Dirty Words - [18]

"I couldn't get away from him," Matilda said softly. "He's crazy jealous. We couldn't go anywhere. I couldn't go anywhere with him. He'd always get into fights. He'd accuse me of one thing or another, then…" She bit her lower lip. "I knew he'd find me-that he'd send people to find me."

My ears went red. Junior and I had allowed ourselves to become Nathan Underwood's 'people'. The thought made me nauseous.

Their second problem was money.

"We couldn't run without any." Nicky's color was sickly pale as he hung on the arm that Nathan had broken with the bat. He'd have to visit the hospital too. Maybe we could carpool. "So we came up with the kidnapping. We figured Nathan wouldn't miss ten grand."

He wouldn't, but he did miss his house slave. Enough to try and kill us all. Luckily, he was as much a failure as a murderer as he was as a human being. "Where were you going to go?"

Matilda answered. "I have a brother in Detroit. We needed the money to get there." Water started welling in her eyes. The tear glistened on her shiner. "We were…I was desperate.

"Did you bring him here?" Cecilia pointed at the unconscious Nathan.

"No. He must have followed us."

"And you didn't notice?"

"Hey," said Junior. "You didn't notice us following you."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I can find my knife, you know."

"Try it."

"I have others."

"Cut it out," I said.

"Muuuhhhhhh…" interjected Nathan. He tied to stand, but found it more than difficult, him being all tied up on the floor and all.

With clothesline rope, of course.

Then somebody knocked at the door.

Casually, Cecilia stuffed a sock (dirty, I hoped) into Nathan's mouth and slapped a strip of duct tape over his lips. He groaned a muffled protest.

"Who is it?" she screamed towards the door, the Dragon Lady back in the driver's seat.

"It's the Police, ma'am." We all froze and looked at one another. How the hell were going to explain this scene? "We've received a noise complaint." Cecilia was still cool as she walked down the hall. We all lay low and shut the fuck up.

I heard her swing the door violently open. "I watcha movie," she yelled in a tone that could shatter brick. "Why donchoo leave me alone?"

"I'm sorry, we-" The cop's authoritative tones immediately shifted into the defensive. Cecilia was goooooood at this shit.

"Why don't you go catch burglar?"

"I…"

"If I get rape, you gonna show up this fast?"

"No, ma'am…I mean yes, ma'am. Just please turn the volume-"

Then I heard the door slam shut. Cecilia walked back in the room and dusted off her hands. "See?"

"What are we going to do with him?" asked Nicky.

"Let's find out." I pulled the tape off roughly. I was happy to see a few hairs from his hipster scruff stuck on the glue. "Morning, Nathan," I said sunnily. "I wanted to thank you for popping me on the head with your bat. Now tell me why I shouldn't just dump you in the Charles River?"

Nathan gave a defiant one-eyed glare to the room. "I paid you, Malone. You were going to fuck me."

"I actually wasn't at that point, but I sure am now."

"I want my money back."

"You said we could keep it if we found Matilda. There she is." I gestured at the timid girl, making her flinch with just the hand motion. Christ, the poor thing was damaged.

Nathan sneered at her. She shrunk into herself under his glower. "You're part of this. I'm calling the police. Then we're going home. You're all going to jail," he said to the room at large.

Junior laughed.

Cecilia laughed.

I laughed.

Even Nicky laughed.

Matilda just sat there, staring down at her feet.

Cecilia placed a hand on her shoulder. "Say it to him."

She mumbled something.

"What? You got something to say?" Nathan's arrogance was remarkable, considering his position at the moment.

She held her head up sharply, a strength pulled across her features that I wasn't sure she was capable of. "I am not going home with you. Ever. Again."

This time, Nathan shrunk under her words.

She lifted her chin high, even as her jaw trembled. "I'm breaking up with you."

"Atta girl," said Cecilia, sounding more than a little like Sarah Michelle Gellar.

"Boo? Junior? Fifty thousand. Right now if you untie me and take care of these assholes."

Junior and I didn't move. If anything, Junior looked insulted, which impressed me. We had a price (and frankly, we came cheap), but only under the right circumstances. This was way beyond our circumstances. I knelt in front of Nathan. "Y'know, buddy? My mother got abused by a couple of her boyfriends. It's taking every fiber of my being not to stomp your head into tartar right now."

He started sweating when he saw in my eyes that I wasn't kidding.

I wasn't.

"Fine," he said and swallowed hard. "Jail it is, then." His voice was clear, but his eye was rapidly losing its bravado. "You're all going to jail."

"Ho-kay," said Cecilia, exasperated. "It's time we finished this, Canton-style." She walked into her kitchen. I heard silverware rattling.

The muscles in Nathan's face jiggled in fear. "Wh-what's Canton style?"

Cecilia re-entered with a mean looking butcher's knife in her fist. "You want to know why I had to leave China?"