Read Border Town Girl for Free Online

old pal, sweetness.”
    She opened the door. He grinned at her. He’d almost forgotten what a very classy dish she was. She was pale and she spoke without moving her lips.
    “Come on in, Christy.” She walked away from him. She walked as though she were on eggs and if she stepped too hard they’d break.
    He shut the door. She had gone to sit in a straight chair. She sat with her ankles and knees together, her hands folded in her lap, like a new girl at school.
    Christy sat on the bed and smiled at her. “George is sore,” he said.
    “I didn’t want to do this in the first place,” she snapped.
    “George figured nobody would be looking for you. Anyway, he wanted you out of town.”
    “Why?” she asked, white-lipped.
    “You’ve moved. You aren’t living there any more. He had your stuff packed up and put in storage. You can get the claim check from him.”
    “Is—is anyone—”
    “You ever meet old Bill Duneen? The horse player? He died of a stroke last year. Now. George and Bill were great pals. George feels a sort of obligation to look out for Bill’s daughter. Cute kid. Nineteen, I’d say. You could call her a kind of protégé. Did I get the right word?”
    It surprised him that she smiled… “If that’s the case, then I can get out of here. If you don’t mind, I have to pack now.”
    Christy picked his teeth with a blunt thumbnail. “Sweetness, it ain’t quite that easy. George said to me, he said, Christy, you and Diana are two of the best friends I got. I’d be real hurt if you two didn’t team up.”
    “He said no such thing!”
    “I’ve always had a real yen for you, sweetness. I’d take it bad if you tried to run out. If you ran out, I’d have to go up to that jerk town you come from and see how those kid sisters of yours look. What’s the name of it? Oneonta?”
    “You—you dirty—”
    “Ah, ah, ah! No bad words, sweetness. George just happened to mention to me where you come from. He wants us to get along.”
    He smiled placidly and watched the spirit slowly drain out of her. Her mouth went lax and she lowered her head.
    “How come,” he said, “you let some guy take the roll?”
    Her head snapped up and her eyes narrowed. “How would you know it was some guy? Why not two or three, or even a woman?”
    He knew he’d said the wrong thing. It confused him. When he was so confused he got a dull ache at the crown of his head. It made him angry.
    “George told me he thought it was a guy.”
    “George never guesses at anything.”
    He shrugged. “Maybe he knew.”
    She smiled at him and he didn’t like her smile. “Christy, it wouldn’t be possible that you’re crossing George up? I never thought of that before. He trusts you. Maybe he’s wrong.”
    “Come over here.”
    The color drained out of her face. She didn’t move.
    “Come over here, or I’ll come and get you.”
    She stood up as though she were eighty years old. She came to him, one slow step after another. “Closer, angel.” She obeyed. He sat on the bed and looked up at her, into her expressionless face. “You need to be straight on something. You think maybe you’re a person. You’re not a person any more. You’re a package. A thing. George gave you to me. Free and clear. Whatever I tell you to do, you do. When you don’t do what I tell you, I can make you very sorry your mother ever had you. I work for George. I earned you. You’re mine like my shoes, like my socks.”
    She did not look directly at him and she said nothing. Her face was like death.
    “It won’t be that bad,” he said in a huskier voice. “It won’t be maybe as bad as you think.” He caught her wrist and yanked her close to the bed. He reached up with his free hand, caught his fingers in the neck of her dress, ripped the dress down. She gasped but he held her tightly. He stripped away her dress, bra, half-slip so that they fell torn to the floor around her and she stood pallid and naked and afraid.
    “It won’t be so