Silver’s mouth falls open when Tessa adds, “No shortcuts either. Now, hop to it.” Smiling politely, Tessa makes a go-away gesture with her hand. “You don’t want to miss the trip to the feed store. That’s gonna be the best part.”
Silver makes an indignant sound and clenches her fists at her side before spinning around and stomping out the door.
One of the club girls sets another plate in front of me and hurries off.
“I think that was more than fair,” Rock says before taking another drink of his coffee.
“Absolutely,” Jasper adds.
Queenie leans back, satisfied. “They need to learn discipline if they’re going to make it in this club.”
I pick up my fork again, my appetite sliding back into place. “They’ll remember. For at least a week.”
Tessa turns to me. “About the term club whore. We talked about that, Slate.”
I throw up two hands. “Sorry, it won’t happen again. Old habits are hard to break.”
My sister-in-law’s got some kind of bee in her bonnet about callin’ a whore a whore. As the Prez’s old lady, she’s in charge of the club girls, so we’ll do it her way. My Ma always told me not to argue with a pregnant woman, and as Tessa is due next month I’m just gonna bite my tongue.
I tuck into my food, and the clubhouse settles back into its morning routine. And for a brief moment, everything’s right again in our world.
***
Unfortunately, the calm never holds. Less than an hour later, my cell phone buzzes in my pocket. It’s an unknown number with an out-of-state area code.
I answer. “Slate here.”
“It’s Rivera. We need to talk for a minute.”
I served with this man in Afghanistan. All it takes is the sound of his voice and I’m back there with the sound of gunfire ringing in my ears and Rivera’s tasteless jokes playing like background noise as we fight for our lives. I turn my back on the prospects who are unloading bags of manure from the back of a pickup, giving him my full attention.
“Where you at?” I ask, because we don’t waste words. “Do you need help?”
“No, I don’t need anything. I’m in Los Angeles. I’ve been here for a few days and ran into a familiar face.” He pauses for a second before saying her name. “Christina’s here.”
I freeze and my hand tightens around the phone. “Are you sure it’s her?”
“You know she’s hard to forget. I loved how she used to make important people sweat just by shoving a microphone in their face and asking a bunch of questions they didn’t want to answer. I’m not likely to forget that shit if I live to be a hundred.”
I lean back against the building. Letting my curiosity get the better of me, I ask, “What’s she doing there?”
“I don’t know. She wasn’t wearing that press badge she used to wear. She had a kid in her arms. She was moving like prey.”
Shock roils through my gut. “What the fuck?”
“You know what I mean. She was holding the kid close, creeping around and glancing over her shoulder a lot. Seemed scared.”
“She has a child?” If so, that might mean she has a husband. Ice lances through my chest at the thought of her belonging to someone else. “Did you talk to her?”
“I called her name across the parking lot. She saw me, and then her eyes zeroed in on someone behind me. A tall, wiry dude in a suit. He was staring at her in a way that worried me. When I looked back at her, she was gone.”
“Fuck,” I say as I close my eyes. Memories rise in my mind of her beautiful face, her smile, and the way she used to flirt with me to lighten the mood when danger was near. I can almost feel her soft hand skimming over my chest as she explored my ink.
Rivera speaks again, his voice sounding worried. “I know the two of you had a thing.”
That’s putting it mildly. We fell in love at the worst possible moment in time. Our flame burned bright for a few weeks and then all hell broke loose. We got orders to pull out of Kabul, and my last memory of her was lifting her onto one of the last transports leaving the country. Her hair was flying in the wind, and her expression was one I can only describe as terrified.
He says quietly, “Seems like Christina and her kid could use a protector right now, ya know? I knew you had a soft spot for her, so I thought I’d give you a call.”
