Free Veracity by Laura Bynum Page A

said keep your ass in bed! Are you deaf or just stupid?"

    She lets out a sigh and returns to a chair that's been pulled up next to me. I can finally see her face. Makeup has been applied liberally. A mask of black and brown shadow highlights the white orbs of her eyes, drawing attention to their green centers. Her lips are painted a metallic yellow and her medium-length blonde hair is twisted into multiple braids that have been banded away from her white face by a wide ribbon. She's pretty. Very. And she's small. Small body, small waist, small hands. I'm surprised about the small breasts. Most prostitutes opt to augment, whether or not they need to.

    The recommended appearance for a prostitute is white base applied to the whole face, red lipstick, and razor-thin brows drawn higher than the natural line and always in black. Ezra's makeup is garish and feral. Her perfume is something like lavender, a floral. Most prostitutes smell like musk. Instead of wearing the signifying red sash over oneshoulder, this woman has it tied around her neck, a box of menthols hanging from its end.

    "You can't smoke yet." She sees me looking.

    "I don't want to."

    There are a dozen cigarette butts jackknifed into the surface of a side table. Ezra adds another while looking me up and down. "So, you're the bigwig." She frowns.

    "Harper Adams." It comes out sounding like a croak.

    She rolls her eyes at the introduction. "And here I might have been in the wrong house."

    "There were two men here before." My eyes wander up to the ceiling and over to the closet. Where's my picture? One of them must have taken it. "There were Blue Coats . . ."

    "Don't worry about them."

    "I was almost raped."

    "You call that rape?"

    "By the man who murdered my best friend!"

    "Get over yourself, Adams. You got saved is what you got."

    "Her name was Candace!"

    Ezra steps forward, allowing me a look at the ease of her features and how little she cares. "I have about two minutes to waste here and that's about a two- hour conversation. I said you don't need to worry about them and that's as much as you'll be getting out of me. Got it?"

    I push myself up, just to my elbows. Want to move on with my mission and away from her. "I'm meeting my trainer."

    Ezra pushes me back down, this time with enough force to hurt. "Oh, really? Right now you're not doing anything but keeping your ass in that bed." She's bitter. Doesn't like me.

    "What are you doing here?"

    "If I could be somewhere else, believe me, I would be."

    I'm too tired for this repartee.

    "Should move." I'm parched. The words get stuck on my tongue.

    "Should do what I tell you."

    Ezra gets up and walks to the door. "There are somevitamin packets over there." She motions toward a small box on the floor. "Take one when you wake up tomorrow and then another one before you go back to sleep. There's food in the room above the kitchen."

    My mind is taking its time to formulate thoughts. When they come out, it's all at once: "My trainer? When . . . where do I . . ."

    "You do nothing! You wait, is what you do!" Ezra shakes her head, but she's smiling like the cat that just caught the canary. "Seems you're not all that bright, Adams. Can't seem to catch up to things. There are going to be some pretty disappointed people where you're headed." She taps short, lacquer-free fingers against her mouth and adds in a whisper, "Jesus Christ, he better not have made a mistake with you."

    I can see Ezra's slate, shining on her neck just above her prostitute's sash, and feel for my own. It doesn't feel any different than before. Won't look any different either.

    "When did you break?" I ask.

    "A long time ago. Now listen up, bigwig, were you lucid when I explained your instructions? Or do I need to repeat them?"

    Her escalating voice is making the air vibrate. I shut my eyes and focus on not throwing up. "Where's my car?"

    "Towed."

    "Towed?"

    "You didn't think they were going to leave it here?"

    "How far is