Lodestone Trilogy - 1 Hush by Cherry Adair

Author:Cherry Adair [Adair, Cherry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9781439153826
Publisher: Pocket Star
Published: 2011-04-26T05:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

Acadia squinted against the last of the tropical sun as it reflected blindingly off the light-colored buildings. The street was deserted, except for the chicken nesting on the remaining rung of an empty rocking chair outside the cantina. She’d left Dogburt guarding a sleeping Zak.

Heartbeat pleasantly elevated with anticipation, she yanked open the door to the cantina. As soon as it swung shut behind her, the room was plunged into shifting shadow. She doubted the atmosphere, or the decor for that matter, was deliberate. The useless fan overhead did its lopsided, uneven rotation. Thrup-thrup-thump. Thrup-thrup-thump.

The place stank of booze, cheap cigars, American cigarettes, and body odor. Overwhelming it all was the pungent stench of burned meat. She found the men in the back of the room at what was apparently their usual table. Acadia mentally rubbed her hands with glee. I am going to kick your ass, Mr. Police Chief.

The bartender, a tall man with lanky, greasy hair and a filthy, lime green T-shirt riding up his enormous belly, gave her a startled glance from behind the stretch of plywood that passed as the bar before scurrying through a thinly curtained doorway, leaving her alone with the foursome at the poker table.

None of them looked up. Oh, you know I’m here, you jerks. She deliberately walked with heavy steps as she approached the table and ignored the squelching popping sounds her boots made on the liquor-sticky floor.

Police chief, con man, and extortionist José Fejos was about to deal, but when she didn’t go away, he glanced up, deck in hand, fake-startled to see her. “Ah! The American. You are still here?” His tone said go the hell away.

“Sí,” she said with a slight shrug. Where did he think she could go with no money and an incapacitated husband?

“Señora Stark. Qué sorpresa maravillosa. How is your husband?”

“Much better, thank you.” She smiled and brushed a tendril of hair back behind one ear in a deliberately feminine gesture. “Asleep, actually. I hope you don’t mind me intruding, but I’m so bored I could scream.” The last time she’d been this sweet and girlie was when she’d conned a mother-made school lunch out of Skip Thomson in ninth grade by convincing him that the school bullies had threatened her and stolen hers. He’d had a turkey sandwich, cut-up apples, and a Ding Dong in there, for pity’s sake.

She’d even managed a few tears, if she recalled correctly. Poor Skip; he hadn’t had a chance. It had gotten her a mom-made lunch then, and it was going to get her the money she needed to get out of town now.

“No. No. Not at all. This is, after all, a place that people can go, yes?” He glowered at her. He wore the same clothes he’d had on yesterday, and had what looked like the same disgusting, smelly cigar smoldering in the filled ashtray beside him. The tortilla chips beside the ashtray were liberally scattered across the rounded table of his hairy belly.

She suppressed a small shudder.

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