“What now?” My anger is palpable. Marcus is trying to help me, so it isn’t entirely directed at him, but I can’t stop feeling bone-deep rage at being in this situation in the first place.
“I have some bad news.”
“Of course you do. Just spit it out.”
“My boss just called me. Money is due to me in two days.”
I suck in a shocked breath. “Marcus, no. It’s been less than twenty-four hours. You said I had a week.”
“Yeah, but my boss doesn’t give a fuck. He changed his mind,” Marcus snaps back. I don’t entirely feel bad for him because he put himself in this situation, but I do recognize the precarious spot he’s in trying to help me navigate this without getting Benny or myself hurt. When he continues, his voice is softer and kinder—back to being reminiscent of the Marcus I knew when I was younger. “Look, Olive, Benny made some really bad choices with who he decided to fuckover. Money is due in two days. I can’t put my boss off any longer.”
I feel dizzy. My hand swings behind me to find the arm of the chair. I barely have time to sink into it before my legs give out. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Marcus sounds sad when he says, “I hope you do, Oli.”
The call disconnects, and my hand, white knuckling my phone, drops to my lap.
I wonder what advice the group would have had for me if I shared this piece of information.
I stare out the window again, wondering if there’d be any benefit to going to the police. I don’t think there’s anything they could do to protect Benny. Especially not quickly enough to make a difference. Marcus has made it clear the people he works for know how to get to Benny, and I don’t think my begging not to let anyone else see my brother is enough to keep his influence away.
Glancing down at my phone, I scroll to Nate’s text. My finger hovers over his number, lungs tight in my chest. An uncomfortable feeling of wanting someone to help me, when I have spent so much of my life only ever relying on myself and having others rely solely on me, makes me lightheaded. I don’t know how to do that. Wanting to be able to trust him to want to help me and allowing myself to let go are two very different things.
My eyes slam closed as I take a shaky breath. Exiting his contact and locking my phone, I drop it on the bed next to me and roll out the tension in my shoulders.
I have to get home and deal with this the only way I know how—on my own. After researching flights, I book the next one to Nashville with the credit card limit I desperately need for everything else in my life.
I pack my suitcase in record time, texting Cade andtelling him there’s been an emergency with Benny, and I need to go home for a few days. I’ll email my boss when I get to the airport. I’m hopeful I can make it back in time for the next flight out, but it’s best to give them a heads-up sooner rather than later to keep from getting fired, if possible.
As I walk down the hallway to the elevator, I order a rideshare, and it pulls up just as I step back through the hotel doors, reminding me of just a few hours prior when I did the same thing for very different reasons.
I sinkinto the driver’s seat and stare at the cashier’s check made out for $10,298.14. The balance of my retirement account after they withheld taxes. I almost wasn’t able to get this check today, but I begged the branch manager, explaining that my brother was in rehab, and I needed the money to keep him in treatment.
Which isn’t an entire lie.
I pull out my phone.
Me: When can you meet me?
Dots appear almost immediately.
Marcus: Come over to my house. I’ll be here waiting for you.
An uneasy feeling slithers down my back. However, I suppose that probably isn’t an unusual feeling when you’re going over to a drug dealer’s house to give him a payment for the boss drug dealer to save your brother’s life.
“What the fuck is this?”Marcus stares down at the check in his hand.
I cross my arms. “A cashier’s check. I know it isn’t the full amount, but that’s all I could get on such short notice. I hope this shows your boss I’m trying.”
He looks up at me, his face scrunched. “It’s a check.”
I throw my hands up in exasperation. “Marcus, in the normal world, it’s a little hard to just ask for ten grand in cash. It tends to raise some questions. It was all I could do to even get that check.”
His lip curls up. “I’ll be honest, Oli. I don’t think this is going to fly.”
Rushing across the room, I grip Marcus’s forearm. Desperation bleeds out of every one of my pores. “Please, Marcus. If you ever cared about me even the slightest amount, I need you to help me out. I’m alone. I have no one. I don’t know what else to do. I’ll try to get a loan or something for the rest, but it wasn’t my fault the one who changed the timeline for this payment.”
The sweet Marcus I once knew peeks back out from behind the criminal. He gives me a sad smile. “I’m sorry, Oli. I wish I didn’t have to do this to you. But if I’m being honest, I’m glad it’s me and not someone else.”
