Chasing Thunder (6 page)

Tammy left her alone on the bed, and Haley began mentally preparing herself to separate her mind from her body for the task ahead. She shook like a leaf as she waited for her initiation into the life she had unintentionally chosen when she had boarded the bus. She was officially out of options. She had no money, no means of identification, and even the clothes she wore were not her own. She was a completely new person about to be born in fire. She willed herself to be strong, to be fearless.

The minute the door opened, however, she was ready to bolt right through it. Mr. Isbecky loomed even larger than he had appeared downstairs, and she knew from the look on his face that it would be foolish to try. He smiled that same, toothy smile as he closed the door behind him, securing the lock. “Much better.” He shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it over a chair in the corner. “A girl of your breeding deserves more than hippie beachwear.”

Her breath caught. “What do you mean?” she stammered.

He chortled deep in his throat. “You think I don’t know a hothouse orchid when I see one?” He poured himself a glass of champagne. “It’s not my first rodeo, Haley.”

He remembered my name
, she thought with a sinking feeling in her gut. That couldn’t be good.

“And I detect an accent as well. You’ve run far, far away, haven’t you? From the South. Old money.” He looked her over, taking note of her fair skin and its golden glow. “A beach city. East coast, I’d say.” She gulped, which made him chuckle more. “Don’t worry, fair Haley. I’m not going to send you back. You’re a lot more valuable to me here.”

He unbuttoned the cuffs on his sleeve and approached the bed. “In fact, I have clients who would pay quite a bit for a little time with someone like you. Not that twenty-dollar blowjob bullshit those swindlers can promise you, that’s for certain.”

Those ominous dark eyes swallowed her whole as his shirt fell open, revealing the solid muscles of his chest and his abdomen. Her eyes widened in fear, which pleased him, and his mouth curved into an absent smile. “You look like a smart girl. I’m sure you’ve figured out your survival now depends on the people you choose to trust. You’d do well to make a friend like me.” He crawled up the bed, inching over her body, hovering over her. “Are you my friend, Haley?” he asked, his eyes engulfing her vision.

Tammy’s advice lingered in her ear.
Whatever he wants, you give it. Don’t argue. Don’t fight
. She offered an imperceptible nod. “Yes, Mr. Isbecky.”

Apparently it was the wrong thing to say. With a snarl, he grabbed her wrists in his hands and shoved her arms over her head. “You haven’t earned the right to call me by my name,” he told her coldly. “For all I know, you’re some informant trying to get close to me.” He fit his body against hers. “What are you willing to do to prove where your loyalties now lie?”

There was menace in those dark eyes.
He likes fire
, Tammy’s voice echoed.
Like the devil
. Haley willed herself to say, “Whatever you want,” but the moment she opened her mouth her stomach lurched. She turned her face just in time to avoid his kiss and vomit all over his bedcovers.

“You filthy little pig!” he roared as he tossed her away. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

She shook her head and scooted off the bed, holding back acidic bile as she sprinted toward the toilet. She didn’t quite make it, which only infuriated him further. He swung his belt free from its loops.

“Looks like we have to train you how to behave after all,” he growled between gritted teeth. He swung the belt and she barely missed it. She scooted away and curled into a tight little ball on the floor.

“I’m sorry!” she cried.

“Not yet,” he promised. “But you will be.”

He lifted the belt high in the air again, but before he could land it against her vulnerable bare skin the door to his bedroom crashed open. It was Billy, and was Haley ever happy to see him.

“What the fuck do you want?” Isbecky thundered.

Tammy rushed in and threw herself between the angry man and the girl she had befriended. “I told you she wasn’t ready,” she said, using her body as a shield. “Take me. I know what you like. I’ll do it all. Just leave her alone.”

The man grabbed Tammy and wound his belt around her wrists. “As you wish. Let’s go to the Magic Room.” He pulled her to her feet and shoved past Billy. “Clean up this mess.”

Billy nodded and watched Isbecky lead Tammy away. Isbecky’s silhouette demonstrated how the violent encounter had aroused him, which only made Haley sicker. She leaned over the toilet and retched.

“Pull it together,” Billy told her through clenched teeth. “Tammy will keep him preoccupied so you can get the hell out of here.”

She shook her head. “He’s going to hurt her.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” he snapped. He was instantly remorseful. “It’s my fault. I never should have brought you here. I never should have taken you from the bus station. You’re too fucking green. You’re going to get yourself killed. If you’re lucky, you won’t take anyone else with you.” He straightened her up and put a cold washcloth to her mouth. “I’ll get you out of here and we’re square. Go back home, baby. No matter what Mommy and Daddy did, it’s not as bad as what is going to happen to you here. Especially now that he knows your name. That was the stupidest fucking thing you ever could have done.”

Billy pulled her from the bathroom and the master bedroom. Guards stood at the front of the house, so he redirected her toward the back door. There was a pathway through some foliage that concealed a steep drop-off covered with cactus and rocks. “It’s your best option,” he said when she hesitated. “Get out of here as fast as you can. Get to a road, follow it. If someone offers a ride, accept it. Do whatever you need to do, but get out of Hollywood before dawn breaks. You understand?”

She nodded. She heard screams coming from the house. “Tammy—” she started, but he shut her down.

“You can’t help her now. And if you stay, you’re next. You really want what is happening to her to happen to you?” She gulped and shook her head. “Get the hell out of here, baby.”

There were tears in her eyes as she stepped through the door. With one backward glance, she said, “Tell her thanks. And I’m sorry.”

He nodded.

And she was gone.

2. THUNDERSTRUCK

W
hen Haley finally made it back to civilization, her bare feet were sliced open like a Thanksgiving turkey, torn up by cactus and dry brush from scooting down that hill as fast as her legs would take her. The remnants of the drug left in her system made this process a lot more complicated than it had to be. Each of her senses was heightened to the point of discomfort. Sounds were amplified until they roared in her ears. Every smell made her stomach lurch and the lights from oncoming cars nearly blinded her as she slunk down the hill. It seemed as though her brain was morphing and melting under the chemical influence, nearly crippling her with panic unlike anything she’d ever known.

She couldn’t for the life of her figure out why people did drugs for fun.

She was coated in dirt and dried blood by the time she reached the bottom of the hill. She followed the winding road toward the city. She accepted no rides. She was fearful that Isbecky would send his goons to bring her back. Surely it wouldn’t take very long to realize his newest conquest was missing.

Then she remembered Tammy telling her that he took his time if his victim dared to scream. Had she started screaming to stall him?

Had her only friend thus far made that kind of sacrifice for her?

The thought would have sickened her with remorse had she taken the time to stop and think. But she followed Billy’s advice to the letter as she headed for the bright lights of the town below. She had to find a way to fade in with the crowds. Surely he wouldn’t scoop her up from the crowded Hollywood Boulevard.

It wasn’t like she had a whole lot of choices. She had no money to go back home, even if that had been a viable option. Maybe she should have drowned herself in the tub back at Isbecky’s mansion. She was just as screwed now as she was then. But somehow she couldn’t find it in herself to stop fighting. That had to mean something, right?

She reached the bottom of the hill. As dirty and ragged as she looked, most people paid her no mind at all. Dirty, homeless street kids in Hollywood were hardly newsworthy. Folks passed her by, looking through her as if she wasn’t there at all. Maybe they were afraid that if they made eye contact she’d ask them for money, but Haley wouldn’t have thought to ask for anything. She wasn’t that desperate. Yet.

She welcomed the invisibility from most of the strangers. As it turned out, only the ones who could help her saw through her. The ones who wanted something from her pinpointed her exactly, like a radar. These were the ones who hollered at her from the street, or honked at her as they drove by. Some, the older ones, the serious ones, sidled up to the curb, rolling down their windows, anxious to engage.

She kept her head down and moved closer in the crowd around her. Her head was still fuzzy, her mouth was dry, and her heart was heavy. She felt alone on that crowded street, more alone than she had ever been. She now embodied the very definition of
lost
. She wrapped her arms around her torso, cast her head downward, and pressed herself into the crowd.

She couldn’t shake thoughts of Tammy or Billy, or that horrible man Isbecky. She would never forget how he looked, ominous and maniacal, as he wrapped that belt around Tammy’s wrists. Haley jerked her head, trying to literally shake the thought free. Tammy knew what she had been in for and had spared her at the cost of her own hide.

But it wasn’t like she had ever had any choice, either. She had been so matter-of-fact about everything, even in how she had tried to prepare Haley for what kind of man Isbecky was. Their world came with few options. These were things done in order to survive, like bunking in an abandoned warehouse with junkies who would take the very shoes from your feet.

The vibrant hum of the city rose from the crowd into the air. With each piercing honk of a passing car, Haley longed for that quiet abandoned building where she had hidden in the shadows with the other forgotten children of the night. Billy’s presence next to her on the floor, his arm around her like a shield, had felt foreign and threatening the night before. Now she would give anything for a human barricade against the never-ending flood of strangers. It had only taken a day to forge this trusted alliance, and though they were virtual strangers, Billy and Tammy were far less threatening than the people who now surrounded her. If she saw them now, she’d run to them gleefully and do anything they said without argument or complaint. They had risked themselves for her, which was as close to family as a runaway was going to get.

Maybe she’d come across them again. Maybe, if she lasted long enough, she could find Tammy and Billy in these familiar stomping grounds and somehow make it up to them, pay them back for what they had sacrificed to keep her safe, which they had done just because she was one of them.

The best you can do is find what few people who won’t screw you over
, Tammy had said.
If you’ve found that, you’ve found home
.

Now more than ever, Haley understood what an amazing concept “home” was.

She began to search the faces of the people on the street, hoping to eventually see Billy’s familiar shock of orange hair, or Tammy’s wise and weary features. It was foolish, she knew. If she found them, she would likely run afoul of Isbecky again. She had the feeling that he wouldn’t take losing her very well. From the moment she had slipped into the wisp of a dress she was still wearing, she knew she was just another possession to him, like the creepy occult pieces that decorated his lair. That bedroom would be seared into her psyche, fuel for countless nightmares to come. The thought of it made her even more desperate to find a familiar face in the crowd, though that task seemed impossible.

Then she saw him. It was Todd, the boy from the warehouse with those delicate, feminine features and the long hair. He was leaning up against a building, trying to hustle a john from the passing cars. Her elation was short-lived, however. Before she could raise a hand and call to him, a couple of guys rounded the corner and took particular interest in the wisp of a boy. She was shocked when the two men, dressed in matching dark clothing with styled haircuts and brand-new high-dollar tennis shoes, grabbed Todd by his arms and dragged him off into a nearby alley. No one on the street bothered to notice. To pay attention made one responsible to do something, and as Haley was quickly learning, a precious few were willing to stick their necks out for the dregs of Hollywood.

Haley, however, couldn’t help herself. Todd was now her only link to anything familiar. They had an unintentional kinship, and she couldn’t stop her feet from following into the alley. She didn’t know what she could do to help Todd. But she knew she had to do something.

As she approached, she heard the men taunting Todd. “What are
you
gonna do, faggot?”

“Yeah, I think you’re just gonna suck our dicks. Then maybe we won’t cave your fucking head in, you piece of shit.”