Page 11 of Bourbon & Blood

“Anyhow, he got himself stabbed about an hour or so ago, an’ called me up to let me know they was taking him in the ambulance to the hospital there downtown.”

“Alright,” I drawled. “Where’d he get stabbed at?”

“Near as I can tell, his momma’s house.”

“Do we know why?”

“If I had to guess, drugs… money… she ain’t much of a mother near as I can tell. You know the type to come to the life,” he said, and I nodded. Most of the men in with the likes of me and Hex came from broken homes. Hell, I wasn’t any exception to that rule. My momma’d died giving birth to my little sister, who didn’t much make it past a day beyond our mother. My daddy didn’t give two fucks about me and let me know every minute of every day what a pain-in-the-ass burden I was to him and his getting his drink on.

Some of that was on the mend now that I was an adult, but not really at the same time… The Voodoo Bastards was more family than a lot of us had ever known and I had to bet it was for Louie, our prospect. It was time to show him how we looked out for each other.

“His momma the one to stab him?” I asked.

Hex shook his head. “Her boyfriend, not quite Louie’s stepfucker or anything. Ain’t been around long enough for that. Guess she’s only been seein’ this one a few months or whatever.”

“What was Louie doin’ over there?” I asked.

“Bringin’ his momma some groceries,” Hex said and his tone was flat, nonplussed, and I couldn’t tell if he was pissed at Louie or the situation, or what.

I raised an eyebrow.

“I didn’t get a lot,” Hex said. “They were working on him, or whatever. Still don’t know how takin’ your mother groceries ends up in you gettin’ stabbed.”

I sucked my teeth and made a tsking sound while I calculated some things and said, “Well, I’m fixin’ to find out. Take Axeman with you out to the hospital and see what you can get. I’ll take Saint with me an’ go pay dear ol’ mom a visit an’ see what’s what.”

Hex raised an eyebrow at me and asked, “You sure?”

“You think I’m gon’ let it stand?” I asked, and he gave me a slightly feral grin.

“Nah, it’s as it always was and ever been, retribution sure and swift.”

“Get back at me with the details as soon as you can,” I muttered.

“Need to know how far to go on puttin’ the hurt on?” he asked.

“No, I know how far to go with that,” I said and Hex gave me a careful nod.

“You know you should just let Saint and some of the other boys handle it,” he said, and I gave him a look.

He sighed and nodded, saying “Awright, go on an’ do what it is you’re gonna do.”

I nodded. He knew me well enough, and I rarely went too far left of center or did anything out of character on something like this. It was all business as far as I was concerned. I didn’t let much get personal.

“Saint!” I called and Saint came jogging up. “You’re with me,” I said, and he gave a nod.

“On it, boss. I’ll follow your lead.”

I nodded and got back on my bike while Saint jogged on over to his, exchanging a few words with some of the other guys lingering in the yard inside the fence line.

“You watch yourself,” Hex said as a parting shot.

I called out to his back as he walked away, “That’s what I’m bringing Saint for.”

Hex waved over his shoulder and went for the knot of brothers standing around. I fired up my Harley, big and flat black with purple pinstripe detailing that faded into green flourishes. Sharp and lines crisp, my bike stood out as unique unto itself, but not so much as to be ostentatious. I wasn’t into loud and obnoxious. That’d all been Ruth and had helped lead up to his downfall in a way.

Saint fell in beside me and we maneuvered out the gate and down the street on the way down to one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. While the club itself was in the lower ninth ward which had the reputation for being one of the poorest and the roughest, I knew Louie’s momma’s place was somewhere over in the seventh. I didn’t know the exact address, but I’d been out that way once and Louie had pointed it out to some of us as we’d ridden by.

That boy loved his momma dearly, worked at earning a love back that just wasn’t there to be given. I knew it because I’d lived it with my daddy. At a certain point it broke something inside you but Louie wasn’t to that point yet… I didn’t know if he was now, but it didn’t matter. He was on the cusp of earning his full patch with us and was already all but one of us, so this was the last time any shit like this was about to go down with him.

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