Mam had once told me that money always goes to money, and kindred spirits always find kindred spirits. We were all lost, but other people experiencing the same struggles could find us. Or we could find them.
“Archer,” Kelly said, suddenly appearing beside me, holding out his hand. How long had he been standing there? Come to think of it, after Maureen and Connolly had arrived, I stopped watching him and started concentrating on them. His green eyes were unreadable, but he kept looking between the two of us.
I couldn’t answer him, so I took his hand and stood.
Maureen came back, setting a plate of cake next to the little girl. She didn’t even look at it. With a sigh similar to Connolly’s, Maureen took a seat, balancing her plate in her hand.
“Bye, Connolly,” I said. “Maybe I’ll see you later.”
I went to leave, but before I did, a tug on my dress stopped me.
I turned at the same moment Maureen’s plate fell out of her hands, and so did a piece of meat out of her mouth. Kelly looked between Connolly and me again, his forehead strained.
Connolly had my dress in her hand. Her eyes were hard on mine, like she wanted me to say something.
“Did I forget something?” I asked.
She nodded.
“Okay.” I studied her eyes. “The music we talked about?”
She shook her head. No.
I took a deep breath. “My sister?”
Connolly nodded.
“You want to know more about her?”
“Was,” she barely got out. Her voice was low and scratchy.
Oh.I’d said “her name was” when I was talking to her about Roisin. Past tense. Connolly had caught it, and she wanted to know what had happened to her, not more about her.
“She…” I hesitated, but I decided to be honest. “She died.”
Connolly said nothing, only turned away from me and took her spot, staring at the wall again.
* * *
The party was over,and my feet were hurting. I slid off my shoes as Kelly opened the door to his massive warehouse, inviting me in. It was spacious and had been redone to look like a home. It was all tan brick and dark brown woods. The floor felt cool against my blistered feet, and my pads relaxed into the sensation as we made our way deeper inside.
“Where are my things?” I asked.
He set his keys on the kitchen counter, and when I turned around, the windows behind him showed nothing beyond but a dark void.
“In your room,” he said.
“Is thatyourroom?” We hadn’t discussed that part of the deal. Where I’d be sleeping. Or what happened from this point forward.
I wasn’t a virgin, so I wasn’t nervous about that, but I wanted to know what he expected of me. Was he going to give me a choice or not? Thenotmade me anxious. He was game to steal my heart, but what else? Those fucking feathers started to float around in my stomach, making my heart beat faster. It was a strange sensation to crave him sexually while hating him on principal.
I suspected Cash Kelly knew that would be my personal fight long before I did.
“This way,” he said, and I turned, finding him standing at the bottom of the metal staircase that twisted and turned as it made its way up.
He’d lost his jacket after the police station, leaving it in Harrison’s car, and from the kitchen to the stairs he’d loosened his tie and rolled up his sleeves. He was built like one of those Boston boxers, but with the deep scars of a gangster.
And his cologne, or whatever it was?
