Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 28565 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 143(@200wpm)___ 114(@250wpm)___ 95(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28565 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 143(@200wpm)___ 114(@250wpm)___ 95(@300wpm)
Mick’s mouth grows tight. He pushes away from the table and goes to stare out the window at the brick wall of the tenement behind us.
I gather up the mugs and make my way to the sink. “I gave you money two weeks ago for rent.”
“Honey, that’s how rent works. Every month you have to pay.”
“But not every two weeks.”
“They like me to pay in advance.”
“And two weeks ago?”
“I was behind and catching up.”
These are all lies. I know it. “I don’t have it.”
“I would never ask you unless I really needed it, but I guess I could let that place go and move in here. You’ve only got one bed in your room, but we could probably fit two twins in there.”
The threat of her moving in with Mick and me works. I grab my purse and thrust all my cash at her. “This is my tip money for the week.”
She rifles through the bills. “Only six hundred? My rent is $1800.”
I grit my teeth. “I’m not hiding anything. It’s all I have.”
Tears well in her eyes. “You don’t understand the things I’m going through, and you’re just trying to hurt me because I couldn’t give you the life I wanted you to have. It’s terrible that you are lashing out at me like this.”
“She doesn’t have it,” Mick barks.
Mom and I both jump. Mick hardly ever says a word when Mom’s around. He’s careful of her feelings, to a fault sometimes.
“Why are you using that tone of voice with me, Michael Roger Murphy?” Mom says with a quavering voice. Nothing gets at Mick more than his mom crying, but to my surprise, his stern expression doesn’t soften.
“She doesn’t have it. Lolo works two jobs to keep us housed and fed. I don’t do jack shit because I’ve got theft priors and can’t get hired even at a fucking corner grocery store running deliveries, so I got to rely on her like a deadbeat, but I’m getting my act together and you need to also. We can’t be dragging Lolo into the gutter with us.”
“You’re not a drag, Mick,” I snap. “You’re barely nineteen, and your job was graduating high school which, congrats, you did. And you’re going to get a job, so I’m not worried about it.” I turn to Mom. “I’m giving you my last dollar. That’s it. I can’t give you any more for whatever it is that you need it and don’t tell me rent because I don’t believe that stuff anymore.”
“Mom, we love you, but we’re barely getting by. When I get a job, I promise I’ll take care of you.” Mick peels himself away from the wall and comes over to draw Mom in for a hug. I notice that he looks taller, older as his larger frame engulfs Mom’s much smaller one. “I’ll call you a car.”
There’s a finality in his voice that shocks Mom. She numbly nods as he opens the app on his phone. When the car arrives, he walks her down to the curb. When he returns to the apartment, he tells me good night. I finish tidying up the kitchen. Mick’s grown up, and I didn’t even see it.
Chapter Fifteen
GRIFF
“You owe me big time.” I toss my helmet on the sofa in Evers’ office.
“For what reason? I called you in after your morning run.” He throws a folder onto the coffee table in front of me.
“I had an appointment.”
Evers arches his eyebrows at my terseness. Sending the text to Lauren that I couldn’t meet up this morning pissed me off, so my tone is shorter than usual.
“At six? The girl, then?”
“None of your business.”
The folder has new tests. “You want me to take these to a print shop and watch over the production so they aren’t stolen?” The exams are in two weeks, so I guess there’s some urgency but not enough to require a sunrise meeting.
“No. I want you to get your friend to steal them and hand them over to Roberta.”
I toss the file down. “No.”
Evers furrows his brows. “No?”
“No. I’m not making Lauren a target of a rich crazy woman.”
“She’s already the target of the rich crazy woman. Having her deliver these tests will ensure no one else becomes hurt.”
“Just Lauren.”
“You’ve locked her down by now, right? So she’s got plenty of protection.”
“The first line of defense is not placing the body you’re protecting in harm’s way. The suggestion kind of pisses me off, if I’m gonna be honest.” I say it as mildly as possible, but Evers knows I’m serious.
He’s silent for a moment and then says, “Fair enough. I’m trying to get Vasey out of harm’s way, and it’s not right to ask you to put Lauren there in her place.”
“Why don’t you give Roberta the test results yourself? Or, hell, just skip all those intermediate steps and just pass the shithead on to Harvard.”