It was an impossibility. “No, they don’t. . . They won’t . . .No.” Then she looked at Vince again. He had to be tired of her and all her drama. “But I’ve taken up too much of your time as it is,” she said. “You don’t have to hang around any longer. I’ll figure something out.”
“You’ll figure it out?” Vince had irritation in his voice. “With nine bucks to your name, you’ll figure it out? Where are you going to sleep until tomorrow if you can’t stay with your family, Rasheda?”
“I told you I’ll figure it out.”
“Yeah sure.” He opened his front passenger car door with a swift open. “Get in!”
Ricki looked around. It was already dark outside. Who was she kidding? She got into his car.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
After Vince slammed the front passenger door and walked around and got in on the driver side, closing the door behind him, he turned to Ricki. “I’m going to drop you off at a hotel, and then I’m heading home.”
Ricki was scared to be left alone in that town. She didn’t realize how much it would affect her to be back there after all those years until she got there. And a hotel? “I can’t afford to stay at a hotel.”
“Where did you plan to stay?” he asked her. “Did you not think this trip out at all?”
“No. I didn’t have time. I got the call and I hit the road. I wanted to get here before that bail hearing.”
“All of that for a drug addict and a prostitute like your sister? You just dropped everything and went running? I wouldn’t have wasted my time if I knew she was who you were doing all this running for.”
“I told you to just leave,” she said, although her heart wasn’t in it. He could tell she was hurt by his dismissive attitude.
And she was. But she didn’t try to defend her sister. Because her sister was, in fact, an addict. She was a prostitute too. Those things weren’t lies. And besides, if it wasn’t for him, she would have missed that hearing altogether.
Vince knew he was hard on her. But she had to get real about her sister’s situation. That woman-child was going down. There was no doubt in his mind about that. “Do you have anywhere else you can stay?” he asked her. “Your folks maybe?”
“No,” she said without hesitation. “There’s nowhere else. There’s no one else.” Then she looked at him.
When she looked at him with what he viewed as those soulful, big brown eyes, he knew he couldn’t just abandon her without assisting her. He pressed the Start button. Then he pressed his microphone icon. “Alexa, call my secretary,” he ordered.
“Calling Penelope Hutchinson of Fontaine and Bachman, Incorporated.”
Ricki assumed that was his lobbying firm, although she remembered he said he had a public relations firm too. Or was lobbying and public relations the same thing? She wasn’t sure.
“This is the office of Vincent Fontaine. How may I direct your call?”
“It’s me, Pen.”
“I wasn’t sure if it was you, sir. Your wife also has--”
“Myex-wife,” he quickly corrected her.
“Excuse me, sir. Yourex-wife has your name on her phone service as well. Your name appears when she phones. I wasn’t sure.”
Ricki could tell Vince wasn’t aware of it, and he didn’t like it. “I’ll rectify that.”
“How can I help you, sir?”
“I need you to contact my car service and have them find a tow truck. Have them pick up a broken down--” He looked at Ricki.
“Mustang GX,” she said.
“An old Mustang GX. It’s in the parking lot of the Race Grove diner that’s located off the next exit north of Stamford.”
“Connecticut?”
“Yes.”
