Chapter Fifteen – Jack
Chapter Fifteen
Jack
The bouncer to Francesa’s sex club loomed before I could even ring. “Can I help you?” Vincent said, looking stern.
“Hey, Vincent,” I said, trying to stand straight.
“Jack?” he guessed, like he didn’t recognize me. “You look homeless.”
“I feel homeless. I need Fran—can you get her for me?”
His wise face took in the way I looked—and the fact that I was holding the hand of a half-naked child, divided by the amount of time that Fran and I had been friends and the lengths that she’d gone to for me in the past. I knew I only barely came out ahead.
“I can try. But you two’ll have to wait over here,” he said, drawing us in.
“We are not into that, Jack,” Janice said, her eyes widening as Vincent directed us toward an open room right behind the check-in desk.
“Neither am I,” I shouted back to her, just as Vincent closed the room’s door on us.
It wasn’t a broom closet, so there was that. But everything in it was velvet—I didn’t feel comfortable standing in the room, much less sitting on any of the plush furniture, and Rabbit stood as close to me as he could without physically touching me.
“Where is this, Jack?” he asked, his voice small.
“Someplace safe,” I said, hoping that Fran wouldn’t turn me into a liar.
Fifteen minutes later, Fran burst in in full gear, a shining black latex bodysuit with a red harness atop it, crisscrossed everywhere a bikini would be.
“I left a very important client in a very precarious situation to see to this, Jack,” she said, taking me in, before looking over and finding Rabbit huddled behind me.
“What. The…. I thought they were joking.” Her eyes bore into me. “What on earth is this about?”
“We need someplace to hide, today.” I could feel the dawn coming up.
She kept glaring. “Do I want to know why that child has no pants?”
“Not really. Trust me,” I said, willing her to do so. “Come on, Fran. Don’t you have a nursery set up for the diaper-people? Just hide us in a room where no one’ll find us.”
“Who’s looking for you?” she demanded. “Because I’m out of,” she began, ready to say blood, then went quiet for Rabbit’s sake.
“Bad people,” Rabbit said, from where he was hiding. Fran’s eyebrows rose.
“I don’t even need a full day—I just need till tonight. We didn’t leave any tracks, and no one will expect to find us here, Fran.”
“I need to know what I’m getting into, Jack.” She looked leery and started shaking her head.
“What you’re getting into is me owing you indefinitely after this. Weekly appointments. I’ll let you schedule me, for real, like you’ve always wanted. Two hours.”
Fran considered me, crossing her arms. The latex on her squeaked where it rubbed. “Eight.”
“Three.”
She squinted. “On weekends.”
I could feel the weight of dawn, starting to press, and groaned. “Fine. But don’t give us up to anyone. And he needs clothes.”
“Yeah, he does,” Fran started pacing. The soft red carpeting muted the clicks of her heels on the floor. “Okay.” Fran squatted to get down onto Rabbit’s level. “Hey. What’s your name?”
“Rabbit,” he said, from the vicinity of my thigh.
“I’m Fran.” She put out her hand for Rabbit and he took it, shaking it quickly before hiding again.
I gave Rabbit’s shoulder a squeeze. “Rabbit, I’m going to go to sleep soon—and Fran’s going to take care of you, okay?”
Rabbit looked at Fran with his gray eyes. “Do you know any magic tricks?”
Fran blinked. “No.”
Rabbit seemed relieved by that. “Good.”
After that, Fran procured very small women’s clothes from Lord only knew where and soon Rabbit was in short-shorts and a crop-top, which was worse than than him swimming in my shirt if you asked me.
But by then dawn was taking me down. Fran walked me to the broom closet and Janice had taken Rabbit down the hall.
I knew being separated was the right thing to do, I knew he didn’t need to see me die during the day, it’d only frighten him, but I couldn’t help being worried about his next ten-or-so hours.
“Where are you taking him?”
“You’re right, I do have a nursery. And no one’s booked in it for a week. Not that you can stay here that long—and God help me if we do get raided, because a child in a nursery….”
“I just need absolute discretion until sundown.”
“I can buy discretion. What I can’t buy you is time. Is a day really going to cut it?” Fran unlocked the door to the closet—the lock was solid, and Fran made it clear she had the only key. It looked the same as when I’d left it, IV pole and all, and I stepped inside.
“I’m not sure. But I’ll be able to come up with a better plan tomorrow night.”
“And feeding?”
“I’ll worry about that later.”
Fran made a disgruntled noise but didn’t press. “If I get any daytime trouble, we’re handing him over. I’ll hide him, but no one here is going to die for this.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to. And, again, I wouldn’t bring him here if I didn’t think it was safe.”
“For him—or for us?” she asked, then raised both hands before I could answer her. “Don’t. I get the feeling the more I know, the worse it’s going to get. Just go lay down.” She pointed to where I’d woken up the other night.
“I don’t suppose….” I said, dancing the IV pole out of the way.
“I’m not holding out on you, if that’s what you’re asking.”
I lowered myself to the ground. My hunger was hitting, hard. Dying would be a welcome respite—until I woke up again. “Anyone you can bleed during daytime?”
“Doubtful.”
“Fair enough.”
“More than fair.” Fran took a big inhale—well, as big as she could, wearing what she was. “Good night, sweet prince.”
“G’night, Francesca.” I lay down, waving her off, and then crossed my arms over my chest ala Dracula, dramatically. I heard her laugh as she locked the door.
I wrestled with the dawn for as long as I could, and then it won.