hadn't spoken their names in years. I hadn't so much as admitted I'd ever even known them, because I was pretty sure I never had. The boys I'd loved never would have done what they did to me. So maybe that meant the boys I'd loved had never really existed at all.
Di sucked in a breath and Lyla laughed.
"You really have been gone a long time," Lyla said.
"JJ Brooks is like, Harlequin Crew royalty," Di added, raising a brow at me. "You sure you wanna mix it with him?"
"I only need a bit of his time," I replied with a shrug. "So if you can tell me where to find him..."
"He runs Afterlife," Di said. "Amongst other things. But that's the err, legal, side of his business.”
"What’s the illegal side?" I asked and the two girls laughed again.
"You're looking at us, sweet cheeks," Di taunted. "And JJ is the most expensive of us all. So if that's what you're after you're gonna need more than fifteen bucks and a stray mutt."
"Are you telling me JJ is on the game?" I asked, arching an eyebrow as I tried to marry my memory of the scrappy little brawler with a big mouth and bigger sense of humour with the idea of him selling his body to the highest bidder.
"Only if you can afford him," Di said with a laugh. "And like I say, you most certainly can't. But he makes a killing off of lonely housewives and rich old broads. The rumour is he fucks even better than he dances too and that's saying something."
"Well shit," I breathed, leaning back in my seat and looking out at the sea. "Maybe he'll go down on me for a Red Power Ranger cap? Dude never did have good taste."
The girls both laughed and I smiled as I teased my fingers through my knotted hair. Of course, I had no intention of getting anywhere near that close to JJ. I just wanted to see him, figure out what made him tick these days and try to work out where he might be keeping his key. If I could retrieve it without him ever knowing I’d been back here then that was all the better for me.
"Feel free to tell me to fuck off, but is there any chance either of you girls has a hairbrush?" I asked, looking back to them as I pointed out the bird's nest on my head but they both shook their heads sadly.
"Not here. But you can come down to the trailer park later and borrow some stuff if you like? We'll be having a bonfire on the beach and a few beers once it gets dark," Di offered.
"Speak for yourself," Lyla sighed. "I'll have to work tonight too if I wanna pay my rent on time. And I'm not sucking Joe's cock to cover the rent again - he was way too rough for fifty bucks and the asshole came on my favourite shirt. Fucking savage."
I laughed with them and pushed myself to my feet. "I may just take you up on the offer of a drink by the bonfire later. But I'm gonna need to see if I can track down JJ first," I said.
"See you when I see you," Di said and Lyla waved.
The mutt had been wandering around, begging fries from unsuspecting chumps and had clearly been better fed than me at this point but he showed up as I walked towards my stolen Jeep, yipping excitedly and licking my ankles anyway. I guessed he valued me saving him from death by skateboard over a few throwaway scraps from those other assholes. Lucky me, maybe I should have been flattered.
"I guess it's you and me then, is it?" I asked him and he yipped again. "No accounting for your poor taste, my man."
The dog either didn't agree or didn't mind that I was a shitty kind of owner and he hopped up inside the open door of my new car with his tail wagging. I jumped in too, reaching up to unclip the plastic roof with some difficulty before balling the material on the back seats. With the top down - if I could call it that, was it a convertible if it still had roof bars? Whatever, point was, the sun was shining down on me, the temperature was rising and I was on my way to claim what was owed to me. So it couldn't all be bad.
The Jeep struggled with the up hills