The Cunning

26

She returned to the living room, sitting in the armchair Jase had been in the night they'd taken her. Jase and Adam were now cutting, weighing, and bagging cocaine at the table.

"What does Ramon want us to do about it?" Adam asked, slotting a small square of folded card in a tiny zip lock. Jase shrugged, using his switchblade to chip off the white powder from the large brick in front of him.

"Tell him how things work around here," he responded.

Madison tried not to eavesdrop, not that it made a difference, she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. She concentrated on other things, like the tall oak bookcase filled with DVDs, the wear on the grey carpet, and the tar-stained blue walls. Ominous pale patches behind the sofa hinted at a life the house had lived before. Madison envisioned family portraits once hung there. Strings of tobacco and various other smoking paraphernalia were spread across the coffee table.

She imagined that at one point, the house had probably been a cosy home. Kids sat in front of the TV, watching cartoons. An old lady knitting in the corner where Benny had watched her like a steak he was dying to devour the first night she arrived.

Whatever warm memories the walls once retained were long gone. It was odd to think that she could have walked past so many houses where awful things were happening inside and be none the wiser. So many people could walk past this house and be the same.

"And if he doesn't listen?" Adam asked Jase. Madison caught Janine's eye as Jase replied.

"We put a bullet in his head." The words were spoken so casually, they practically rolled off his shrug. Janine's brows twitched in an 'I told you so' way, before her attention returned to the second joint Sam was rolling. The hair on Madison's neck rose at the awareness that she was dancing with death. He could kill her just like that - put a bullet in her head.

"When are we going to pay our friend a little visit?" Adam continued, not so much as blinking at Jase's words, so desensitised to the permanence of death it was too mundane to spare an extra thought.

"As soon as I find out where he hangs around." And that was that.

"Are you having people over tonight?" Janine asked Sam, who nodded. The boys always threw parties when Benny was away. Not because they weren't allowed to when he was there, it was just easier when he wasn't. Jase didn't have to worry about Benny bottling someone for looking at him funny.

"Yeah. Are you staying downstairs, or you going up?" Sam asked, licking the thin paper of the joint and handing it to her. Janine sat up straight, lighting it and taking back a lungful.

"Do I have any customers today?" she asked, letting the smoke curl out of her lips like ghost tentacles.

"Four. The first one is at three." Janine received the information so nonchalantly that Madison momentarily forgot what those 'customers' were 'buying'.

"And the others?"

"Hourly."

"I'll see how I feel," Janine decided. She held the joint out towards Madison. "Want some? It takes the edge off." Madison nibbled her lower lip, wondering whether this was a test, considering everything Lily said about the girls not being allowed to do drugs. For a second, she questioned whether Jase had sent Janine into the kitchen to grill her and this was all a ploy. 

Jase spoke as she leaned forwards to accept it. "Have you ever smoked weed before?" 

She looked at him, freezing with her arm extended mid-air like Michelangelo's Creation of Adam. He wasn't looking back at her as he continued to scrape away at the white brick.

"No..." she replied, her mouth going dry. Was there a right answer? Her heart pounded. Instead of a telling off, he breathed a short laugh, sharing a smirk with Sam before looking over his shoulder at her.

"And you don't smoke either?" She shook her head, and he shrugged, turning his attention back to what he was doing. "You're cleaning up your sick if you green out," he mumbled. Madison caught the twitch in Janine's brows before she rapidly recovered, smiled, and waved the joint again.

"You'll be fine," she assured, mistaking Madison's apprehension for nerves. "You know how to do it?" Madison shook her head, feeling childish and inexperienced and then stupid over her embarrassment. "Breathe in, then breathe in again, not too deep because you'll choke."

She followed Janine's advice, coughing after taking it back. Her eyes watered as she struggled to fill her lungs with clean oxygen. Sam and Adam laughed, which was a peculiar sound, unsuitably joyful for such heinous criminals.

"Adam, go get her some water," Jase said, taking the joint from her.

Madison chugged the glass Adam had fetched. Eventually, she caught her breath, and the redness in her face faded.

"You good?" Janine asked. 

Madison nodded, reaching out for the join again with a wiggle of her fingers. "Okay, yeah, I know how to do it now."

Jase raised his eyebrows. "You want more?" he asked. 

She rolled her shoulders, sitting up to prepare herself. "I don't feel anything, so I guess." 

He licked his lower lip, toying with the idea of a stoned Madison. He looked at Sam for a second opinion. Sam shrugged.

"If she wants to then let her. It's only weed," he said. Jase handed back the joint. She took four more drags before returning it to Janine.

"How are you feeling?" Janine asked. Everyone was observing Madison smiling as she bobbed her head, sinking into the armchair.

"Nice," she murmured. For the first time since being in the house, every muscle in her body unwound. Her shoulders dropped, the crick in her neck softened, her legs became doughy and movements sluggish. Jase and the others chuckled, watching the previously hostile and anxious Madison progressively become one with the furniture.

"Fucking hell," Jase muttered.

*

Different vibe in this chapter to the previous ones, do you think Jase is keeping his 'enemies' close or is he attempting to establish a rapport with Madison so she thinks twice about being such a pain in the arse?