held out obediently. No-one asks any questions. The request, it seems, is a normal one. Madam doesn't give a fuck. She lights another cigarette with the stub of the first. It's then that he sees her, illuminated briefly in the toxic burn.
"Her", Bone says excitedly, his hand pointing to the bleed of blackness beyond the brothel madam.
Everyone turns. The girl drops her head and walks into the soft, thin light.
"Yes", Bone says. "Her."
"She is not for sale", Madam says.
"Everyone is for sale", Bone says.
Madam huffs. She spits on the ground. "She has been reserved."
"How much?" I ask.
"She has been reserved for a very long time", Madam says. "I have a down payment."
"How much", I ask again.
The girl won't take her eyes off the ground. There isn't much to her. Tall, full in the chest, undeniably beautiful, twenty, maybe twenty one years old, calm, chocolate colored skin. Bare feet. Good bone structure. Strong. Willing. Marked.
"Twenty thousand", Madam says. "That's a thousand dollars for every one of her years."
"Bring her to me", Bone says.
Madam pushes her lightly and she takes the twelve or so steps to the car. Bone leans over and takes her wrist. When he does that, she looks at me. Green eyes full of knowing acceptance.
I smile and then I pay. I’ve found her.
Chapter 14
Maude
I have a date with Christopher. At least that's what I'm deciding to call it. He phoned me and invited me to see what he referred to as his special collection on Bone at his house, after which he promised to take me to dinner and show me the last part of the interactive tour, before starting work next week. I'm really fucking excited. Naturally, I haven't been able to stop thinking about him all weekend. Naturally, Jasper is jealous at not being invited himself. Jasper couldn't give a fuck about Bone, but ever since Christopher has shown interest, he's been acting weird. I think he feels like I'm going to ditch him completely. I think he also thinks that Christopher is something that he's not. Jasper can get like that. He's a paranoid motherfucker at the best of times.
People who obsess about death are usually weird introverts who spend too much time on their own. From what I can tell, Christopher is nothing like this. He's charming, socially well adjusted, engaging, happy and very successful. These qualities could also denote a tendency for psychopathy, but psychopaths in general have an inability to show empathy. I haven't spent that much time with Christopher, but in the short amount of time I have spent with him, I would consider that not to be the case.
Yes what happened was weird and extraordinary, but that just makes me want to spend even more time with him, not less. This guy could be perfect for me. He's obsessed with death and murder, he's handsome, rich and expressive with his emotions. That turns me on.
I imagine myself fucking him watching snuff films, then I imagine him fucking me as we recreate one of Bone's murders again. Fuck it, we could even do Hunter or Cole, or work our way around the top ten. The opportunities are truly endless.
Besides wanting to see him again, I'm really excited about seeing his collection. If he truly does know Bone, and I'm not sure he meant it in a personal way anyway, because what he said could be interpreted in a number of different ways, he's going to have a number of things in his collection that no-one else has ever seen before.
I want to know how he knows Bone. I want to know if he knows him personally, as a friend and confidant, or whether he just knows who he is, because he's worked it out like a top notch TV detective.
I don't know what to expect. I know he's loaded, but I have no idea how much money he's actually got until I get there and see his palace. I mean this house is like something out of a film. I didn't know these things even existed in New York. I thought I'd fucked up and the taxi was dropping me off at a park. Turns out the open space is just the grounds of his
Kathi S. Barton
Martha Wells - (ebook by Undead)
Elle Thorne
JL Bryan
Anne Perry
Dante
Nicole McGehee
CJ Lyons
Tom Wallace
Laurie Halse Anderson