Page 62 of Jagged Line Paradise

I move for the door, but Avalon stops me, yanking her hand out of my grip. “No,Andrés. I need this job. I need the money, the…” She goes to Mack. “I’m sorry, Robbie. He and I have nothing to do with each other. He’ll be leaving town soon and won’t be a problem. Please.Please.You know I need this work.”

Oh, fuck no.

Fuck. No.

Avalon Briar is not going to beg for her job as a prostitute just to make ends meet. I’m not having this. I grab her wrist and pull.

“Stop it. Get off me!” she yells, pulling her arm away.

“Lonnie, knock it off,” I practically growl at her. “We’re leaving.”

“I need this job.” She fights me, pulling back, but I have a firm grip on her and refuse to let go. “Robbie, please.”

I can’t listen to another second of her groveling. Without thinking it through, I step in close, wrap my arm around her waist, and drag her with me to the door. I pull it open and physically shove her outside. She stumbles on the porch step and I instantly feel like shit for manhandling her that way, but I just couldn’t take another second of that bullshit.

As soon as we’re outside, she runs at me full force, trying to get past me to get back inside. I grab her by both shoulders to hold her back. “Knock it off, Lonnie. We’re leaving!”

“No! Andrés, you can’t do this to me. I need that work. I need the money!” She starts to cry and it makes my chest feel tight. Still, I hold her back.

“Lonnie, stop it.”

“Why do you keep doing this?” she yells at me with angry tears streaming down her beautiful face. “Why did you come back here? Why are you screwing up my life?”

I know I’m not screwing up her life. I know I’m just trying to help her, to make things better. But it really fucking hurts to be accused of fucking things up by getting her out of sex work.

Howelse is she making money though?

Does she have anothersource of income?

It doesn’t matter. I can’t in good faith allow her to sell herself. I shove logic aside, bend, press my shoulder against her stomach, and lift her from the ground. I hoist her up over my shoulder and carry her down the two front porch steps. Then she kicks me right in the ball sack and I grunt, putting her down on her feet immediately.

“Jesus, Lonnie!”

Her eyes are popped wide as she backs away from me. She looks like she’s completely lost her mind. She looks afraid; she looks truly terrified.

She’s scared of me.

She points a finger at me from her outstretched arm. “Don’t touch me like that. Don’t…don’t do that. Don’t try to take me—” Her chest heaves as she tries to hold back a barrage of tears that gloss over her eyes. She backs away from me, but in two steps I won’t be able to see the expression on her face—she’ll disappear into shadow beyond the shine of the flood light.

I take a step toward her and she moves back. I put up my palms in surrender. “Lonnie, come here. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to walk with you back to the car.”

“Whose car?”

“My rental.”

“I don’t want to go with you. I don’t want to go anywhere. I just wanna do my job. I need the work! You don’t understand what you just did. You just ruined everything!”

Christ, I’m so sick of getting blamed for her shitty life. “I didn’t ruin anything! Who thefuckgets upset about losing their job fucking strangers for cash?”

“People who don’t have money.People likeme!”

I step forward and she steps back.

“It’s not just about the money for you, is it?”

She goes quiet for a few seconds, but then her hands cover her face as she cries. “You don’t care about me. You don’t care about my life or what I want. You’ve never cared. It’s why you left in the first place! And now you’re back, and you’re ruining everything!”

“Oh, fuck that, Lonnie.” I charge toward her and she walks backward. When I’m within arms’ reach, she turns and takes off, sprinting away from me.

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