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“Is that all? He didn’t do anything to you, did he?”
“No,” I said as I shook my head. “He did strip completely naked to change into his gym clothes in front of me, but he didn’t do anything.” I didn’t mention the look I saw in his eyes, the one that made me think Jake Mesa wanted to do something to me. Not just something—everything. And I certainly wasn’t going to mention how in that moment I wanted it—badly.
She grimaced. “That’s…intense. Maybe you should stay away for a while. I can get another ride home, it’s no big deal. You were going out of your way to pick me up anyway. Maybe if you stay away for a little while he’ll turn his interests elsewhere and forget about you. He doesn’t have any of your contact information, does he?”
I shook my head. “No, I don’t think I ever gave him anything. But Sam, the guy is a billionaire. He can probably track me down if he really wants to talk to me.”
She shrugged. “I suppose that’s true. But I can say one thing—they are serious about people following the rules there. He saw someone getting too close to you when you didn’t want it and he stepped in. I’m glad he was there to remove the guy from the premises. I’m not saying that anything he said or did afterward was appropriate, but I do think that in the moments before that his heart was in the right place.”
“I do think you’re right about that.”
“How’s the headache?”
I considered it. “Subsiding. I think I’ll feel well enough to head into work later this afternoon. I know my dad said I didn’t have to come in, but since he let Rodrigo go yesterday I think he might need the help. In any event, it will help me keep my mind off things.”
Sam smiled. “Do whatever you feel like. Just let me know if you need anything. And don’t worry about picking me up tonight. I’ll find another ride. There’s no need for you to see Jake Mesa ever again.”
When I pulled up to the garage it was almost five in the evening. I had no idea if my dad would still be there, but I was surprised to see two black Cadillacs parked outside the place. They didn’t look like they needed any work and the fact that they were matching seemed odd to me. Instead of entering from the front of the garage as I normally would have, I went around the back, planning to head up to dad’s apartment first to see if he was there.
I heard the shouting as soon as I stepped inside the garage. It made me pause and all of my senses were alerted. I knew better than to rush into whatever kind of situation it was. If the place was being robbed there was no need for me to get in the way of a bullet. I pulled out my cell and readied it to call 911 if I needed to. In hindsight, I wished I had dialed the number right then.
I caught little pieces of broken speech. Things like “Listen up old man” and “we mean business this time.”
Dad. My dad was in there. Startled, I bumped into a stack of tires and sent them crashing across the garage. The sound was so loud that it startled the men in the office and they came running out. Six of them fled the garage, hopped into the cars I had seen parked out front, and left quickly. Happy that they had been startled enough to leave, but still scared for my dad, I went running to the office.
I didn’t see him at first, then I realized he was there on the floor of his office, curled into a ball behind his desk.
“Dad!” I yelled. “What happened? Is everything okay? Do I need to call the police? Did those guys rob you?”
I knew I was asking too many questions and that he was in no state to answer. My chief concern was making sure he wasn’t terribly injured. Upon initial examination, it all appeared to be minor. They hadn’t kicked him or done anything that could have caused internal bleeding. I helped him into his chair and pulled one up beside him.
“Dad, do I need to call the police?”
He shook his head. “Please, don’t call the police. We can’t have them getting involved. It’ll just get messier. It can’t get any messier than it already is.”
“It’s looking pretty messy right now. What did they want?”
I could t
ell then there was something he wasn’t saying to me, something he had been holding back for a while. Suddenly his strange behavior around the book keeping was starting to make sense.
“Come on, Dad. You can tell me.”
He shook his head. “I am so ashamed, Tay.”
“Just tell me. Then we can fix it together.”
“I’m afraid it may be too late for that. I fell behind on some mortgage payments and I was trying to find some way to fix it. One of the guys I play cards with told me about some fellas he puts in sports bets with. I didn’t know who they were. Didn’t know the kind of power they have. I made some bad bets, got behind with them. Now I owe them more than I can ever come up with. I thought letting Rodrigo go would be enough to spot some of the money, but it isn’t nearly there. They were here today to remind me that they are coming to collect. The beat down was because of missed payments.”
“Fuck!” I shot. My dad hated it when I swore, but he didn’t seem to notice at that moment.
“We can’t mess with them, Tay. I am so sorry. We’re going to lose the garage over this. They’re going to take it because there is no way I’m going to be able to come up with the money I owe them. It’s too much. It was too much, to begin with when I was behind on payments and it’s far too much now. There’s no way I’d ever be able to put it all together. They’re serious business, Tay. They mean it. Next time they are coming for me and you can’t be here when they do.”
“Dad, that’s a shakedown. They can’t just come in here and take over the garage. It’s mine too. We’re a family and we’re going to take care of it together.”
“It’s more than that though,” he said with a sigh that made me think he had lost all hope.
“What? What is it?”
