Blood Alley
Matthew Ryan Fischer
When Kay was twelve, she watched Ruel beat another boy with a beam
of wood. The boy might have been fifteen at most, but he was old enough to want
to rape a young girl, and Ruel wasn’t going to let that happen. Ruel didn’t
know her, or that she had stolen from the boys, but Ruel knew enough to know he
was going to stop them. There were three of them and minutes earlier Kay tried
to prepare herself to experience a nightmare. Watching the boy bleed, she
realized there were many types of nightmares and you couldn’t prepare yourself
for them all. Two of the boys were able to run, but that one poor sap couldn’t
get past Ruel. There were shattered teeth on the ground when Ruel took her hand
and led her out of that alley.
Ruel had protected her for most of her life. She owed him
something grand in return.
Many of the men were out on the streets, looking for Arch or his
men. Ruel took Vik and Rikard back to their restaurant and set a trap in case Arch
showed up there. Rendy took to the streets with the pickpockets to search for
information. Kids on corners, listening in, watching from the shadows. Hidden
faces in crowded places, unnoticed, unaccounted for.
Kay took the women to one of Rendy’s warehouses where they could stay
until Ruel set up proper housing. Kay looked at the sad broken whores and was
disgusted. Disgusted by what Ruel was becoming. Disgusted by what compromises
she had already made in order to stay with him.
Her job was to protect Ruel the way he protected her. There were
guards to watch the women. Kay had other agendas.
Mere months ago, Ruel was happy working for the Reapers. They funded
his loansharking and he made them money and actually helped a person or two along
the way find homes or fund businesses. But greed and growth set him down a path
of listening to the wrong people. Kay couldn’t stop that. She grew worried when
the foreigners brought their counterfeit money. It only got worse when Arch
arrived with plans of his own. Ruel was arrogant and naïve and saw gold when he
should have felt fear and caution.
It was all in the past. Kay couldn’t stop it. She couldn’t protect
him. All she could do was move forward.
Rendy was good at gathering information. The foreigners worked for
an organization known as Naxis. The street rats identified two main Japanese
that needed to be followed. Arch was harder to pin down. He seemed to run his
own operations, but they eventually found the man funding him.
Kay would have killed them all if she could have. But she was one
and they were many, and Ruel would need her alive more than he needed some
grand suicidal gesture.
Rendy was supposed to have eyes on all of them, allies and
enemies. Kay had considered Rendy a partner but never a friend. When Ruel was
missing they formed an uneasy alliance. When she considered running, she would
have left him the city. But Ruel returned and Rendy never really wanted to go
back to second place.
Kay was supposed to watch the women and protect Ruel’s investment,
but she chose to protect his interests instead. When Rendy met with the
Japanese, she was in the shadows, watching. The street rats must have seen her.
As soon as Rendy was alone, he would know. She could probably outrun them, inform
Ruel straightaway, for she could just take care of things herself.
Rendy bled, just like any man would. He liked his fancy suits and
had his bodyguards and his hidden army of spies. But he never lived on the streets.
Not like Kay or Ruel had. He never learned to fight. Never killed a man with
his own hands. Rendy was at a disadvantage. Rendy thought he could buy what he
needed, pay for his survival. Kay actually knew how to use her bare hands.
Rendy bled, just like many men had before. He bled the way the boy
in the alley had bled. Once when Rendy put his hands on her hips, she promised
she would kick his teeth down his throat someday. Rendy sneered and laughed and
rubbed his sweaty grease-covered hands on her ass. She didn’t break his hand
then, but she did tonight. He spit blood at her feet and she kicked him again. His
mouth was shattered, teeth on the pavement, teeth swallowed into the blackhole
that was his face.
Kay might not save Ruel from all that was about to come, but she
was happy to protect him from being stabbed in the back. Ruel had protected her
most of her life and she owed him. She owed him and the scales were still
tipped. But it felt good to pay one small part of her debt.
The shadows watched, the tiny eyes of tiny scared boys and girls. That
had been Kay. Never again. They didn’t act. They let him die, their patriarch,
their patron. This rat of a man who probably abused them and never gave them
their due. The shadows watched as Rendy became one more victim of the night.
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