Read Online Cold Bullets and Hot Babes: Dark Crime Stories by Arlette Lees - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Arlette Lees
Ads: Link
Fine impression this was going to make on Greta.
“It’s okay,” she smiled sweetly. “I know you’ll take good care of it.”
Holding his temper was giving him acid stomach.
Cash glanced at his watch. He was running dangerously late for his dinner date. If he took the time to siphon gas out of the station wagon, Greta would be breathing fire by the time he picked her up and the whole scam would be ruined.
He jingled the Ford keys into his pocket and headed out the door. He’d tell Greta the Porsche was in for a tune-up and he had to borrow his cousin’s wheels. He didn’t actually have a cousin. In fact, he’d left everyone in his family down some long-forgotten road, so many years ago he could no longer remember exactly what they looked like. A dad with whiskey on his breath. A mother with a bad cigarette cough. They’d all be six feet under by now.
Greta took one look at the car, lifted her delicate eyebrows and said they’d take her Lincoln. She was as darkly exotic as Carly was golden, with shiny, long black hair and brown eyes deep enough to drown in. He left the Ford parked on the street outside her luxury high-rise. With any luck someone would steal it and save him further embarrassment.
It wasn’t a very auspicious beginning for such an important evening, but wait until she saw the ring. It was a rock the size of a watermelon and it was the real thing. Scored it from ‘wife’ number three. It had been on a dozen fingers in the last few years, but he’d always managed to get it back before he’d moved on.
He almost laughed out loud when Greta decided on the Fireside Lounge. He’d met both of them there on the same night, Carly during happy hour, Greta later in the evening after he’d dropped Carly back at her place. They ordered up a storm; shrimp cocktail, wilted spinach salad, rare prime rib, expensive French wine. Over Grande Marnier and cherries jubilee, he popped the question and she said, yes! yes! yes! and bubbled like a school girl.
The ring blazed like a small bonfire on her delicate finger. He leaned across the table, kissed her red lips, hugged her the best he could with the table between them. Her white diamond earring felt like an ice cube against his cheek and he could smell the hint of light lemony perfume on her graceful neck. April, she told him, would be the perfect time for a wedding. It was her favorite month and the lilacs would be in bloom. April. Only a few short months away. Victory! Greta was in the bag.
Just like when he was a kid, too much excitement and he had to take a piss. The check arrived, but he had to make an emergency pit stop, now! He left his credit card on the table so Greta could pay the check. Then she said they’d go back to her place and ‘get naked.’ Oh well, it was all in a day’s work.
He didn’t mind leaving the credit card. This way he didn’t have to dip into the ‘real’ money. No one would ever make the connection between the fictitious name on the card and the real him, although there were times when he couldn’t quite remember who the real him was.
He resisted the urge to strut and crow on his way to the head. He was consumed with fantasies of community property rights and joint bank accounts. Her daddy also had a yacht and a vacation home in the Bahamas. He could see himself kicked back in the shade of a veranda, sipping a mint julep. He decided right then and there, his grifting days were over. Greta was a keeper. He was ready to settle down.
When he returned to the table, Greta had gone off to powder her nose, her black sequined purse snugged next to her wine goblet, right out in the open where any passing crook could make off with it. Twenty precious minutes passed before he discovered that the purse was full of Kleenex and the Lincoln was gone from the parking lot. His heart clenched violently in his chest. What the hell was going on here?
Dames were nuts! You never knew from one moment to the next what they were going to
“It’s okay,” she smiled sweetly. “I know you’ll take good care of it.”
Holding his temper was giving him acid stomach.
Cash glanced at his watch. He was running dangerously late for his dinner date. If he took the time to siphon gas out of the station wagon, Greta would be breathing fire by the time he picked her up and the whole scam would be ruined.
He jingled the Ford keys into his pocket and headed out the door. He’d tell Greta the Porsche was in for a tune-up and he had to borrow his cousin’s wheels. He didn’t actually have a cousin. In fact, he’d left everyone in his family down some long-forgotten road, so many years ago he could no longer remember exactly what they looked like. A dad with whiskey on his breath. A mother with a bad cigarette cough. They’d all be six feet under by now.
Greta took one look at the car, lifted her delicate eyebrows and said they’d take her Lincoln. She was as darkly exotic as Carly was golden, with shiny, long black hair and brown eyes deep enough to drown in. He left the Ford parked on the street outside her luxury high-rise. With any luck someone would steal it and save him further embarrassment.
It wasn’t a very auspicious beginning for such an important evening, but wait until she saw the ring. It was a rock the size of a watermelon and it was the real thing. Scored it from ‘wife’ number three. It had been on a dozen fingers in the last few years, but he’d always managed to get it back before he’d moved on.
He almost laughed out loud when Greta decided on the Fireside Lounge. He’d met both of them there on the same night, Carly during happy hour, Greta later in the evening after he’d dropped Carly back at her place. They ordered up a storm; shrimp cocktail, wilted spinach salad, rare prime rib, expensive French wine. Over Grande Marnier and cherries jubilee, he popped the question and she said, yes! yes! yes! and bubbled like a school girl.
The ring blazed like a small bonfire on her delicate finger. He leaned across the table, kissed her red lips, hugged her the best he could with the table between them. Her white diamond earring felt like an ice cube against his cheek and he could smell the hint of light lemony perfume on her graceful neck. April, she told him, would be the perfect time for a wedding. It was her favorite month and the lilacs would be in bloom. April. Only a few short months away. Victory! Greta was in the bag.
Just like when he was a kid, too much excitement and he had to take a piss. The check arrived, but he had to make an emergency pit stop, now! He left his credit card on the table so Greta could pay the check. Then she said they’d go back to her place and ‘get naked.’ Oh well, it was all in a day’s work.
He didn’t mind leaving the credit card. This way he didn’t have to dip into the ‘real’ money. No one would ever make the connection between the fictitious name on the card and the real him, although there were times when he couldn’t quite remember who the real him was.
He resisted the urge to strut and crow on his way to the head. He was consumed with fantasies of community property rights and joint bank accounts. Her daddy also had a yacht and a vacation home in the Bahamas. He could see himself kicked back in the shade of a veranda, sipping a mint julep. He decided right then and there, his grifting days were over. Greta was a keeper. He was ready to settle down.
When he returned to the table, Greta had gone off to powder her nose, her black sequined purse snugged next to her wine goblet, right out in the open where any passing crook could make off with it. Twenty precious minutes passed before he discovered that the purse was full of Kleenex and the Lincoln was gone from the parking lot. His heart clenched violently in his chest. What the hell was going on here?
Dames were nuts! You never knew from one moment to the next what they were going to
Similar Books
