Page 12 of Whiskey Shivers

“We ain’t getting any younger,” I said. “I’ve especially been feeling it. Slowing down some, you know? Like this ache in my soul for something… quieter. A longing for something good. I’ve lived fast. I have no intention of dying young – ain’t none of us do. We’ve fought long and hard to mark out this turf as our own and by God, we’ve won it and defended it against all comers.”

“You drunk already?” Saint asked with a wink. A smattering of uncomfortable laughing went around the table.

“No,” I said and rubbed the back of my neck, pulling on the back of my head to ease some of the tension that’d been riding my shoulders all afternoon and evening.

“We put Ruth and them down with the intended goal of living another life,” La Croix said.

I nodded.

“We saw something better – we all did,” I said.

“Quit beating around the fucking bush,” Chainsaw grumbled.

“There’s no getting to this motherfucker now,” Saint said and sighed. “He’s safe as can be in that hospital.”

I nodded.

“He hurt someone close to Hex. That means exactly what you think it means – all of you. You ain’t dumb,” La Croix declared.

“Shit, Saint’s right,” I declared. “Ain’t nothing we can do about his ass right now but yeah. I won’t let that shit stand. Cor… Cor’s a good person. Sweet. Been through a lot and still managed to dodge, well,that,right up until today.”

“How’s she doing?” Louie asked, and he looked genuinely concerned. But our boy Louie? He was still on the young side and he always was a soft touch.

“Not good. He stabbed her a couple of times with a pair of classroom scissors, the old-school kind with the metal handles. Collapsed a lung, nicked an artery. She’s in intensive care until further notice. I had to lie to get in there with her. Pretty sure in addition to the blood loss, they’re worried about infection. She was in surgery a long time. They almost lost her twice.”

“What can we do?” Cypress asked.

“Right now, we can agree or disagree we’re gonna do something about it. For now, that’s all we can do. When the time comes and a plan gets made, we’ll figure out the rest, I reckon,” I said.

“You know we’re with you, bro,” Axeman said, and I gave a nod.

Murmurs of assent went around the table.

“For now, you focus on your girl,” La Croix declared.

“She’s got a tough road ahead when it comes to healing up, believe me,” Louie declared and he didn’t look happy. All I could do with that was nod. He’d been stabbed himself last year pretty good. Came within a hair’s breadth of getting hooked on Oxy. It was tough for him, the pain. He was scared as fuck – had confided in me a few times he was afraid he’d go down that rabbit hole and he ain’t never see the light of day again. But that was what we were for. To keep him straight and from going down that road if he didn’t wanna.

I worried about it for Cor. She had a similar family history from what she’d told me. She was tough, though. Just like Louie’d been tough.

We were quiet around the table for a while and I finally scoffed, making a noise of disbelief.

“Now how the fuck does a twenty-three-year-old man pass himself off as a fourteen-year-old kid?” I wondered aloud.

“Ain’t that the fuckin’ question?” Collier asked, leaning back in his own seat.

“And the citizens want to callusthe crazy ones,” Cypress said, staring off into space.

“A-fucking-men,” Chainsaw said with a bit of a chuff.

I shook my head. The whiskey was working like a charm now, my mind and body quieting down, and suddenly all I fucking wanted was a hot shower and some sleep.

“I think I’m gonna go home and go to bed,” I said. I got a couple of slightly worried looks.

The guys knew I was into Cor, by a fair bit – but they also knew she was spoken for, that things were new, and I wasn’t as serious as all that for the time being.

I think within a matter of seconds that’d changed this afternoon and that, next to the helpless rage I felt, is what pushed me over the edge into a fuckin’ freefall, arms pinwheeling with absolutely nothing left to ground me. At least not until she woke up. Not until I knew she would be okay and just how much more damage had been done.

Her body would heal. I worried more about her heart and her mind.

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