Hot Pickle - J.J. Knight Page 0,77
press my phone tightly against my ear. “I don’t think so. I need to find him. Will you let me know if he calls over there, or shows up?”
Dad’s tone turns sharp. “You listen here, don’t expect us to bail you guys out of trouble.”
“Dad, I’m not in trouble. I’m just trying to find Franklin. Your son.”
Mom and dad start squabbling about what’s happened to Franklin, and why I don’t know where he is.
I hang up. That was a wasted effort.
I pull out of Franklin’s parking lot.
Where would he go? He’d have to head somewhere on foot or call for a ride.
I think about all those guys who came to the meet from Buster’s Gym. Did they ride together? Probably. Did they know what he did? Did they help?
Anger makes me clench the steering wheel on the drive to the gym. Surely none of those friends would have taken part in sabotaging Max’s deli.
But when I arrive, sure enough, several cars are parked along the curb. The street is otherwise silent.
I slide in behind a beat-up Camaro and walk up to the blacked-out front glass. The door’s locked.
I knock on it several times. No one answers.
Maybe some of them left their cars here and rode together somewhere. I could sit in my car and wait for them to return.
I’m about to walk away when I hear the unmistakable sound of a metal plate hitting the cement floor.
Someone is in there.
I bang harder on the glass.
I text Franklin again. I’m here at the gym. Open the damn door.
For a while, there is nothing, and I think about leaving again.
But then the lock squeaks, and the glass door pushes open.
I recognize the man. He was hanging out with Franklin today.
“Is my brother here?”
“Who wants to know?”
Good grief. “I do.”
My brother’s voice roars from the weight room. “I don’t want to see that lying snake bitch.”
Oh no, he didn’t.
I shove the man aside and storm through the darkened foyer into the weight room. Franklin sits on a bench, his other three cronies nearby.
“What the hell did you do?” I ask him.
“Do you like the new decoration in front of your boyfriend’s crappy restaurant?”
The three other men glance at each other uneasily. Good.
“That’s a felony,” I say. “You could go to freaking jail.”
He shrugs. “I don’t think so. Your boy won’t want the bad publicity. I got it all figured out. Besides, you two owe me.”
I storm right up to him and kick him in the shin. “What the hell do we owe you? I think YOU owe US because you’re an overbearing piece of shit!”
The other guys step back. “I’m not interested in jail,” one says.
Another one punches his arm. “Stand up for your friends, asshole.”
My anger reaches a fever pitch. “I hope you know who you’re hero worshiping. Because this son of a bitch is about to get thrown off the circuit. AND I’ll get you thrown out of this gym. I hope these new friends of yours have bail money because you’re going to need it. The cops already pulled your insurance card out of the dash.”
Franklin sits up slowly with a smirk on his face. “You’ll do none of those things. Because we’re blood. Because I saved you more than once.”
He has me there. I close my eyes a moment, my hands tightening into fists. But this is too much. He committed a criminal act.
“What were you thinking, Franklin?” I ask. “You made it impossible for me to date anyone. And when I finally find someone great, you have to wreck it for me?”
Franklin lies back on the bench. “Rack up ten more pounds. I want to push my limit today. I’ll come back stronger at the next meet. I got screwed by the judging today.”
One of the young men jumps up to add a plate to his bench press.
Apparently, I’m dismissed.
“Call our parents,” I say. “I told them you crashed your truck.”
Franklin continues to ignore me, so I head back out the way I came.
I knew this was all going to fall apart. My whole life has been based on this teetering stack of bricks, none of them mortared together.
My parents are no help. And the ways my brother and I found to make our way in the world didn’t do us any favors.
He’s toxic. And by association, I’m toxic. As soon as this gets out, my career is going to be wrecked. Nobody will want to touch me.
I have to get out. Away from Franklin. Find my own