Page 48 of Small Town Hunter

“Hey– let’s talk about this over some food.”

I’ll give myself until nine to make a call. If Sarah Jane can get my daughter away from Jessica, then I’ll stay in Oklahoma andfinish the job. I know Sarah Jane would never agree to help me if she wasn’t sure she could handle herself against Jessica.

But if something happens, if I don’t get a call, then I have to go back to Florin immediately, Trina or no Trina.

“Let me just change,” says Trina.

I look over her shoulder. Something about the room feels different.

“Did you clean up in here?”

“I replaced the sheets because I spilled some coffee,” she says, laughing nervously.

The room smells good, too. But when I say so, she gives me another strange look before her eyes jump to the TV.

“Can we go eat, Crash? I’m starving.”

Before we head out she grabs the XL Gray hoodie I got her from Walmart, and a foolish regret jumps to mind that I didn’t get her something nicer.

Something shorter. Tighter.

To hell with these thoughts.

Trina catches my eye. “What?”

“Nothing. Hurry up.”

“So pushy,” she grumbles, walking ahead of me.

I force my eyes off her ass.

We goto the fanciest restaurant in town— Applebee’s.

Me and Trina get plenty stares, but nobody says a word. I admit the perv at the gas station surprised me. Along this road you get some rough customers, but try being the size of a Redwood, with a mug like a Rottweiler, you get clearance.

Traveling with a honeypot like Trina is another story.

We pass a table of old hunched over cowboys, and one of them has the brass to shake his head at me and spit into his dip can.

If this was Virginia I’d make him drink it, but this ain’t Virginia.

I ignore him and push Trina on ahead.

She sighs. “This place issodifferent from Tippalonga.”

The only thing different here is the color of the dirt. “Yes, night and day,” I tell her. “I need to take a piss— ah, go to the gentlemen’s. Get a table for us.”

When I come out of the can, one of those old cowboys is looming over her, and we still haven’t been seated.

I place myself between the rusty spur and Trina. He backs up a step.

“Nice lil’ bit you got there,” he wheezes. “In my day, you’d get run out of town for it.”

“Move along,” I warn him.

He shuffles away. Trina looks rattled.

“Nobody come up to serve you? Why are you still up here?” I demand.

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