12. Char
CHAR
BOOMMMMMMMM!
The sound encapsulated me as my windows rattled. The glasses in my sink tinkered together as my stomach plummeted to the floor. I rushed to the glass pane, pulling the curtain back as I watched a plume of dark smoke rise in the distance.
And in my heart of hearts, I just knew.
“Oh no,” I whispered as I rushed back toward my front door.
I ripped the chair away and threw open the locks. I didn’t even bother with the man on my porch as I rushed down the stairs, booking it down the alleyway I called my home for years. I knew it was them. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but something happened to my boys.
“Char!” Rico exclaimed as he finally caught up to me.
He grasped my arm and whipped me around.
“What!?” I exclaimed. “What in the hell was that? What just happened!?”
Rico shook his head, but the worry in his features was evident. “Why don’t we go back upstairs and?—”
I pulled away from him. “You know what just happened. You know something. Now tell me what the fuck just happened!”
I damn near screeched the last few words of my statement and it caused Rico to take a step back.
I moved with him, stepping forward as he stepped backward until his boots fell against my concrete steps.
He fell onto his ass while I hovered over him, clenching my teeth together as I stared directly into his motherfucking soul.
I was no longer playing games.
“Tell me what I want to know, or I will find a way to make your life a living fucking nightmare. And don’t think I won’t. I’m the sole reason my father is currently rotting in prison. So I suggest you make the right choice, Rico Suave.”
And when he swallowed hard, I knew I had him. “They’re going after Baitfish.”
“Who?”
“Baitfish.”
I tilted my head. “Who’s that?”
“One of our?—”
He swallowed again as the smell of smoke muddied the air around us.
“One of your crew members,” I said plainly.
He nodded. “I was tasked with making sure you were safe while they went after whoever took him. None of us were sure what was going on, and the guys wanted you safe until they found him.”
I pointed behind me. “So what in the motherfuck was that?”
And when Rico blinked back tears, my heart sank into the empty chasm of my gut.
“Oh no,” I whispered.
Rico leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “God, I hope everyone’s all right.”
Something was wrong. I felt it in the air.
I smelled it in the wind that kicked up, wafting that smoke and dust beneath our noses.
I backed away from the man and offered him my hand.
He looked at it for a second as if debating whether or not taking it would kill him.
I wiggled my fingers as he looked up at me, and when he didn’t move, I reached down and grabbed his wrist before helping him to his feet.
There was a sadness that hung all around us like a weighted blanket.
Whatever happened out there filtered through the air like water vapor, and I couldn’t help the tears that sprang to my own eyes.
I turned away from the poor young man and ventured toward the opening of the alleyway that sat in between the bar I once called home and a doctor’s office that rarely saw patients any longer.
I turned my gaze back to Rico. “Open the bar.”
He shook his head as he ran his hands down his leather jacket. “It’s closed until?—”
I rushed him and got into his face. “Open the fucking bar or so help me God I’ll make a run for it just so I can watch those guys beat the shit out of you for pissing me the fuck off.”
I’d never seen a man move so quickly in all my life.
After having to bust in a window just to get inside the fucking place, I walked over to the boards that were nailed into the frame. No wonder we couldn’t shove those motherfuckers open. They were barred from the inside.
“Now what?” Rico asked flatly.
I swirled my finger in the air. “I’m gonna get the lights on. Get those boards off the doors. I want people to walk into whatever entrance they feel comfortable walking in.”
“What exactly are we doing?”
I wiped at the tears continuously springing to my eyes. “The only thing we can. Now let’s go.”
I switched on the lights and watched the empty bar light up.
I headed straight for the kitchen where I proceeded to throw open cupboards and take a peek into DeShawn’s fridges.
I took stock of what we had in the bar. I made my way into the walk-in freezer and snickered at DeShawn’s organization.
Every slice of meat, cooked or otherwise, had dates on them.
He kept specific notes about certain cuts and the marinades he had everything steeping in.
And while I wasn’t the kind of cook that DeShawn was, I got by just fine on my own.
“What are you doing?” Rico asked as he shoved his way into the kitchen.
I pointed to the fridge in the corner. “Pull out some fresh vegetables. I don’t care what.”
“Then what?”
I tossed some frozen burger patties onto the countertop. “Then find a way to get in touch with the guys. Tell them to come here for food and drinks. They can sit and stay as long as they’d like.”
“We don’t have working cells right now.”
That gave me pause as my brow stitched together. “Wait, why?”
It took him a second to answer. “I think I’ve told you too much already.”
I grinned at him before I tossed the walk-in freezer door closed. “Guess I have that effect on people.”
“So what do we do now?”
I continued gathering ingredients from all around the kitchen. “You know how to sling drinks?”
“I can open beer bottles.”
I nodded. “Great. Pull some out and get them into stainless steel buckets. They’re behind the bar, in the lower cabinet beneath the cash register.”
“Fill them with ice and plunk them in, got it,” Rico said as he made his way out of the kitchen.
“Then find a way to get in touch with the guys. Go outside and flag them down if you have to. Let them know there’s food and drinks to be had here.”
“On it!”
I turned on the gas stove, watching the flames ignite.
I rummaged around in the cabinets above my head until I found DeShawn’s personal stash of what he called ‘the good good olive oil.’ I had half a mind to call him and tell him to come help me out, but without many details as to whatever the hell happened, I wasn’t sure if I’d put him in danger.
And with the guys feeling like I needed a guard, I felt it best to keep DeShawn and M.J. out of the loop until it was safe.
Engines roared in the distance as I tossed the burger patties onto the flat top.
Whatever had taken place, I wanted the guys to know that they had a place to go.
Someone to lean on in times of distress.
I sank myself into cooking. Into throwing together a feast fit for kings.
I got the chili going on the back burner and the fries dropping in the fryer while the burgers seared.
You know, after tasting mine, that was.
“Asshole,” I murmured as a soft smile crossed my face.
“Got the beers on the tables and booths,” Rico said as he came up to the kitchen window.
I didn’t bother looking over at him. I had way too many pots and stoves going at once. “You find a way to get in touch with the guys?”
“Not yet.”
I nodded toward the door. “Then go on. Even I hear their engines creeping closer.”
“I can’t leave you. I told them I’d?—”
I peeked over at him. “I’ve got food going on every burner. Does it look like I’m going anywhere?”
“Doesn’t mean I go back on my word.”
I sighed as I pulled away from the food and walked toward him. “I’m not going anywhere, Rico. I’ve already decided that. So you can either help or hurt. Which do you wanna do?”
He blinked. “Fine. But if something happens to you? It ain’t on me.”
I turned back toward the food. “Yep.”
Smells filled the kitchen as I gave all of my attention toward the food sizzling and popping in front of me.
A massive pot of chili bubbled low on the back burner.
Burger patties seared on the flat top, and a mountain of fries crisped up in the fryer.
But there was nothing on the smell of the buffalo wings crisping in the oven.
Mom used to make chili all the time for me as a little girl.
“All right,” I murmured to myself as I placed the last dish on the warmer on the stove top, “time for drinks.”
While Rico did a fantastic job stacking beers into the ice-filled buckets, I knew that not all of the guys were beer drinkers.
So I rummaged around until I found the three massive jug buckets that I knew Miss Lilly hadn’t thrown out like I asked her to after a particularly overindulgent birthday celebration a couple of years ago.
“Thank God she was a packrat,” I said breathlessly.
I rinsed them out and dried them off before I plucked liquors off the mirrored shelves.
I tipped tequila and vodka and whiskey and all sorts of concoctions into the jugs.
Regular margaritas for the partiers with flavor shots they could add at will.
There was a jug with Long Island Iced Tea in it for those who really needed to forget about the day.
And in the third jug was something I had aptly named, ‘forest fire.’
Because it burned so good as it went down and absolutely destroyed your existence an hour later.
I set out glasses to grab and insulated buckets of ice for people to empty at will. I made sure to use our top shelf liquors because I wasn’t sure what kind of grieving or celebration was about to occur. Either way, however, it called for the good stuff.
I’d deal with the guys later if it pissed them off or something.
“They’re coming! I caught them!” Rico exclaimed as he shoved his way through the front door. “They’re maybe two blocks out.”
The rumbling of the floor beneath my feet proved his point and I rushed toward one of the front windows.
I kept the neon signs off, hoping that no one from town would decide to finally give Bottle Grounds a try.
We needed to look like we were closed. Whatever went on, the guys needed some peace.
And as I stood there watching them all filter in, their vacant expressions told me what I needed to know.
We were grieving.
Which meant I was about to be serving a fuckton of guys at once.
“All right, everyone!” I exclaimed as I clapped my hands. “Take a seat wherever you’d like. There’s beer on the tables, cocktails up here in these jugs at the bar, and there’s plenty of food to enjoy.”
I watched them all flop into seats, staring at one another with blank expressions that broke my heart.
“Hey, where’s Bait?” I heard Rico ask behind me.
And when his question was answered with silence, I blinked back tears.
“Help yourselves, boys!” I exclaimed as I clapped my hands. “I’ll come around to take orders in a few minutes!”
I turned toward the kitchen just in time to catch Deac slumping himself into a corner.
A grown man with his legs outstretched and his shoulders rolled forward as he stared at the ground beneath him.
I’d never seen a grown man look defeated before.
Not even my father after they slapped those cuffs on him and hauled him off after the reading of his trial verdict.
Deac looked up at me with that cold, dead stare of his. Staring straight through me. Straight through my body to the other side of the bar.
As if I wasn’t even there.