Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72154 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72154 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
I’d done my fair share of filing as well as answering calls all week. People called all day long complaining about certain employees of ours stealing their cars or hurting them.
The calls were bogus, but apparently it made them feel better to have someone to accuse for their own problems.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the woman said. “The car is paid up. I’m not late on any payments.”
Doubt it. The law didn’t work that way.
Parker wouldn’t have the permission to pick this car up if it hadn’t actually been warranted. I didn’t believe this woman as far as I could throw her—which admittedly wasn’t that far seeing as she was about three times my size. Which meant I didn’t trust her at all.
“Well, our records don’t indicate that,” I said, shrugging.
That’s when she decided she was tired of dealing with me and shoved me.
But I’d grown up in a compound with kids who were all brawlers.
None of the Free kids, or the Dixie Wardens kids, were anyone to mess with. I could scrap with the best of them, and this woman didn’t so much as rock me.
I’d, of course, been waiting for her to try to get around me.
But I didn’t let her.
“No,” I stopped her, stepping back into her path. “If you get physical again, I’ll press charges.”
The woman’s eyes were irate. “You could try.”
“Now’s probably a good time for me to point out that our truck has a dash cam and a bed feed. Anything you do and have already done, has been recorded. It’s being sent to our crew at the office, and if they notice anything going amiss, the cops will be called.”
I was totally bullshitting her, but she didn’t seem to know whether to believe me or not since I’d said it so convincingly.
“You’re lying.”
I snorted. “I’m not.”
I was really good at this lying thing. I had to be with Janie as a best friend.
Do you know how many times she got us in trouble?
Hundreds. No, thousands.
Hell, it was either kill or be killed in Janie Allen-now-Luis’s world. You had to either keep up or get left behind, and I wasn’t a quitter. No way, no how.
If there was one thing that I knew I possessed that was from my father, it was his will of iron.
I’d do just about anything to win.
Even if it meant taking on a woman three times my size.
“Listen, chickie,” said the woman next to repo-girl who was holding the curling iron. With the cord to the curling iron dragging along in the gravel behind her. “This is her car. She needs that car to get to work. If she’s not at work, she can’t make money.”
“Well, I can pick her up. But you know she calls in sick at least twice a week. It’s not really a surprise that this is happening.”
I looked over at the woman standing off to the side of everything else. She was wearing a smock like the other two, but this woman looked like she could give zero fucks that this was happening. She had a cigarette in her mouth, and she was steadily puffing away at it, blowing the smoke into the air without taking the cigarette out of her mouth.
My lips twitched as everyone glared at the woman.
“Nobody asked you, Karen.”
“No, Marilyn. I guess you didn’t.” She puffed again, speaking around the cigarette. “But nobody asked you to fuck my boyfriend, either. So, we’re even.”
I covered my mouth with my hand.
This woman—and she was quite beautiful despite her speaking around a cigarette—would get along famously with Janie.
“This has nothing to do with your inability to keep your boyfriend satisfied.” Marilyn, the repo-girl, said. “This is not about that.”
“Seems like it’s Karma catching up with you for your slutty tendencies.”
While this was going on, Parker finished loading up the car and then whistled softly at me.
I looked at him over my shoulder to see him gesture to the truck.
“Get in,” he mouthed.
I backed up just as Marilyn’s patience snapped.
Luckily, I didn’t have to show my superior skills.
Unfortunately, Karen did.
Only, Karen was like a kung-fu master.
She let Marilyn come, and the moment she got within range, she reared back and punched Marilyn in the throat. Marilyn went down hard, and she lay still as she tried to figure out how to breathe again.
“It was the only thing I could reach, okay?” Karen said, sounding miffed. “Dammit, she made me drop my cigarette. It was my last one!”
I was laughing as I got into the truck, and Parker actually had a partial smile on his face, too.
“Did you see that?” I gasped.
“Yep.”
I started to laugh, then leaned over the center console and started to go through the bags for my candy. I found it in the bag with the lube.
Pulling it out, I sat back in my chair, unaware that the entire time I’d been over the console, my ass had been in Parker’s face.