There are two types of people who come from Brockton. The ones who try to make it by putting away pennies every week. What the government doesn’t take, the church will.
And the ones who keep on waiting, watching, keeping their eyes peeled for that one big score.
Once in a while they actually came around. The one you couldn’t pass up. The one that could get you out of the life.
And that’s where I was headed when I left Tess’s suite at the Brazilian Court.
My cousin Mickey had found it.
The perfect score.
Chapter 5
AS SOON AS Ned left, Tess threw herself back on the bed with an exhalation of joy and disbelief. “You must be crazy, Tess! You are crazy, Tess.”
Crazy, to be opening herself to someone like Ned, especially with everything else going on in her life.
But something about Ned wouldn’t let her stop. Maybe his eyes, his charm, his boyish good looks. His innocence. The way he had just come up to her on the beach like that, like she was a damsel in distress. It had been a long time since anyone had treated her that way. Wanted. And she liked it. What woman didn’t? If only he knew.
She was still cozied up on the sheets, reliving every detail of the delicious afternoon, when she heard the voice.
“Next.” He stood there – leaning, smirking – against the bedroom door.
Tess almost jumped out of her skin. She never even heard the key open the door to the suite.
“You scared me,” she said, then covered herself up.
“Poor Tess.” He shook his head and tossed the room key in an ashtray on the desk. “I can see the lunches at Boulud and Ta-boó have started to bore you. You’ve taken to going around to the high schools, picking up guys after SAT practice.”