Stay(63)
“What’s going to happen to them?” I asked.
Jackson shook his head. “I don’t really know. Not yet, at least. A lot of them end up running away from home. Zane takes them in and …” he trailed off. “You know the rest.”
I shivered and turned to the milk carton next to the cot. Jackson had placed my plate of food on it. I leaned over and picked up the peanut butter sandwich.
“What if I was allergic to peanuts?” I asked and then felt a little embarrassed at the dumb question.
“It happened before,” he said, knowing exactly what I had meant. “Her name was Jackie. She didn’t even eat it. Just being around peanuts made her throat swell up.”
“What happened to her?”
“She went to the ER and got shots or something. I don’t really know.”
“Nate will let us go to the ER?” I asked.
Jackson tipped his head to the side. “Some girls. It depends on who, and they always use fake names.”
“Oh,” I said and felt a little sick. “So, Zane and Nate.”
“What about them?”#p#分页标题#e#
“Nate seems to like Zane.”
Jackson nodded. “Yeah, he does. I have no idea how that relationship started,” he stated, answering my next question. “I always thought Nate liked Zane from the start because he had the looks to bring girls in. Now he has the personality too.”
I moved my head up and down as I took another bite of the sandwich. Jackson yawned, and I noticed the dark circles under his eyes. They were covered up with a fading bruise. “What exactly do you do?”
“Work,” he answered with no hesitation. “I clean, cook, do yard work, drop off and pick up girls, bartend at the club sometimes, work in the restaurant if someone calls off.”
“And you never get paid?”
Jackson let out a snort of laughter. “Oh, sorry. You’re serious?” he asked when he saw my face. “No. Never. That’s not even an option.” He sighed. “Basically, I do whatever Nate tells me to do.”
“Like with Rosie,” I said carefully, knowing that Nate forced Jackson to do things far more unpleasant than housework.
His eyes darted to the ground. “Yeah,” he said quickly and changed the subject. “What kind of dogs do you have?”
“German shepherds,” I answered, and thought of my two over-sized lap dogs.
“What are their names?”
“Scarlet and Rhett.”
Jackson smiled. “You like Gone with the Wind?”
“Oh my god!” I exclaimed. “You’re one of the very few people my own age who knows who Scarlet and Rhett are! I love that movie.”
“I’ve never seen the movie,” Jackson admitted. “Just read the book more than once.”
“I haven’t even read the book,” I said and looked at Jackson with admiration. His eyes lit up. “Is it good?”
He nodded. “It’s long.”
“Do you like to read?” I asked and took another bite.
“I do. That’s what I do whenever I’m not working.”
“That’s how I used to be. I always had a book with me.”
He smiled at me. “I like the way books smell. Is that weird?”
“Not at all.” I leaned forward. “I have like a million books on my e-reader that I really want to read, but I keep going for my hard copies first. I have a serious addiction to buying books. You should see my bookshelf. It’s overflowing. Literally. Books won’t even stay on it anymore.”
“I would love that. You can never have too many books, right?”
“You are reading my mind.”
The floor creaked above us, and the sound of laughter floated through the air vent. Jackson flicked his eyes to the ceiling. “I should go,” he sighed but made no attempt at getting up. I looked into his eyes and wished he could stay with me.
“Where do you sleep?” I asked, the thought suddenly occurring to me.
“I have a room upstairs,” he said. “I used to stay down here, but Zane thought some of the girls looked at me.” He raised an eyebrow and shook his head as if he couldn’t believe anyone would ever look at him the same way they looked at Zane. “There’s not much—” he cut off and quickly turned his head to look at the stairs.
“What?” I asked, nerves prickling.
“Someone’s in the kitchen.”
I stood and waved my hands. “Go! Before you get in trouble!” I walked with him to the stairs. He turned, our eyes meeting again. He gave me one more small smile and jogged up the stairs.#p#分页标题#e#