Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 72401 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72401 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
I shook my head. “No, what?”
“My sister called. Told me she answered my phone this morning at five, saying that you’d called while I was on my run. Stupid me, but I didn’t call you back because I was running late for work. However, then I got another call from a cop buddy on the Shreveport PD who said you’d had your place broken into, and your car vandalized. I probably wouldn’t have known at all if I hadn’t asked the man to keep an ear out for your name,” he snapped.
“I tried calling you!” I accused.
“Really? You tried? Or did you just go through the motions? ‘Cause if you’d wanted me to know, you would’ve left a message instead of hanging up as soon as you’d heard my sister’s voice,” he growled.
I stood and faced the man who was doing a really, really good job at pissing me off. “You want to know the truth of why I didn’t talk to her? Because your sister’s a fucking bitch. In fact, all of them are bitches to me. They’re so fucking selfish. All they care about is keeping you to themselves. They don’t care if you’re happy. That’s your job, after all. To make them happy. Don’t you ever wonder why I’m never around when you’re sisters are?”
He blinked, surprised at my vehemence. “You don’t like my sisters?”
I laughed in amusement at how truly cuckolded he was when it came to his sisters. “Do me a favor. Next time you see them, bring up my name. In fact, I know you’re supposed to do lunch with them tomorrow. How about you call me when you’re done, and we’ll pick this up again there.”
I didn’t spare him another glance, annoyed that he wouldn’t even ask me what had happened.
I probably wouldn’t have told him if I’d been a little less sleep deprived.
No one told him what to do when it came to his sisters.
They had their big brother so wrapped around their fingers that it was comical.
The man did absolutely anything and everything he could when it came to them. So much so that it was well and truly hard to get in there.
Somehow, though, I’d managed it this time around, and I could tell just by the expression on his face as I left that he’d be thinking about what I’d said.
Which was good, because I wasn’t coming fourth to him any longer. I deserved first.
Chapter 14
It’s throat punch Thursday, and I’m offering free tickets.
-Cleo to his boss
Cleo
“You’ve got to be kidding,” I said incredulously. “You’re telling me, that if I don’t get my girlfriend not to testify against the case that’s in less than a month, that I’m going to be let go? Is that what I’m hearing?”
Did he know how illegal that was?
Seriously, was I hearing what he was saying correctly?
The man standing in front of me, the same man that I’d once had the upmost respect for, nodded. “Yes.”
I walked forward until I was standing in front of him, nearly nose to nose. “Fuck. You.”
He blinked at me, surprised. “What?”
The funny thing was, was that he actually looked surprised that I hadn’t taken him up on his offer.
“You heard me,” I confirmed.
“But…but if you don’t tell her not to testify, we’ll lose everything anyway, and you’ll lose your job,” he stuttered.
I smiled at him. “Yeah? Well who says I want this job anyway? Do you know that I had at least eight other offers when I started this job?”
He swallowed thickly. “No.”
“Well, I did. In fact, the hospital in Longview also offered me one. It’d be a little bit of a drive to go to Longview and back every day, but I could do it. That’s not too far away. I think I’ll go talk to them. Maybe we can start things rolling,” I snapped.
I walked away from the man and my job.
Fuck him.
He could take that job and shove it up his ass.
I’d made it nearly all the way out to my bike when a thought struck me, causing me to turn and walk back inside and to the man’s office.
He was on the phone. “No, I can’t get him to. He just quit rather than ask her not to testify. I’ve done everything you’ve asked me to do.”
Alonzo Potts, the man who’d just fired me, looked scared.
So scared, in fact, that he was almost ashen.
“He did exactly like you told him to do. In fact, he has a broken arm for it now,” he pleaded.
The man must’ve said something horrible, because the look on the Alonzo’s face when he hung up the phone spoke of anything but happiness. He looked downright terrified.
I left the same way I came, my mind whirling.
The same thought kept going through my head, over and over again.
What had she gotten herself into?
***
Cleo
I was late for my lunch with my sisters.
However, I’d needed to inform Silas about what I’d learned and get his opinion on things.
He’d set to work on finding out what he could on his end, and he’d had an interesting possibility for my job as well.
I drove to The Blind Tiger with my mind on Rue.
Then what she’d said yesterday about how my sisters were selfish popped through my mind.
They’d really only met a handful of times. Surely she was just overreacting.
As I pulled into the parking lot and parked next to my sister, Meredith’s, car, I made a note of the tires.
They’d need to be replaced.
I’d do that this week since I didn’t have anything else to do seeing as I’d just quit my job less than two hours ago.
I walked into the dark room and went straight to the bar where my sisters were already in full swing.
Each had a half empty glass of something blue sitting in front of them, and they were all carrying on about something.
None of them saw me though.
Which annoyed me to no end.
I was always telling them they needed to be more aware of their surroundings than they were.
“No, she called and as soon as she heard my voice she hung back up,” Molly tittered.