“Rocky. No. No, he didn’t. Don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry?” He put down the beer before he spilled it and turned to her with savage haste. “Explain that one to me then. How should I not worry when I’m involved with you?”
“You sound as if you blame me…” She faltered. “God. I’m sorry. I should leave. I never meant to drag anyone into my shit and now…”
“You can’t leave. It’s too late for that. I’m in your shit, and you’re in mine. Romantic, eh?” He chuckled mirthlessly and took another swig of the beer. “Question is, what are we going to do about it?”
“I suppose I can’t go back to the arcade now,” said Flipp. “I don’t think he knows…but he’ll try and find out.”
“He already is. He’s asked me to find out. And I don’t think I’m the only one. Some journo has been asking around town, or so I’ve heard. Don’t you think it’s time you told me what you can’t tell them? Am I important enough to you for that at least?”
“Babe, you know you are. You are important to me. Probably too important.”
He made a strange “ha” sound and said, “The sentiment’s mutual, sweetheart.”
“If I tell you…”
He looked into her eyes and shook his head in disbelief. “Flipp, you can’t think I’d sell you out. For fuck’s sake. I’m risking everything just by having you here. Don’t you understand, you silly bitch, I love you. I wish I didn’t, but, hey…” He ran a hand through his hair. Flipp wrenched the wrist down and pounced on him, surprising him into an unscheduled but searching kiss.
“I love you too,” she said urgently, releasing him but staying close, her body expressing its need for him as it burrowed against his chest. “Please stay with me.”
“Tell me.”
“It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got all night.”
So Flipp told him. And when she had finished telling him, and the hands of the clock pointed to three, and the beers were long drained, he held her close and quiet for a long, long time.
“He’ll find that out in about forty-eight hours,” he said at last. “Hell, that bent copper is probably a personal friend of his. We have to get away.”
“We?”
“I can’t let you go alone. You’ll run into more trouble before you get to the coast road.”
Flipp laughed, hoarse and rueful. “Probably. But where? And what about Cordwainer? What’ll he think if you disappear?”
“He won’t be happy. But I’ve been here too long. Always with a promise that this job is the last job he’ll want me to do…that he’ll let me go after the next job…”
“Couldn’t you say no to the next job?”
“In a word, no. He knows far too much about me. Things I’ve done. But, on the other hand, I know far too much about him. If I leave, he’ll worry about that. Perhaps he’ll come after me.”
“Do you think he will?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps he’ll be glad to be rid of me. It’s been a pretty unhealthy relationship all round, but I’m not letting it get any worse. And I’m not letting him get you. That’s one thing he’ll never have.”
“Thing?” Flipp pinched him, trying to block the terror with playfulness.
“Nah, not a thing. That’s what he calls his girls, you know. His objects. He lends them out. Sometimes he gives them away.”
“Perhaps he’d have given me to you.”
“Hmm, doubt it. I’m not influential enough to be invited to his parties. Anyway, you aren’t his to give.”
“No. And I never will be. Where will we go, Rocky?”
“Does it matter? As long as we’re together?”