Part 28 (2/2)

”It's a fact,” Izzy told her, ”that I'm happy to have to keep proving to you.”

Now her smile was more genuine. ”Well, good,” she said, but then her expression went back to serious as she added, ”You know, I also left, the way I did after Pinkie died? Because I couldn't breathe. Everything just hurt too much. I had to go somewhere, where you weren't, and I'm so sorry if I hurt you, but I just...I don't know. I guess I had to learn to just...be.”

He had nothing to say in response to that.

”You don't have to believe me,” she whispered. ”But I hope that you do.”

”I believe you,” Izzy conceded. ”I know how hard it was for me, to lose Pinkie and...Still, I'm not going to say it's okay, because it's not. You did did hurt me. Pretty f.u.c.king badly. But I do accept your apology.” hurt me. Pretty f.u.c.king badly. But I do accept your apology.”

”I'm glad,” she said quietly.

And when she looked at him like that, with the sorrow and regret in her eyes mixed together with something that looked a whole lot like hope, he had to look away. Because if he gazed back at her, it was too easy to pretend that this could be something that it wasn't.

She was was going to leave him. She going to leave him. She was was. It was just a matter of when.

But right now she was here, although it was definitely time to head all the way back to the real world, where Dan and Jenn were waiting for them, back in Eden's crowded apartment.

Izzy powered down the window, reached out, and pulled what remained of the dangling mirror off the car. There were sharp pieces of gla.s.s still attached, so instead of tossing it into the backseat, he popped the trunk and got out of the car and stashed it back there.

As he climbed back in, Eden was now looking at him as if he were crazy, so he explained. ”The broken mirror makes us easier to spot,” he said as he put the window back up. ”Having it be missing altogether, well, we're a little less easy to identify this way.”

”Do you think that...whoever he was, he's still looking for us?” she asked.

”I think?” he said as he put the car into gear and headed out of the lot. ”That first thing in the morning-I'm talking 0600-we need to head on back to the hospital to give your little brother a double dose of our very best what-the-f.u.c.k faces.”

”There's definitely something,” Eden agreed, ”that Ben didn't tell me. Something that this girl told him.”

”We'll get him to talk,” Izzy promised her, turning his headlights on as he pulled out onto the road. ”But first, we'll bring him home.”

”Greg's gonna-”

”Greg's not going to be at the hospital,” he rea.s.sured her. ”Not that early in the morning.”

”He might be,” she worried. ”For some reason this is important to him. And if Danny doesn't reach Ivette...”

”Greg's not going to be there,” Izzy said. ”I know this because I sent him a little present earlier this evening. A little let's-be-friends gift from his relatively new stepson-in-law, with an implied apology for twisting his wrist.”

Eden was incredulous. ”You want to be friends friends with Greg?” with Greg?”

”h.e.l.l, no,” he told her. ”I just wanted him to get s.h.i.+tfaced drunk tonight so that he'd be guaranteed absent in the morning, when Ben is released. My present was a case of liquor from Ye Olde Wine Shoppe, where their motto is No party too large or small-we deliver to your door. No party too large or small-we deliver to your door.”

Eden was laughing, but at the same time she ferociously wiped her eyes with the heels of her hands. ”That's unbelievably brilliant,” she said, her husky voice even thicker with emotion. ”Thank G.o.d G.o.d you're here.” you're here.”

Neesha puked.

Behind the huge garbage bin, out behind the steakhouse where the private party had been held.

A private party with an even more private back room.

Neesha and the blond-haired woman named Clarice had been kept busy for the full two hours.

Most of the men in the party had just wanted her to dance for them or sit on their laps while they touched her or slipped dollar bills into her sequined bra and panties. But she'd gone into the back room five separate and thankfully very short times.

All of the men paid Clarice upfront, and Neesha'd performed their requests in a daze as she realized how wealthy she would have been had she not been working all those years as a slave.

And even though most of the money the men had paid went to Clarice as her ”commission for finding the gig,” Neesha now had five ten-dollar bills in her pocket. Fifty dollars. It was more money than she'd ever had in her entire life.

And with one more night like this one, she'd have the cash she needed to pay back Ben's sister for the food and the clothes, and to pay for that ticket for the bus to L.A.

One more night, and she'd never have to do this, not ever again.

”You okay, there, hon?” Clarice said as she lit a cigarette and exhaled a long, large cloud of smoke.

Neesha nodded as she wiped her mouth.

”I gotta go. The babysitter's gonna start calling me. I don't want to p.i.s.s her off.” Clarice took one last drag on her cigarette, then tossed it onto the pitted pavement, grinding it out with her pointy-toed high heel. ”You need a ride back...?”

Neesha shook her head. No.

”We good for tomorrow?” Clarice asked.

Neesha nodded again.

”I'll meet you at the same place,” she said. ”At the Micky D's.” She smiled but it didn't soften the hardness of her once-pretty face. ”Those good old boys sure do like you Asian gals. You are going to make us both rich.” She paused. ”You got a place to stay tonight, hon?”

Neesha nodded again because she didn't trust Clarice entirely, and didn't want to get into her car with her again. It had been hard enough, driving over here with her, earlier.

”Six o'clock, then,” Clarice said as she clicked and clopped her way over to her car and beeped open the lock. ”I know it's early, and I used to think it was better to start later, to let those boys get good and drunk, but this is Las Vegas. They're drinking hard at noon. Wait too long, and the older gents can't get it up.”

”I'll need more,” Neesha said, and Clarice turned to look at her in surprise. ”Tomorrow night. I want half.”

”Well, aren't you the greedy little b.i.t.c.h,” the older woman said, her musical laughter softening the harshness of her words. ”I'll give you forty.”

Neesha didn't understand that. Clarice has already given her more than forty dollars, that couldn't be what she meant. She shook her head and kept it simple. ”Half of what they pay you.”

”Hmm, I don't know, hon...”

Neesha turned to leave, even though her heart was pounding. Finding Clarice had been a lucky break. Not having to get into the client's car and risk being recognized by someone who would drive her back to Todd or Mr. Nelson...? It was worth a lot to Neesha. Still...

She didn't take more than a few steps before Clarice said, ”Well, all right. I guess giving you half is fair enough. But I will expect you to chip in now and then to help pay for gas.”

But there wasn't going to be a then then. There would only be tomorrow night.

”Do we have a deal?” Clarice asked.

Neesha nodded.

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