When the mugger stiffens, his eyes tracking my hand like I’m reaching for a fucking assault rifle, I pause and broaden my smile.
“Easy. Just getting my wallet.” I keep my movements slow, deliberate. “That’s what you want, isn’t it? Money?”
The man’s lip curls. He’s younger than I expected—late-twenties, maybe—with the hollowed cheeks and the twitchy energy of an addict. Booze or drugs—possibly both. There’s ascar running down the side of his face, and when he pulls Haven back a step, out of reach, it’s with a pronounced limp.
Surprisingly, he sneers at the notes I fan out. “This bitch owes me more than that.”
“You take Venmo?” I ask, utterly nonchalant.
He snort-laughs, then sniffs hard, dragging his hand under his nose, jostling Haven like a rag doll in the process and nearly slicing her cheek.
She doesn’t seem to notice.
Christ, she’s disassociatinghard.
“Will five grand do?”
He stares at me like I’ve lost my mind. I’m wondering the same.
Why is this waste of skin still breathing?
Oh, right.
The knife at my sweet girl’s throat.
“Alright.” I lift my hand. “I’ll make it ten. Think of how far you could get with ten thousand dollars. Definitely ditch this shithole of a town, right? Take a road trip? I hear California’s nice this time of?—“
“You retarded or something, you fucking cunt?” the man yells, showing me his teeth. He shakes Haven. Hard. So hard, I hear her teeth clack. Then he puts his stinking mouth by her ear and rasps, “Tell your boyfriend what you did.”
Haven’s lips move, but no sound comes out.
“Tell him!”
“She can’t speak. She’s in shock,” I say calmly.
The mugger seems to come to the same conclusion. He glares at her, then at me, slashing the knife wildly in the air before pricking the tip beneath Haven’s jaw.
“This fuckingbitchtried to kill me!”
My mind scrambles to put the pieces together.
I can come to only one conclusion.
“Lenny?” I query hesitantly. He’s obviously too young…then again, Bobby never told me how old his brother-in-law was.
“Lenny?Lenny?” the man shrieks. “Fuck Lenny!”
Haven mumbles, “No, no, no,” under her breath.
I suppress a laugh.
Seems my sweet girl has secrets.
Haven’s neck bends as the man grabs her hair and yanks her head to the side, stretching her neck for his knife.
My chest feels like it’s going to implode.
The urge stirs, panting in my ear.
