I let out my breath.

Mitch stalked to my door, opened it but didn’t walk through. He stopped in it and his eyes sliced to me as his hand came out to me.

I walked directly to him, Elvira at my back and when I got to him, my hand came up. His fingers closed around it and we walked in, Elvira following, the Trailer Trash Trio bringing up the rear.

Mitch’s hand gave mine a squeeze and he ordered gently, “Hit some lights, honey, then right back at my side.”

I looked up at him, nodded and wandered the room quickly, turning on the lamps on either side of the couch. Mitch positioned himself six feet into the apartment, hands to his hips. Elvira went to sit on a stool at my bar, back to the counter, body facing the showdown. It was then I noticed her clingy, wraparound dress was pretty spectacular and if I survived this without having a mental collapse, I needed to ask where she got it. Mom, Aunt Lulamae and Jez were all standing just inside my door, looking around my apartment with astonished expressions on their faces.

I understood this. Seriously, Penny did a great job. My apartment was awesome.

Jez’s expression melted to indifference as her eyes drifted to Mitch. It was all the same to her and, vaguely, I wondered what she was even doing there. She didn’t seem a participant so much as an observer.

Mom’s and Aunt Lulamae’s gazes came to me as I made it to Mitch’s side and their expressions shifted to scorn.

“Who’s she?” Jez asked, her head tipping to Elvira but Mom spoke over her and what Mom said took precedence, at least according to Mitch.

“Knew it, always knew it.” She threw her hand out, indicating my apartment. “Slutty, little tease always had your nose in the air, thinkin’ you’re better than everybody, thinkin’ you’re somethin’ you are not.”

Obviously, she said this to me.

And, very obviously, considering the already suffocating air in the room went thick as paste, Mitch, seriously pissed, got more pissed.

A lot more.

“For this discussion, you direct any communication to me. You do not talk to Mara,” he clipped out this order and Mom looked at him.

“And why would I do that?” she snapped.

“Because you’re standin’ there thinkin’ you got the upper hand when you don’t. And if you don’t smarten up fast and play this right, I’m gonna unleash a world of hurt on you, your sister and your sister’s son. And part of playing this right is not disrespecting my woman to her face or mine,” Mitch replied, one of his hands staying at his hip, the other one sliding around my waist and pulling me close.

“That a threat?” Aunt Lulamae asked.

“Nope,” Mitch answered.

“High and mighty cop, you think you got the system on your side,” Mom stated, her lip curled. “But we got ourselves a lawyer, Lulamae, Jez and me. And he says the system likes to place kids with blood relatives, the closer, the better. Not some second cousin, but a Momma or a Grandma. And Jez here, now she’s all set to move into a trailer close to me and Lulamae so those kids got all sorts of family close by to take care ‘a them and see they got what they need.”

After she said this, her face changed and I knew that change. I knew it because I’d seen it often in my life. And I knew it heralded her doing something that was not just her normal ugly but her vastly more hideous nasty.

And I would be right because she went on to say, “And, Jez here bein’ Billie’s Mom and all, we’re happy just to have the girl. You can have the boy.”

My heart clenched so hard I feared it would rupture and Mitch’s arm spasmed tight around my waist.

They had a lawyer.

And they were happy to break up the kids.

They had a lawyer and they were happy to break up the kids.

“I see you’re not just not all that smart. You’re plain stupid,” Mitch returned quietly, his eyes locked on Mom.

“Got a lawyer who don’t think the same way,” Aunt Lulamae fired back.

“No,” Mitch replied, his gaze slicing to Lulamae. “You got a lawyer who’s happy to take your money on a case he knows he has no hope of winning.”

Mom shook her head. “See you’re not too smart. Don’t you see? We’re offerin’ you a deal. We take the girl. You want him, you can have the boy. Everyone’s happy.”

The girl.

The boy.

Why did her calling Billy and Billie that hurt so much?

I started having trouble breathing.

“You’re not taking Billie,” Mitch declared.

“Jez is her Momma,” Aunt Lulamae stated. “And my boy gets to pick who he wants to raise his kids and he picks Jez, Melba and me.”

“Bill doesn’t get to decide shit,” Mitch shot back.

That was when Aunt Lulamae’s expression went from ugly to nasty.

She had something, I could tell by the look in her eyes. She was saving her ace and was about to play it.

I braced and she played it.

“He didn’t when he was facin’ all them charges. He does now, seein’ as he’s talkin’ with the DA to make a deal to provide testimony in return for immunity,” Aunt Lulamae returned fire, I stopped breathing altogether and felt Mitch’s body get tight.

Mom smiled in a way I clutched Mitch’s shirt at the back.

“He’s got good stuff. So good, they’re willin’ to give into all his demands. And one a’ those demands is he gets to say where his kids’re gonna be. Now, you’re smart, you deal. We’re willin’ to give you the boy but we take the girl,” she said.

I knew Mitch was preparing to speak but he didn’t get the chance.

This was because, in a flash that lasted a nanosecond, it all came to me.

Jez didn’t care about Billie. Whether she was moving into a trailer close to them or not, she was there because she was getting something out of it. What, I had no clue. But whatever she was getting, it wasn’t her daughter that she wanted.

And I had no idea how Mom and Aunt Lulamae were paying for an attorney. They had no money and neither did Bill. Whatever it was was probably taken out in trade and I knew whatever they were giving some sleazebag lawyer to get him to take their case would lose its luster and do it quickly.

And there was no judge in the land who would take two children from a woman who gave them a stable home, food, clothes and good people in their lives and plant them in a trailer two states away to live with women of proven bad character.

And Bill knew this.

But he didn’t care.