Free Kissed by Smoke by Shéa MacLeod Page A

curled up on the
floor. He couldn’t be much more than eighteen.
    “Not the face.”
    “What?” I stared down at Mikey, then glanced
up at Inigo who gave me a shrug. “What are you talking about?”
    “Please, beat me up, take what you want.
Please just don’t hit me in the face.” He was practically
sobbing.
    And that’s when it hit me. There were a few
professions where the face was an important part of the package,
but I doubted Mikey was an actor. My stomach turned sour and I
wanted to throw up. “How old are you Mikey?” I kept my voice soft,
my body still.
    Tears trickled down his face.
“Seventeen.”
    Shit. Shit, shit, shit. “Where is your
family, Mikey?”
    “Ain’t got one.”
    And knowing the way the foster system
worked, he was probably worse off in the system, believe it or not.
Double shit. I felt sorry for the kid, but he’d been involved in
beating up my brother. Maybe even in murder. I couldn’t let that
stand, no matter what kind of shitty life the poor kid had
lived.
    Still, he didn’t strike me as the type that
could take down a man like Trevor Daly. Not even on a good day.
There was more to all this; I could practically smell it.
    “Listen to me, Mikey,” I didn’t let a hint
of anger slip into my voice. He was freaked out enough. I needed
him calm. “I want to help you, I do. I want to make sure you don’t
have to … ” My voice thickened and I had to clear it. The tears
wanted to come, but damn if I’d let them. “I don’t want you to ever
have to do that anymore. You got it?”
    “You can’t help me.”
    “Yes, yes I can. You help me and I promise.
I promise I will help you.” I had no idea if I could keep that
promise, but damn if I wouldn’t kill myself trying. Nobody deserved
this kind of shitty life.
    “What … what do you want?” his voice
trembled.
    “Last night you were there at the Madras
Hotel when a man was beat up. Beat so bad, it put him in the
hospital. That man was my brother.”
    Mikey squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m sorry.
I’m sorry.”
    “Listen to me, Mikey. I need to know what
happened. I need the truth, okay?”
    He nodded a little, his cheek smooshing
against the carpet. “Okay.”
    Inigo handed me a blanket he’d grabbed from
somewhere. I gave him a grateful look and turned back to Mikey.
“Mikey, I’m going to put this blanket around you, okay? Hard to
have a serious conversation with you in your Hanes.”
    A wry grin at that. Good, there was someone
home.
    I draped the blanket around him. “Now, can
you sit up?”
    He nodded and slowly sat up. I didn’t help
him, didn’t touch him. What he’d been through, he probably wouldn’t
let me if I tried. “Okay Mikey, tell me about last night.”
    He squeezed his eyes closed. “I was hanging
out down at the bar with a couple guys I know and this man came up
to us. Said he had a job. Said he’d pay us good. I thought … :” his
voice trailed off.
    I knew what he’d thought. He’d thought the
man had wanted his special services. “But the man wanted something
else?”
    Mikey nodded, his stringy hair flopping in
his face. “Yeah. He said there was this … ” He slid a look toward
me. “He used a bad word for your brother. About him being black.
I’m sorry, Miss.”
    Miss. I nearly rolled my eyes, but I kept my
expression neutral. “I get it. Go on.”
    “Well, he said that your brother didn’t
belong here, and needed a lesson. He’d pay us to teach him that
lesson. I didn’t want no part in it, honest. But the others.” He
shrugged his skinny shoulders. “And I needed a fix real bad. I’m so
sorry … ” sobs wracked his body. “I didn’t touch him, I swear. I
just stood lookout. But when I saw … when I saw … ”
    “Calm down, Mikey. Calm down. When you saw
what?”
    “They beat him pretty bad, miss. I knew they
were gonna kill him and I begged them to stop. They gave me my
money and told me to leave and let them finish up. That they’d kill
me if I