WHILE THE LADIES were in the house, I paced along the sidewalk, wondering if I should knock down the door or call Link. I trusted the ladies to hold their own in a women’s shelter, but not being able to see them still made me nervous. Wrangler, the new prospect, looked decidedly uncomfortable as he watched me march back and forth like a caged animal that needed to get out and take a piss.
“You think they need us?” he asked.
I glanced at the shelter. “If we bust in there and they don’t, they’ll make our lives hell.”
“What if we bust in there and they do?”
He made a good point, and I was only seconds away from seeing how valid it was when the door opened, and the ladies emerged. Nobody looked hurt, and Naomi was carrying a thin brunette while a thick redhead walked between Sasha and Monica. Naomi dropped her bundle like a sack of potatoes before waving me over.
“What’s going on?” I asked. The sleeping girl had one hell of a bruise forming on the soft tissue beneath her chin. “Did you do that?”
“Nope. That was all Monie. You should have seen her. She marched right in there and handled shit. I haven’t seen our girl fight in forever, but let me tell you, it was worth the wait. That bitch and her little knife didn’t stand a chance.”
“She had a knife?”
Naomi shrugged, looking at me like I was an idiot. “Yeah. So? Wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle. Clearly.”
Needing to see for myself that Monica was unharmed, I left Naomi to her sleeping captive and headed toward the porch where Monica was laying into the redhead sitting at her feet.
“I don’t know why you choose to hang out with people like that,” Monica said, pointing at the knocked-out girl. “Have drugs destroyed every single one of your brain cells? I mean look at this woman.” She gestured at the old lady who ran the shelter. “She’s a queen. She’s given up so much to care for people like you and your crap-lousy friend. Then the two of you come into her house, eat her food, sleep in her bed, and disrespect her? Didn’t your mama teach you better than that?”
The girl’s gaze dropped. “My mom left when I was little.”
Monica blew out a breath. “Well, that is a cryin’ shame. But you see my badass friend Naomi over there standing by your friend? Her mom ran off when she was little, too, and she’s not out here acting like some ungrateful little hoodlum. You know what that girl did? She went to college, and then she became a helicopter pilot for the United States Air Force. She spent years flying into combat zones to pick up wounded soldiers.”
The girl stared at Naomi with admiration in her eyes.
“That woman is a queen. You know how to recognize a queen?”
The girl shook her head. “No.”
“When I forgot who I was, she came and got my ass out of bed and dragged me up here to remind me that even though I can’t fly anymore, I can be a part of something special. That’s what queens do. Queens shine each other’s crowns. They don’t enable each other to beat on old ladies and gang up on their sisters. Looks to me like you need to find some friends with a whole lot more royalty in their blood, and to stop hanging out with these goddamn bottom feeders who aren’t taking you nowhere but to jail.”
A cop car pulled up to the curb.
Monica dropped to squat in front of the girl, putting her closer to eye level. “Baby girl, you did the crime, so you’re gonna have to do the time, but I’m gonna come and visit you in jail.”
“You are?” the girl asked, wiping away a tear.
“Yes. I am not gonna leave you alone to rot in there. You handle your business, and when you get out, there will be a place for you. I promise.”
The woman never ceased to amaze me.
An idea had been cycling through my mind the entire time the ladies were inside the shelter. I kept trying to dismiss it, but hearing Monica talk to that girl made me think twice.
“There will be a place for you. I promise.”
I had to know if Monica had been plagued with the same idea.
As the cops approached, Emily stepped in to show a phone video of what had transpired upstairs. I really wanted to see it, but I needed to talk to Monica more, so I pulled her aside.
Framing her face with my hands, I looked her over for injuries. “Are you okay?”
She cocked her head to the side like I was stupid. “They’re just girls, Stocks.”
“But she had a knife.”
“That she had no idea how to use. I only knocked her out because she was so goddamn high she wouldn’t stop coming at me.”
