Read Darkling I Listen for Free Online

he swallowed. "Who you got a date with?"
    "If I told you, you wouldn't believe me."
    "Try me."
    "Brandon Carlyle." She grinned and met his brown eyes in the mirror, anticipating his reaction.
    He frowned and shuffled his feet. "Uh-uh. No way."
    "The man himself. Like he came in the store to buy some malted milk balls for his uncle and some talcum powder for his aunt? He's been in before, of course, lots of times, and me and him sorta hit it off, I guess. I think he kept coming back just so he could see me. Anyway, he came through my checkout, and as I was ringing him up, he asked me out. Cool, huh?"
    "I don't know." Cy Ricky shook his head, and his thin shoulders shifted uncomfortably. "He's old enough to be your daddy, Charlotte."
    "Don't be stupid. And so what if he is? Movie stars always go for young women. Makes 'em feel studly or something, I guess."
    "Your parents won't like it much, what with his reputation and all. Don't forget what he did to that porn star."
    "She died in a car crash. It wasn't like he shot her or strangled her or something."
    "He raped her." Cy Ricky's eyes bugged for emphasis.
    "You've been reading too many tabloids, Cy Ricky. I watched Court TV. He testified that the sex with Emerald Marcella was consensual, and she was the one who got all hot and kinky and started doing weird stuff 'cause she was high on coke. She practically raped him."
    "What are you gonna do after you eat?"
    She turned the price tag over to check the cost of the shirt, decided that with her employee discount she could afford it, and tucked it under her arm. Maybe she should buy some new underwear, too. With any luck Carlyle would be in the mood for more than a DQ Beltbuster and a dip cone. And if he wasn't in the mood, well, maybe she'd just get him in the mood. From what she'd read about his sexual appetites, it wouldn't take much to get him buzzed.
    She started for the lingerie department, Cy Ricky trailing at her heels. "Well?" he prodded. "Answer me."
    "None of your beeswax, Cy Ricky. Why don't you go back to your mopping, and stop worrying about what I'm gonna do with Brandon Carlyle?"
    "I don't like this one little bit, Charlotte ."
    "As if I care." Rounding a display of Halloween candies and ghoulish plastic masks, Charlotte stopped short. Sheriff Jack Dillman stood in her path, hands on his hips, his big gun fixed to his right thigh and his brown cowboy hat positioned low over his eyes. He glared down at her, unsmiling beneath his straw-colored mustache.
    Without shifting his dark eyes from hers, he said to Cy Ricky, "Scram. I've got a bone to pick with Miss Yamboree here."
    Cy Ricky scrammed.
    Dillman's expression didn't change as he reached for the purple shirt with fringe and held it up between them. "Pretty. I assume you're gonna pay for this one?"
    She frowned as her cheeks turned warm. "I don't know what you mean."
    "I'm meanin' I got a call from Ben Roberts over at the Discount Drugs. He said you and he got into a little fray a couple days ago. Somethin' about you pocketin' some lipsticks and earrings and tryin' to slip out of the store without payin' for them."
    Damn Ben Roberts, that piece of shit night manager. He'd promised to forget about the incident if she gave him a blow job in the back of the store after quitting time. Which she did. After all, she simply couldn't compromise her Miss Yamboree title. It was her first step out of Ticky Creek. Brandon Carlyle was going to be her second.
    She chewed her Big Red and wondered what she was supposed to do now. In a quiet voice, she said, "If you're gonna arrest me, do it outside. I can't afford to lose this job."
    "I ain't gonna arrest you. At least not yet. Ben Roberts is still thinkin' about whether or not he wants to press charges."
    "Ben Roberts can take a flying leap—"
    "Rumor is , you've got a date tonight with Brandon Carlyle."
    She stopped chewing and looked around at Rita Weir at checkout five. Charlotte had confided to Rita about her date no more