Chapter 4
Marco
She looks up at me and snarls. Fuck I like this girl already.
“Answer me,” I demand this time.
“Let me out of this,” she says, nodding toward the shower. I reach in and shut the cold water off, and she drags her ass off the floor. I toss her a towel, but not anything else, as she steps out. She wraps the towel around her shivering body and looks up at me.
“Don’t you have heat?”
“No. Now tell me what the fuck you’re talking about.”
“Why the hell should I?”
“Because if you don’t, I’m going to let Tony beat your fucking ass for putting your hands on him,” I tell her. I’m dead serious, too. Tony will fuck her up, and that’ll be her own fault.
“Fine. Tell Tony to bring it,” she challenges. Now I move. I move so quickly she doesn’t see me coming or when I pull my knife. I press it to her neck a little too hard and see the blood as it begins to flow. Her eyes lock with mine as her chest heaves.
“Why do you make shit so hard, Chula? This is my area, my turf. If there’s some motherfucker running around pulling guns, it’s supposed to be me.”
“And you think I should help you?”
“You live here now. Yeah, you should.” She rolls her eyes as I step back and move the knife away from her cold, trembling body.
“They had masks on. I didn’t see shit else. There were two of them, one at the counter and one who came at me because my little brother was crying.”
“And?”
“And Davey has PTSD. He freaked out when he saw the gun and lost it. I stepped in between them.”
“In between your brother and the gun?” She nods her head. “And here I thought you weren’t stupid.”
“I’m not stupid, you fucker! That’s my brother! My only brother, and he’s non-verbal. He can’t stand up for himself, so I do,” she yells before shoving at me. I let her this time, but there won’t be a next.
“I had a brother like that,” I tell her, although I don’t know why I’m admitting that shit to her. Maybe to calm her ass down a little more?
“Had?”
“He died.”
“Shit. I’m sorry,” she says as her teeth chatter from the cold. I wasn’t playing when I said we don’t have heat in here.
“Don’t be. He’s better off where he is now.
” She shrugs her shoulders before heading for the door.
I follow behind her when my mom’s voice filters through my head, telling me not to let her leave the house dripping wet.
Fuck! Why does her voice have to come into play now?
And why do I even fucking care what the voice has to say?
After what she did, I wished I hadn’t heard her voice at all.
I reach for her and pull her back, but she spins quickly, ready to fight.
“Calm the fuck down. What’s with you?”
“I don’t like being grabbed.”
“Follow me,” I tell her. She’s hesitant at first, but eventually follows me. I walk back into my bedroom and open the closet, pulling out some sweats and a shirt. I toss them to her and nod toward the bathroom.
“I’m only going across the street,” she declares.
“I know, and it’s cold out tonight.”
“Are you being nice?” she asks, sounding shocked at the idea.
“You can thank my mother,” I tell her.
“Where is she?”
“Dead.” The girl looks at me for a long second before going into the bathroom and closing the door. I wait outside, blowing out a breath before grabbing my coat and bundling up. I wasn’t lying when I said it was cold out there tonight, and I still have work to do.
She comes back out, and I walk her to the door, escorting her outside when I see Tony and Hock. They both look at me like I’m insane as the girl wraps her arms around herself and hauls ass across the street.
“What’s that about?”
“That shooting down the street? She was there,” I tell them as I pull out a cigarette and light it up.
“What? How do you know that?” Hock asks.
“She was freaking the fuck out. She’s beyond pissed about it.”
“And?”
“And she was losing her shit. I calmed her ass down and got her to talk,” I tell them. The guys both laugh at me, but it isn’t what they’re thinking.
“Not like that, assholes.”
“What did she have to say?”
“They were wearing masks. She didn’t see shit. There were two of them. One at the counter, one came at her little brother, and she stepped in between.”
“So this bitch is as crazy as we thought,” Tony mumbles, and I laugh.
“She might be.” Just then, another man walks up, and I send Tony and Hock down the alley to handle them while I look up at what I assume is her window.
The light flicks on, and I see her shadow as she moves through the room.
Then I see her come into view. She stands there, still, as if thinking about something.
Then she pulls my shirt to her nose and inhales the scent. She’s a strange girl, that’s for sure.
I drag my eyes away from her when the lights go out and wait for the guys to come back. When they do, we start walking the block.
“It’s too fucking cold for this shit,” Hock complains.
“No shit. We need to start back at the abandoned house,” I tell them.
“I don’t know about that, Marco. The cops have been watching that shit pretty hard,” Tony chimes in.
“Really?”
“Yeah. That’s why no one has ventured over there.”
“Well, we need to figure out something. It’s only going to get colder, and if our main spot is out of the question, we need to find something new.”
“What about your new girls’ place?” Hock asks. I turn my head to look at him.
“What do you mean?”
“The stairwell that leads up to the apartment. That shit has to be warmer than out here,” he says. He’s not wrong. Anything has to be warmer than out here.
“She has a little brother,” I tell them.
“We’re not in the apartment. Just the stairs and if we have to dip, we run, not stay there.” He’s not wrong about that either.
“Yeah, you’re right. We’ll use it for now until I come up with something else.”
We keep walking, dealing out drugs when we need to or see someone, and by the time it’s three in the morning, I’m worn the fuck out.
Hock and Tony go home. I head to my apartment, and it’s strangely warmer in here.
I narrow my eyes and walk through the small living room and into my bedroom, where I find a small space heater.
I pull my gun and move through the room, checking every spot there is to hide in here, when I see the paper on my bed. I walk over and pick it up.
“Thank me later, asshole.” I snort a laugh and automatically know it’s from her.
The girl whose name I don’t even know. I set the paper on the table next to my bed before I climb in and lie down.
For the first time in years, I’m warm in my own bed.
I’m not sure how I feel about her being in my house when I wasn’t here, or how the hell she got in, to be exact, but for right now? I’m thankful as hell for the heat.
Every year without fail, I get the flu, and shivering and sweating with no fucking heat is killer. Now when I get sick, I’ll have heat. And I have to thank her for that.
I close my eyes and let sleep pull me under while I stay warm under my blanket and wonder what the hell is with that girl.