Read Online Wolf Point by Edward Falco - Free Book Online

act in motion. He didn’t. He waited.
    “You picked us up,” she said. She sounded bewildered. “You brought us here. You cleaned up the cabin while I made the beds. You built a fire while I took a shower. Plus, I see the way you look at me. What did you think we were doing? What did you think was happening?”
    T watched the fire, where the flames were shooting up from the kindling through charred gaps in the big logs. Already a bed of red embers pulsed beneath the andirons. “Jenny,” he said, and heard his voice as a dramatic harsh whisper. He coughed and tried again. “Apparently I’m not—” he said. He kissed her shoulder through the quilt. “This is sweet, though, holding you like this.”
    “Oh my God,” she said, and she touched the back of his neck. “You’re so— You don’t want to make love to me?” She stroked the back of his head. “Is there something— Are you afraid I might have AIDS, or—”
    “No,” T said. “That’s not—”
    “Because I have condoms.”
    “Jenny,” T said. “It’s not about—”
    “I don’t have any diseases, Aloysius. Mr. Walker. I’m not a whore.”
    “I don’t think you’re a whore.”
    “Oh, please. Why wouldn’t—” She stopped and rubbedhis back gently. “Listen,” she said, “don’t lie to me. You must think I’m a whore. Why wouldn’t you think that?”
    “I don’t think like that,” he said finally. “I just, don’t—”
    “Well, I do,” she said. “And now— You turn out— Oh, Jesus Christ.”
    T looked up from the fire and saw that her face was wet. “Jenny,” he said, and wiped a tear away from her eye with a corner of the quilt.
    “I feel humiliated.”
    “Because I didn’t—”
    “Because I’ve been acting like a whore,” she said, articulating each word, insisting on it. “Let’s not bullshit, please. And then you turn out to actually be decent.”
    “I’m not decent,” T said quickly. “I swear. No one thinks I’m decent.”
    “Well, you are,” she said. “And how could you not think of me as anything but some pathetic little tramp?”
    “Jenny—”
    “At least let me explain.” She sat up, wrapped herself tightly in the quilt, and slid away from T, toward the fire. She crossed her legs under her.
    Out from under the quilt, T felt as though he were the one who was naked. He experienced the loss of her warmth like a shock and actually shivered as he looked around for something with which to cover himself. He found his jacket near the foot of the bed.
    “I’ve been acting like a little slut from the moment wemet,” she said. She spoke with the quilt wrapped around her. “For God’s sake, I just came in here naked and threw myself on you.”
    “You didn’t throw yourself—”
    “Yes, I did. It’s humiliating. But, please— You have to understand what Lester’s done. It’s just— It’s unbelievable, T.”
    “All right,” he said. “But I swear I’m not thinking of you as a whore or a slut or any such thing.”
    “Of course you are!” she said, and a little bubble of mucus blew up and popped under her nose. “Oh, Christ—” She pointed with her chin to where her drawstring purse lay near the bed. “Could you get me a tissue?”
    T handed her the purse.
    She blew her nose and threw the tissue into the fire, where it was eaten up immediately in a bright yellow flame. “I’ve been behaving like a tramp,” she said, composed. “At least let me have the dignity of admitting it. I have been, but you have to understand, I’m terrified. I’m frightened for my life.” With those words, the tears came again. She seemed to give up on wiping them away. “I’ve been behaving badly, but my life is threatened. Lester stole money from a guy who everybody knows is a sick, murdering, torturing perv. We spent the last two nights hiding in my wine cellar, terrified, while this guy and the sick biker assholes who work for him totally destroyed my house.”
    “What? Like the Wild