Read Online Swarm by Lauren Carter - Free Book Online Page B

her , I wanted to say, but he glanced at me and said, “Don’t.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou signed up for this.”
    â€œWho would sign up for this?” Our rumpled bed, the hardwood floor rotting where it meets the walls.
    â€œAll I’m doing is trying to protect what’s mine. I’m a man. It’s what men do.”
    â€œAnd what will you do if you find her?”
    â€œShe’s a thief.”
    â€œAnd we were terrorists.”
    His jaw went hard.
    â€œPromise me you won’t tell him. Just for a few days.”
    He didn’t say anything as he walked away. I heard his boots pound down the stairs and Thomson speaking to him in the living room. Marvin responded, but I couldn’t make out what they said. The words were quiet enough that I could imagine whatever I wanted. Thomson asking him to protect her and Marvin simply agreeing, out loud. A scenario that would never be. The front door slammed. Through the window, I watched them go. The two men and the boy, ambling up the driveway like a family, like they were all related. Far above, three turkey vultures circled, tipping toward the west.

6 City
    I woke on a cold mattress, not knowing where I was. Slowly the strange puzzle of the walls came clear. The windows on either side of the fireplace sparkled with frost and I shivered from the chill. Marvin’s shoulder blades pressed against my breasts and that was the only part of me that was warm. Still, I pulled back, unlooping my arm from around his chest as I remembered the night before. I hadn’t slept with him. I’d chickened out. After we’d climbed into bed and taken each other’s clothes off, I’d stopped him, alarmed by how quickly things were moving. We’d gotten dressed and gone silently to sleep, gradually embracing each other in order to stay warm.
    Marvin rolled over. “Morning,” he said, his eyes still shut. He sounded friendly when I’d expected him to be brusque, to get up quickly, dismiss me or lead me back to the fence and point me toward the greater city and my home with Margo. I thought the night was its own island that I would swim away from, ashamed, and never look back. “Morning,” I repeated, lying on my back with my arms crossed over my stomach. He snaked his arm around my waist.
    â€œLast night,” I said, starting to explain. I wanted to tell him about the kind of girl I was, although it seemed I didn’t really know her, except that she wasn’t Margo.
    His hand slid under the hem of my shirt. The tips of his fingers ran over my skin and I realized he wasn’t listening, that it might not even matter. I stopped talking, closed my eyes. Above us, on the second storey, pigeons warbled, their feet scattering around on the floor. I heard them as his hand moved to my breast and slipped under the left cup of my bra, stroking the hardened nipple. I groaned, giving in to my body’s ache. I curved into him. As close as we could get. And that was how it happened. Our first time.
    Afterwards, we pulled our clothes back on and Marvin lit a cigarette as we lay in bed. “Do you want coffee?”
    â€œCoffee?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œFake?”
    â€œReal,” he said. Surprised, I pushed myself up on one elbow and stared down into his face. “I have a friend who works security in a boutique food shop,” he said. “It’s swept off the floor, but it’s the real thing.” Coffee was so expensive, I hadn’t had it in months.
    He threw the covers off. He wore a suit of black long underwear. “Can you start a fire?” he asked, dragging the heap of his shirt toward him.
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œStuff’s in there.” He gestured at a box containing a few paperback novels and kindling chopped from abandoned items of furniture. A yellow lighter lay on the floor, SECURE YOUR FUTURE and a phone number printed in red text on its side. Trailing cigarette