Bad Blood

Chapter 12 - Sultry Streets

The lawyer's thumping melted into a monotonous noise as they walked toward the door. Solona could not decide whether a door for an unexpected opportunity had opened for her or if it had only topped her troubles. As she stepped out the heat hit her, scorching her exposed skin and suffocating which was covered with clothes. That drought would have driven everyone mad, but she had to stay calm to balance her chances. She could end up free just as under the bottom of the Drakon River or in a nice prison cell.

"I am filing a lawsuit in court for police abuse," the lawyer fumed, clutching his tattered briefcase.

Solona wondered from which dumpster Zevran had taken these pettifoggers. "We pay you to keep us apart from such situations, not to jump around me with such a frenzied and pathetic squeak after the damage is done, "she said as she got to the car and Samson opened the door for her. She took out a cigarette from her clutch, and as she lifted it to her mouth, and a lighter clicked to light it. "In case it was not clear enough, you are fired," she added and got into the car, leaving the baffled lawyer behind, clutching his briefcase.

She heard a soft chuckle and a pair of honeyed eyes glinted in the darkness. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a proper lawyer nowadays?" the soft, velvety voice asked.

Solona sucked into her cigarette and watched the pathetic receding figure. "Do you call this proper legal service? Barging into the interrogation and barking like a rabid dog? He was a pain in the ass anyway," she replied and turned to the figure in the shadows. "Besides, it seems the Yard shows great interest in our businesses."

Zevran leaned in, resting his chin in his palm, intently measuring her. "What do you mean by this, my love?"

Solona switched her glance between him and Evelyn beside him. She had wondered a lot about the girl recently. She had the wit for a street urchin she had to give that, but that uncompromising pride of her made her stupid. Knowing her price was always better than thinking she had no price to buy. Because Evelyn already sold herself. It was a noble sentiment that she just paid back her debt just as Solona did, but the ugly truth was, they both sold themselves one way or another.

"The weather is nice for a walk, don't you think?" she said finally as stubbed her cigarette and knocked on the window separating them from the chauffeur. Samson parked the limousine. "Leave your lapdog behind," she said, feeling Evelyn's contemptuous glare on her skin as she got out of the car. She couldn't help but chuckle.

The Burroughs were filled with family men rushing home for a quick lunch, children, enjoying their summer break from school, playing and running on the streets under the watching eyes of their jaded mothers whose beauty was stolen by motherhood. Solona wondered if she had ended up the same in another world, giving in to the mediocrity of a cozy middle-class life. Where she had everything, except life itself. Everyone had their prison, only someone had the privilege of choosing their prison guard.

They turned to a little park filled with high horse chestnut trees. and fountains beside the main road of the same looking two-story family houses. The shadows offered some relief from the burning hell of the summer. Solona lit on another cigarette and marveled at the beauty of the simplicity of the new era that grew from the ashes of the war. Where people bought everything in large yet lived so little.

"Detective Theirin knows about you," she said, at last, her glance followed a little girl with two braided pigtails running before her with a ragdoll in her hand. Solona found her beautiful, so she hoped she had been brainless. Life would have been more kind to her then. Life showed her more than once that ignorance was really bliss.

Zevran hummed. Solona heard that invisible tension in it. "The only question is how."

Solona shrugged. "The birds are chirping, I guess."