AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A cab pulls up a moment later, and I open the back door and usher Cassidy inside.
“As soon as you get home, lock the door. Got it?” I repeat firmly, leaning down to hold her gaze. “I’ll meet you at your place later.”
“Yes, Mom.” Her tone is sarcastic, but I can see the gratitude and relief in her eyes.
That’s basically what I am to her. A mother. I just wish I was better at it. At least good enough to avoid bringing asshole men into her life.
As the cab pulls away, I take out my phone and dial the one contact I swore I’d never speak to again. What Ieversaw in a man like him is beyond me.
Jason answers the phone after a few rings, and a smarmy chuckle greets my ear. “Finally missed this sweet D, huh baby?”
“Cut the crap, asshole,” I bite out. I’m not playing his little games. “Your associates just jumped my baby sister, trying to get ‘money that she owes them.’ You want to tell me why they thought she hasanybusiness with them?”
He makes a noise like a dumb horse, then fumbles around for a moment. “Well, you know, those guys are nuts, right? Who knows why they do what they do, or why they pick on the people they pick on. You know what I mean?”
“No, I don’t know what you mean,” I snap. My anger is flaring to new heights. I swear, I don’t think I’ve ever been this consumed by true rage. It’s frightening, even to me. “It sounds like absolute horse shit to me. Just tell me who you owe money to. Where do I find them?”
“Oh, now, that’s a whole other argument, babe. People say I owe them this, I say they owe me that, at the end of the day who’s really keeping track? It’s all just he-said, she-said bullshit.”
I’m rapidly running out of patience. “I’ll make this really fucking simple for you, Jason. Who thinks that Cassidy is involved with your shit?”
He sighs, then groans. “Okay, so maybe somebody got the idea that she was working with me like a guarantor or whatever, I don’t know. Crazy what people can come up with, right?”
White hot fireworks of fury explode in my head. “Oh, you son of a bitch,” I murmur roughly. “Tell me where to find them.Now.”
“Hey, watch the attitude. You’re asking me for a big favor here, you know. Maybe show some appreciation?”
There’s heavy implication in his tone, and all I can think about is reaching through the phone somehow to rip off his fucking dick.
I curl my lip in disgust, doing my best to bite back my furious retort. If I push him too much, he won’t tell me anything, so even though I’m lightheaded from rage, I force myself not to devolve into screaming obscenities at him.
“I don’t appreciate that you’ve set my sister up to take the fall for your bullshit. Now tell me where to find these assholes before I give you exactly the thanks that you deserve.”
“I don’t even know why I try with you. You’ve always been such a frigid bitch,” he huffs, his amusement giving way to irritability, “You’re probably—and this is just a guess, I don’t know—but you probably want to go talk to Reese’s people.”
“Who the fuck is Reese, and where are his people?”
He sighs impatiently. “God, it’s like talking to a child! Reese is the boss man of an organization who might—maybe, perhaps—consider Cassidy a participating member of my various entrepreneurial pursuits. He has an office over on East Eleventh Street. That’s probably where you’ll find them.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose, doing my best to remain composed so he doesn’t just hang up on me. “Give me the address,please.”
He spends a lot of time guilt tripping me and being all-around unpleasant, but eventually gives me the address.
“And you better not tell them that you got it from me,” he says when he’s done. “I might want to come back one day, you know, see what’s up, see what sparks. Wouldn’t want to get on Reese’s bad side before you have a chance to remind me what that mouth—”
Yeah, that’s enough of that.
I hang up on him and put the address he gave me into my phone. Surprise, surprise. The‘office’is a warehouse tucked away between dozens of identical warehouses right by the freeway. Scumbags gonna slum, I guess. He calls me a few times while I wave down a cab, but I ignore him. Then the texts come, and more phone calls. He’ll burn himself out eventually, I hope. I’d mute my notifications, but I don’t want to risk missing a call from Cassidy.
A cab picks me up, and I give the driver the address.
“Goin’ from one job to the other, huh?” he asks, glancing over his shoulder at my apron.
“Damn it,” I mutter under my breath. I didn’t even think about clocking out, and I know how much of a stickler the restaurant is about that stuff.
But, whatever. It’s just a job. I can get another job, but I can’t get another Cassidy. Still, I don’t really feel like advertising where I work to these creeps. I tug off my apron, wadding it up onto a ball on my lap.
“Something like that, ” I tell the cabbie vaguely.
