Page 95 of Bones
“Touch her again, and I’ll put a bullet between your eyes,” Trey said in a dark voice I’d never heard him use before.
A long, charged silence fell. Part of me wanted to burst into tears at the fact he was protecting me again. He’d promised to be my backup all those months ago, and he’d done it again and again. I could protect myself. I'd been fully prepared to stab Zip with my little knife if it came to that, but I was so relieved it didn’t.
The other part of me wanted to scream at Trey to get out of here. I doubted Zip would forget this, and I didn’t want Trey to get hurt. Plus, I didn’tdeservehis protection. Not after I watched Apple get hit and didn’t do a damn thing to stop it.
“Whatever. I don’t fuckin’ need this.” Zip growled and turned on his heel to stride in the direction of Mootzie’s.
I pulled myself shakily up to my feet and brushed wet muddy woodchips from my clothes. Trey glanced at me, but he didn’t move from where he stood with his gun drawn and pointed at Zip’s retreating back.
“You ok?” he asked, his voice strained.
“I’m fine. Thanks,” I muttered, feeling a confusing mix of humiliation and gratitude and shame and that warmth blooming in my chest again. My feelings for Trey were out of control. I tried to distract myself by tenderly prodding my swelling cheek.
Zip disappeared between the ramshackle homes, and Trey holstered his gun and turned around. He studied me for a moment before sighing.
“C’mon.” He started back down the path in the direction of the clinic.
I didn’t move. I needed…I needed to think. Or maybe not think? I had to get my head on straight, and I needed space to do it. I couldn’t go back to the clinic with Trey, and I couldn’t face Apple right now.
Trey eventually realized I wasn’t following and walked back up to me.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m going to Hydro,” I turned to head toward the other dive on the east side of the hold.
“Why?” Trey asked, walking next to me.
“Go make sure Apple’s ok,” I said instead of answering.
“Bones—” He started to protest.
“Trey, I want to be alone, ok? Just leave,” I turned and snapped at him.
He didn’t try to hide the hurt on his face, but I turned and strode away, pausing only to scoop up a mostly clean handful of snow from one of the remaining piles to hold against my face. I felt like absolute shit treating him like that, but gods, these emotions I had for him scared me. They were too strong to rip out now, rooted deep in my chest. I no longer had Zip to use as a shield against my feelings toward Trey. I couldn’t rely on him getting jealous and pushing people away for me, and I just felt so godsdamned relieved. I swore under my breath.
Maybe it was the coward’s way out, but I fully planned on seeing if I could drown these emotions in moonshine.
* * *
Madame’s guards made up the majority of the clientele at Hydro. The door opened smoothly unlike Mootzie’s door that wobbled on half-broken hinges. The stools didn’t wobble either, and the bar counter looked like it’d actually been cleaned in the past month. I chugged my first drink. The bartender raised his eyebrows at me but didn’t comment as he refilled my glass.
I tried hard not to think about it, but I kept seeing Apple's face, the betrayal, the hurt. Gods, why hadn't I stopped Zip? I deserved Zip's anger. Apple didn't. I finished off my second drink and slid my glass to the bartender for another. I was working on my third when a guard named Ritz plopped down in the seat next to me, her face flushed and eyes bright.
“Hey, Doc!” she slurred. “You catch any of the show?”
I wasn’t sure if people started calling me “Doc” because Zip did, but at least enough people did it now that it didn’t make me think of Zip too much. I finished off my drink, feeling much lighter, and frowned in confusion.
“What show?”
“Gods, you’ve never been here for sentencing have you?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
She grinned and grabbed my arm. “C’mon, it’s still going!”
I let her drag me outside into the chilly air. We went deeper into the south side of the hold, through the slums, to where I'd never been before. There were no residences here, just workshops. The buildings were ramshackle, and it smelled like shit, but a crowd of people had formed. A roar of voices filled the air, growing louder as we approached a ring of large pine trees. Ritz pulled me to the edge of the crowd, and I stared in drunken shock at the muddy pit that appeared in front of us. A giant of a man I'd never seen before stood below, bare-chested and streaked with blood. He exchanged blows with a scrawny-looking man who appeared to be losing badly.
“The big one’s Brimstone!” Ritz yelled in my ear to be heard over the crowd.
