pastor, or go to where you lay your head and plot your comeback.'
'Might do them all.' King didn't turn at the sound of the detective's voice. Prez stared at him. The hole in his face held a steady gaze and gave voice to all of King's doubts and failings.
'Let us handle it.'
'You got any leads?'
'Do you? I know, I know. No snitching.' Cantrell threw his hands up as if backing off.
'It ain't that. There's what I know versus what you can prove.'
'What do you mean?'
'I know who did it, but can't prove it.'
'Give me a name.'
'What good's a name going to do you? You can't act on it. Can't get a warrant. It won't provide you any witnesses. I might as well tell you my horoscope for all the good it will do you.'
'Every little bit helps.'
'You know and I know Dred's behind this. Behind all of this mess. But you're trapped by rules and laws.'
'And you're not? King, don't let me find you on the wrong side of some vigilante shit. I will come down on you just as hard as I would Dred.'
'I know.'
King returned to his room. Wayne. Lott. Percy. La Payasa. Lady G. They assembled at his word and waited for him. He paused to take in the scene. Here they were gathered together for the first time in far too long. His knights. Battered. Bruised. Tested. But they'd come out the other side. They weren't many, but they might be enough.
'What's the word?' King asked.
La Payasa stepped forward. 'Dred's muscling up. Taking stock of who he got left.' Unadorned, she didn't know how she fit in with this crew. They were family and she was the outsider.
'Making way the hounds of war.' Knowing what it was like to be the new person in a tightknit group, King touched her lightly on her arm. His smile welcomed her as an equal.
'Something like that.'
'Where?'
'Camlann.' La Payasa's expression turned sour, as if she'd eaten some bad cabbage.
'What is it?' King asked.
'It's a place. Site of some new building project or something. But you don't understand. Word was loud on the street.'
'Too loud?'
'Yeah, like they want people to know.'
'A trap,' Wayne said.
'That's what I think,' La Payasa agreed.
'Then I'll give him a mouse to spring it,' King said.
'King, I don't think that's wise,' Wayne said.
'I can't ask you to join me.' King turned to the rest of them. 'Any of you. But I need to stop this madness.'
'Then you'll need this.' Lady G removed a bundle from her purse and handed it to King. The weight felt familiar and right as he unwrapped it. Even before he saw it, he knew part of him had returned. A 9mm, gold dragons rearing up along the contrasting black grips. His Caliburn. 'I kept it for you.'
'Let's do this.'
Lee's place consisted of a mattress and a box set as the lone furnishings in his bedroom. Plastic Totes held his clothes. Scattered newspaper and leftover Chinese takeout boxes buried the phone. Lee realized it took a particular brand of self-loathing to put himself through this relationship. On the good days, he rationalized that he was in this for the experience. Omarosa was a fine piece of ass and a great lay. And she provided solid intel as a notquite-on-the-books confidential informant. He wasn't planning on bringing her home to meet his mother. That conversation wouldn't go well: 'Hi, Mom. This is Omarosa. She makes her living taking off drug dealers. She may even be a prostitute on the side, but she's hell in the sack. How many grandkids do you want?' It was what it was: itch-scratching. A perfect, walk-away arrangement. By all rights, checking his man card, he shouldn't have any gripes.
But then there were the bad days. The days when he woke up, alone, and had time to think about his life. The days when he suspected he was ultimately without anyone who cared about him. A boss who despised him, a partner who tolerated him, and Omarosa, a woman who expressed nothing but open disdain for him, fucked him as if he were beneath her — all but held her nose while doing him — and if she had two kind words for him, they were never strung together in the same sentence.
Omarosa slowly twirled before him, her hips moving in full controlled circles, each muscle knowing exactly what it was doing. All Lee could do was stand there like a grinning idiot hick — what she often reduced him to — simply happy to be in the same room as her. She gyrated close to him, her ass rubbing against his crotch and then pulling away. He reached out to grasp her, but she eluded him, while staying on beat to the music. She danced close again. He raised his hands, but stopped short, fearing she might abandon him again. With a tantalizing slowness, she peeled his shirt off of him, lifting it over his now-raised arms. His thin chest and muscled arms had a wiry strength to them. He thought better of wrapping them around her.
'How come we never go to your place?' Lee asked.
'Because I don't want you to know where I live.' Omarosa took a half-step back. 'What's the matter, too on point? Did I hurt your feelings?'
'Would you care if you did?'
'Would you want me to? Besides, you wouldn't survive in my world.'
'I'm up to my shitter in your world now.'
'Lovely. Anyway, despite where you think you are, you're not. You couldn't… swim in the waters I do.' It was said that when the angels fell, the ones who fell on land became fairies and the ones who fell into the sea became selkies.
'I'm a pretty good swimmer.'
'Not that good.'
'Why you gotta be that way?'
'You need to know, all things come to an end.'
'Meaning?'
'Meaning this is our last time together.'
'Just like that?'
'How did you think it was going to end?'
'I…'
Omarosa pressed a lone finger against his lips. 'It ends the way all stories do. With bloodshed. And anger. And pain.'
'What are you talking about?'
'There's a thing tonight.'
'What sort of thing?'
'King. Dred. Maybe the Mexicans.'
'Fucking beaners in the mix? Where?'
'Camlann. The new site.'
'Over by the zoo.'
'Yeah.'
'How are you mixed up in this?'
'Do you really want to know? Have you ever? Or would you rather do what you came to do?'
He knew much more than he let on. He could be a clever 'cracker-ass cop' that way. It wasn't as if she were his only ear to the streets. He heard the whispers of the street thief called Omarosa. Talked about like she was a legend. By the time he realized he was sleeping with her, there was no way to bring her in and explain away that he'd been banging her for months. 'When?'
'Everything will be over in the morning. One way or another, the story ends tonight.'
