I sat looking at an IHOP menu, waiting for Chief Callahan to arrive. We normally would have met at a Waffle House, but after the attack… their trademark scent did nothing but turn my stomach. So IHOP it was. I was staring out the window at the signs for the vet hospital and Popeye’s Chicken. You’ll never catch me there though. For chicken, it’s either the Colonel or Bojangles’. If I want Louisiana Fried chicken, I’ll go to Louisiana.

“Sorry I took so long, traffic was a nightmare…” Tony said, sliding into a chair across from me.

“I had no problems,” I said jokingly.

“Then maybe you can teach people how to make a left turn off Smokey Park.”

I nodded to him as our server, a young woman named Suzi, approached the table for the 9th time now. At least she was persistent. I ordered a Ribeye, rare with fries and a side of chicken strips. Tony ordered a cheeseburger, fries and a coffee, black. What is the deal with cops and black coffee? I had my drink, though my Mtn Dew was getting low.

After she had left, I started. “Tony, I need a favor.”

He sighed, canting his head to the left. “I was afraid this was going to be one of those meetings.”

“Hey…” I said, raising my hands as a form of surrender. “I’ve tried my best to stay out of your way.. and keep my below-board activities away from your jurisdiction…”

“I know, I know… I’m just tired.” he blurted out as Suzi returned with his coffee and another soda for me. Good girl.

“What’s going on?” I asked, then drained my old cup, handing it to the server.

“Nancy wants me to retire… and there’s no one ready to take my place. Every time I think about training up someone, they either screw up badly or transfer. It’s hectic.”

“I understand. I’ll do what I can to help. I’ve had your back since the beginning, you know that. But…” I lowered my head, feeling the tension build up in my neck. I really did hate doing this to him.

“I need a favor… as in a ‘I don’t like it… it’s too risky.. and I’ll just hafta trust you’ favor.” I said, leaning on the table to face him.

“Okay, spit it out. Tannin… before I dump this coffee in the cleavage you are trying to tempt me with,” he said, chuckling.

“I need Raziel Delgado,” I said bluntly.

“Hell no,” he shot back. “We got him on one of the biggest drug busts in years.”

“And you’ve had narcotics trailing him and his for over a year with nothing, save a little grass here and there. Ever wonder what happened?”

“I trumped it up to luck, or trying real hard to keep under the radar…”

“Remember about 19 months back, when that big meth lab exploded? It made the news.”

“I do, everyone was surprised that no one died in it,” he replied, then turned to smile at a returning Suzi. She had food. She’d actually be cute with her auburn-brown pig-tails and her dimpled smile if she didn’t have the air and scent of a high-schooler.

I thanked her softly as she left again. I started back up. “I did that. I then told Raze and his crew if I found out they were running that shit again, it’s be their house I blew up.” I looked down at my food for a moment. “They started praying to their deities and swearing on family-members’ graves that they’d clean up their act. They’re going legit, Tony, until this new cat comes up from Miami and starts to fuck it up.”

“The best I can do is let things get lax on a transfer and have him run. He’s too high-profile. That might give you a week tops, if you’re lucky. I’m only entertaining this because I know you will bring me this new player… and it will help me go out with a bang... or...”

“Or what?” I said, with a piece of steak ready to go into my mouth.

“Or is this your way of telling me ‘discreetly that Raze is going to disappear and you want me to treat it as an escape…?” He canted his head again, grabbing his burger and taking a large bite of it. I just smiled as sweetly as I could, and winked, then consumed the chunk of red meat dangling from my fork. “Dammit Tannin! I hate it when you put me in a spot like this.”

“I don’t like it either… but I need Raze to draw these guys out. And besides.. have you pulled any prints off the drugs you confiscated? Or found out where they were made? Or cut? The Raleigh routes have been shut down for some time now. You still have Charlotte, but the only thing decent coming out of Charlotte these days is heroin. Meth is being cooked locally, but coke is coming in from out of state.”

“You know an awful lot about drugs to not be involved with them,” he said, now munching on a fry.

“I have to.. to know whose ass to kick when I find it in my city.” I said plainly, slicing another piece of steak.

The table was quiet for a while, before I spoke again. “So Nancy’s pressuring you to retire, huh.”

“Yeah. With Amy getting married, we’re dealing with an empty house again. She wants to go traveling.”

“Anywhere in particular?” I said, snagging his mayonnaise packet for my fries.

“Right now, she just wants to get out of the city. ‘Somewhere quiet and pretty’ she says.”

I thought for a moment. “Why don’t y’all two head up to my place for a few days?”

“I thought you lived at that bar you’re fixing up?” he said, draining his coffee cup.

“Silly, I've told you already. I have a house built up in the mountains. It’s a two story Colonial with a wine cellar in the basement. It has power, but has 2 fireplaces and a wood-burning furnace. There’s a pond out the back door. I have some fishing gear there. I bought that because Chaz and Alec said they like to fish, but they never have. I prefer to hunt more than fish. Just ignore any wolves you see.”

His eyebrow raised, then shook his head, smiling. “Sounds good.. a fishing trip would do wonders for my stress levels… and Nancy would love it… but I’d hafta run it by her.”

The wheels started to turn as an idea formed in my head. I nodded a couple of times to convince myself. “Tell you what. I am planning to have an RSVP event at the bar before we open. Get some chamber of commerce members, a reporter or two.. maybe a food critic and some government suits in for a meal. Having the chief of police there too would paint a good image as well… considering the history of that place. You can bring the detective and that cute Officer Madison too,” I said with a smile at the end. “Though, choosing the best people for the most impact might pose a problem.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I know this upstart at the CT who I’ve started working with for PR. I’ll give ‘em a call and send ‘em by tomorrow about midday. That work?”

“Perfect!” I said aloud, thinking that now I just hafta actually plan this shindig. The rest of the dinner was quiet. I left a $100 bill on the table and left, following Tony out. He gave a slight wave as I saw the Windstar sitting in the parking lot.

Alec started as soon as I closed the door. “Raze is at the apartment. Emily and Teresa got him some clothes. How did the chief take it?”, he asked, pulling out of the parking lot, turning left on Old Heywood Rd.

I shook my head, chuckling. “As well as could be expected, I guess. Any problems?”

“It took a bit for Sinnan to get the video feed altered,” he said with a grumble.

“I thought y’all had stopped using her?”

“We had, but Deuce was called back to Court, and no one else is even close to Sinnan in skill. It’s fine though, as far as the video shows, he just walked straight out of the precinct and got into a white cargo van.”

“Good. On a different note… I kinda have an idea about the bar…” I said, looking out the window.

“Oh shit. The last time I heard, ‘I kinda have an idea’… I got to watch you and Chaz decimate a bar full of bikers with your bare hands,” he chuckled.

“Okay.. it’s not that bad. I want to have a RSVP pre-opening, with some big wigs from the community. Government suits, a reporter or two, even a local food critic, and well Chief and his wife.”

He was silent for a minute, which had me nervous. How bad did I screw the pooch this time? He pulled on the on-ramp to I40 west, and spoke again after he had merged into traffic. “Actually that is a good idea. Positive publicity is always good. Who else are you thinking of inviting?”

“That I don’t know. Chief said he’d send over a reporter he uses for PR to help put together a guest list. You think we can pull off a TV crew?”

“Possibly. I’ll actually call Sinnan and get her to help. With Chaz being..well… Chaz, the police there keep you safe enough to disappear so the cameras don’t catch him.”

“That’s true too. Tito doesn’t have a record and isn’t recognized as a Serpent, so that works to our favor as well,” I said with a nod.

“My only concern is Emily, I don’t think she has a record, but she is recognized as a streetwalker. But…” Alec paused a sec, scratching his chin. “That could work to your favor. Second-Chance employment is trending right now. The right interview could make us golden… no pun intended.”

---V---

I silently slipped down the stairs to find a man in the living room towel-drying his spiky black hair, wearing nothing but a pair of camo boxers. “Raze,” I said softly. He stood about 5’4”, was slim, but not skinny. He had muscles, but they weren’t as defined. Gym would chisel him out nice, though.

Apparently he didn’t hear me because when he turned around, he saw me, and let out a very feminine “EEP!” and jumped away from me about a foot. I chuckled as he tried to regain composure.

“And I was trying to not startle you,” I said.. heading towards the bedroom.

“Sorry Madrecita, I didn’t know you were there.”

“It’s okay,” I said, stopping at the closed bedroom door. “Emily asleep?”

“Si’. hasn’t been down long. She fell asleep telling me how you have been helping her out so much. More than what I could have…” There was a twinge of regret in his voice.

I opened the door, leaving it open so we could talk. I went to the vanity, grabbing an oversized shirt that read, ‘Keep calm and pillage on’ and started to undress. I had my back to him for his sake, but I wasn’t trying to hide anything. “Don’t fret. We all do what we can. It’s all you can ask for.”

“That’s true.” I heard him sit on the couch. “Why did you have me broke out? You know I’m in deep shit now.”

I let my pants, shirt and bra drop in a corner as I walked back into the living room, pulling the shirt on. Yeah he got an eye-full but I don’t care. “Let me worry about that. It was my idea, and I’ll deal with the ramifications of it.”

“Okay. But… Why did you? You know Simon’s going to be coming for me when he finds out I busted out. He can’t take over if I am still in the loop.”

“That’s one of the reasons right there. I want Simon to come looking for you. In order to get to you, he has to go through me. I have permission to hunt this human… although… “I pouted. “He needs to be alive when I turn him over to the cops.”

“You sound like a Diabla. Are you really like Chaz, as the rumors say? I know you helped my papa back in the 80s.. so I know somethings up.”

“I’ll say this. One.. I am not like Chaz but I am not human. And two… I am no angel. So does that answer it enough for you?”

He nodded, relaxing into the couch a bit, as I took the plush chair to its right. “You said that Simon was one of the reasons why you busted me out. What are the others?”

“I need the name of your money-man. No one I’ve talked to said they knew who it was, but that y’all did have one. I need someone to handle the books when this bar opens. Someone I can trust, or at least get loyalty out of.”

“There’s a reason why no one knows who my money-man is. That’s because we technically don’t have one. You see, I have an accounting degree from UNC Chapel Hill. Papa said that if I was going to be in the family business, I would need to learn how to handle the family business.”

“Yeah.. strangely I can picture him saying that,” I said with a slight smirk.

“Thankfully with things going more and more legit, my work has become a lot easier. The Flayre is making good money, as long as I can keep it clean. You were right. Keeping things ‘Above Board’ as you put it helps me sleep at night.”

“I said it would. I’d like to put you on payroll as our accountant… help further legitimize any income you have.”

“Thank you, Madrecita. You know I’ll do anything I can.” He yawned and stretched. “So How are we going to handle Simon and Ralphie? They’re supposed to be back in a couple of days.”

“They might be longer than that. I kinda sicced the Highway Patrol on them…” I chuckled. “Maybe they’ll do our work for us.”

“You didn’t…” he said, laughing.

I nodded, chuckling myself. “I did. Dropped that little tidbit to Chief Callahan when they locked me up.”

“What actually happened? You weren’t there when Emily initially got her walking papers… then Simon’s shit lands me locked up. I hear you were shot, then shot at… Shit like this doesn’t happen in Asheville.”

“I know, right? I’ve been trying to keep this out of this city for decades.” I sighed, pulling my legs into the chair, then pulling my shirt over them. “If they can be believed, the ones who shot up Chaz’ Mach 1 were after him, not me. I should have seen it coming. It’d been too long between hunters… one was bound to surface eventually.”

“Demon hunters?” He asked.

I nodded. “You heard the guy apologize for shooting at me. Whether he was honest or sincere still remains to be seen.”

Raze shrugged. “So what about you getting shot?” he asked. “What’s the deal there?”

I sighed, shaking my head. “I… don’t know. It wasn’t a mere amateur, he knew how to mess me up good. Had me bedridden for the better part of three weeks. He royally fucked me up.” I looked straight at him. This one the police won’t find. You mess with me and I will take it to your ass. You mess with mine and I will devour you…”

“Now I know where Papa got that slogan from. That’s The Serpents’ creed.”

“I said that while you and your dad were shoulder to shoulder, facing down a pack of crips from New York. We were trapped, and he had taken one on the leg. Not bad, but it made gaining ground not possible. I heard them advancing, as I took a bullet to the shoulder, which just pissed me off more than anything. I uttered those words, then your father saw exactly what I was, and exactly what I meant too. One escaped, and well the crips suddenly had no interest in Asheville after that.”

“Wow.. some literal OG shit. Papa never really told any stories about the gang wars of the 80s. Only that it got ugly, and you helped. He got things legal enough to keep the feds off his back, and that was it.”

“On paper that was about it. There were some pretty bad skirmishes, that being one of the worst. That was the only time I had to resort to extreme measures to handle things” I yawned softly, feeling tired again. It’s always like this when Jeriel’s gone.. like she pulls more from me when she’s away.

I stood. “The couch folds out to a sleeper. I’ll need to confine you to the apartment for the time being. Emily will look in on you throughout the day.”

He nodded, as I made my way to the bedroom. Emily was asleep with her back facing the room, so I slipped onto the bed, with my back against her, and drifted off to sleep.