“That’s crazy.” My voice pitches higher, anger filling my chest. “Who would do that?” Goosebumps rip over my arms, and the hair on my arms stands straight up. I gulp, scanning the kitchen with tears stinging my eyes. This has been my entire life since high school. It’s not a perfect job, and I’m not getting rich, but Grace is like a sister to me, and food service is really all I know.
“Ah, it’s going to be okay.” Grace rushes over and wraps her arms around me. I hadn’t realized Grace was also tearing up. Speaking through her sniffles, she tacks on, “We’ll figure something out together.”
“Yeah,” I assure us both. “We’ll find something else much better than this.”
A niggling in the back of my head haunts me.
Who would want to sabotage this hotel?
eighteen
North
I stop by the Coffee Loft on my way home from practice, my brain still abuzz with Rocco’s threats. While I wait for my spiced chai, my phone vibrates with a text.
Gia: How was work?
My fingers itch to type back but my heart knows this must pause. Not forever, but until I can find a way to stop Rocco, or she’ll get hurt. I’m not worth losing anything for. After several moments of staring at my phone and not texting back, she sends another text.
Gia: So crazy thing . . . I guess I’m staying at my dad’s house tonight. The hotel got shut down unexpectedly. I’m going to finish cleaning the house. If you’re around, come over. You don’t have to clean. LOL
Anger boils in my gut and I fire off a text.
Me: What? Was it foreclosed?
Gia: No. The health inspector shut us down, but I don’t even remember being inspected. It’s really odd. My boss thought it was sabotage to buy up the prime real estate.
Sabotage or revenge?
Did Rocco pull something to shut it down? It wouldn’t surprise me, and he has the means to do it with all his buddies on political favor payroll. Which means he already got to her. I can literally hear her sweet voice. I want to protect her. It feels like a knife is stabbing my gut to even think about someone hurting her. Now I’m torn. Do I stay away and hope he backs down? Hope isn’t a plan, and it’s clearly not working.
I’m not sure how I’m going to stay away. I certainly don’t want to alarm her before I have the proof of harassment, I need in order to call the cops. Until I get that proof, I need to have her stay away.
Me: I’m really sorry about your job. I’m sure something amazing will come along. I’ll see if I can get my work done and get ahold of you later.
I fight the urge to tell her I know exactly how she’s feeling as I had my job nearly threatened today too. All I want to do is see her. The fact that she’s going to be next door tonight is going to kill me, but I can’t waste time. I need to gather my proof. There’s something shady going on at the school. I have no idea how Rocco got to Principal Lane so fast. I stuff my phone in my pocket, grab my chai and head back to school. I have work to do.
The hairs on my arm stand up straight when I park in the employee parking lot, hours after dark. It’s not unusual forteachers to return to their classroom to work, as we are all trying to get ahead, but tonight, it looks as if I’m the only one taking a second shift. As I exit my car and walk to the door, I jingle my keys in my hand, my senses alerted.
No sign of Rocco or Principal Lane.
Or at least no sign that I can see.
After unlocking the door, I slip inside and quickly lock it behind me, before flipping on several sets of lights. To deal with the silence, I whistle down the hall to my classroom. I’m not a musician and barely know any tunes, but automatically default toMy Girl. A smile teases at the corner of my lips as I recall how it felt to hold Gia while we danced.
It will not be the last time I hold her.
I grind my molars while I unlock my classroom door. Maxlotle's aquarium is already glowing fluorescent, lighting up the back of the room. Still, I flip on another set of lights. “Hey, Buddy.” I only speak out loud to him when I know we are alone. It’s good for him to hear my voice, but I always feel looney doing it in front of people. “What are you up to tonight?”
He swims to the front, his perma-smile pressing up against the glass. I don’t think anyone could ever be grumpy around an axolotl. “Well,” I continue as if he can fully understand me—because I know he can. “I’m in a bit of a pickle. There’s this woman, you met her the other day, Gia. I’m heartsick over her, because I really thought we could finally be together, but her brother is doing everything he can to keep us apart.” I rub my forehead, as my tension automatically pools there. This all seems so ridiculous. The part about Rocco keeping us apart. Not me talking to a salamander. That’s completely sane. “What do you think I should do?”
He stares at me through the glass with his beady eyes, not blinking. He's looking past me now, back to my desk."
“That’s what I thought. I need to get into Principal Lane’s office. I’m sure there’s something on his computer to prove things aren’t right.” I get up, pooling my bravery as I trudge my way to my desk to look for a file, or something I can use to get into his office, when my gaze snags on something.
Gia’s box of Rocco’s stuff.
It’s still sitting on the corner of my desk. I haven’t really wanted to look at his trophies and jerseys as anything of Rocco’s makes me ill. I only took the box to make her happy, but now seeing it there infuriates me. After all these years of doing everything I could to cut him out of my life, he has managed to creep back in, and now has more control than ever before. It’s not just Gia he wants to keep me from, now he's after my career and her job.
