Inky by JB Hartnett Read Free Book Online Page B

sorry I didn’t see you. We already announced last call but I think we can swing one more drink. What can I get you?”
    “I’ll take a gin and tonic.” His voice slithered like a snake crawling up my spine and moving back down again.
    “Coming right up.”
    I set his drink down, trying not to show my nervousness or make eye contact.
    “Aren’t you Marla’s girl?” My heart jumped right into my throat. When he spoke again, I knew it was him.
    “Sorry, you must have me mixed up with someone else.” I said as calmly as possible.
    “I’d know those grey eyes anywhere. You’re Annie.”
    “Sorry sir. I must have one of those familiar faces.”
    He wasn’t buying it.
    It had been years, but I would never forget him. If I didn’t hate him with every fiber of my being, he might have been attractive but he was pure evil. I could never quite place his ethnicity but he had a slight accent. I assumed he was Italian since he sometimes called me his ‘Serena.’ He had black, slicked back hair with a receding hairline, black eyes and was now sporting a goatee that made him look even more like Satan himself.
    “Listen, I know you’re Annie. I’m Papa Joe…don’t you remember me?” He taunted.
    I remembered him alright. He was the guy who used to breathe on me until I woke up. He was the one who used to laugh at me while my mother forced me to keep singing while she told me how ugly I was, what a terrible voice I had. He was the one my mother told to piss on me when I was taking a bath. He was the reason she called me her ten year old cock-block. He was the one who…
    “Hey, Ink, you done with register two?” I needed to find my voice and find it fast. I couldn’t let him know he got to me.
    “Yeah, Aimes. Lisa already took it back.” I tried and succeeded hiding the panic in my voice.
    “Alright. You cool if I go with Gus?” She asked, giggling as she appeared. I hadn’t seen her in a while so I guessed she’d been somewhere getting hot and heavy with him.
    “Yeah” I continued to empty the sink and disinfect everything, barely acknowledging her.
    “Evan’s taking you home, right?” I didn’t even look up, just answered.
    “Yeah, he’ll be here any minute.” I turned my back and the man was gone. A twenty dollar bill was left on the bar which I wanted to burn. Never in a million years did I ever expect to see him or hear his voice again but there he was. I felt myself starting to panic but I didn’t have time for that now. I couldn’t give into it. I had just been face to face with one of the reasons I had anxiety. Not to mention a slew of all sorts of trust issues. What I needed was to get the fuck out of there.
    “Hey Rusty, everyone’s gone. I locked up the front. Jesus is finishing restocking the liquor. The cleaners are coming in the morning right?”
    “Yep.” He answered, not looking up from his piles of receipts. “Thanks for staying back tonight. See ya next week, Ink.”
    “Yeah, see ya, Rusty.”
    I walked through the back door and into the alley with my purse over my shoulder. I hadn’t even stopped to think that Evan wasn’t there and he probably wasn’t coming back. Thinking that being alone in an alley at two-thirty in the morning was really stupid, I turned to the back doors and began to knock just as I heard the music being turned up. Jesus would be up front where the only windows were too high to look in to. Rusty would be preparing the bank deposit and adding the night’s receipts and neither one would hear me trying to knock.
    I opened my bag and took out my cell to call Evan. Straight to voice mail, “Hey Evan, I’m walking home I guess. Sorry, I didn’t even think to ask Aimes and Gus for a ride. I’ll be there in ten. See you soon baby.”
    Heading back down the alley to Pacific Coast Highway, I was yanked by my purse and slammed against the stucco wall. I instantly knew who it was; the feel of his hot breath on me, the stench of his strong cologne that clung