Kicks for a Sinner S3 by Lynn Shurr

is over here next to Dean’s bedroom. He got football players on his walls.”
    “Yes, I remember. Last time I stood in this room, you were sleeping in a crib. How about that? The fat Mexican maid tried to stop me from seeing you.”
    “Corazon? She’s real nice and not that fat.” Tommy’s forehead wrinkled as if turbulent thoughts galloped across his mind like the multicolored horses in the wall frieze. “My mom said you did bad things and had to go live in Mexico, that you couldn’t come back here ever.”
    “Cassie bad-mouthing me? She wanted what she done as bad as I did.” Bijou stretched out in the oversized, tan leather chair and put his dirty boots up on the matching hassock.
    Tommy frowned. “That’s our story reading place. You shouldn’t get mud on it. We have to take our boots off in the house. Mama Nell told me you did bad things. Mama Cassie never talks about you.”
    Bijou ignored him. His eyes found the pictures of Cassie, a double frame of her in a graduation cap and gown from college and another of her with Copperhead. “Grown up to be a real nice piece of ass, my sassy Cassie. Not that she wasn’t prime before, but a little too skinny back then. I have a new woman now, all curves and pretty black eyes. You know, you have a Mexican half-sister down across the border. I’d sure like you to meet her. Want to go on a vacation with me? Your spring break is coming up. Hard to believe I went to the same parochial school as you.”
    “You know a lot about me.”
    “Your grandparents drop me a line now and again.”
    “Which ones? I have four sets.”
    “Hal and Flo Billodeaux who live up by Toledo Bend Lake. Your real mom and me hid out there once when we were on the run.”
    “Running from what?” Tommy asked, eyes wide. He squirmed like the puppy at his feet.
    “Oh, we were in love, but your mama was kinda young. Joe Dean and the cops tried to stop us from being together like Romeo and Juliet. You know who they were?”
    “No, sir.”
    “Sir, I like that. Doesn’t matter. Seems a man can be put in jail for loving too young a girl. Now that ain’t right as I see it. I can’t go near your real mama anymore, but things are different in Mexico. Soon as they’re ripe, they fall from the tree and anyone can pick them up. So, you ready for an adventure? Got a bag we can pack?”
    Tommy nodded. “In the closet—but I have to ask permission from my parents before I go anywhere.”
    Bijou got up and folded back the doors of a large closet. He whistled, and the pup yapped. “Must be nice to have a rich step-daddy. What you got here, like ten pairs of shoes? Cowboy boots, flip-flops, sandals, church shoes, a pile of sneakers. Xochi would love to have all this. Xochi, that’s my daughter.”
    He found a red Sinners duffel bag on a shelf and threw in the boots, flip-flops, sandals and a pair of sneakers, then removed several pairs of jeans neatly folded over hangers. “No need for school uniforms since we’ll be on vacation. Where do you keep your T-shirts?”
    “In the dresser. Xochi, that’s a funny name. I understand how she would be my half-sister, but Daddy Joe is my adoptive father, not my stepfather.”
    “Yeah, Joe Dean always did take away what was mine. My job, my girl, my glory. I was a championship bull rider once. They tell you that?” He stuffed shirts from the dresser drawers into the duffle and topped off the load with underwear and socks. “Go get your toothbrush and a comb, and we’ll be all ready to go. Jesus H. Christ, a six-year-old with his own bathroom.”
    Tommy retrieved the items and watched his natural daddy shove them into the bag. “I need to ask permission,” he repeated.
    “No, you don’t. Just write a note saying where you are going.”
    “I can’t do cursive yet.”
    “Then print it out. What’s this, you got a laptop already? Forget it. I’ll do it.” Bijou sat at the small desk and brought the computer to life. He tapped out, “I am going to