Page 15 of Moonshine Lullabies

“Shit,” I swore softly and took in a deep breath, holding it and letting it out slow.

“What about my front door?” I demanded.

J.P. scoffed and rubbed at the back of his neck that I swore was somehow wider ‘n his fat head.

“Ourfront door,” he corrected me. “An’ some of the boys are here to fix it. I just thought I’d try to wake you up a little nicer ‘n a bunch of bangin’ and shit. Deliver this here peace offering.” He picked up and shook the phone box and set it back down. “And this…” he reached into his front jeans pocket and extracted and handed me a big wad of cash.

I scowled.

“What’s this for?” I demanded, taking it, and automatically counting through it.

“That’s about twenty-five hundred dollars. Figured you could take the day and get your new phone set up and find you a beater out there somewhere just until we can afford to get you something better.”

“Would love to, but what time is it?” I asked. “I’m supposed to be down at the butcher shop today.”

“Nah, already been by there an’ told ‘em you’re sick. Don an’ them say ‘feel better, it’s a nasty stomach bug goin’ around these parts.’” He sniffed. “I let ‘em think that’s what it was. You can make up whatever you’d like. Just let me know an’ I’ll stick to it.”

I snorted and said, “Wrecked the truck tryin’ to avoid a stray dog in the road. You know I like animals more ‘n people. Everyone around here’ll buy it.”

He nodded, and I bowed my head and nodded at the cash in my hands. “You thought of everything but that, didn’t yah?”

“Even got you a ride for today to do all your stuff,” he said. “Collier’s gonna take you all the places you need to go. I give him the keys to my truck.”

I sighed and asked him, “You tryin’ to matchmake or some shit?”

He snorted. “Fuck no. He touches my sister, brother or not, I’ll kick his fuckin’ ass.”

I snorted and laughed and shook my head.

“Whatever happened to bros before hos?” I asked, and he snorted and shook his head, ignoring that one.

“I love you, Jessie-Lou, and I’m real sorry how they come lookin’ around here for my ass. I’m damn proud of how you handled it, though.”

I sucked my teeth, took another sip of my coffee, rich with chicory, and swallowed, sighing out.

“Yeah, well, when it comes to violence, I learned from the best.”

My motherfucking brother gave me a cheeky-ass grin and got up, going for the bedroom door, and going out, called down the hallway, “She’s up. Let’s make some noise and get this door fixed, yeah?”

About a minute later, another man appeared in the doorway but it wasn’t Collier. It was the president of the Voodoo Bastards himself, ol’ Lenny, now LaCroix.

“Hey, Len,” I said and his face didn’t move a muscle except for those creepy inky eyes of his. He’d been so handsome when he and my brother had been kids. An older boy that I’d admittedly crushed on some, and I shuddered inside at how he’d changed. The older he’d got and the nastier his daddy’d got to him, he just wasn’t ever the same. It was a shame him goin’ to the state pen like he did. That’s what’d changed him the most. His damn daddy’d deserved that beating Lenny’d given him – a culmination of all the whippins he’d put on his son. Ain’t none of us felt sorry for Lenny’s dad but we all sure felt for Len when he’d been sent away.

“How you doin’, Jessie-Lou?” he asked in that deep voice that resonated, remindin’ me of an old church bell in a haunted-ass church. Something southern and Gothic. I was pretty sure ol’ Lenny had some bats in his belfry from too many hits to the head but at the same time? Deep down, he was still that boy. He was still the same ol’ Lenny who’d nick a candy from the corner store just for me an’ it was that Lenny who stood in my doorway now.

“Oh, I’m doin’ alright,” I said honestly, and he gave a singular nod, as though he’d just needed to see for hisself.

“Good to hear it,” he said, before he backed out the door and went on down the hall, in the direction of the sound where wood cracked and splintered as they tore apart the frame around the front door. The old one had to go so they could reframe it and put a new one in.

How did I know?

Wasn’t the first front door needin’ replaced.

My ex had kicked in the last one but me an’ Tate hadn’t been home. John-Paul had been, though, and I ain’t never seen or heard from that guy again. That’d been six or seven years ago now, though. Shit… make that nine now that I stopped to think about it. Tate’d been just a little guy back then.

I finished my coffee, got up and made my bed, and was just laying out my clothes when Collier appeared in the doorway.

“What?” I asked.

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