“Good. You look like hell, so at least you’re honest.”
I pull a tray of biscuits from the oven. “You have an amazing gift for comfort.”
“Comfort is for people with time. We have bread, gang war, and your love life making everybody tense.”
“My love life is not making everybody tense.”
“Honey, your love life has a body count adjacent atmosphere.”
I set the tray down too hard. “Kauss is not Lenrog’s successor.”
Darlene lifts both eyebrows. “I didn’t say he was.”
“No, but everyone else is whispering it.”
“They’re whispering because he’s running around with Lenrog’s people in a suit, breaking gang operations like dinner plates.”
“He’s trying to stop Ron.”
“Both things can be true.”
“That does not help.”
“I wasn’t trying to help. I was describing the mess.”
The front bell rings before I can answer. Mr. Eddison comes in under a dripping cap, followed by Mrs. Pell with two sacks of oranges and the expression of a woman prepared to fight city hall with citrus if necessary. Behind them come three flood survivors from the tunnels, hollow-eyed but alive. The room fills slowly with wet coats, tired voices, and the smell of coffee strong enough to keep despair from getting comfortable.
People talk about Kauss even when they think they are not.
“They say he took out three Memories dens last night.”
“Heard Lenrog’s men are calling him the Dragon.”
“Dragon? Hell, that’s better than whatever Ron calls himself.”
“Careful. If Kauss really is taking over?—”
“He ain’t taking over,” Darlene snaps from behind the counter. “He’s got enough trouble learning how to operate a mop.”
The room goes quiet.
I pour coffee into Mr. Eddison’s mug with a hand that only shakes a little. “Kauss is not a crime lord.”
Mr. Eddison looks up at me, kind and worried. “Nobody said he was, girl.”
“Everybody is saying it.”
“Everybody says a lot of stupid things before breakfast.”
Mrs. Pell sets the oranges on the counter. “I heard he stopped a fire team from hitting Mira’s clinic.”
“He did,” Renn says from the door, carrying a box of donated blankets.
“He also stopped a bombing near the union office,” someone adds.
“And broke a man’s jaw outside the Margrave.”
“Two men,” another says.
