Kiss the Girl (42 page)

Only Nixie didn’t want
her face or her body
.  She wanted what was inside Sloan.  She wanted a mo
ther, and Sloan was a long
way from Betty fucking Crocker.  Pleasing the world had been infinitely easier than searching her heart for the courage to love somebody who didn’t care what she looked like. 

But hell,
it wasn’t the first time she’d failed as a parent.  She’d failed much more spectacularly
in the past
and Nixie seemed to be okay.  Better than okay, really.  Archer’s genes were that strong.  Sloan took some comfort in that.
 
 

She
put it aside just like she always did and focused on the path she’d chosen.  She reached for the script Nix
ie had tossed down and cursed
Lars for having the balls to even send it to her. 

It
was
good.  Really good.  Nixie had always been able to spot them.  But she’d be damned to hell and back before she let anybody strap her into a padded girdle and grey wig.  She was Sloan Leighton, for
God
’s sake.  People didn’t pay for ugly.  Not from her.  She knew what people paid her for, and she gave them their money’s worth.  She wasn’t playing anybody
’s
g
od
damn granny.

But she didn’t put the script down.

Mary Jane
looked up to find Nixie standing in the doorway of her tiny office, a mug in her hand, worry on her face.  She held out the mug to Mary Jane and said, “
Jass
missed her
prenatal
appointment again today.”

Mary Jane took a slug
from the
steaming
mug then said,
“
Gah
.
  What
is
this?
”

“
Coffee
. 
I made it myself.”

“I can tell.”
 

She set the mug aside and
pulled
Jass
’ patient file from the pile on her desk. 
“That makes three missed appointments.”

“I know.”  Nixie twisted her fingers together.  “
I keep leaving messages on her home phone, but
she’s either not getting them or ignoring me.
  I know it’s none of my business, but what with
DeShawn’s
dying...”  She didn’t say
right here on the sidewalk
but the words hung out there nonetheless.  She trailed of
f, spread her hands
.  “I just really want that baby born fat and happy.”

“
I’ll
see what I can do
, Nixie
.”
  An in
candescent smile spread over
Nixie’s face and Mary Jane shook her head.  “No promises, though.”

“I know.”  Her smile didn’t dim one degree as she backed out the door.  “Thanks, Mary Jane.  I really appreciate this.”

Mary
Jane sat down at her desk with a sigh and flipped open
Jass
’ file
to check her home address
.  Ah, crap. 
The Wash.  Nobody in their right mind wandered into the Wash uninvited, let alone a woman.  But what was she going to do?  Call up Ty to ask for the pleasure of his company
while she made a house call
?

A hot shock ripped through her at the memory of those clever hands, that gorgeous mouth.
  Yep, his company was
definitely
a pleasure.  While it lasted
anyway
.  She could do without the aftermath.

Screw it, she thought
.  She was a
doctor
.  If those kids were soldiers, she was a medic.  And she was going after her patient.  

Mary Jane flipped up the
collar
of her lab coat
against the chill of early evening
. 
She didn’t normally wear her lab coat outside the clinic, but she was walking into hostile territory unarmed and figured it could double as a white flag. 

She cli
mbed the stone steps
of the Wash
and entered a filthy, poorly-lit lobby that stank of piss and mold.  Tumbleweeds of discarded newspapers and
candy
wrappers
squatted in the corners mingling
with the occasional cigarette butt and beer can, but otherwise the place was deserted. 
Thank G
od.

She checked the address she’d scrawled on her palm.  6
^th
floor.  She glanced at the elevator, found an empty shaft.  Okay.  Stairs, then.  She could use the exercise anyway.  She pushed through a warped steel door and headed up.

If she hadn’t been in such miserable shape, she’d have heard them before she stumbled onto them.  She could have stopped, crept back down to the lobby and regrouped.  But three flights had her wheezing like
a
steam engine and she
never heard a thing
.
  She just staggered around the corner, red-cheeked and miserable at the prospect of
climbing
three more flights, and
found herself smack in the middle of a hostile knot of dead-eyed
boys and their junkie customers. 

The junkies scattered like cockroaches, but the boys didn’t budge.  They cut disbelieving glances at one another until the kid in
the center said, “Who the fuck a
re you?”

Shit
.  “I’m Dr.
Riley
,” she said, amazed at the level calm of her tone.  Her knees were like water, but damn, she sounded
all right
. 
“I’m looking for Jessica
Pendergass
.
 
Jass
.
  Sixth floor, I believe, so if you’ll excuse me
--”

She made as if to step through them, but the kid--the talker--got right in her face.

“
What you think this is?  Disney?”
  He
shoved her back a step
.  “
You think we let white
folk
just toddle on through for a look-see?  This
ain’t
no tourist attraction.  This is Dog crew territory.  You want to walk through my landing, you need permission, you got that, bitch?”  He pushed his face right into hers.  “Or is that Dr. Bitch?”

Mary Jane’s heart threatened to pound out of her chest but she held her ground. 
“Permission from whom?”

The leader smiled, and his left front tooth glittered gold in the dying light.  “From me, Dr. Bitch.” 
He ra
n a
lingering
glance down her body and said, “But you look
tasty enough
.  Maybe we can work something out.”
 

“I’m a doctor,” Mary Jane said again
.  She hoped she sounded
exasperated
rather than terrified
.  “I’m here to visit a patient, not sight see.  You can take me right to
Jass
’ door if you like
--”

“I
’ll tell you what I’d like.  I’d like
a physical
.
”
  He stepped closer, until his breath
wafted
hot and alcoholic against her cheek.  “
You want to examine me, doc?
” 

H
e rubbed himself against her thigh
.  D
isgust and fear
clutched at her
gut
. 
The rest of the
boys
stood
between her and the stairs
heading up
, their eyes like black holes
.  A thin, stained mattress lay to the side
, conveniently placed for women willing to work
off their tabs
, Mary Jane knew
.
  Panic skittered along
her
skin, but she pushed it back.  Think, she commanded herself.  Stay calm and think.
 

“
Yeah, I’m feeling real sick,”
the
kid
breathed against her neck.  “
But I bet you can fix me up right quick
.”  He closed a hand over
her breast and Mary Jane
stopped thinking
.  On a bright spurt of terror
, s
he drove an
elbow
into
his gut
, stomped on his instep
, and spun back toward the stairs
she’d just come up
. 

Pain sent shockwaves through her head as he
twisted a fist in her
hair and
yanked her
off her feet.  She landed on her butt
with a cry
and he jerked her to her knees.  She came up clawing but went utterly still at the kiss of gun metal against her temple.

“That was very, very stupid, Dr. Bitch.
  Now are you going to play nice, or do I get rough?”

Humiliation rose in her throat
but she shoved it back
to speak the bitter truth
.

“I b
elong to
Tyrese
Jones,” she said.
  “Touch me and he’ll kill you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Ten minutes later, Mary Jane folded herself still trembling into a chair in Ty’s immaculate kitchen
.  H
e leaned back against the stove and glowered at her,
hands fisted into his own elbows, a taut rage simmering in his eyes.
 
 

“Do you have some kind of death wish, Mary Jane?  Or are you just stupid?”  He bit the words off, threw them at her like hand grenades, and the fear and shame still knotted in her stomach went up like dry tinder.
  Five years worth of rejection and heartbreak
roared instantly into a cold, consuming fury
, and G
od forgive her
she welcomed it
. 
Anything was better than the chronic ache of missing what she couldn’t have
.