Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 74875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
I learned that early in life, and when my mother watched me get the shit beat out of me instead of helping me, I realized that being a mother didn’t make you a mother.
So yes, on Sundays my mother may go to church and act like she was God’s child, but on every other day of the week, she spread her legs for fun. Let her Johns pay her bills, and in return, she turned the other cheek if someone liked little boys.
In a roundabout way, she was responsible for me learning how to protect myself early, and inevitably that saved my ass when I was in the Marines.
A whole lot of fuckin’ times.
Funny how life worked like that sometimes.
“Ms. Hanes, I really need to speak with you,” the man with the crazy-filled eyes demanded.
I looked over at ‘Ms. Hanes’ and gauged her reaction.
Her flinch was telling.
“Mr. Finch,” Hennessy smiled woodenly. “Won’t you come back to my office?”
The Finch character did, slamming the door shut before Hennessy could follow.
“Mr. Casey, I’ll see you next week.”
With that, she turned around.
“I’ll see you next week, too,” Reverend Hanes growled.
I gritted my teeth and watched him leave, then took a seat in the lobby and waited.
Exactly forty-six minutes later, Finch walked out of the office, his eyes still as crazy as they’d been when he walked in.
He paced into the reception area and looked at the walls like a cornered bear. “Gotta go.”
Then he left without another word, looking over his shoulder twice at the building he’d just exited before he rounded the corner.
“What are you still doing here?”
I looked to find Hennessy standing there watching me with surprised-filled eyes.
“Guy gave me the creeps,” I said, dropping the magazine about Fourth of July recipes onto the counter. “Wanted to make sure he didn’t shoot you.”
My words were harsh, but the smile she gave me was nothing less than sweet.
“Thank you.”
I walked out without telling her that she was ‘welcome.’
I wanted to, though.
I really, really wanted to.
***
“Tell me again why you can’t go to this one?” Travis asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“I’m not going to repossess another woman’s car like that,” Baylor said. “I repossessed the last one, and she cried. It fucking sucked. Give me all the men. I’ll take getting shot at over being cried on.”
Travis looked at Baylor like he’d gone soft.
“She’s behind on her bill,” Travis interjected. “You don’t have a choice here. I don’t have a choice here if you want to keep getting paid.”
“You have a choice,” Baylor grunted. “Don’t act like you don’t.”
Travis looked to me, and I nodded.
I had no problem repossessing a woman’s car. I’d be able to do it. But normally when nobody else wanted to do it, Dante took it. He’d respected his employees’ right to choose what they were and were not willing to do.
“Where the fuck is Dante?” I asked suddenly. “Didn’t he used to do this?”
The sound of crickets proceeded my comments.
Travis cleared his throat, then looked up at the ceiling.
“Dante’s wife and kids were killed in an automobile accident. An accident where my sister was driving.”
My stomach clenched.
The sister I’d known had committed suicide. That was one of the first things that Baylor had told me when I’d gotten back—but only because I’d asked how she was doing.
Now to hear this?
Couldn’t this family catch a break?
“He’s gone off the deep end, I suspect.”
Travis nodded, then looked to Baylor.
“We’ve had to make some adjustments to our usual routine. As of right now, Dante no longer has anything to do with us, this business, or the town of Hostel.”
I could imagine.
Dante and his wife had gotten married at the park in town. They’d had their first baby shower at that same park. Their daughters played in that park. That park was the whole fuckin’ town.
Yeah, I knew why he’d left. Hell, I would have, too.
Especially if I had the one thing that Dante did, and then got it taken away so ruthlessly.
God, the idea of never seeing those two faces of Dante’s children again…that fucking sucked. It sucked so bad that I found myself tearing up.
“Yeah, you’re about like we are,” Baylor muttered, obviously reading the look on my face. “Still in shock, even though it happened a while ago. Fuck, I still feel like I’m going to hear them scream my name when I get to the shop late on school days.”
I looked down and studied my hands.
“Fuck.”
That about summed it up.
Chapter 6
No, I don’t care if I eat like a child. At least I don’t look like one.
-Hennessy to Krisney
Hennessy
I smiled at the checker that was ringing my Lunchables up.
“How old are you again?”
I looked over at Krisney and grinned.
“Don’t judge me. You know you still eat them, too,” I growled. “Not to mention the fact that I swear I saw you eating those crackers the other day that you spread cheese on with that little red stick.”