The instant I hit the showroom Mitch’s eyes came to me. The instant his eyes came to me, my eyes went to Billy. He was still sprawled on the bed, the video game in his hands but now his gaze was on Mitch and his little face was hard. He didn’t, I noticed, throw himself at Mitch and I wasn’t certain he’d even said hello.

My head swung the other way and I saw Roberta with her customers. She was trying to pay attention to them while at the same time eye up Mitch. It was a name she knew and now that she had a handsome face, fabulous hair, fantastic body and great clothes to put with that name, she was obviously having trouble listening to her customers.

I made myself look back at Mitch just as Billie ran to me, grabbed my hand and tugged me toward Mitch, telling me, “Look, Auntie Mara! Mitch is here!”

“I see that, honey,” I murmured to her as I got closer and closer to Mitch.

She kept tugging at me. “Isn’t it great that he’s here so he can see my outfit?” she asked.

“It’s awesome,” I muttered as we stopped in front of Mitch.

“I know,” she breathed.

“Mara,” Mitch greeted and his face was closed, no warmth, no smile, nothing.

Yep he’d figured it out. Ten Point Fives didn’t give Two Point Fives warmth. Disdain, often. Shared breathing space, yes, but only because everyone needed oxygen. Warmth, no.

That knife that I hadn’t had time to pull out of my heart twisted.

“Mitch,” I replied.

“You got a place we can talk privately?” he asked.

I stared up at him wondering what this was all about. Then I decided my best bet was to find out and get him on his way as fast as I could. So I nodded.

“Break room,” I answered and bent to Billie. “Do me a favor, baby, and go sit with your brother.” She nodded up at me and I added, “And no jumping on beds or racing through the showroom. Just sit quiet with Billy until I come back. Can you do that for me?”

“Sure, Auntie Mara,” Billie chirped, grinned at Mitch then skipped toward Billy who was still staring at Mitch with his hard face. Billie climbed up on the bed then landed full body on her brother.

She was so totally not going to do that favor for me.

I looked back at Mitch to see his eyes were on Billy. “If you’d like to follow me,” I invited and he tore his gaze from Billy to nod at me.

I led the way to the door of the back hall, punched in the code, opened it, moved through the back hall with Mitch following me and then I turned us into the break room.

I flipped on the light and Mitch closed us in.

I sucked in breath when my eyes hit his no longer soulful, now expressionless, still beautiful ones.

Fast. I needed to do this fast.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“We got a problem.”

Oh boy.

He kept talking before I even had time to brace.

“Remember I said that if your cousin was all the kinds of messes you know then he was probably all the kinds of messes I know?”

This wasn’t starting out so great.

“Yeah,” I replied hesitantly.

“Well it’s confirmed. He’s all the kinds of messes I know.”

I felt my body grow solid, my eyes locked on his and I whispered, “Oh shit.”

“That about covers it,” Mitch agreed.

“Tell me.” I was still whispering.

“Bill’s had a bad coupla days. He’s detoxing and it hasn’t been pretty mostly because he’s hooked on smack and he’s hooked on speed and he’s a drunk and there’s likely other shit he’s hooked on. He’s a user and he’s a dealer. He’s real good at the first, sucks at the last. Not popular with the suppliers in Denver mostly because he’s fucked half of them over and the other half he owes money. He also owes money to a variety of other people, none of them people you wanna owe shit. He’s recently devolved to selling information which makes him even less popular and he was already pretty fuckin’ unpopular. And if that wasn’t enough, when they went through his house they found a shitload of H and E, enough that he’s been charged with intent to distribute. And proving he’s not just an assclown but a serious fuckin’ assclown, they also found stolen property that we reckon he either stole himself, he stole from someone else who stole it or he was gonna fence it for somebody.”

“This doesn’t sound good.” Still I was whispering but now it was because I was more than a little scared for my cousin.

“It isn’t,” Mitch confirmed. “The good news is, you got the kids out in time and we got to him in time.” He hesitated, studied me a moment and then continued, “But you should know, Mara, once he detoxes and goes to lockup, he’s got so many enemies, it isn’t likely he’ll be real safe there. That said, we know this and he’ll be placed in protective custody so at least he’s safer there than he was out on the street. And Billy and Billie are a fuckuva lot safer with you than they were with him because there was a good chance they’d be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their home was the wrong place to be and, until you intervened, they had no way to avoid it.”

“Great,” I muttered, looked away and bit my lip.

“Look on the bright side, Mara,” Mitch’s voice came at me, “right now everyone is safe.”

I nodded, trying to find the bright side. “Okay.”

“Got more to tell you.”

I looked up at him and scrunched my nose not wanting to hear more but I still repeated, “Okay.”

He watched my nose scrunch and didn’t speak, not for a long time, long after I’d unscrunched my nose. In fact, he seemed to lose focus as his eyes settled on my mouth. Then his eyes moved to mine and he regained focus.

“That guy that Billy said was visiting?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Got a feeling his name is Grigori Lescheva. He’s Russian mob and when I say that I mean he’s the top guy in the Russian mob.”

This didn’t sound good. On all the television shows the Russian mob guys were the worst.

“That doesn’t sound good either,” I pointed out when Mitch said no more.

“Nothing about this shit is good. Lescheva’s just the worst part of it. Sources say Lescheva’s settin’ up a power play to claim new territory. Bill was passin’ him info about competitors. At first he was doing this because Lescheva was paying him. In the end he was doing this because Bill owed Lescheva. You do not want to deal with Lescheva at all. But if you gotta deal with him, you want him to owe you for whatever you got, not the other way around. Your cousin knows every scumbag in town. He’s sold to them. He’s bought from them. He’s partied with them. He owes them money. They’ve fucked him over or he’s fucked them over. He’s been busy since he hit the city and therefore he’s a good informant. But there’s only so much he has, only so much he can give. Especially now that no one likes him, no one trusts him and most everyone wants something from him and some of them, him not breathin’ is what they want. His usefulness to Lescheva was diminishing which means Lescheva would be calling on the debt. Bill is an assclown and a nuisance and not worth the effort for most unless the opportunity presented itself. That is, he was until he started feedin’ Lescheva information. But Lescheva doesn’t like debts and he’d call it, one way or the other. If Bill couldn’t pay, Lescheva’d get creative in finding a way to get it.”

I stared at Mitch, wrapped my arms around my ribs and focused on not crying and/or freaking out.

“That really doesn’t sound good,” I whispered so quietly I could barely hear me.

“The good news for you is Bill’s being held without bail. He’s considered a flight risk.”

“Okay,” I whispered though his good news was relative.

“That means the kids will remain with you if CPS approves you fostering them after they visit which they’ll do.”

I nodded.

“The other good news is that with the evidence they have and the fact that this is strike three, it’s unlikely he’ll be breathing free for awhile.”

Damn. He knew this was Bill’s strike three. Of course he would. It was the computer age. He probably discovered that in, like, two seconds.

Bill’s blood flowed through me. No wonder he had no more warm smiles for me.

I nodded again even as I felt the knife twist.

“That means, while he’s inside, you can work to make that permanent.”

Yet again, I nodded.

“I’ll text you names and numbers of lawyers who can help you out with that. You might as well start now.”

“Thanks,” I whispered, wondering where I’d find the money to pay a lawyer.

He stared at me. Then he turned his head and looked at the wall that separated the break room from the showroom. Then he looked back at me.

“They doin’ okay?” he asked.

“Um…yes,” I answered. “Billie asks after him. Billy seems fine with everything.”

It was his turn to nod.

Okay, it was nice of him to come all the way out to Pierson’s to tell me this but I had to shut this down and move on. Again.

So I went about doing that.

“Um…thanks for coming all the way out here to, uh…keep me in the loop.”

I watched his jaw clench. Then he looked to the side and muttered, “Clueless.”

Oh boy. Here we go.

“Mitch –” I started to shut it down and his eyes sliced back to me.

“You workin’ this weekend?”

My head did a little shake at his confusing question. “Pardon?”

“This weekend, you workin’?” he repeated with slight amendments.

“Um…yes.”

“Both days?”

“Yes, Mitch, but –”

“Who’s lookin’ out for them while you work?”