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“How much do you owe?”
“Few thousand. I paid half earlier today, but it doesn’t matter.”
I folded my arms and waited for the rest. I knew this song well, used to sing it all the damn time. “Yeah? Why not?”
“Because,” she said, nose up in the air like the snooty girl she was just a few months back. “I’m done with him. With that.”
Yep, I knew it well. “Done with what?”
“That.”
I laughed and shook my head. “If you can’t even say it, you’re not ready to give it up. You’re done with what, Bonnie?”
“The heroin. I’m done with it.” She was a brave little thing when she wanted to be, and it was too damn bad this shit had taken out plenty of brave and smart people. “I am. I promise.”
“Just like that?” It always seemed easy, at first until the withdrawals set in.
Bonnie nodded, confident once again the world would bend to her will. At least she was making a damn good impression of a woman who wanted the world to think that. “Yep. I found a way to get the pills I need to manage my pain. It requires a little creativity but it should only be for a little while longer. The doctor said the pain should go away soon.”
I stared at her for a long time and nodded. “That was a whole lot of words to not say a damn thing. Impressive.”
“Fuck you,” she shot back, surprising me once again.
“Such salty language from a church lady,” I teased and she flipped me off. “Seriously, who are you trying to convince that you’re done? You or me?”
“I don’t have to convince you of anything,” she said, her haughty tone returning.
“Ah, so it’s you you’re trying to convince. Is it working?”
Bonnie opened her mouth to say something and shut it. That happened twice before her shoulders fell with a resigned sigh. “You wouldn’t get it.” She pushed her mug and looked away.
I stood and held a hand out to her. “Follow me.”
“Said the spider to the fly.”
“Funny.” I pulled her with me out of the kitchen and up to the second level of my suite of rooms.
“You know it’s customary to laugh when something is funny instead of just saying that it’s funny.”
“Is it?” I looked at her over my shoulder and laughed. “Funny.”
“Smartass.”
“Ooh. This potty mouth is new. I like it.” I turned and smiled at her. This was a version of Bonnie I could like all too well, natural and relaxed, funny and witty. “We’re here.”
“And what is this, your etchings?”
“Funny,” I said again and rolled my eyes. “No, this is my favorite place in the world. Where I come when I need creative inspiration.”
“For hacking?”
The question was mildly offensive, but I shook it off.
“No. Ever heard of AI Holdings?”
“The video game company?”
“The software company. I started it when I was seventeen, with Ma’s help, of course. Jasper and Kat too.”
Her eyes widened until I thought they might pop out of her head. “You’re AI Holdings?”
“Ashby International. In the flesh.”
“Wow. Impressive. And you did it all here?” She motioned to the room I’d set up the same way any proper sci-fi geek would, to look like outer space.
“Not all of it, but plenty.” I stepped inside and flipped the lights off, smiling at the gasp of surprise that sounded when she saw all the stars and planets, the solar systems in minute detail.
“Now, we talk.”
She was defensive again right away. “Why bother? You don’t understand and why should you?”
“I understand more than you think.”
“Yeah?” she folded her arms and sat on the floor to look up at the ceiling. “You grew up with strict religious social climbing parents?”
“No. I grew up with an abusive alcoholic father.”
“No!”
“Yep. He was a bit of a prick. Should’ve seen some of the shit he did to Ma and Jasper.”
“But not you?”
I sighed. “Me too, but Jasper and Virgil always did what they could to protect me, Kat, and Ma.”
“I’m sorry, Calvin.”
I smiled. “Thanks, but that’s not why I’m sharing. I know exactly how you feel, Bonnie. Exactly.”
“Doubtful,” she snorted.
“You heard the story of how old Colm Ashby died?”
“All I know is it happened over a poker game.”
I smiled bitterly. “It happened at a poker game, but the why is a bit more complex. Anyway, after he died, I couldn't sleep. I was so worried that my dad was dead, and I wouldn’t let myself sleep. Then I couldn’t sleep.”
I tried to shrug off the memories of that time, but they hit me hard.
“Pills aren’t easy to come by for a teenager, not without a script. But the other stuff? Easy as hell.”
“You?”
I nodded. “Yep. Surprised?”
“You could say that.” She shook her head and let out a laugh before leaning back to gaze at the stars. “Is that why you want to help me so bad?”
