Page 29 of Legacy of Smoke
I wouldn’t.
“Damn it.” Her cussing picked up after that little outburst in my ear.
“Hey Pop?” I said to catch her attention, “The car will be at the junkyard. I don’t know what we’re going to do to fix it. I’d almost say junk it, but it’s not our call. “
“You need her number, right?”
“Please?”
She sighed. “Maybe she’ll answer your calls. Here.” She rattled off the digits, and I scratched them onto a notepad with the carpenter pencil I had in my pocket.
Maybe I could help Poppy feel better? “Tell you what, I’m going to three way this, but stay quiet unless I need help, okay?”
Lily’s phone rang twice. She answered with a whispered, “Who the fuck is this? Never mind, I don’t care. I need a ride.Mom’s flipping out right now.” The screaming in the background was vivid. “How soon can you be here?”
“We’ll be right there,” Poppy answered.
“Oh fuck, Poppy, why in the fuck are you embracing the dark side all of a sudden? Not cool.”
“You need help?—”
“Not from you,” Lily countered quickly.
“Do you need muscle?” I asked.
There was a pause on the line. Something crashed in the background. Jewel screamed something to the effect of “that’s the last time you steal one of my regulars,” or some shit like that. Lily screamed back, “…I wouldn’t bebrokeif I was hooking. Because unlike you, I’m not a fucking skank who lost pretty somewhere in the eighties!”
Another object crashed. “You fucking act like a slut!” Jewel’s volume made it easy to understand.
“I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’ Sprout, Griz, and me will be at Jewel’s trailer in fifteen. Stall.”
“Asshole.” Lily hung up. Poppy was still on the line.
“I’ll meet you there. She’s going need a truck to haul her things, I hope.”
She hung up on me, too. Damn Alberts. “Yo, Sprout, I need an exfil at Jewel’s fish tank. Can you and Griz back me up?”
“Is Lily there?”
“Yup. And so is her mother.”
Both men made faces. Sketch and Poke remained behind to handle the car and get info to blackmail my brother with.
Poppy was out of the truck, baseball bat in hand when we roared up. I quickly took it from her and tossed it in the bed so she wouldn’t go to jail. “Go over there where you’re safe.”
“I don’t have to listen to you.” She tried to reach for the bat again, but it was out of her range.
“Yeah asshole, she doesn’t have to listen to you!” Lily yelled from the cracked concrete slab of Jewel’s front step. There were clothes and broken knickknacks, even a laptop that was in no fewer than five pieces. Jewel came back out and threw a boot at her daughter. Then switched its mate to her throwing hand and spit out her venom.
“Ungrateful bitch!” She noticed the bikes and her eyes caught on me. “You! Fuck you. I’m charging double next time.”
Sprout caught the shoe she aimed at me and stomped up into her face. Then he kept going as Jewel backed into the trailer. Griz was right on his six. “What you need from here, Lil?” he asked before diving into the fray.
“My jewelry and I have an iPod in there somewhere. Thank you, Griz.” She singsong’d it in a tone too close to Jewel’s for comfort. Meanwhile, I stayed between her and Poppy in case violence erupted on that front.
And it didn’t take long before Lily whipped around and spat at us. “I can’t believe you two. What is this, Torture Lily Day? Fucking dick. Cunt!”
That wouldn’t fly. “Apologize to your sister.”
