Part 30 (1/2)

Dan was silent, just sitting there, staring down at the floor as Izzy dried his hands on one of Eden's mismatched towels. Given her tendency to be thrifty, she'd probably picked them up at some second-hand store. If she was still around by Hanukkah or Christmas or whatever she celebrated-Festivus?-he was going to buy her a really nice, really thick and fluffy matching set. And sheets that were criminally soft, and s.h.i.+t, maybe a whole new apartment's worth of furniture.

”You're an a.s.shole, Gillman,” Izzy repeated now, ”but you're an intelligent a.s.shole, and deep down you're a good guy with a heart of f.u.c.king gold. So if you're really worried about it-maybe about what Eden said about the name-calling, which is definitely uncool, bro-then you should go in. You know, for counseling. It can't hurt. That Al-Anon stuff, too, you know, for adult children of alcoholics? It's a good idea. I read a lot about it back when...”

Back when Eden had first left, and Izzy had been certain it would only be a matter of time before she'd return. He'd wanted to be ready to help her, however he could.

”I read about it,” Izzy finished.

But Danny knew exactly what he hadn't said. ”You're the one who needs counseling. What you're doing? With Eden? It's f.u.c.ked up.”

Izzy nodded. ”Yeah, I know.”

”I couldn't do it,” Dan said, shaking his head. ”Even just the thought thought of Jenn with other men...I mean, I don't own her, either, but...I just don't know how that could be even remotely okay.” of Jenn with other men...I mean, I don't own her, either, but...I just don't know how that could be even remotely okay.”

”Well, she's not with with them,” Izzy pointed out. ”I have to admit that the look-but-don't-touch rule plays heavily into it. You know, the making-it-bearable.” them,” Izzy pointed out. ”I have to admit that the look-but-don't-touch rule plays heavily into it. You know, the making-it-bearable.”

And now Dan was looking at him as if he'd just spoken in Mandarin Chinese. ”Look but don't...” he repeated.

It was as if a cartoon lightbulb was switched on glaringly bright over Izzy's head, at the exact same moment that a second one lit up over Dan's noggin.

”Holy s.h.i.+t, bro,” Izzy said, ”did you actually think-”

”Jesus,” Dan spoke at the same time, ”I thought Eden was, you know, hooking, but-”

”Your sister's an exotic dancer,” Izzy told him, getting the facts out there as quickly and efficiently as he could. ”A stripper. On a stage. In a club called D'Amato's. No one touches her. The bouncers are solid, the rules are absolute. I've been there. There's no back room, although the parking lot is sketchy. But inside? What you see is absolutely all that you get.”

”Jesus,” Dan said again. ”I thought...”

Danny actually thought his sister was a prost.i.tute-and holy c.r.a.p, no wonder he'd been so amazed at the idea that Izzy was down with that.

For two men who were both smart enough to become Navy SEALs, they were pretty freaking stupid to have failed to notice that, for the entire past discussion, they'd been talking about two different things.

Like Izzy, Dan was now sitting there, rerunning everything that had been said since Eden and Izzy had come through the apartment door.

Danny had called his sister a wh.o.r.e because he'd actually thought she was. A wh.o.r.e. Professionally. Because it was legal to turn tricks in parts of Nevada. And in other parts, like Las Vegas's Clark County? The cops tended to look the other way.

Not that any of that made it okay. At least not for Eden, and Jesus, not for Izzy, either.

Out in the living room, Eden and Jenn had no doubt had a similar revelation, because there came a quiet knock on the bathroom door, then Jenn's voice: ”Dan? Danny? I'm sorry to bother you, but we were wrong. Eden's a stripper stripper. But even that's kind of secondary to the fact that while she and Izzy were at the mall asking about Neesha, someone shot at them. With a gun.”

Izzy reached over and opened the door as Danny looked up at him, in disbelief. ”Jesus Christ, Zanella,” he said, ”what the h.e.l.l h.e.l.l...?”

”Neesha,” Eden called quietly as Izzy followed her through the door that accessed the stairs leading down to the bas.e.m.e.nt, where the building's laundry room was located, along with about a dozen storage s.p.a.ces with garagelike metal doors that slid up and down and were secured with padlocks.

She didn't like coming down here in the daytime-at night it was even spookier. But having Izzy with her was a real game changer.

”It's me, Eden,” she called. ”Ben's sister?”

But there was no answer, no sound of movement, and when she looked inside, the laundry room was empty.

Eden watched as Izzy went down the row of storage s.p.a.ces, checking that each lock was secure-in between glances back at her. No doubt to make sure she wasn't about to crumble.

It had been a day and evening filled with more than its share of unpleasant and frustrating surprises, that was for sure.

”I can't believe Neesha was here,” Eden said, now, because she just knew Izzy was about to start talking about Danny's incredible disrespect, and she didn't want to go there. Not now.

”Yeah,” Izzy agreed as he came back down the hall toward her. ”It's a pretty cruel irony.”

Apparently, while she and Izzy and Danny and Jenn were at the hospital, Neesha had used the key Ben kept hidden outside of the apartment to come in, take a shower, eat a meal, and commit petty larceny by stealing several items from Eden's stripper clothes drawers.

Not that Eden wouldn't have lent her what she needed, should Neesha have just asked. After all, she had an excess.

On her second day of work, she'd inherited an entire costume trunk from a woman who was exactly her size, who was leaving D'Amato's to have a baby. She wasn't planning on coming back and had given it to Eden in a pay-it-forward way. So Eden had ended up with far more stripper clothes than she'd ever need-two dresser drawers full-which Neesha had apparently found while snooping through Eden's things last time she was here with Ben.

”While you were in the bathroom with Danny,” Eden told Izzy now, ”Jenn said that Neesha came over to snag one of my stripper outfits. She said that's at least partly why she and Danny thought what they thought, because Neesha said something to them about borrowing some clothes that didn't make her look like a little girl, because she didn't want to have to have s.e.x with the freaks.”

”Really?” Izzy asked.

Eden nodded as they went back up the stairs. ”Why do guys find that hot?” she asked. ”The little-girl thing?”

”I don't know,” he said, ”because I don't.”

She glanced back at him. ”So, like, if I dressed up in, you know, a Catholic schoolgirl uniform, you wouldn't like that?”

”Hmm,” he said. ”That's kind of a touchy question, considering a lot of people think you're kind of permanently wearing a schoolgirl uniform, because you're too young for me. People including your brother.”

”He's an idiot.”

”He certainly is opinionated,” Izzy said evenly. ”And some of his opinions are are idiotic. But the math is the math. I'm eleven years older than you.” idiotic. But the math is the math. I'm eleven years older than you.”

”Ten and a half,” she countered. ”And it's not a problem for me. Your being so elderly.”

He smiled at that, as she'd hoped he would. ”Good to know. And as long as we're being honest here, your being nubile has never been a problem for me. And if you really got into the whole wearing-a-school-uniform thing, I'd muscle through. Although I'd prefer you waiting to don it until you're fifty and I'm sixty-one.”

”So you do do think it's hot.” think it's hot.”

Izzy laughed. ”Sweetheart, if you wore a giant Hefty trash bag and asked me to wear bubble wrap around my head while we got it on, I'd find that that molten-lava hot. You want to role-play and pretend we're historical figures-I'll be George, you be Martha? I'm there. I'm still reeling from the missed opportunity at the mall. I was totally ready to be Billy Bob to your Irma Lou.” molten-lava hot. You want to role-play and pretend we're historical figures-I'll be George, you be Martha? I'm there. I'm still reeling from the missed opportunity at the mall. I was totally ready to be Billy Bob to your Irma Lou.”

”I think Billy Bob was Irma Lou's brother,” she told him, dancing out of his grasp.

”Oh, that's so wrong,” he said, stopping there on the stairs.

”Yeah,” Eden said, turning to look down at him. She rarely saw him from this vantage point, and it was nice. He was extremely attractive from every angle, and the amus.e.m.e.nt in his eyes made her smile back at him, even though the information she was about to give him was nothing to smile about. ”About as wrong as Neesha, who looks like she's around twelve telling Danny that she'd stay only if he paid-and then giving him a crotch grab.”

”Whoa, did Jenn tell you that?” Izzy'd started up the stairs, toward her, but that stopped him short again. He laughed his disbelief as she nodded. ”It's been one h.e.l.l of a night for Danbo, too, huh? Did his head explode?”

”Probably.” Eden smiled again despite her deep and growing concern for the girl. ”Am I a bad person if I admit that I really wish I'd been there to see that?”

”It's okay,” he said. ”I'm a bad person, too.”

”Jenn said it really freaked him out.”