He took a few steps forward, just to get away from the door. The meeting had gone awfully. There’d never really been any chance of it going well, of course. Manny had opted to be as blunt and honest as possible. He’d told her that Oscar had been captured and executed by the Heavenly Kingdom. He left out that Roland had mercy-killed him, as he’d left out his own little stint in the Kingdom’s militia. It would’ve taken too long to explain.

She’d reacted with rage. Aisha had hit him a few times. She’d screamed at him off and on for more than an hour, in between bouts of collapsing into his chest and sobbing.

“If you hadn’t talked him into this fucking job, he’d still be alive,” she’d spat at him. Manny hadn’t argued in his defense. Aisha had been right, after all. There was nothing for him to do but endure her rage, soak up her pain, and transfer tens of thousands of AmFed dollars into her bank account.

Before the bodies at Rock Creek had gone cold, Manny had made up his mind to hand Aisha every penny he’d saved. Skullfucker Mike and Topaz had assured him that the cash would be all but useless in his new life on the road with Rolling Fuck. And more than that, it was the right thing to do. He couldn’t bring Oscar back, he couldn’t make anything OK, but the money he’d saved would mean Aisha had one less worry in the immediate wake of the tragedy.

He stepped off her porch and tried not to focus too much on the muffled sounds of her howling cries behind him. Ahead, parked across the street, was an old beat-to-shit Jeep Wrangler. It had no doors, no top, and Tule Black Elk sat in the driver’s seat, legs propped up on the dash and a fat cigar bleeding smoke into the air around her. She glanced up as he approached, and favored him with a lopsided grin.

“Hey, kid, how’d it go?”

Tule had seemed less than friendly on their initial meeting. Given the circumstances, Manny couldn’t blame her. She’d warmed up to him in the two days since the battle, and had thanked him repeatedly for saving her and Rick. Manny had tried to brush off her thanks, but she’d ignored his every effort. When it came time to take his last trip into Austin she’d volunteered to drive. Her mods were all minor enough that she was still legal inside the city.

“It went the way it went,” he replied. “She’s fucked up about it and she hates me. Probably always will.”