Beckett (Robinson Destruction #4) - Kathi S. Barton Page 0,56

promise.” Putting it in his back pocket, for now, he started out the door. Rogen called him back. “I’m carrying it. What now, my dear?”

“You’ll need this.” She helped him put on the under the arm holster. It wasn’t nearly as cumbersome as he thought it might be. “Wear it, Dawson. If I find your dead body someplace and you’ve not at least pulled that thing to defend yourself, I’m going to have you brought back to life so I can kill you myself.”

Dawson nodded and walked to his own office. The thing was, he believed her. That not only would she figure out how to bring him back, but that she would indeed kill him again. And not quickly, either.

As he entered his office, he closed the door behind him. He sat at his desk and thought about what had happened last night. Now that had been a scary ending of a day.

He and Jonas had been out just fooling around. They’d hit a bar at some point. While neither of them were drunk, they had a nice buzz from the beers. As they were leaving the little diner that was open twenty-four/seven, a woman approached them. She pulled a knife on them and demanded their money.

Dawson reached into his pocket to pull out his wallet. Jonas just stood there. When she told him to hurry it up, Jonas said that he’d worked hard for his money, and he wasn’t turning it over to anyone. Dawson thought for sure that they were both going to be killed.

“You fucking moron, Jonas. What the hell are you thinking?” He looked at his brother when the woman said his name. “You’re supposed to give me your money because you owe me support.”

“I don’t owe you shit, Margo. You’re a junkie and a whore. Literally. I told you the last time that I wasn’t going to help you out anymore. You get straight, and I’ll make sure you’re put up so you can get your kids back. But as it stands right now, you’re fucked.” She stomped her foot, and Jonas laughed. “You don’t scare me one bit. Now, move along before I have to call in a few favors and make sure you never get your kids back.”

“I fucking hate you.” Jonas told her he didn’t care all that much for her either. “You mother fucker. I should just kill you both right now.”

Jonas reached out and snatched the knife from her. It scared Dawson so much that he jumped back. When his brother bent the knife in two and snapped it, Dawson wondered what she’d do now.

“Go home, Margo. And barring that, you should just go back to the rock you crawled out from under. You and I are done. I’m not going to help you again.” She begged him to give her another chance. “No. Go away before I get pissed off and shift. You know that my cat will hurt you if he doesn’t kill you.”

They were nearly a street away when he finally asked Jonas what that was all about. If anyone had asked him to describe his brother, he would have said he was a nerd. A numbers guy who could take a buck and have a million in no time. Not this stranger that grabbed knives from crazy women and walked away.

“She met up with me about six months ago. To borrow some money. I didn’t give her anything but the phone number of some people to get her straightened out. That ended badly, as she never even tried, and the courts ended up taking her kids from her. She has four.” Dawson asked him why she said he owed her. “Margo is messed up in the head. She seems to think that just because I recommended her getting clean, I had something to do with her kids being taken. They were malnourished. Underweight, as you can imagine, as well as the little one was suffering from a very severe case of diaper rash because there was never any diapers for the others to change her when she needed it. You should have seen them, Dawson. They were terrified that their mother was coming back to move them along again.”

“What did you do with them? I have no idea why, but I have a feeling you’ve stashed them someplace that she’ll not ever get them no matter how clean she is.” Jonas told him he had and for him to leave it at that. “I will.