Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
S aint…
“Yeah, I need some help,” I said over the line to LaCroix on the other end.
“What’s up? Velina, okay?”
“Yeah, she’s good. She’s real good. She may have just seized us a real opportunity here, but it’s gonna take some leverage,” I said.
“What’s that?” LaCroix asked.
I explained the situation. About how one of the Bayou Brethren had beat the fuckin’ brakes off of his woman, done her down and dirty – all because she wouldn’t get doped up for his pleasure. About how she was in recovery and how Velina had taken a liking to her. About how Velina was sure she wanted out and how, if we provided a clear path out of Dodge and got her set up somewhere, how she may be willing to trade us pertinent information on the Bayou Bitches in exchange.
LaCroix listened on the other end of the line and was quiet for a minute.
“Let me call the Florida boys and see if they might be willing to take in a stray,” he said, and I felt a slow grin overtake the lower half of my face.
“You read my fuckin’ mind,” I said.
If anyone was going to be sympathetic to the cause of keeping someone who wanted to stay clean, clean , it was the boys of the Kraken MC. They’d helped their little lost chick who’d gotten sucked into the worst of the underworld of human trafficking get clean when those evil fucks had been using heroin as a means to keep the girls in their clutches docile.
If anyone could help shelter this chick from that life, it would be them.
“Get over to ‘em, take Chainsaw with you. He should be up by now.”
“Will do,” I said, and just as soon as I got off the phone with LaCroix, I dialed Chainsaw up.
“ Fuck,” he swore. “I got a big oak to help take down around some powerlines over in Plaquemine Parrish today.” He sighed. “Where you wanna meet up?” he asked.
“Café du Monde on Veterans Boulevard,” I said. “Metairie.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know where it is. Be there as soon as I can.”
“Thanks,” I said.
We met up and headed to the pin on the map where Velina was. When I texted that we’d arrived, she was waiting on the front porch of a dilapidated little one-story apartment building set in a strip along the road. We found street parking around the corner and took ourselves quickly into the place.
“Where’s she at?” Chainsaw asked, and Velina shook her head.
“Resting,” she said. “I’m cleaning up the wreckage in here. Have a seat.” She indicated the living room, where a broom and dustpan rested against one of the chairs, while the trash can from the kitchen rested next to a broken coffee table with its lid off.
“Jesus, he put her through the coffee table?” Chainsaw asked.
“Yep,” she said, her face carefully schooled into something neutral, which told me she was masking a fine burning rage. Only way a fire of that magnitude was stoked in a woman was when some seriously foul shit went down.
“Raped her too, I reckon,” I said, and nothing about her expression really changed as she took up the broom and swept in short strokes over the area rug to gather up some of the shattered glass and broken pieces of whoever this girl’s life was.
“Yep,” was all she said in the same tightly restrained tone.
“Shit,” Chainsaw swore softly. “She gonna be okay?” he asked.
Velina leveled him with a look and told him what the girl had said to her. “She said it wasn’t the worst thing to ever happen to her.”
Chainsaw and I exchanged a look.
“And she’s willing to help us out?” I asked.
Velina took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I really hope so,” she said. “She’s scared as hell, and I can’t say I blame her.”
“Motherfucker,” Chainsaw muttered and hung his head.
She didn’t know… I’d gathered what she’d told me on the phone was what she would like to happen, and it was all totally within reason and doable.
“LaCroix put in a call for us. We’re just waiting to hear back, but I’m sure what you want is totally within the realm of possibility,” I said.
“What does she want?” Chainsaw asked, referring to the woman in the other room whose place we stood in, his hands on his hips.
“To stay clean,” Velina said. “To make enough money she doesn’t have to fucking strip anymore if she doesn’t want to. She wants some fucking peace. ”
“Easy, there darlin’,” Chainsaw said. “We’re on the same side.”
“No, I know,” Velina said, stopping her sweeping and sighing, pinching the bridge of her nose.
“We’ll make it happen,” I said. “We just need to hear what she’s got to say and go from there.”
Velina nodded, and Chainsaw and I set about helping out in cleaning up, mostly by taking the wrecked coffee table out of the picture and out the door in the back. There was a small parking lot back here with a dumpster in the back corner.
We made quick work, just in case Singer’s man decided he wanted to put in an “I’m sorry” appearance. We’d much rather get the drop on him rather than the other way around.
By the time we were done with cleanup and Velina had made coffee, we heard stirring in the back bedroom. Chainsaw and I took seats in the living room while Velina finished up in the kitchen. This beat-to-fucking-hell blonde woman came moving slowly down the hall, hugging herself. She froze at the sight of me and Chainsaw and called, “Louie?”
Velina came around out of the kitchen with a couple coffee mugs and handed one to each of us boys before going over to the girl.
“It’s okay,” she soothed. “That one there is my man, Saint, and that’s Chainsaw,” she told her.
“Um, hi,” the blonde said, trembling in fear.
“Hi,” Chainsaw and I said in unison.
“Come sit down, sweetheart,” Chainsaw said, gesturing at the chair open beside us.
She crept into the room like a frightened cat and looked like hell, her pretty face swollen and fucked up with a big Quasimodo shiner on one side.
“I’m Temperance,” she said. “I mean, that’s my real name… ironic, I know.”
Velina smiled and said, “I like that much better than Singer.”
She went back to the kitchen as Temperance tucked herself into the chair and drew her knees up to her chest.
“So, um, what happens now?” she asked.
“You give us information, and we get you out,” I said.
“Just like that?” she asked.
“Just like that,” Chainsaw affirmed.
She looked terrified, and Velina asked, “How do you take your coffee, honey?”
“There’s flavored creamer in the fridge,” Temperance answered.
We were all silent for a time while Velina fixed up a cup of Joe for Temperance and herself.
When she brought it out to her, Temperance took it with shaking hands, damn near sloshing hot coffee out of the mug.
“Easy, you’re okay. We’re not gonna hurt you,” Chainsaw said gently and I swallowed a mouthful of coffee, unsure of what to say that would help.
“So how does this work?” she asked. “I tell you a whole bunch of things about the Bayou Brethren, and you do what? Use it to kill them?”
“That’s about the right of it,” I told her.
She sniffed and looked into her cup as though it held the answers there.
“You’re asking me to sign people’s death warrant, you know that, right?”
“Can I ask you something?” Chainsaw asked in a conciliatory tone.
She looked to him, her battered face pathetic, and nodded once.
“What have these people done for you? Hmm?” he asked.
She stared, her blue eye rapt on him, and blinked slowly, the wheels in her head turning.
“That’s what I thought,” he said quietly, leaning back in his seat.
She looked ill, and I hated it for her – but the truth fuckin’ hurt sometimes. I just hoped it hurt enough to motivate her into doing something about it.
This was one hell of a gamble, a hell of a play.
My phone rang, and I answered it.
“Yeah,” I said.
“A couple of the Kraken boys are on their way out here to collect the girl,” LaCroix said. “Have her pack some bags. If she’s got a cage, have Velina drive it and her here to the club, pull around back. We’ll get her all taken care of.”
“Copy that,” I said and hung up.
“That was LaCroix,” I said.
“Yeah, no, I heard,” Temperance said. “Who are the Kraken?” she asked.
“Club out of Florida,” I answered. “We help each other out from time to time. They’re willing to help us out and take you someplace safe. Take you on out there to Ft. Royal, Florida – start a new life for yourself. All you have to do is tell us what you know about the fucktards who did this to you, and you’re home free.”
“How can I trust you?” she asked quietly.
“Short answer? You got any other choice?” I asked.
“You’re not trusting them,” Velina intervened. “You’re trusting me … or Louie. We’re the same people. You know?” she said.
“I mean, I don’t know,” she whispered. “You’ve been lying to me this whole time!” She was getting upset, but she wasn’t wrong.
“Either way, you can’t stay here. That asshole is liable to come back. Go pack yourself a couple of bags. We’ll get you out,” Chainsaw said.
“You’ve got your choice between him and us,” Velina said. “And I promise, we haven’t hurt you, and we’re not going to. Neither are the Kraken. For real, we help you, then you help us, okay?”
Temperance stared at Velina, and it was my turn to intercede.
“Do what he says, honey. We’ll get you out first, then worry about the rest.”
“You have until you finish your coffee to decide,” Velina said, seeing she was overwhelmed.
“Thanks,” she said, and the confusion was apparent. She was struggling, but I felt good about things. Like we were winning.
We all worked on drinking our coffee, finishing in silence. Velina gathered our cups and took them to the kitchen to wash and dry them by hand.
Chainsaw went back with Temperance to stand at her door and make sure she didn’t pull anything like send a text or make a call. Velina and I waited in the living room when a knock fell at the door. I stepped quietly and carefully into the hallway out of sight with a soft nod at my girl to get it.
She nodded back, and adrenaline spiked. I pulled out my collapsible baton from its spot on my belt and put a finger to my lips as I looked down the hallway at Chainsaw to signal him to keep quiet and to keep Temperance quiet.
We had no idea who was on the other side of that door…