Hewitt: Jagged Edge Series #1 (17 page)

Most of the homeless people lived in Jackson Height or East Elmhurst. We decide to start there. Hopefully, someone would be able to recognize her. She was only seventeen when she got pregnant with me, making her around forty-two or forty-three now. Even though I didn’t have a picture of her, my guess was that she looked like an older version of me.

Hitting Queens, I began searching for homeless shelters in the Elmhurst and Jackson Heights area. There were so many of them. It was going to be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Peter suggested we check the older ones first. He said that most homeless people are creatures of habit. Once they are comfortable with their surroundings, they tend to avoid change. They don't trust people. They also tend to hold tight to their belongings. Belongings they would kill for.

Our trip to Queens was turning out to be a waste of time. We had been to at least a dozen homeless shelters. No one knew of Diana Walker. We were heading back to the car when an elderly man came up to us. There was no mistaking that he had been living on the streets for some time. He was wearing torn clothing and looked like he hadn't showered in months.

"You looking for Blondie?" the man asked.

"You know Diana Walker?" Peter replied.

"Yeah, I know her. Only everyone calls her Blondie. What do you want with her?" he sneered, spitting on the concrete.

"Do you know where we can find her?" Peter asked, walking closer to the old man.

"Depends," he said, holding his hand out like he was expecting something from us.

Peter pulled out his wallet and handed the old man a twenty dollar bill. The man slowly reached for it and stuffed it in the pocket of his torn pants. Looking back at Peter he said, "You may want to check the camp. That's where you'll most likely find her."

"Where is this camp?" Peter questioned the old man.

"It's in the Weeping Beech Park. Ask for Termite. He can help you get to her," the old man instructed, throwing his backpack over his shoulder and walking away.

After talking to the homeless man, I felt like I needed to take a long shower. Even though I didn't get near him, letting Peter do all the talking, I felt like I needed to wash the stink off my body. Even though Peter didn't touch him either, I still pulled out my sanitizer and handed it to him. As he looked at me like I grew a new set of horns, I grabbed his hand and squirted a dab onto his palm. "Don't look at me that way, Peter. Who knows what kind of diseases he might have?"

The park the homeless man mentioned was only a couple of miles from where we were. Peter was trying to find a place to safely park while I looked around. Looking at the park, no one would be able to tell that a homeless camp resided inside. Parking the car, Peter and I got out and headed to the park’s entrance. The deeper we got inside the park, the more we could see the homes of the homeless made out of cardboard and blankets. I took hold of Peter's hand, gripping it like my life depended on it. There were a few homeless men sitting on a park bench nearby. Peter approached them. There was no way I would trust these men, so I positioned my body behind Peter's.

"Excuse me," Peter said, watching one of the men looking straight at him. "I'm looking for a man named Termite."

"I'm Termite. What do you want?" an older black man asked.

"A friend of yours said you could help us find Diana Walker. She goes by the name of Blondie," Peter answered, pushing me further behind him.

"Yeah, I can take you to her, but it'll cost ya," he said.

Once again, Peter pulled his wallet from his back pocket and handed the man a twenty. When the man stood there without moving his hand, Peter knew he wanted more. After Peter placed another twenty in his hand, the man finally stuffed the money in a small bag that was hanging around his neck.

"Follow me," he said, leaving his friend on the bench.

I wasn't sure how long we had walked, but I was beginning to get the feeling that we had been taken. The only thing homeless people knew how to do was survive, even if it meant conning forty bucks out of us. I was about to tell Peter that I thought he'd been had when the man stopped and pointed to a tent nestled between a couple of trees. The tent was made out of a large blue tarp, with rope to keep it in place. There was a piece of cardboard leaning against the front of the tent which was being used to keep out the cold.

As we walked closer to the tent, we could see that the tarp wasn’t in the best of shape. It looked to have been very well used, with several tears in it. Peter, being who he was, knocked lightly on the cardboard, careful not to knock it over. A loud voice came over from inside. "I don't want whatever you’re selling,"

Peter looked over to me. I switched places with him squatting in front of the tent. "We're looking for Diana Walker. Are you her?" I asked.

"Who wants to know?" the woman asked coldly.

"Her daughter," I said, looking up at Peter.

I could hear rustling inside the tent. I pushed back to standing and backed away from the ratty tent. When the cardboard fell forward and the woman appeared, I saw myself. The woman had the same color eyes and hair as me. Her frame was smaller, but that could be due to the drugs and lack of food. The woman stood and focused her eyes on mine. In a soft voice she said, "Lillabell."

CHAPTER TWENTY

Peter

The minute Lilly's mom looked at me, I knew she was deciding whether or not she knew me. It had been over fifteen years since she had seen me. I was just a young kid then, skinny and scrawny, but when I saw her standing behind a tree at the cemetery where Adam was buried, I knew who she was. When Lilly offered to take her to get a decent meal, I just about flipped. There was no way I would be able to get out of this. I just hoped we could get through the meal without her saying something.

We decided to take Lilly's mom to a small café just down the street from the park where she was living. We thought it would be better to start off small. Lilly wasn't too sure how she would react being around people. When we were seated, I could tell Lilly's mom wasn't as sheltered as Lilly thought. She might be able to fool Lilly, but she didn't fool me one bit. She knew exactly what she wanted and how to get it.

There was very little conversation during our meal, which for me was a good thing. It wasn't until Lilly excused herself to go the restroom that the real Diana Walker came out.

"I know who you are. I saw you at that cemetery. You may not look the same, but I knew it was you. Does Lilly know what you did to her brother?" Diana hissed as she pointed her finger at me.

"I was wondering when you were going to bring that up." I replied. "Whatever you think, Diana, what happened to your son was an accident."

"Hogwash. You may have been able to fool the authorities, but I know my son didn't just fall from that tree house," she barked, picking at her food. “So here's the deal. You give me what I want, and your little secret stays between us."

Before I could find out what she really wanted, Lilly walked back to the table. Looking first at me and then her mom, she knew something was up. Taking her place next to me, she was about to say something, but her mom chimed in.

"So your boyfriend here has offered to help me find a new place to live, closer to you. Isn't that wonderful, Lillabell," she proclaimed, looking right at me.

"Peter, is that true?" Lilly asked confused.

"Yeah, I thought it would be good to have her closer to you," I lied. I wasn't sure what Diana's game was, but I knew I had to play along, at least for now.

Lilly wrapped her arms around my waist and laid her head on my shoulder. Looking over to Diana, I made an ultimatum of my own. "There's one condition that Diana has agreed to. She's agreed to stay clean and go to regular NA meetings," I declared with a grin.

After dinner, we headed back to the park. Diana wanted to grab her things that she had Termite keep an eye on. Knowing that she wasn't going to be living in the camp any longer, she didn't want to leave behind what few belongings she had. After she gathered all her things, we headed to the car. I popped the trunk and loaded the green garbage bag full of her shit into the trunk.

Once we were back in Manhattan, I located a motel with a reasonable rate for Diana to stay at until I could find other living arrangements for her. Leaving Lilly and Diana in the car, I walked to the motel office to get her a room. When I got back, Lilly had tears in her eyes. I thought for sure Diana had broken our deal and told Lilly what happened to her brother.

Opening the door for her, I asked, "Are you okay, Lilly?"

Looking up at me, she answered softly, "Yeah."

I wasn't sure what else I could say without making things worse, especially if the cat was out of the bag. I took Lilly by the hand and helped her out of the car so Diana could slide out of the back seat. I handed Diana her room key and watched as they said their good-byes. It wasn't long before we were back in the car and on our way to Lilly's place.

With one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding Lilly's hand, I turned my head while still trying to keep an eye on the road. "Are you going to tell me why you were crying?"

"I asked my mom why she chose to live on the streets instead of fighting for me," Lilly said.

"And...what did she say?" I asked.

"She said she didn't have a choice. She said she ran away from home because she couldn't take being abused anymore. She said my brother was the result of that abuse. Every time she looked at him, she was reminded of how he came into the world. That was when the drugs started. She needed something to block out the pain. She became addicted, but even the drugs couldn't help. So she decided to get rid of the problem. She left him at the fire station. He was four. A few years later, she became pregnant with me. She knew she needed to change her ways. She stayed clean until I was born. She was able to stay at a women's shelter with me since I was just a baby. It was getting harder for her to stay clean. The shelter found out that she was using again and call DFS. She was kicked out and I was taken away from her after she had been given several chances to get clean." Lilly's eyes began to fill with tears as she explained her mother's story.

I couldn't stand the torment she was going through, I pulled over the first chance I got and put the car into park. Pulling Lilly towards me, I lifted her body over the center console so that she was sitting on my lap. Her head cradled under my chin as her tears fell. "It will be okay, Lilly. Sometimes people make choices that aren't necessarily the right ones. I think your mom did what she could with what she had been given."

Lifting her chin, I brushed the last of her tears from her face and lowered my lips to hers. Her lips were soft and swollen. I could taste a hint of salt from the tears that had fallen. Lilly's arms wrapped around my shoulders as her breasts pushed against my chest. I could feel the onset of my arousal as the confines of my cock began to get tighter. As much as I hated it, I knew I needed to stop. The last thing I wanted was to be so far gone with desire that the world would see just how badly I needed her.

Breaking our kiss, I whispered. "Are you ready to go?"

With a slight nod, Lilly pushed from my body and scooted over the console and back into the passenger seat. Once she was buckled in, I put the car into drive and pulled out of the parking lot. I caught myself looking over to Lilly several times during our drive, just to make sure she was okay. Even though she had fallen asleep, I still couldn't help but look at her. She was the most gorgeous woman I had ever seen. I just wanted to get her back to her place as quickly as possible so that I could alleviate the hard-on I had since we left that parking lot thirty minutes ago.

Fifteen minutes later, I pulled into the parking garage at Lilly's. She hadn't moved an inch in the last half an hour. This day had to have been hard on her. Getting out of the car quietly, I rounded the back and opened her door. Unbuckling her seat belt, I glided my hand under her thighs and lifted her carefully from the car. She didn't even stir, other than to nestle her head on my shoulder. Walking to the elevator, I could hear her soft moans, which were doing a number on my dick.

By the time we got to her condo, there wasn't an inch of space left where my raging hard-on was sitting, and my jeans were rubbing against the head of my cock. Placing her on her bed, I removed her shoes, took the blanket that was draped over her chair, and laid it over her body. God, how badly I wanted her. The minute she woke up, I would be getting my fill of her sweet tight pussy.