The Outsider Series: The Complete Omnibus Collection

Chapter 5

Chapter Five

“Your rent is due on the first of the month. There are no exceptions.”

Laura stood in the open doorway, facing her landlord, Jerry Hines, a middle-aged single guy with a solid build. He was tall and a little on the rough side at times, which made him somewhat good looking, but he could be a hard nose. He’d raised her rent only once, and she knew it was more than he was legally allowed, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. She knew if she complained too hard or at all she’d find herself tossed onto the street on her ass, and no one would step in and help her.

“I know, Mister Hines. I am a few days late, but I lost my job, and my boss didn’t give me my last paycheck. I’m looking for another one. If you could just give me a few more days…”

He cut her off. “ No, cash now. Do you or don’t you have it?” he stated in a harsh, deep tone that sent a shiver crawling up her back.

A hard lump burned her throat, and she swallowed hard, trying to dislodge it, and scrambled for anything, hoping for a miracle. She had not a clue what to do, and she shut her eyes for a second and pressed her fingertips to her closed lids. That was when she felt his touch as he leaned in and fingered a strand of her long hair, which draped over her shoulder. Her eyes popped open, and she dropped her hands and watched as he slid his hand on the doorframe in a gesture that had her blood running cold.

“There is another way you could work it off for this month.” He gazed at her with dark eyes that resembled those of a predator cornering his prey. She could almost see something slithering, something speckled and ugly, and for a moment it seeped into her, cutting her skin. Laura stepped back, trembling, because she’d never experienced this from a man before, and it terrified the hell out of her.

“No. Please, I would like just a couple days, and I swear I will have your rent. I could give you my car.” She felt panic, a strange bedfellow that had become too familiar over the last few years, sneaking up again and squeezing her lungs until she found it a struggle to breathe. Her heart was pounding so hard she wondered if he could hear it, because she could feel the beat pounding right down to her bare toes in a pair of worn-out slippers.

Jerry sighed, and his expression hardened into something that was now unreachable. The interest that had flared for her in his eyes just moments ago disappeared into a hard wall as he watched her as if she were nothing but a nuisance. “That piece of crap? Not interested. I want you gone by morning. I have someone who’ll be moving in.”

“Jerry, please… We have no place to go. Don’t we have any rights? How can you just throw us out? I’ve always paid you on time. This is the first time ever…” She didn’t recognize her voice as it cracked and trembled. The edge of panic was all around her now, biting her ass and tossing her into a black hole of nothing. The unknown was too much; the fear wouldn’t even register.

He turned away and then shook his head, just watching her with those hard eyes as if saying, “You had your chance and you blew it.” Then he leaned in as if to bite her and said in a voice laced with venom, “You have no rights. You’re a nobody, and I have the law on my side. I’m a landowner. Laura, you’re a nice girl, but don’t mess with me, because you’ll get hurt. Start packing. I’ll be back at seven in the morning, and you better be gone or I will take what you owe me in another way, and then I’ll toss you in the street.” He didn’t stop but took the stairs up two at a time and disappeared around the corner.

Laura closed the door with the loose doorknob and sagged against it as if she were an eighty-year-old woman. She couldn’t believe what was being thrown at her. She’d been struggling for so long to keep her head above water, but she could feel herself drowning as her lungs burned and she gasped for breath. What had she done to deserve this? It was one cruel thing after another, as if she were freefalling into all this unjustness and darkness, with every bad thing slamming into her over and over. She had no family she could pick up the phone and call, not that she had a phone anyway, though she’d happily walk to the gas station and use the grubby pay phone outside, but she couldn’t, because her parents had tossed her out when she’d stood before them at fifteen, trembling, and confessing to them that she was four months pregnant. Her mother had kept asking why she was gaining weight, and she couldn’t hide it and knew it would be bad when they found out. But when her mother called her a slut and her father turned away from her, she’d felt the floor shatter beneath her. Her mother had done all the yelling and screaming and then accused her of being a bad influence on her younger brothers.

She’d been only fifteen when she was handed a suitcase and told to leave, so she’d worked part time at a fast food restaurant until she gave birth to Gabriel a few months after her sixteenth birthday.

Tyler, the sixteen-year-old boy who’d gotten her pregnant, refused to have anything to do with her. She’d gone to him after her parents threw her out, but he’d shut the door in her face and said, “Leave me alone,” so after Gabriel was born, she’d called her mom, believing that time and distance had softened her. But she’d outright refused to come see the baby, saying that she and Laura’s father would allow her to come home only if she gave the baby away. Standing in that sterile hospital hallway, barefoot in her hospital gown, holding the payphone, she’d stared at the receiver feeling as though her mother had just reached through and sliced her stomach open with a knife. After fifteen hours of labor, emotionally battered beyond anything she’d experienced before, she’d burst into tears and slowly hung up the phone. Shortly after, with her baby Gabriel, she’d snuck out of the hospital and left Arlington, and she hadn’t looked back.

Now, four years later, they lived hand to mouth. She needed the paycheck that Mrs. Friessen refused to give her to pay this month’s rent and buy food for her and Gabriel. Laura gazed at the one-room basement suite with the sagging double bed in the corner, a dated worn beige sofa, a small kitchen table with two chairs, a cooktop stove, and a camper fridge that was cracked along the top.

Laura strode to the beige tweed sofa, which had a spring poking up from the middle cushion. This and all the furniture here belonged to Jerry. Laura dropped down before her knees gave out on her and watched Gabriel, her dark-haired little boy, playing with the wooden blocks she’d picked up at the second-hand store. He was oblivious to anything going on around him and unaware someone had just been there.

“Hey, buddy, we’re going to go for a car ride in a bit.”

She slid off the sofa onto the floor and snagged her jeans on something sharp. The pain that jabbed her skin right then was welcome but did little to distract her from the agony of what she had to do. She glanced around at their meager possessions. She didn’t have much: A few dishes, two pots, a box that held their clothes, the blankets, everything would most likely fit in the trunk of her car.

She didn’t know how long she sat on the dirty carpeted floor, but she knew it was getting late, and she dared not be there when Jerry came back. She was still shaking from his threat and what she saw in his eyes. She was scared of what he’d do to her, and with her son watching.

It took her about a dozen trips to pack up her blankets, her clothes, Gabriel’s toys, and the small amount of food she had. The fridge was mostly bare except for milk and cheese, but it was cold enough outside that the food wouldn’t go bad in the trunk.

Just as the sun settled on the edge of the horizon and the first raindrops splattered on the ground, in the grass, creating puddles everywhere, Laura Parnell started her car and pulled away from her rundown rented suite in the rusted-out Volvo that squeaked as she cranked the wheel and rattled when she pressed the gas, a car she’d picked up for two hundred dollars just last year.