The Hard Bounce - страница 65

Finally, we made it to the ground floor just as my lumbar started to cramp up. I propped Cassandra against the wall, holding her up by the hood of her sweatshirt, twisting at the waist to avoid a full blow-out of my back. Pins and needles buzzed painfully down my arm like a swarm of pissed-off bees. I muttered a few curses and looked out the door for Junior’s car. He wasn’t there yet. I cursed some more. Small blessing that the rain would keep foot traffic to a minimum as we got Cassandra out of the building. Nothing like trying to pull off a half-assed kidnapping in broad daylight.

Then the elevator bell pinged behind me.

My heart seized as I heard the old elevator door scrape open. My mind raced, and I leapt into the one action my panicked brain concocted. I blocked Cassandra with my body and stuck my face in her neck, a pose of lovers mid-makeout.

Tiny feet jumped up and paddled my ass, making my already overtaxed heart bounce around my ribcage like a superball. I jerked and turned to find a hyperactive Boston Terrier in a yellow rain slicker happily playing my backside like bongos.

“Down, Max!” a voice said from the other end of Max’s leash. I followed it to an elderly woman in a matching raincoat glowering at me. The dog jumped down and pulled the leash toward the door. “Get a room,” the old woman grumbled as she passed.

I turned to block Cassandra from the other side and stuck my face back against her neck. I counted to twenty after the door closed before I chanced another look for Junior. Of course, he was at the door, mouth open in shock.

“Fucking perv,” Junior said. Then he cackled softly.

He’d managed to keep his goddamned mouth shut long enough for us to prop Cassandra into the backseat. In the interim, he’d snickered out his nose twice, so I knew it was only a matter of time before the comments came flying.

“Shut it. I mean it. Think about what we just pulled her out of. It’s inappropriate.”

“It’s inappropriate,” Junior mocked in a Mary Poppins accent. “Out of the arms of one perv-” His last words got lost in an amused squeak.

“She’s fourteen, you sick fuck. Besides, what else could I have done? What would you do?”

“I wouldn’t have dry-humped the jailbait against the wall, that’s for sure. That’s inappropriate,” Junior said. Then, softly, “Fucking perv.”

“Not another word, Junior.” I was trying not to crack up myself. I’d just have to put up with a few years’ worth of Junior’s mockery. He snorted again, and that was it. We both lost our shit, and I giggled until my ribs ached. All in all, it wasn’t funny, but fuck, we needed the laugh.

Cassandra stirred with a grunt, and we quickly stifled ourselves.

“Twenty-five grand!” Junior sang to himself as we drove. Despite the throbbing bite on my hand and great big swollen balls, I felt like belting out a tune myself.

Junior pulled up in front of my apartment and killed the engine. The rain had driven Phil the Hippie off the porch for the day. It looked like, apart from one happy dog up my ass, the kidnapping (The abduction? A forced rescue?) would be brought off hitch-less.

Junior turned to me. “What the hell do we do now? Do we just give Kelly a ring and dump her in daddy’s limo when it comes by?”

I shrugged. “I haven’t thought that far ahead yet. We’re playing this by ear right now.” I jerked my thumb at the backseat. “Finding the kid changes things a bit.”

“Well, finding her alive sure as shit does.” Junior started singing his twenty-five grand song again, and I wanted to stop him before he started dancing. The day had been disturbing enough already. “Well, let’s get her inside. Then we’ll formulate. I don’t want her waking up and-”

Cassandra’s shriek just about made the two of us shit ourselves. She’d woken up all volume, swinging fists, and fury.

“Jesus Christ!” Junior yelped as he spun around, catching a flailing elbow to the ear. He fell backward, ass-first under the steering wheel.

“Fuck!” Startled, I jumped high in the seat, whacking my head into the roof hard enough to give myself a sharp pain at the base of my neck. I rolled to the right reflexively, caught the doorknob with my elbow, and tumbled backward out the door.