A Hand of Spades

Chapter 14. Cori

Something rouses me from a troubled sleep, my head throbbing. It takes a second to register that someone's pounding on the front door of the safehouse, echoing the ache in my skull. I drag myself from under the sheets and stumble for the front. Cash comes stomping out of his room and jabs a finger at me.

"No. Stand back." He barks. Like me, he's still in last night's clothes.

Last night.

The events flood back to me in a wave that is equally delicious and humiliating. My fingers fly instinctively to my lips, finding them swollen. I have only a second to be embarrassed before I watch Cash pull a pistol from the back of his jeans as he approaches the door.

"Holy shit."

It dawns on me that it's early still, barely light outside. None of the guys who come to watch the safehouse ever arrive at this time. Whoever's knocking is a stranger and Cash is clearly considering the possibility that they may be a dangerous one if he's ready with a weapon.

He peers out the window first, and I watch his posture soften ever-so-slightly, but his jaw remains clenched. No danger, but he's not happy. He opens the door just enough to obscure my view, or - I realize - to keep me hidden.

"You better have a good fucking reason for showing up here." He growls. 

"Is he here?" A female voice, one my hungover brain is scrambling to place.

"No."

"I need to talk to him."

"You can talk to me."

"I don't want to fucking talk to you." Something in her sharp tone finally clicks as familiar.

"Cori?" I ask. Cash turns to glare daggers at me, but begrudgingly opens the door enough that I can see her standing on the front porch in the pale light of the morning.

She looks exhausted, eyes ringed with red and her thin frame slouched. "Jane?" Her eyes dart back to Cash, suddenly panicked and angry. His arm still bars the space between her and I. "What is she doing here?"

"Relax, no one here is going to turn you over to Hoyt." Cash rumbles. "That's what you're afraid of, isn't it?"

Without answering him, she returns her attention to me. "Hoyt's the reason you showed up looking beaten to shit, right? That's what the other girls were saying."

"Yeah."

She nods, straightening with determination. "If I can't talk to Tex, I'll talk to Jane."

She came looking for Tex, that's interesting. 

"Absolutely not." Cash sneers.

"Cash," Before I really know what I'm doing, I reach out to touch the arm that's braced between Cori and I. He bristles for a moment, and looks back at me. "I want to talk to her."

"Dallas"-

"It's okay." At least I thing it is. All I know about Cori is that she's bristly, she can pull a major disappearing act if she wants to, and that she used to go by Raven. We've never gotten along, but she's not dangerous.

He sighs, drops his arm from the door. "Outside." Cash sends a blazing look Cori's way. "I'll be watching at a distance."

He muscles past Cori and strides into the yard.

"Do you want a drink or something?" I ask. Cori shakes her head. We settle down onto the front porch. I scan her, looking for injury. Apart from a small gash on her forearm, she seems unharmed, although her skin is streaked with soot and grime. Her clothes are dirty and wrinkled, black tank top soaked with sweat. "Jesus, Cori. Did you walk here?"