Kenny stared down at the phone. "Tch, we got cut off." He looked up at Eren whose heart was going a mile a minute and dropped Eren's phone into his coat pocket.

"C'mon, pretty boy, why don't you and me take a little ride? I can show you Levi's old stompin' grounds."

"Why don't you just leave? Give me back my phone and leave."

"Oh come on, son. It'll be fun!" Kenny made as if to punch him playfully on the arm but the glower from Eren stopped him.

"I'll pass, thanks."

For a long moment Kenny stood silent, picking absently at his teeth with his pinky nail. Finally he adjusted his hat and reached for the doorknob, dropping his other hand into his coat pocket. "Get your coat now. C'mon."

Eren crossed his arms over his chest. "I said no. No means no."

"Now don't be like that, son."

"I swear I'll call the cops.'

"That wouldn't look too good for your fuck-buddy, pretty boy."

"What are you talking about?"

"I could tell them stuff 'bout that runt that would make you piss yourself."

Eren was silent, breathing hard. What exactly had Levi been involved in?

"What … what are you talking about?"

"We can talk about it in the car."

"Levi will be here soon, I guarantee you..."

"Maybe so. That's all the more reason to get goin'"

"I'm not going anywhere with you."

"Sure you are." Kenny's left hand came out of his coat pocket with something in it.

Eren blinked.

A gun. Kenny had a gun.

It was the second time in Eren's young life that he'd seen a gun for real and both times involved Levi. The weapon was a stretched silver thing and looked huge even in the man's big, long-fingered hand. He never pointed it but sort of waved it around as he talked. "You're hurtin' my feelings here, son. If you won't go with me how 'bout we go upstairs and ask your momma if she'd like to go?" A wolfish smile appeared on his narrow face. "Or I could take the kid."

"You … you touch either of them and I'll kill you."

Kenny laughed then, "You been spendin' too much time with Levi! You sound just like 'im." His face grew serious. "You gettin' your coat, then?"

Eren nodded slowly.

The car parked in front of the house was an ancient Lincoln Continental and was powder blue. It was a nice one, or had been. It was kind of seedy at this point. The white leather interior was cracking and the passenger's side floorboard was full of beer bottles and empty Lucky Strike packages along with the occasional candybar wrapper. Kenny apparently had a sweet tooth as well.

The car fired up beautifully, though, and Kenny pulled away from the curb. They rode in silence for a while then Eren couldn't help himself.

"So you're Levi's uncle. You're not much like him."

"More than you know. Besides, I always thought we bore a resemblance to each other."

"I mean personality-wise. Levi's a good person."

Kenny barked a laugh at that. "Yeah, me and his mom—that was my sister, Kuchel—were alike as two peas in a pod in looks. 'Personality-wise' as you say, I guess she was more like him."

Kenny had the unnerving habit of looking at Eren when he spoke and not at the road and it made Eren so nervous that he hesitated to say anything else. They had gone on down Sina street in the opposite direction of the hospital but that didn't keep Eren from looking at every passing car hoping to see his mom's Cadillac. He wondered what Levi would do when he got home—for he was surely headed home right then. How could Eren contact him without his phone?

After a few miles Kenny side-eyed Eren.

"Levi didn't tell ya what his mom did before she died, did he?"

Eren shrugged. "No, but that's his business, not mine."

"She was a call-girl. A whore. Our dad died with a bucha debt and the bank took the house. I was out on my own by then. She lost her job and, bam, she was out on the street. I told her I'd support her but she didn't want my money. Called it dirty."

Eren went cold. What would he do if his mom was destitute and forced to survive by prostitution? He couldn't wrap his head around it.

"Levi's dad was one of her johns," Kenny went on. "She probably never even knew which one. She died in some stinkin' shit-hole back room of a brothel. I took him in after that—he was six or so—and raised him up and let him work in my business. Ungrateful little shit pulled a runner on me and went to college of all places. College! What a buncha useless shit they teach ya there. And here he was makin' money hand over fist in business with me."

Eren was suffused with rage. Levi's mom had been forced into prostitution and Levi had been forced into crime. And here was this man angry. Angry at Levi.

"You need to shut the fuck up about Levi," Eren said, low, "He's a better man than you ever will be."

Kenny waved a hand dismissively. "Yeah? So how about when he knocked that girl up—like father like son—and disappeared off my radar?"

"It was an accident and not Levi's fault."

"Yeah, yeah, kid, it's always 'an accident.' He coulda used a rubber or not gotten his dick wet at all."

"He was shitfaced drunk and she came on to him!"

"He's still responsible," Kenny sniffed.

"Yes, he is and that's why he took Mikasa and is raising her! She's his responsibility! It's what a good man does. Not that you'd know anything about that."

Kenny laughed. "Got you fired up there boy didn't I? You're a fierce one. I can see what Levi sees in you. Lotsa fire."

"Oh fuck you."

Kenny laughed again, delighted at the reaction he'd caused. "So, anyway, I'm searchin' and searchin' and turns out he took his kid and is living in poverty in Shiganshina! But things are looking up: he's in college again, so I decided to visit. And, come to find out, he has a pretty young boyfriend as well." Again the wolfish grin. "How about that?"

"I'm not his boyfriend," Eren muttered, crossing his arms over his chest.

"No? Friend with benefits? Occasional hook-up?"

"I'm just his friend."

"Huh. Well, I've never known Levi to not take advantage of a nice piece-a ass."

The Continental crunched over gravel as they entered the lot of a large club on the outskirts of town. It was big but, like the Continental, had seen better days. The slightly crooked neon sign—now off—said 'The Aphrodite Lounge.'

Kenny nosed the Lincoln up into the spot in front of the door and killed the engine. "Let's go have a drink, eh? You old enough to drink?"

"I'm 21 asshole, and it's 8:30 in the morning."

Kenny shrugged. "It's twelve noon somewhere. C'mon."

He unlocked the door and they stepped inside. The interior was a riot of chrome and vinyl and neon. It was the tackiest place Eren had ever seen.

"Don't worry, the girls won't be here till eleven or so."

"Girls?"

"Yeah, the strippers and … the other ones." Kenny smiled a horrible conspiratorial smile.

"Hookers? You have prostitutes here?"

"Yep."

"Isn't that illegal?"

"Aww, what the cops don't know won't hurt 'em, right?"

"What are you going to do with me?"

"Wait for Levi, of course. He'll come for ya."

"He has no idea where I am."

"Oh, he'll be here. He knows where to find me."

Levi almost wrecked Carla's Cadillac pulling up to the house.

He was going way too fast and the road was icy. He tried to park the Cadillac on the curb but he slid on the snowy road and almost slammed into Eren's Civic. As it was he slid up to only an inch or two between the bumpers, one tire up on the sidewalk. He got out, unheeding, and hurried up the walk.

Carla threw open the door before he reached it. For a moment she just stared. Levi, whom she had never met, with his black jacket and black jeans was a miniature version of Kenny in her eyes. "Le-levi?"

"Carla? Is Mikasa OK?"

"She's fine but …" Tears streamed down her face. "Oh my god, Levi … my baby …"

Levi stopped still. "He took Eren?"

Carla nodded.

Levi did an about-face, walking back toward the car.

"Levi! What are you doing? Do you know where Eren is?"

"I do. I'll be back. With Eren."