I lowered my gun, cocked it and pressed it to his ribs.
Dejection filled his face, but he had no other choice than to do as he was told. He drove me to his house. He tried to engage me in conversation, to get me to feel sorry for him, but I told him to shut up. Twenty minutes later we arrived at a modest house just outside town.
“Get out of the car,” I instructed.
He hesitated. “My kids are in there, man. And my wife. Please don’t do this.”
The audacity of human beings truly astounded me. They protected their own at all costs, but the harm they caused to others was inconsequential. I felt absolutely no sympathy for him.
“You’re going to take me inside, and you’re going to give me all the information I need on every member of your family. The schools your kids attend, where your wife works and all of your social security numbers. You should thank your good luck that I’m not blasting your head off right now.”
He did as he was told but just before we got into the house, he stopped me and pleaded. “Please put the gun down. My kids are in there. I’ll get you everything you need. Just keep the gun out of sight, okay?”
I pushed him in, but the moment I got in and saw his three kids playing in the living room I put the gun away.
He got me all the information I needed and I gave him my instructions.
“I’m going to give you forty-eight hours. Figure out who’s behind your commission, and bring his name to me. Otherwise, your family’s going to be gone. And don’t even try to run because I will chase you all to the ends of the earth.”
46
Willow
True to Caleb’s predictions, repairs weren’t taking even half as long as I’d expected them to.
It was under a week and the men had not only made significant progress, but they had turned the place that I had more or less cobbled together with Sandra and one handyman into an upmarket boutique florist.
Jake, the foreman, had insisted on repainting the walls using the most expensive paints, replacing even the windows that were not broken so they would all be the same flawless design. He broke the tiled floor that had been in place when I came to the shop and gave me a sparkling granite surface. Even the ceiling was fitted with new cornices and painted a soft gray to match the rest of the color scheme. Then, the counters were all ripped out and gorgeous new rounded counters made of glass and marble arrived. I watched in amazement as they were expertly fitted in by a team of men. Just one look at them told me they must have cost the earth.
At that point I had protested, but Jake was having none of it. “Look, Ma’am,’ he said. “I’ve been hired to do an awesome job, and I’m going to do it to the best of my ability within the budget I’ve been given. If you are not happy with any part of my work, just let me know and I’ll rip it out and redo it.”
I backed off then. I wanted to ask what the budget was, but I bit my tongue and let it go. It certainly seemed as if the budget was in the hundreds of thousands.
Although, to be honest, my mind wasn’t on it. I cared less about the windows, tiles, even the shop, than I cared about what was happening to Caleb.
He kept in touch twice a day, like clockwork, but he never visited or invited me over to his place. I worried about him constantly, but I knew I had to give him space and time. His troubles were worse than mine. Until he got those monsters off his back I had no business making life harder for him. I threw myself into work and waited for his twice daily calls. They were always brief and I always clutched the phone so hard my fingers ached. And every time I wished he would ask me to go over to him, but he never did.
When the call was over I would put the phone down and miss him terribly. Until this morning, when I could bear it no more and decided to surprise him with dinner.
“Have you asked him?”
The question came out of nowhere. I quickly slipped my phone back into my pocket and returned to wiping down the vases. My response was tinged with frost. “Asked him what?”
“Willow, you can’t avoid this forever,” Sandra said.
“I want to focus on what’s important and that’s getting the shop renovated.”
She didn’t listen. “You’re suspicious too. That’s why he hasn’t come around, isn’t it?”
I glared at her.
She turned to look out outside. “Well, well, what do you know, Bradley’s here.”