Bones rifled through the glove compartment and screamed in agony when she didn’t find her heroin. She panted out a couple of angry grunts and then frantically searched under the seats. When her search came up empty, she stuffed her skinny hands between the seat cushions and mumbled a plea to the black tar gods that it would be there. It wasn’t.
Step approached the truck cautiously with Sarah Campbell in his arms. He watched Bones throw a fit over her fruitless search for her drugs. The whore caught a glimpse of them through the windshield and stared him down before saying, “It ain’t here.”
“No, it ain’t,” Step replied. “It ain’t never gonna be there for you again.”
Bones spotted a small handgun behind the passenger seat. She picked it up in a frenzy and moved around the truck with the gun trained on Step and the girl. “I want my stuff, Step! You promised!”
The girl buried her face into Step’s shoulder.
The skinny closeout king was momentarily frazzled by the gesture. The girl was terrified and Step wanted desperately to make her feel safe. “Put the gun down, Bones. You’re scaring the girl.”
Bones gritted her teeth. “I don’t care. I want my stuff. I need my stuff. You can’t just take it away from me.”
“Bones—”
“My name’s not Bones! Stop calling me that. My name is Amanda.” Her body started to tremble as she fought to keep her composure. “I was pretty. Remember, I told you. The boys used to love me. I was pretty Amanda.”
Sarah hugged Step tighter.
The skinny closeout king patted her gently on the back in an effort to comfort her. “You’re dying, Amanda. That stuff is killing you.”
She laughed. “You think I care about that?”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t think you do, but I do.”
She looked at him curiously. “Why? I’m just someone you fuck, ain’t I?”
“No.” He felt the small girl in his arms and said, “You’re someone’s daughter.”
She laughed. “My parents don’t give a shit about me. How do you think I ended up like I am, in this place, with the name Bones?”
“I think they just looked away for a minute. That’s all.”
Her anger melted away for a second and then came back with a vengeance. She fired the gun, missing Step and the girl by a mile.
The closeout king instinctively turned his back to Bones in order to shield the little girl. As the echo of the shot died down, he dropped to his knees. He heard a second shot, this one from a distance. Looking over his shoulder, he watched as Bones stared at him plaintively and then collapsed to the ground.