Page 65 of Minus

“Oh, it’s nothing. I tripped outside, it’s no big deal. I just need a wet paper towel and a bandage, and I’ll be fine,” I said.

“Nonsense, you come with me to the first-aid room and I’ll take care of everything.”

“First-aid room?” I asked.

“It’s better if you don’t argue with her or put up any kind of fight,” Duke said. “She looks sweet… but she’s a mean woman and she always gets her way.”

“Randal Urias Hill, if I find out you had something to do with this, you’re gonna find out just how mean I can be…”

“Promises, promises,” Duke said.

“Don’t you sass me.”

“Yes ma’am,” Duke replied, sheepishly.

I smiled at their adorable exchange before Pearl gently took me by the elbow and led us out of the room.

“Come on, dear, we’ll stop off in the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee,” she said.

“Can I help with anything?” I asked.

“Well, aren’t you just the sweetest thing? I can’t wait to get to know each other and talk all about these horrible men.”

Minus

The moment theladies left the room, Duke turned to me. “Buy you a drink?”

“It’s a little early, isn’t it?” I replied.

“Yup. That’s what the coffee’s for, but that ain’t ready yet, so we’ll just have to make do ‘till then,” he said smiling.

“Well, when you put it that way. Two fingers over ice, please.”

We walked to Duke’s den and I took a seat on the sofa as he poured us two bourbons.

“I take it from the fact that you and Cricket were smiling, despite the gunplay, that you two are on good terms again?” he asked.

“For now, I guess,” I replied, still unsure of where westood.

“Well, son, the way I see it, us men are always floatin’ around in some sort of state of grace when it comes to women. The trick is to extend the periods in between the times they’re hoppin’ mad at us.”

“To extended grace periods,” I said, and raised my glass.

“And may the whiskey flow when the grace don’t,” Duke said, clinking my glass.

I took a sip and allowed myself a moment of peace and pleasure before digging back in with Duke. “Let me ask you a question,” I said.

Duke nodded. “Fire away.”

“In all the time I’ve been here, you never thought to mention that you knew Cutter?”

“You never asked,” Duke said plainly.

“We’ve had a hundred conversations about the man, and you never once brought up a story from your past, or said, “Ya know, the thing about Cutter is…” You never said a word. You’d just tell me some old story about a Greek fisherman, or quote Beckett.”

“Well, I don’t know whatyou’dcall that, son, but where I come from, that right there is a conversation.”

“So, the fact that you’re affiliated with the Saints goes beyond Savannah, not to mention leads all the way back to Cutter, simply never came up during one of thoseconversations?”

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