Page 48 of Up in Smoke

My stupid tail wagged and betrayed me.

Thursday, June 25, 2043.

Asylum, Oklahoma.

The Alley.

Unlike Batbayar’s place,which had been more of an afterthought than an intended construction, McCoy’s new bar and grill occupied an entire block on its own, large enough for hundreds of people to dine inside at a time. The sign informed me the place wouldn’t open for another few weeks due to the construction, but as I’d never let some sign stop me without at least knocking, I rapped my knuckles against the wooden door.

Brent McCoy didn’t leave me waiting for long, and he grinned when he spotted me. “Come on in, and bring that man of yours in with you.”

I bounced inside, pricking my ears forward at the bar and grill version of paradise waiting within. “Nice place, Brent!”

“It will be when she’s done. After the last blow, Mr. Mansfield decided Asylum would need something better to boost morale, so here we are. We’re still two or three weeks out from opening, but we got in a good supply with the last few trains, and Mr. Mansfield made a point of putting up a bounty on any unopened bottles scavenged from the wreckage. We got a surprising number of bottles that way. He’s thinking about starting up a distillery down here if we can get the supplies.” Brent headed for the bar, waving for us to join him. “Close the door behind you.”

Sandro handled the door while I dodged the round tables littering the main floor. “This place is huge.”

“It won’t quite hold all of Asylum’s residents at one time, but it’s close. We got enough supplies in on the latest run we can feed a full place for about six months, so I think we’ll be all right getting set up. Getting new staff has been interesting, but it’s working out. Word on the wire is you’re a little heiress now?”

I snorted, and I pointed at Sandro. “I’m a champion scavenger. He’s the heir, and I was paid filthy amounts of money to babysit him so he actually goes home when he needs to. I’m the sense of the operation. He’s just a roaming pain in the ass.”

My stupid tail wagged and betrayed me, and I sat on it to control its wicked ways.

Brent raised a brow. “According to your ears and tail, you like your roaming pain in the ass.”

I should have known better than to try to hide anything from Brent. I freed my tail from beneath me to spare myself the pain, and I let it do what it wanted, which involved whipping back and forth in general excitement. I blamed my fox. She adored our roaming pain in the ass, and she wanted everyone to know it. “That is a fairly accurate statement.”

Sandro laughed. “She just likes my salsa and my willingness to make it for her. I’m working on my campaign to convince her to stick around through feeding her and doing the things that don’t annoy her and avoiding the things that do annoy her. I think it’s working well so far.”

“You have discovered the secret to women. Well done, Mr. Moretti. Also, thank you for taking care of Jade. She’s always deserved better.”

“I’ll do my best,” Sandro promised, sitting on the stool closest to me. “I want to say I’m bearing good news about the return of one of your waitresses, but in reality, while she can probably fit in part-time work, my mother’s putting her in charge of the Moretti family with me, so we both have a lot of learning to do around everything else we need to accomplish around here. She can’t thrive without being kept busy, so I expect she’ll be around here as she can, but I can’t promise how many hours.”

“That’s more than I was expecting, especially if she can help train the new waiters and waitresses. Any interest in bouncing while she’s on shift, Moretti?”

“You can count on it. I don’t like being separated from my vixen for any length of time, and I’d rather find a nice perch in here and watch her work—and make sure everyone plays nicely with each other. I’ll enjoy the view. I expect just loitering will convince people it’s a wise idea to play nicely.”

I’d enjoy being his view, too. “That works for me. Do you have a schedule for training? Sandro is a good tester, and it’ll give your cooks a chance to deal with someone who is used to good food—and he can help teach them the errors of their ways. He cooks, Brent.”

My boss, soon to be ex-boss, chuckled. “I do have a training schedule, and I’ll give you a copy of it before you go. Testing them on your man would be good. Most of them are raw, and having a friendly but testy poet as a customer would be a good experience for them. I lost just about everybody in the last blow; those who could went out of the quadrant.”

His words implied he hadn’t gotten a complete or accurate body count in the fatal blow that’d torn down his restaurant, which didn’t surprise me. I assumed those who hadn’t left the quadrant had died. The shadowed grief on the man’s face exposed that bitter truth.

I sighed, wondering if I’d ever get used to the burden of unending loss in the Alley, especially with knowing they hadn’t been victims to Mother Nature’s temper, but instead murdered by the greed and ambition of a man attempting to paint himself as a savior of the survivors.

Sandro gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Well, I can give you good news. My mother issued a bounty for the little girl you sent to the East, and she’s safely nestled in the Moretti household. Jade likes her, and she will need a secretary down the road, and the girl can’t seem to accept there are people who’d want to help because they can. I’m sure my mother will wear her down eventually, but for now, she’s getting ready to go to school. She’ll start homeschooled, as her education is severely lacking. It would be like tossing her into a pool of hungry sharks right now, but she’ll catch up quickly.” Sandro grimaced. “I forgot to update you on that, Jade. Sorry. We were busy, and I just handled the business, and then it slipped my mind.”

“I don’t mind. You told me you were doing it when it was being arranged, and I don’t need updates every other minute as long as I know it’s being handled, which it is. Lora will be happy with your parents, anyway. And your brothers? They’ll have her convinced she’s a princess within a week.”

“I absolutely do not mind if Lora charms one of my younger brothers. My mother is in love, and I suspect Lora will either be adopted into or married into the family given any hint of interest from one of my brothers. After her rough start in the Alley? She deserves some happiness. And Lora adores you. According to my mother, Lora melted down—in a good way—when she found out you’ll be around for her and are taking care of her.”

“The staff here is basically family, at least before we came down to Asylum,” Brent said. “This is going to hurt, Jade. It turned out Frankie had survived the first storm, but we lost her in the latest bad blow.”

I’d cry for the old woman sometime later, probably back at the house when I could raid the fridge for salsa and shovel it into my mouth while mourning. Worse, I could guess why she’d died, even after getting lucky. “Did she refuse to leave?”

“She refused to leave. She’d spent most of her life in that house, and that was where her husband died, and she wanted her spirit to rest with his. She knew it was coming, and she left some things—said if you ever came back around, she wanted you to have some of her treasures. You’d always been her favorite, refusing to bend no matter how bad the storms got. I’ve got them in the back for you.”

“She knew she was going to die?” I blurted.