The Fire and the Sky (Book 3 of the... - Chapter 28: Chapter 28

Lety pulled the town car into the garage and everyone hurried to pile out.
"Fargus told me you guys were finally on your way back," Dom said, dripping a wide puddle onto the grease-stained concrete floor.
"So you went outside to wait for us?" Lety pulled a face. "Honestly, you're worse than a dog. And I should know."
"I couldn't sit still! I had to go for a walk to burn off some energy. Did you guys know there's a nice park a few blocks from here?"
"Dominic, focus," May instructed, stepping in front of him. "What happened? What news do you have?"
Dom's patented smile, all charm and warmth, spilled across his face. "Sean called!"
May exhaled and it came out sounding like a laugh. After a night of dead ends, she wanted to believe this was a good thing. "Please tell me he found something."
"Damn right he did!"
"Spit it out, boy," Grant said. His arms were crossed with impatience.
"Right, sorry." Dom looked May in the eyes. "He found your mom, Mabes."
The world spun and for a precarious moment May thought she might need to sit down. Welkin took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
"Where?" she breathed.
"Well, there's good news and bad news." Dom held up his hands and May took this as a sign to brace herself. "She's in prison."
Lety stepped forward and shoved her hands in her pockets. "I'm guessing that's the bad news. Do you know which one?"
"Yep. Gallery."
Both Lety and Grant hissed as if they'd been burned. May's heart sunk.
"Is it bad?"
"It ain't good," Lety confirmed.
"Gallery is a high security women's penitentiary. Sounds like Dawn's line of work finally caught up with her."
"It's not all bad news," Dom jumped in as May's face fell further. "Sean still has friends all over the place in the justice system. They put you on her visitors list! You can meet with her!"
This time May did have to sit down.
With no seat close by, she leaned against the town car and focused on the sensation of the cool raindrops soaking through the silk of her gown. She breathed deeply. For so long her birth parents had been nothing more than characters in a story; they felt so distant they may as well have been make believe. But now Dawn Gardener wasn't just real, she was someone May was going to have to face. She would have to look into her eyes — her own eyes, if Necar was to be believed — and speak with her for the first time. There was no other way around it.
"You okay, Mabes?" Dom asked.
May looked up, blinking with surprise to discover everyone watching her with expressions of varying degrees of concern.
"Yeah, I'm just— wow. This is huge."
Sensing her discomfort, Welkin stepped forward and cleared their throat. "So, what now?"
"First, we need to make an appointment for May to visit," Dom answered, nodding in her direction where she forced a faint smile. "Then we need to get to Rhettford. It's where the prison is."
A silence of consideration fell over the room, which was quickly chased off by a loud clap from Grant that made everyone jump.
"Alright then. I'll ask you to make that phone call from somewhere other than the Rookery but otherwise you have our support. Lety, how about you accompany the team down to Rhettford and keep an eye on things?
"Sure thing, boss."
But May was already jumping up as Lety affirmed her marching orders.
"That won't be necessary, Grant. You guys have already done enough to help."
He brushed off her objections with a gruff snort. "I've already told you, Tiny — any friend of the Kid is a friend of ours. This is what friends do for each other."
The Kid — Jeremy. Just a passing mention of him felt like a slap to May's face.
Lety was laughing. "The fact that he just made bank off the car he was able to slide into Deveraux's auction thanks to you probably doesn't hurt either."
"I'd insist regardless," Grant said, arms crossed. "I considered Oliver and Dawn to be friends of mine. One way or another, I'd like to know how this all pans out."
And so it was decided. May agreed to make the appointment the following day and the group called it a night. Dom and Welkin offered May the spare office and she didn't argue. Instead she kicked off her heels and dragged herself up the metal staircase. She was wiggling out of the dress before the door had even clicked closed behind her. It slid to the floor and she left it heaped where it fell like a small act of revenge.
A soft knock came from the door just as May finished pulling her own clothes back on. She glanced at the neat pile of Welkin's clothes and sighed.
"Come in," she called over her shoulder, flopped onto the bench seat couch.
"Oh, you've already changed," said a voice that was definitely not Welkin's. May turned to see Lety leaning casually against the doorframe.
"What do you want?" May asked, not bothering to feign niceties.
"I came to see how you were doing." Lety's expression was a mix of surprise and intrigue. "The birth mama bomb looked like it hit you pretty hard. But I can try again when you're in a better mood if you want."
May flopped back on the couch and folded her arms across her chest. She looked up at Lety defiantly. "I wasn't expecting it to happen so fast, that's all. I just need some time to..." she paused, frowning as she searched for the right word. "Decompress, I guess."
Lety's lips quirked. She nodded slowly and glanced around the small, cluttered room. "What happened to the dress?"
Rolling her eyes, May pointed her foot at the mound of silk that had gotten pushed aside by the door.
"Geeze, do you know how much that thing costs?" Lety scooped up the gown and shook it out, surveying it for damage.
"I guarantee you I do not care."
"Damn. You are ice cold when you're pissed, you know that?"
"Good."
Lety arched an eyebrow. "We gonna talk about this? I mean, if I'm going to be tagging along on this adventure of yours, we should at least be civil with each other."
May narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Okay, let's talk. That kiss? Tell me, what part of 'no' don't you understand?"
"All of it." Lety shrugged. "I'm a criminal, Tiny — I see it, I want it, I take it."
"No. Not with me." May stood and took a few brave steps forward. "I'm done with people taking what they want from me without my permission. I want to be your friend, Lety. But if you can't respect that — if you can't respect me — then forget about it."
Something strange passed across Lety's eyes — something animalistic that May couldn't decipher. She wondered if Lety's shifter nature allowed her to read her in ways she didn't even realize; if there was something about her that told Lety she meant it.
Or perhaps she had just pissed her off.
The moment hung between them. May stood her ground, minding her breathing and keeping it even.
At last, Lety smiled ruefully.
"Okay, fine," she said quietly. "No more kissing. Maybe some playful teasing, but I won't touch you again. How does that sound? Fair?"
She held out a hand. May considered it begrudgingly before taking it in her own. They shook on it.
"Just know this truce disqualifies you from crawling back to me if your pasty-ass girlfriend breaks your heart again," Lety said as she turned for the door. There was a smile in her voice. "No matter how badly it might kill you to know I would have blown your mind in bed, the answer will still be no. A girl's gotta stick to her principles."
"Noted." May dropped back onto the couch and pulled a threadbare quilt over herself as she rolled away from the door. "Good night Lety."
The light flicked off.
"G'night Tiny."