“Yeah.” He led the way into the office at the back of the garage. Grabbing two bottles of beer from the small fridge, he popped the tops and held one out to Dani. She took it and sat cross-legged in the overstuffed chair.
Tinker sat on the small couch and took a long drink from his beer before setting it on the table next to him. He leaned forward and rested his forearms on his knees.
“Jesus, Christian. Do you have cancer?”
He could hear the worry in her voice. “No,” he assured her.
“Then what? You’re freaking me out.”
“Abby knows about my arrest.”
“Oh.”
He looked up at her, trying to judge her reaction.
“You hadn’t told her before?” Dani asked.
Tinker shook his head.
“How did she find out?”
“Olivia’s aunt.” He took a sip of beer. “Got a copy of my arrest record somehow. Sent it to Abby with a note threatening to do something with it if Abby doesn’t send Olivia back to her.”
“What the fuck?” Dani said.
“Yeah.”
“What does Abby have to do with something you did twenty years ago? Something that shouldn’t even be in your record anymore, I might add.”
“Who the fuck knows? My guess is she’s going to use it against Abby because I’m a violent criminal, and if Abby’s with me, she’s unfit to be Olivia’s guardian.”
“Well, that’s bullshit,” Dani said. “On several fronts.”
“Yeah, well, that’s where we are.”
Dani took a deep breath. “How did Abby take it?”
“I’m not really sure yet.” He took another sip of his beer.
“How are you not sure? Have you talked to her?”
Tinker nodded. “I hadn’t heard from her in a couple of days. I thought she’d ghosted me after we…ya know.” He shrugged. It was more than ‘ya know,’ but he wasn’t going to get into details with his kid sister. Hell, he wouldn’t get into details with anyone, but especially his kid sister. He sipped his beer.
“Went to her house to make her tell me to my face she didn’t want anything to do with me,” he added.
“And?” she asked.
“And she vomited in her kitchen sink.”
Dani’s look of outrage was almost comical. “Because of what you did? Did you explain why you did it?”
Tinker chuckled. “I didn’t get that far. She threw up because her kids got her sick—she’d been taking care of them the last couple of days.”
“Oh.” Dani’s entire body relaxed into the chair. “So you haven’t told her the details yet.”
Tinker shook his head. “She has the report. I told her to read it, then decide if she still wanted to be associated with me.”
“Christian.” Dani’s voice was heavy with admonishment.
