Chapter Eleven
For the pasttwo weeks, Muerto hadn’t shown up at the house, and Raven found herself listening for the roar of his bike. As much as she hated to admit it, she missed him. A big part of her craved something wild and dangerous to take her out of the mundane routine of everyday living. That something was Muerto. Even though she was fighting it like hell, she was definitely attracted to the biker, and it wasn’t just for his good looks. That night at Alfonso’s had shown her another side of him. He’d spoken from his heart about his mom and sisters, and when he’d told her about his dad, she heard pain in his voice.There’s still a little boy in him.And that’s what she liked.
Her phone vibrated against the table and she went over to see who was calling.It’shimagain. Shit.Ever since she’d encountered Brent on her porch a few weeks before, he’d been calling and texting her like crazy. Sometimes she picked up and put him on speakerphone as he rambled about how he wanted them to get back together. She’d made two pairs of earrings during one of his monologues, but mostly she ignored him. The previous week she hadn’t received the requisite bombardment of calls, and she’d hoped he’d moved on.No such luck.
She slid her unanswered phone into her jeans pocket.
“If your plan is to drive me crazy, asshole, it’s starting to work,” she said aloud as she put a tube of lip gloss in her fanny pack. She grabbed her keys, scratched Sooty behind the ears, and went into the garage.
Soon she was headed over for her bi-monthly run to Junkyard Blues. Sometimes she’d find the coolest stuff, and other times it was a bust, but she’d never think of not checking it out. Inserting Hammerfall’s CD into her player, she put on her sunglasses and drove to the junkyard.
Junkyard Blues was a two-block square of dead and broken parts a few miles out of town. A high cement wall enclosed it, topped with barbed wire. Inside, rusty, dented cars were piled high in precarious heaps, hubcaps were scattered around the ground like donuts in a supersized box, and stacks of tires lent to the pervasive odor of metal and rubber.
As she walked around, she picked up a couple of hubcaps, three sheets of scrap metal, and unscrewed a few hood ornaments from the dead cars. The one from an old orange Mustang caught her eye: a busty woman with long flowing hair. She’d use the woman’s head and some of her hair as a pendant for a necklace, or she might use the whole ornament as part of a retro collage. At the time of purchase, she never quite knew where the pieces would end up in her repurposed art.
Turning down one of the lanes, she saw two guys standing in front of a pile of broken cars. As she began to walk down the aisle, she recognized one of the men as being the doofus who lost a wad of money to her about a month before.What the hell was his name? Cory. Yeah, that’s right.Not wanting to have an encounter with him, she spun around and went in another direction.
Deciding that leaving was probably the best thing to do, she walked toward the office to pay for her finds when what looked like a 1930s’ radio caught her eye.” Fucking awesome,” she said under her breath as she put her items on the ground and ran her fingers over the scratched wooden console. Turning it around, excitement coursed through her; most of the small radio tubes were intact. She’d been looking high and low for them, and the ones she’d found and bought online were pricey. To find them at the junkyard was beyond awesome. She could already picture them filled with semi-precious stones, or beads of varying colors, or colored sand to create a Native American look.I can even put dried flowers in them, or just leave them clear. This is great.
“Look who we have here,” a gravelly voice said behind her.
Hair lifted on the nape of her neck and arms as her heartbeat raced.Fuck!She slowly turned around and gazed into Cory’s tight face, his eyes cold and hard. “Hey,” she mumbled. Darting her eyes around the area, she tried to figure out how she could get away.
“Taking a break from hustling, bitch?” Cory spit out, and the short guy next to him laughed.
With her adrenaline pumping, she pretended to be clueless. She couldn’t let him see how scared she was. Bad people lived off the fear of others; if he could see she was afraid, she knew that would be her undoing.
“Just looking for some things to repurpose. They have some cool stuff here.”Be friendly but not overdone. Nonchalance is the key.
Cory seemed taken aback for a couple of seconds, and then his face twisted in anger again. “Spending the money you steal from hard-working people?”
“Look, I don’t want there to be any hard feelings. I’ll give you your money back.”
“I don’t want it anymore, bitch. You made me look like a fucking fool.”
You’re already a fool, so don’t blame me, asshole.She bit her inner cheek so her thought didn’t accidentally slip out. Even though she was scared, she was also pissed that Cory was threatening to ruin what had started out as a good day. “I didn’t mean to. Just take your money and let’s put this behind us, okay?” She started to shuffle away but Cory’s friend came up behind her.
“I want a piece of your ass. I admired it every time I saw you. Your ass for my money. Seems fair. What do you think, Tyler?” Cory grinned like a grotesque pumpkin on Halloween. She shuddered.
“It’d be fairer if her ass was for both of us. After all, she hustled you out of your paycheck.”
What kind of an idiot bets his whole paycheck on a pool game? Fuckin’ moron!As images of what could be flashed in her head, she gulped down breaths to steady herself. She couldn’t lose her cool. Again she looked around, but it was as quiet as a graveyard. The only sound was the background clanking of a distant freight train as it sliced through the desert.
“Oh my God! What is that?” she yelled as she pointed behind Cory. He whipped around and his friend moved away from her, and she took off running. She knew the few seconds she’d distracted them wasn’t much but she ran with all she had, dust kicking up behind her heels. Her lungs struggled to keep up with her panting, feeling as though they would burst, but she kept going.
Right before she rounded the corner to go down one of the aisles, searing pain assaulted her scalp as she was snapped back like a rubber band. “Fucking bitch!” Cory’s voice boomed as his hand wrapped tighter around her long hair.
“Leave me alone!” Desperately, she tried to break away from his grip, but she was no match for his strength.
“Grab her legs,” Cory said to Tyler. He complied and soon Raven was on the ground, Tyler holding her down as Cory sank to his knees. Tyler’s hand muffled her screams, and both of them restrained her kicks.
“She’s a fighter,” Tyler said as he clamped his hand tighter over her mouth.
The bright sun beat down on them and black spots danced in front of her eyes.What am I going to do?Bile rose up her throat.
Cory ran his hands over her breasts and squeezed them. “You’re gonna find out what happens to bitches who dupe me.” Sneering, he unzipped his jeans.
She closed her eyes, swallowing the lump forming in her throat.He’s going to rape me. Oh God. No. No. No!Her insides screamed with terror as Cory’s fingers tugged at the waistband of her jeans. Tyler snickered as he hovered over her, his hand still pressed against her mouth.
