A Kiss Gone Bad Read Online Free PDF Page B

news pretties would hail the cop as hero while labeling the Blade
     as crazy. The boat snobs right here would jockey for camera position and gasp,
Oh, yes, we’re terribly shocked. He seemed like the nicest man.
And he probably wouldn’t even get to tell his side of the story on TV.
    Life was blatantly unfair unless you were willing to take it by the balls and squeeze hard. He watched as one older lady stopped
     and chatted with the whistling officer. He spoke and she hurried back to the crowd, where she whispered eagerly.
    He stood and waited. The elderly lady panted with excitement, ferrying the sad news to each knot of people.
    ‘It’s the man who lived on
Real Shame
that’s dead,’ she said to the Blade and two other men. ‘They think he might’ve shot himself. Isn’t that terrible?’
    Shot himself. Shot himself.
What wonderful delicious morsels of words. If they were candy he would have eaten them and then licked his fingers.
    He wanted to see his new Darling, to touch her, to feel the heavy weight of her hair, lick her skin, and exult in the warmth
     of her breath against his neck. She would need comfort, poor baby.
    ‘I bet you that trashy girlfriend of his cheated on him and he killed himself.’ The old woman lowered her voice. ‘Wearing
     those thong swimsuits. A piece of trash.’
    Like Pete Hubble hadn’t been a piece of trash, too,
thought the Blade. He wondered what interesting pops and creaks the old woman’s jaw would make if he broke it.
    ‘She probably won’t stay in town,’ the Blade heard himself say in his thin, wispy voice he so loathed. ‘Not from here, is
     she?’
Stupid, dummy!
he berated himself.
Shut up, shut up!
    The old woman nodded at him. She had wrapped her fluffy hairdo in a protective cocoon of toilet paper, and the Blade thought
     she looked ridiculous. ‘You’re so right. Ought to go back to whatever cesspool she’s from.’
    He nodded politely. Yes, if everyone thought Velvet had left town, then wouldn’t it all be easier for him? Perfect.
    Three people emerged from the marina office. Lovely, one was his Darling. Why, she wore grief well, as cute as could be in
     her jean shorts. Pretty is as pretty does, Mama used to say. His mouth went dry with want. The three walked back to Pete’s
     boat, went aboard, and came outperhaps two minutes later. Velvet was sobbing. He could see her bent shoulders in the dim light of the marina.
    A man walked with her, steering her toward the police cars.
    Panic flamed in him. Oh, no. They were arresting her. That would not do at all, not at all …
    But they – and now he could see in the dim light the other was a tall man, not a cop – went past the parked police cars, past
     the quiet ambulance. And he could hear his Darling sob, and – oh, this would
not do –
the man put his hand on her arm, tenderly. The Blade’s heart boiled. The man opened the door of a Ford Explorer and she got
     in, the man helping her like they were on a date.
    The man turned toward the crowd. The Blade, seeing his face, grimaced. Heat tickled the backs of his hands.
    The Explorer pulled out into the street, and the small crowd of onlookers parted to make way for it. One of those magnetic
     signs was affixed to the door, white letters bold against a stylized red-and-blue background: KEEP WHIT MOSLEY JUSTICE OF THE PEACE. The Explorer passed within three feet of the Blade, and he saw his Darling’s face, leaning against the passenger window.
     She had her fists pressed to her eyes. He heard the storm of her voice over the car’s motor as it shot past.
    The Blade hurried away. If they were arresting her, a cop would have taken her away. Not a judge. And she hadn’t had a bag.
     She wasn’t leaving town. That thought steadied him as he jumped into his beat-up Volkswagen. He didn’t like her running around
     with that judge when she belonged to him.
    That judge. That judge had seen her upset and wanted to help her … wanted to take her to his house and