The Next Chapter

"And that short, redheaded dick you told me about? You were right – it was him who told Lewis where to find Cass. He'd been scoping her out for weeks, just waiting for his buddy to get into town."

"Did you go looking for him?"

"Yeah. And we found him easy. Stupid dumbass went home. So we beat the shit outta that fucknut and put his head through a window. It'll take him a week to pick the glass out of his face."

"That's fucking mean," Eyeball said with a cruel snicker.

"At least he won't be back – guaranteed."

"What about Lewis? He gone for good too?"

"I'd bet so. Carl almost finished him off right there in the driveway. Can you imagine getting hit by that motherfucker? It'd be like getting bowled by a wrecking ball. But they took him inside, barely conscious. Gotta admit, the guy sure could stand up to a good beating."

"Did you get paid?"

"They're gonna get someone to drop it off in a few days. We did show up out of the blue."

I had woken to hear Ace and Eyeball chatting quietly in the kitchen, and I stayed on the sofa in the living room to listen to them for a while. It was still dark and my watch read 3 o'clock, so I must have been out for a couple of hours. Getting to my feet wasn't easy. My head felt woozy from all the blood loss, and the immense pain of my arm made me feel lethargic. I walked into the kitchen to join them, dragging my feet, and slumped onto the chair next to Ace. I noticed he had changed clothes and had a clean look about him, so I guessed he'd been back for a while.

"Where's Vince?" I asked.

"Gone home. What's with the towel?" Ace had noticed a bit of it hanging out from under the sleeve of his borrowed T-shirt.

"Lewis left me a memento."

"Show me."

"Alright, just... be careful." I lifted my arm to him, and he pushed up the sleeve and peeled back the towel.

"Jesus Christ..."

I was horrified to see how much the infection had deepened. Lewis's knife must have been filthy. At least the bleeding had stopped.

"He's paying his dues," Ace said. "Carl was one happy man when he saw us pull up. I'd be surprised if Lewis lives through the night."

"Well, I'm not gonna say I'm happy to hear that because I'm not," I said. "But I am grateful to you guys for being there and for helping me out. Anyway, I need to clean my arm."

I scuffled off to the bathroom just to get away from that morbid conversation. I didn't really want to clean my arm; I didn't want to touch it. Everything I tried only seemed to make it worse. I stood at the sink just staring at it and feeling helpless and frustrated. It was like it wasn't really part of me; like some wild parasite had slithered up and attached itself and refused to get off. I thought back to happier times – like earlier that evening - when it wasn't there.

"That's not lookin' good." Ace walked into the bathroom carrying a bottle of Jim Beam in one hand and an amber half-gallon bottle of Clorox bleach in the other. He set the bottle of bleach aside and then unscrewed the whiskey and poured a shot into the lid. "Take a swig of this."

I stared wide-eyed at the bleach, knowing just how he planned to use it. He insisted with the shot, and so I took it from him and downed it. After another three, I felt a little better. That familiar euphoric sensation was a good distraction and it calmed my nerves.

Ace took a couple of shots himself – he obviously couldn't resist - and then set the whiskey aside. "Now for the fun part." He unscrewed the cap off the bleach and held it over the sink. "Hold your arm out."

"Are you sure about this?"

"This shit would get a 30-year-old urinal clean. Hold it out."

I was still hesitant, but at three in the morning, was also fresh out of alternatives. I leaned over the sink with my elbow pointed upwards and my stomach doing flips.

Ace tipped up the end of the bottle and paused just before the liquid met the lip. "Brace yourself."

I did, but nothing could have prepared me for the pain that was about to hit.

"Fuck..." The word squelched out of my throat as the bleach seeped into the cut. It stung like he was pouring on razors and it bled a little, but I didn't dare pull away. After a good dousing, he flushed the wound with water to get all the bleach out and then wiped around it with a dry cloth.

"You want stitches?" he asked. The look of horror on my face easily got the message across that that was a negative. "You need 'em."

"I'll go to the doctor tomorrow."

Ace shrugged and started fixing the wound with some kind of surgical tape instead.

"I thought he had me tonight," I muttered. "I really did."

"We never woulda let that happen."

"But what if you weren't there? What if things had been different?"

"That kinda thinking won't do you any good."

"How did I even get into that situation? How could I have... that guy was a creep."

"Some guys are good at only showing you what they want you to see – especially at the start. And your mom just died, you were alone... he probably found you as easy prey."

"You always have the answers."

He wound a bandage around my arm until it looked like a fat marshmallow and then fastened it with a safety pin. "That's good," I sighed with relief. "Feels better already."

"I'm crashin' in your spare room." We caught a glimpse of Eyeball as he went trudging past the bathroom, and we soon heard a door shut down the hall.

Ace leaned against the wall with his thumbs in his Levis and silently stared at me with his eyes all drowsy and tired. As I thought about what he had done for me that night and always, a warm feeling spread through my chest, touching places so deep I never even knew they existed. James had been cautious and Keith made me feel safe and warm. With Ace, it was like standing on the edge of a cliff, staring death in the face, but knowing that he would never let you fall. When Natalie asked me if he was worth taking a chance on, I knew that I already was. I was already in at my neck, and there was no climbing out of it now.

"Suppose you want me to take you home," he said.

"No... not really." My voice sounded as breathless as I felt.

We just gazed at each other. I had expected him to take the open invitation with both hands – literally – but he just smirked and switched the leg he was leaning on.

I guessed I had left him hanging twice now, and so it was only fair that I buck up the courage to go to him. I took a step of faith, wrapped my good arm around his neck and kissed him hungrily. Like I was starving for it. He quickly took control as if it were rightfully his and whirled me around, forcing my back against the wall. His kiss was intense. It was like he hadn't tasted his favorite scotch in a year and my mouth was thick with the flavor. The T-shirt I had borrowed was whisked up over my head, and rough, warm fingertips rode up my spine, kneading into my skin as he pulled me in tightly against him. My bra came loose around me, and I shucked it off before freeing his t-shirt from his pants and getting it up over his head. I found myself being scooped up, and I clung to him as we fled the bathroom as a heated mesh of skin and jeans.

He kicked his bedroom door closed behind us and dropped me onto the unmade mess of sheets and blankets. A bedside lamp was flicked on, and the room was filled with a darkened, red glow that flushed our skin. Ace stood looming over me with a devilish grin that both excited and scared me. I braced myself as he crawled over me and then lay so heavily on my chest that I could feel his heart racing. He touched me rough as if to tell me that the stuff we did before was only a taste of what he had to give. That he was about to deliver me part two of my wild night out.

I drowsily opened my eyes and rolled over, feeling the sheets brush over my bare skin. Ace was lying next to me, sleeping on his stomach with his arms and head buried under the pillow. I coyly bit my lip as I thought about the wild couple of hours we'd spent together. That night, it felt like I was living in a dreamland – like maybe I'd just stepped into the twilight zone or something. But seeing Ace laying there in the daylight made it all become insanely real.

The other thing that was insanely real was the immense pain of my arm. I grabbed my watch from the bedside dresser and saw that it was just after midday. Dr. Clarkson always closed his doors at 4 pm sharp on a weekdays, and I didn't want to miss out on seeing him.

I sat up with little enthusiasm and kicked at the pile of clothes at my feet, searching for the ones that were mine. I reached down to swipe my jeans off the floor when I felt the bed sink in behind me. I couldn't help the grin when Ace tucked my hair behind my ear and whispered, "Where you goin'?"

"To the doctor, of course. I need stitches. Among other things..."

"Later." He lighted raked his fingers across my belly and started kissing into my neck, gently teasing and seducing my skin.

"Damn, you're insatiable," I chuckled.

"Aw, you love it."

I glanced over my shoulder and gave him a little grin. "So?"

He got this lewd look in his eyes then, and I let out an excited squeal as he reached over to grab me under the knees and whip my legs up onto the bed, having me on my back in an instant.

Sometime later, I woke again and reached for my watch. It was just after two now and I thought I'd better get moving if I was to have any chance of seeing the doctor today. I slid out from under Ace's arm while trying not to wake him, and then quietly pulled on my clothes as well as one of his T-shirts which I knotted at the front so it wouldn't look so massive on me.

After one last glance to check he was still sleeping, I stepped into the hall and closed his bedroom door behind me. At that exact moment, Eyeball walked out of the bathroom and cracked a big fat grin which made me go beet red.

"Don't say a word," I warned him.

"Wasn't gonna."

"Good."

Both of us went into the kitchen – me to find the keys to Ace's truck and Eyeball to raid his fridge. I found the keys quickly and was about to walk out but paused suddenly.

"Thanks for everything Eyeball."

"You got it," he grinned before crunching a bite out of an apple.

Dr. Clarkson asked too many questions. I told him I ran past a sharp piece of tin, but he kept pressing me about who did it. Perhaps he'd seen it all before. Still, I came out of there twenty minutes later with an arm full of stitches and a bag full of pills, and so I was happy.

Eyeball's car wasn't parked outside Ace's house like it had been when I left, and so I supposed he'd shot through. Ace was there though, and he came out of the living room and grinned when he saw me dump a big bag of clothes on his floor. He had asked me to stay for a few days, but I had packed like I was never going back.

"Hey," I said.

He walked over to me with a look in his eyes that gave my belly the warm and fuzzies. He put one hand on my neck and the other on my cheek and leaned in to give me a kiss that drove me wild all over again.

"How's the arm?" he asked.

I had to take a breath to steady myself. "It's fine. Got painkillers and thirteen stitches. Unlucky number thirteen – can you believe it?"

"Feel up to going out?"

"I can't. I need cars. Diego's expecting his first payment in two days and I've only got just over five thousand. I need eight thousand more."

"Come with me."

He led me into his bedroom, and we stood in the corner, staring at the bare floor.

"I think it goes without saying that you don't tell a soul about this," Ace said.

"About what?" I asked, puzzled.

He grabbed some tools from a shelf that was full of them and gently hammered a chisel between the cracks in the floorboards. He pulled two of them up and placed them aside, and I knelt beside him to see down into the hole.

"No way..." I said. "You think of everything, don't you?"

Hidden underneath the floor was a large cast iron safe. He had it laying on the dirt on its back, and that meant you needed to pull its door up instead of out. I bet if the cops (or anyone else for that matter) ever found it, they'd never be able to get into it or even pull it out of there without a tractor.

He turned the dial a few times until the safe clicked open and then pulled up the door. I stared down into the large, deep pocket of space and saw that it was filled with crinkled paper bags mostly. He pulled one out, counted the cash inside and handed it to me.

"There's your eight. Let's go out."

I was stunned. He closed the lid of the safe down and spun the dial to lock it before replacing the floorboards.

"I don't want to lend eight thousand dollars from you," I said. "It's too much."

"Carl's boys came around today – paid me the ten thou' for Lewis. Probably fair that five of its yours."

"Really?"

"Yeah. So, you owe me three. But forget the interest. Just stick with me on the cars. We'll make it all back."

"Sure," I nodded. "I'll stick with you."

He kissed me on the forehead. "Good girl. Grab a jacket."

A few minutes later, we were tearing down the highway in the '49. It had been a warm summer day, but the temperature was cooling now that it was coming late evening. "What you doin' sittin' all the way over there?" he had asked, and so now I was at his side and getting used to the new feeling of having his arm around me in public.

When we got to the main intersection where the highway ended and Castle Rock began, Ace took a left onto the road where the sign pointed the way to 'Castle View'. I had never been up that way before but had always wanted to see what the Castle Rock locals were talking about when they referred to the 'rich folks up on the view'.

There wasn't much to see for a while though, not for a good ten minutes or so as we wound around the steep inclines that were surrounded by trees and tufts of bush. When we reached the summit and the road leveled out again, we found ourselves driving through some of the fanciest suburban streets I had ever seen. The houses were larger far more modern than anything Castle Rock had to offer. White picket fences were everywhere, and every lawn and hedge was neatly trimmed. There were some very expensive looking cars parked in the driveways, and usually more than one. Everything about that place was immaculate, and I felt both envious and inspired.

Ace made a few turns, ending us up in a less populated area that had a thick layer of bush and trees on one side of the road. To my surprise, he took a sharp turn straight into it through an entrance that was almost hidden in the scrub. We bounded along a narrow dirt path which looked like it only existed because cars had been driving down it and wearing it in over the years, and I wondered where on earth it could lead to.

"Close your eyes," he said before I could get my question out.

I cocked an eyebrow at him. "Huh? Why?"

"Just do it. And keep 'em closed until I say you can open them."

I did as he said, and the car continued bounding along until the road seemed to flatten out and we eventually stopped. Ace turned off the engine, and my ears were filled with the sounds of peace and serenity. I felt him get out of the car, and he took my hand to guide me out behind him.

"Where are we?" I asked, eyes still closed.

With one hand on the small of my back and the other securely holding my upper arm, Ace walked me a few steps forward and then we stopped. The breeze seemed stronger there where we stood, and I felt a sense of complete openness before me.

"OK, take a look."

I opened my eyes to see the drop of a 100-foot cliff face below. I'm not scared of heights – not usually – but the suddenness of seeing nothing at my feet caught me off-guard.

"Don't fall," Ace said, giving me a sharp nudge.

"Shit!" I grabbed hold of him as the fear of it hit me right in the chest. Ace laughed and I slapped him hard in the arm. "Asshole. Don't do that!"

"I got you, you big girl." His arm wrapped around my neck and pulled me tighter to his side.

The view was breathtaking. At the foot of the cliff was a wide river, beyond that was a wall of forest and trees, and beyond that was Castle Rock. You could see the layout of the whole town from up there - Grand Street which ran straight through the heart of it, the big industrial area to the south which had the train station, and even my little corner of the world could be seen sitting in the distance, way over to the west. Also to the west was the setting sun.

The lookout itself was an area about half the size of a football field, and it was long rather than wide. There were a few other couples dotted over the landscape, but they seemed more interested in each other than in us.

"Can't believe I've never been up here," I said.

"Only been here a few times myself."

"Oh, I thought this would be some kind of ritual you do for all your new girlfriends."

"Only times I've been up here is for a couple of parties and when I was lookin' to bust a guy's nose."

"So... you mean, you genuinely brought me here to watch the sunset?"

"What are you getting at?" he eyed me.

"You're not going soft, are you?"

He smirked. "Have a feel and find out."

I chuckled and cleared my throat.

"There's a few lookouts around. Over that way," he pointed towards the east, "there's one that overlooks Castle Lake. You think the places around here are rich. It's fucking snobsville down there."

"Wow, I bet the lake makes an amazing view. But I like this place. It's really something."

"Even comes with front row seats." He jumped up onto the hood of his car and lay back against the windshield.

"Wow, you really went all out." I climbed up next to him and welcomed his arm around me again.

"I brought you here 'cause I thought you needed it," he said after a while. "You're always so fucking stressed out."

"I know," I sighed. "Hopefully things will be better now. I mean... if you stick around."

"I'm not goin' anywhere."

We lay there for a while as we waited for the sun to touch the hills on the horizon. Ace grabbed a hipflask out of his glovebox at some point, and we swigged on that as the sunset watching became stargazing. Looking up at the night sky reminded me of Natalie which was lucky because I'd almost forgotten that I was supposed to be sneaking her out for her date with Vince soon. I tucked myself tighter under Ace's arm, wanting to savor every second of the moment.

"You gotta be somewhere?" he asked as I checked my watch for the fifth time that hour.

"Oh, it's just... Vince is taking Natalie out tonight."

"Yeah, he's been bragging about it."

"That'd be Vince."

"What's it to do with you?"

"I'm her friend," I shrugged. "And I told her I'd be there. I just hope I can stomach walking down that backstreet in the dark after what happened last night."

"Lewis ain't gonna be there. You got nothin' to worry about. But I'll be there."

"Would you?"

"Course. After those two have fucked off, it's back to my place."

I bit my lip. "Works for me..."


Note: A sort of disclaimer I guess, do not use bleach on a wound unless you're really hard up. While I'm sure it would kill any germs it comes into contact with, it can burn your skin. It would have been safer to use hydrogen peroxide (which he probably has!), but Ace being Ace picked to use the hard stuff.