If I could choose, I’d choose to have a big family just like this, living close by one another. Having family game nights and weekly dinners.
Sadly, I probably won’t get that.
***
“You’re quiet,” Jude observes on the way home.
I swallow hard. Reality is settling in again, like claws digging into the back of my neck. It’s kind of like I forgot about it for a few hours. But now I’m remembering.
He reaches across and grabs my hand and holds onto it, steering with his left hand.
I stare down at my hand in his much larger one and that ugly thing starts a slow crawl up my throat.
I pull my hand away and scratch my face then stare out the window, sitting on both of my hands.
His phone rings. He ignores it.
We pull into the underground garage at my building, and he parks in an empty spot beside Aiden’s ludicrously douchey motorcycle. I like Jude’s Harley much better than that gold and black overpriced racing bike.
This is why I didn’t see his car in the lot the other day when I walked in to him and his family in my place. He’s now parking down here.
A few minutes later, we’re in my apartment and I get busy changing Georgie-girl’s water and food as well as scooping the lumps out of her kitty litter. I also make a call to the animal shelter to check and see how Ralphie’s doing. He’s doing great, thankfully.
Georgie lays on the floor in the hallway on her back, looking like a chunky otter, watching me.
“Could you be any cuter?” I ask her.
She blinks hard at me. I blink back.
“Gotta make a call,” Jude mutters, staring at his phone as he walks into his room and shuts the door.
I pull my phone out and see a text from Carly.
Carly: How are you?
Carly: Please answer me.
Carly: Argh. Ally.
Shit.
Me: Sorry. I was out. I’m okay. How are you? How’s Mr. C doing?
Carly: He’s a lot better. What’s going on with you today? What happened last night?
Me: Long story.
Carly: Did you pay your debt?
Me: Yep.
Carly: And?
Me: And can we talk tomorrow? I need a hot bath and my bed. Things have been heady. I couldn’t talk about it all if I tried.
Carly: Okay. I’m driving Aiden’s SUV to the office and need to be there at 7:45. If you wanna come a little early, I’ll bring you.
Me: Sounds good. I’ll be in the underground at 7:25.
Carly: Sounds good. I’ll cancel Ash. xoxo
26
Jude
I’m not looking into her today, but I am having Julian and my other part-time guy Rex do it for me.
I called Jule earlier when I heard he was supposedly working for me today because the jealous husband called us off the bombshell redhead so he’s clearly using me to cover whatever he’s really up to. He admitted he had something else going but was tight-lipped about what it was.
I asked him to do me a solid in exchange for throwing me under the bus with the family, and gave him the rundown of the Ally situation with the few facts I have, and told him to keep it quiet while he dug.
He found it comical that this had to be on the downlow because I was letting her think I wasn’t digging.
He called while we were on the way back to Ally’s apartment, so I checked in from the bedroom.
Turns out she lived and worked in Columbus, Ohio until April of this year when she just seemed to drop off. She’s got nine hundred bucks in a checking account, seventeen hundred in savings under her real name. Those accounts haven’t been touched since April. She paid off five grand in credit card debt in a lump sum in April and paid her landlord a couple extra months’ rent to break a lease. A moving service came in and cleaned out her apartment and handed her landlord a certified check with no forwarding address. The landlord says the truck had no logo on it and the guys who showed up wore street clothes so no uniform to speak of. The guy told Julian on the phone that her place was broken into after it was empty, but there was no damage. He says her boyfriend also came around looking for her after she left, seeming concerned about finding her and leaving a business card.
The landlord said he was also visited by two different cops who asked about her. The landlord told my brother he’ll see if he still has surveillance of the guy as well as the last time she was seen in the building and will try to find the business cards of the cops and the boyfriend. I tell Jule to fly to Columbus and get more information in person about the boyfriend, who I suspect might be named Wade from what Ally said at Aiden’s the other night as well as to find out what he can about her family and her job.