Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
“We care,” I replied. “So, yeah. We’re really after it.”
“A’right,” she mumbled. “So she was young and dumb. Wandered onto patches that weren’t hers to work. Got in cars instead of meeting at a hotel. Shit like that.”
“And the buzz?” Luna went back to our earlier subject.
“The dumb ones are goin’ missin’,” she answered.
“Like, the ones who would get into cars?” I queried.
“Like those, yeah.”
“Only those?” Luna pressed.
“Bitch, I don’t know. Other dumb shit you can do is talkin’ to two white women who got a lot of questions.”
I took that as the sign she was done answering them.
Luna did too. So, from her crossbody, she fished out one of the pieces of paper she’d put our burner phone numbers on before we headed out (see? totally into this shit). Once she had that, she fished out one of the hundred dollar bills she got from the bank that afternoon.
It wasn’t the white of her teeth that we saw when she offered those to Jinx. It was the white of her eyes.
“Thanks, Jinx,” Luna said as Jinx took what was offered. “Appreciate you talking to us.”
Luna jutted up her chin and the bill and paper disappeared—poof!—like she knew sleight of hand.
I had a feeling, in her way, she did.
I didn’t explore that feeling.
We began to move off.
“Bitches,” she called.
We stopped and turned back to her.
“Watch your asses. Whatever this shit is, it can be nothin’ but bad. Hear me?”
We nodded and I called back, “Hear you. Stay safe out here.” Then, as an afterthought that was probably plain loco, I said, “You need anything, call one of those numbers.”
“What would I need from you?” she asked, not ugly, curious.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “But we all have the same equipment, so we’re in this together.”
“You’re totally crazy,” she declared.
“We hear that a lot,” Luna told her.
“I bet.”
“Again, be safe,” I bid and pulled Luna toward the car.
We got in and I drove back onto Roosevelt. Since I was too chicken to try left turns across busy dual carriageways with suicide lanes (it was all in the name, just sayin’), I turned right.
It took a second before Luna noted, “They make it easy for them. Get right in their cars.”
“Yep,” I replied.
“You think the strippers do that too?”
“No idea.”
I flipped a uey as soon as I could, and we swung into the parking lot of the hotel Jinx indicated.
I backed into a spot, turned off the car, and we waited.
“Women go to strip clubs all the time now,” Luna said as we waited. “Maybe we should hit The Slide and have a look around.”
At SC, while we were going through our envelope, I’d given her the entire lowdown.
And I was thinking the same thing.
However…
“Kinda too close to Cyrus Gibbons for my liking,” I told her. “And from what I can tell, he’s there a lot.”
“He doesn’t own the joint, though. ‘Occupation unknown’ is what it said on his info sheet.”
“He didn’t own the joint where he was doing shitty business in Denver either.”
“True.”
We got silent and watched.
Luna broke the silence again.
“Just to make it official, I approve of Cap. He’s da bomb. It was cool how open he was with stories about his family, not to mention he seems bulletproof from our posse’s crazy, which isn’t surprising considering the crazy he comes from. And obviously, I dig how he doesn’t hide how into you he is.”
“Yeah,” I murmured.
We exchanged a happy glance.
Then I asked, “Did you notice how yesterday, Dream turned when you piped up?”
“Totes.”
“I know you guys don’t always get along, but wasn’t that weird?”
“Totes,” she repeated.
“You wanna talk about it?” I offered.
She shook her head. “It’s not my damage. It’s hers. She’s got enough to worry about in the now. When it’s time, I’ll call you in to have my back.”
I nodded my head. “Deal.”
I ended this one word on a small scream as I jumped when someone knocked hard on my window.
My heart racing, I looked to see a man leaning down and peering in. He was white, unattractive, and not surprisingly, skeevy.
“Can I help you?” I yelled through the window, my hand going to the ignition switch.
“You women gonna rent a room?” he yelled back.
“We’re waiting on somebody.” I was still yelling even if he was right there, just a window between us.
“Wait somewhere else. Parking is for customers only. Get the fuck out of here. Now.”
“Go,” Luna murmured.
I hit the ignition and called, “Thanks for your courtesy.”
He scowled and that made him downright ugly.
He also rapped on my window hard again, entirely unnecessarily.
“Get out of here before I flip this asshole off,” Luna warned.
I pulled out because I didn’t need Luna escalating anything. She tended to be pretty mellow, though she didn’t take a lot of shit. Still, even as long as I’d known her, you could always learn new things, and I was right then learning she didn’t have a lot of patience for impolite, skeevy guys.