"Mercedes Lackey & Ellen Guon - Bedlam Boyz" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

тАЬYou've been having headaches every day for weeks now,тАЭ Liane said. тАЬMaybe we should
take you to a doctor. What if this is something serious?тАЭ
тАЬIt's nothing, guys. I'll get some aspirin, it'll go away. There's a QuickStart down the street,
we can stop there.тАЭ
A red convertible slowed on the street next to them, the man in the driver's seat calling out to
them. тАЬHey, chickies, want to party?тАЭ
Billy glared at the driver until he shrugged and looked away. The convertible pulled away
back into the traffic.
тАЬWe could've just let him buy us some dinner and drinks,тАЭ Liane said softly. тАЬNothing more
than that.тАЭ Liane had a hungry look in her eyes, the way she stared wistfully after the fancy red
convertible.
Kayla thought about the man, and that he had a hungry look in his eyes, too. A different kind
of hunger.
Billy shook his head. тАЬHe'd want something for his money, wouldn't he? And then we'd end
up in a situation like last weekend with you and Nick.тАЭ
Liane, already pale under the streetlights with her white-blond hair and very fair skin, turned
even paler. That had been an awful night, one that Kayla thought they wouldn't survive. Nick, a
local тАЬbusinessman,тАЭ had been watching Liane for a few days. When Kayla and Billy were busy
buying Cokes from a street vendor, Nick told Liane that he wanted her to work for him. Billy
and Kayla weren't his style . . . Billy was too mean-looking, with that knife-scar on his chin and
that cold blue-eyed тАЬDon't mess with meтАЭ look, a trick that he said he'd learned from his old
man, who was currently up for armed robbery in Folsom. Not at all like the pretty boys on
Melrose Avenue. And Kayla, with her long brown hair and green eyes that were too big for her
face, knew she just wasn't cute enough for the chickenhawks, either.
Liane, on the other hand, was drop-dead gorgeous, blond and with the face of an angel. And
she attracted men like a magnet. Especially slimeballs like Nick.
Maybe Billy telling Nick to go sit and spin wasn't the best idea, she thought. Billy and Nick
had screamed at each other for fifteen minutes. Nick had stormed away, and they were walking
down the street two hours later when he and some friends had pulled up in Nick's blue Chevy,
waving a pistol at them. It'd been a fast run through the back streets of Hollywood, with Nick
screaming curses in two languages at them, until they'd managed to lose him by climbing over
several fences and hiding in a gardening shed in someone's backyard.
But, even after a night like that, she knew that getting out of that latest foster home had been
a good idea. The lady who ran the place was nice enough, but her husband was slime, and he'd -
already started hitting on Liane, not even two days after she arrived there. True, every straight
guy with hormones tried to hit on Liane, she was just too pretty for her own good, but this place
was a foster home. It was supposed to be safe. Especially for someone like Liane, who was just a
little too quiet, too easily spooked by people yelling, and scared of crowds and people standing
too close to her.
Liane was quiet and shy, and it had surprised Kayla that the blonde girl had been the one
who'd first talked about running away, about how she, Billy, and Kayla could go out on their
own. It had started out easily enough, stealing enough money to take the bus from Orange
County to downtown L.A. From there, they went to Hollywood, mostly because Liane wanted to
see the Chinese Theater. It was Kayla who'd spotted the abandoned office building across the
street from Mann's Chinese, and now Suite 230 (formerly an insurance agency, by the stationery
they'd found in a closet) was their new home.
It wasn't bad: running water, though no showers or bathtubs, and plenty of old carpet padding
to use for blankets. Kayla just wasn't certain how long all of this could keep working out for
them, thoughтАФshe knew they were balancing on the edge, with too many people like Nick
waiting around to catch them if they fell.