Lace Underground: The Complete Trilogy by Oliver Tess

Author:Oliver, Tess
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sugartree Press
Published: 2019-04-07T16:00:00+00:00

19

Angie

After what seems like hours alone in the desert, my resolve to toughen up crumbles like a dry cookie. I'm certain I haven't been wandering the sand and dust for longer than forty or fifty minutes, but it feels like an eternity in cactus and prickly bush hell. I'm so numb from the cold my teeth clack together wildly, creating a drumbeat in my aching head. What a silly idiot I was thinking that Freestone had a decent, humane side to him. The parties, the gifts for the women who are living on the streets, the nice extravagant living quarters for the women who work in the club, it was all just sugar coating on a bitter, poisonous center. Now he has shown who he truly is, and at the same time, it's been a fresh slap in my face. His intense lust, the obsession, it was all an act. I am as disposable to him as an empty cup you throw out the window on a road trip. I'm more angry at myself for giving a damn and feeling hurt by the betrayal than I am about getting myself in the situation in the first place.

I try not to think about Blake. If he suffered the same fate, then it was totally my fault. I have to push that anguishing reality out of my head.

For the third time during my aimless wandering through the parched landscape I hear a noise that I'm certain cannot just be a mouse or lizard. And for the third time, I convince myself to ignore it. It won't help me to start worrying about creatures with fangs and claws following me around in the dark just waiting for me to collapse in surrender.

Somehow, I'd brilliantly decided to travel parallel with the mountains in the distance mostly to keep me from going in circles, but when I stumble over the same empty soda bottle that I tripped over five hundred yards back, I realize my plan failed.

My feeling of hopeless despair has almost surpassed the physical misery I'm suffering from withdrawals and the frigid cold. Three wishes. I start a round of mind games to keep myself from full blown panic. What would I wish for right now? A warm parka coat. A head and body clear of drugs. And a fucking compass. Who am I kidding? I wouldn't know how to use it if I had one. I couldn't even keep parallel with a stationery mountain range.

The tiny ants have started their marching parade up the right leg of my jeans. I'm beyond miserable so I allow myself a good scratch. I yank up the jeans and rub my skin hard only to discover it's not invisible ants. It's the real thing, the big red biting kind. I glance down to discover that my sandal is sitting on the top of an anthill. The critters are swarming my feet and my legs in anger.

"Shit! Fuck! Shit!" There is no water to plunge into so my only course of action is to run and jump and shake the little monsters loose.

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