Upon reentering the bar, she tripped through the glass doors of the patio, where Kaffron and some others smoked and chatted.

“Hey, there she is!” Kaffron held her in his arms and helped her stand upright. “Hey guys, this is the girl I was tellin’ you about.”

An affluent couple in their early thirties were talking with him, holding their cocktails closely while Amali lurched about.

“Well, she’s just like how you described her,” the man said with a laugh.

His wife looked down her nose at the drunk, disheveled redhead, whose dress straps fell over her shoulders. “Indeed. Quite the lady about town.”

“‘Mali, this is Mr. and Mrs. Havera. They’re friends with one of the bar owners out here. Pretty cool, huh?”

Amali grinned stupidly while waving to them, her cheeks bulging with a sudden hiccup.

“Whoa, looks like someone’s had a few! Guess I better get this one home, she’s gotta be rested if we’re going to close our deal with the company,” Kaffron said. He shook their hands and hefted Amali over his shoulders.

“Pleasure meeting you,” Mr. Havera said, raising his glass. “You got our number.”

“I do, indeed…suckers,” Kaffron said under his breath.

He and Amali finally left the plaza and traipsed down the dusty road back to town. Two large velvet sacks hung over his shoulder, full of Dinara and valuable items he’d won and stolen from the tavern. “Where’d you run off to? You shoulda seen me clean house back there! Man, how plowed are you?”

Amali hunched over, flailing her left arm. “Ah, naw.”

Kaffron shook his head. “You didn’t screw up your own heist, did you?”

Amali started vomiting on the ground. Kaffron rubbed his face and walked over to her, shuddering from the wretched sound of vomit swelling in her throat. He begrudgingly pulled her hair aside, and a pungent odor of sweat, perfume, and cologne stung his nostrils. “Wait a sec,” he said quietly.

Amali shakily got back on her feet, spitting some residual puke from her lips. “Nah, I didn’t screw it up, but the prick short-changed me.”

Kaffron threw up his hands. “The hell are you talkin’ about?”

“Ya know, the guy…he wouldn’t gimme a damn tip, not even ten more.”

“Tip for what?”

“Hey, don’t gimme that look. It’s tit for tat; I give ‘em my tits and my tat, and he ponies up jack shit! So I gave him a tip, the tip of my knife.” She started laughing malevolently.

Kaffron noticed the blood smears on her arm and lips. “You’re a freakin’ mess, woman.”

“Ah, come on, babe. I still got some money for us.” She held her hands over his chest, still staggering.

He grabbed her arms to hold her still. “Easy, hon, I ain’t holdin’ your hair again.”

“That fuckin’ guy, callin’ me a whore. You don’t pick up girls by callin’ ‘em dirty names. That’s after you get ‘em in bed.” She lewdly smacked Kaffron’s butt.

Kaffron tossed her onto the ground. “What the hell’s wrong with you?”

She tumbled over, gazing up at him woozily. “I could ask you the same thing!”

“Look at yourself.”

She started massaging her head and burped. “What?”

“Some of the shit you do even makes me sick sometimes, ya know that?” said Kaffron in disgust.

Amali scowled. “I make you sick? Says the guy who bites his toenails.”

Kaffron paced around her, his feet scraping through the dirt. “What about you and me?”

“What about it?” Amali said, slowly standing up.

“I dunno, just thought you and I were supposed to be together.”

“We are, dummy.”

“You’re sure as hell not actin’ like it. What you’re doing is actin’ like a stupid bitch!” Kaffron said angrily.

Amali shoved him. “What the hell’d you call me, Porcupine? I can still take your ass!” She clumsily punched his shoulder. “I’m just playin’ the game! Money is money, right?”

“I’m done talkin’ right now. Let’s just get back to the kid.” Kaffron pushed her away and left her standing by herself. “You can carry yourself back.”

With nothing to say, Amali slowly followed behind. “Pfft, didn’t hafta throw me on the ground.”

Niko sat at the messy table inside the quiet inn back in town, slurping the juice of a tasty stew he purchased from a local restaurant. He hungrily chomped the satisfying chunks of meat and reached into a steaming paper bag of vegetable kabobs. He wrapped his mouth around the thin wood skewer, burning his tongue from his overzealous hunger. “That’s good grubbin’.” He took a drink of his soda. “Wish those guys would get back. We need to keep movin’ so we can get to the dock.” Just then, a loud clicking noise filled the room. The door jostled open and thunked against the wall as Kaffron stormed inside. “Hey, Kaffron, where you been?” Kaffron brushed past Niko and flopped down on the grungy sofa. Niko poked his head out the door. “Where’s Amali?”

“She can stay lost, for all I care.”

Niko sat down with him. “What do you mean?”

“We were on a heist, and…ah, never mind.”

Niko handed him one of the tantalizing kabobs. “You hungry?”

Kaffron’s thin lips perked at the sight of the enticing wooden skewer chock full of meat and veggies. He half-grinned, and took one. “Thanks, kid.”

“Did somethin’ happen?” asked Niko.

“Yeah, dumb bitch is out cheatin’ while I’m tryin’ to earn us some money!”

“Cheating?”

Kaffron glared at him. “Shit, kid, are you dumb or what? She’s havin’ sex with other guys! Ain’t the first time, either.”

Niko slid away. “Sorry, I didn’t know.”

Kaffron swept his brambly hair behind his ear and took a quick bite. “Man, sometimes I wish I’d just bitten the bullet. If I’da graduated like my ol’ man said, I’d be set.”

Niko leaned his arm around the couch. “You ditched school, too?”

Kaffron chortled. “I was sixteen. Parents set me up in a fancy prep school, ya know, private lessons, top-notch teachers, the whole deal.”

“So what happened?”

“My dad’s the biggest stiff in the world, typical corporate monkey always turnin’ his nose up at everyone. Used to rag on my buddies all the time ‘cause they weren’t like us. Phh, I guess I finally cracked one day, ‘cause I hit the bricks and never looked back!”

“Damn! That’s the same thing I did,” Niko said, slapping Kaffron’s shoulder.

Kaffron flicked his empty skewer onto the table. “No shit? Heh, maybe we got more in common than I thought. Lemme tell ya somethin’, dum-dum, sometimes you have to just do your own thing, even if it means pissin’ off the rest of the world.”

“It ain’t the rest of the world I’m worried about, it’s my dad,” Niko replied. “I just took off because he’s always actin’ like I can’t take care of myself. Just wanna prove him wrong.”

“Like I said, do what you gotta do.” Kaffron slipped a deck of cards from his pants pocket and mindlessly shuffled them. “You ever plan on showin’ your face back home, you better have somethin’ to show for it.” He stopped shuffling briefly. “That’s why I can’t go back, least not now.”

“What do you mean?”

“The place where we work, you have to—”

“Yo, why the hell’s the door open?” Amali suddenly called from outside.

The cards slipped from Kaffron’s fingers and flittered across the floor as Amali slouched through the doorway.

Niko hopped up from the couch. “What’s up, Amali?”

She stumbled along the floor. “Yo, Porcupine, you raised in a barn or what?” She roughly clapped Niko’s cheek as she walked by. “I know you were, corn-head…Kaff, you tryin’ to get mugged or what?”

“Is she serious?” Niko retorted.

Kaffron shook his head while scooping up the cards. “Ironic, huh? ‘Mali, why don’t you lie your ass down and I’ll get us some take-out.”

Amali slumped down on the sofa, carelessly flinging her heels across the room. Niko ducked as one flew past him and clanked onto the table. Amali started giggling as she leaned across Kaffron’s lap. “Babe…I just…shooed my shoe,” she said with a slur. “It’s my shoo shoe!” She slapped his thigh. “See, that’s the kinda lame shit you would say.”

Niko and Kaffron glanced awkwardly to one another.

“Go to sleep, ‘Mali,” Kaffron said, patting her head.

With Amali passed out in Kaffron’s lap, Niko walked over with his drink and sat across from him at the coffee table.

Kaffron dealt the boy a Poker hand. “Oh yeah, I’m livin’ the dream.”