Page 62 of Small Town Hunter

“Mm.”

“Good night.”

“Good night, darlin’.”

NINE

CRASH

Danger. Trouble, capital T.

T for trouble, T for Trina.

I can hear her. I know what she wants. I know what all her little questions are getting at.

I don’t say shit. Not a single word. She settles back down into the blankets, but I can hear her breathing at the same pace as before, and see the tiny half moons of light that means her eyes are still open, looking over at me.

I wonder what she thinks of my confession.

“Crash, I’ve never done anything…with a man. But if…If…if you…”

Women, I swear.

I don’t say anything. Maybe she’ll think I’m still asleep and then reconsider finishing that sentence.

Don’t finish it for her.Bury those thoughts of her legs on my shoulders. Bury them deep.

“I know you’re still awake,” she says.

“And how do you know that?”

“You just started breathing all fast.”

“How about you go to bed.”

“I was thinking…”

I know what she was thinking. I sit up. Back to the floor it is.

“Wait!”

I evade her grabbing hand, laying out on the crusty carpet. The pain stabbing up my lower vertebrae isn’t that bad. I’ve slept on worse. And in more pain than this. It’s still better than the night in that cave in Syria. Pretty much anything is better than that.

So I man up and let my mind slide back to the hole it crawled out of when Sarah Jane’s call woke me up.

Ruby. When I try to picture my stepdaughter’s face, nothing comes to mind. Sometimes I forget what she looks like. She just never reminded me of Zacky, or of her mother. She was just a perfect, small thing in a life so full of ugly things. Blameless.

I love that little girl, but the situation with her Ma is a weight on my neck. I want Jess out of Ruby’s life and mine. I want some real time with Ruby because at the end of the day I’m the only daddy she has.

All I need is a lawyer.

Money.

Half a million dollars would be a damned good start.

This was supposed to be a guaranteed job.

Get the gold.

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