Midnight Bayou

Lilibeth shot back. “Some of us have more respect for blood kin than others.”
    “I told you to get on a bus and go.”
    “I don’t take orders from my own daughter.” Lilibeth pushed off the jamb, sauntered to the stove. “This here coffee fresh, Mama?”
    “How could you?” Lena demanded of Odette. “How could you take her in again?”
    “Lena.” All Odette could do was take her hand. “She’s my child.”
    “ I’m your child.” The bitter fury poured out and left its horrid taste on her tongue. “You’re just going to let her come back, stay until she’s sucked you dry again, until she and whatever junkie she hooks up with this time steal you blind? It’s cocaine now. Can’t you see it on her? And that doesn’t come free.”
    “I told you I’m clean.” Lilibeth slapped a mug on the counter.
    “You’re a liar. You’ve always been a liar.”
    Lilibeth surged forward. Even as Lena threw out her chin to take the blow, Declan stepped between them. “Think again.” He said it quietly, but the heat in his voice pumped into the kitchen.
    “You lay a hand on her, Lilibeth, one hand on her, and I’ll put you out.” Odette stepped to the stove, poured the coffee herself with hands not quite steady. “I mean that.”
    “She’s got no call to speak to me that way.” Lilibeth let her lips quiver. “And in front of a stranger.”
    “Declan Fitzgerald. I’m a friend of Lena’s, and Miss Odette’s. I’ll get that coffee, Miss Odette. You sit down now.”
    “This is family business, Declan.” Lena kept her furious eyes on her mother’s face. She would think of the embarrassment later. Right now it was only a dull pinch through the cushion of anger. “You should go.”
    “In a minute.” He poured coffee, brought a cup to Odette. Crouched so their faces were level. “I’m Irish,” he told her. “Both sides. Nobody puts on a family fight like the Irish. You only have to call me if you need me.”
    He squeezed her hand, then straightened. “Same goes,” he said to Lena.
    “I’m not staying. I’ll drive you back.” She had to breathe deeply, to brace for the pain her own words would cause. “Grandmama, I love you with all my heart. But as long as she’s in the house, I won’t be. I’m sorry this hurts you, but I can’t do this again. Let me knowwhen she’s gone. And you.” She turned to Lilibeth. “You hurt her again, you take one dollar from her or bring any of the scum you like to run with in this house, I’ll hunt you down. I swear to God I will, wherever you go. And I’ll take it out of your skin this time.”
    “Lena, baby!” Lilibeth rushed down the narrow hall as Lena strode to the door. “I’ve changed, honey. I want to make it all up to you. Give me a chance to—”
    Outside, Lena whirled. “You’ve had your last chance with me. Don’t you come near me. Don’t you come near my place. You’re dead to me, you hear?”
    She slammed the car door, ground the engine to life, then sped off, spewing up a thin cloud of smoke that obscured her mother and the house where she’d grown up.
    “Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?” Lena punched the gas. “I bet your family would just love a load of Lilibeth Simone. Whore, junkie, thief and liar.”
    “You can’t blame your grandmother for this, Lena.”
    “I don’t blame her. I don’t.” The tears were rushing up from her throat. She felt the burn. “But I won’t be a part of it. I won’t.” She slammed the brakes in front of the Hall. “I need to go now.” But she lowered her brow to the wheel. “Go on, get out. Va t’en. ”
    “No. I’m not going away.” Others had, he realized now. And that’s where the hurt came from. “Do you want to talk about this out here, or inside?”
    “I’m not going to talk about it anywhere.”
    “Yes, you are. Pick your spot.”
    “I told you all you need to know. My mother’s a whore and a junkie. If she can’t earn enough to feed her various habits on her back, she steals. She’d as soon lie as look at you.”
    “She doesn’t live around here.”
    “I don’t know where she lives. No place for long. She came to my place yesterday. Stoned, and full of lies andher usual talk about new starts and being friends. Thought I’d let her move in with me again. Never again,” she said and leaned her head back on the car seat. “I gave her fifty dollars for bus fare. Should’ve known better. Likely it’s already gone up her nose.”
    “Let’s take a