Crash Deluxe Read Free Page A

’scoped me unconscious back there in MoVay. Swears I didn’t change, and that Loyl is lying.’
    ‘You believe her?’
    ‘Yes.’ I tried to sound confident.
    ‘And you expect me to believe you, regardless of how crazy it sounds, don’t you?’
    I shrugged. ‘I just want you to trust me, Teece, the way I trust you.’
    He took a step over to the bed and grabbed my wrist, pulling me into his arms. His hug was better than I remembered. It forged our bones together.
    ‘You never tell me the whole story when you should,’ Teece muttered into my ear.
    ‘Yeah, probably.’
    He gave me a resigned look and stepped away. ‘Meet me in Hein’s tonight. I should have something that will help you.’
    ‘Thanks.’ I gave him my best smile.
    He gave me the once-over. ‘Meantime, if you want to go anywhere without ending up in prison you’ll need to do something about the way you look.’
    Teece was being practical, so I stopped short of punching him.

Chapter Three
     
     
     
     
    ‘L arry. Tequila.’ Every person on a bar stool turned to look at me.
    When I’d gotten over the insult, I’d seen the sense in Teece’s suggestion and had used the time to work up a different image. In my normal clobber I’d be arrested in double quick time.
    So here I stood: waist-long, blood-red tresses, hip-smooth leather mini (long enough to hide the knife sheaths strapped to my thighs), high heels and a sleeved corset thingy to hide my armoured-up leather crop.
    Teece swivelled right off his stool to gape.
    ‘Shut it,’ I growled before he could say anything.
    He didn’t. His tongue was too busy sweeping wetly across the floor. In fact, the whole of Hein’s bar assumed a kind of bewildered silence.
    For a tough-arsed drinking establishment that boasted holocaust decor and a sticky excess of backroom smut, it was more than vaguely unsettling. Even the phlegmatic proprietor, Larry Hein, retired behind his cred-comm partition to sniff something calming.
    Maybe this hadn’t been such a great idea - trying out a new look on the locals. Parrish Plessis, warlord and all-round-tough femme had transformed into a legs-and-hair princess . . . and the sky had fallen.
    One silver of grrl consolation. Tingle Honeybee - Teece’s girl - looked like she might faint.
    I stared along the bar at Ibis. He was back again, drinking. Shot glasses littered the space between us. He propped his head up with his hands and looked me over in slack-mouthed awe. ‘Freaking miracles.’
    My face flamed. If I’d been an average sort I’d have wished for the ground to open up and swallow me - instead, I wished them all a new kind of plague.
    I took a seat next to Ibis, annoyed that I had to fiddle around and tuck the skirt underneath my thighs.
    ‘You know, the pishtol gives you away a bit,’ he slurred.
    I looked down at my holster - only one instead of two - my concession to the whole grrlie thing.
    ‘Trial run,’ I croaked in my own defence. ‘Larry, where’s my drink?’
    I wet my throat and tried to ignore the prickle of confusion around me.
    Teece was the worst. His stare didn’t prickle - it burned. But he didn’t come to me with news, despite his promise. Instead, he stamped over to a Res-booth and began smashing a set of gloves around, leaving Honey by herself at the bar.
    I sighed and turned back to Ibis. Now what?
    ‘So you got your way with Teece,’ said Ibis.
    ‘I usually do.’ I noticed his mottled skin. ‘How are you ?’
    Ibis had arrived in The Tert enthusiastic and cheeky. Now he was drained, discontent and more than a lot wasted. I felt pretty guilty about that. He was my mate and I hadn’t looked after him too well.
    He cleared his throat and puffed his cheeks in a way that told me he had something to get off his chest. I swallowed my tequila while he worked up to it.
    ‘I knew it would be rough here, Parrish. I knew I wouldn’t like the filth and the poverty. But I was naive enough to think it wouldn’t touch me. Well, it