Page 44 of Savagely Yours
“Are you…you’re not going to kill me, right?”
“Just follow me.”
We went up to my unit, and after he crossed the threshold as if expecting an axe to swing out from the door trim, I walked him over to the map. I’d spent most of my time focusing on where Larke could be, so I hadn’t paid much attention to surveillance. On the route I planned to take, I only knew of a few blind spots. If LaSalle and Larke weren’t meeting up for sexual reasons—and I couldn’t bring myself to believe they were, or else I would off us all—their meetings served another purpose.
I turned off the lights, grabbed a blacklight, clicked it on, and aimed it at the map. All the locations I’d tracked lit up like a flare in a dark sky, transforming the complex into my very own grid system.
“This is freakin’ amazing,” LaSalle said, walking closer. “This is how I know I’ll never reach Class One.”
The hierarchy was fairly static.
Even if he excelled, his chances of advancing were slim.
“It’s UV ink,” I said. “Now, the dots? Those are the spots where I know there are eyes. The circled areas are where I’ve already looked for Larke. And this?” I trailed my finger along a path. “That’s the route I’m thinking of using to get to Larke’s building.”
LaSalle aimed his spoon at the map. “Okay, so, in Zone 3, you’ve got here and…here. Those are two more surveillance areas, and I’m one hundred percent certain about those. But here’s my suggestion: go through Zone 6. Start at your original point of origin and then,” he slashed his hand across the paper, “cut through right here. The only issue you might run into isthat there’s still some settled water from the little bit of rain we got the other day, so it might make you guys’ footsteps easier to track.”
I had a workaround for that.
“What else can you tell me?” I asked.
He marked every surveillance point he knew of, and then we finalized my route. It would extend my trek by roughly twenty minutes both ways, but it was twenty minutes that would get me to Larke and safely bring her home with me. If everything worked out the way I hoped, she would never go back to that building, that role, or that life.
LaSalle headed for the door.
“Thanks for the help, LaSalle,” I called after him. “But, before you go, what were you and Tapley doing in the laundry today? Because I know she lied to me. At least, you better hope she did.”
He nodded. “She did. We were only talking. I respect her and you. Plus, I know how you feel about her.”
Although I was on borrowed time, I had to know what he meant. “How do I feel about her?”
“Come on, man. It’s so obvious. Larke means the world to you. Unless…” He frowned. “Am I wrong? There’s no way I’m wrong…am I?”
I first started toying with the idea of asking Larke out less than six months after the start of my assignment. I’d wanted it to be that when we went out, it wasn’t as friends or because we were interested in exploring all the treats D.C. had to offer.
I stared at her, laughed with her.
Ilingeredon her.
And I wasn’t interested in a world without her in it.
“I’m about to head out,” I said, switching gears. I wouldn’t tell him how I felt before I told Larke.
“Before I do, can I ask for a favor?” he asked.
“Does this person work in Sanitation?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Only women work in Sanitation. What’s her name?”
“You and Larke, I swear.” He sighed and shook his head. “Fine, it’s Leigh. Just let her know that I’m working on it. She’ll know what it means.”
“You disappointed her?”
“No, no. Nothing like that.”
“I could give you some tips. The clitoris is located?—”
