All the Inside Howling (Hollow Folk #2)(35)

I didn’t dignify that with an answer, but I did try to improve my posture. Another flash of pain ran through me, though, and I slouched again.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid.”

“You could have helped.” I turned and started down Eighth.

Remy huffed and puffed after me, and the clink of glass came from the box as she did. “Yeah, right. I’m going to help you. After you sneaked into where I work, lied to me, and then ran off while I was breaking the law for you. And anyway, what was I supposed to do? Chop that guy in the back of the neck? I mean, he’s a fucking troll. He’d pick me up and shake me so hard my fillings came out.” We made it another half a block before Remy said, “Well, go on. Apologize.”

“Me. Apologize to you.”

“You lied to me.” She shoved the box into my arms, and I caught it by reflex. Her finger jabbed me in chest, and I grunted. “You used me. And I got you cognac, you dumb piece of shit.”

Adjusting the box, I folded back a flap. Sure enough, a half dozen bottles, all close to empty, nestled in the bottom. One of the bottles was Hennessy. When I looked up, Remy folded her arms across her chest. The tail of a snake tattoo poked out from under her sleeve.

“Sorry.”

“Damn right. How bad did Sally hit you?”

“Sally?”

“Sal. Salerno. The guy who looks greasy enough to slide through a rat’s anus.”

“Geez, real pretty picture.”

“How bad?”

“I mean, I’m walking.”

Remy did another of those enormous eyerolls, like she was trying to see if she could flip her eyes inside out. “You are just as macho, and just as stupid, and just as, as, as fucked-up as every other boy in this town.”

In spite of everything, it made me smile. “Thanks.”

“Vie, he’s mean.”

“I know.”

“No, you don’t. Not really. He likes it. Hurting people, I mean. A girl from the bar went out with him, to Billings last Saturday. They went to some shit-house dive, Sally got drunk, there was a fight. He broke a guy’s hand and then dragged him outside and spent an hour making him scream. Jen—that’s the girl—Jen said she’d never forget it, never, the sounds that guy made. And Jen didn’t get off easy. She keeps saying she tripped and hit her head against the dresser, but she’s got a black eye and a split lip on opposite sides of her face, and no dresser is going to do that.”

I thought about the girl in Sal’s memory, the girl he had chased, and knocked to the ground, and beaten to death with a rock. And I thought about how Sal had felt in that memory, about the pebbly warmth in his chest, and about how he had looked at his hands after he had finished with me and the expression on his face, like he wasn’t quite done yet. “I know. I mean, I have an idea.”

“Well, don’t be stupid again. Lawayne’s been on edge for weeks, and hiring Sally hasn’t made things better. If anything, it’s just gotten worse. He’s been biting off everyone’s head for weeks, and I swear, I’ve never seen him like this.”

“Go back a second. He just hired Salerno?”

“I guess so. I’ve never seen Salerno before, but a couple of weeks ago Lawayne brought him into Jigger Boss, shouting out orders like he had Sally bought and paid, and Sally’s been there ever since. You know what I think?”

“What?”

Remy leaned in, bit her lip, and said, “He’s a bodyguard. I know, it’s crazy. But I’m pretty sure. Sally’s mean, and he’s tough, but he follows Lawayne around like a puppy dog, never leaves him alone for more than a few minutes. What if he’s some kind of ex-military, or a gangster, or something like that? Why would Lawayne need that kind of protection?”

“Because he’s a drug-dealer and an ass and he goes around biting off everyone’s head, as you put it.”

“You really are some kind of stupid. If the wrong person hears you talking like that,” she shook her head, “just plain old common stupid.”

“Remy, about last night—why’d you ask me if Austin was the one who told me about a fight? Is there something I should know?”

“I already told you, big boy: I’m not getting in that muddle. You figure it out yourself.” She glanced over her shoulder at the rusting metal frame of Jigger Boss. “And now I’ve got to get back to work before Lawayne and Sally figure out I’m talking to you.”

“And that you’re stealing their booze and selling it to a teenager.”

“Nah, they won’t care about that. Not too much. It’s talking to you that I’m going to catch like a bullet in the head.” She slapped my chest, and I groaned at the ache it sent through my battered body. “Think about that next time you plan something stupid, all right?”

“Hey Remy, one last thing. Sage and Sarsaparilla. You know it?”

“It’s some kind of hippy shop, right? On Twenty-fifth?”

“What’s that place got to do with Lawayne?”

She frowned. “You mean, does he own it? I don’t think so. I’ve never heard him say anything about it?”

“Nothing?”

One last, dizzying eyeroll. “That’s what never means, big boy. Why do you ask?”