Page 70 of Justice

The last thing I saw before they walked me out was my oldest daughter.

Standing with a cop’s hand on her shoulder, watching them arrest her father, her face completely dry.

“I’ll take her back to the house and sit with the fam until we bail you out,” Prime yelled as they hauled me away.

I wanted to break her damn neck. But this was my fault for not controlling myself. That was it. I was putting her on punishment until she was forty.

36

SKYE

Before Justice got to the mall, Aubrey and I went into Macy’s. From there we went upstairs on the department store’s escalator. Once we were upstairs, we peered over the balcony and waited for him to arrive.

I could feel his raw energy as soon as he came past the food court. He was on that guy in a flash, never giving him the undeserved time to defend himself. That little girl was shocked for a moment, but I watched her face turn disgusted and offended. It was as if to say, “How dare you ruin my date.”

Her rebellious ways were becoming too much to bear. It was going to shorten my time with that family. If she were my child… I don’t know what I would’ve done. Homeschooled her? Put her in intense therapy? Send her to military school.

Something had to give.

In my past I’ve had clients who were problem children. I’ve dealt with clients who had problem children. Intense therapy didn’t always work. Military school didn’t always work.

Some kids — although rare — were just anti-social. Authority was nothing more than a mere nuisance, something to circumvent. They were often compulsive liars, cruel and enjoyed escalating intimidation.

That’s something that made me nervous about Storie. If she was what I really clocked her as, and I wasn’t being dramatic, then I was afraid. She was definitely escalating in her terrible behaviors. Justice needed to put me and his businesses on the back burner and pour all his energy into correcting this girl before someone gets really hurt.

“Skye?” Aubrey called out to me after we’d watched the commotion. We saw Justice manhandle her out and disappear from our view.

“Yeah…”

“What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know. I can’t go back there right now. I don’t want her to know it was me who called her father. It’ll just give her fuel to come at me. Besides, it’s best if she thinks her father has eyes everywhere. Maybe she won’t pull this shit again.”

“She seems pretty strong-willed,” Aubrey added.

“I gotta get away from that family. This will ruin my chances of…”

“Slow down. You need more cash. Just take it day by day. Stay out of her way though.”

She wasn’t the only one whose way I needed to stay out of. I needed to stay out of Justice’s way too.

After a while we left the mall, grabbed something to eat and then hung out at her house for a bit. I stalled as long as I could before I went back to Justice’s house.

When I got there, Prime was in the kitchen with Dream. She sat at the table swinging her little legs, vanilla ice cream dripping down her chin.

“Miss Skye!” Dream lit up. “Uncle Prime let me have ice cream for dinner!”

“Uncle Prime is a bad influence,” I laughed.

“I’m just doing my best,” Prime replied with a grin.

“Do you want some?” She asked me.

“Sure.”

Prime turned to the freezer and scooped me a bowl full of the sugary delight.

I ate with Dream and shortly after, I gave her a bath and put her down for the night. When I got back downstairs, I was finally able to ask all of my questions.