Chasing Thunder (5 page)

Despite the fact that she had made it through the night without physical assault, her bag was long gone, as was the money inside. She had been so exhausted that the thief managed to slide everything away from her without her noticing. Even her shoes were missing. “I told you to hide your money,” Tammy reminded ruefully.

Haley was on the verge of tears. “I thought—” she began, but quickly silenced herself. It didn’t matter what she thought. She was out of her element in this new world, and it was clear the rules of normal existence did not apply.

They ended up in a diner, with Billy and Tammy footing the bill for the five-dollar breakfast they all shared. And just like at the bus depot, they were merely paying rent to occupy a booth for as long as the waitress would tolerate them. Billy drank at least five cups of coffee, which he used to wash down a handful of pills. He pocketed the rest of his stash, no doubt to sell for extra money, while Tammy’s day would be spent working a street corner near downtown L.A.

Haley had two choices. She could go with Tammy or she could stay with Billy. The latter seemed the less threatening of the two, so Tammy strutted off in short shorts and Billy and Haley waited on a side street in the parked car.

He rolled down the windows. The summer heat wasn’t nearly as oppressive as in North Carolina, but she was sweating bullets as they waited in the car. He glanced over her outfit, which covered as much skin as possible. “You’re going to die of heat stroke dressed like that,” he said. “You should change into something cooler.”

“Everything I had was in my bag,” she explained. She wasn’t even wearing layered clothing to discard as needed. What she had on her back was literally all she had in the world. “I don’t have anything else.”

With a sigh he got out of the car and popped the trunk. A few minutes later he shoved some articles of clothing at her through the open window. “Here. Change before you pass out.”

Before she could protest that she couldn’t change in the car, she realized he was pointing to a gas station on the corner. Her legs shook as she exited the car and headed toward the tiny storefront. The attendant regarded her suspiciously as he handed her the key, attached to a wide wooden stick, and she said nothing. She headed toward the grimy, cramped bathroom, which was even hotter than Billy’s beater of a car. The new clothes clung to her damp, sweaty body like a second skin, what little bit they covered. But given the ninety-degree weather, she could hardly begrudge the shorts and the tank top. The breeze cooled her skin as she walked back to the car in her borrowed outfit, right down to the bargain-bin flip-flops.

Though her clothes were skimpy, she looked every inch a teenage girl rather than a streetwalker. She hoped that meant that she could put off her new career as a prostitute for yet another day, but Billy was quick to dash this meager dream.

“You’re gonna make a lot of money looking like that,” he informed her as she slid back into the car. “You’re lucky they like ’em young.”

Haley shuddered. The thought of an older man putting his hands on her body made what little breakfast she’d been able to put in her stomach rebel. “I don’t like the men who like them young,” she replied.

“That used to matter,” he said. “Not anymore. A few more nights on the streets, when all you have left to barter with is what’s between your legs, and you’ll come around.”

Tammy returned with enough money for lunch and a couple of gallons of gas for the car. Haley could tell by their faces that it wasn’t enough. “You know where we gotta go,” Billy said quietly to Tammy, who tossed a brief glance toward the back seat.

“And you know what could happen when we get there,” she reminded him softly. “You think she’s ready for that?”

They continued to talk softly and Haley had to strain to hear what they were saying. “So what do you want me to do? Drop her off at some diner and hope no one else snatches her up in the meantime? You think she’s ready for
that
?”

Haley shuddered. She no longer had any money, she didn’t have any clothes, and she had no place to stay. The only thing she had left in the world was this unintentional alliance with these two strangers, who had helped her when she literally had no one. Without them, she wouldn’t know what to do or where to go. And she was fresh out of options. “I want to stay with you,” she asserted.

Tammy finally acquiesced with a sigh. “Fine.”

Within the hour they were sputtering and chugging through the winding Hollywood Hills so that Billy could replenish his supply of drugs to sell. Unlike the squalor of the abandoned building or the run-down area around the bus terminal, their destination, a mansion in the hills, was in an elaborate compound. The guards at the gate let them enter the private bricked driveway. Regal palms swayed overhead as they drove up an incline toward the entrance of the multilevel home. The exterior was cold, gray and modern. The interior was not much warmer. Stark chrome and gray walls, pristine white furniture, and stone tables made the residence both luxurious and forbidding.

They were ushered through their opulent surroundings toward a deck with a view of the Los Angeles skyline in the distance, and the Pacific beyond that. It was Haley’s first glimpse of the ocean, and a reminder of the world beyond the dirty, gritty streets she’d explored thus far.

She shivered a bit, exposed to the cooler breezes that the people of the Hollywood Hills obviously paid through their noses to enjoy. She followed Tammy’s lead and sat on a sectional bench arranged around a covered fire pit made of marble. She crossed her feet at the ankle and tried to fade as much into the furniture as possible as they waited. Haley could tell by Tammy’s subtle tremor that they were in a place far more dangerous than some burned-out abandoned building.

Once she saw their host, she immediately understood why.

The man wore his forties as elegantly as he wore his designer suit, which he buttoned as he stepped out onto the deck. His shoulder-length hair was as dark as his eyes, and his skin was a flawless olive. A thin line of carefully trimmed stubble framed his strong jawline. He met them with a confident smile that reminded her of all those shark documentaries she’d watched on TV.

If he was the predator, she knew immediately that she and her companions were the chum.
Shark bait
, she thought to herself with a shudder.

“William,” the older man said as he approached. “I didn’t expect to see you back so soon.”

Billy hopped to his feet. “I had a good week,” he lied. “I need more stuff.”

But their host was wholly uninterested. Instead he turned his attention to the two young girls sitting quietly on the sectional. “So you brought friends to celebrate,” the man said, leaning toward Tammy with a smile. “Always good to see you again,” he said in a low voice that made Haley’s stomach drop. Her breath strangled in her throat when his eyes drifted to hers. “And who might you be?” he asked.

No one had bothered to ask her that before now, so she was unprepared to lie, especially under this man’s oppressive black stare. “Haley,” she found herself saying, as if she knew better than to disobey any command.

His fingers closed around her tiny hand and he brought her fingers to his lips. “So lovely to meet you,” he said in a soft voice that reverberated over her taut nerves like a charge of electricity. Even worse, he didn’t release her hand immediately. He took a seat beside her, his muscled thigh rock solid next to her bare leg.

Haley met Billy’s eyes, and he seemed just as concerned by the man’s reaction as she was. “We don’t mean to take up much of your time, Mr. Isbecky,” he began, but their host silenced him with a cool stare.

“Nonsense,” he said, as his fingers trailed over hers. “I always have time to make new friends.” Those cold, dark eyes slid back to hers. He pulled back her curtain of flaxen hair to reveal the ugly green and yellow bruises along her cheek. “Would you like to be my friend, Haley?”

Tammy piped up at last. Haley could hear the fear in her voice. “You’ll have to forgive her,” she said, moving closer to Haley. “She’s new.”

Isbecky chuckled low in his throat. His hand felt like a snake against her skin. Suddenly Haley would have done anything to rewind the clock twenty-four hours so she could spend her money on some rat-infested motel room. Billy seemed positively harmless in comparison.

“We were all new once,” Isbecky declared. “Good thing you brought her to me first.”

Haley could tell by their shared glance that this was exactly what Billy and Tammy had hoped to avoid, but neither dared to challenge him. In fact, when the man turned to Tammy and instructed her to take Haley upstairs, she was quick to comply.

“What’s wrong?” Haley wanted to know the minute they got out of earshot.

“Remember when I was telling you that you have to do whoever and whatever you have to do to survive?” Haley nodded. “Your education starts tonight. Whatever he wants, you give it. Don’t argue. Don’t fight. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll be able to leave of your own free will.”

Haley grabbed her arm to turn her around. “What are you saying?”

Tammy glanced back toward the outer deck, where Billy and Mr. Isbecky were now conducting business of their own. “Look around you, baby,” she said, still avoiding Haley’s given name, as if saying it would make her more real, more human. “You think that guy came across this kind of wealth playing by the rules? He’s a dangerous man with equally dangerous friends. Girls come in here and they’re never seen again. You either work for him or you run from him. And those who escape never get too far.”

They entered the master bedroom, where a king-size bed faced a wall of windows with an eye-popping view of L.A. “There have been stories about people who get on this guy’s bad side. Some even managed to make it all the way back home. Within months their family homes were burned to the ground, with the family still inside. He likes fire,” she added, her mouth in a grim line. “Like the devil.”

Haley glanced around the bedroom, which was decorated with statues and masks and ornate candelabras. An ominous goat’s head rose from the wall above the large platform bed, the last fitting piece to make it every inch a dark, foreboding lair. Tammy navigated it with ease. She went right to a tall chest of drawers and pulled out a wispy pink dress. “I think this will fit you,” she said as she walked back over to her. “It fit me last time I was here . . .” There was a tremor in her voice as her sentence trailed off.

Haley shuddered. “Tammy,” she began, but before she could protest Tammy was tugging her to the adjoining bathroom. It featured a sunken tub and a 180-degree view.

“He likes cleanliness,” she told her. “So bathe thoroughly. Don’t miss an inch, because he sure won’t. You don’t have tattoos, do you?” she asked abruptly, almost panicked. “He hates tattoos. He likes his girls pristine.”

Terror rose in her throat. “I can’t do this!”

“I already told you, you have no choice.” Tammy leaned over to turn on the faucet. “Fair warning, he likes it rough. If you can take it, it’s over quicker. If you cry out, he’ll take his time.” Tammy stood and faced her. “Oh. And he doesn’t pay. But if you’re good, he can introduce you to other people who will pay a lot for the right girl.”

“I won’t be any good. I don’t do this.”

“It’s not rocket science, baby. Just do what he wants you to do. That’s all any of these assholes want. A living doll.” Haley couldn’t have stopped the tears if she’d tried. Tammy had enough decency left to look remorseful, but she couldn’t bring herself to apologize. This was the world they were forced to survive. Haley had to learn, just like everyone who had come before her. “Don’t bother with underwear,” was her final piece of advice. “It’ll only piss him off.”

She left Haley to bathe in private. The minute the door closed behind her, Haley ran to the windows to find any means of escape. Below the master suite was a serene pool with a rock fountain at one end. If she could just get one of those windows open, maybe she could plunge the fifteen feet into that water. Even if she missed, cracking her head on the pavement seemed preferable to having that man’s hands on her body. The thought made her skin crawl.

But the windows opened just enough to let in a breeze. She was quickly running out of options.

She glanced at the bathwater. With shaking hands, she took off her borrowed clothes and slipped into the water. She cried as she bathed herself, wondering how the hell she had come full circle. She briefly considered sinking all the way down into the water and just ending it altogether, but she quickly rejected the idea. If that were an option, she’d have never left North Carolina.

When she emerged from the room, her body was clean, her hair was dried and combed, and she wore just a wisp of a pink dress. Tammy was on the bed waiting for her, holding a drink.

“Good girl,” she praised as Haley approached. “Here,” she said, handing her the drink along with a tiny pill. “This will help.”

Though she had never done any drug stronger than aspirin, Haley accepted the gift without complaint. She swallowed it with the bubbly liquid in the glass, making a face at the tart, fizzy taste.

“The best champagne money can buy,” Tammy quipped as she drained the rest of the glass. For all her posturing, this girl wasn’t yet numb to this life. It still stole something from her to give herself over to a john, to allow him to take from her that which should only be given willingly through mutual attraction and respect. But there were no fairy-tale endings for kids on the street. There was no valiant and charming prince riding up on a noble steed to whisk them away with promises of true love and happily ever after. All they could hope for, all they had been conditioned to expect, was just one more minute of survival, by any means necessary.