“Yes, yes, yes,” Ashleigh said. “He is mine and he is staying with me.” Ashleigh smiled at the woman's fear and anguish. Ashleigh could have used her own touch to make the woman feel love instead of fear. That would also have made her more compliant...but this was so much more fun.
Esmeralda's mother shuddered on the couch and covered her eyes with one hand.
“I think she gets the point,” Ashleigh said. “Come on, Tommy, let's check out the rest of this dump.”
Tommy released the woman's arm, but she made no move to stand up. She leaned forward, cupping her face in her hands, weeping in fear.
Ashleigh followed the short hall out of the living room. There was a bathroom on one side of the hall. She opened the door across from it and walked into Esmeralda's room, which was decorated with posters of Latin soccer stars, many of them shirtless, along with a collection of Day of the Dead masks in one corner. Another corner held a desk stacked with textbooks on mortuary science.
Tommy closed the door behind them. “How long do you think she'll put up with us?”
“Longer than we'll put up with her,” Ashleigh said. She opened the closet door. “Oh, my God,” she whispered. “This is horrible. Can you see this, Tommy?”
“What is it?”
“I hate all her clothes.” Ashleigh pulled a long skirt off a hanger. “Look at this beaded hippie Mexicany crap.”
“I think you'd look cute in that.”
“Shut the fuck up, Tommy.” Ashleigh ripped clothes from the hangars, throwing them in a big heap on the closet floor. She left only a few jeans and blouses hanging. “This sucks. We have to get some money and go shopping.”
“Esmeralda probably won't like you wrecking her closet like that.” Tommy opened an embalming textbook, flipped through some pictures, and winced. “Hey, look, they're reattaching this guy's jaw to his face.” He turned a gory picture toward her.
“Gross,” Ashleigh said. She folded her arms. “Esmeralda is so gross.”
“She is not!” Tommy snapped. “And you're just going to make her mad, the way you're acting. Why don't you let her out so she can deal with her mom for us?”
“Don't tell me how to do shit,” Ashleigh said. “Esmeralda's perfectly happy to curl up inside and let me handle things. That's a lot of responsibility she's putting on me, but somebody has to do it.”
Tommy didn’t seem convinced, so Ashleigh kept talking.
“Look.” Ashleigh sighed. “She knew her mother was going to be hostile about us bringing you to live here. She didn't want to deal with it. I'm doing Esmeralda a favor.”
“If you say so.” Tommy sat on the bed and continued looking through the pictures of dead bodies. “Will Esmeralda come and talk to me now?”
“Fine.” Ashleigh closed her eyes. This game of make-believe was going to get old fast. She could already tell. She opened her eyes. “Tommy!”
“Esmeralda.” Tommy smiled at her.
“Don't talk,” Ashleigh said. She took the book from his hands and tossed it aside, then she straddled his lap. She started kissing him. “I need you,” she whispered.
“I need you, too,” Tommy whispered in her ear. She pushed his shoulders until he lay on his back on the bed. She pinned his hands down while she kissed him.
“What about your mom?” he whispered.
“I am not worried about her.” Ashleigh took off her shirt. He watched as she unhooked her bra and tossed it aside. “Are you ready for me?”
“I'm ready, Esmeralda,” he whispered, and then he pulled her down on top of him.
Sucker, Ashleigh thought.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Jenny took Alexander's hand and hopped down from the plane. The night was hot and steamy, and she was immediately covered in sweat. With the fiery landing-light barrels extinguished, the only illumination came from flashlight beams that slashed thin yellow lines across the deep darkness. Overhead, she could see a swatch of night sky brimming with stars, but most of the sky was blotted out by the high, dense treetops. Their landing strip appeared to be hacked out of raw jungle.
A couple of men hurried to refuel the plane from rusty, extremely unsafe-looking metal drums. Alexander spoke in rapid-fire Spanish to the handful of men around him, and they laughed.
“This way,” Alexander said. His hand found hers in the dark. “Hold on so you don’t get lost. The rainforest is full of predators.”
“Sounds great,” Jenny said. She let him lead the way by the thin glow of his flashlight. His hand felt warm and strong around hers, and again she felt the dark electricity of their powers mingling wherever their skin touched. He made something wicked and reckless stir inside her. She should have been terrified at the strange surroundings thousands of miles from home, but his touch extinguished her fears.