Page 62 of Edge of Ruin
Then the stench of burning rubber assailed my nose. The coffee had all boiled away, and the heat had melted the rubber ring while I was on the phone.
I flipped off the gas, turned my back on the mess, and ran toward my gun safe.
Chapter Eighteen
Vivi
I locked up my shop and headed toward my van. I had finally finished painting the place, and I was a rumpled, snarled, ivory-spattered mess. I caught sight of myself in the rearview mirror as I started up the ignition, and winced at the spectacle. Yikes. Eyes red and puffy, face paper white, mouth blurry and dry.
But who cared how I looked? Hell with it.
I pointed the van in the direction of Evergreen Acres. I’d asked around yesterday, and that was the one place I could afford that would accept my dog. It also bordered on a creek and had a little forested area nearby for Edna to run and catch sticks and do her doggie business. The downside was, it was a pathetic dump. It was clear that the creek had overflowed its bounds and flooded the rental units more than once. The number of discolored waterlines and the rotting carpet were my first clues to that. Besides the overwhelming stench of mold, of course.
The cinder-block cube they’d assigned to me was the last in the row. It was tiny and cramped, and it stank of cigarettes, damp, and just a faint touch of urine to blend with the scent of toxic mold. The ceiling was so splotchy, it looked like it would fall down right on top of me. The curtains were full of cigarette holes. It was a tableau of misery.
Spot-on perfect for my mood.
I pulled into the Acres, parked my van next to my wretched little abode, and stared at it, dispirited. Back to roughing it. Back to making do. I’d gotten so spoiled.
Feeling sorry for myself would not help. I had learned that lesson so many times, in so many ways in my life, it still amazed me when the “poor-little-me’s” took me by storm. Like, who the fuck cared how I felt? No one. Deal with it.
I let Edna out of the van, and we headed down to the creek so Edna could stretch her legs. After that, I would clean up, change, organize my stuff, and get motivated for some tight-assed, dollar-a-day grocery shopping. Not that I had any appetite, but I needed to act like a grown-up. Starving myself would not help matters.
I flung the stick for Edna until my arm felt like it was about to fall off, and finally decided to stop procrastinating. I walked back to the cabin. Staring at the flimsy door with the knob lock that a credit card could swipe open in one pass. At the single-paned windows with the warped, swollen wood sills that I hadn’t been able to wrench closed.
I hadn’t known how safe Jack’s infrared alarm, and more than that, his tough, stalwart presence at my side, had made me feel until now. I’d been so relaxed, soft and open inside, for weeks now. Now that it was taken away from me, I felt like a snail with no shell. Fear was my constant backdrop.
I shoved the key into the lock. Edna stopped at the threshhold and shrank back, whining, but I was trying so hard to be tough, I didn’t register the dog’s gesture until I’d stepped in, flipped on the light?—
And found the two men lurking in the dark on either side of the door.
Their two pistols were pointed straight at me.
Chapter Nineteen
Jack
I drove by the highway interchange for the third time, scoping out the parking lots of the budget hotels clustered there, scanning for Vivi’s van. Her shop was locked up, at four p.m. Usually, she stayed there working until dark or later.
I could hardly breathe, I was so shit-scared. And furious at myself, too. I’d gotten so wound up in my own self-pitying bullshit, I’d lost sight of the danger that stalked her.
I should have known that a guy like Rafael would spew Vivi’s location to the four winds. I should have said something to the guy, taken steps, been thinking clearly.
About her. Not myself. Dick-brained asshole.
I pointed my truck back up the hill to Pebble River Heights, where the commercial district and Vivi’s shop were located. It was still possible that this was just a paranoid freak-out. But the image of Wilder spitted like a hot dog on a stick jangled my nerves. Could be the fuckhead had other enemies, of course. But an enemy like that was rare and special. And felt familiar.
I jerked the truck to a stop in front of Vivi’s store, deciding to make the rounds of all the shops. I got lucky on my eighth stop, at the Bakitchen lunch counter. Myra, the proprietor, gave me a smile.
“Hi, Jack. Coffee?”
“Not now. Quick question, Myra. Do you know where Vivi D’Onofrio is staying?”
“Thought she was staying with you, honey. Had a fight?”
I clenched my jaw. The older woman crossed her arms over her chest.
“Well, she was in here yesterday morning,” Myra conceded, after an uncomfortable moment. “Asking about an inexpensive place that would let her keep her dog. The only thing I could think of off the top of my head was Evergreen Acres, but it’s such a dive, it should be condemned. I hope she didn’t go there.”
