I watched him, thankful. My hope was I’d be rescued and when I was rescued I didn’t want to be dirty and broken and I didn’t want that in a big way.
Darla wandered over to Skull, sniffing and rubbing her finger under her upper lip, against her gums. When she got close, Skull leaned back and hooked an arm around her waist. He pulled her into his lap and looked at her.
“You good, baby?” he asked softly and Darla’s face gentled at his voice.
“Yeah, baby,” she replied, melting into him.
Then they started making out.
I looked away deciding to focus, not on my current predicament, but on the fact I was perplexed.
Okay, clearly he was a felon since I was pretty certain that kidnapping was a felony. But he was also hot. He did have that ultra-cool, rock ‘n’ roll thing going on. His wasn’t slinky, it was cut and sinewy, he had great forearms (aside from my scratch marks), veined and contoured. He had a mass of messy, thick, dark hair. His eyes were scary, sure, but they were also an interesting, silvery, light gray. And he wore those faded jeans really well.
Even in the dark underbelly of the Denver they lived in, I figured he was out of Darla’s league. She wasn’t exactly ugly but she was a skank of the highest order. I could see Skull liking rough and ready but Darla took that to extremes.
Welp, to each their own.
They made out for awhile then stopped so Darla could revisit the coc**ne station. Skeet and cigarette kidnapper stayed silent and wired. I knew this because Skeet regularly visited the coc**ne station and paced and cigarette kidnapper chain smoked.
Time slid by and I tried to force my head into daydreams of beaches, bikinis and Hawk but instead I couldn’t stop the day-nightmares of my sister not having the money, or miraculously having it and not bothering to help me out even though I’d stepped in on more than one occasion in her miserable life. I also had day-nightmares of Tack deciding I wasn’t worth the effort since one Kidd sister cost him over two million dollars so he wasn’t going to pay over two hundred thousand for the other one.
During this, as my eyes frequently scanned the space, they also frequently caught Skull’s.
And when Darla wasn’t in his lap, I found his focus always on me. It was always unhappy and it was also unwavering, intense and patient. Incredibly patient. He was not wired. He did not visit the coc**ne station. He did not smoke. He did not leave his seat and it began to feel like he was some kind of sentry, a guard. Not a good one but one all the same. And I knew instinctively that Skeet and/or cigarette kidnapper were unpredictable and he needed to guard his vase or they would have expended their effort, maybe hurt Brett and bought Hawk’s displeasure for no payoff.
The other thing was, although he seemed pissed at me, he didn’t seem edgy. For Skull, what would be would be. Whatever deal they sealed, it didn’t matter to him and it was worth the wait.
Finally the phone rang. Darla sauntered over to get it from where she left it at the coc**ne station. She flipped it open and put it to her ear.
She answered with, “This better be good news, bitch.”
Ginger.
I closed my eyes and listened.
“Fuck you,” Darla snapped acidly and I closed my eyes tighter. “You got it, I know you got it. What I went through for you? You offer a hundred? Fuck… you. Say good-bye to Gwennie as you knew her.” And I heard the phone flip shut.
Well, the good news was, my sister pulled together one hundred thousand dollars for me which was a nice thing for her to do. The bad news was, I liked me as I knew me and I didn’t want to be any different kind of Gwen.
“I say we put her out to bid,” Darla suggested and my eyes opened to see she was standing beside Skull and he was looking up at her.
“Patience,” Skull muttered.
“Fuck patience,” Darla returned. “Ginger is probably goin’ through her pile, keepin’ her ass alive. Maybe she doesn’t have the two hundred. And Tack hasn’t had a taste of that and she’s spreadin’ ‘em for Hawk. Maybe he’s not gonna go there.”
“Patience,” Skull repeated.
“Dude,” Skeet put in, getting closer to the bed, “I just drilled three rounds into Hawk’s man. He’s probably tearin’ Denver apart, I did that and we got his pu**y. We don’t have time to be patient.”
I closed my eyes again.
Three rounds.
Brett.
I sucked in breath through my nose as I felt tears stinging my sinuses.
“Patience,” I heard Skull murmur.