pay me 400k each. I’ll net over a million dollars, one time, then I can disappear into retirement.”
I trace the rim of my empty shot glass with my index finger. “It’ll never be enough. You’re addicted. Don’t you remember what you used to tell me as a kid? The empty promises? Every job was the last one. Then we’d be good. Then I could go to a regular school and have friends and not have to move around the city to evade the authorities. I should’ve been playing little league and having sleepovers and slumber parties.”
“Is that why you sold me out? Let me get busted by the cops while you ran away? Over something so petty?” His words come through his teeth.
“It wasn’t petty. I was a kid and you stole that from me too. You were already caught. They caught you. What’d you want me to do? I thought you’d want me to get away. Not voluntarily turn myself in because you fucked up.” I sigh. “I don’t even give a shit. And the answer is no. So, don’t come near me again. Or that choke hold will feel like a tickle compared to what I’ll do to you.” I stand up and start to walk away.
“This is happening, son. Don’t pretend like it’s not. This is what you are. You’re just like me, whether you want to admit it or not.”
“Fuck you.”
He stands up and pretends to brush some invisible dust off my shoulder, then taps me on the cheek with his open palm. “I know everything about you. What you’ve become. How you became it. I don’t think you want that getting back to your boss, the authorities, or your little girlfriend.”
My stomach rolls, and nothing but pure shame rolls through me.
He doesn’t even wait for me to respond. “That’s what I thought.” He walks a step past me and says over his shoulder. “I’ll be in touch.”
It all hits me at once. This was my biggest fear. I knew all this was going to come back to me, even though I lived in denial. The thing is, what’s eating me up inside isn’t that everything is about to end for me. It’s that I know what I have to do with Mary. It’s the only way to keep her safe.
My heart shatters at the thought, but I can’t have her around all this. I just can’t.
Mary Patrick
I haven’t heard from Rick since last night after he walked me to my apartment. I don’t want to be that clingy girlfriend who freaks out about little things, but something just doesn’t feel right.
Today was the most uneventful day I’ve had at work in weeks. It was awesome. No Wells Covington drama, no gossip—I just did my work and went home. Afterward, I went to the church to help out Pastor Jeremiah.
Rick didn’t show up. He’s almost always there unless he has to work. Even Jeremiah mentioned it and said he hadn’t heard from him.
Now, I’m sitting here worried because Rick hasn’t texted me, hasn’t called, never showed up at the office, didn’t show up at church.
Maybe I’m a little more worried because I saw him arguing with that guy in the street, and then they walked away together. Am I just overanalyzing things? Is this what needy girlfriends do? He’s a private investigator. I’m sure those types of encounters happen all the time with him. Maybe he just ran into someone he knows. Maybe it was a contact for a case, and they just had a disagreement and worked it out. I don’t know.
I’ve never been the person who needs to know everything about everyone, always have the latest gossip, but I care about Rick so much. I want to know things about him. I want to know what he does, where he comes from, what made him—him. My mind goes to the worst possible places. He always calls and texts nonstop and now he just cuts me off.
Yes, I’m definitely worried.
Relax, he’ll call.
I start bingeing Friends because how can Joey not turn a bad day around? It’s my go-to move, and not even that is working. I just stare at the screen, but none of it makes sense. The dialogue is just words out loud, but I don’t know what they even mean.
I’m a rational person, very grounded, and right now my mind is going to places I’m unfamiliar with. An hour passes. Then two. Still no word, and Rick said we were going to hang