Page 27 of Eye Candy

I looked back at Mike, asking, “Why is he weird?”

“If he’s home, you’ll see.” It was all Mike would say, so I settled back in the front seat, wondering what the hell he’d meant by it.

How weird were we talking here? I mean, obviously the man was odd. Fang wasn’t a normal name. Lola hadn’t even told me what he’d done for her, so I didn’t know what kind of work he did. Prosthetics? That was the only thing I could think of, but I was clueless as to what prosthetic piece Lola could’ve had him do.

The address took us out of downtown, to the outskirts of the city, where buildings started getting smaller and older, more run-down and dilapidated. Some were even abandoned. The streets got less busy, and the sidewalks became empty. It was like a ghost town, completely different from downtown and where we lived in every way.

“Uh, are you sure we should be visiting this guy?” Kieran asked, glancing around. The GPS in the car told us we’d arrived at our destination, so he pulled the car off to the side of the street, parking near the sidewalk in front of a five-story building made of tan stone. Some graffiti littered the walls of it.

I unbuckled my seatbelt, gazing up at the building. “Yeah.” I didn’t sound too sure, but I got out of the car all the same.

Mike and Kieran got out as well, and Kieran hurried around the car to stand beside me. “I’m a little nervous about leaving my car here,” he mumbled. To Mike, he added, “You should stay with the car.”

“It’s your car,” I answered in Mike’s place. “Maybe you should stay with it.”

“Hell no. I’m not letting you go inside this creepy building all by yourself—”

“Mike would be with me,” I cut in.

“Yeah, well, he’s not a person. He’s like a… a, uh, giant or something. He doesn’t count.” Kieran waved Mike off, dismissive.

I thought about that. “Shouldn’t that mean Mike counts as more than one person, then, since he’s so big?” The look Kieran gave me after that—an unhappy, frowning pout—made me grin. For some reason, annoying him had become one of my most favorite pastimes.

“Your car will be fine,” Mike grumbled out. He didn’t wait for anyone to respond; he started toward the alleyway resting between our destination and the building beside it. The front door to the building was boarded up, along with all of the windows, some of which were broken.

Kieran quieted, tailing me as I followed Mike, making me the meat in the man sandwich… not a bad place to be. The alleyway was cleaner than I thought it would be, though pretty dark due to the height of the surrounding buildings. A lone door sat about halfway down the alley, an old, semi-rusted metal door that had seen better days.

For someone who did work for Lola, this wasn’t what I expected. I… okay, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Fang—his name was Fang, that alone made it impossible to have any expectations—but this wasn’t it.

I pictured someone a little more well off, I guess, not someone who lived in one of the most run-down parts of the city.

When we reached the door, I spotted a camera hanging just above it, angled down so it would see anyone who approached the door. While I stared up at the camera, Mike tapped his knuckles on the door, not saying a word. Kieran was busy glancing both ways down the alleyway, as if nervous someone was going to try to jump us.

Come on. With Mike here, they’d be stupid to try. One look at the guy should be enough to make any would-be criminals scamper away with their tail tucked between their legs.

After knocking, Mike took a step away from the door, and I asked, “What if he’s not home?” If Fang wasn’t here, it would mean we’d made the trip out here for no reason, and after getting the prescription I wanted… let’s just say I didn’t want any disappointment to cloud what was otherwise a good day.

“Then we go home and you forget all about meeting this guy,” Kieran muttered. “I tried digging into him, but there’s not really much out there. Whoever this Fang guy is, he pretty much sticks to himself, which is unusual in a city like this.”

We stood there for a few minutes, waiting. I glanced between Mike and Kieran, not knowing what to do. How long should we wait? Should we knock again? What if he was in the shower or something and didn’t see us walking to the door? Maybe we should just go. I could call him when I got home, leave him a message. That’s how Lola said they usually got in contact with him to begin with.

I’d just thought… well, for one thing, I hated talking on the phone. Secondly, it’d be hard to describe what I needed without showing him my hand. At this point, I didn’t even know what he could do for me; Lola hadn’t exactly told me what he’d done for her.

As if a sign, my left hand started to itch along the scab. No. I couldn’t turn around and leave. If Fang stuck to himself, then he had to be in there, somewhere. It was a five-story building; perhaps he lived on the top and had to make his way down.

I stepped closer to the door, lifting my right hand to knock, but what would you know, right as I stepped up, the metal door creaked open, and a man stood in the darkness on the otherside of it, wearing a welder’s mask and thick leather gloves that matched the leather apron around his body.

I couldn’t see his face behind the mask, but I took a step back all the same. If this was Fang, he was tall. Not as tall as Mike, but few people were. Six feet, just about. Tall and lean… and dirty, judging from the smudges on his skin around his gloves, all up his arms.

I blinked, and momentarily I was thrown back into that pink room, with nothing but a TV to keep me company, along with my own thoughts. The anticipation, the hope… I’d waited with bated breath for the times my Devil would come to me. He never spoke, but at least he was company.

But then reality came crashing down on me all the same, and I was back in the present, standing with Mike and Kieran as we all stared at the man who’d answered the door.

“Big Mike,” he spoke behind his mask, his voice muffled a bit. “What are you doing here?” His masked head turned to survey Kieran and me, and even though I couldn’t see the eyes behind that mask, I had the feeling they were on me. “Well, aren’t you just eye candy? Who are you, Princess?”

No one had ever called me that before. A part of me wanted to tell him off—he was a stranger, and strange men were usually the kind of people you never wanted calling you princess—but another part of me kind of liked it. Eye candy and princess. If this guy was Fang, I think I liked him.

“Lola gave me your information,” I cut straight to the point. “She said you might be able to do something for me.” As I explained, I lifted my left hand between us, and his head dropped down to, I assumed, look at it.

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