Urban Renewal by Andrew Vachss Page A

inner strength not to throw Taylor’s phone through a window.

    “ HE SAID if J.B. showed up here, I could go home.”
    “Oh, honey,” Arabella said, “you have to learn to really listen when a man talks. Especially
that
man.”
    “But I
was
!”
    “Stop being a baby,” the little blonde said. “Sure, you can go back to where you lived. Not ‘home.’ It’s not going to be that, ever again. And he said ‘sooner or later,’ didn’t he? That spells out ‘not tonight’ any way you look at it.”
    “But if I don’t go back, he’ll do something.…”
    “If you don’t go back, whatever that trash does, he’ll have to do it to
himself
, honey. They even took your cat.”
    “Huh?”
    Arabella expertly piloted her little Mercedes out of the safe zone and into the streets. “This is yours.” She smiled, handing the brunette a folded piece of paper.
    “What is it?”
    “It’s a rental agreement. For this huge storage unit—the address is on top. You paid three months in advance. Fifteen hundred, cash. The numbers on the bottom, they’re for the combination lock.”
    “Fifteen hundred dollars?!”
    “The unit’s big enough to live in, girl. Had to be, to hold everything in that apartment of yours.”
    “It’s been emptied out?”
    “Are you really this thick? Yes, it’s been emptied out. Right down to the walls. Check your phone, you’ll see.”
    “But if—”
    “If we’re going to be roommates, you’re going to have to learn to do what makes sense, honey. And what makes sense right this minute is for you to check your phone.”
    Taylor fumbled in her brand-name bag, pulled her latest-model phone from its slot, and saw she had a text waiting.
    I FIND U. I WONT B ALONE. U GET *EVERYTHING* BACK WHERE POS’ 2B, OR *U* B 1 *VERY* SORRY HO.
    “Oh my God!”
    “Will you stop all the damn drama? What did he do, threaten you or something?”
    “Yes! And he knows where to find me. I mean, if I go back to that club …”
    “Oh, you
are
going back to that club, girl. Who do you think cleaned out your apartment?”
    “But …”
    “It’s gonna be
your
butt if you don’t, baby. You stay with me until … until we can find ourselves a nice little three-bedroom. I know a perfect spot. In Uptown. Second floor. We’re going to be college girls, far as the owner knows. Old Polish guy, minds his own business. Last place that punk would ever expect to find you.”
    “But the club? I mean, he’ll come after me. I know he will. And he’s with this whole gang. Professionals.”
    “Sure, he is. And the Double-X, the people that work there, they’re all amateurs, huh?”
    “I … I guess not.”
    “Give me your phone.”
    “My phone?”
    “Am I speaking a foreign language? That so-called man of yours, he has your phone on the same plan as his, right?”
    “Yes. But—”
    “I better not hear ‘but’ come out of your mouth again, girl. You make
any
calls on that phone, he’s going to know soon as the bill comes. Why do you think I’m driving in circles? He’s probably got his own chip in that phone, too.”
    “Oh.”
    “ ‘Oh’? Oh,
what
? You just escape from a convent? Soon as you get new ID—”
    “I
have
ID. ‘Taylor’ is just a name I made up.”
    “Really!”
    “You don’t have to sound so sarcastic.”
    “And you don’t have to
act
so damn dumb. Who made up that ‘Taylor’ name you use? Yeah, I thought so. All right, like I
started
to say, you take your phone and throw it in the river when we go over the bridge. Then you take your
new
ID and use it to get yourself a
new
phone. What’s the big deal?”
    “I don’t know where I could get new ID.”
    “I am
so
shocked to hear that! Look, honey, I told you that place was covered, didn’t I? You’ll have to pay for the ID, and they’ll front it, same as for the storage unit. But you’re not going to get cheated, and the
only
payment the man takes is cash, so don’t waste your time trying to offer him anything