Always Crew - Tijan Page 0,24
part. You, though. Your dad works—”
“But he doesn’t. He took a new position this year. He’s got no connections anymore.”
“But—”
“But nothing, Jordan,” Cross raised his voice. “None of us have the connections to handle a bad loan.”
“Eh…”
I was getting sick of the …
This one came from Zellman, and his eyes were pinned to me. “Do we really not have those connections? Bad loan, right? That’s something in Bren’s circles, if you ask me.”
A growl emanated from Cross’ throat and he stepped in front of me. “That’s bad business.”
“Bad loan. The one guy’s daughter felt like she needed to whore herself out—”
“I don’t like the whore word.” My two cents.
“—or heavily kiss the guy to appease the son, whom she was hoping could appease the dad to lay off trying to get his money back from the bad loan. I mean,” Zellman took all of us in before swallowing, “that doesn’t seem like it’s in the up-and-up business world, if you know what I mean.”
His gaze came to me.
Jordan’s gaze was on me, too.
Cross was rigid, standing in front of me. “No.”
Jordan noted, his tone softening, “She could call her brother, talk it out with him. He might have ideas.”
“I said no!”
Jordan sighed. He shifted forward, his foot sounding on the pavement, a rock scraping over it. “Bren was arrested last semester and you lost your shit. You had to be carried out of the police station.”
I sucked in my breath, and held a hand out, touching Cross’ back. It was so tense. He was solid, almost like pavement.
“Guys.” Jordan’s anguish was so deep, so raw.
I stepped around Cross, hearing him draw in a sharp breath, straightening as if my touch had kept him in place. His hand came to my arm, sliding to my wrist. He held me there, keeping me to his side.
Jordan choked out, “A phone call. One call.” He looked at Cross. “What could it hurt?”
As he spoke, Cross’ tension just doubled.
I moved forward, my hand lifting, and I laid my hand on his chest. With my palm against his shirt, I held it in place, speaking to Jordan. “One call to Channing. We’ll see what he thinks.”
Zellman spoke up, “Tabatha has to be there.”
“Z…” From Jordan, a whisper.
Zellman shook his head, his jaw firm. “She has to be there. She has to know. This is going to affect her and her family. She has to know.” He focused only on Jordan. “You’re going to have to apologize for all that pussy you ran through, thinking she cheated on you willingly.” His mouth twitched. “That’s going to suuuuck. But on the bright side, at least you didn’t get to her sorority girls yet.”
Jordan expelled some air, shaking his head and massaging his jaw. “You’re a dick.”
“Nah.” Zellman pounded him in the shoulder before stepping back quickly. “Just family.” He began backing toward the house, his hands in the air. “My two cents, we should do this as soon as possible.” His eyes fell to the couch. “And that thing should go in the garage. We can drink beer out here on it.”
Jordan frowned, but he was also trying not to grin at the same time. “We need a couch inside.”
“Yeah,” Zellman called out from inside the garage, opening the door to the house. “We can con Blaise into buying one. He’s rich and bad at cards. He’ll cough up two grand easily.”
That had merit. I asked Cross, “Does your brother play cards?”
Cross shrugged. “Who the fuck knows. He’ll give you the money. Just tell him he can hit Harper first.”
“No!” Jordan barked out, his eyes heated again. “Harper’s mine.”
Cross got quiet. “Harper did something to Aspen.”
The heated look only got worse. “Then he can think he’s getting first crack, but the reality is that I’ll get first crack.”
Cross was quiet, then nodded. “I’m good with that.”
Zellman yelled from the house, “Can we get back to our crew meeting? We didn’t finish it from last night, and I have curse words to say about Sunday having Bren’s ex’s baby. It’s my turn in the chair.”
I grimaced. “When he says it like that, it just sounds God-awful.”
Jordan chuckled. “Good thing that documentary is already done, huh? Can you imagine if they got this shit on there?”
No. I didn’t want to imagine that.
We went inside and Zellman got his turn to spew.
FROM: Tazsters
TO: Brenners
SUBJECT: holy fuckers fucking around
I just got off the phone with Tab. I’m coming there. I’m packing my bags now. We’re going to bust him open. Wide