As she approached the bridge she would be sleeping under, she pulled the guy’s wallet out from her pocket. She removed the cash and credit cards, then pulled his driver’s license up enough to see what the mark’s name was. Jonathan Thomas Carter. She smiled before she chucked the wallet into the bushes. He never knew she had him.
She was still going to have to sleep under the bridge, but adding John’s $380 to her own funds gave her enough cash to get her to Texas. She had almost reached the bridge when she heard the scream of a laboring engine. She squinted into the bright headlights, making out the Audi from the warehouse just as it roared to a stop. She bolted, running as hard as she could, but as fast as she was, he was faster. He caught her in the parking lot of a fast food joint on the other side of the interstate.
“You’re not very fucking bright, are you?” he panted as he hauled her to a stop, holding her by the arm.
“Let go of me, you fucker!” Tina said as she lunged and struck, trying to break free of his iron grip. He held her, deflecting her blows until she stomped down hard on his bare foot, causing him to bellow in pain. Free from his grip, she ran again. She didn’t get far before he shoved her hard from behind, causing her to tumble and roll in the grass surrounding the parking lot.
Before she could regain her feet, he hovered over her as the spray from the sprinklers soaked them both. She kicked out hard at his leg and caught him just above the ankle. He roared in pain once more as he went to his knee, but he grabbed her leg as he fell. She rolled to her ass and kicked at him again, aiming for his face. He dodged the blow, but when her sneaker connected with his shoulder, she was able to slip his grasp. She had just gotten to her feet again when he tackled her from behind and knocked her down as he wrapped her up in his arms. She punched and kicked, but in moments he was sitting astride her, holding her arms to the ground as the sizzling sprinklers soaked them to skin.
“Okay, okay! Fuck!” Tina panted, trying to catch her breath.
“Don’t do that again or I’ll kick your ass. You got that?” he panted.
“Yeah, okay. Fuck. Let me up.”
He rolled off of her and hauled her to her feet by her arm.
“Where’s my fucking wallet, you bitch?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about!”
“Bullshit! Are you going to make me search you?”
Tina scrunched up her face and willed her tears to come. “You’re hurting me!”
“I’m going to hurt you a lot more if you don’t tell me where my fucking wallet is,” he said, not buying her charade for a moment.
“I told you, I don’t know what you are talking about!”
He tightened his grip just enough to let her know he wasn’t fucking around. “Don’t try me, sister. You won’t like me when I’m pissed off.”
Realizing that he saw right through her act, Tina’s tears disappeared as quickly as they had come. “If I show you where your wallet is and give you back the money, will you let me go? I promise I will just disappear this time. I can … make it worth your trouble.”
“Just shut the fuck up. I gave you a break and you shit on me. So save it. You have ten seconds to produce the wallet or I’m going to start undressing you until I find it.”
“Fuck you! It’s in the bushes on the other side of the interstate. There! You happy?”
“Show me,” Jack said as he gave her a shove and frog-marched her back to his Audi.
When they reached his Audi, Tina pointed to the bushes. “It’s in there … somewhere.”
“Then you’re going in after it.”
“I don’t know where it is! How am I supposed to find it in the dark?”
“That’s your problem.”
“Fuck,” Tina muttered. She waded into the bushes, wiping spider webs from her face as she searched. She was surprised to find the wallet lying on top of a bush not far in. She retrieved it and walked out, holding the wallet out to Jack. “Here, you bastard.”
As he reached for it, she threw it at him. He must have been expecting that, because as she tried to dart past him, he grabbed her by her ponytail. Tina cried out in pain as she was jerked to a stop and fell to the ground. She scrambled to her feet and held the hand that gripped her hair to try to relieve some of the pressure and pain.
“You fuck! That hurts, you son-of-a-bitch!”
“Hand me my wallet,” he muttered low and dangerous as he maintained his grip on her hair.
Tina gingerly crouched down and picked up his wallet and handed it to him. He thumbed it open and looked at the empty bills section.
“The money.”
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the wad of cash and cards she had taken from his wallet. Thank goodness her own stash was in her shoe. She meekly handed the money over.
“Into the car.”
“What are you going to do to me?” Tina asked, genuinely afraid now.
“I haven’t decided yet.”
She timidly crawled into the passenger seat. She already knew she couldn’t outrun him, and as he sat down in the car she turned over various possibilities for escape in her mind but rejected each one in turn.
He drove the short distance back to the warehouse, closing the big door with a press of a button on the visor. As the Audi’s engine fell silent, a gorgeous woman appeared in the glare of the headlamps. Tall, leggy, and lushly figured, she was wearing nothing but a man’s shirt. Probably the shirt he wasn’t wearing, Tina thought.
“That’s her?” the woman asked as they exited the car.
“Yeah.”
“What are you going to do to her?”
“I don’t know yet. But you don’t need to be here for this. Get dressed and I will call you a cab, okay?”
“You said you would take me back to my Jeep,” she pouted.
“I know, babe. But this thing came up,” Jack said with a jerk of his head to Tina. “I’ll call you, okay?”
The woman sauntered up to Jack and kissed him lustily. “You’re wet. But see that you do. I was looking for a repeat this morning.”
Tina could feel a cold sweat breaking out as the woman swayed away. With no witnesses, the man had much freer hand. “John, you can’t kill me. That would be murder.”
“No, it would be self-defense,” he said. “And the name is Jack, not John.”
“There is a witness!”
“Her? The woman that was here when you broke in? That witness?”
“Jack! Please!”
“Shut up,” he snapped as he split his attention between his cell and keeping an eye on her.
Tina debated pulling out the gun that was still hidden in her back, but she had never shot a gun in her life. Jack didn’t appear to have his with him, but his could be hidden just as hers was … and he looked like he would know how to use his.
In a few moments, he had a cab on the way and the woman sashayed back into the garage out of the room at the back. She was dressed in cowboy boots, jeans, and a western style shirt. All she needed was a cowboy hat to complete the look. “You’re not going to hurt her, are you?” the woman asked.
“I think I’m just going to teach her some manners and a little respect for other people’s property.”
“Good. I hate fucking thieves. Somebody cut open my Jeep a while back and stole the stereo. I wonder if it was her?”
“If it had been me, you wouldn’t still have your Jeep,” Tina sneered.
Jack had to look away so the women wouldn’t see his smile. This Tina chick is full of piss and vinegar, he thought.
“She definitely needs a lesson in manners,” the woman sneered back.
“Why don’t you come over here and teach me some.”
“Just shut up. Jesus. Don’t you ever quit? You’re in enough trouble as it is,” Jack said.
They waited in silence for fifteen minutes until they heard the blast of a car horn. “Call me and give me all the details,” the woman said before she kissed Jack, took the money he pressed into her hand, and walked out.
“Now, what shall I do with you?” Jack asked as they heard the cab pull away.
“Look, Jack, I’m really sorry. I’m a fuck-up, okay? I know you tried to help me out and I fucked it up. But … I can make it up to you. If you don’t hurt me, I can make it up to you, okay? I … uh … I can make you forget all about Ms. Jeep there. Just don’t hurt me, okay? Please, Jack. I’m sorry.”
“You’ve already fucked me once tonight.”
“I know, Jack. I’m sorry! I really am. I’m just scared, okay? I don’t want to go back inside. Please, Jack…” She wanted to say more, to beg his forgiveness, but she couldn’t stop the tears. The exhaustion was back and it overwhelmed her. “I’m sorry, Jack,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “I’m sorry for everything. Just do what you’re going to do. I just don’t care anymore.”
Jack watched as Tina seemed to collapse in on herself, a broken woman. “What you told me before, about the fight and all that … Was it true?”
Tina nodded, but said nothing.
“Why did you lift my wallet?”
“I don’t know. I needed the money. Jack, I don’t have anything except the clothes on my back,” she said before the tears began to flow in earnest, her quiet sobs wracking her body as she wept into her hands. She sobbed a moment then gathered herself, pulling herself upright.
“I have a gun.” Tina saw Jack stiffen and reach for his pocket. “It’s in my back. I want you to take it before you do … whatever you’re going to do … so you don’t find it and it makes everything worse.”
“You’ve had a gun this entire time and you haven’t pulled it?”
“I don’t know how to use it. I’ve never shot a gun before,” she sniffed, trying to pull herself together.
“They why do you have it?”
“It was in one of the cars I boosted.”
“One?”
“Yeah. I actually stole two tonight. One by flashing the gun. So now I have added armed robbery to my list of sins.”
“Give me the gun … slowly. Do not take it out of the holster.”
Tina slowly removed the gun and handed it over. Jack pulled out the weapon. “What a piece of shit. Good thing you didn’t try to fire it. It looks like it would blow up in your hand.” Jack made a face. “Okay, since you didn’t pull the piece on me, and you told me about it, I will be lenient with you.”
“What does that mean?” she asked, her face brightening with a glimmer of hope.
“It means I’m not going to knock you around.”
“Thank you, Jack,” she said, her face crinkling as she struggled to not cry in relief. Does that mean that I have to … uhh …”
“No. Not that either.”
“Then what?”
“You have to pay to have the window replaced.”
She swallowed hard. “Jack … I don’t have any money,” she said, not mentioning the money in her shoe.
“Then you will have to work it off around the shop. Tomorrow we will get a piece of glass and you will help me put it in. You will work around here until I think you have paid for the glass and my time.”
“Then I will be free to go?”
“Then you will be free to go,” he confirmed.
“And I don’t have to …?”
“No. Can I trust you?”
“Yes.”
“I have your word that you will stay, and work, and not steal anything in exchange for me giving you a second chance?”
“Yes.”
Jack mulled over the deal. He wasn’t sure why he was being so forgiving. If it had been anyone else, he would have stomped them into a greasy spot. But Tina reminded him of someone he once knew, and he owed her memory that much. “Okay. You sleep on the couch,” he said as he pointed to the rec area. “But first, go take a shower. I will try to find you some dry clothes.”
“Thank you, Jack. Where?”
“My apartment, in the back,” he said with a jerk of his thumb. “And Tina … if I even suspect you are trying to cross me, I will hand you over to the cops so fast you won’t know what hit you. Are we clear on this?”
“Yes, Jack. You have my word.”
After she stepped out of the shower, the smell of cooking eggs made her mouth water. Several sets of clothes were laid out on the bed, but only one set even came close to fitting. As she dressed, she wondered why Jack had women’s clothes lying around. They couldn’t belong to Ms. Jeep because they were way too small for her.
At Jack’s kitchen table, she wolfed down the eggs as Jack watched. As she chased up the last of her eggs, she began to crumble into tears again. She knew part of it was fatigue, and part was relief that Jack wasn’t going to beat the soup out of her … but part of it was also that Jack was just about the only person who had ever done anything nice for her.
“Thank you, Jack. Thank you for trusting me. I won’t disappoint you. I promise,” she said as she wiped at her eyes.
“We’ll see.”
“May I go to bed now? I’m so tired. I will wash my dishes in the morning. Well, later this morning I guess.”
“Sure. Go ahead. And Tina, don’t cross me again,” he warned sternly.
She rose from her chair and smiled demurely at Jack before walking out. He watched her go. Would she stay and fulfill her end of the bargain or would she try to slip away when she thought no one was watching? As he picked up the few dishes, his money was on her bolting.
Tina relaxed into the couch with a long sigh. It was comfortable and she was exhausted. She toyed with the idea of running again, but decided that she would sleep here tonight and recover her strength. She had slept on the ground and in cars enough times to last her a lifetime. Warm, comfortable, and full, she fell into the darkness of sleep within a minute of lying down and becoming still.