Part 36 (1/2)

And Eden opened her mouth and said, ”If you get to tell me where I can or can't work, then I get to tell you...No more Marias. If you're with me, you're only with me me. For as long as we're together. Whether it's three days or three years.”

”That goes both ways,” he said.

”Of course.”

”Okay,” he said.

”Okay,” she said, too.

And she should have felt better. They'd reached an understanding. Like Izzy'd said, they'd started over. They'd set up some guidelines and rules for their relations.h.i.+p. It should have been a good thing.

But all she felt was as if they'd started a giant clock ticking, counting down to the moment Ben would turn eighteen and Izzy would say good-bye.

It wasn't an if- if-he'd made that more than clear. It was a very definite when when.

And that was on top of the fact that nothing they'd said, not even Izzy's apology, had soothed the hurt that came from knowing he'd believed she'd taken that money right out of his wallet.

Izzy cleared his throat. ”About Maria...”

Eden briefly closed her eyes. Way to bring her down to another, as of yet unexplored, level of h.e.l.l. ”I really don't want to know.”

”Yeah,” he said. ”You do. She hit on me, but I turned her down.”

She looked at him then as her emotions twisted within her. She didn't want to feel so stupidly happy at that news. ”And...you want some kind of congratulatory medal...?”

He smiled at that. ”No, I'm just trying to be forthright. I kind of lied to you about her. You know, by omission.”

”Anything else?” she asked. ”I mean, as long as we're here in the confessional?”

Izzy laughed, because this place was about as far from churchlike as it could possibly be. But this time, when he reached for her hand, Eden didn't pull away. She just gave up and let him link their fingers together.

”Thanks,” he said. ”For forgiving me.”

”But I haven't yet,” she admitted. ”I'll get there eventually...” Probably the next time they made love-or had s.e.x, as Izzy called it. She felt tears welling again in her eyes, so she took her hand back to brush them away. ”Just not tonight. Tonight I'm just going to wallow in hating you.”

”Fair enough,” he said.

She stood up. ”I already quit,” she told him. ”So let's go make Ben happy and cruise the strip, see if we can't find Neesha.”

Izzy looked as if he'd far rather go back to her apartment and sleep for eighteen hours, but he nodded valiantly and even managed a smile. ”Just let me stop for coffee, and I'm up for anything.”

CHAPTER TWENTY.

FRIDAY, MAY 8, 2009.

4:58 P.M.

She still had a full hour before it was time to meet Clarice, but Neesha headed over to the hamburger place early-being cautious as usual.

She walked from the bus station, where she'd used the bathroom to change into the same halter top that she'd worn the previous night.

She didn't have a jacket, so she'd used one of the s.h.i.+rts Ben had given her to cover the sequins, because she didn't want to draw attention to herself until she arrived at the private party.

It didn't matter that she smelled of perspiration or worse-this was the last time she would ever wear this top. She would return here later and change back into a far less eye-catching s.h.i.+rt, then bring the clothes she'd borrowed back to Ben's sister, along with money to clean or even just replace them.

She'd leave it in a bag outside the apartment door, wis.h.i.+ng that she could-as Ben's older brother suggested-write a note. Just to say thank you. And good luck.

But she didn't know how to write in English, and there was a bus that left for L.A. at midnight, and she was determined to be on it, so she wouldn't have time to knock and give them that message face-to-face.

The hamburger place where she'd first met Clarice was now in sight, and Neesha walked toward it with a sense of dread, despite knowing that she'd almost made it past the finish line.

Izzy needed coffee.

The bartender at D'Amato's had told him there was a Starbucks just a few blocks away, on Paradise Road-which was also where Neesha had told Dan and Jenn that she could find ”work.”

Eden knew exactly where it was. ”It's up on the left,” she directed him. ”Across from the 'Billions Served' sign...?”

”I got it,” he said as he spotted the familiar logo. ”Thanks.” He glanced at her as he signaled to make the turn into the lot. She'd been quiet ever since leaving D'Amato's, and now she was gazing out the window with no small degree of intensity.

Looking for a Neesha in a haystack.

It wasn't just a case of Eden wanting to be able to tell Ben that they'd spent some time searching. She honestly wanted to find the girl, and Izzy tried to imagine what it had been like, fifteen years old and in charge of getting her little brother and her sister's kids to safety with a category-five hurricane bearing down on them.

She'd driven them out of their low-lying neighborhood in her brother-in-law's car, or so she'd told him. Izzy suspected there was more to the story than she'd revealed.

And now was not the time to ask her about it. Since they'd left the club, she'd answered the few questions he'd asked in monosyllables. Did you have dinner? Did you have dinner? No. No. Are you hungry? Are you hungry? No. No.

He had to wait for a group of businessmen-meetings over and ready to party-who were walking down the sidewalk before he pulled into the parking lot. For this part of town, at this time of late afternoon, both the Starbucks and the fast-food joints nearby were jumping-but mostly with traffic from cars.

The sidewalks were fairly empty. Compared with the teeming crowds out on the strip, this part of the city was a pedestrian ghost town.

”You want anything?” Izzy asked Eden as he put the car into park and double-checked that his wallet was still in his pocket.

She said, ”No thanks,” as she turned to crane her head and get a look at another group of people coming out of the Mickey D's. But it was a family, trying to get an affordable meal amid all of the vice and sin. They probably didn't even realize that the skinny blonde in the microskirt, who'd walked past them in the parking lot, was a hooker.

Which was probably a good thing, because Dad, with his camera, might've tried to take her picture. As it was, the man took a second and then a third glance as she leaned in the pa.s.senger-side window of a pickup truck, to talk to the driver and simultaneously show the world a flash of candy-apple-red panties.

”Lock this door behind me,” Izzy ordered Eden, and left the car running, a/c blasting, as he got out. He waited for her to push the lock b.u.t.ton, and when it clicked, he moved through the oppressive heat and went inside the Starbucks, where there was, of course, an interminably slow-moving line.

Neesha almost walked right into it.

She hadn't been expecting it-although as soon as she saw it, she didn't know why she hadn't. It suddenly seemed so obvious that Clarice would have certain connections, and would make some inquiries about Neesha.

But there she was-Clarice-talking to one of the men-the bald one-who'd been searching for Neesha over at the mall. He was driving a blue pickup truck. And-G.o.d-climbing into the pa.s.senger's seat beside him was Todd. It was clear he was there to help identify her-which she knew he could do quite easily.

He'd been one of her regular visitors through the years.