Throws Prior

She fell asleep without meaning to, the red glow of the window like a sunset in Miami, and she must’ve dreamed of Eddy, or anyway of Hooky Green’s, dancing with somebody up there on the thirty-third floor, because when the crash woke her, she wasn’t sure where she was, but she had this very clear map of the way out of Hooky Green’s, like she knew she’d better take the stairs because there must be some kind of trouble.…

She was half out of bed when Prior came through the door, like really through it, because it was still shut when he hit it. He came through it backward and it just went to splinters and honeycomb chunks of cardboard.

She saw him hit the wall, and then the floor, and then he wasn’t moving anymore, and someone else was there in the doorway, backlit from the other room, and all she could see of the face were these two curves of reflected red light from that fake sunset.

Pulled her legs back into bed and sank back against the wall, her hand sliding down to …

“Don’t move, bitch.” There was something real scary about that voice, because it was too fucking cheerful, like throwing Prior through that door had been kind of a treat. “I mean really don’t move.…” And the woman was across the room in three strides, very close, so close that Mona felt the cold coming off the leather of the woman’s jacket.

***

Mona Lisa Overdrive ch 27