Chapter 3: Eddie

"Cosmic timing fuckin' sucks," Eddie Janak growled as he drove Tamara and Merry back from Dominique's Friday night.

"So do I, sir," Merry said, trying to lighten the mood.

Tamara smiled as Eddie quick-glared Merry into silence.

"Was fuckin' hard enough leavin' you with Rachel just moved in, but with the fire, Harry off putting his head back together, threats fuckin' everywhere ... and this..." Eddie grumbled.

"What exactly is 'this', darling?" Tamara asked, snuggled up close to him as he drove.

"Angie's in trouble again."

"Ah, Angie, that woman you want to kill and have no reason to help, but have helped before," Tamara said, smiling her quiet, proud smile.

"Yeah," Eddie replied, trying to quick-glare her, and failing dismally.

"I suppose everybody deserves a second chance," Tamara continued quietly.

Eddie wanted to strangle the steering wheel.

"Love of my life, could you possibly quit rubbing it in for just a bit ... oh, like until a month after I get back from this trip?"

"For you, anything, Master."

Eddie tried hard not to smile the rest of the way home.

Tired after a pleasant double-teaming by Tamara and Merry, Eddie found himself unable to sleep. He grabbed a pipe and some weed, kicked the hot tub on, and sat smoking, dangling his feet in until the water was a proper temperature. He put the pipe aside and sank in, luxuriating as the hot water embraced his naked body.

His attitude toward Angie confused him. His monster wanted to strangle the life out of her, slowly, watching the life leave her eyes, forever removing any potential threat from her. But yet...

Because, my dear Mr. Janak, you have never been the monster you think yourself to be.

Afterward, Eddie would swear he had levitated six feet straight up and splashed back down into the hot tub. In reality, he merely thrashed about, trying to see who had spoken to him in the voice of Minerva Cornelius.

Alison Kendry appeared at the back door, her long dark hair loose down her back, in panties, bra, and .45.

"Sir, is everything all right?"

"Yeah ... yeah ... sure..." he replied, muttering under his breath, "if you think going crazy is all right."

"Going crazy?" she said, lowering the gun from the ready and flipping the safety back on. "Why would you think that, sir?"

"I live with a woman eager to marry me who I couldn't begin to deserve in a thousand lifetimes, with three women said fiance wants me fucking regularly, a Chinese pain slut and her children, and my dear sister. I work with the most bizarre team of outlaws I've ever met, and that's saying something, taking them on a job out of the country with me to a place where people end up in jail for looking at someone in power funny. I've ended up part of a scene I never really imagined existed, closer to some of my oldest and dearest friends than I ever dreamed I'd be.

"And I heard a dead woman talk to me."

"You're right. You're going crazy. I work for a crazy person ... who's a lot of fun in bed, and pays me to protect his family. It's a good gig, working for a crazy person. Now, breathe through the pain, sir. Your family will be fine, as will your friends – it may take some time, though. Your crew will not get all of you imprisoned in a Southeast Asian jail for the rest of your lives, as they have lives they seem very fond of waiting for them back here."

"And the dead woman talking to me?"

"Maybe she did ... more things in heaven and earth and all that. Maybe it was you using her voice to tell you something so you'd listen to it instead of it disappearing in the background noise of your mind. Maybe you're having a flashback. What did she say?"

"Something kinda personal, but encouraging."

"Did you need to hear it?"

"Yeah, I did."

"Then quit worrying about it. It's okay," Alison said, putting her weapon on a chair next to the pool before undoing her bra clasp. "However," she continued, "unless my eyes deceive me there's a very nice hard-on under that water, and allowing that to go to waste is not okay."

As she kicked off her panties, Eddie sighed dramatically, and tried his best not to smile.

Sisters of Mercy Hospital was in reality a collection of buildings of different eras and covering different functions.

Eddie had never been to the charity ward before. It managed to be brighter and less oppressive than he'd feared, but there was still no comparing it to the ward where Harry and Minerva had been treated. In a room with six beds, no television, and only thin curtains between the beds, he found Angie, sitting beside the bed of her roommate Valerie.

When she first saw him, Angie moved as if to stand up, perhaps hug him, seeking comfort, before her brain reminded her that wasn't his business.

Eddie grimaced in greeting, then looked hard at Valerie. He couldn't imagine a machine or monitor that hadn't been hooked up to the woman in the bed, and from what little of her he could see through tubes, wires, sheets, and such, he didn't doubt she needed them.

"So, what happened?"

"We work without a pimp, that's what happened," Angie replied. "You wouldn't think it to look at me, but I've gotten real good at running in hooker heels, Eddie. I was with a trick, and these guys spotted Valerie.

"She doesn't run so good in heels."

"You know who they are?" Eddie asked.

"Yeah, this bunch. But there's always somebody, Eddie. Most of them just aren't as serious as these guys. The doctors are going through the motions, waiting for paperwork to take her off the machines, since she doesn't have any next-of-kin. I've got no one to watch my back now."

Eddie took a minute to really look at Angie. She was thin, but she'd always been thin. She didn't have the junkie look, or the junkie smell. She just looked tired, and scared, and hopeless.

"When was the last time you ate?"

"I had some chips from the machines around 3."

"This morning?"

"Yesterday afternoon."

"Come on, let's go grab a bite. There's nothing you can do here ... unless you want to be here when they turn off the machines?"

"No ... no, I've already said my good-byes."

She followed him through the maze of corridors like a lost puppy, out into the autumn sunlight to his truck.

Twenty minutes later she was inhaling breakfast while Eddie sipped his coffee, wondering what to do.

"So, I understand the whole 'no pimp' thing, Angie, but what do you want me to do? I'm leaving the country for a job Sunday afternoon."

"I was hoping for some justice, maybe," she said, wiping her mouth. "Talk to some of your police friends, or ... you know ... you fuck these guys up. I don't know. I just know there was no one else for me to call."

"Cops are a no-go. I'm already stretching a lot of those friendships real far. But let's say I did manage to get these guys. I imagine you'd want it real messy and real visible, so the others would leave you alone?"

"Yeah ... I guess."

He sighed.

"Not too smart for me ... the right cop gets curious, I could get put away." He got up from the table. "Gimme a few."

Outside the diner, he made a phone call, got a number, and made another.

"Yeah, Nancy, she's got addiction issues, she's been working the streets, she has some business sense, used to work as an executive assistant, but she got that high up by fucking her way through the rank-and-file."

"And you want me to give her a job?"

"I'm hoping there's a place in Minerva's business you could fit her in, and keep her out of sight of anyone else in Chorale. I mean, they'll know she's there, but putting her and them in the same space..."

"Would be bad ... yeah, I got that as soon as you told me she was Harry's ex." Nancy paused. "Why? Why all of this trouble for her?"

"Because, to put it bluntly, nobody's ever deserved second chances less than me, an' there ain't many that's got offered as many as I have."

"All right then. She's got a job."

"You are a saint, Nancy. Uh, another thing..."

"So yeah, you've got a job, but you're going to have to work hard and stay clean. You've got a place to stay, but believe me, you don't want to to fuck up living there. No stealing, no parties, no nothing."

"Not that I plan to, but why?"

"She's on her way to meet you right now."

"Understand me, cockroach," Li Kuan said. "I will take care of these men, because he asks it, not because of you. I am not happy you are working ... where you are, and I am even less pleased, if such a thing is possible, that you will be living in my ... in Madame's home. You will be held to an exceedingly high standard, both at work and everywhere else. Honest mistakes are unavoidable, but the slightest hint of anything else, and your body will never be found.

"Do I make myself clear?"

Angie had rarely been so scared before in her life. In fact, she had to admit, the Chinese woman scared her worse than Eddie.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Fine. Give me everything you can on these men."

Thirty minutes later, with Li Kuan gone, Eddie looked at her.

"Anything you want from your apartment?"

"No ... I don't want anything to remind me of that place."

"All right, lemme check on something real quick."

A few moments later he returned.

"Come on, we're going to a meeting."

"With who?"

"Narcotics Anonymous, there's a meeting close by, starting in about fifteen."

Angie nodded. "You're right, I need a meeting."

Eddie's minuscule store of hope grew just a bit.

He sat in the meeting with her, and listened while she spoke before the group, talking about finding Valerie on the street, and waiting with her for the ambulance, and the time in the hospital.

"And in all that time, I wanted to get high so bad I could taste it, in the back of my mouth, you know? But I didn't. I still want to, but I won't.

"Because when I was at my lowest, I reached out, and somebody gave me a hand, and pulled me up. It isn't the first time he's done so, and I'm smart enough to know my Higher Power is acting through him, showing me grace and mercy I don't deserve."

She sat down then, back next to Eddie.

It was simultaneously the easiest, and hardest, thing he'd ever done to reach down, and take her little hand in his, hold it, and put his other hand over hers.

As he drove her to Minerva Cornelius's house, Angie said, "Eddie, you know the 12 Steps?"