My face fell and I meant to hide my lip curl, but it couldn’t be helped.
He shook his head. “I meant you could find a man who’s good for it, but if you want to repay me in trade, I might consider it.”
“You’re disgusting. You can’t expect me to pay, I’m calling the cops!”
His brown eyes darkened and he edged closer. “You call the cops, you’ll regret it. I do more than loan money. Some of my customers, when they get high, they also get horny. Most of them are tired of the working girls.” He eyed the outside of the house like it interested him. “This is a nice place, and it isn’t too far from where I deal. Only takes ten, fifteen minutes to get here. I’ll tell them they got their choice of you or your virgin sister.”
My mouth dropped open. “You wouldn’t,” I breathed.
He snickered under his breath. “Hell, even if your sister ain’t a virgin, they’ll believe me.”
I stared at him, wishing I had a weapon.
He shoved the envelope at me, and I took it - there was no telling what he’d do if I didn’t.
“No cops, or your sister might not make it to school one morning.”
Dread settled heavy and cold in my bones. I watched him walk down the driveway to his car. He backed out and drove off. I was so freaked, I scurried inside, locked the door, and peeked in on Catalina. She’d gone to her room an hour ago to work on her junior project. I stuck my head in the doorway. She had her back to me, noise-canceling headphones were perched on her head, and she was focused on her laptop. I eased the door closed andwent to the living room. It struck me that I’d left the trashcan in the middle of the driveway.
I stashed the envelope inside the junk drawer, grabbed a butcher knife, and hurried out to finish that chore.
Back in the house, I locked the door, feeling like a complete fool running around with a kitchen utensil to defend myself. Better safe than sorry, though. A massive sigh tore through my body and I sagged onto the couch. I had no idea what I was going to do, but I knew I needed help.
In the morning, I watched from the window as Catalina backed out of the drive and headed to school. With her gone for the day, I got dressed before I could chicken out on my plan.
Years ago, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s office hosted community coffee talks at various restaurants. I knew about that because at the time, Dad had made fun of it. “Like Donny Do-Gooder is gonna be able to help the cops while stuffing his face with donuts and black coffee. Waste of time and money.”
In my internet search last night, I didn’t see a single listing for anything like that. However, I found there were a few substations scattered around town. One was located in a strip mall not far from where my best friend, Alanis, lived. An Elliano’s coffee shop sat in front of the strip mall, and I bought a chai latte and a large coffee in hopes of ingratiating myself with whoever would talk to me.
The female officer sitting behind the four-foot-high counter shook her head the moment I walked inside. “Take that back to your car, ma’am. No outside beverages.”
That wasn’t the start I’d hoped for, but I followed her directions and came back with nothing more than my keys and wristlet. There didn’t appear to be many officers around whocould talk to me so early in the morning. Most likely, they were out dealing with real cases.
“Are you here to make a report?” the female officer asked.
I nodded.
She put a form on the counter. “Fill this out with the name of all parties involved.”
Stiltedly, I wandered to the counter. If I had to put Frank’s name on paper… they would go talk to him.
God, I was so stupid!
What had I been thinking? That would be the ultimate tip-off that I spoke to the cops. The form had lots of blanks and had even more questions on the other side.
I grinned at her. “I’ll just take this home and bring it back. Is that okay?”
She gave me a hard-eyed stare as if she could see right through to the chicken-shit I happened to be. Finally, she said, “Suit yourself.”
Inside my car, my body shook almost as bad as it had last night.
I sipped my chai latte, took a few deep breaths, and headed home.
The high-pitched notes of a saxophone blared from the television indicatingThe Bold and the Beautifulhad ended. It also reminded me I needed to hit the grocery store. I tied a knot in the huge, yellow donation bag for the Vietnam Veterans of America. I’d been packing up Mom’s clothes with the TV on for background noise. With any luck, it was the last bag of Mom’s stuff to be collected.
Catalina wanted me to hold off on purging the closet, but neither of us would ever wear Mom’s clothes. I had a few itemsset aside for Cat since she had a sentimental streak, but we were better off moving forward. We’d never get over her death, but hanging on to Mom’sthingsin an effort to hang on toherwouldn’t do us any good either.
Catalina’s high school dismissed around two-twenty. She and her friends would hang out at a random fast-food place for an hour most afternoons.
