Chapter 42
When the blood-red doors opened,my chest flamed withanticipation.
I stepped over the raised threshold, smacking right into abody.
“Whoa there.” The cigarette Tristan must’ve just taken out of a pack toppled from his fingers and rolled against myespadrilles.
“S-sorry.” I crouched to pick it up. As I handed it over, I couldn’t help but search his nails for the blood from the torture session he’d boasted about lastnight.
“He’s not here,Feather.”
My nickname made my attention snap back to his face. “Where ishe?”
“At the spa.” Tristan tapped the cigarette against hispalm.
“Thespa?”
“You know, that place people go to in order torelax?”
For some reason, I couldn’t picture Jarod at aspa.
“I was just heading out to see him. Want to hitch aride?”
“He won’tmind?”
Tristan lit up and sucked on his cigarette before blowing the smoke out of the corner of his mouth. “Nah.” He tipped his head toward Jarod’s chauffeured car, which idled behind me. After opening the door for me, he slapped it shut, then went around the car and got in. Cranking his window down, he asked, “Did I ever tell you the story of how Jarod and I becamefriends?”
I set my bag at my feet and crossed my legs, smoothing the material of my dress. “No, youdidn’t.”
“I met him at the playground. I was ten and waiting on a park bench for my mother to finish blowing one of her customers in the building across thestreet.”
My hands froze on the violet crepe, and Igasped.
“I got bored, so I went into the playground.Mamanwould always spend the money she made whoring herself on booze, so I’d learned to make my own way. Playgrounds were great hunting grounds for cash and food, what with mothers and nannies so distracted by their kids. Plus I was small for ten, so I didn’t attractsuspicion.
“Muriel was there. I didn’t know who she was then, of course. Just saw that she wore a very shiny watch with lots of diamonds. I thought she was Jarod’s mom, ’cause nannies didn’t own Cartier watches. I debated whether to steal it from her. I was getting pretty good at pickpocketing at that point. I was going to go for it when I saw that the kid she was watching like a hawk wore an equally blingy timepiece. Even though I doubted such a young boy would sport something of value, I approached him to check. Lo and behold, it was an Audemars-Piguet.”
I wasn’t sure what that was but imagined it wasexpensive.
“So, I hung around and befriended him, and he seemed plenty happy for the company. Anyway, I filched the watch. He didn’t notice a thing; Muriel didn’t either, and she was rightthere.” He sucked on his cigarette, then flicked it out of the moving car. “I should’ve left then. Actually, I tried, but the little twerp begged me to play one more game, and I didn’t have the heart to turn him down. During that last game, the watch slipped and fell into the sand, right at Muriel’sfeet.”
Hesmiled.
“You should’ve seen her face. She went purple and lobbed words at me I’d never even heard, and I had a veryfloweryvocabulary. Of course, it called attention to us, and soon we had an audience. Jarod’s bodyguard—Amir—and a cop even joined the fray. I thought for sure my days as a street urchin were over, that I’d be sent into juvie or placed in thesystem.”
He powered his windowup.
“Jarod handed the fucking watch to me. I thought he was trying to frame me, not that I needed framing . . . I was the biggest attraction outside of the Mona Lisa that day. The cop started to move toward me when Jarod said, ‘He didn’t steal it; I gave it to him.’” Tristan’s smile increased. “When Muriel asked him why, he said I looked hungry.” He shook his head, letting out a shortsnort.
“Did you take thewatch?”
“Of course I took it. Iwashungry. And I needed clothes that weren’t two sizes too small and shoes in which my toes could layflat.”
“So, how did you becomefriends?”
“He saved my ass that day, so I came back and saved his, first from boredom, and then from one of his uncle’s dealings that had gonewrong.”
The sedan glided to a stop and the locksretracted.
