The Condemned (30 page)

When Leci woke it was dark, and that was just fine.

    
She felt so much better, refreshed, able to think clearly
,
and ready to get this all over and done with.

She began to uncurl slowly from the ball she had pulled herself into while sleeping. Her limbs ached numbly after being in the same cramped position for too long and when that wore off
,
they tingled uncomfortably.

She might’ve realised something wasn’t right sooner if she hadn’t been distracted by the sensation of pins and needles running through her hands and feet.

     Not that it would ha
ve done her any good.

    
It crept over her slowly, the feeling that she wasn’t alone. She sat perfectly still, her breathing controlled as she tried to listen for anything that might give away whether her instincts were right
,
or whether she was just being paranoid. It reminded her of the time in the alleyway, the first time she had ever burned anything, the night she had discovered what she could do. That had begun very much like this, waking
to the knowledge that she was no longer
alone.

    
Maybe the creepy apartment owner had just freaked her out more than she had thought.

    
Or maybe he’d come back for more...

    
Impossible!

    
She snapped her head quickly to the door. It was dim in the room
,
but her vision was starting to adjust and she could see that the chair was still in place. Nobody had come in that way.

    
She relaxed a little but she couldn’t stop her skin crawling as though a hundred spiders were creeping over it, couldn’t ignore what her instincts were telling her, they weren’t often wrong, had served her fairly well in the past.

She stayed in her corner, her palms pressed against the wall as she turned her head, slowly taking in the room.

The only shadowy and uncertain area seemed to be the hump of the mattress with the sheet crumpled on top of it.

Somebody could be hiding there...

    
Very slowly
,
she moved towards it, one hand reaching out in front of her, ready to tug away the blanket and reveal the intruder- She grabbed a fistful and yanked- and felt really stupid.

    
She must be more worked up about this whole deal than she was letting on
,
even to herself
,
if she were starting to imagi-

    
Leci’s scream was stifled as the hand slipped deftly around her face from b
ehind and covered her mouth, an
arm around her chest hugged her against her attacker and then he spun her around quickly to face him and she found herself
looking into his eyes.

    
Amato.

    
He pulled his hand away slowly when he knew she had recognised him and wouldn’t scream. She saw the table behind him. In the darkness she hadn’t noticed him squatting beneath it.

    
Stupid.

    
But she was secretly pleased and rather impressed that he had found her.

     
‘How did you get in here?’ She whispered.

    
For some reason it seemed fitting to whisper.

    
He pointed to the window and it occurred to her that the closeness of the metal escape ladder had been as much her foe as it had been her friend.

    
Still, how had he found her? How had he known which room to come to? She opened her mouth to ask him but he spoke first.

     
‘How did you pay for the room Alecia?’ His voice was low, almost dangerous a
nd he had called her Alecia... o
oh, he was annoyed with her. She frowned slightly.

    
He had no right to be annoyed, she had been doing this for them, for
him
and she knew that he knew that
,
so he could at least have the good grace to sound just a little grateful.

     
‘How do you think I paid for it?’ She replied evasively, whatever magic the moment had held was gone and neither of
them was whispering anymore. She caught a flicker of something like hurt in his eyes and she looked away, didn’t want to see it.

     
‘Please tell me you didn’t... My girl didn’t do that...’

    
She pulled away from him, scowling now when she looked at him, he reached out and touched her arm, not roughly, his grip was gentle and she didn’t pull away again.

    
Really though?

    
He was going to make her feel guilty, really?
His
girl? She didn’t like the look in his eyes; it was some sort of mix of disappointment, repulsion and anguish.

She didn’t like it because it mirrored her own feelings so well. Still, that didn’t stop her from being angry.
She
was allowed to feel that way, why should he get to judge her aswell?

     
‘Your girl? Amato, I did what I had to; it’s none of your business.’

     
‘The hell it isn’t.’ He looked angry. ‘You’re
mine
Leci, why would you do that, and with that... that thing down there?’He pushed away from her like he couldn’t bear to touch her and she felt a surge of resentment towards him.

     
‘I’m
yours?
What is it? I fucked you and so I belong to you? What kind of shitty logic is that Amato? And I can tell you right now it doesn’t make you my fucking keeper, it makes you a small percentage shareholder.’

    
Amato raised an eyebrow questioningly and Leci paused, took a moment to think about what she’d just said.

     
‘Ok, you know, that sounded a lot less trampy in my head...’

    
It broke the ice
a little
and he smiled. She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear shyly, kind of embarrassed and tried to smile back.

     
‘What are you doing here Leci?’

    
The change of subject was refreshing
it
and took her off a hotspot she hadn’t liked being stood on. The new line of questioning might be uncomfortable too but it couldn’t be as bad as feeling like she’d betrayed him somehow.

    
Because she did feel like she had. Now that he had brought the issue to light
,
she was able to give a name to the strange feeling that had disturbed her since she’d lain with the apartment owner.

     She ha
d betrayed Amato.

    
But she wasn’t going to admit that to him. Pft.

    
‘I thought you knew what I was doing here?’

    
He frowned and shook his head slowly.

     
‘I thought I did too. But then I got here and I didn’t find what I was expecting. I found you here instead, asleep.’

She was confused, tilted her head slightly, watching him.

     
‘What were you expecting?’

     
‘If I was too late? I was expecting you to be dead
already.’

    
Wow, ok, nice and blunt. She chewed on her lower lip, considering his reply.

     
‘When I rode in I figured you must’ve skip
ped this place at first, there was n
o sign of anything going on. I thought there’d be crowds, Officials everywhere, people whispering.’ He shook his head. ‘None of that. I almost passed through and just carried on but it didn’t make no sense. This place seemed perfect.’

    
She didn’t interrupt him, was very interested to hear exactly what was going through his mind.

     
‘So I took a little time to scout the area, found that nag wandering not far from town. Clever, by the way, switching
ponies
like that.’

    
She couldn’t help feeling a swell of pride at the compliment.

     
‘I had a look around, couldn’t find you hiding in any of the alleyways or behind buildings or anywhere. It didn’t make any sense to me that you’d bother getting a room
,
but I figured it might be worth checking it out.’

    
He was frowning again, like he was struggling to understand why she would go to such measures. She’d maybe be able to explain things to him when he let her know just exactly what he had thought she had been planning.

     
‘So I spoke to that fucking pile of shit downstairs.
Asked him if you were here. Paid him for the info.’

    
He laughed
,
somewhat bitterly, shook his head again and looked at her in a way that made her cringe and look away.

     
‘You know a dick like that will trade for just about anything
,
don’t you
,
Leci? He’s like a fucking human roach, he’s vermin. His type, they’ll take whatever they can. You didn’t have to...’

    
His voice caught and she looked back up at him, was alarmed at the emotion on his face, at how upset he looked. He composed himself quickly and looked up, holding her gaze. She wanted to look away but couldn’t, the fury in his eyes held her like a vice.

     
‘You didn’t even offer anything else, did you? Just gave yourself to him without even batting an eyelash. You’re a fucking whore. And if you’re interested, he sold you out for a box of ammo.’

    
Leci reeled, stung.

    
Her chest felt tight and she couldn’t pull in any air. His words were like a knife to her heart, cutting her as painfully as a physical wound might have done.

    
She couldn’t understand why it hurt so much that he thought so little of her. She’d been called far worse things many, many times. It just didn’t seem logical that she should be having such a substantial reaction to the harsh words of this one man.

    
Did she really rely on his approval so much?

And that fucking bas
tard downstairs! A box of ammo? That was all she ha
d been worth?

    
Ok, she couldn’t realistic
ally be annoyed about that. She woul
d have done the same if their positions had been reversed.

     
‘I’m not a whore...’ She defended herself weakly, with barely any conviction to her words at all.

     
‘What else does selling your body make you
,
Leci?’ He asked sneeringly.

    
She shook her head. She tried to feel angry again, tried to claw back some of her earlier resentment and ask herself why he was in any position to condemn her but her shame stopped her from being able to.

    
He was right.

    
She was desperate to change the subject, wasn’t exactly sure how they’d come back around to it again.

     
‘So, he told you where I was?’ She urged.

    
Amato was sullen,
he
glared at her briefly as though he was considering not answering her, just getting up and leaving
, she wouldn’t blame him if he did
.

    
He seemed to decide against doing that and though he still looked pretty pissed off, some of his rage seemed to evaporate as he nodded.

     
‘Yeah. Showed me where you were. Only when I tried to open the door I couldn’t get in and I figured yo
u’d found some
way to lock it, s
o I went down a floor and broke into the room u
nder this one. Some drunk fuck
thought he was hallucinating or some shit. I climbed out of his window, got onto the fire escape and climbed up. Simple.’

     
‘Wow, someone needs to have a word with that guy about his security.’
She attempted a joke but his stony glance shut her up pretty quickly.

    
She supposed it really wasn’t all that funny.

    
She cleared her throat.

     
‘Ok, so, you got in here and you found me asleep. Why is that all such a big surprise? What were you expectin’ me to be doing?’

     
‘I thought that you’d come here to kill yourself.’

    
He looked around the room.

     
‘But why would you bother taking a nap if that was the case?
I d
on’t think it really matters to a dead gal how tired she is.’