Born Savages - Cora Brent Page 0,18
warning him that he’ll get his nuts chewed off by a Gila monster. And Monty just uses it as a fuck den so it might be kind of noisy in there. See that piece of crap in the foreground? We call it the brothel since it used to serve as either a saloon or a bordello, depending on what the script called for. Spence won’t be any trouble. But you tell me if Monty gives you shit and I’ll talk to him.”
Oscar glances up and sees Monty still scowling on the balcony of the brothel. The half rotted wood is completely bowed in the middle and Montgomery Savage seems to be tempting fate as he looms there with hulking menace. Oscar wonders if he’s aware of just how closely he resembles his grandfather and decides it’s probably something Monty’s been hearing his whole life. His dark eyes follow Oscar with a mute warning but other than that he doesn’t shift a muscle.
Oscar answers him back with a hard stare. It would be more effective if he wasn’t twisting his neck to look up but he’s kicked his fair share of sullen ass in his day. If it comes to it he would pit his muscle against Monty Savage any day.
Hopefully he won’t be hanging around here long enough for things to go that sour.
“Thanks, Loren,” he says, still holding Monty’s gaze until Monty smirks, drops his eyes and looks to the west where the sun is beginning to dip low.
They’ve reached the far side of the brothel. Oscar can’t hear the voices of the adults any longer. The other Savage girls have disappeared. He watches Ren in the soft evening shadow and is struck by the sight of her. Even without makeup she has a face that demands attention. At the same time, a ray of sun filters through her loose cotton shirt and shows him the curve of her small breasts. Despite himself, despite the fact that this girl is off limits and he’s been inside of girls that could body double as porn stars, he recognizes pure fucking quality when it’s in front of him. Something stirs powerfully in his core and he shifts the weight of his luggage.
Ren suddenly gives him an arch look. Oscar wonders if she has supernatural dick sensors and can tell he’s getting a little chubby in his pants.
“What?” he says defensively.
She smiles. She has a perfect smile. Perfect teeth surrounded by perfect lips. “Thought you’d be more, I don’t know, European. That’s how we thought of you; Aunt Mina’s exotic little European waif.” She wrinkles her nose. “You seem like you could be from from L.A. Here’s the house. Door’s never locked.”
Oscar stops. “You said it was built for the caretaker?”
“Yeah, I think so. My grandparents, sorry our grandparents, were too busy being fabulous in Los Angeles to spend more than a few months a year out here so they paid some poor sucker to sit around and sweep up the dust. The rooms are really small in there but at least there’s central air. My father had it installed when we moved out here last year.”
“It looks like one of the rest stops we passed on the interstate.”
“It probably doesn’t smell any better either.” Ren’s voice takes on a defensive edge. “Look, I know it’s not what you’re used to and before we wound up here it wasn’t what we were used to either, but it’s still better than what a lot of people have.”
A vague sense of shame pricks at him. There he stands with his elite education and his pricey clothes while the Savage kids have been reduced to this. But why? Mina had once mentioned that August was very bad with money. He knows Atlantis was passed down from Rex Savage and he remembers his earlier thought about people who’d run out of options.
Who the hell is he to judge anyway? A former slum kid himself. He’s become a snobby jerk.
Ren is opening the door. “You could stay in the big house, but then you’d be under Lita’s thumb and I can tell you from experience that life is not comfortable there.”
“I’m sure this’ll be fine,” he says, following Ren inside as she fumbles for a light.
“Welcome home,” she says and Oscar glimpses beer cans, strewn clothing and some mismatched furnishings.
“Nice,” he says, dropping his bags in the tiny living room, figuring that’ll do until he finds out where he’ll be sleeping. Ren stands over by the light