“Oh no! Oh! Oh no!” Edna tried to roll over, but her legs wouldn’t work right. Her chest tightened, and her breaths shortened even more. “Albert! What’s happening?”
Two figures walked up to her, but she could only see black work boots. “Please! Oh, please, can you help me?”
One of them stooped and plucked her purse from the ground. Edna watched helplessly as the figure went through her wallet and stole her cash and credit cards. She whimpered as she struggled for air. “Please. You can take it all. Just please, help me!”
The pain stabbed through her chest like a hot knife and spread from her jaw to her left arm. She couldn’t get any air into her lungs.
One of the boots reared back, and Edna thought for a moment that the person meant to kick her. With those heavy steel toes, one strike could kill her. She closed her eyes and waited for the deadly blow. Instead, the boot shoved her over hard, and she cried out as she scraped the skin from her elbows on the rough pavement.
A man cursed at her, “Fucking dried-up cunt!”
A moment later, she heard them walking away. She cracked open her lids to see both sets of feet heading up the sidewalk, leaving her there.
Thank God, they didn’t kill me, Albertwas her last thought before she passed out.
CHAPTER
FIVE
Cam stoodoutside Sunstone Healing and debated for the thousandth time about going in. Whatever magic Sabrina worked Friday night made him sleep comfortably for the first time in weeks. No other major events messed up his weekend, and he woke up this morning in a good mood. That lasted all of about an hour, until he got to work.
The first job was turning a set of axles for a Chevy Nova, then building out the camshaft for it. Cam’s talent for precision machining had earned him his name, but it also meant he got most of that type of work. Forming the discs, then measuring and grinding the spinning lobes took patience as well as accuracy. If the camshaft wasn’t as perfectly timed as possible, the engine wouldn’t fire right, and all the work would be wasted.
The job was heavy and tedious, and of course before noon, his back seized up again like it had never been released.
Cam sighed. He’d mentioned to Quillon about the free massage, and his boss made him call to book an appointment. Sabrina had chortled with satisfaction, as if she’d expected his call. She had an opening in the late afternoon, and Quillon made him leave early to get it done.
The spa’s facade looked like all the other businesses in this strip mall, but he imagined the inside was probably elegant and had perfumed air floating around. He smelled like cutting fluid.
Nope, I’m not going in there.
He turned to leave, pulling out his phone to call and cancel, when an older African American woman walked toward him.
“The sun don’t stop moving, babycakes. Let’s go.” Her colorful skirt flowed around her short, round body as she moved. “Who are you seeing today?”
Cam had no choice, as the woman herded him into the building. “I’m… uh… Sabrina?”
Her brown eyes lit up. “Oh yes, she’s my new girl. Sweet as Southern pie. Don’t get her riled, though. I’m Cicely, and I own the place.” The beads hanging from her thin braids rattled as she flipped them behind her back. “She’ll do you up right.”
Cam’s body tightened into one big knot as Sabrina came down a hall into the reception area. “I wasn’t sure you were gonna make it. I’ve got the room ready to go, so come on back. How are you doing today?”
She ushered him down another short hall. Yes, indeed, the place smelled exotic—something spicy that reminded him of one of those bath stores with all the lotions and candles and shit.
“I came straight from work, so I’m not exactly clean,” he told her.
“Did you shower this morning?”
“I shower at night. I get pretty dirty at the machine shop, and I don’t like sleeping in smoodge.”
“Nice word. Smoodge. Are you smoodged up right now?”
“Kinda. Oil and grease from the lathes, n’at.”
She waved a hand. “Not a problem. My dad used to?—”
She stopped speaking, and her face grew serious. “Will Scrap get his panties in a twist if he finds out you came here to see me?”
Cam shook his head. “That’s not my problem. He’s a grown man who can handle his own shit.” He changed the subject, as he didn’t want to think about why she came to Pittsburgh in the first place. “Remember how I said I’ve never had a massage before? I don’t know what to expect.”
