allotted for necessities, the club’s reserves were still running low. Between five operational businesses and twenty-five members to take care of through payroll or emergencies, I could see why finances were complicated and they couldn’t risk going broke.
I’d offered to lend them the money to float whatever bills needed to be paid until business picked up, but as expected, they—Buddha and Torch in particular—were vehemently opposed. You know, manly egos and all that shit. But hey, if they wanted to work their asses off for an extra few grand just to keep their “self-respect” intact, more power to them. I had plenty to do anyway.
I’d called up my old hacking sidekick, Milo, and set up a lunch date to reconnect and figure out just how much I’d missed while locked up. With Torch gone until the next night, I planned on taking advantage of the alone time to do some catching up. I couldn’t wait to start poking around my old online stomping grounds.
I wasn’t in a huge hurry to give Silas an answer to his job offer, but I did want to get back to what I did best, even if it meant just playing around for the fun and familiarity of it. In a sense, my work was just about all I had left over from my old life of running and hiding. I’d moved into Torch’s house, been taken in by his family, and had even given in to his preferred brand of motorcycle. I adored him and cherished every minute of my new life, but going from one extreme to the other was a shock to the system, to say the least.
I turned on my tablet, logged into Skype, and called my best girl.
Lexi’s beaming face popped up on my screen. “Hey, sexy bitch! Where the hell have you been?”
“Oh, you know, running guns and robbing banks,” I joked.
“You better not be. I think I had a harder time getting through the last year than you did. Here, hold on.” She disappeared from the screen and a few seconds later my phone beeped.
I checked my inbox and opened up a picture she’d sent of herself, her face contorted to look like she was wailing. “Did you just flick water on yourself to make it look like you’re crying?” I groaned.
She reappeared on the screen. “You put that as a wallpaper on your phone,” she ordered. “Every time you think of doing something crazy, look at that ugly cry-face and ask yourself if you wanna do that to your best friend.”
I laughed and shook my head. “I miss the crap out of you.”
“I miss you too, babycakes. How was the honeymoon?”
“Beautiful,” I replied, deciding to leave the whole cop chase ending to myself.
“That’s it? I don’t get any juicy details?”
“I’m trying to be a lady.”
“Psh, when have you ever been a fucking lady?”
A crash and some cute giggles rang out from her end. “Chloe, what the hell are you doing?” Lex yelled. “Come over here and say hi to your aunt.”
In a flash, Chloe’s smiling face popped up next to her mom’s. “Hi, Auntie Livie!” she squealed.
“Hey, lovebug. Are you tearing up the house again?”
“I’m catching fairies!”
“Aren’t you supposed to be at some kind of kindergarten summer camp?” I asked.
“Oh, she was,” Lex piped up. “Tell Auntie Livie why you’re not there today.”
Chloe tucked her head down sheepishly. “I got in trouble.”
“Uh oh. What happened?” I asked.
“A boy was being mean to me so I kicked him.”
“Straight in the boy parts,” Lex added.
I busted out laughing but covered my mouth when Lex shot me a scowl. “Sorry.”
She rolled her eyes. “I should’ve known this would happen when we named her after you.”
“Whatever, that’s your DNA she’s working with,” I argued. “But good for you, Chloe Bear. Don’t ever let boys be mean to you.”
The munchkin frowned. “Mrs. Chandler says it means he likes me. But if he likes me, why would he be mean? Boys are so stupid and lame. And they have cooties. Yuck.”
“Mrs. Chandler sounds stupid too, don’t listen to her,” I replied. “If a boy really likes you, he’ll be nice and make sure everybody else is nice to you too.”
“That’s what I said!” she exclaimed. “Maybe you should talk to Mrs. Chandler.”
“Yeah, let’s not go that route,” Lex interceded. “You’ll just get her 86’ed from the school altogether and I’m not starting the process of looking for a new one again.”