Blue Skin: Book Two

Chapter 2

2

My hands are burning from the hot, soapy water, but I’m nearly done. Once Hakesh finishes serving those rowdy arseholes, that steel shutter will be closed, locked, and then I’m out of this dump.

I always leave the pots last to wash. They’re the easiest, so it’s better to get the utensils done first, out of the way. The clock on the kitchen wall says it’s 2:17 a.m. but that’s usually slow. It’s most likely closer to 2:30, which means that, if I’m lucky, I should get home by 3:30.

With mouths filled with pizza, the drunken idiots start performing some unrecognisable football chant. I wouldn’t have thought a s**t-hole town like Newton Port would even have a team.

A few minutes later, and the moment I empty the deep sink, I hear that magical sound. Hakesh is locking the doors.

Finally!

He pokes his head into the kitchen, grinning. “Thought they’d never leave.”

I smile back at him, but it’s a strain on my sore lips. I haven’t been sleeping all that well lately. Just not that used to working so late. “Any chance of getting an advance on my pay? Rent is due tomorrow—and I was late last month.”

Hakesh thinks for a moment as if I’ve asked him something extraordinary. It’s only four days early, for Christ’s sake. “Okay. Just this once, Jodie. But don’t be asking me again. I’ve got money problems myself. This place isn’t exactly booming with business.”

He’s full of crap. I work here almost every night, and all I hear, minute after minute, is the till drawer opening and closing. But who the hell am I to complain? It’s not like this town is crying out for fugitive girls to work for peanuts. “Thanks. I owe you one.”

Hakesh disappears into his office, so I finish wiping down the worktops with the cloth.

“Here you go, Jodie.” He hands me a white envelope.

Pulling off my rubber-gloves, I wince in pain as the left one drags against my wrist, reopening the fang marks from last night’s feed. He notices, so I turn away and count the cash on the worktop. “You’re fifty short. Where’s the rest?”

He grabs the broom and sweeps the crumbs from the floor. “Look, it’s all I’ve got to spare right now.”

“But I need it!” I blurt out, unable to hide my desperation.

“Yeah, well, so do I. You don’t like it, you can find some other place to work.”

“You’re an arsehole, Hakesh,” I snap, stuffing the cash into my pocket.

“Charming,” he replies with a smirk, and then hands me the broom. “Finish up here and then you can go.”

I snatch it from him, throw him a pair of b***h-eyes, and then sweep the floor.