Neil and Laurie smiled at her as she went back upstairs.
“Two cokes, one rocks, and one bath salts,” she told Preston as she handed him the chit of paper.
Preston quoted a price and Cam reached into her shoulder bag.
“Here you go,” she said as she handed him the money.
“Thanks. I heard Laurie making a date with you,” he said.
“A date?” Cam asked. “She’s going to buy me a beer.”
“She’s gay, you know,” he told her. “I didn’t want you to be surprised. If that bothers you, I don’t want to see her hurt.”
“Why would I hurt her?” Cam asked.
“I hope you don’t. Some people get real nasty around gays.”
“It’s not a problem,” Cam assured him.
“Okay, then. I try to look after all the kids that come here. Everyone’s got a story.”
“No need to be concerned,” Cam stated. She put the drugs in her bag and closed it. “I’ll probably be back in about a week.”
“See you then.”
Cam got into her car and drove home to put the drugs into her secret hiding place. She’d spent a whole lot more today than she’d intended to but learned quite a bit more.
* * * *
At 10:30, Cam walked into Le Crash and looked around the room. There were a few people in there, but nowhere as many as there had been last Thursday. Laurie waved from behind the bar and beckoned to her.
Cam walked over and slid onto one of the bar stools.
“Hi!” Laurie greeted her with a big smile.
“Hi, Laurie,” Cam responded. “You look really fine tonight. Special occasion?” Laurie had on a little eye shadow and blush. She also had on a sparkly shirt.
Laurie gave a shrug, reached for the ale, and opened it. She placed it on the bar in front of Cam.
“There you go,” she said. Cam thanked her as she took a sip. “Preston gave me an internet address about you,” she said, with a shy smile.
Cam frowned. “Oh,” was all she said.
“He was worried that you would try to corrupt me.”
“I see,” Cam said. “Are you sure I can’t pay for this beer? I don’t want to put you in a compromising situation.”
Laurie smiled and patted Cam’s arm. “Silly. I told you I’d buy you one.”
“Well, Preston seems to be quite concerned about you. He warned me, too.”
Laurie swiped at the air. “He’s way off base. I don’t care what you did in the past. That’s all behind you.”
“Still…that was the one time I got caught,” Cam said softly.
“So? Everybody does something that’s against the law.”
“Not everyone gets caught,” Cam replied.
Laurie looked around the bar. No one seemed to be paying attention to her. “Listen,” she said as she leaned forward, “There’s a party tonight. Will you come with me? The guys will be celebrating all that nice stuff we got today.”
Cam looked at her, a wary look on her face. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
“Oh, come on. You’ll enjoy it. Please?”
Cam shook her head. “I shouldn’t.”
“Don’t worry. Preston can’t do anything to you.”
“I’m not worried about Preston,” Cam said. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-three.”
“Really? You look a lot younger.”
“Really. Want to see my ID? I have to be older than twenty-one or I couldn’t work here.”
“No, no. I’ll believe you.” Cam smiled. I’ll still doubt it, though. “Do you know how old I am?”
“Thirty?” Laurie guessed.
“Older than that,” Cam said.
“Thirty-five?”
“I don’t think you’d want to be around me.”
“Why? Because of your prison record?”
“No, because I’m almost twice your age.”
Laurie smiled. “That doesn’t matter to me. Come to the party, please?” Then she lowered her voice and whispered. “You’ve got to meet some of the others. You can’t do drugs alone all the time.”
“Why do you think I’m alone all the time?” Cam asked.
“Still…Come meet some of the gang?”
Cam mentally brought her fist to her mouth, thoughtfully. No, she shouldn’t have come here tonight, but she had wanted to meet some of the others who were buying from Preston. She felt that Laurie knew almost everyone. Should she go to the party? It might help her get into the drug world here. But Laurie? No, she shouldn’t lead her on. Should she mention Michael?
“All right,” she said finally, “For a little while. I won’t stay long.”
Laurie’s face lit up. “You won’t be sorry. I promise.”
Cam sat back and took a chug of the ale as Laurie went to service other customers.
What are you doing, Andrews? she asked herself. Stay away from this one. This is trouble you don’t want. She took another draw of her ale. But of course, you could learn something.
Cam nursed her drink while Laurie hurried back and forth to deliver the drinks.
“I’ll be done in ten minutes,” Laurie whispered as she walked past.
Okay, Andrews, last chance to get out, she warned herself. You can’t blame anyone else from here on in.
“Almost done,” Laurie whispered as she walked by again. She smiled a flirty smile and winked.
Cam took a deep breath. She stood up. “I’ll meet you outside,” she told Laurie.
Chapter 12
Before Cam followed Laurie to the party, she sat in her car and dialed Michael.
“Hi, honey, I’m going to be late. Laurie asked me to go to a drug party with her. I want to meet a few other people in the crowd.”
“Uh-huh,” was Michael’s skeptical response. “Are you going to bed with her?”
“No!” Cam exclaimed. “She’s a young kid. I want to meet whoever else is in her group. I think one of the guys who works for Preston will be there, too. I won’t stay long.”
“Just a quickie?” Michael teased her.
“Oh, all right. Just a quickie.” Cam chuckled. She knew Michael was only joking with her. “A very short quickie. I have to save some strength for you!”
“All right, Cheri, hurry home. I’ll be waiting.”
“I will. Je t’aime.”
“Je t’aime, aussi.” And the phones went dead.
There was a knock on her car window. “Follow me. I’m in back. I’ll be right out,” Laurie said to her with an enormous smile.
This is probably wrong, Cam told herself as she turned her car on and slid it into gear.
Cam followed Laurie’s car as she wove through the city. They finally came to a small house in a quiet neighborhood, there were two or three cars parked in front. Laurie pulled over to park. Cam pulled in behind her.
Laurie got out of her car and ran back to open Cam’s door.
“Come on,” Laurie said as she grabbed Cam’s hand. “The party has already started. Everyone will be toasted already.”
Cam chuckled as she flicked the remote to lock the car. She followed Laurie up the front steps and Laurie opened the door.
“Hey! Laurie’s home!” someone yelled.
There were cheers and clapping.
There were about ten or twelve people there, scattered around the living room. A girl sat in a boy’s lap on the sofa, with two other men beside them. Those two looked a little older than Laurie but still not Cam’s age. Another young couple was in a big chair and several others on the floor. Cam judged most to be in their late twenties…maybe early thirties, although there were a few much younger.
“How’s it going?” Laurie asked.
“The stuff we got today is dynamite. It’s even better than last week’s,” one of the guys said. He was the blond that had been at Preston’s that afternoon.
“Everyone, this is Cameron. You can introduce yourselves if you want.”
Cam looked around an
d nodded.
Laurie turned to her. “What would you like?”
“Coke would be fine,” Cam decided.
“Sure you don’t want some meth? Billy says it’s very good.” Laurie’s eyes were wide with hope. She looked over at the blond who nodded.
Cam shook her head. “I don’t do meth when I’m away from home.”
“Why not?” Laurie looked confused.
“Because the last time I did it in public I had a bad reaction and almost killed someone.”
There were gasps around the room.
“That won’t happen again. We’ll watch out for you,” one of the older guys said.
“I won’t take the chance. I don’t want to kill anyone.”
“You won’t.” Laurie brushed the thought away. “I can’t imagine you killing anything.” She was sure of that.
“I’ve already killed four people.”
Laurie’s eyebrows shot skyward and there were more gasps.
“Two before I went to prison, one in prison, and another a few years after that.”
“Why?” someone else asked.
“Because I had to.” Cam stopped. “It seems logical when you’re staring down the barrel of someone else’s gun, or when someone’s stabbed you and is about to slit your throat. I’ve got the scars to prove it.” She slid her collar to the side to show her bullet scar below her left collarbone.
“Oh, my God,” one of the other young women said.
“Damn!” one of the young men said.
There was mumbling around the room. There were a couple of moans, too
Then Neil walked out of the kitchen. “Hey, Cam,” he said with a large grin. “How’s it going? Did you try some of the stuff you got today?”
“Yes. The coke was very fine. I’ve haven’t had anything that pure since I was in Argentina, and that was right from the cartel.”
“You bought from the drug cartel in Argentina?” one of the men on the couch asked. “Was it excellent?”
“Never had better,” she replied.
“How did you do that?” someone asked.
“I was buying from this guy who turned out to be the son of the cartel lord. I mean, the stuff he had was well worth the high price he charged, but when I found out who he really was, I had to get out of there.”
“Why? If the stuff was that good, I would have stayed there forever!” one of the guys said with a loud laugh.
“He thought I was trying to stiff him.”
“Were you?” another boy asked.
“No! Well…I wasn’t, but the guy I was with hadn’t had the money, so by the time the interest added up, it came to a lot of dollars. We had to do a lot of scrimping and borrowing.”
“But you got out.”
“But we got out. Barely.”
“If you go back again, let me come with you?” Laurie’s eyes lit up.
Cam looked down at her. Maybe this was a good time to scare some of these kids before they got too involved in drugs. They had to know the perils that awaited them if they got too involved.
“I doubt I’ll be going back. It got kind of hot down there. I barely escaped with my life. You don’t want to try to fool with the cartel. They shoot right from the start and don’t even think about it later.”
“What did they do to you?” Neil asked.
“I’d rather not discuss it,” she whispered. “When you have someone sticking a gun…uh…down your throat, you tend to do a lot of things you never thought of doing before. You really don’t want to know more than that.”
Talk stopped as everyone looked at Cam. She just stood there and shook her head.
Finally, Laurie folded her arms around Cam.
“We don’t need to know more. We’re all such gossips. We always want to know everything.”
Cam nodded. There was mumbling of agreement around the room.
“Don’t try to fool with real drug lords. It isn’t worth it. Money is too important to them. They want to make it and keep it.”
The room quieted.
“Hey, speaking of knowing everything,” one of the young guys said, “did you hear that someone down in the States found Roy, Jayden, and David’s bodies a couple weeks ago?” He frowned as there were comments and moans around the room.
“Bodies? Oh no, I was afraid of that.” Laurie sounded very distraught.
“Where?” someone else asked.
“No one will say, but the Vermont troopers went to David’s mother’s house last week.”
“That’s terrible!” Laurie moaned. “I really liked those three.”
“Is there going to be a funeral?”
“There must be. We’ll have to watch the papers.”
“I don’t think there will be,” the guy who had brought this up said. “I heard there wasn’t much left of their bodies. They’d been lying in the woods all this time.”
Everyone groaned.
“Oh, they made some good shit,” the blond said nostalgically.
Others asked questions, but no one seemed to know anything else.
“Was that the stuff we got last week?” Cam asked.
“Shit, no. They’ve been missing since right after Halloween. That was Ken’s stuff we got.”
“Yah, it’s a good thing he had it ready. I think he’s been making it for quite a while. He was making it before Jayden and the guys started, but his wasn’t as good. At least he was right there when the other guys disappeared.”
“Wow,” was all Cam said. This Ken was ready with meth right after those three disappeared? That’s quite a coincidence. I guess I’ll have to find out who this Ken is. There seemed to be a rivalry there.
Laurie reached up and kissed Cam’s cheek. It jarred Cam out of her thoughts.
“Come with me while I take the bar smell off.” She took Cam’s hand and led her into the hallway, up the flight of stairs and into one of the small bedrooms on the second floor. “Make yourself comfortable,” she said as she opened a closet and took out a T-shirt.
“This is your room?” Cam asked.
“Yup. I share the house with Neil and Billy.”
“Only the three of you?”
“Yes, there’re only three bedrooms. We share the bills and the chores.”
“I see,” Cam mumbled.
“Yes. When I found out Neil had sold to you. I figured this was a good reason to get you here.”
“Why would you want me here?” Cam, mentally took a deep breath. No, she shouldn’t have come.
“Because I wanted to get to know you better,” Laurie said with a sly smile on her face.
“What do you mean by better?” Cam asked, already knowing where this was going.
Laurie smiled. “I thought we could have some fun tonight.”
“And what if I already have a lover?”
“Then why are you out alone all the time? If I were your lover, I would never let you out alone in the middle of the week.”
“Then that might be a problem. I’m not very good on a short leash. No one tells me what I can and cannot do.”
“It wouldn’t be a short leash. I’d make it worth your while to stay home or take me with you. I can’t imagine anyone trying to leash you.”
“Some have tried. It didn’t do them any good.”
“I wouldn’t try.”
There was a knock on the door.
“Yes?” Laurie called.
“I thought you wanted some of this,” was the answer.
Laurie went to the door and opened it a crack. Whoever was out there couldn’t see into the room. She reached out and took a small plastic bag.
“Have fun,” the guy on the outside of the door said. It sounded like Neil.
“We’re planning on it.”
Laurie closed the door. There was loud laughter as they heard footsteps bouncing down the stairs.
“I really should get going,” Cam declared.
“It’s still early. Don’t you want some of this?” She brandished the plastic bag.
“Come on, just a little?”
“It’s coke, right?” Cam was still leery.
Laurie wet her finger and dipped it into the bag. “Sure,” she said. “See?” She rubbed her finger across Cams lips.
Cam could feel the freeze right away.
Cam shook her head. “You don’t know what you’re doing,” she said.
“Then teach me,” Laurie flirted. She flicked her eyebrows, then turned away. She set the bag on the dresser and reached inside the top drawer and retrieved a small spoon. She spooned a little coke onto the back of her hand and held it up to Cam. “Come on,”
Cam opened her mouth and Laurie blew the coke into Cam’s throat.
“See? Isn’t that better?” She unbuttoned her shirt and held her breasts up to Cam. “And these are even more delicious.”
“You’re playing with fire,” Cam said without moving.
“Yes, I know.” Laurie had a sly smile on her face.
“I don’t think you do.” Cam closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The coke was already affecting her.
Laurie reached forward, took Cam’s hand, and placed it on her breast.
“I do have a lover,” Cam told her. “I don’t think you’d want to make her mad. She could wipe the floor with everyone in this house…all at the same time.”
“Is that why you’re scared of her?”
“I’m not afraid of her.”
“Do you love her?”
“Yes,” said Cam, matter-of-factly.
“Are you going to tell her about this?”
“We tell each other everything.”
“Then let’s give you something to tell her about.”
Laurie stepped forward and lowered Cam’s head to kiss her. It was a hard kiss, smoldering with promise. At first Cam didn’t respond, but the coke had her emotions near the surface and before long, she was squeezing Laurie’s tit and returning the kiss.
Cam finally pushed herself back. “No, this won’t happen.”
“Then you are afraid of her.” Laurie grinned.
“I’m twice your age,” Cam explained.
“But I have the stamina of youth. Afraid you can’t keep up with me?”
“I had younger than you in prison,” Cam declared. “Besides, I don’t do vanilla sex that well and I don’t think you’re ready for the hard stuff.”
“I’ve always wanted to try something like that.” Laurie leered at her hopefully.
Bodies Out Back Page 9
