18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Tolly

T olly had held it together while subduing those men last night, barely a slip of his claws that no one had seen, but he would have killed them all if Leigh wished it. There was some of the monster in him all the time, but it was further proof of the good in Leigh that he would never ask for that.

There was nothing to mourn over that Vincent Moretti was dead. Who Tolly mourned for was Ralph, one so young who, like him and Leigh, wanted something better for himself but found obstacles at every turn. If they could help him move past this, that would please Tolly almost as much as saving Leigh had.

But first they had to see Sweeney.

It was quieter when they entered the club than the first time Tolly had been there. No one was hanging in the corners, just dim lighting and stillness. The first sign of life was Alvin coming out of the back, looking frantic as he pulled out his phone, only to glance up with eyes springing wide to prove Leigh was the very person he'd meant to call.

He nearly dropped his phone in his haste to tackle Leigh with a hug. " Deal with it," he said when Leigh tensed at the contact. "Dad told me what happened. Why didn't you call me?"

"We just wanted to sleep when it was over." Leigh sank slowly into the offered comfort. "And we had to take care of Ralph. He slept on the sofa last night."

"Is he okay?"

"Good as a kid can be after seeing his first murder."

They parted, and Tolly offered Alvin his best smile in time to be hugged just as fiercely in turn.

"Rosa said you kicked some serious ass, Tol. Secret mermaid strength?" he whispered in Tolly's ear.

"Yes. That I am Leigh's bodyguard was never a lie."

"What are we gonna do now?" Alvin asked once he pulled away.

"Ah, William, there you are," Sweeney called from the back. "Gang's all here, I see. Why don't you join us?"

The gang really was all there from what Tolly saw. Rosa, Cary, as well as the ones he knew as Selene and Mark, were gathered in the back office. Tolly signed Cary a quick hello, then passed Rosa a cold stare. She was sharp, observant, and shifted under his gaze, since she had seen his strength last night.

"Mimosas." Sweeney snapped his fingers after sliding behind his desk. "That's what we're missing. It's the a.m. and we're celebrating."

"No thanks," Leigh said.

"Ah yes, you don't drink. What about you? Tolly , was it?"

"Tolly Allen," Tolly said. "And I am fine, thank you."

"You did all the damage, huh?" Sweeney propped his feet on the desk. "Heard it's nearly half a dozen Moretti men in need of a medic thanks to you by now. Just where are you hiding the claws and fangs, kid?"

"What?" Tolly felt the blood drain from his face.

"It's a joke. Not too bright, is he?" Sweeney said. "Well, beauty and brawns is more than enough. If you had brains, too, it'd hardly be fair to the rest of us." He dropped his feet and patted the desktop like playing out a drumbeat. "I liked the idea of someone keeping an eye on my little boy's best buddy, so I let your appearance slide, but you're officially part of the crew now. Guess that means we got a new bruiser to replace Jake."

"I have a better idea," Leigh spoke up before Tolly could.

"Oh? I'm all a twitter."

"You get neither of us. You let Ralph walk away, and I appreciate that. Now it's my turn. I want out."

Snickers passed between the others, save Cary, who remained stoic, and Alvin, who looked unsurprised but somber.

Sweeney gave three single drumbeats on his desk in succession. "Okay."

"Okay?" Leigh questioned. "Just like that?"

"Well, no ." He rolled his eyes dramatically, lurching out of his chair and around the desk again, like he never sat still for long. "You can be out, William, but only after the dust settles. See, Vinny was the lead man, but his brother is still around, as you know. They'll be weaker for sure, but there could still be a war brewing. And considering the way Rosalind talked up your boy, we could use the extra muscle, make sure Leo plays nice when he takes over. You help us usher in a peaceful transition, you can both go your merry ways." He flourished his hand in the direction of elsewhere.

Managing a peaceful transition with Leo Moretti would not be easy when everyone was saying Leigh killed his brother.

"Take a day," Sweeney said. "Think about it. It's a nice offer for you both. You try running off too soon, things could get… sticky. I don't like sticky. It's like licking cotton candy off your fingers. You can't go back to normal after that. You have to wash your hands or go crazy." He laughed as if quite literally unhinged. "You understand."

"Dad, you will let Leigh out if he helps though, right?" Alvin spoke quietly. "And Tolly?"

"You have my word," Sweeney said with a hand held over his heart.

The walk back to the apartment had never felt as stiff or cold to Tolly, maybe because of the weather, overcast and chilly, but also because there was a sense of two steps forward and three steps back.

At least the look Alvin had given them before they left said he held no resentment for Leigh wanting out of that life. It did not mean they could no longer be friends, just that their circles would diverge.

As they neared the empty shop on the corner, Leigh's steps slowed. It looked dark and barren now, save the sign in the window that said FOR LEASE.

"I do not understand enough about how money works here," Tolly said, "but you do not have enough to buy the shop, is that it?"

"I was hoping to get a loan," Leigh said. "Have a bank give me what I need with the promise I'd pay them back once I made enough. But see, banks don't trust criminals, even if they are trying to go straight."

"They will not give you a loan?"

"No. They expect collateral, a positive rep, no B&Es on record, things like that. Honestly, if someone had good enough credit and no red flags, that'd be enough. I got a lot of red flags. Come on." Leigh picked up his pace to pass the building quickly. "We didn't get enough sleep last night, and I don't feel like being out anymore."

"Sick day? Like Ralph?"

"Yeah." Leigh smiled, sad though it was. "Let's take a sick day."

They did not make it all the way to Leigh's door before being interrupted, though it was merely Miss Maggie.

"Hey, Maggie," Leigh said, taking the basket of laundry from her without being asked to finish carrying it to her door. "Feeling better?"

"Look at you, being a gentleman," she said. "I am. Sounds like Ralph caught my bug, though. Poor thing's stuck inside today. At least Gert managed to avoid it. She's watching her cartoons while I finish some chores. What about you two? You look like hell, William. You didn't catch my cold too?"

"Might just have. Too much time around those kids."

"Pfft. As if you don't love it. Best kind of kids to have are the ones you can give back come the end of the day."

Leigh snorted at that, and Tolly had to chuckle too. It could not dismiss the shadows from Leigh's eyes, though, and Maggie noticed once they reached her door, and she took the laundry back from him.

"You're in trouble again."

"Maggie…."

"Why do you have to go and pull this boy into the muck with you?" She nodded at Tolly. "I thought he was pulling you out?"

"It's not like that," Leigh said. "All I've been doing is trying to get out. It's the ones doing the real damage who keep pulling me back in."

"Then stop letting 'em. Stop compromising or soon you're gonna run out of things to bargain with. You keep him honest, dear," she said to Tolly. "Let the bad apples pay for being rotten. Don't go getting rotten with 'em."

"Easy for her to say," Leigh said once they slipped back into the apartment. He fell against the door, forehead pressed to the wood.

Tolly took his arm and gently tugged him away, drawing him to the sofa. "Come," he said, and sat, urging Leigh to lie down and rest his head in his lap. Soothingly, he stroked his fingernails over Leigh's scalp until he relaxed and closed his eyes. "Rest. This could be good. A peaceful transition is a worthy cause to assist Sweeney with."

"If he means it. And if Leo Moretti allows it. I still don't know what to do about Perez. I promised him someone to put away, and instead he got a body bag. He won't let that slide forever. I need to figure out something that saves us, gives the detectives what they want, and keeps Sweeney from becoming an enemy. I don't know if it's possible to have all three."

Tolly, of course, had a fourth item he desired, but now was hardly the time to push for it.

Leigh did sleep for a while, and Tolly might have dozed off as well. Maybe it was because of how tired Leigh was, how sorrowful, that he began digging through his cabinets in the afternoon and declared success only after he found everything he had been looking for.

"What are you going to make?" Tolly asked.

"Chocolate chip cookies. My mama's recipe."

"Oh?" Tolly had always wanted to try those. It seemed they were magical confections with how they were spoken of in human customs.

"Technically, it's just the recipe off the back of butter-flavored Crisco, but they always turned out best when Mama made them."

"What was your mother like?" Tolly asked, since he had heard very little about Leigh's family.

"Sad," Leigh said. "But kind. I don't remember her much, to be honest. Just her smile, her voice, especially her voice singing, and warm cookies on a cold day. Don't know how a sorry excuse like my father snagged her. She died when I was young. Chronic heart trouble. Genetic thing I don't have, so don't worry. Sometimes I thought she was lucky, though, getting out early, getting away from my old man. What about you? Good things, I mean, before your parents were gone?"

Tolly watched Leigh with rapt attention as he made the cookie batter. "My parents were very much in love, and very dearly loved me. We lived the farthest from the colony. They preferred it that way, as did I. They were skilled hunters but never cruel with what they caught. They would help the injured, my father especially, which was against our ways. The injured are considered weak. They should be culled to thin the herd. But if my father found any of our kin or another creature not fit to be food, he would help them."

"Can't you just heal yourselves the way you healed my hand that time?"

"Most things, yes. But to heal ourselves, we need energy. Too deep a wound takes too much and can require another of our kind to take pity."

"And pity isn't the merfolk way."

"It is not."

"Your father was like a doctor then?"

"I suppose he was," Tolly said with a smile. "And my mother a teacher. She would show the children she found playing near us clever ways of catching food without causing suffering, or tricks to escape nets and other human trappings. She enjoyed human culture like I do and ventured close to shore often. She taught me the start of many languages, to understand when I hear them, and to read. I learned much on my own later, but the passion for it started with her."

"You can't be the only good merfolk out there," Leigh said. "There have to be others who think like your parents did."

"Perhaps. But to change a culture's ways is not easy. Even the cruelest practices can be seen as natural and necessary when you know it all your life."

Leigh was quiet for a bit, but some of the shadows had fallen when he looked at Tolly again. "I bet your parents were as beautiful as you are."

That made Tolly blush and grin and feel very warm inside, though Leigh knew not what he spoke of.

"I bet they'd be proud of you," Leigh added, spooning drops of chocolate-speckled batter onto a pan.

"Shall we see if your mother would be proud of these cookies?" Tolly teased, stealing a finger full of batter from the bowl. It was lovely and it had not even been baked yet.

"Ten minutes in the oven," Leigh said.

Once they were ready, Tolly could not decide if he preferred brownies or Leigh's cookies best, because both were ambrosia, so different from anything he had known in the water. Certainly Leigh's mother would be proud, and he told him as much.

"I hope I can make her proud of more than just my baking someday."

"You will."

They were halfway through a second cookie each when a loud voice reached them from down the hall. It took a moment of listening close to realize it was Ralph .

Throwing down their cookies, they dashed for the door, rushing into the hall toward Ralph's apartment, where they could see him leaning out his doorway yelling at Rosa.

"Leave me alone!" he cried, then turned and saw them, with a surge of hope in his eyes to once again be rescued. His parents would be gone to work by now.

"You heard the kid," Leigh said. "He's not gonna rat you out."

"Pretty sure he got into this mess because he ratted someone out," she said.

"And once a traitor, always a traitor?" Leigh towered over her. "Leave him alone. He's out. Trust me, he doesn't want anything more to do with you."

"I'm just making sure it stays that way," she said snidely back at him, so Tolly stepped forward, offering that same cold stare. She took an immediate step back. "Be good, Ralphy-boy, and you'll never see me again." She twirled her fingers in a wave and headed for the stairs.

She would have fit in well with Tolly's kin.

"Ralph?" Leigh said after she had gone.

"I'm fine," Ralph said, though he did not look fine, arms crossed tight over his T-shirt-clad middle and eyes downcast. "She really was just ragging me about not telling anyone what really happened. I wouldn't." He gave Leigh a heartfelt glance. "But she's right. I ratted out you . I never should have said your name. I'm just as bad as—"

"Hey." Leigh reached for Ralph's shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "It doesn't matter. They had you scared. They still do. But I'm fine. I'm gonna be fine. All you need to worry about is taking a breath and enjoying your sick day. Order a pizza or Chinese or something for dinner—on me."

"Can I come back to your place again tonight?" he asked tentatively, already inching out his doorway.

"Sure, kid," Leigh said, and Tolly smiled in agreement. They had an entire batch of cookies to share, after all.

While Ralph looked over Leigh's take-out menus to decide on dinner, Tolly pulled Leigh aside. "She is the lowest in my mind. She betrayed her own, her lover, and is willing to sacrifice even a child for herself. And she is going to get away with murder."

"Maybe," Leigh said thoughtfully, the cleverness Tolly loved so much shimmering in his eyes like the beginnings of a plan forming. "I need to think, but tomorrow, we're gonna see Sweeney again. Rosa gave me an idea."

There was hope in their steps on the way to Sweeney's club the next morning that had been absent along the same path the day before. Even more exciting was the text message Tolly received.

I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna ask Cary out. I told him to come to the club this morning. You guys are coming, right?

We are on our way now.

I so need the moral support! But I'm ready.

Tolly showed Leigh the messages as they stopped at the final crosswalk.

"How exciting. You see? There are still good things in this world."

The explosion that shook the block, erupting from the very club they had been headed toward, threw them both to the ground.