"Party looks like it's over anyway, another lonely night for Lily."
"I'm sure ya got something in your sock drawer for nights like these," Whiskey called back. When Lilith was gone, she turned back to Bennie. Pulling the pack out of her pocket, she offered him a cigarette.
"So how's the Captain's chair suiting you?"
Bennie shrugged and took what was offered. "My ass ain't as big as Pixie's but I think it's comfy enough," he said. "A bit firm though." He lit the cigarette and took a drag. "So, you given any thought to what you'll do with Millie? I don't suppose this is the best environment to raise a kid in. Then again, Sprout turned out alright. Plus, we ain't got any of Payton's hounds in this rig. That's always a plus."
Whiskey shrugged, taking a drag on her own cigarette. "Well, Millie likes it here. Guess it takes more than a week for the novelty of a ship to wear off. For now, I reckon I'll stay. Don't know how permanent it'll be, but it seems like you could use some new blood that ain't necessarily young blood. I ain't a bragger, but I reckon you can pick up my track record easy enough if you're checking qualifications."
"I don't doubt that," Bennie said. "It says a lot for Payton to have been as interested in you as he was. If you don't mind me asking, what
is up with that?" He took another drag and pursed his lips. "You want to take this somewhere else?"
"Yeah, sure," Whiskey replied, stubbing the cigarette out on the heel of her boot. "Got anything to drink in your room? That half-assed poker game mighta gotten the kids drunk, but I've just had enough to make me want more."
Bennie got to his feet. "Yeah, Pixie restocked the captain's quarters before she ran off. I reckon there's all sorts of shit in there, though I haven't had time to really check it out. Want to help me take inventory?"
"Sure thing," she said as they set off down the corridor. "I'll even taste test it. Y'know... for poison and shit."
The big man chuckled. "Deal," he said before leading her down the hall. It was relatively short walk to the captain's quarters. Once inside, Bennie closed the door and gestured for Whiskey to take a seat in front of Pixie's desk. While she sat down Bennie walked around to the liquor cabinet and started sorting through its contents. "Anything you partial to? Would whiskey be too obvious?"
"Whiskey's fine," she replied. "I didn't pick the name." She laughed. "God knows I didn't pick this name... it's just a happy coincidence."
"Whiskey it is," Bennie chirped as he poured two glasses. After placing them on the desk, he took the seat opposite Whiskey. He nodded to her and grinned. "You're the tester."
Picking up the glass, Whiskey swirled it theatrically under her nose before taking a sip.
"Yep!" she exclaimed. "That's definitely scotch. Drink up, buddy boy."
"Cheers," he said with a chuckle, before throwing it back. "Damn, that's not bad. This stuff from Yuteni?"
Whiskey turned the bottle around to peer at the label. "Nope," she said. "It's imported from Paradiso. Guess it really is a paradise there."
Knocking back her drink, she started playing with her glass. "So what you were asking before. You remember Raymond Fifer? Middling noble, kinda declined in recent years. Ring a bell?"
"I reckon he does," he admitted. "So you're the daughter of a water dealer? Must be nice." He couldn't help but snicker.
"Well I guess daddy had a touch of yellow fever," Whiskey replied wryly. "Because mom was one of the serving staff in his tower when he pinned her down and accidentally brought little old me into the world."
Bennie furrowed his brow. "Well, you've caught me in an awkward position," Bennie said, his smile all but gone. "While I can't condone such a cruel act, I must say... it'd have been a shame to keep little old you from coming into this world. I reckon we could do with a few more Whiskey Fifers."
Whiskey grunted in agreement as she poured out another drink. "Anyway, seeing as clean water's... well, uncommon rather than rare, he had a lot of under the table shit going on. So mom flagged down a WV guy, took me to them before dad made an accident happen to hide his little faux pas. For whatever reason, Payton gave the go ahead. One of his lieutenants had a wife and kids and I grew up with them."
The big man leaned back in his chair. "Do you still have people in Payton's organization that you care about? That you are loyal to?" he asked. Perhaps he was digging too deep. He didn't want her to feel like he was interrogating her. It was just the opposite, really.
He was genuinely interested.
He finished his glass and poured himself another.
Whiskey looked into her drink. "If I asked you, you'd say Payton's a fucking snake, and if you asked me, I'd agree with you," she said. "But that's... kinda a recent development on my end. Payton, he... he was good to me, all those years. Not just me. You ask any one of his suits, they'll say he's fair. He looks out for ya. But he asked -
made- me to do something and it made me realize we're all pieces on a chess board and even if he does have some fucked up code of honor, that's still all we are."
"As for the man who took me in, he died years ago. Ended up one of Payton's three Generals and when one of the others went rogue, he got killed in the crossfire."
"I'm sorry," Bennie said with a hint of melancholy. "I lost my father as well. Suicide." He threw back another glass. "What about Millie's dad? Where's he at?"
Whiskey didn't reply right away, instead setting about refilling her glass and then emptying it again.
"He ain't around anymore," she said. "So how'd you end up with the Maidens, huh?"
Bennie laughed. It had been a long time since he'd thought about that particular encounter. "I was working solo for awhile after the Carmine family dissolved," he said. "The Maidens had just hit it big back then. A few high profile jobs had landed them in hot water with the nobility, as you could imagine. Pixie's bounty was much smaller back then, but it was still enough to pay the bills for a few years or more. I took the job." He laughed before adding, "I had no idea what I was getting myself into."
After pouring himself another glass, he held it close to his lips and smiled. "I went in thinking I'd put the pirate queen in the ground only to find myself pinned to a wall with the woman's hand down my pants. Exciting times, they were."
Whiskey laughed. "Sounds like her style."
The drink was starting to flow more quickly now. And it didn't slow down from there. Over the next couple of hours, they polished off the bottle and got well into another one.
Bennie had thought about Sprout more than once, but he was too far gone to really follow through with their plans. Besides, he would have come looking for him if he'd wanted to hang out. The kid probably fell asleep after a few drinks, anyway.
"She's gonna be so pissed when she gets back and all her booze is gone," Bennie said, snickering. He rolled onto his back in his bed and ran a hand across his face. "Fuck, I haven't been this drunk in a long time."
"Yeah," said Whiskey. "It shows, you fucken lightweight!" She was sat on the edge of the bed now, and she gave his leg a pontificatory shove.
"Nice outfit, by the way. Ain't too often ya see bandits with style like this."
"Well," Bennie held his arm above his face and fingered the cuff of his sleeve, "Dad always said that your dress reflects the kind of person you are. Or more importantly, the kind of person you want others to think you are. The Carmines, much like Wilkes-Vines, were professionals. We
looked professional. I don't reckon I ever really got out of that old habit." He grinned. "Have you seen my shoes? Those things are fuckin' beauties."
"Yeah, I saw 'em," she said. "Must be expensive." She tweaked his big toe. "Especially with fucken mud stompers like these, Jesus!"
"That they are," he assured her. "The most expensive things I own, actually."
Getting up, Whiskey put her empty glass back on the table. Turning back towards the bed, she tripped on the boots she had earlier taken off and stumbled, landing in a heap on top of Bennie's chest.
"Uhhh... hey."
"Whoa, there," Bennie chuckled. "Who's the lightweight now?"
"***** please, that was a set up," Whiskey replied. "My boots are out to get me, and shit..." She couldn't help but notice that their lips were almost touching.
"Yeah," Bennie agreed, "don't know why they'd mistreat such a fine woman such as yourself." He rested a hand on her shoulder. "What's going through that head of yours, Ms. Fifer?"
"Something to the effect of 'don't say you're thinking about how hot he is'," Whiskey replied, playing with Bennie's collar as she spoke.
The big guy had been in this position more times than he could remember. He knew what would come next if he wanted it. It wouldn't be difficult, even in his drunken state.
But did he want it?
Did she?
Pushing all doubt to the back of his mind, Bennie simply laughed. "Well," he began, "am I 'hot'?" As he spoke he traced his fingers from her shoulder to her spine.
Whiskey arched her eyebrow at this. "The fuck do you think?" Then she was kissing him, her hand moving up from his collar to the back of his head.
Bennie brought his other arm around her back and held her close as he returned her affection. It all happened so quickly. First lips, then tongues, and before they knew it, Bennie was kissing a trail down her neck and across her chest.
As Bennie kissed her chest, Whiskey pulled the band from her pony tail, letting her copper hair spill down her back. Pushing Bennie flat on the bed, she unbuttoned her shirt, revealing the bra beneath.
Bennie grinned. "Beautiful," he whispered before pulling himself off his back and wrapping his large hands around her sides. Bowing his head, he continued kissing her chest.
Drawing her chest tantalizingly away from Bennie, Whiskey smiled down at him before descending to kiss him again. Their tongues once again brushed. Whiskey moaned softly into Bennie's mouth at the bliss of it.
It was perfect, just like...
Somewhere in the deep rescesses of her mind, Whiskey heard a muffled gunshot. She felt her whole body tense. Her eyes had been closed since she had started kissing Bennie again and she realized she had been reliving those last moments before she had betrayed everything she'd ever known. Behind the lids of her eyes, she saw Eddie, on his knees, looking up at her.
'Why?'
'For her.'
'True. But he's alive. Still alive, in the hell you put him in and what the fuck are you doing right now?!'
Whiskey tore herself roughly away from Bennie, knuckling her eyes at the tears welling up. A whimper welled up in the back of her throat, but she muted it as best she could.
Bennie sat up, instinctively reaching out to pull her back. Now out of his reach, he tilted his head to one side and studied the woman before him. Something was wrong. "Whiskey? You okay, girl?"
Turning away from him, Whiskey sat on the edge of the bed with her head in her hands. "What the fuck am I doing?"
"Shit," Bennie whispered before crawling to her side. He rested a hand gently on her shoulder. He didn't say anything. What
could he say? Could he tell her it was 'going to be okay'? No, he had no idea what the problem even was.
He'd let her tell him if she wanted to. In the meantime, he'd comfort her anyway he could.
Whiskey shied away from Bennie's touch and then checked the motion, sighing. "Sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have led you on, but... I can't, Bennie. I just fucking can't."
"Hey," Bennie said softly, "there's no need to apologize. We're both drunk off our asses. I don't know what's goin' on with you, but I'm sure it's nothing you should beat yourself up over. Stupid shit happens." He sighed. "Whatever it is, I'm here if you want to talk about it."
"Thanks," said Whiskey as she buttoned her shirt. Getting up, she picked up her pack of cigarettes off the desk and fumbled two into her hand.
Tossing one to Bennie, she lit hers and then sat on the edge of Pixie's desk. "You asked about Millie's dad earlier. Well, for the past few years, he's been dead. Except apparently, he ain't."
Bennie took the cigarette in his hand and cocked an eyebrow. "Oh," he said, "let me guess... Payton?"
Whiskey grunted in acknowledgement. "You've been around the block," she said. "You ever hear about a guy called Eddie Canton?"
He lit the cigarette. "Who hasn't?" he asked between drags. "One of the toughest mother fuckers Payton ever had on his payroll."
"Well, a few years ago," said Whiskey. "A few months after Millie was born, Eddie got asked to take a group of guys to go handle some shit. They didn't tell me what. All I know is it was important enough Payton only trusted one of his big three to handle it. I spent the last few years thinking he was killed in crossfire."
From there, she summed up the letter she'd recieved, detailing Eddie's survival, and her assignment. How her mother and Millie would have died if Whiskey hadn't done what Payton asked.
"So he shows up in a crawler. Has this girl in it. Kinda pretty, but she looks like she's had it rough recently. I'm guessing she was that Elizabeth I heard so much about. Eddie saw me, and dropped his guard. When I got close enough, I shot him in the gut with a derringer. He survived. That was the point." Whiskey rubbed her eyes again. The tears were fighting to make a comeback.
"Me and Eddie once saw what Payton does with a defecting General," she said. "We all thought he was dead. Then Payton brought him out into the courtyard of his manor, like a year later. Guy was just a shell. And Payton blew his brains out right there. So that's where Eddie is now, Bennie. And here I am, trying to score with some guy I barely know."
Bennie rubbed her back to help comfort her as she told her tale. He knew all too well what kind of games Payton played with people's hearts. It was unlikely many people on the Rock could sympathize with her like Bennie could.
Strangely, however, he wasn't connecting to her tale quite as well as he would have thought. There was something about it that didn't sit right with him. Maybe it was because he was drunk, but he was having a hard time piecing together a puzzle that should have been easy to solve.
Elizabeth? Why was...
"Whiskey, listen to me," Bennie suddenly said with urgency in his words, "be straight with me, please. Eddie... Eddie Canton... was he known as 'Metal'? Was he the bounty hunter that attacked the Iron Maiden?"
Whiskey nodded. "Best I can figure, that's the alias he worked under after he disappeared."
Bennie clenched his jaw. "Listen very carefully to me, Whiskey," he began, "
do not repeat this to anyone else on this ship, you understand? The whole Austin thing? It was made possible through
his actions. He killed Maidens... I don't know how many." He bowed his head and balled his hand into a fist. "Promise me you won't tell anyone else.
Especially Pixie."
"Yeah, I got ya," she said. "I uh... I can still talk to you about it though, right? It's just I've been having to spend the last couple months pretending nothing's changed. It's fucking killing me."
"Yeah, of course," Bennie said with a swift nod. "I'm your captain now, Whiskey. You can come to me with anything." He forced a smile.
"Thanks, Bennie," she said, getting to her feet. "I don't know about you, but I'm feeling entirely too sober." Wandering over to the desk, she set about pouring herself another drink.
"You know, when I first met him, he barely even look at me." She was smiling now.
Bennie finished off his cigarette and flicked the remains into the ashtray. "Is that so?" he asked. The big guy remained slouched over, sitting at the edge of the bed. "How'd you two meet?"
"Both taken in by the WV after a fashion," she said. "I was sixteen when I first saw him. He wasn't quite in Payton's inner circle at that point, but he was setting a record pace. That's how we met, when he pretty much got manor privilege. He musta been twenty. I'd been interested in boys a couple year by that point, for sure. And he was just like...
damn!"
She laughed and sipped the fresh drink. "But he just thought like I was some kid. He was friendly enough, but I wasn't exactly subtle, being a sixteen year old girl getting dewy for someone for the first time." She laughed. "I made it hella awkward for him, I'll tell ya that."
"And then he knocked you up," Bennie laughed. "Greatest love story ever told."
Whiskey waved away the remark. "Nah, nah. Like I said, he wouldn't touch me. Besides, unexpected perk of WV is the health plan. Easy access birth control, mother fucker!"
She sipped her drink and stubbed out her cigarette before going on. "Eventually I got the message. Backed off, felt all sad for a while. Then a couple years later, y'know, I'd been around the block a few times. And you could just tell by how he looked at me when I saw him again, he knew shit was different. Besides, I played it cool. Took it slow. Three years later,
then I got knocked up. I honestly don't know if it was an accident at all. Just felt right."
"Sounds like he was quite the guy," Bennie said with a smile. "Did Millie ever get a chance to meet him?"
"Well she was a few months old by the time he 'died', but I guess that doesn't count," Whiskey said. "She's seen plenty of pictures of him though, so when she suddenly says to me a few days ago that she saw him when Payton was keeping her in New Haven, I'm inclined to believe her." She looked at her feet. "She said he was chained to the bed with a heart monitor on him."
"Jesus," Bennie muttered. "I'm sorry, Whiskey."
It was all he could say.
"Yeah," Whiskey said. "You and me both." Getting to her feet, she yawned into the back of her hand. "I'll see ya, Bennie. I'm gonna go crawl in next to Millie. Took her daddy away, so alls I can do is try and be there for her as a mother."
"You do that," Bennie said with a sad smile. "You're a good mom."
"Let's agree to disagree on that," she said as she headed to the door. "Good night."
