after her. I hadn’t checked the kitchen for things that might be Dovie’s.
“Looks like you made some fresh coffee. I hope you like yours strong. I need me a cup too. I prefer it to be thick enough to eat with a spoon.” She laughed. “Not really, but that’s what Gabriel, that was my husband, used to say about my coffee. He liked his weak for such a powerful man.”
The box of Lucky Charms sat on the counter, along with the strawberry Pop-Tarts that were Dovie’s favorite. But adults ate those things too. It wasn’t a real clue that I didn’t live alone.
Maeme picked up the Pop-Tarts and looked at me disapprovingly before setting them back down. “This is not real food. I’m glad I brought you some muffins if this is what you were gonna eat. Even my apple pie is better than eating this.”
She tsked, then opened the basket and began to unload all the things she’d mentioned, along with some cupcakes, cookies, pound cake, and what looked like banana pudding. Dovie was going to think she’d died and gone to heaven with all this.
“Maeme,” I said in disbelief. “This is a lot. You didn’t have to do all this.”
“Are you going to eat it?” she asked me.
“Yes,” I replied quickly.
“Then, that’s what matters. I like to cook and make food for others. Lord knows you could eat some more food. If you’re eating Pop-Tarts and still that skinny, you must have a hell of a metabolism.”
I hadn’t touched a Pop-Tart in years, but I wasn’t telling her that. Just like I couldn’t eat all the sweets she’d brought. Although I was tasting one of everything before Dovie enjoyed it all.
Maeme opened the fridge and put the salads inside. She didn’t seem to notice the strawberry milk, sodas, the MM’s yogurt, string cheese, and Lunchables that Dovie loved. She was going to think I had the appetite of a child.
When she straightened and closed the door to the fridge, she looked around at the cabinets. “Now, we just need coffee cups.”
I walked over to the right one before she started going through them to see how few dishes we had. When you moved a lot, you didn’t keep real dishes and cook wear. We had the bare minimum. Including coffee cups. My collection of cups from every city we had ever visited was one of the few things I let myself keep. The box I used to pack them was tucked away in the pantry.
Taking down two cups, I handed one I had bought at a Luby’s in Fort Worth to Maeme while I kept one from Café Du Monde in New Orleans to use. She didn’t seem to notice the cups as she filled my cup, then her own.
“Do you doctor yours up?” she asked me.
I grinned and reached for a packet of sweetener, then opened the fridge to get out my sugar-free caramel creamer.
“I see that you do,” she replied, walking over to the table.
She sat down in the chair that Dovie had been in earlier, then took a drink from her Luby’s cup.
“Now, tell me what it is you do for a living. This is a nice apartment complex. Good and safe.” There was only approval in her tone.
I finished stirring my coffee before looking at her. Had Storm not told her about my singing or the men I dated? Did she just want to hear it from me?
“I play guitar and sing at a place not far from here, called Highwater,” I explained.
She raised her eyebrows. “You play and sing? I’d love to hear it.”
I laughed, then took another sip of my coffee, hoping she didn’t demand I perform for her now.
“Why were you with Jameson Chester? He’s engaged to Sol Mercer, is he not?”
I shouldn’t be surprised by her direct line of questioning. It still threw me off guard though. I hadn’t thought she’d just ask me about it like this. I blinked several times, then decided that with Maeme, I would have to be as honest as I could without telling her about Dovie. She would keep pressing until she thought she knew the whole story, and I needed her to leave. Dovie and I had things to get done today. Now that so many people seemed to know where I lived, moving had just been put first on my list of things I needed to do.
I set my cup on the table and looked Maeme in the eyes. “Yes, he is engaged. However, I was unaware of that when he asked me out. In fact, we had been dating for a couple of weeks before I found out about Sol. Should I have stayed with him? No. But I did. It was a mistake I believe I paid for.”
Maeme studied me, then took a drink of her coffee. “You stayed because he was wealthy.” It wasn’t a question, and we both knew it.
“Yes,” I confirmed.
She set her cup down on the table. “Well, that was easy enough. You’re not one to make excuses, are you?”
“I believe making excuses for yourself is lying to yourself. And the one person I never want to lie to is me.”
She raised her eyebrows slightly. “But lying to others is okay?”
I licked my lips before replying, “Everyone lies about something. To protect themselves. To protect someone they love. Not everyone can handle your truth, and it’s up to you to decide who deserves it and who does not.”
The corner of Maeme’s mouth twitched. “I see. That’s a way to look at it.”
“Am I wrong?” I asked her.
We both knew she had her own secrets.
“No, Briar. I can’t say that you are. But then to protect someone I loved, I would do much worse than tell a lie.”
I nodded my head. “As would I.”
Maeme let out a small laugh and stood up. “I’m glad to see you’re doing well this morning and that you have somewhere safe to live. Storm assured me you did, but I needed to see it for myself. You take care of that wound, and it will heal up nicely,” she said, then walked over to pick up the empty basket. “Enjoy the food and rest. When you’re better, I’ll be sure to come hear you play, wherever that might be,” she replied.
“Highwater,” I repeated since she hadn’t heard me earlier or had forgotten.
She gave me an amused look as she hung the basket on her arm. “We both know you won’t be sticking around here for long.”
I opened my mouth and closed it, unsure how to respond to that.
“At least finish all the food before you take off. It would be a shame to waste it. Especially my banana pudding. I have grown men fighting over it every Tuesday.” She winked and headed for the door.
When she opened it, I found my voice. “Thank you.”
She paused, and I realized she was looking at the Converse that Dovie had left beside the door. Tensing, I waited. It wasn’t like they couldn’t be mine … well, Dovie’s foot was a few sizes bigger, but Maeme wouldn’t study a pair of shoes that closely. Would she?
“If you find yourself needing to leave sooner rather than later,” she said, turning back to me, “you’ll find that the lease you signed here won’t be an issue. In fact, I would bet that it no longer exists.”
I stared at her, trying to figure out what she was telling me. How did the lease no longer exist?
She set the basket down beside the Converse. “I’ll just leave this too. It will hold a good bit of food. Would be a shame to run off and leave it,” she said, then nodded her head before opening the door and walking out of it.
I waited until I heard the elevator ding before letting out a breath I had been holding. Had she suspected anything? Did she know I wasn’t alone? And what had she meant about my lease? None of this made me comfortable. We weren’t safe if someone with her power found out about Dovie. She was a nice woman, but I couldn’t trust her. I couldn’t trust anyone.
We needed to start packing.