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Silence.
Channing said, “Okay? Look. I’ve got a bounty in my truck trying to kick out the windows and piss on my men. I’ve stepped away from them while they’re being railed by the bounty’s fucked-up family. Get to the point or I’m ending this call and calling my sister later to talk to her alone. Got it?”
Tabatha didn’t respond right away.
Channing wasn’t down with that. “Start talking. Now!”
She jumped forward. “My father is Henry Sweets.” She stammered to a stop.
A part of me was appreciating this moment because I’d seen Tabatha say a lot of things, but rarely when she was flustered about how to respond. Pissed. Happy. Feisty. Scared. But this, when she seemed just flummoxed, and yes, I was preening that I had used both of those words just now, but that’s what she was. She was flustered by my brother.
I was loving it.
“I know your dad. Is that why I’m still standing here waiting to hear the reason for this call?”
I was really loving this.
Tabatha blinked rapidly. Her hands came undone and she wiped them down her face. “Uh—yes. Yes, sir.”
Channing groaned. “Do not let my sister hear you call me sir. I will never hear the end of that.”
I chirped up, grinning, “Too late.” A pause. “Sir.”
He cursed into the phone. “Bren, you start with that and you don’t want to hear what I’ll start calling you back.”
Yep. I loved my brother. A lot.
I just laughed. “Just hear her out and stop trying to scare her. She’s had a hard time.”
“Why don’t you summarize it for her, hmm? I’m not lying about my guys and my bounty right now. I really don’t have the time.”
I raised my eyebrows at Tabatha and she nodded, stepping back into the corner, her shoulders falling down again. She looked almost relieved.
“Tabatha’s dad took out a bad loan to a guy named—”
Blaise spoke for this one, “Timothy Harper, Senior. He owns some restaurants in LA, but also some—”
Channing cut in, “Strip clubs. Yeah. I know of him. He has a strip club that’s on the outskirts between Roussou and Frisco. He’s got some illegal connections. Bren, what the fuck?”
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re mixed up in this?”
Oh. “Tab is a friend. The issue we have is that—”
Tabatha remained in her corner, but spoke up, her voice shaking, “I overheard my dad on the phone. I ran home one day. It was a quick trip. He didn’t know I was coming home and he was yelling at someone on the phone. My mom was gone, but I needed—”
“It’s okay.” Channing was more soothing now. “You don’t have to explain what you went there for. Just tell me the bullet points.”
She closed her eyes, both sides of her mouth turning down. Whatever she’d endured over the last two months had taken a toll. I noticed that she had lost weight, but I hadn’t really took note of it. I hadn’t given it any thought, but seeing her now, really seeing her, she looked as if two gusts of wind could blow her over. That was not the Tabatha Sweets I knew from school.
Regret and pain speared me, going right through my sternum.
I should’ve been a better friend.
Hell. I should’ve been a friend.
I’d been lost in my own world, the one where I was not thinking about my dad.
Tab yelled at me months ago for not being a good friend. She was right.
She was talking, “…He threatened my dad.”
“You heard it?”
She was nodding, but said for Channing, “Yes. He said, ‘Pay up or we’ll hurt your wife and kid.’”
Thud!
All of us whipped around. Jordan was leaving the room, a hole in the wall where he’d been standing.
Aspen’s mouth turned into an O. Blaise shifted her to the couch, easing out from under her. He shot Cross a look before heading after Jordan.
Now that was interesting, but Cross stayed put. So did Zellman.
“I don’t want to know what that was, and since I’m not hearing any screams, let’s move on. Sweets, what exactly were the words used?”
She was still looking in the direction Jordan had gone, out through the kitchen and into the backyard. “Um.” She was blinking again, shaking her head. “Oh. He said what I said, but when my dad started to get upset, he said, ‘If you don’t pay, we’ll put your wife in the hospital.’” That was it. My dad got quiet after that, and I left the room. My mom’s been sick this summer. They’ve been running tests on her to find out what’s going on, but she can’t take any more stress. And I don’t know what he meant by it, but nothing can happen to my mom.” Her voice started rising, shaking.
I shifted on my feet, feeling a pull to go to her, but Aspen was on her feet, heading for Tabatha before I got there. She didn’t know Tab, but it didn’t seem to matter. She stood next to her, taking Tabatha’s hand in hers and it seemed to help. Tabatha nodded, her eyes closed, and she spoke again, her voice more firm, “I’d met Tim Harper, Junior, a few times. I knew he liked me, and I knew that his dad doted on him, so I thought I could date Tim, get him to call his dad off of mine.” Guilt flooded her face and she looked to where Jordan was outside. He was standing there, Blaise not far from him. The two looked like they were talking, or Blaise was talking and Jordan was listening, his hands in fists at his side. “I think it worked, but now the group knows and,” she couldn’t finish, her eyes finding mine. There was a deep plea in them, one I felt deep down, and was answering the pull before I even knew it. I was crossing the room, standing next to her. I didn’t hold her hand. That wasn’t the type of person I was, but I was there. I was at her side, and I spoke for her now, “There’s a room of guys in here who want to beat the shit out of Junior.”
