“What if you said you went back because you dropped something? Like your wallet?”
Connor seemed to consider this. “I guess that might work. I don’t know if I want to risk them believing me, though.”
“Who’s going to stick up for him?”
“Good point. Let me think about it. In the meantime, is there anything else I can do for you? You got the ibuprofen?”
“I got it, thanks. I’ll be fine. Call me later, okay?”
“I will,” Connor said. “Gonna think about a few things. I don’t know if I’m going to turn myself in.”
“Well, if you do,” Addison paused, making sure what she was about to say was the absolute truth, “I’m coming with you.”
He looked surprised. “Really?”
Addison reached over and gave him a kiss. She expected to draw back as soon as their lips connected, but the reaction was absent this time. She smiled. “Thank you for everything you’ve done. I love you, Connor.”
“I love you too, Addy.”
“Call me.” She got out of the car. The weather had cleared up some since the night before. She tried not to limp too much as she made her way along the sidewalk, and to her amazement, she found it barely showed. It wasn’t even hurting as bad.
Addison liked the fact that Connor waited until she entered the building before driving away. He was so nice. She really would run away with him. For one thing, he had saved her life. For another, she loved the boy. She honestly didn’t think she’d ever be able to find someone who was better than him, who’d take care of her as good as he did.
Besides, this fucking town would kill her if she didn’t get out sooner or later.
Climbing up the stairs proved to be more difficult than the sidewalk, but she still managed. Addison wasn’t new to pain. She knew how to make do. It was almost one o’clock when she came through the door. It had already occurred to her that Del wouldn’t be too happy with her disappearing like that. Plus, given the terrific K.O. her real father had delivered, anything was possible.
Del was sitting on the recliner watching some action movie. It was a little hard not to notice the large cage installed in his face, steel wires running in and out of his mouth. She bit her hand to subdue any sniggers. She started heading to her room when he raised his arm in front of her, blocking the path.
“Hell you been?” he asked. You could see how much of a struggle it was for each syllable. Addison loved it.
“Out.”
“What you wearin’?”
“Clothes,” she said. He was talking about the clothes Connor had let her borrow, since her own outfit was no longer of any use. Some baggy jeans and a homemade band T-shirt.
“That say? Asswarts?” He seemed confused.
“You can read? Whoa.”
“Shut your trap.”
“Where’s my mom?”
“Scoring. Want some?”
Addison looked at him, a sneer stretching across her face. “You do realize she’s pregnant with your child, right?”
“Yeah, so?”
She shook her head—guy was a lost cause. The phone rang. She turned around but was stopped by Del’s hand, which had jerked forward and grabbed a hold of her bottom.
“She won’t be home for a while.” He winked.
Addison smacked his hand away and broke for the kitchen, picking up the phone. “Hello?”
“Hello, sweetheart,” said the voice on the telephone.
She froze, her breath disappearing. “Hi…”
Addison listened for a few seconds, then said, “Yeah, meet me outside, fast as you can. I’ll be waiting. Bye.”
She hung up and headed toward the front door.
“Who that?” Del asked.
Addison ignored him, wincing as she hobbled down the steps. She sat out front in the cold, thinking about her situation, until a black Cadillac pulled up with loud rock music blaring from the speakers. She thought it was Metallica.
Chapter Fourteen
All Aboard the Jazz Train
It was almost 1:00 P.M. by the time Maddox woke up, sprawled on the sofa and feeling a nasty sugar hangover. A line of watermelon-flavored drool dripped from his chin. Someone was shouting. Maddox spotted a twenty-something-year-old kid standing in front of him with his arms held out, shaking.
“Who…who…what?” trembled the intruder. He was dressed in a business suit.
“Um…hello.” Maddox sat up, allowing the sticky cupcake wrappers to avalanche off of his now alert body.
“What happened here?” The kid gestured to the general living room area, where empty soda cans, beer bottles, pizza boxes and sweets now reigned supreme.
Instead of answering, Maddox stood up, brushing the plastic guitar controller out of his way. He stretched his limbs to their limits and yawned excessively.
The kid crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently. “You mind telling me who you are?”
“Me? I’m Maddox—Maddox Kane. And you?”
His brow slanted. “You’re related to Benjamin?”
“Yeah, I’m his brother.”
“His…” The kid stopped. He gave Maddox a once-over and slightly gasped. “Oh, my God. You’re the convict, aren’t you?”
“I’m the one.” Maddox snagged a half-empty can of Pepsi from the night before and downed its contents. It was flat as piss but he didn’t care.
He noticed the kid had raised his fists and spread his legs apart in some sort of poor attempt of a martial arts stance. “You’re an escapee?” the kid said. “Back off, scumbag! I know karate and I am not afraid to use it.”
“Are you going to hit me?” Maddox didn’t want the poor kid hurting himself.
The door to the bedroom creaked open and out came Benny, wearing nothing but his underwear, hair wild from a night of booze and sex. He was coughing in his elbow when he spotted the scene in the living room.
“Floyd, what the hell are you doing?”
“I think he’s going to hit me,” Maddox explained, and shrugged his shoulders. He sat back down on the couch and dug for a Twinkie hidden under the cushion.
Benny smirked. “That right?”
The kid, Floyd, backed away as if suddenly placed on trial. “I will not tolerate living in the presence of wanted criminals. I have to draw the line at this.”
“He didn’t escape, Floyd.”
The kid paused, slowly turning his head to Benny. A wind of puzzlement fluttered about him. “He didn’t?”
Benny shook his head.
“I was released.” Maddox licked his fingers clean of cream filling.
“Oh.” There was a faint hint of disappointment in Floyd’s tone. “Sorry ‘bout that.”
Benny sighed and turned toward the kitchen, most likely to retrieve his morning beer. Maddox just woke so he hadn’t had the chance to peek in the refrigerator yet, but he was willing to bet there were at least half a dozen of those babies still slumbering away in that good ol’ icy coffin of mold and forgotten condiments.
Sometime last night when they returned to the trailer, Maddox had opened the fridge so he’d have somewhere to store the twelve-pack of Pepsi his younger brother had bought for him at the truck stop. Unfortunately, when he swung the door open a golden glow had blinded his eyes, and he was momentarily reminded of that emblematic briefcase they carried around in Pulp Fiction.
The kid stuck out his well-groomed hand. “I’m Floyd.”
“So I’ve gathered.” Maddox said, taking his hand warily.
“Are you staying here, or something?” Floyd sat down on the chair next to him, scratching his smooth scalp of a head as if in deep thought. The sharp, dark unibrow resting above his eyes gave Maddox the sensation of uneasiness.
“For the time being,” he said. “What business of it is yours?”
“Well, I happen to live here. Therefore, I believe such information may be quite essential.”
“What do you mean, you live here?”
Benny returned from the
kitchen with his fingers wrapped firmly around the golden neck of a beer bottle. He plopped down on the couch next to his brother and reached for the remote.
“Floyd’s my roommate,” he said. His eyes stayed focused on the TV as he talked, half of his attention in their discussion, the other lost to the aimless flicking pastime universally labeled as ‘looking for something good to watch’. “Had to get one when I got busted with possession. I got lucky, though, they didn’t stick me with intent as well, and just let me off with some community service…and a ton of fines. Plus the rent for this place was getting outrageous, so I did what I had to do.”
Maddox let that all sink in and realized straightaway something didn’t fit quite right; a slice of illogic that only his little brother could be a part of. “Benny, why are you still paying rent on a trailer you’ve been living in over a decade? Don’t you own it by now?”
“You’d think so.” Benny shook his head. “But that stupid goddamn law Obama passed way back when screwed us trailer residents over. My landlord really felt bad about it, too. Odd, since he gets paid longer, but he’s a pretty nice guy. I swear, one of these days I’m gonna get a duplex or something.”
“What law?” Maddox asked, but Floyd cut him off before he got an answer.
“None of this explains what happened here.” He nodded toward the mess on the coffee table, on the carpet, on the furniture. “Do you realize how much time I spend cleaning this place up? All I ask in return is for a little common courtesy and to keep it neat. Why can’t you do this one little thing for me, Benjamin? What could it possibly hurt to be less of a slob?”
“Floyd, if you don’t shut that trap I’m kicking your ass out on the curb,” Benny said, finally coming to a halt on the Bravo channel. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I got me some Housewives to watch.”
Floyd sighed in defeat and stood up from the recliner. He picked up a dirty dish and began stacking others in his arms, cursing under his breath as he trudged off toward the kitchen. He twitched as he struggled to balance the miscellaneous paraphernalia of last night’s Guitar Hero sessions. Pausing every few steps to assure himself each object was stacked evenly with the next, he slowly arrived to his destination at the sink. The water came on and they didn’t hear a peep from him for a long time.
Watching Floyd furiously scrubbing the dishes for phantom crusting, Maddox couldn’t help but recall a guy he met back in Megaton. He wasn’t sure what his name was anymore, but the guy had worked service duty in the cafeteria, standing behind the sneeze-guard at lunch with his little scooper and latex gloves. He always made sure each tray held exactly the same amount of food as the others. One solid scoop of beans, identical helpings of glop, even placed the milk cartons facing in the same direction. Maddox had heard that the guy was in for life, due to an argument he had had with his neighbor. Apparently, the neighbor allowed his poodle to do her business on the soon-to-be convict’s lawn, and after numerous requests for this disturbing activity to cease with no improvement, the guy had picked up the poodle, stormed next door, and proceeded to beat the neighbor to death with his very own dog (presumably, with an even number of thwacks to each side of the face).
Benny was asking him if he had ever seen some show that was on TV.
Maddox started to turn his head to the television when he was distracted by the sight of his brother’s back. Deep red lines rode diagonally from the left side of his hip, ending at the top of his right shoulder. It appeared to be the gruesome leavings of a thin, fierce strand of leather.
The thing from last night shot back to memory.
“Benny.” He tapped him.
Irritated, Benny said, “What? Hurry before they start talking again.”
“Where’s the girl from last night?” He shuddered as he pronounced the word ‘girl’.
Benny thought for a moment, as if struggling with what to say, and finally winked. “Oh, she’s in a safe place.”
“Close by?”
“Yeah, you can say so.”
“Is she dead?” Maddox prayed she was. He didn’t want to be anywhere near that thing again—well, at least not alive anyway. He didn’t peg Benny as a killer, but sometimes it didn’t hurt to get your hopes up.
“What? Who the hell do you think I am? Dead? Nah, man, she’s sleeping on my bed for Christ’s sake.”
At least it was worth a shot.
“Isn’t she, you know, still mad from last night?” Maddox asked. They kept their voices low.
“Of course she is. Wouldn’t you be mad if you did a job and didn’t get paid for it? She’s pissed, man. Says she’s gonna stay here and not leave our sides ‘til we cough up the dough. And that could be like weeks—hell, maybe months.”
It was suddenly very difficult to remain quiet. “Jesus Christ! What the hell did you have her do, Benny?”
He winked again. “Oh, a little of this, a little of that. Don’t you worry, bro, we’ll get the money somehow.”
“What do you mean, we? I told you last night I didn’t want anything to do with this.”
Maddox chugged another warm Pepsi and for the first time in years he thought about how satisfying and welcoming an actual drink would be—a man’s drink, not any of this kiddy soda-pop shit. He could easily see how this would end up, and it had bad news written all over it. Barely a day out and he was already caught up in the middle of a prostitution feud. He desperately wished his release had waited until April; a game would do his nerves some good, cool him down. Where was his loyal 7th inning stretch when he needed it the most?
“Well,” Benny said, taking a sip of a beer that looked way too desirable in Maddox’s eyes, “judging from your attitude, you don’t want her around either, right? She scares you, doesn’t she? Yeah, she scares me too. But man, she is a freak in bed. Still, though, she has to go. I’m sure you’d agree with me on that. And since you want her gone just as much as I do, it turns into a we situation, get it? Because I certainly don’t have that kind of cash floating around here. Shit, I’m on suspension as it is.”
Maddox had stopped paying attention to his brother about halfway though his speech. A deep, gargling snore had risen from Benny’s open bedroom door, and the horrific noise was seeping under Maddox’s fingernails, like a demented glass eyeballed chalkboard.
With the empty Pepsi can held glumly in his hand (a peace offering, he briefly thought, a white flag) he asked, “How much?”
Hesitant, Benny turned back to the TV, feigning deafness.
Floyd was finished with the dishes and now had a broomstick in both hands. He swept lividly—yet neatly—across the hard wood of the small living room floor, all the while muttering curse after curse under his Listerine fuming breath.
Feeling at a loss, Maddox repeated himself. “How much do you owe, Benny?”
He coughed. “Three.”
“Hundred?”
The silence from his brother sent shivers down Maddox’s spine.
“Thousand?”
Benny turned back around, an innocent smile forced through his teeth. “Sorry, Mads. I guess I lost control of myself.”
Maddox clenched his fist around the can of Pepsi, smashing the aluminum into a sharp metallic ball. He whipped it across the room—missing Floyd’s head by mere inches—and watched it bounce off the wall.
Floyd stopped and glanced down at the small indention the can had created upon the wall’s surface. His one eerie eyebrow irately crunched down. He let go of the broom and threw his hands up. “That’s it! I’m done! I’ve tried, I’ve really tried, but if you disgusting creatures insist on living like pigs, then a pen is where you’ll live! You’ve won! Congratulations!”
Benny giggled uncontrollably. “Floyd, you’re too much, man, really.”
Floyd pointed at them and yelled, “No! Don’t you laugh at me! I am SERIOUS!”
This only demolished the final barrier between Benny’s presence on the couch and the floor, for he rolled off nearly in tears, banging his head a good one on the coffee tab
le along the way.
“You know what?” Floyd’s face transformed into an infuriated one-browed tomato. “Fuck you! Fuck you, Benjamin! I hate you!”
He spun around in an attempt to storm off to his rented room, but his path was blocked by the colossal chest of the rancid lot lizard. Floyd shrieked and staggered backwards, tripping over the rug and falling on his bottom. He slowly lifted his head, petrified.
The beast glanced down at the new guy, who looked a little creepy even to her, and smiled. “Hey dere, sugar.”
Floyd tried to talk but the only thing he could muster out was a series of feeble mumbles. She raised her index finger and slowly shook it—like a mother would, Maddox thought, but immediately brushed the idea away, afraid of what type of hellish spawns this unholy monstrosity could produce.
“Now, now, dere,” she said, “no reason be scared. I ain’ts gonna hurt ya. Well, unless you wants me to.”
“Wh…wha…what?” Floyd stammered.
Benny continued to laugh while Maddox remained silent. Godzilla wore a large black thong and nothing else, her eyesore breasts meeting her wide, quarter-sized bellybutton.
She leaned down closer to Floyd. “You next in line to ride the Jazz train, baby?”
“Huh?” he mumbled. It was perhaps the only material left that hadn’t fled and went turncoat on his vocal system yet.
“Yeah,” she smirked, “youse ready all right.” Jazzy grabbed Floyd by his collar and tossed him up on her broad linebacker shoulders. He started pounding on her back, pleading for freedom. Maddox and Benny could only watch as she carried him back into the bedroom and slammed the door shut.
The screams, moans, and other demonic noises that followed would haunt Maddox’s sleep for the rest of his life.
Chapter Fifteen
A Minor Side Trip Back to Before
The way he remembered meeting his new girlfriend was like this:
Toxicity Page 9
