Hints of Heloise Read Free Page B

They had been sweeping this area lately, Brad said, and the trade had dried up. But they both knew that was only temporary. Eventually the girls and the boys came back, and the men were never far behind. They all came back, springing up like mushrooms after a rain.
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    H ER MEETING WITH S COTT’S DAD, in the visiting room at Super-max, was even briefer than her coffee date with Brad. Scott’s father was not particularly surprised to see her; she had made a point of coming every few months or so, to keep up the charade that she had nothing to do with him being here. His red hair seemed duller after so many years inside, but maybe it was just the contrast with the orange DOC uniform. She willed herself not to see her boy in this man, to acknowledge no resemblance. Because if Scott was like his father on the outside, he might be like his father on the inside, and that she could not bear.
    â€œFaithful Heloise,” Val said, mocking her.
    â€œI’m sorry. I know I should come more often.”
    â€œIt takes a long time to put a man to death in Maryland, but they do get around to it eventually. Bet you’ll miss me when I’m gone.”
    â€œI don’t want you to be killed.” Just locked up forever and forever. Please, God, whatever happens, he must never get out. One look at Scott and he’ll know. He was hard enough to get rid of as a pimp. Imagine what he’ll be like as a parent. He’ll take Scott just because he can, because Val never willingly gave up anything that was his.
    â€œWell, you know how it is when you work for yourself. You’re always hustling, always taking on more work than you can handle.”
    â€œHow are things? How many girls have you brought in?”
    Unlike Brad, Val was interested in her business, perhaps because he felt she had gained her acumen from him. Then again, if he hadn’t been locked up, she never would have been allowed to go into business for herself. That’s what happened, when your loan shark became your pimp. You never got out from under. Figuratively and literally.
    But now that Val couldn’t control her, he was okay with her controlling herself. It was better than another man doing it.
    â€œThings are okay. I figure I have five years to make the transition to full-time management.”
    â€œTen, you continue taking care of yourself. You look pretty good for your age.”
    â€œThanks.” She fluttered her eyelashes automatically, long in the habit of using flirtation as a form of appeasement with him. “Here’s the thing…there’s a guy, who’s making trouble for me. Trying to extort me. We ran into each other in real life and now he says he’ll expose me if I don’t start doing him for free.”
    â€œIt’s a bluff. It’s fuckin’ Cold War shit.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œThe guy has as much to lose as you do. He’s all talk. It’s like he’s the USSR and you’re the USA back in the 1980s. No matter who strikes first, you both go sky-high.”
    â€œHe’s divorced. And he’s a personal injury lawyer, so I don’t know how much he cares about his reputation. He might even welcome the publicity.”
    â€œNaw. Trust me on this. He’s just fucking with you.”
    Val didn’t know about Scott, of course, and never would if she could help it. The problem was, it was harder to make the case for how panicky she was if she couldn’t mention Scott.
    â€œI’ve got a bad feeling about this,” she insisted. “He’s a loose cannon. I always assumed that guys who came to me had to have a certain measure of built-in shame about what they did. He doesn’t.”
    â€œThen give me his name and I’ll arrange for things to happen.”
    â€œYou can do that from in here?”
    He shrugged. “I’m on death row. What have I got to lose?”
    It was what she wanted, what she had come for. She would