The Blessed - By Tonya Hurley Page 0,58
bracelets?” Lucy asked.
“I think we’re about to find out,” Cecilia said.
“I don’t want to leave here,” Agnes said. “Until I know.”
The answer was in Agnes’s eyes. It was in all of their eyes. They were committed to staying.
“I think there’s one day of darkness left to find out,” Lucy said, recalling the weather report from her cab ride. “Something’s definitely wrong.”
“He looks worried,” Agnes added.
“For himself?” Cecilia asked. “Or us?”
7 “Stalk to me.” The familiar greeting was shorter and the synthetic voice mail beep that followed longer than either needed to be, and more abrasive, Jesse thought. He wasn’t used to leaving messages for Lucy that went unanswered. Despite their personal loathing for each other, or at least hers for him, they had an understanding. But it had been two days now without a reply and with this torrential storm causing so much damage already and now the tornado definitely coming, he was thinking the worst.
“This mailbox is full and can no longer receive new messages,” came the disembodied robo-rap.
Jesse checked the number to see that he’d dialed correctly, which was moot since she was on his speed dial. Stubbornly as ever, he dialed again. Finally, the phone actually rang instead of going straight to voice mail.
“Yo?” came the greeting in a gravelly Brooklyn accent, a man’s voice.
The connection was weak and filled with static and delay, making it hard to talk or hear.
“Where’s Lucy?” Jesse sat up in his chair and leaned forward.
“Who’s Lucy?”
“Who the hell are you?” Jesse asked. “Where is she?”
“She’s right here, jerk-off,” the man said. “I’ll flip her around so she can talk to you.”
A wave of intense jealousy, more than anxiety, swept over Jesse as he pictured his protégé getting off with some Gravesend guido.
“Listen, asshole, I don’t know who you are or where Lucy is, but I promise you the cops will be there before you get your wife-beater and pinkie ring on.”
“Take it easy, man, I’m just fuckin’ wit you. I found dis phone in da street outside Sacrifice. Grabbed it just before da storm started. I work der.”
“Then I should have your ass fired.”
The air of superiority finally echoed clearly enough through the phone to cause the guy to worry.
“Shit, is dis Jesse? It’s Tony. Y’know, Anthony Esposito. Security.”
“You mean the bouncer.” Jesse sniffed condescendingly.
“Yea, it’s me,” Tony confirmed resentfully.
Jesse left out “tipster.” Most of his best stories came from Tony’s texts, if not from Lucy.
“That’s Lucy’s phone you’re on.”
“Wow. Lucky Lucy’s phone. It was all blinged out, but I had no idea whose it was. The keypad was locked. It looked like a chick’s phone, so I figured I’d hang on to it and hold it for piece-of-ass ransom.”
“What did you do with her?” Jesse asked, getting increasingly angry. “Where is she?”
“How da hell should I know?” Tony said. “What? You think she’s dead or somethin’?”
“When was the last time you saw her?”
“Same as you probably. Few nights ago. The night I found da phone, matter a fact. She ran outta da club and got’n a cab, I think. I don’t know for sure. Tell ya da truth, I haven’t seen or heard from any regulars since da storm. We ain’t friggin’ been open. Just waitin’ for the finale. Tornado dey say. Can you believe dat shit?”
Jesse fixated gleefully on the mental image of all the assholes he wrote about being carried away by a stiff wind, washing up bloated and blue on some rocky coastline far away. All except Lucy, of course.
“Ya dere?” Tony asked.
“Yeah, maybe she’s stuck somewhere,” Jesse said pensively, trying to convince himself more than anything.
“Ya know what dey say. No news is good news, I guess.”
“Not for me,” Jesse retorted. “Or you, for that matter.”
Leave it to this little prick, Tony thought, to screw with his livelihood, his “rat” money, as he called it. He was already out two days’ pay from the storm.
“Not for nothin’, I was just tryin’ ta do da right t’ing. I’ll leave da phone at da coat check Lost and Found for ya as soon as dis joint reopens. Between us, capiche? I’m just not sure when. It’s a mess down here. Water damage, broken glass. All kinds a shit.”
“If you hear anything, let me know,” Jesse said, suddenly distracted by his call waiting.
“I always do,” Tony said, gritting his teeth.
Sebastian climbed the spiral staircase up to the old bell tower, two at a time, almost sucked upward by the vacuum building in the stairwell. He was reluctant to leave