Bully King - J.A. Huss Page 0,71
when I lead her over to the couch in the great room, she falls into the cushions sideways and kinda passes out.
I step back and look at her. She is a fucking mess.
But passed out I can deal with. Stumbling around drunk, shooting off her mouth?
Nope. We’re not going there today.
I still need to figure out what happened to Mona.
When I go outside, I’m not sure if I should go to the front door or just hit up her patio. But in the end, it’s not my decision to make because the next thing I know one of her bodyguards is approaching me.
“Can I help you, Mr. Valcourt?”
Hmm. I don’t know any of them. Can say with one hundred percent certainty that I have never talked to one of Mona’s bodyguards. So I’m not sure how to approach this giant dude in a black suit. I finally decide on ignorance. “Have you seen Mona? She didn’t show up for rush this morning.”
“Miss Monroe is inside. Follow me.”
That was easier than expected. Never a good sign from my experience. But I follow him around to the front of the house and we enter together.
Mona is right in front of me. Well. She’s in my line of sight, but sitting on a couch in the back of the house. In profile, she doesn’t look my way, busy clicking a remote.
“Are you fucking kidding me, Mona?” I cover the distance of the hallway in twenty strides and then walk around the large, overstuffed brown leather couch to block her view of the TV.
She doesn’t even acknowledge me.
“Mona?”
“I can hear you. You don’t have to yell at me.”
“Where the fuck were you?”
She pauses her Netflix surfing to gaze up at me. “What’s the point? I can’t do the drug test today anyway.”
“We could’ve paid her off.”
Mona scoffs.
“We could’ve tried.”
“I already talked to your father.”
“You did?” Hm. “I tried to call him. He didn’t pick up.”
“Yes. He mentioned that. Told me to tell you that he doesn’t want to be, quote, ‘bothered with any more summer rush bullshit while he’s on vacation,’ end quote.” Mona finally looks at me. And smiles.
“All right.” I mean, he’s a dick and I hate my father a little more every day. But fuck it. I’m not gonna let Mona in on my daddy issues. “So. What did he say?”
“He said I can take the drug test in two weeks. I’m under house arrest. Those meathead assholes you see behind me”—holy shit. There are a lot of meathead assholes lounging on couches and chairs on the far side of the room—“will make sure I behave. And he won’t be responsible for what happens to me if I don’t. I am a worthless piece of shit who thinks that this good life I’ve been provided is a right instead of a privilege. I’m also greedy, stupid, lazy, and will never amount to anything.”
I nearly guffaw.
“I’m glad you find that funny.”
“Sorry. It’s just… I get the same speech all the time.”
She huffs.
“What the hell were you thinking?”
She shrugs, then whispers. “I don’t want to do it.”
“None of us want to do it.”
“That’s not true. Dante wants to do it. Ivan wants to do it. I’m pretty sure Elexa wants to do it too. Natasha is a maybe.” She looks up at me. And maybe for the first time ever, I take a good hard look at my next-door neighbor. “Why can’t the Chairman just be happy with them?”
“I dunno, Mona.” I say it quietly. Sympathetically. Because I get it. I don’t want to be here either. “Isabella is next door at my house.”
“Why?”
“She started drinking some time around five AM this morning. She’s passed out in the great room.”
Mona laughs. “Oh.”
“But I could carry her over here and—”
“No. Thank you.”
I just stand there. Unsure what to do next.
“Have a seat if you’re staying.”
I do sit. I probably shouldn’t stay. But I’m not ready to go back yet.
“How did the auction shake out?”
“Cadee stood in for you.”
Mona sits up straighter and covers her mouth. “Shit. Cooper, I’m sorry.”
“Whatever. Ax and Lars are there to make sure Dante doesn’t do anything.”
“Dante! Are you kidding me? Why would Dante buy me?”
“He didn’t buy you, he bought her.”
“Right. So how much did I go for?”
Fucking Mona. “You didn’t go for anything. Cadee sold for one twenty-nine, I think.”
“What the… what?”
“Yeah. He really wants her, I guess.” I get a sick feeling in my stomach and then my head is pounding again. “So… I get that I’m