“Fine. Fine. I got better shit to do anyway.”
Rupert chuckled. “Like study.”
“Rupert,” I said curtly.
My eyes slowly panned over to him and I watched his grin fall.
“Yeah, Rupert. Damn,” Benji said, chuckling.
My eyes snapped back. “Don’t make me even up those injuries you’ve got.”
Benji snickered. “Whatever.”
And as he walked back toward his dorm room, I let out a heavy sigh.
“I take it you talked with your father?”
I tossed my second cigarette to the ground and kicked it away with my boot.
“What makes you think that?”
Rupert snickered. “A line like that. And the anger in your voice.”
I shook my head. “I really hate that man.”
He clapped me on my good shoulder. “You and me both.”
I felt sick with guilt as I watched Benji limp back to his bike. The boy was still in pain. We all were. All of us from that night. From that fucking week of work. I guess I could’ve paid the boy out of my own pocket to let it ride. But how did I explain that shit to the rest of the guys?
No, it was either all or nothing.
Because I had to protect my ass with them in all of this, too.
“What happened with Ashton?”
I sighed. “Nothing good.”
Rupert squeezed my shoulder. “Then why don’t you talk about it? I know you’re shit at that. But this is a special circumstance.”
I snickered. “Oh, really? And why’s that?”
“Because even after talking with him, we still haven’t gotten paid. Which means something really bad is happening right now.”
I nodded slowly. “I went to go see him today. With John.”
“John went?”
“He insisted he go with me.”
“That long of a meeting or something?”
I faced him. “No. I was that angry leaving the house.”
Rupert puckered his lips. “Oh, shit.”
I sighed again. “Apparently, our client isn’t happy with how things went down all week. He thought we cou
ld’ve tightened up the operation, and blames him almost getting killed on us.”