Just months before I start medical school in Boston, I decide to let loose for one night. A dark club, a loud band, strong drinks--and the attention of a dangerous-looking man who says he's in the city for only a week.
I know exactly what he is: a...
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FEBRUARY 21, 1986/Boston, Massachusetts
Of all the things I expected from this evening, this wasn't among them.
I thought I'd go to the club, watch Evangeline, make eye contact, maybe buy her a drink. Engage in small talk, charm her into giving me her number. Lay the groundwork for using her to lure her brother out of hiding.
I didn't expect that she'd press her curvy, gorgeous body against mine. Didn't anticipate she'd kiss me with such passion, such ferocity, that a long-dormant spark would alight in my chest. Didn't think I'd feel my first twinge of lust in decades.
"My dorm's not far. We can take a taxi, or walk. Kerri and I took a taxi to the club, because it's still pretty cold."
We're hand in hand, walking down a dark Boston street. I won't let go of her because of the men that lurk in the shadows and alleys. At best, they look like human trash, dregs that would devour petite Evangeline in a second. At worst, they look like underworld thugs that would devour her in a different way.
Probably to the drunk college students staggering past, those men of the underworld probably seem like bikers, or drug dealers, or random tough guys. The kind of men that humans overlook every day. I know better. Given Evangeline's background, I wonder if she does, as well.
Regardless, she's mine for tonight. The question is, what am I going to do with her?
"The dorm's down this street, then to the left." She points ahead of us. "How did you know I lived in the dorm, anyway?"
Her voice slices through my thoughts and the icy Boston air. We've rounded a corner and are headed toward Kenmore Square, a seedy part of town that seems to cater to American baseball fans and punk rockers, if the people with mohawks flowing into a bar called The Rathskeller are any indication.
I squeeze Evangeline's hand. "Educated guess. Doesn't everyone in Boston live in dorms."
She stops in front of the bar and stares into my face, tilting her head so her red hair spills over her shoulder. "Where do you live, Matteo?"
Her green eyes are so beautiful that I can't help but lean in for a kiss. One more thing I didn't anticipate: that I enjoy kissing her. So very odd.
"You didn't answer me," she murmurs against my mouth, then giggles.
Out the corner of my eye I spot several shady-looking guys in black, smoking outside the club. They eye me cautiously, and look to Evangeline with interest. Of course they do; she stands out with that long, red mane and her gorgeous face. I idly wonder if she wanders around here at night on her own, and a brief shudder flows through me.
I tug Evangeline away. Not that I couldn't fight a pack of undesirables on my own.
"I'm a bit of a nomad." That's a good hedge, perhaps.
