Charles de Lint The Painted Boy (epub)

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.“I swear.”Rosalie realized that her friend was completely serious.“Fine,” she said.“You know you’re always welcome.But this better not be an excuse to go crawling into his bed in the middle of the night.”She danced back before Anna could punch her again, but Anna didn’t move.“I just want to talk to him,” she said.“I want him to tell us who he is.”When the restaurant was all cleaned up and ready for the next day’s business, Rosalie grabbed a stuffed garbage bag by the kitchen door.“I can get that,” Jay said, starting to get up from his chair.But Rosalie waved him off.She took the bag out to the alley and dropped it into the Dumpster, lowering the lid carefully so that it wouldn’t clang when it closed.She started back, but a voice stopped her.“Hey, homegirl.”“Who.?”Then Rosalie saw her under the security light of the building across from the alley, lounging against the side of her old Buick four-door.Maria Sanchez.Once upon a time they’d been best friends.But then Maria got jumped in with the Kings to become one of their Presidio Queens.Her hair was in cornrows and she wore baggy black cargo pants and a tight white T under a brown hoodie.The only sign of her gang colors was the red-and-green handkerchief tied around her right wrist.“Hey, Maria,” she said.“What’s up?”Maria shrugged.“You know.This and that.”“What are you doing here?”“Heh.That still feels weird to me.”“What does?” Rosalie asked.“You asking me what I’m doing here.Time was, you’d want to know why I wasn’t hanging with you.”“That was your choice, not mine.”“Yeah, so you keep telling me.But other girls from our old crowd still hang with me and I don’t see them wearing any colors.”“Maybe because the bandas didn’t kill their mother.”“Bandas didn’t kill your mother,” Maria said.“Meth freaks did.”Rosalie shrugged.What was the difference? One was as bad as the other, and her mother was still dead.“Anyway,” Maria went on, “I just came by to give you a heads-up.”“About what?”“Your China Boy.Maybe Tío’s old ties can keep the Kings away from your family, but Cruz knows you lied to him and there’s always some wannabes hanging around who might get the idea that doing you some hurt would let them get in good with him.”“Cruz is the guy with the crown tattooed on his forehead?”Maria nodded.Maybe she’d have to start bringing Oswaldo in to work for protection, Rosalie thought.Too bad Jay didn’t know kung fu.“What do the Kings want with him?” Rosalie asked.“He’s just some kid from Chicago.”“It’s not about the Kings,” Maria told her.“Word is Flores wants to see him.”Rosalie felt a little sick.Amada Flores was everything that was wrong with the barrios.He was one of the Mexican drug lords who’d set up shop in Santo del Vado Viejo.Violence followed in his wake.“But why?”“Like I said, I don’t have a clue.But you know how it works.Flores isn’t going to give a shit about any agreement Tío has with the bandas.Somebody’s going to be collecting your homeboy, and I’m guessing probably sooner than later.”“Why are you telling me this?”Maria pushed away from her car.“You turned your back on me,” she said.“I didn’t turn my back on you.”She got into her car before Rosalie could respond.It started up with a coughing backfire.Rosalie watched its taillights until the Buick turned out of the alley, then stood there for a long time after it was gone.She knew she should tell Tío, but she also knew what his response would be: Jay would be out on the street before she could finish passing on Maria’s message.Maybe it would be better that way, considering everything Anna had told her.She didn’t owe Jay anything.But she liked him.And then there was the fact that he was alone here.Anna was right.She was a soft touch.So she’d tell Tío.But first she’d let Jay tell his side of the story.It was a good plan—or at least it seemed that way until they all left the restaurant.As Paco said good-bye and wandered off down the alley heading for home, Rosalie saw a couple of girls standing across the alley under the security light where Maria’s Buick had been.The pair wore the red-and-green colors of the Kings openly.One of them made some signs with her hands, then the two of them laughed and disappeared into the darkness.“What did she say?” Rosalie asked Tío.“I know those were gang signs.”Tío’s face had gone dark with contained anger.“She signed ‘Your ass is ours, bitch,’ ” he said.His gaze went to her.“Is there something going on that I should know about, Rosalita?”“It’s not like you think.”“I don’t know what to think,” Tío said.He looked from her to Anna and Jay.“Unless there’s more to the story about what happened on the patio this afternoon with you and Jay and the gangbangers.”“There is,” Rosalie had to tell him, “but I didn’t know it then.”“There is?” Jay said, clearly surprised.Rosalie ignored him, keeping her attention on her uncle.“But we shouldn’t talk about it here,” she said.“Let’s wait till we get home.”Tío nodded.“But then you’ll tell me everything.”“Everything I know.”Normally they would have walked the few blocks home, but since Anna was here with her car, they all rode with her.The short trip passed in silence.When the dogs gathered around the gate to greet them, Rosalie could see what Anna had meant.There was no raucous barking, no jumping up for attention.The pack sat quietly, their focus on Jay as he got out of the car.Tío hadn’t been part of Rosalie and Anna’s conversation back at the restaurant, but he couldn’t ignore the dogs’ uncharacteristic behavior.He stopped, his hand on the gate, his gaze tracking from the dogs to where Jay stood.“What.?” he began.But Rosalie gave him a little push on the back.She’d been scanning the long dirt alley for any sign of the Kings [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Pokrewne