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Lash would later reflect that you never kneho you were going to cross tracks with You just never kne a sie things a Sometimes the choices didn&039;t matter Others took you into unexpected places

At the current moment, however, he had yet to come to that realization He was just out in far about the time

Just a little past one

"How lanced across the interior of the Mercedes The prostitute he&039;d picked up in an alley doas sufficiently good- looking and had enough silicon in her to do porn, but Plastic Fantastic&039;s drug habit had left her bony and twitchy

Desperate, too So strung out it had taken only a hundred-dollar bill to get her into the AMG on the way to a "party"

"Not far," he replied, refocusing on the road ahead

He was disappointed as shit When he&039;d played this out in his head, Xhex was bound and gagged in the backseat--much more romantic Instead, he was stuck with this nasty &039;hood rat But he couldn&039;t fight the reality he was in: he needed to feed and his father was expecting so to requirethe worst of the concessions was that this bitch riding shotgun was a hu her ovaries worked in his favor when it ca her blood

More to the point, he hadn&039;t been able to find one of his kind in a skirt

"You know," she said with a slur, "I used to model"

"Really"

"Down in Manhattan But you know, those bastards they don&039;t really care about you They just want to use you, you know"

Right First, she needed to forget she&039;d ever heard the phrase you know And second, like she was doing so much better on her own up in Caldwell?

"I like your car"

"Thanks," heup over the pink basque she had on The thing had grease ses from dirty hands on the sides, like she hadn&039;t washed it for a couple of days, and she smelled like fake cherries, BO and crack smoke

"You know, I like you"

Her hand went to his thigh and then her head went down into his lap When he felt her rooting around for his zipper, he grabbed a hunk of bleached-blond tangle and yanked her back up

She didn&039;t even notice the pain

"Let&039;s not start this now," he said "We&039;re almost there"

The woman licked her lips "Sure Okay"

The shorn fields on either side of the road ashed in ht and the clapboard houses that dotted the scruffy patches glohite Most places had a porch light on and that was it Around here, anything after ht aaaaaaay past bedtime for these folks

Which was part of the reason it made sense to have an outpost here in the land of hot apple pie and As

Five minutes later, they pulled up to the farmhouse and parked close to the front door

"No one else is here," she said "We the first ones?"

"Yeah" He reached forward to turn off the engine "Let&039;s--"

The clicking sound next to his ear had hi

The prostitute&039;s voice was no longer fuzzy "Get out of the car, motherfucker"

Lash swiveled his head around, and all but French-kissed the muzzle of a nine-millimeter On the other end of the weapon, the whore&039;s hands were stone steady and her eyes burned with the kind of canny smarts he had to respect

Surprise, surprise, he thought

"Get Out," she snapped

He s before?"

"Loads" She didn&039;t blink "And I don&039;t have a probleood for you"

"Get out--"

"So what&039;s the plan here Order me from the car Shoot me in the head and leave me for dead Take the Mercedes, my watch, and my wallet?"

"And what&039;s in your trunk"

"You need a spare tire? You know, you can buy one at any Firestone or Goodyear outlet Just FYI"

"You think I don&039;t knoho you are?"

Oh, he was quite fucking sure she hadn&039;t a clue "Why don&039;t you tell me"

"I&039;ve seen this car I&039;ve seen you I&039;ve bought your drugs"

"A customer Hoeet"

"Get Out"

When he didn&039;t un an inch to the side and pulled the trigger As the bullet blew out thebehind hi to play around Another to cause property dae

As she shifted the business end of the nine back between his eyes, he de form around the other side of the car, he watched as she flipped out in her seat, looking all around, her frizzy hair flying this way and that

Ready to teach her a thing or two about plans, he ripped open her door, and dragged her out by the arun and her was the work of athe nine into his belt at the sainst his chest

"What what--"

"You told et out of the car," he said into her ear "So I did" Her slender body was all kinds of leaf-in-the-eak, nothing but a shimmer in her cheapo whore clothes Cole breath versus a hurricane gale What a bore

"Let&039;s go inside," heup her jugular "The other partygoer should be waiting for us"

As she shrank away fro his hardware Her scream flushed an owl from its perch overhead, and to , he slapped his free palm over her piehole and forced her to the front door

Inside, the place sht before and all the blood in the buckets There was an advantage to the residual, however As he willed the lights on and the chick got a look-see at the dining rooid with terror and then passed the fuck out

Da her on the table and tied up splayed wide easy

After catching his breath, he took the buckets into the kitchen, rinsed them out in the sink, cleaned up the knives, and wished like hell Mr D was still around to take care of the shit work

He was just putting the spray nozzle back where it belonged when it dawned on hiht before was nowhere to be seen

Taking the buckets into the dining room, he set them out under the whore&039;s wrists and ankles and then did a quick double-check of the downstairs When all he got was a whole lot of not-there, he jogged up to the second floor

The closet door in the bedrooer on the bed like a shirt had beendown its side walls

What the fuck?