Shirleen lived in a gated community; new, big, fancy homes built so close to each other you could pass the gravy through the window to the neighbors next door. Stil , they were better than anything I’d ever lived in so I suspected running a bar with a poker table in the back paid well . Daisy, Matt and I marched up to the house (wel , Matt didn’t march, after listening the whole way to Daisy talk a mile a minute, bouncing around subjects ranging the scope of revenge threats to skincare tips, he fol owed us looking like he’d much rather be anywhere else, in the middle of another shoot out, having his nails yanked out by the roots, anywhere).
Daisy rapped on the door and within seconds, it opened.
Darius stood there.
What in the hell?
“What are you doing here?” I asked, too shocked at his presence to be polite.
“Shirleen’s family,” he answered, obviously not surprised at my surprise.
Wonderful.
Only I’d get a scary drug dealer’s family member conked unconscious while my shit went down.
My f**king luck.
I couldn’t dwel , I just had to go with it.
“Can we talk to her?” I asked.
He stepped wide and we marched through.
Half a dozen people were hanging around in the living room/kitchen open plan area that had high, cathedral ceilings. They al watched as we strol ed in.
Shirleen was lying on a big, poofy couch decorated in bold black swirls against a white background. It made me dizzy just looking at it.
She looked fine, but how would I know, I was no nurse.
“Hey Shirleen,” Daisy said.
“Hey Daisy-girl,” Shirleen replied, a big smile on her face, then her eyes slid to me and the smile died.
I didn’t take that as a good sign.
I didn’t know what to say, so I said, “Hey Shirleen.”
“What happened to your head?” she asked.
I looked to Daisy, then back to Shirleen. “Fratel i held me at gun point. I got grazed trying to get away.” Her eyes grew wide, then her lips went thin.
“You okay?” she asked.
I nodded.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Head hurts and I’m pissed off, other than that, fine.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“What you sorry for?”
If she didn’t know, I wasn’t certain I wanted to enlighten her.
Oh well , in for a penny, in for a pound.
“It’s my fault you were hurt.”