Page 41 of Lord Have Mercy Part Four: Big Son

“Bitch shot me.” Duet grimaced, peeled her bloody hand off her arm, and peered at the hole in her blazer. “But I’ll live, yeah. You were at Café du Monde this morning,” she said, and Ava gave her props for being this cogent after being shot. “Both of you.”

Ava crouched and fished the syringe from Tenny’s pocket; passed it over his shoulder. He uncapped it with his teeth and jammed it into the side of the blonde’s neck. The contents took effect within moments. She went lax. Her head tipped back, and her eyes fell shut.

“Are you friends of Alex’s?” Duet pressed.

Ava’s adrenaline was beginning to ebb, and without it, she felt tired, and frustrated, and more than a little cranky. “I’m his sister-in-law,” she said as she stood, and holstered her own gun, finally. “Ava Lécuyer.”

Duet’s eyes widened.

Tina Bonfils actually gasped.

Duet said, “Your son’s the little boy who’s missing.”

Ava bit back a smart remark – honestly, she was too damn exhausted for it. “Yeah,” she said, and left it at that.

“Does Alex know you’re–”

“Yeah. We were making sure you weren’t being followed this morning.”

As though in a daze, Tina lowered her hands and said, “You’re Felix’s wife?”

“Yeah.”

Her gaze shifted to Tenny. “And you’re–”

“My Belgian Malinois,” Ava said.

Tenny said, “Hey – well, no, actually, that’s a compliment. Not mad about the possessive, though.”

Ava kicked him in his skinny butt. She gestured down at the woman with the shot-out knee. “You did that?”

“Obviously,” Tenny said.

“Who is she?” This she directed at Tina, who shook her head. “I have no idea.”

But Ava thought she did. There was a bag, lying on the floor inside the dining room, where it had either been dropped or flung when the woman was shot. Ava pawed past two packs of smokes, a lighter, a pill bottle, a baggie of what was definitely coke, and finally unearthed a wallet.

“Regina Carroll,” she read off the license she found inside, and when she looked back at the woman’s ruined knee, she was flooded with satisfaction – and an urge to inflict greater harm.

“I figured you wanted her alive,” Tenny said, note of a question ringing in his voice.

“Oh, definitely.”

The front door still stood open, and through it Ava heard another engine, and more squealing brakes, followed by the pounding of feet over the grass. But the desperate call of, “Mom?Mom!” as the footsteps reached the sidewalk meant she didn’t draw her gun.

Alex burst into the house at a dead run and grabbed his mother up in both arms, lifting her feet off the ground as he hugged her.

“I’m okay, sweetie, I’m okay.” It was jarring to watch Tina go from stunned and flustered to composed and reassuring within a span of seconds. Ava felt like she didn’t see the real her until she was patting Alex on the back and assuring him that she was okay. “Your friend is hurt, though, honey.”

He set her down, but didn’t turn her loose completely, one big hand on her shoulder as he turned to Ava and Tenny, then to Regina Carroll, sprawled unconscious on the floor. His brows flew up when he saw what sort of condition she was in.

Ava said, “No, dumbass, it’s Duet.”

Then he whipped around and finally spotted Duet propped up and bleeding against the wall and he said, “Oh, Jesus, what happened?” and dropped to one knee at her side.

Duet’s forehead was shiny with sweat, and her throat bobbed jerkily as she swallowed. “I think–” Her teeth were chattering so hard it was difficult to understand her. “I’m gonna…pass out.” And then she did.

Twelve

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