Page 56 of Moonshine Lullabies

Hex was nodding along with what La Croix was saying while the rest of us just kind of stared a little shell-shocked.

“Excuse me, but did you just say what I thought you said?” Bennie asked.

“They went after Cy’s sister. I wouldn’t put shit past these motherfuckers,” La Croix declared.

“I don’t like it,” Chainsaw said.

“We’re the Voodoo Bastards, not a bunch of pussies,” Axe agreed.

“We ain’t gon’ be shit, they start picking us off one by one,” Hex said.

“Exactly why no one sports their colors or rides alone in their colors until we can start pickingthemoff one by one,” La Croix said. He turned to Axe and said, “We need to send a message, a flashy one at that. Not only to the Bayou Brethren but to any an’ all that support them, that doing so is hazardous to their health. What you learn from that Kraken boy?” he asked.

Axeman’s grin was a feral one. “We dropping bodies with this message or just a building?” he asked.

La Croix thought about it. “We don’t want the city an’ surrounding area turnin’ onus,” he said. “Let’s start with a building and go from there.”

Hex was nodding along with everything La Croix was saying, a slow and measured bobbing of his head that made me wonder just how much of this was pre-rehearsed between the two of ‘em or if they was just that on point and in tune nowadays.

“We got a particular building in mind?” Chainsaw asked, his eyebrows raised.

“What about that bar inside our territory that keeps hostin’ ‘em?” Saint put in.

“Swamp Daddy’s was the name of the place,” Cy said and his grin was real unfriendly.

“Owner got real shitty after our little throwdown up in there,” Axe recalled and I frowned.

“Define shitty.” Bennie raised his eyebrows and traced the rim of his rocks glass with a fingertip.

“Said we was banned for life and took up for them fucktards, knowin’ full well they was in our territory,” Saint said and La Croix leaned back in his seat at the head of the table.

“Hex, correct me if I’m wrong headed in my thinkin’ here, but it’s been long enough now that should an… accident occur, it wouldn’t look all that suspicious, now would it? As in nothin’ should readily come back on us.”

Hex rubbed his chin and looked thoughtful, as though he was mathin’ it out.

“I do believe we’d be skirtin’ the edge but we’d be alright unless somethin’ overtly put us there.”

“I do believe it would be a real headache if somethin’ was left behind at a crime scene like that,” I declared and a bunch of the boys were smirkin’ around the table.

Leave it to Louie to be the one. “I don’t get it,” he said out loud.

“That’s alright,” Hex said. “The less that know, the better it’ll be if the law comes knockin’.

“Shouldn’t come knockin’ onourdoor,” Chainsaw muttered.

“Never know,” Axe mused. “NOPD might grow half a brain sometime this century.”

We all had a laugh at that. We knew that where they weren’t bumbling, absolute inept fools – they were massively corrupt an’ just about firmly in our pockets.

“Right… Axe, it was your idea. You an’ Chainsaw feel like figurin’ it out?” La Croix asked.

“Oh, I think we might have a recipe or two to try out,” Chainsaw said and he and Axe traded a goofy look that said they were all about it.

“Alright then, that’s settled. Magic make it happen.”

I sat back and thought about it. Blowin’ up Swamp Daddy’s after hours when no one was there was definitely a departure under what we would have done if Ruthless was still president of this operation. He would have done something wild, something reckless as shit, which would have seen all of us doing prison time. Especially at the end of his reign o’ terror. I was only a little bit conflicted on this course of action.

On the one hand, after livin’ through so many extremes under Ruthless, it didn’t seem like enough – especially after what was done to Jess an’ Tate. On the other hand, it was a more ‘n fair warning shot across the bow. They wrecked Cy’s house, but it was fixable.

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