Stone Cold - Ashby Crime Family

I checked and double-checked the only purse I’d thought to take with me. They had to be here! The pockets of the slacks I wore earlier in the week were empty too.

My makeup bag held no pills and neither did any hidden corner of my car. “Dammit!” I ducked backed inside the mansion to grab my purse and what little cash I had before heading into the hustle and bustle of Glitz. To see how a girl like me could find some pain pills without a prescription. I didn’t want to ask Dr. Callahan to refill the pills before it was time. He’d probably tell Sadie.

So, I turned toward the part of town where I used to rent a room, still feeling half-terrified as I slowed down and parked under the yellow lights of a gas station. I wasn’t sure exactly how to do this. I couldn’t just walk up to someone and ask them if they sold black market pills. Could I? And I was pretty sure calling them ‘black market’ might make me sound like a cop. Or an informant.

“Hey, Red. I got what you’re looking for.”

I stopped and looked over my shoulder at the kid with the baby face and long greasy hair. He couldn’t be more than nineteen or twenty, if that. He had the height of a man but his body was at least a year away from catching up. Right now he was still long limbs and sharp angles but those blue eyes were ice cold, betraying the almost angelic look on his rosy cheeks. “Yeah? How do you know what I need?”

He looked me up and down, taking a few steps closer but not enough to be threatening. I stood tall and tried my best to look unafraid. Tough. “You look like a woman who likes to relax once in a while.”

I shook my head because I wasn’t a pill head. “I am a woman in pain with at least another week before I can get a refill on my prescription.” I didn’t want this kid to think I was some kind of junkie, even though I didn’t know him.

“Sorry, babe.” He shook his head with a shrug, flashing a too charming smile. “I don’t deal in pills. Too risky. But I got something just as nice. Better some say.” He was smug. Too smug, like the cat who got the cream. Like he knew this was a done deal.

Well he was wrong. “I can’t afford something else,” I told him. “My insurance pays for the pills.” At least it would when I was no longer relying on the good will of the Ashby family and their private doctor. I hoped. Then again, Mother and Father had taken everything but my car, so it was unlikely I even had insurance anymore.

A depressing thought for another time.

“Anyway,” I sighed. “Thanks for the offer.”

“Squeaker. You can call me Squeaker, pretty thang. What’s your name?”

“It’s, uhm, Bonnie. Nice to meet you.” I cringed at my desperate need to always be polite. Well-mannered.

Squeaker snickered. “Nice to meet you, Bonnie.” He held up a small plastic bag with a brownish gold powder inside. “This one’s on me. You like it, you find me, and I’ll get you fixed up right.”

“Really?”

His smile never wobbled. “Really.” He waved the tiny packet back and forth between his index and middle fingers, teasing me. “What do you say, Red, are you and me gonna be friends?”

It didn’t seem smart to make friends with a guy like Squeaker or a guy named Squeaker for that matter. But he said that powder was just as good as the pills, and I was starting to ache. Bad.

“Sure Squeaker, we’ll be friends. Until I can get a refill.” I plucked it from his hands and took three steps back.

“See you soon, Bonnie.”

“Yep.” I sent a wave behind me and stopped. “Wait. How do I, you know, do it?”

He chuckled. “Just snort it, Red.”

“Thanks,” I told him and hurried back to my car, occasionally looking over my shoulder just in case someone thought to mug me. Again. By the time I made it back to the Ashby home, I was more than ready for something to make the pain go away.

It should all be old news at this point. A few weeks had passed and though most of the details were blurry at best, nothing else bad had happened. I should be happy and if not happy, then at least pain free. But it seemed with every passing day the pain stayed the same, some days it was worse.

Like today.

I locked the door to my room and changed into my own pink and white pajamas instead of the fancier ones Kat had left for me. I curled up on the lounge on the balcony overlooking one of the waterfall pools. With the stars winking down at me, I poured some of the powder onto the back of my hand like the friendly woman at Bullets & Beer showed me and inhaled until my lips automatically curled into a smile.