Page 9 of Legacy of Smoke
“Half-sister, and a menace.”
Tits interrupted us. “How old is she?”
“She turned eighteen last month,” I informed them. Not a one of us at the table was so far removed from that point in our lives that we couldn’t remember what it was like at that age. I glanced at Austin, who shook his head.
“What?”
“Ever hear of “enabling?”
“She’s a good kid, really. Sweet. She’s just had a tough time lately. You don’t know her like I do.”
“I don’t intend to.” He stabbed his beans with brute force.
I tried to plead her case with someone, maybe Tits, would see reason. “She’s had a rough life.”
Wolf slammed the table, hard. “Don’t you dare.”
I jumped, and Austin slid his chair back, hands held loose as if ready to leap over the table and pummel Wolf.
“Honey, what did we say about my battles?” Tits’s voice was soft, but we all heard it.
“This ain’t a battle you need to fight,” he growled.
She placed a hand over his fist. “How rough?”
Austin cleared his throat and stood up. “Excuse me.” He slipped outside to my back patio and lit a cigarette. He walked down the steps and disappeared into the backyard.
It distracted everyone long enough to give me time to formulate an answer. “Her mother didn’t protect her very well.”
Wolf corrected me. “Her mother is a whore. Jewel.”
Tits’s face cleared with realization. “Oh. That’s a terrible life for a kid.” She swallowed.
“Yes, it is, that’s why I try so hard to show her there’s another way.”
Wolf rolled his eyes. But Tits heard what I said. Her frown proved to me she was thinking hard about the situation. Finally, she spoke. “How much initiative has your sister shown to prove she’s serious about getting out?”
“Getting out? She just turned eighteen, getting out of what?”
Tits shut her mouth and leaned back in her chair. Wolf picked up the conversation for her. “She means out of prostitution.”
“Lily’s not a prostitute!”
“Not for us,” Wolf mumbled.
“Not for anyone,” I insisted. “She’s my sister. If things get that bad at her mother’s again, she’s a bed right here in this house. She knows that.”
Austin returned and sat down at the table, picking up his fork and knife and proceeding to eat. His plate was almost empty, so I offered him the potatoes. He took a serving and then leaned over to stab a second stack of ham slices with his fork.
I included him in the conversation. “Would you help your sibling if they needed it?”
“Fuck no. I wouldn’t piss on him to put out a fire.”
Wolf chuckled. “You’d probably find gasoline to help speed it up.” That was funny to both of them. Stupid bikers.
Tits was my only hope. “What about you? Would you help a sister?”
“I would die for a sister.”
