Page 34 of Babydoll

For the first time in months, I don’t feel so alone.

The parking lot for the animal hospital is across the road. It’s empty except for one car. Leanne’s. She works the four to twelve shift, cleaning after closing until night shift arrives. I can see her through the front window. She’s running the polisher over the waiting room floor, the orange plastic chairs all stacked neatly along the wall. The bar next door has a live band tonight and Leanne is dancing. Her hips sway to the beat and I’m envious of the careless way she moves.

I’m almost at the door; it’s literally ten feet from my reach, when I’m yanked back. A strong arm around my waist squeezes the air from my lungs. I scream, but with the pounding bass not even I can hear my own voice. I’m tossed in the back of a car, practically into some other guy’s lap. He looks down at me and icy shivers run up my spine.

“Evening, Lu.” The raspy voice from the front seat has my shoulders rising and my stomach knotting. It’s Slash. The swishing and clicking of his blade give it away before I can even right myself in the seat to look.

“I’m not supposed to meet Python until tomorrow,” I say as I move off the guy I don’t recognize and sit upright. He shrugs one shoulder and Slash speaks.

“This ain’t about the money, baby. You’ve got a date with Preach.”

“I… I have to work,” I say, pointing at the door to the building. “I don’t have time.” Slash spins in his seat and grabs me by the throat, yanking me forward.

His scowl and his squeezing hand send my heart spiraling to the pit of my stomach. “We own you, so we own your fucking time too.”

He shoves me back hard and nods at the guy beside me who reaches across me to buckle me into the seat. My teeth start to chatter so I clench my jaw to stop them and give Slash a curt nod. Inside of me, every nerve trembles.

“Fine. But I hope this damn meeting doesn’t take long.” I keep my voice hard to hide my fear. I pull out the phone Python gave me and start to text. Dude grabs it, tossing it to the floor.

“I was just going to text my coworker that I’ll be late.”

He gives me a bored look. “She’ll figure it out.” He smirks. “And if it takes too long, I’ll go tell her myself.” My throat goes dry, bile rising up.

I wrap my arms around my middle. “You’re right. She’ll figure it out.” Hoping a change of subject will keep my coworker safe I ask, “Where’s Python tonight?”

“Fuck if I know. Probably sucking one of his goddamn butterscotch candies and jerking off.”

I grimace but shut up and look out the window. As we get up to a speed that makes my gut roll, I see a truck turn the corner behind us. It’s only a flash since we’re going so fast, but as I whip my head around I see an emblem on the side. Was it a bear? Did I see a red circle?

Was it Jeff? It’s my vulnerable side asking, the mooning dreamer, that can’t handle all this, that wishes hot Grizz Daddy would rescue me so we can ride off into the sunset on his white horse.

But I’m no damsel and the truck was probably just wishful thinking.

“If I lose my job, it’s your fucking fault,” I grumble, knowing Slash can’t hear me, but the words reinforce who I am, and it’s not someone that needs a damn hero.

Chapter Nine

Lu

By the time we pull up to the house, the same one Python took me to the first night, I’ve managed to turn off my emotions. I didn’t see Jeff’s truck again and hope is far worse than acceptance, so I admit I probably didn’t see it the first time. Whatever happens to me is fine. Death will be a reprieve from all this shit anyway, right? Better still, if I’m dead they can’t use Jeff as leverage, they may still hurt him but they won’t torture and kill him to make me talk, and hopefully they’ll never find Gage, either.

So then, that’s my plan. Simply push them until they decide I’m more trouble than I’m worth. I just hope they do it quickly.

I glance up and down Grover Avenue as Slash yanks me from the car. Every house has its blinds shut, the bluish flickering glow of televisions peeking through the cracks.

“Why are we here?” I stumble with the force of his shove toward the house bathed in yellow from the light at the side door. The dude from the back seat climbs into the front and the car pulls away from the curb, leaving me alone with Slash. “What’s wrong with our usual exchange place? Couldn’t we meet there?”

Slash only shoots me an impatient look as if I have no right to question him or anyone else from Satan’s Ransom.

“Let’s go.” His voice is barely above a growl and he grabs my arm, giving me another shove toward the side entrance.

Python opens the door, looks around, and nods us in. “Preach is in the back.”

I try to find Python’s eyes, but he avoids my searching look and doesn’t follow us back into the living room. I don’t know why, maybe because he’s always been the most decent of the three, but him not following increases my fear.

I plop down in the same spot as I did the first time I was here and open my purse to pull out the bills I’d stashed there. It’s a wad of twenties, several fifties, and hundreds. As I count out the bills, I wonder, as I often do, how much money the drugs I dumped actually cost. I’ve asked before but I never get an answer. Python only says Preacher will tell me when my due is up.

But even with that response, I’ve kept track. I pull out a little black notebook and write the number in. I’ll add it up later, but for now the number is written in black ink.

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