You Suck: A Love Story

woman,” Tommy said, trying to help. “With really big but insincere boobs. Don’t be afraid.”
    Abby tore her gaze from the dead woman’s chest and looked from Tommy, to Jody, to Jody’s chest, and back to the body. “Fucksocks! Does everybody have big boobs but me? God, I hate you guys!”
    She ran out the door and slammed it behind her.
    “I do not have big boobs,” Jody said.
    “Perfectly proportioned,” Tommy said. “Perfect, really.”
    “Thanks, sweetie,” Jody said, kissing him on the lips lightly so as not to get a taste of the whore’s blood.
    “I think I saw her hang the key in Lash’s Forty-Fucking-Niners hat rack by the door.”
    “I really need to teach you how to go to mist,” Jody said, retrieving the key.
    “Yeah, that would have helped me avoid a lot of this.”
    “You know the Animals sold you out, right?”
    “I can’t see them doing that. She must have blackmailed them or something.”
    “Clint told the cops, too. Rivera and Cavuto had our loft staked out.”
    “Clint doesn’t really count, though. He traded in all his moral credibility in this world when he committed to live forever.”
    “Amazing how badly the promise of immortality makes people behave.”
    “Like it doesn’t matter how you treat people,” Tommy said.
    “There!” Jody finally got the shackle on Tommy’s right wrist unlocked and started working on the left.
    They were heavy, but she thought that given the motivation of torture, she could have broken loose, or at least torn apart the bed frame. “You couldn’t just snap these?”
    “I guess I need to work out.” He scratched his nose furiously. “So, should we hide the body or something?”
    “No, I think it’s a good warning for your buddies.”
    “Right.”
    “What about the cops?”
    “Not our problem,” she said as she twisted the key in the lock and snapped the restraint off his left wrist.
    “We don’t have a dead blue hooker in our apartment.”
    “That’s an excellent point,” Tommy said, rubbing his wrist. “Thank you for rescuing me, by the way. I love you.” He grabbed her and pulled her to him, nearly tumbling over on his face when she stepped back and he encountered the resistance of his ankle restraints.
    “I love you, too,” she said, palming his forehead and pushing him back on balance, “but you are covered with skank oil and you will not get it on my new leather jacket.”
    I n the cab, Abby pouted-sticking out her lower lip far enough that pink was showing above her black lipstick, making her look vaguely like a cat eating a plum.
    “Just drop me at my house.”
    Tommy, who sat in the middle, wearing one of Lash’s Forty-Niners jerseys, put his arm around Abby’s shoulders to comfort her.
    “It’s okay, kid. You did great. We are most pleased with you.”
    Abby snorted and looked out the window. Jody, in turn, put her arm around Tommy’s neck and dug her nails into his shoulder. “Shut up,” she whispered, so soft that only Tommy would be able to hear it.
    “You’re not helping.”
    “Look, Abby,” Jody said, “it’s not something that happens all at once, like in the movies. Sometimes you have to eat bugs for years before you become one of the chosen.”
    “I know I did,” Tommy said. “Beetles, bugs, spiders, mice, rats, snakes, marmosets, OUCH! Stop that, I’ve been tortured already to night.”
    “You two are just into each other,” Abby said. “You don’t care about anyone else. We’re like cattle to you.”
    The cabdriver, who was a Hindu, looked in the rear-view mirror.
    “So what’s your point?” Jody said.
    Tommy elbowed her in the ribs.
    “Kidding. Jeez. Abby, we care very deeply about you. We’ve trusted you with everything. In fact, you may have saved my life to night.”
    Tommy reared back and looked at Jody.
    “Long story,” the redhead said. Then to Abby again: “Get some rest and come to the loft tomorrow at dusk. We’ll talk about your future.”
    Abby crossed her arms. “Tomorrow is Christmas. I’m trapped with the family.”
    “Tomorrow is Christmas?” Tommy said.
    “Yeah,” Jody said. “So?”
    “The Animals won’t be working. I have some issues with them.”
    “You were thinking revenge?”
    “Well, yeah.”
    Jody patted the flight bag on the seat, which held all of the money that the Animals had paid to Blue, almost six hundred thousand dollars. “I think you have that covered.”
    Tommy frowned. “I’m beginning to doubt the steadiness of