Page 97 of Bourbon & Blood

“Right back at ‘cha,” I said softly, and he punched the doorframe to the bathroom lightly, giving it a couple of taps before disappearing.

I sighed and surveyed the rest of the bathroom. If I put my mind to it, I’d have this room done in no time and could maybe take a rest and go through and shelve my books, which is honestly what I really wanted to do.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-FIVE

La Croix…

Everyone gathered around the big metal industrial table and took their seats.

“To order, I guess.” I smacked the gavel on its disc. Never much liked the thing. Too citizen justice for my taste.

“So, this is to catch us up on the situation with your lady, right?” Chainsaw asked from down the table.

“Well, first off, I want t’ thank you all for everything you’ve done so far for me an’ my little Alina,” I said. “But yeah, the shit’s got real and Hex an’ me figured now would be a good time to get everyone on the same page.”

“That an’ we wanted to ask the hivemind if y’all had any good ideas for next steps, because this sure all is one gigantic shitstorm,” Hex said.

“How bad we talkin’?” Saint asked.

“Hex,” I said.

He looked over and gave a nod, since I gave him the floor. He picked up his glass and sipped whatever he had in it and swallowed, stretching his lips in that rictus grin of a smooth burn going down on first take. He cleared his throat and said, “Yesterday, I had to run La Croix’s ol’ lady all the way out to St. Mary’s Parish to ID her friend’s body,” he said. “Now, I got to talkin’ to the examiner on the preliminary findings and whew.” He huffed a breath. “Boy. Mm-mm-mm.” He shook his head.

“Has to be pretty bad for you to go on that way about it,” Cypress observed.

“That little girl didn’t deserve t’ die like that,” Hex said. “The doc said she was strangled to death, or so the killer thought. He found out different when he broke her leg to fit her ass in the damn suitcase. She said Maya fought like a wildcat, that there was skin under her nails, and that she’d definitely been raped during the first attempt to choke the life out of her. Dude’s jizz was up inside her and she had ‘signs of vaginal trauma.’”

“Shit.” Louie looked a little green around the gills and I can’t say as I blamed him.

“He broke her neck the second time around, her hyoid bone was snapped, probably from the first time he choked her out. Anyway, she didn’t go quiet and the dude that killed her? Brutal is an understatement.” He waved all the technical shit away. “He put her through all kinds of hell and bein’ a pro? I have to think he did that shit on purpose for his own gratification, you know what I mean? Anyway, he broke her legs to get her body folded up in the suitcase, used it to get her out of the hotel, like we figured,” he said, eyeing me. “But the dumb fucklefther body in the suitcase when he dumped it - which is how a couple o’ gator hunters found her. They hooked it with their treble hook, thinkin’ they got themself a moderately good-sized gator and pulled the damn thing up on their boat. An’ well… the rest there is history.”

“Fucking dumbass,” Axeman muttered. I agreed on the principal of it. You want the gators to disappear a body for you? You had to make it accessible. It was a big mistake on his part, but a fortuitous one on ours that the gators couldn’t get into the Tupperware container of a hard-shelled suitcase he had her in.

“Hope to hell she put the hurt on ‘im,” Bennie said, staring off into space and then said, “Maybe she did. Enough that it was too much of a hassle for him to unpack her out there in the swamp.”

“Good possibility,” I said, having not thought of that. “I hope you’re right.”

“What else?” Col asked from down the table. “Anything? Or is that where we’re at?”

I heaved a sigh and looked at Axe who looked back at me.

“Ol’ Bashaw’s campaign manager had some interesting things to say about ol’ daddy dearest,” Axe said and I nodded.

“Oh yeah? What’s that corrupt fuck into?” Chainsaw asked.

“Sellin’ his baby girl to climb the political ladder,” I said with a sigh.

“Do what now?” Chainsaw’s eyes went as big as saucers.

“Seems ol’ Maya was no stranger to bein’ a whore,” Axe said tiredly. “Daddy had her turnin’ tricks with some high rollers since she was somewhere around six years old.”

“What the fuck?Six?” Cy’s jaw dropped.

“Anything for political gain,” I grumbled.

“Jesus fuck, these assholes.” Saint huffed an incredulous, angry, scoffing laugh. A single barked note that was an iron spike, pinning Maya’s secret pain to the center of our table for us to pore over and make some decisions on what we was gonna do to serve some justice for her. If my boys chose to, that is. But judging by the looks on their faces? Oh yeah, justice was absolutely fixin’ to be served.

“The whore that daddy made her… that’s what she called it here.”

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