She sighs and wraps her arms around herself, the oversized hoodie she is wearing swamping her small frame. “What hasn’t happened would be a better question at this point, boss man.”
I didn’t like people fucking with what is mine. Addie is one of my people and that qualifies her as mine. I grit my teeth and force myself to stay calm. Honey is my main concern, but whatever is going on in Addie’s world is complicating that. The fact that I have to pay her a visit is costing me valuable time.
“Explain and do it fast, Addie. I don’t have time for this shit.”
Her eyes fly up from the floor to me. “You already know. I told you about my brother.”
The brother.
“Right.” I nod around the room. “This shit his?”
She bites her lip and nods. “Yeah, he’s not here right now but he’ll be back soon and he has a shit fit if I clean up.” Addie looks around her apartment with a curled lip of disgust. “Of all the times I thought you might see how I live, this definitely fucking wasn’t it.”
I tuck my hands in my pockets and shrug. “Shit happens.”
“What happened?” she asks and starts working on clearing the couch where the bulk of the clothing is piled. There is a pillow there, marking it as her brother’s bed.
“What is this? A one bedroom?”
She winces and shoves his clothing into a pile at one side before tossing the pillow onto the floor. “Yeah. Doesn’t really do much in the way of giving me privacy, but he’s keeping odd hours so I don’t notice him. Not until it’s…well, not until-I” she stops and shakes her head. “He’s not around that much,” she says and then nods at the couch. “You wanna sit? I, uh, I have coffee brewed too.”
I hold up a hand. “I’m good.” I don’t much feel like sitting somewhere her shithead brother has been bunking. “You mean, he’s hiding out somewhere else except to sleep and lets you deal with the bookies? That right?”
She bites her lip. “Yeah. Haven’t been sleeping a lot. They come at odd hours, you know?”
I watch Addie. She’s scattered, the obvious pressure her brother and the muscle sent to collect his debts has her stretched thin. What she is describing is the shit I started out doing as a punk kid. I know the type that will have been knocking on her door. They wouldn’t give two fucks she is a woman on her own or that it is her brother that owes. They were sent to collect and Addie’s is the door they know to knock on.
Her brother has brought hell right to her door. Fucker. They’ll be sure they get that money out of Addie one way or another, but I’ll see to that. Unless this visit goes sideways. Then Addie will find out I am much worse than the low rent muscle keeping her awake at night.
“Tell me about the trip you booked for me.”
“The trip?” She blinks in surprise. “You mean the one to the Catskills with Honey?” she asks.
“No, I mean the one I took to the moon,” I deadpan.
She glares at me, the expression doing wonders for her. She looks more like herself when she replies. “Don’t be a dick, bossman.”
“Answer the question, Addie. I need to know everything about how you planned the fucking trip. Where did you plan it? What did you use to do it?”
She sinks down onto the cleared couch and shakes her head. “What do you mean? I didn’t use anything but my work computer. I told you.”
“Not your laptop? Nothing anyone else had access to?”
She opens her mouth to speak and then stops, her eyes sliding to the side and she swallows hard. “I-I, well, I mean…I did use my laptop to finalize a few things after hours. But I just-”
“Where is it?”
“Where’s what?”
“Your fucking laptop,” I growl. “Where the fuck is it?”
She swallows, delicate throat bobbing, before she jerks a thumb behind her. “In my bedroom. I keep it in there because of-”
“Your brother?” I guess.
Addie nods. “Yeah, I caught him trying to steal it a week ago. Think he was going to pawn it. I’ve kept it locked up since then, along with everything else.”
That has my attention. “Bring me the laptop. Now. Tell me what you caught your brother doing.”
