Stover laughed an ugly laugh. “Can you prove it?”
“I don’t have to.” Annie sat up, feeling the baby move inside her. “Anyway, you know it’s yours.”
“Yeah, I guess I do at that. First virgin I ever had.”
Annie’s face turned red, then she glared at Todd, wondering how she ever got hooked up with him. He wasn’t handsome, not in the least. He had a long, thin face that was covered in a beard and mustache, making it seem overcrowded. His body was the same—long and thin. Gaunt, actually, but that was because instead of eating he spent his money on drugs.
Thank goodness he’d been unable to talk her into joining him. Hell, even at sixteen, she was smart enough to know that would get her nowhere. But she’d been with Todd since she’d sneaked out of the orphanage and run away.
He’d picked her up at a hangout one evening after she’d had a few drinks. They had been together ever since, shacking in first one hovel, then the next. Todd had never held a steady job. She didn’t suspect he ever would. He felt the world owed him something—what, she had never figured out. When she asked him, he couldn’t tell her, either, except that it was the government’s responsibility to take care of people like him.
“I’m hungry,” Annie said at last, refocusing her thoughts, eyeing the jar of peanut butter and crackers on the rickety table and feeling her stomach revolt. God, she’d like some chicken nuggets from McDonald’s. But she knew better than to mention that. There was no money for such a luxury. Anyway, Todd would just laugh and maybe even hit her. He’d been prone to that lately, the closer she came to having the baby.
“Whatcha see is whatcha get,” Todd said, a scowl deepening the lines on his face, lines that would be more suitable on someone who was forty-one rather than twenty-one.
He reached for a cigarette. After lighting it, he held one out to her. Annie shook her head, flinching as another round of lightning and thunder actually shook the old apartment building they were in.
“Come on,” Todd coaxed. “It’ll do you good.”
“It’s not good for the baby.” The minute she said that, Annie wished she could take back the words.
“Who the hell cares?” He inhaled deeply, then slowly blew out the smoke. “It’s just a matter of time till that kid’s history, anyhow.”
Annie straightened and pushed one side of her long, stringy hair behind her ears. “I told you—”
Todd lifted his hand. She cringed back against the smelly, tattered sofa, just missing the blow. But she wasn’t about to get off so easily. He leaned over and grabbed a handful of her hair.
“Ouch!” she whimpered, her eyes filling with tears.
“You’re gonna think ‘ouch’ if you don’t do like I tell you.”
“I’m too far along.” Annie scrambled to her feet, so that he couldn’t miss her protruding stomach, not that he wasn’t aware of it. Every day, he cursed what he called that useless hump.
“How the hell would you know?” he countered, running his hands through his dirty hair. “You don’t know a damn thing about having a baby.”
“I know from some of the girls at the home.” Her tone was sullen. “One of `em died.”
“Ah, ain’tnothin’ gonna happen to you.”
“You don’t know that.”
A harsh glint appeared in his eyes. “What I do know is that I ain’t having no brat.” He paused and took another long drag. “Besides, I’ve made arrangements.”
Annie’s heart plummeted to her feet. “Arrangements? What kind of arrangements?” She knew the answer to the question, but she thought if she acted ignorant, it might buy her time to think. She never claimed to be smart, but she wasn’t dumb, either. There had to be a way out of this mess without that drastic measure.
“A friend of mine’sgonna, uh, you know, take care of things.”
“Since when do you have a friend?”
He raised his hand again. “You’re just itching to git smacked, ain’t you?”
“No,” she whispered, trying to control the tears. He hated for her to cry.
“Then shut up whining.”
“But I’m scared,” Annie wailed, her eyes darting to the window. Surely he didn’t expect her to go out on a night like this? Even though this place was perhaps the worst they had stayed in, at least it was a roof over their heads, keeping them dry. At this point that was all she could hope for.
“I’ll be with you, holding your hand.”
Liar. He’d dump her, then come back for her after some hacker had messed her up or killed her.
“What about your mother?”
“What about her?” Todd’s tone was nasty.
Annie knew she was playing with fire by pushing this subject, but she had to do something. “Would she take the baby?”
Todd pitched his head back and laughed. “You gotta be kiddin’? Hell, she didn’t want me. What makes you think she’d want someone else’s brat?”
“It’s her grandchild.”
“So?”
“So, I don’t want to do this. Please don’t make me.”
“You haveta. I told you, I already set it up.”
“For…when?” Annie couldn’t control the tremor in her voice.
“Thirty minutes.”
Annie cried out, then placed her arms over her stomach and once again felt the infant kick.
Annie’s tremors worsened. While she didn’t particularly want the child herself, having no clue as to how she was going to take care of it, she didn’t want to die, either. She had dreams of one day getting free of Todd, meeting some nice man, or even going back to school and getting educated.
“Ready?”
She backed against the wall. “I…I can’t.”
“‘Course, you can.”
“The weather’s so bad. What if we get struck by lightning?”
“Ah, hell, that ain’tgonna happen. Now, let’s go. I’m fast losing what little patience I got left.”
“Please, don’t make me do this.”
Two steps and he was in front of her, his twisted face so close she could smell his foul breath. She turned aside. He grasped her chin and jerked her back around. “You either do what I say or get out and stay out.”
“You…mean—”
