The Company of Shadows

Chapter Ten

  She made it to work with two minutes to spare. Kelli was already there behind the cage, smiling and talking to Rolfe, one of their regulars.

  Spanky’s boasted the largest selection of adult videos and DVD’s in the city. Cady wasn’t sure that was entirely true, but no one had ever stepped up to challenge the claim. During daylight hours, they also sold marital aids and curios, even a line of clothing bearing the Spanky’s logo. But at night, employees retreated behind the metal cage where Cady worked, dispensing DVD rentals through a sliding drawer like a bank.

  Customers could step in and browse through giant binders of DVD covers while seventies rock blared from the speakers. In the age of online shopping and on demand movies, the real lure was the employees. Exclusively female and pretty, all wearing low cut t-shirts with Spanky’s emblazoned across their chests, and encouraged to wear little else.

  Kelli’s pink t-shirt strained across her chest, distorting the letters and leaving no doubt that she went bra-less underneath it. Paired with the too tight shirt was an equally brief pair of cut off denim shorts, and high heeled sandals. How Kelli managed to work an entire shift on those heels was beyond Cady’s comprehension. She herself had on a pair of white cotton shorts, revealing an expanse of tanned thigh, but no cheek.

  “You’re killing me, kitten.” Her boss took one look at her and shook his head in disgust.

  “Hello, Dylan, nice to see you too,” she smiled, squeezing past him to get into the cage.

  “Would it kill you to show a little skin?” The man wore a brown leather jacket, shiny and worn around the elbows, over a tan shirt with mushrooms all over it. His hair was long and stringy, his pointy goatee in need of a trim. Too thin, with nicotine stained teeth, he wasn’t repulsive exactly, just unkempt. Too many cigarettes and hard alcohol had taken their toll. Cleaned up he could be Johnny Depp’s brother, but in his current state he was more homeless than hottie.

  “I’m showing plenty,” she looked down at her clothes. “This is shorter than the skirt I wore last week.”

  “Yeah, but not up top where the customers can get the best look at you.” His eyes dipped to her chest and Cady resisted the urge to cover herself. The v-necked t-shirt already showed a healthy expanse of cleavage.

  “Angel, grab a pair of scissors, help Cady out.” He gestured to Kelli, who nodded, grabbing a pair of scissors from the counter.

  “Whoa, you are not cutting this thing any lower.” Cady took a step backwards, hands coming up.

  “We talked about this, honey. You know how it is. You’ve gotta give them something to look at. It’s all in the name. Spanky’s.”

  Ick. “Okay, fine.” Tugging her t-shirt tighter around the middle, she tied the excess fabric into a knot in the back, exposing her tanned midriff and the v-neck pulled wider. “Is this better?”

  “Gorgeous,” Dylan grinned, kissing the tips of his fingers. “Okay girls, bring Daddy the bacon.” He slapped his hand against the counter for emphasis before leaving. He’d be back at two to help close up and pay them. Dylan always paid in cash, it was a strictly under the table arrangement. Officially, the store closed at eight p.m. on the books. Whatever he made from the rentals went exclusively into his pocket, it was a cash only business.

  “Dude, how much fun was last night?” Kelli burst out as soon as the bossman was gone. For the next hour she went on and on about Andre, the guy she’d left Inferno with, stopping to flirt with the unwashed masses that came into the storefront. Cady was friendly, as usual, but Kelli really sold it, leaning over to take their money from the drawer, bending unnecessarily low to pick out the DVD’s from the storage racks behind them.

  Cady kept mum about her own excitement, her promise to keep quiet about it looming large in her mind. A little bored between customers, she started to doodle on the inside of her arm, copying the strange symbols she’d seen on Ethan’s back without realizing she was doing it.

  “What are those?” Kelli asked, grabbing her wrist for a better look.

  “Oh, nothing. Just some designs I saw, tattoos.”

  “Are you thinking about getting another tattoo?”

  Cady glanced down to the tiny blue butterfly on the inside of her wrist that reminded her of her father. “No, not really. I was just messing around.” She put the pen down, but picked it up again less than ten seconds later, finishing the detail on the last symbol.

  “I totally want to get one right here,” Kelli pointed to her right hip, visible above the low slung denim. “But I can’t decide what to get. What are those, Chinese?”

  “No, I don’t think so. I saw them on this guy.”

  “Ooh, what guy?” Kelli’s face lit up. “Here I’ve been going on and on and you’ve been studying intimate tattoos.”

  “They weren’t intimate, just on his back.”

  “But you definitely saw him without his shirt on then? That’s progress.” Her voice rang with pride.

  “Sure I did, but it wasn’t like that.”

  “What do you mean it wasn’t like that? Shirtless plus tattoos equal hotness, right?”

  She couldn’t deny, there was a certain amount of hotness going on when she took off Ethan’s shirt, not to mention the jeans, and Cady felt her cheeks betray her.

  “I knew it!” Kelli jiggled in excitement. “See, your sex drive wasn’t dead, just hibernating.”

  “I never said my sex drive was dead,” Cady protested. “And I’m telling you, it wasn’t like that. He didn’t even kiss me.”

  “Oh, sex without kissing… that can be hot.”

  A customer shuffled up to the counter then, and Kelli got drawn into a conversation with him about sex without kissing. That was the part of the job Cady disliked the most. She knew the men leered, knew they were likely saving up images for their spank bank to be taken out later, with or without the movie rental. But actually talking to them about sex… that felt dirty. It didn’t bother Kelli though, and Cady wondered if she’d ever be that open.

  “What’s his deal then, if it wasn’t like that?” Kelli sauntered over, offering a bag of baby carrots and Cady took one. “Is he gay?”

  “You think everyone that doesn’t pounce is gay.”

  “Only because it’s true.”

  “He’s not gay.” At least she didn’t think he was. “He was feeling under the weather, so I helped him get home.” Not a lie… “I slept on his couch and nothing happened. He was a perfect gentleman.”

  “Too bad,” Kelli sighed, munching on carrots. “Are you going to see him again?”

  “Probably, he’s my next door neighbor.”

  “Wait… that guy? The homeless one?”

  “He’s not homeless, he’s my neighbor,” Cady objected, tossing the rest of the carrot into the garbage. “And I think he’s kinda cute.”

  “You can do so much better, Cady.” Kelli turned to smile at another customer then, and Cady was reminded of her brother’s words.

  “Yep, that’s me. Full of potential.” Maybe once, but she’d learned not to pin her hopes on the future anymore.

  The rest of the shift dragged. Business was slow and Dylan wasn’t too happy when he took a peek into the drop safe at the end of the night. Cady didn’t bat an eye as he bitched and moaned about the economy, slipping the cash into her pocket as soon as she got paid. She would much rather have taken off while he tallied the night’s receipts, but she stuck around, waiting for Ian to come and pick them up.

  It was their usual routine. Ian arrived about fifteen minutes later, on foot, to escort Kelli home and then walk the rest of the way to their apartment. While they walked, Kelli and Ian chatted easily, her hand frequently resting on his arm. More than once she’d wondered if her brother had ever hooked up with Kelli, but she’d decided it was none of her business.

  Anything that had him joking around had to be a good thing, and that happened more often than not when Kelli
was around. His mood sobered after they left Kelli safe in her own studio apartment, and they strolled for a few blocks in silence before he spoke again.

  “Listen, I’ve been thinking about before…”

  “I’m sorry if I worried you,” she cut him off before he started down that path again. “I should have called to let you know I was okay, I wasn’t thinking.”

  “No, not about that. I was thinking about you and school.”

  Not that again… “We already hashed this out, there’s no way we can make that work.”

  “No, I was thinking, if I picked up a few more shifts, and then there’s private gigs. I think we could swing it.”

  “I’m not letting you work yourself into an early grave just so I can go to school. That’s not what Dad would have wanted.”

  “Dad wouldn’t have wanted you working at that shithole either,” he growled.

  Cady caught his elbow, forcing him to look at her. “He wouldn’t have wanted this life for either of us, but here we are. If you want to blame someone about it, blame Mom.”

  “It’s not her fault…”

  Of course he leapt to defend her, he always did. “The hell it’s not.”

  “Cady… you don’t know what happened.”

  “And I don’t care.” They walked in silence until the apartment building came into view. “Look, I’m not about to let you drive yourself into the ground so I can play campus co-ed. I’m saving some money, I might be able to take some classes next year.”

  “You are?”

  “You didn’t think I was blowing all my ill gotten gains on lip gloss and Cheetos, did you?” He did, she could see it on his face, but it didn’t bother her. She didn’t have the best track record when it came to responsibility. Not that she believed she’d be able to go to a school like Stanford, like she’d originally planned. That door was forever closed to her.

  “Come on, I’ll make you some Pizza ala Cady and we’ll see what’s streaming.” Cady was the queen of sprucing up cheap frozen foods, adding spices or the occasional fresh ingredient to keep the cheap staples tasty and interesting. Raised primarily by her father and brother, she’d never learned how to cook properly, but her experiments over the years had turned out some successes and horrible failures (like mixing left over turkey, scrambled eggs and chili, served in crunchy taco shells, blecch), never to be repeated again.

  It was late, nearly four a.m. by the time she rolled into bed, tugging the sheet up to her waist. Was Ethan awake? Her ears strained for some sign that he was even home, but all that came back to her were the street sounds through her open window. Briefly, she considered sending him a text, but she realized she had no idea what his phone number was. It was probably for the best, it was late anyway. Most normal people were asleep long before. Then again, Ethan wasn’t normal, was he?

  Her mind churned, unable to let go and fall asleep with all the unanswered questions. What was the deal with his tattoos appearing so suddenly? Who was Claudio to him, and why had Ethan been worried about him coming back? How had Claudio put her and Penny under his spell in the first place? Why did Ethan carry a rusty dagger, and why had he stabbed himself through his own hand to get to Claudio? Why all the chanting? Why had Claudio killed himself? Why was Ethan so afraid of the police? What exactly was his job, anyway? How had Ethan survived being stabbed so easily? And how had she recovered from the nasty infection on her collarbone so quickly without going to the ER?

  Eventually she drifted off, the unsolved puzzles giving way to the relief of dreams.