Kiss the Girls

way. I passed ghost store after ghost store boarded up with dark, rotting plywood that was scrawled with graffiti.
    I ran over broken glass and rubble, Irish Rose bottles, and occasional dismal patches of weeds and loose dirt. This was our neighborhood; our share in The Dream; our capital.
    I remembered a saying I’d heard about D.C.:
“Stoop down and you’ll get stepped on, stand tall and you’ll be shot at.”
    As I ran, poor Marcus was throwing off blood like a soaking-wet puppy dog shedding water. My neck and arms were on fire, and my muscles continued to strain.
    “Hold on, baby,” I said to the little boy. “Hold on, baby,” I prayed.
    Halfway there, Marcus cried out in a tiny voice, “Doctor Alex, man.”
    That was all he said to me. I knew why. I knew a lot about little Marcus.
    I raced up the steep, freshly paved asphalt drive of St. Anthony’s Hospital. “St. Tony’s Spaghetti House” as it’s sometimes called in the projects. An EMS ambulance rolled past me, heading toward L Street.
    The driver wore a Chicago Bulls cap pulled sideways, its brim pointing strangely in my direction. Loud rap music blared from the van, and it must have been deafening inside. The driver and medic didn’t stop, didn’t seem to consider stopping. Life in Southeast goes like that sometimes. You can’t stop for every murder or mugging that you come across on your daily rounds.
    I knew my way to St. Anthony’s emergency room. I’d been there too many times. I shouldered open the familiar swing glass door. It was stenciled EMERGENCY, but the letters were peeling away and there were nail scratches on the glass.
    “We’re here, Marcus. We’re at the hospital,” I whispered to the little boy, but he didn’t hear me. He was unconscious now.
    “I need some help here!
People, I need help with this boy!
” I shouted.
    The Pizza Hut delivery man would have gotten more attention. A bored-looking security guard glanced my way and gave me his practiced, flat-faced stare. A shabby stretcher clattered loudly down the halls of medicine.
    I saw nurses I knew. Annie Bell Waters and Tanya Heywood, in particular.
    “Bring him right here.” Annie Waters quickly cleared a way once she sized up the situation. She didn’t ask me any questions as she pushed other hospital workers and the walking wounded out of our path.
    We sailed past the reception desk, with SIGN IN HERE in English, Spanish, and Korean. I smelled hospital antiseptic on everything.
    “Tried to cut his throat with a gravity knife. I think he nicked the carotid artery,” I said as we rushed down a crowded, puke-green corridor that was thick with faded signs: X-RAY, TRAUMA, CASHIER.
    We finally located a room about the size of a clothes closet. The young-looking doctor who rushed in told me to leave.
    “The boy’s eleven years old,” I said. “I’m staying right here. Both his wrists are cut. It’s a suicide attempt. Hold on, baby,” I whispered to Marcus. “Just hold on, baby.”

Chapter 3

    C LICK! CASANOVA popped the trunk latch of his car and peered into the wide, shiny-wet eyes staring out at him.
What a pity. What a waste,
he thought as he looked down at her.
    “Peekaboo,” he said. “I see you.” He had fallen out of love with the twenty-two-year-old college student tied up in the trunk. He was also angry at her. She had disobeyed the rules. She’d ruined the fantasy du jour.
    “You look like absolute hell,” he said. “Relatively speaking, of course.”
    The young woman was gagged with wet cloths and couldn’t answer back, but she glared at him. Her dark-brown eyes showed fear and pain, but he could still see the stubbornness and spunk there.
    He took out his black carrying bag first, then he roughly lifted her one hundred twelve pounds out of the car. He made no effort to be gentle at this point.
    “You’re welcome,” he said as he put her down. “Forgotten our manners, have we?” Her legs were shaky and she almost fell, but Casanova held her up easily with one hand.
    She had on dark green Wake Forest University running shorts, a white tank top, and brand-new Nike cross-training shoes. She was a typical spoiled college brat, he knew, but achingly beautiful. Her slender ankles were bound with a leather thong that stretched about two and a half feet. Her hands were tied behind her back, also with a leather thong.
    “You can just walk ahead of me. Go straight unless I tell you otherwise. Now
walk,
” he ordered. “Move those