“How did he know about Kassie?”
“Since he only rented two rooms last night, I had to sleep with the trips in Abby and Diego’s room. I must have talked in my sleep last night when I was dreaming about Kassie. Diego took it upon hisself to go and tell Channie’s Daddy when I went to go get ice. I tried to tell him me and Kassie was only friends, but he didn’t buy it. Didn’t really surprise me. It was a pretty good dream.”
Josh felt like a jerk. He’d been so focused on finding Channie, he hadn’t considered what this must be doing to Kassie. “Have you called her?”
“No point.”
“Just because you can’t tell her where you are or why you had to leave, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t call her. She’s going to be worried sick about you.”
There was a heavy sigh on the other end of the phone. “She told me not to call her no more.”
“Why? What happened?” They hadn’t been able to keep their hands off each other at the restaurant three nights ago. Something must have happened after they went back to their room.
“I asked her to marry me.”
“Why?”
“I ain’t quite sure. I think I just got carried away, what with you and Channie being so happy and all. I thought Kassie’d be grateful. Ain’t too many men willing to marry a woman with another man’s bun in the oven.”
“Please tell me that’s not what you said.”
“She tried to tell me we was too young to get married. I told her if she was old enough to get knocked up, she was old enough to get married. She got downright huffy about it and told me she didn’t need no husband. I think that’s when I might of mentioned that her baby was gonna be a bastard if she didn’t marry someone before it was born. After that, she said we was through. Didn’t even want to be friends.”
“Do you want me to talk to her?”
“She made it pretty clear that it weren’t never gonna work out between the two of us.”
“Man, Hunter, I’m really sorry.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“I don’t mean to be insensitive, but I’m really worried about Channie. She needs your protection. Do you think you could apologize to her Dad?”
“I already did. He told me to go get a job and think about whether or not I was ready to settle down. I spoke my own concerns about Channie’s safety. He seems to think Mrs. Belks is getting better.”
“Is she?”
“Well, she ain’t hit or cursed nobody in a while so … maybe.”
“What are you going to do now?” According to Channie, Hunter had dropped out of school in the sixth grade. He had magic and a fake I.D. but he was so far out of his element there’s no way he was going to survive on his own.
“I was wondering if maybe I could bunk with you in your vehicle until I get me a job and a place of my own.”
“You wanna stay in Vegas?”
“I cain’t go home, so it’s as good a place as any.”
“As soon as I get enough money to travel, I’m grabbing Channie and getting the hell out of here. I have no idea where we’ll go, but you’re welcome to come with us.”
It was quiet on the other end of the phone for a long time. Hunter cleared his throat, but his voice was still tight and shaky. “Thanks, buddy. I sure do appreciate it.”
~***~
Josh applied for every job he could think of. Fry cook, pizza delivery, dishwasher, busboy, waiter, dog walker and landscape maintenance worker. No one would hire him. So he was shocked when Hunter called him — from yet another stranger’s phone — at three o’clock to tell him he’d landed a job and wouldn’t see him until tomorrow morning.
“You got a night job?” With his fake ID, Hunter could work in the Casinos, but he didn’t have any skills. “Doing what? Bussing tables?”
“Nope. Dancer.”
“Dancer? Wait … are you telling me you got a job as a stripper?”
“No. I’m an exotic male dancer.”
“Oh man. Hunter … it’s the same thing.”
“Nah-uh. They said I wasn’t allowed to expose myself completely. In fact, I had to use the lunch money you loaned me to buy me some fancy skivvies. All I got’s boxers.”
“Hunter, you don’t have to do this. We’ll find you a respectable job.”
“My new boss said once I get the hang of it I can make a lot of money on account of my battle scars. She’s gonna get me a soldier’s uniform and have a jewelry expert put my lucky slug on an eighteen karat, solid gold chain. I’m gonna be ‘Hunter, the wounded warrior.’”
The thought of Hunter — half-naked, grinning and rubbing his shoulder where Channie shot him — nauseated Josh. “You are not a war vet.”
“Some of them dancers make over a thousand dollars a night.”
“Doing what?”
“Dancin.’”
“Yeah, right.”
~***~
Josh spent another restless night trying to sleep in the back of his car. Hunter banged on the rear window a little before sunrise. Josh used the remote on his key to roll it down. Hunter grinned and tossed him a three-inch thick roll of bills bound with a rubber band. “That there’s over nine hundred dollars.”
Josh whistled as he thumbed through the money. “You made all this? In one night?”
“I made a whole lot more’n that, but I done bought myself a new cellular telly-phone.” His eyes lit up as he patted his right front pocket.
Josh wasn’t surprised the first thing he bought was a new phone.
“Plus, I had to pay the club for the privilege of dancing on their stage.”
“How was it?”
“At first I was sort of embarrassed when the women started shoving money in my pants, but I got used to it right quick.” Hunter ground his hips and grinned.
Josh dropped the money and wiped his hands on his jeans.
“Move over, city-boy and let me in. I’m plum wore out.”
“I’ll bet.” Josh scooted to the side so Hunter could crawl in through the window. “It’s too hot to sleep in the car during the day without a cooling spell. Are you too tired to cast one?”
Hunter picked up the wad of cash and grinned. “Let’s go get us a room somewheres with air conditioning. And this time it’s my treat.”
It took another three days for Josh to figure out the reason no one would hire him was because his own magic was working against him. It didn’t matter how good he was at faking enthusiasm during an interview. As long as his “wish fulfillment” magic was in effect he wasn’t going to land a minimum wage, mind-numbing, dead-end job he didn’t want. He really needed to figure this magic stuff out.
He waltzed into the next bike shop he saw and inhaled the familiar scent of metal, rubber and grease. The only other person in the shop was sitting behind the counter, reading a magazine.
Josh put his palms on the counter and leaned in to read the name tag on the guy’s shirt. “Good morning, Sean. Who do I talk to about applying for a job.”
Sean licked his thumb and turned a page. “We’re not hiring.” He didn’t even bother to look up.
“I’d like to talk to the manager.”
The kid sighed and closed his magazine then tossed it onto the counter. “You already are.”
Josh frowned when he saw a photo of his face in the lower left corner on the cover. “Rising star falls to new low.”
Sean squinted at him then blinked and widened his eyes. “Whoa. You’re Joshua the Jet!”
“Not anymore. Now about that job …”
~***~
Josh didn’t make a tenth of the money Hunter did, but he still had his self-respect — for the most part. Hunter insisted on paying rent so they could live in a two-bedroom, furnished apartment with a swimming pool. Josh paid for groceries and gas and let Hunter drive his car to work since they were on different schedules. It didn’t take long to figure out he’d never make enough money to support Channie, even after he took on a second job at Discount Tire. Once they left Las Vegas, sh
e’d have to work too. They’d both be locked into dead end jobs. It wasn’t the kind of life he’d promised Channie when he married her.
Hunter did his best to convince Josh to give exotic dancing a try, but there was no way in hell Josh would ever degrade himself by working as a stripper. It was bad enough just sharing an apartment with one. Josh insisted Hunter do all his “practicing” in his own room, with the door shut, but knowing what he was doing in there made his skin crawl.
Josh was just starting to accept Hunter’s career choice when he came home between jobs to change uniforms and found Hunter — wearing nothing but his stripper’s thong — shaving his legs in the bathroom sink.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. You gonna shave your pits too?”
Hunter lifted his arms above his head. “Already did.”
“That’s it. You need to hand over your man card right now.”
“All the guys at the club shave their bodies.”
“And how many of them are gay?”
A red flush bloomed outward from Hunter’s chest, splotching his neck and face. “That ain’t got nothing to do with it.”
Josh felt a twinge of shame for his homophobic remark, but he couldn’t help it if standing in the bathroom with Hunter’s nearly naked body creeped him out. And catching him in the act of shaving his legs like a girl only added to the weirdness. “You’re right. I’m sorry. A couple of the guys at Discount Tire are openly gay but they don’t shave anything other than their faces.” Josh stripped out of his red coveralls and turned the hot water on in the shower.
“How do you know? You checking ‘em out?”
Josh groaned. He’d stepped right into that one. “All I’m saying is it’s weird for a guy — whether he’s gay, straight or bi — to shave his legs and armpits.”
“Oh yeah, well how many of them hairy boys at Discount Tire make over a thousand dollars a night?”
“Some things are more important than money. Like being able to look at the man in the mirror without wanting to puke.”
Hunter flexed his muscles as he twisted and posed in front of the mirror. “Just so happens, I like what I see.”
Josh popped Hunter’s butt with a towel. “Cut that out, perv.”
Hunter laced his fingers behind his head and did a disgusting bump and grind move. “The ladies like it, too.”
Josh closed his eyes and shuddered. He knew Hunter was just trying to annoy him so he refused to take the bait. “There’s only one lady I care about and I don’t think she’d approve.”
“Channie don’t have to know. You hardly ever see her. Six months of dancing and you’d be able to take her to California, or anywhere you wanted.”
“And then what? That may seem like lots of money right now, but it won’t last forever.” Josh had only seen Channie twice since they’d arrived two weeks ago. And that was from a distance.
Since her parents lived so close to the casinos, no one had any idea when they might show up. They didn’t have a regular schedule so Channie couldn’t just sneak out whenever Diego and Abby went to bed. And her dad was still too pissed off at Hunter to let him anywhere near Channie.
Josh needed to make more money so they could leave, but he was determined to do it without taking his clothes off. “I’d rather spend the rest of my life as a grease monkey, or a wrench, than one night as a stripper.”
“I ain’t no stripper. I’m an exotic male dancer. And what’s a wrench?”
“Bike shop mechanic.” Josh adjusted the water in the shower then peeled his greasy t-shirt off over his head. The coveralls helped, but the black grit from the tire store permeated everything, including his skin. “How much longer are you going to be in here? I need to get cleaned up and I’m not stripping down in front of a stripper.”
Hunter tossed the plastic razor in the trash then wiped the shaving cream off his legs with a towel. “I talked to Channie this morning. Diego let her borrow his phone after her folks took off for the Casinos.”
Josh’s heart skipped a beat. “Is she okay?” He knew the only reason she’d called Hunter instead of him was to keep Diego from finding Josh’s number on his phone, but he couldn’t keep a little jealousy from seeping into his energy field.
Hunter smirked, but didn’t rub it in. “She was disappointed that you’d already left for work, but other than that, she’s fine. She said to tell you ‘hi,’ and that she loves you. She also told me to give you a big hug for her.” Hunter spread his arms and smirked as he took a step towards Josh. He was obviously still trying to provoke him.
Josh put a hand on Hunter’s chest and stiff-armed him. “What else did she say?”
“Oh, nothing much. Something about needing to strengthen some bond …”
Josh bit his lip to keep from groaning out loud. He missed Channie so much it hurt.
Hunter’s grin widened. “I got the night off from work tomorrow. I thought I might bring her over here for a couple of hours. Is that okay?”
“Are you kidding me?” Josh’s heart thundered in his chest.
“There’s just one catch.”
“What?”
“We have to bring the trips. Channie’s Daddy still don’t trust me and insisted we have a chaperone. He wanted Abby to come, but she convinced him the boys would keep us too busy to get into trouble.”
Josh loved Channie’s nephews but they weren’t supposed to know he was here. Especially not Savvy. That kid was too smart for his own good. “How’s that gonna work?”
“Me and Channie got it all figured out. I’m gonna take ‘em swimming in the pool and Channie’s gonna come on up to the apartment and cook supper. That’ll give you two love birds a couple of hours all to yourselves.”
“That’s awesome!” Josh almost hugged Hunter in his enthusiasm, but caught himself just in time and punched his shoulder instead.
~***~
The next afternoon, Josh had a hard time focusing on work. It was a good thing he was at the bike shop instead of Discount Tire. He could tune a bike in his sleep.
Sean said, “Got a hot date tonight, Abrim?”
“Huh?”
“You’re looking at the clock more often than that Viper you’re working on.”
He fought the urge to roll his eyes and shifted his gaze to his hands. “I’ll be done in five minutes. What’s next?”
“That’s it for today. Go on, get outta here.” He reached for the wrench in Josh’s hand and nudged him away from the bike stand. “But you better be ready to work when you come back tomorrow. No more slacking.”
Josh tuned and repaired twice as many bikes as Sean on a daily basis, but he needed the job so he just nodded. “Thanks.”
He parked three blocks away from the apartment complex so the trips wouldn’t see his car with the Colorado plates. Zeal and Courage probably wouldn’t notice, but Savvy sure as hell would. Josh’s heart pounded as if this were his first date. He wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans and scowled when he noticed the grease imbedded in the creases of his knuckles and under his nails. No matter how hard he scrubbed, he could never get all the grime off. He ducked between a couple of commercial trash bins and cast a cleansing spell on himself. Awesome!
Hunter was already laying out by the pool when Josh arrived. He snuck through the gate, picked a plastic cup out of the trash and dipped it into the water then dumped it on Hunter’s head. He jumped to his feet spluttering and swearing. “What the hell? Why’d you go and do that for?”
Josh laughed and pointed at Hunter’s black speedo. “Anyone wearing a banana hammock is asking for it.”
Hunter wiped his face with his towel. “Just so happens, Ms. Jennifer likes it. In fact, she bought it for me.”
“I’m afraid to ask, but who’s Ms. Jennifer?”
“My new girlfriend.”
“If she’s your girlfriend, why do you call her ‘Ms. Jennifer?’”
Hunter shrugged and grinned.
“How old is she?”
“I don’t know. And
I don’t care. She’s real nice to me.” Hunter pulled an iPhone out from under the towel he’d been lying on. “Look what she gave me after work last night.”
“Uh-huh. And what, exactly, is Ms. Jennifer getting out of this?”
Hunter’s grin spread across his face until it seemed as if it would split in half. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Actually, no. I’d rather not hear the details. Just be careful, Hunter. Sometimes these cougars have jealous husbands.”
Hunter nodded, all traces of humor gone from his face. “Don’t I know it!”
Josh handed Hunter another towel. “How’re Channie and the trips getting over here?”
“Taxi.”
“That sounds expensive.” It was strange how Josh thought about the cost of everything now, whether or not he had to pay for it. Working to earn a paycheck had shifted his perspective on a lot of things. “I’m going to go on up to the apartment and get ready.”
The first thing Josh noticed when he walked in was the smell. His nose led him to the stack of dirty dishes in the sink and overflowing trashcan. It was a good thing he’d left work early. He didn’t know what would happen if he cast a cleansing spell on the dishes so he just rinsed them off and shoved them into the dishwasher, then took out the trash.
Josh’s work clothes were spotless from the cleansing spell, but he wanted to look his best for Channie. He pulled on a dark blue t-shirt, since that was her favorite color, and a pair of light blue board shorts. He’d washed his sheets at the Laundromat across the street last night but hadn’t had time to remake his bed before leaving for work this morning. He took care of it then kicked the pile of dirty clothes into his closet and shut the door.
Channie would show up any minute now, so Josh grabbed the TV remote and flopped onto the couch to wait. Maybe he could catch the rebroadcast of the SoCal National BMX race on ESPN.
He flipped through the channels so fast, he nearly missed it, but a still shot of a vaguely familiar face caused him to hesitate on CNN. The scrolling bar across the bottom of the screen read, Kentucky State Representative, Powell Veyjivik, still missing…
Josh froze, then dropped the remote on the floor and leaned forward, elbows on knees.
TAKEN: Book Two Page 21