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Real nice.
Nicer than anything.
I wish I could stay here forever,thought Angel.
Ross said, “Don’t worry about Tina. She means nothing to me. We go back all the way to college and we have history, but it’s all over now. She used to be different from what you just saw. She’s changed. Made a mess of her life with selfish decisions.” He paused and then added reflectively, “Reckon we all have.”
“So you feel nothing for her?” Angel said, hoping against hope.
“Nothing,” said Ross. He raised his free hand to push hair away from her face.
“Can I say something to you?” He said, echoing her earlier words in bed.
“Okay…”
“When I put you under the hypnosis, you gave me the name of your old neighborhood. A place called Saturn Heights.”
Dusty. Hot. Palms. Gunshots. Dogs howling. I’m locked in this room. Poboy wants to fuck me. Is Mama dead? Why does it hurt to live?
“I…” No words came. The flashes came, though. And maybe Ross saw them in her eyes. She grabbed the nearest support, trying not to make it obvious her legs were shaking.He’ll send me away now.
“It’s not a good place,” she managed to say.
Ross nodded. And then he took a risk. He said, “If you accept what I’m offering, you won’t have to go back there yet.” Ross McCall’s eyes lost some of their color. They glittered just like the distant lights in the hills. “But there’s a price,” he said.
“Oh…”
Ross said, “You can stay here for at least nine months. If you want to leave after that, I’ll write you a big check and we can be done with each other.”
She was wide-eyed.
“Nine months,” said Ross. “Then you’re free.” He put the cigarette down and let it burn. He coughed and turned away from her, his broad shoulders hunched.
Angel’s mouth opened in a littleo.
“You’re saying, I get pregnant, I don’t have to leave?”
Immediately he began to justify it. “I know it’s sudden. But Manny vouched for you. I don’t see a reason why not. You’re sweet, artistic, attractive. A little rough around the edges, maybe…Maybe this is what we both need, even if we come from different worlds.”
“I can’t help that,” said Angel quickly. “Nobody taught me how to talk nice and be fancy.”
“I don’t care about that.”
Angel chewed her lower lip. “I want riches for myself, I don’t care about it much in others. It doesn’t bother me that you’re rich.”
“I hear that.” Ross shrugged. “But you don’t need to be in my world. It can be just a transaction. You need the money, I want a kid. Simple. Stay here and raise it with me, or take the money and run.”
“Oh my God.”
“Think about it,” he said gruffly. “That’s all.”
Take the money and run.
“They would grow up here? In this place? The babies?” She asked carefully.
“You’re thinking more than one?” He teased.
“Twins run in my family.” She blinked. “Oh my God, I just remembered that. My twin cousins…My mama was a twin. I rememberedtwothings! Ross, I think my memory’s coming back!”
