Touch Slowly (Red Light: Silver Girls series) (2 page)

Nick walked up and stood on the other side of Nova and put his arm around her shoulders. "You'll be okay, Nova. Your mom is coming back for you and you've spent the night at our house lots of times before."

"I know." She sniffed.

The bug started, and her mom continued to wave out the window. Nova leaned against Nick. She wanted to go with her mom.

Two short honks of the horn and her mom left the trailer park. Nova released Shayla's hand and turned away from Nick to wipe her eyes on her shirt without her cousins noticing. Her mom would be back. She'd promised.

N
ova Kinsley's rapid heartbeat broke through the music drifting into her room from downstairs in the Sterling Building. She slipped the thin piece of cardboard she'd ripped off a shoebox between the sliding door in her room and the sensor at the end of the wire hooked to the alarm system. A decade-old system that guaranteed no unpaying customers came into the illegal bordello via the balcony and none of the prostitutes snuck away from doing their job.

Luckily, she grew up running wild in a trailer park and knew her way out of any situation.

She held the makeshift barrier in place with one hand and grabbed the roll of Duct tape she held between her knees. Tearing a piece of tape off with her teeth, she fastened the cardboard and tested her cleverness.

The door slid open soundlessly, and her homemade contraption stayed intact. Excitement energized her, and she squeezed through the open doorway onto the balcony. She let her vision adjust to the darkness, and then checked the alley for any guards. For the last four days, she'd noticed an influx of bikers patrolling the building during the hours the Silver Girls danced downstairs.

Her contraption would allow her to re-enter her room after Tiff, the madam of Red Light, the illegal bordello on the second floor of the Sterling Building, turned on the upstairs security system at two o'clock in the morning.

Satisfied no one was outside to witness her breaking the rules Tiff had in place for all four prostitutes working in Federal for the next three months, she unhooked the fire escape and slowly let the wrought-iron ladder extend. She shook her head in disbelief.

"You've got to be kidding me," she muttered, double checking her back pocket where she'd stuffed a twenty-foot piece of twine.

Even if she managed to lasso the ladder from ground level, the odds of the string being too light and flimsy were high, and she'd fail to pull the automatic retractable fire escape back down. Tying the ladder to something on the ground in the down position would make one of the bikers guarding the building suspicious. Besides, the other ladies working at the bordello deserved to sleep with the security of knowing the building remained secure.

She looked over the railing of the balcony again. God, she hadn't seen her cousins in three years when they moved from their hometown of Long Beach, Washington to Federal, Idaho. Tonight would only be the second time in six years she'd reconnected with them. Working for the Network kept her moving around the states constantly. She never had a choice on where she ended up.

Pushing away her worry over losing her job, her place within the Network, and any way of supporting herself if someone caught her leaving for the night, she lifted her leg and climbed down the ladder.

Four feet from the ground, she jumped. Landing on her feet, she squatted at the clank of the iron ladder retracting to the side of the balcony. She swallowed her fear of not getting back inside and sprinted toward the street. Somehow, she'd figure out how to get inside without anyone noticing.

In the late hour, the streets were quiet. There wasn't even a homeless person sleeping in the empty lot serving as a park for the townspeople. She slowed down, keeping to the alleys and out of the glow of the streetlights. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she tapped the redial button.

"Humm?" mumbled her cousin, Shayla.

"Hey, wake up." Nova glanced behind her and kept walking toward the viaduct. "I'm out, but I only have four hours before I need to get back to my room. Can you come and pick me up?"

Shayla yawned. "What time is it?"

"A little after two o'clock."

"No, I, um." Shayla exhaled loudly over the phone. "I'm can't. Do the clothes. He...yeah, in bed."

"Dammit, Shayla. You're drunk." Nova stopped and leaned against the concrete pillar. "You promised me you'd wait for me to call."

"I did." Shayla groaned.

"Listen to me closely. Do not get in your car. I don't want you driving." Nova lowered her voice. "Where's Nick?"

"Nick?" asked Shayla.

"Yes, where's your brother?" Nova paced anxiously. The opportunity to see her cousins slipping out of her grasp the longer it took her to make Shayla understand she wanted to come over now. "Give the phone to Nick."

"M'kay."

"Hurry, Shayla." Her voice echoed under the interstate above her.

Nova strained to see in the darkness. The long-haul truckers continually whizzing overhead made it impossible to hear anyone approach her on foot.

Several minutes passed without any noise from the other end of the call. If she had any idea how to find where Nick and Shayla lived, she'd start walking. All she knew from previous conversations with her cousin was that they lived together in a trailer about a mile from the viaduct. The overhead interstate went clear through town. She had no idea which direction to even start walking.

"Yeah?" said a male voice in her ear.

She startled. "Nick?"

"Who is this?" he asked.

"It's me, Nova. Your cousin." She paused. "Are you drunk?"

"No."

Her shoulders rounded in relief. "Thank God. I'm in Federal and need a ride."

"Where are you?"

"I'm under the viaduct. There's a sign that says Montana in one direction and Spokane in the other direction. Do you know where that is?"

"Yeah," he said.

"And, Nick?" She bit down on her lip. "Can you hurry? Please?"

"Be there in a couple of minutes."

"Thanks." The phone disconnected.

She glanced at the screen until the light went out. Older than her by six years, Nick remained a loner and quiet. He preferred working on his beater truck and kicking around with his friends.

As an only child, until she was eight years old, Nova learned fast how to get along with her cousins when she moved in with her Aunt Jennie when her mom ran away with her boyfriend. She had a fast wake-up call on what it meant to be family. Living with relatives, adapting to her environment, she gained knowledge that only proved to her that nobody's life was perfect.

Poverty made choices for all of them.

Aunt Jennie drank herself to an early death when her liver gave out. Nick fell in with a rough crowd and stayed away from the house, preferring to hang with his buddies in the park. Shayla—sweet and endearingly naive—continued searching for the rich man who would solve all her problems and had inherited the habit of numbing her disappointments with parties, peer pressure, and pretending everything was okay.

Nova dragged the toe of her sneaker against the ground. Wanting better for herself, she worked any part-time job she could find during high school before dropping out of school completely six months before graduating. She floundered for two years until she finally admitted she wasn't going anywhere and let Shayla talk her into signing up with the Network.

Except, Shayla chickened out when the contract was put in front of her and left Nova alone to move forward on her own.

Tired of hard living, she flourished as a prostitute. Six years later, she had over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to her name and had worked her way around the United States to find herself in Federal where her cousins had moved three years ago and stayed.

Now she had the opportunity to reconnect with the only relatives she had left.

A loud car pulled off the road and parked under the viaduct, revving its engine. Nova jogged over, straining to see through the darkened windshield. The lights under the interstate failed to uncover her view of the driver.

An urge to hurry pushed her to open the passenger door and the overhead light in the interior of the car came on. Her body froze. An unfamiliar man stared back at her.

The man's dirty blond hair hung almost to his shoulders. Under his baseball cap, his dark blue eyes studied her with interest. The frayed spots on the man's jeans distracted her. She held on to the door, ready to flee. The man was the polar opposite of her cousin Nick, who had brown hair, brown eyes, and a cleft chin.

"Who are you?" she asked on a gasp and at his proximity to her, she got a slight whiff of Lava soap.

Her stomach fluttered recognizing the clean scent she remembered growing up and the roughness of the pumice against her skin. On the man, the aroma was sexy as hell and comforting. Only men who lived an honest life and worked hard labor to put food on the table used a working man's soap.

"A friend of your cousin. Get in." He pressed his foot to the clutch and shifted the car into reverse.

Aware of time slipping away and not knowing the next time she'd have a chance to sneak away from Red Light, she slid into the front seat and shut the door. Her body careened toward the driver as he whipped the car around. She grabbed the door to keep from bumping into him.

"Shit." She pushed her back into the seat and grabbed for the seatbelt. "Did you rob a bank or something? Slow down. You'll have the cops pulling you over."

Her cousin's friend drove the car around the corner, burning rubber, and raced up the on-ramp. The change of momentum threw Nova against the door. She pressed her feet flat on the floor of the car to stabilize herself. "Seriously, I appreciate the ride, but I'd like to get there in one piece if it's okay with you."

The man ignored her, and the car rolled down the interstate in the right-hand lane. She glanced behind her. The guy was lucky no other cars were around in the middle of the night. The state police could pull him over easily if he continued speeding.

"Hang on." The man turned right off the interstate.

Prepared for the sudden change in speed, Nova squinted into the night and tried to read the street sign. She had no idea where Shayla and Nick lived or if the man would dump her at some unknown location and she'd never make it back to Red Light in time.

The headlights flashed over a tall, dark structure at the first stop sign. She gazed out at the twenty-foot statue of a miner and remembered which way they turned so she could point herself back to the interstate.

He hadn't gone far, maybe a mile, when he pulled onto a county road. If Shayla drank too much to take her back to Red Light, she'd borrow her cousin's car and leave it parked under the viaduct. No way was she risking her life again letting one of Shayla's friends drive her back to town.

"How long have you known Shayla?" she asked, uncomfortable with the lack of conversation and hoping to get her mind off the guy's death ride.

"A few years." He glanced over at Nova. "I live next door to her and Nick in the park."

He dimmed the lights on the car and turned off the road, slowing his speed over gravel and grass.

"Are we driving through someone's yard?" She gawked out the window taking in the row after row of run-down trailers scattered in front of her and warmth filled her. A trailer park, any trailer park, reminded her of home.

While she'd grown up in the same kind of environment, first with her mom and then with her aunt and cousins, she'd hoped Shayla and Nick had found a better life in their new location. Shayla talked as if they'd found their permanent place in Federal and planned on settling down.

He pulled up in front of a single-wide trailer with plastic flapping around the bottom edges of the house in an attempt to insulate against the weather and hide the lack of foundation. "She's inside."

Her heart raced in anticipation. She took off her seatbelt and opened the door. Turning to thank the man who brought her to her cousins' place, she flinched as the door shut in her face. He'd already walked away from the car and forgot about her.

Following her instincts to get inside the house before she drew any attention from the neighbors in the middle of the night, she hurried across the small expanse of weeds to the front door. She knocked, watching the nearest window for movement. When none came, and knowing Shayla probably conked out again after talking with her on the phone, Nova turned the handle and stepped inside.

The assault of stale cigarette smoke took her breath away. She fanned the air in front of her face and fought against the familiar setting. Every flat surface held multiple glasses and beer cans. The blue/green variegated carpet matted from age and wear. Each piece of furniture stood out on its own.

The orange flowered couch half covered with a faded purple comforter.

Two recliners—one mahogany with cracks on the thin arms and a green microfiber chair with a broken footrest propped up on a red brick.

The coffee table took up most of the floor and served as an eating table going by the plates stacked on top.

"Shayla?" she called to the empty room, stepping over a pile of clothes and heading toward the hallway.

Next time she planned to sneak out and visit, she'd make sure Shayla stayed focused. If she missed getting back to the Red Light on time, she'd lose her job. As it was, she risked one of those big goons on bikes who patrolled the building all the time spotting her escape and reentry to her room.

Living on the edge, pushing boundaries, and seeking her independence was once a part of her life she enjoyed. But, she was out of practice.

"Shayla?" She flipped the light on in the first bedroom and found two people cuddled together fully clothed. The woman definitely wasn't her cousin.

Pressured to hurry, she went to the next room and turned on the light. She sagged against the doorframe in relief. In all her travels, she'd never found a woman who had dark auburn hair, so beautiful and natural, with nary a freckle on a flawless face than Shayla. She stepped over the pile of clothes and sat down on the bed. After a childhood of sleeping in the same bed as her cousin, she understood that once she woke Shayla up, she'd be swept up in the vibrate energetic mood that seemed to consume Shayla's life.