Beautiful Scamp

Chapter 7 – Scamp

I slept better last night than I can remember anytime in my life.

After Val reluctantly agreed to let me go, I walked, tingling still, into the hotel. One of the other residents passed me in the foyer and I felt sure she could see the glow on me of what we’d just done. But instead of feeling embarrassed, I felt proud. Proud of the way my hair was mussed, proud of the way my nipples and pelvis ached, proud of the shiver as cool air swam around my still-damp pussy and the tops of my thighs, bare now as Val insisted on keeping my torn and ruined panties.

Pip was already in bed in our shared room, so I showered, undressed and slipped into my own bed, and fell asleep with thoughts of Valiant Garcia in my head.

And then woke to the reality of my current existence.

Val and I might have come from the same background, but he got out. I’m still doing the same old shit, only recently it got a whole lot worse, because a few weeks ago I stopped working for my father.

It’s not exactly a job you can resign from, but things had become too much. He’d endangered my life, and more than that he’d started Pip working the same job. So I took matters into my own hands and got us both away, but it isn’t all that simple. My own schooling was fragmented at best, and I only have basic qualifications. I was trying to improve that, but I don’t dare turn up at the community college since it’s the first place Papa would look. Without qualifications, I can’t just run off to a new city, get a decent job and become a normal citizen like everyone else, so I did what I could instead.

I hid.

The hotel we’re staying at isn’t the best one in the city, but I know for sure that Papa has what he’d call “arrangements” with the managers of those. I would be found before he even missed me, and besides, Amara and Saint are helping out with the rent on this room and I can’t ask them for too much. So I came here while I save enough to get us away for good, doing the only thing I know how to make money: dealing drugs.

As I crouch by the graffiti-covered wall of an abandoned building, scanning the road for any signs of cops watching the dead drop, I shiver again with a sudden thought of Val. Sure, I could have accepted his offer and gone to live with him. Maybe I would have been safe, but something held me back. Not doubt, not anymore. I trust him and I almost told him I love him last night. I would have, if not for the churning in my gut that told me to hold back.

My life is dangerous. More now than ever. I might have to flee the city at a moment’s notice. How can I put that on Val just a day after chance brought us back into each other’s lives?

Satisfied that the dead drop isn’t being watched, I head over the road as calmly as the situation allows. There are more abandoned buildings around here than occupied ones, and the spaces in between are so overgrown that we could be out in the sticks, not in a city. I head around to what was once the back yard of a two-story house and prise up the loose flagstone near one corner with my fingers. It comes free easily, revealing the backpack that’s been stored in the shallow hole underneath. My stock for today’s trading.

Fortunately for me, I still have contacts and not all of them are fans of my father. I stayed in touch with one small-time distributor I knew would be happier dealing with me than anyone new, and my customers, mostly suburban housewives and students, don’t care where their stuff comes from so long as it arrives when they ask for it.

After leaving a roll of tens and twenties in its place, I set about doing my rounds.

***

By early afternoon, the backpack is mostly empty. Just one more stop at the casino, where I know I can get rid of what’s left. I don’t like going in there, I’d do anything to avoid it. The risk of being caught by my father, or even my half-brothers Roman or Ody, makes it the last place I want to visit, but it’s necessary. I can slip in and out past the guards easily enough. They know me and know to look the other way. But how long before Papa tells them to detain me if they see me? He won’t want to, he’ll think it looks weak, but he’ll do it if it comes to it.