Page 7 of Chula
“Dead.” The girl looks at me for a long second before going into the bathroom and closing the door. I wait outside, blowing out a breath before grabbing my coat and bundling up. I wasn’t lyingwhen I said it was cold out there tonight, and I still have work to do.
She comes back out, and I walk her to the door, escorting her outside when I see Tony and Hock. They both look at me like I’m insane as the girl wraps her arms around herself and hauls ass across the street.
“What’s that about?”
“That shooting down the street? She was there,” I tell them as I pull out a cigarette and light it up.
“What? How do you know that?” Hock asks.
“She was freaking the fuck out. She’s beyond pissed about it.”
“And?”
“And she was losing her shit. I calmed her ass down and got her to talk,” I tell them. The guys both laugh at me, but it isn’t what they’re thinking.
“Not like that, assholes.”
“What did she have to say?”
“They were wearing masks. She didn’t see shit. There were two of them. One at the counter, one came at her little brother, and she stepped in between.”
“So this bitch is as crazy as we thought,” Tony mumbles, and I laugh.
“She might be.” Just then, another man walks up, and I send Tony and Hock down the alley to handle them while I look up at what I assume is her window. The light flicks on, and I see her shadow as she moves through the room. Then I see her come into view. She stands there, still, as if thinking about something. Then she pulls my shirt to her nose and inhales the scent. She’s a strange girl, that’s for sure.
I drag my eyes away from her when the lights go out and wait for the guys to come back. When they do, we start walking the block.
“It’s too fucking cold for this shit,” Hock complains.
“No shit. We need to start back at the abandoned house,” I tell them.
“I don’t know about that, Marco. The cops have been watching that shit pretty hard,” Tony chimes in.
“Really?”
“Yeah. That’s why no one has ventured over there.”
“Well, we need to figure out something. It’s only going to get colder, and if our main spot is out of the question, we need to find something new.”
“What about your new girls’ place?” Hock asks. I turn my head to look at him.
“What do you mean?”
“The stairwell that leads up to the apartment. That shit has to be warmer than out here,” he says. He’s not wrong. Anything has to be warmer than out here.
“She has a little brother,” I tell them.
“We’re not in the apartment. Just the stairs and if we have to dip, we run, not stay there.” He’s not wrong about that either.
“Yeah, you’re right. We’ll use it for now until I come up with something else.”
We keep walking, dealing out drugs when we need to or see someone, and by the time it’s three in the morning, I’m worn the fuck out.
Hock and Tony go home. I head to my apartment, and it’s strangely warmer in here. I narrow my eyes and walk through the small living room and into my bedroom, where I find a small space heater. I pull my gun and move through the room, checking every spot there is to hide in here, when I see the paper on my bed. I walk over and pick it up.
“Thank me later, asshole.” I snort a laugh and automatically know it’s from her. The girl whose name I don’t even know. I set the paper on the table next to my bed before I climb in and lie down. For the first time in years, I’m warm in my own bed. I’m not sure how I feel about her being in my house when I wasn’t here, or how the hell she got in, to be exact, but for right now? I’m thankful as hell for the heat.
Every year without fail, I get the flu, and shivering and sweating with no fucking heat is killer. Now when I get sick, I’ll have heat. And I have to thank her for that.
