I gestured toward the living room. “Let’s sit down.”
Her eyes widened with annoyance. “Let’s not. I’m tired of people telling me I need to sit down because they have bad news.”
I moved past her into the living room. “That’s fair, but I’m sitting down.”
Once on the couch, I launched into it. “Mom owed some guy money. He just found out about her death.”
Catalina stalked toward me and crossed her arms on her chest. “Right. It’s not our fault Mom died.”
I lowered my chin in a slight nod. “Yeah, but this guy… he’s—”
“Like Dad? Doesn’t give a shit about anything except himself.”
My lips twisted as I debated her words. “You could say that. He expects me to come up with the cash.”
“What? Why should you have to do that? Geez, the credit card companies didn’t even make you pay, right?”
“Not exactly, but his demands are illegal. So, I went to the police station while you were at school.”
She nodded. “That makes sense, but someone followed me, Savannah.”
I sighed. “Frank Darren called me a few hours later. Said he was watching you leave school.”
“What?” she yelled, uncrossing her arms.
I stood, then hurried to her and grabbed her hands. “He threatened to follow you, so you’re not crazy.”
She tore her hands from my grip. “And you didn’t think to call me?”
“I did call you. Three times, Cat. But it went to voicemail. This wasn’t something I wanted to tell you in a message.”
Her eyes slid to the side. “Yeah. I thought you were going to nag me about the dishes and stuff. When I got that creepy vibe, I cranked the volume on my music up to twenty-five.”
I fought off my grimace. Mom would have told her she’d be deaf by twenty-five. I wanted to tell her the same, but I didn’t want to remind either of us of Mom. Truth was, I was pissed at Mom, and Cat didn’t need that.
“Why would Mom do this?” Cat asked.
I shrugged a shoulder. “I’ve been asking myself the same thing. I want to get rid of Frank, but it seems the only way I’ll be able to do that is by paying him.”
“This sucks,” Cat muttered, voicing the thought I’d had on a loop all day.
“Yeah,” I whispered.
“What are the cops gonna do?”
I met her brown-eyed gaze. “I didn’t report it, honey. I got the paperwork, but I have to name Frank. He’d already threatened me. Just for me being at the station, he proved he could get to you.”
Cat flopped onto the couch and slouched. “What’s he gonna do? Sell me to a human trafficker?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know if he’s smart enough to do that, but he threatened to send some of his drug buyers here.”
“Here?” she yelled again and sat up.
“I’m not gonna let him hurt you.”
It took a moment for the anger to seep out of her expression. “You think Dad might know him?”
“Possibly. Last night Frank mentioned Dad. Didn’t care that I had nothing to do with him.”
