Daisy rapped on the door and within seconds, it opened.

Darius stood there.

What in the hell?

“What are you doing here?” I asked, too shocked at his presence to be polite.

“Shirleen’s family,” he answered, obviously not surprised at my surprise.

Wonderful.

Only I’d get a scary drug dealer’s family member conked unconscious while my shit went down.

My f**king luck.

I couldn’t dwel , I just had to go with it.

“Can we talk to her?” I asked.

He stepped wide and we marched through.

Half a dozen people were hanging around in the living room/kitchen open plan area that had high, cathedral ceilings. They al watched as we strol ed in.

Shirleen was lying on a big, poofy couch decorated in bold black swirls against a white background. It made me dizzy just looking at it.

She looked fine, but how would I know, I was no nurse.

“Hey Shirleen,” Daisy said.

“Hey Daisy-girl,” Shirleen replied, a big smile on her face, then her eyes slid to me and the smile died.

I didn’t take that as a good sign.

I didn’t know what to say, so I said, “Hey Shirleen.”

“What happened to your head?” she asked.

I looked to Daisy, then back to Shirleen. “Fratel i held me at gun point. I got grazed trying to get away.” Her eyes grew wide, then her lips went thin.

“You okay?” she asked.

I nodded.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Head hurts and I’m pissed off, other than that, fine.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“What you sorry for?”

If she didn’t know, I wasn’t certain I wanted to enlighten her.

Oh well , in for a penny, in for a pound.

“It’s my fault you were hurt.”

At that, she burst out laughing.

“Girl, you got a screw loose. You hit me on the head?”

“No,” I said.

“Don’t you worry about Shirleen, Shirleen can take care of herself. If she can’t, she’l find someone who can.” That’s when Shirleen looked to Darius.

“You know ‘bout Jet gettin’ shot?” she asked.

He nodded.

“That’s it, son, you hear what I’m sayin’ to you?” He nodded again, this time his lips were turned up a little at the ends.

Something scary was going on and I knew it was the truth when Matt tensed and Daisy’s wide eyes swung to me.

“Shirleen,” Daisy said, turning back to Shirleen, “I got Marcus on the case.”

“Wel , then, I got Darius on the case. This is good, this means them stupid-ass motherfuckers won’t get away, wil they? Think they can f**k around at Shirleen’s table, shoot my friends, I don’t think so.”

No.

No, no, no.

I mean, okay, I liked it that Shirleen wasn’t mad at me and thought of me as a friend but I figured we were talking about someone getting whacked. Although I wanted my problems to go away, and I wanted the fix to be permanent, I wasn’t ready for that.

“What are we talking about here?” I asked.

Shirleen opened her mouth to speak but Daisy cut in,

“Her man is Eddie Chavez.”

Shirleen’s mouth snapped shut and her eyes grew wide.

Wonderful. Now, Eddie was “my man”.

I took in a deep breath.

Whatever.

“Real y, I can’t…” I started to say.

“Shut your mouth, get yourself an iced tea and sit your ass down. We’re gonna watch Days of Our Lives.” Without further ado, she flipped on the TV and someone handed me an iced tea. I was a little too scared of Shirleen to disobey her order to watch Days of Our Lives, even though I had other things to do, a lot of other things, like tel Eddie that I was pretty certain I just saw Shirleen give the order for Vince Fratel i to be whacked. Instead, I walked forward and sat down in a chair that was upholstered in Barney the Dinosaur purple.

Shirleen’s eyes watched Matt and Darius move toward the door.

“She’s got Nightingale’s protection,” Daisy said, settling in on the migraine couch at Shirleen’s feet with her own iced tea.

“Figured that after I heard his army swept through last night. That boy rocketed straight from wild child to badass motherfucker, now he scares the shit out me.” I was a little surprised to hear Lee could scare the shit out of Shirleen.

Shirleen didn’t seem to be scared of anything. Though, I knew where she was coming from and I nodded to her in agreement. She caught my nod and looked at me, “What’s the story with you and Eddie?”

Before I could answer, Daisy got there.

“They bought a coffee maker together the other day.” Shirleen’s eyes nearly popped out of her head and then she roared with laughter.

“Eddie Chavez and a coffee maker! Holy f**k! Darius, you hear that?” she cal ed.

Darius was standing at the door with Matt, he looked down the hal , not pleased at being interrupted.

“I heard it,” he said.

“Jet, girl, you’re workin’ on becomin’ a legend. Kneein’

Fratel i in the bal s, traipsin’ around with Nightingale protection and buyin’ kitchen appliances with f**kin’ Eddie Chavez. Shee-it. Darius!” she yel ed, displaying no sign of concussion or that she had a care in the world that Scary Darius didn’t want to be interrupted. I decided to focus on that semi-positive fact rather than the new frightening turn in the conversation. “How many girls wished they’d bought a coffee maker with Eddie? What, a hundred?” I sent word to the Good Lord that I real y, really needed deliverance.

Darius didn’t answer.

At least that was something.

Then Shirleen leaned into me and I realized I should have been more specific about my heavenly request.

“Darius is my nephew, I know Eddie from way back. That boy nailed every piece o’ booty that moved. Made Lee Nightingale look like a choirboy. Eddie sent his mother into despair. Think they wrote to the Pope claimin’ it was a miracle when he became a cop. Stil , even after he got the badge, he f**ked everything that breathed, no coffee makers in sight. Jet, girl, you are the shit!” Daisy leaned back and tucked her denim, platform boots under her skinny ass, preparing to stay awhile. I realized immediately I should have come alone but I was thankful I hadn’t shared about the toaster.

“She thinks she’s boring and out of his league,” Daisy threw in.

I shot her a kil ing look.