Page 34 of Dark Alleys

I was sitting at my tiny kitchen table eating toast and cherry jam and drinking black coffee when Neil called. “Hey, bro.”

“Hope I didn’t wake you up.”

“Nope. Been up a while. Cindy said you found her a place.”

“Yep. I’m going to move her today. Can you help me and Cage?”

“Sure. Give me the where and when.”

“We’re on our way down from Arlington now and we should be at the shelter by eleven or so. I have some second-hand furniture rounded up and Mick and Annie have some too.”

“Okay. Meet you at the shelter at eleven.”

“Thanks, Lukas, and thanks for all your work on Cindy’s case.”

“No problem.

My Sunday just got busy. No time to think about Regan, and that’s a good thing.

Rosedale Women’s Shelter. Rosedale. Austin.

I arrived at the shelter at ten to eleven and Neil was already there with his bodyguard, a former Navy SEAL named Cage Rutledge.

The two of them were helping Cindy load her stuff into the truck. She didn’t have much. The sheriff’s department made damned sure of that. That by-the-book dickwad didn’t let her take a thing from her old place—not even the baby’s diapers or formula she’d already paid for.

Cindy had zero dollars, and she needed the baby’s stuff. That’s all she asked for and that jerk sheriff refused to let her go in.

That burned my ass more than a little bit.

One of the women who ran the shelter for Neil held Flint while Cindy was busy loading their stuff.

The back of Neil’s pink truck held a white crib and dresser, the parts of another bed, and a small table, but the whole works didn’t look like enough to fill up an apartment.

“We’re all set, Lukas.” Neil handed me an address. “This is where we’re going. Mom is meeting us there.”

I glanced at the location. “That ain’t far from Aunt Gail’s house.”

Neil nodded. “We’ll stop in. I haven’t seen her in long enough.”

I smiled thinking how happy she’d be to see Neil standing on her doorstep.

Montana House. Chestnut Hill. Austin.

When I got to the address, I got a surprise. With a few bucks from his inheritance, Mick Sullivan had bought a run-down six-plex and had it renovated and turned into a low rent facility for Neil’s shelter victims.

Huh.

The place was called ‘Montana House’ and that had to be in memory of Mick’s girlfriend. Neil’s girlfriend too…for a while. They sort of shared her in a different sort of way—both of them looking out for her.

A complicated situation and a devastating loss for Mick. I could see him doing this in Montana’s memory. Just like him to do something unexpected. The guy always surprised me.

Mick had Annie and Davey with him when he pulled into the building parking lot. A bigger load of furniture in the back of Mick’s truck than Neil had.

With my arm out of commission, I wasn’t much good to carry sofas or anything heavy, but I helped out where I could.

Mostly spent time talking to Cindy so she wouldn’t be scared. She was scared moving into the shelter, then she got used to it, and now she was scared moving into a place on her own.

Her life had been changing pretty fast during the past week.

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