Page 18 of A Brother At My Back

Hayley led us to a booth and Tiff, still hiding behind that glossy fall of hair said, “It’s okay,” but left it to me to elaborate.

“Tiff is a new friend,” I said for lack of anything else to come up with. It wasn’t no one’s business why we were really together, now was it?

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Tiff. I’ll be back to take your order in a second.”

“Thanks,” Tiffany murmured and opened her menu.

I let her hide behind it until some of the tension left the set of her shoulders and she looked like she’d made a decision.

“You knew it was coming, I reckon,” I said and she sighed, setting the menu down and looking at me plaintively.

“You want to know everything, I take it?”

“Not everything, just what you want to tell me. I don’t need to pry.”

Actually, I did want to know everything, but I didn’t want to scare her into clamming up. Easy does it, we had time. I didn’t know whether this bloke would bother after he got out, but judging by the state of her face, it wasn’t likely that he’d ease off and go away. It was personal what he’d done to her, and any man willing to go that far against his woman truly thought that way. That she was his woman, to do with what he pleased. Some blokes just didn’t get that wasn’t how things worked.

“It was my best friend Delia’s birthday, and I wanted to go out but Silas didn’t…”

She told me about what he did to her face, but she wouldn’t look at me while she did it. I felt angry for her, and it solidified my idea I’d had that morning, the one that’d resurfaced while watching her dance.

“Real piece of work, that one,” I said and she nodded, but still wouldn’t look at me. Instead, she stared fixedly at some invisible point out in the diner.

Hayley came by and took our order, but it was pretty clear by the brittle, mechanical way that Tiffany put hers in, she didn’t have much of an appetite left. I felt bad for that.

“So what happens now?” she asked quietly.

“How do y’ mean?”

“Well, he gets out tomorrow, and you can’t be my shadow forever.”

“Too right, I had a few ideas about that.”

“Yeah, like what?”

Hayley drifted over and set down a cup and saucer of hot water and another saucer with a little metal teapot on it with more hot water. Tiffany selected a tea bag from the little box of them at the edge of the table and set about fixing her cup with honey and lemon.

I nodded thanks when Hayley returned in short order to top up my coffee, and with a smile, she left us alone again.

“First thing, we’re gonna teach you how to shoot. That’s the easiest, but what are you going to do if you can’t get to the gun we’ll get you?”

“Die, probably. Horribly… painfully.” She looked grim, but not at all resigned. Anger painted her pretty face and I smiled.

“Not if I can help it. What are your days off?”

“Today and tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday.”

“Sweet as, mine too.”

She frowned. “What exactly do you do, anyway?”

“Bouncer at a cowboy bar; took over for one of my bros who started a family. Didn’t have time for it anymore.”

“Ah,” she raised her cup, “To bar workers and strippers, at least the schedules are making it fairly easy for us.”

“I’ll drink to that,” I said with a grin and clicked my coffee mug against hers.

“So, what exactly did you have in mind?” she asked.

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