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“I’m sorry…Bull.”
“What’s your name, kid?”
“It’s Tommy.”
“And Ren and Stimpy over there, who are they?”
“That’s Jethro and Eli.”
“Ok, Tommy. It ain’t me you should be apologizing to, it’s him.” I nodded toward the little guy.
Tommy followed my line of sight to the kid who had shrunk back even farther.
“We’re sorry…” he called over to him.
“You don’t speak for your friends,” I said. I turned to look at the twins. “You all do the crime, then you all do the time.”
The twins hastily offered their apologies.
“It won’t happen again,” Tommy said.
I fixed my cold eyes on him. “No, it won’t.”
He shivered and ran his hand through his hair.
That’s when I noticed the small tattoo on his thumb. It was crude and ugly, made by cutting the skin and rubbing ink into the wound.
I gestured to it. “You do that?”
He nodded.
“It doesn’t make you tough, Tommy. When you’re eighteen, come see us. We’ll hook you up with some art. Now get the hell out of here.”
The three kids scattered and ran off, leaving me alone with the little guy.
He didn’t say anything, he just stared at me with those big eyes and took a step back.
TAYLOR
“This has to be some kind of bad joke.”
“I assure you it ain’t no joke, sweetheart.”
I looked at the bill in my hand. It was for three-thousand dollars.
“But I didn’t do it. I wasn’t anywhere near your car.” I looked at Willy Breeze, my sleazy boss. We were in his office at Slingers, a place where men came to jerk off to women sliding up and down a pole, and where my dreams came to die.
Although I shouldn’t complain. It paid the bills. And as far as strip joints, this wasn’t the worst—and I’d worked in enough of them to be a good judge.
I looked at my watch. Very aware of the time.
My shift had finished five minutes ago, and I needed to pick up my younger brother from school. I didn’t have time for Sleazy Breezy to get his panties in a twist about something I didn’t do.
“I got CCTV footage of you taking out the trash, sweetheart. You brushed it up against the Camaro on the way to them bins and scratched the paintwork.”
“I’ve never taken the trash out, Willy.”
“Then how come I got it on camera?”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Oh yeah, if you got it on camera, then let’s see this footage.”
“I can’t. On account I have already given it to my lawyer.”
“Your lawyer?” I raised an eyebrow at him. I knew a shakedown when I saw it.
“He says I got a case for compensation from you.”
“I’m sure he does.”
“Says you pay the bill and we’re square.”
I shook my head. “Just so we’re clear, I’m not paying you one penny.”
“Then I’ll have no choice but to sue you.”
“Go ahead.”
“And fire you.”
I shot him a filthy look. “You really are an asshole, Willy.”
“Of course, I don’t want it to get to that. Lawyers can be such leeches. Now, if you’re willing, I’m open to negotiations.”
The look on his face made the hair on the back of my neck curl.
“How about I throw you a bone?” he said lasciviously, his voice lowering and taking on a sickly, syrupy cadence as he took a step closer to me. “Since I’m a nice guy, I’ll let you work it off in other ways. What do you think, sweetheart?”
I think if you call me sweetheart one more time, I’m going to set fire to your face.
I took a step away from him.
“Let me get this straight? You’re trying to blame me for scratching your car, which I didn’t do, and now you’re offering me a chance to work off the money I apparently owe you by climbing on your dick?”
He grinned. “That’s it, baby. You got it in a nutshell.”
“This is bullshit,” I said scrunching the bill up and throwing it at him. “If you think I’m paying that, then you’re delusional. And if you think I’m going anywhere near that pathetic dick of yours, then you’re even crazier than they say.”
I threw my bag over my shoulder and turned to leave. I should’ve been gone ten minutes ago. Noah’s school let out in five minutes, and I still had a fifteen-minute car ride across town to get there.
But as I went to walk out, Willy grabbed my arm and yanked me back to him. “Listen to me, you stuck-up little bitch, you gonna pay for what you did to my car. And if you don’t, then I’m just going to take it from you, with interest. And I don’t mean out of your wages. You feel me?”
He reached between us and forced my hand onto the bulge in the front of his pants. Feeling his erection against my palm, my reflexes kicked in and I shoved a sharp knee into his groin.
