Page 26 of Winning Bid

“Do you truly feel dismissing me is your best course of action, June? For all you know, it could be the worst mistake of your life.”

Credit to Carlos, he is good at saying cryptic shit to make me curious. But I have enough on my plate to deal with. Whatever he’s getting at—telling Andre about Neil, telling Anderson about Andre, talking to the police about something he thinks he knows—it’s like a hidden gun. No point in getting upset about it until I know for certain it’s there or until he shoots. I don’t have time to deal with anything less.

“I’ve made a lot of worst mistakes in my life, but you know what happens every single time, Carlos?” I step closer to him and look up into his eyes. “I win. So think carefully about coming into my office and threatening me with your smoke and mirrors. The worst mistake you can make is underestimating me. Now go.” I turn around and flick my hand dismissively toward the door as I walk to my chair. “I have actual business to attend to, something I’m sure you’re not familiar with since Andre doesn’t like you.”

That earns his arched brow as I put my feet up on my desk and lean back. Petulantly, he asks, “What do you mean Andre doesn’t like me?”

“A slip of the tongue,” I lie. “Nothing for you to worry about. Yet.”

He recovers his smooth exterior by smiling like a used car salesman. “I suppose we’ll see. After all, legal issues don’t ever really disappear, do they?”

After he closes the door behind him, I hold my head in my hands. What the fuck was that?

15

JUNE

Idid it. I managed to keep my mouth shut for a whole day about anything serious. Me and Anderson had a nice night at home, complete with snuggling and talking about day before bed. We pretended to be a normal couple, and not just for whoever might be listening, but also for ourselves. It was a luxury, and we both know it, but like the hotel room, we needed the artifice of that.

Today, though, I’m back in the line of fire. Or at least, that’s what it feels like when I see Mitch. Dad. Whatever, I’ve decided to call him now.

It’s still strange to think of him as Dad, even though I do. After he totally upended our lives when I was a kid, Mitch was what I had relegated him to. But he’s making an effort to fix his life, and that includes a relationship with me, evidently. How can I crap on that?

Experience, my bitter inner monologue says. But I’m trying to get at least one thing right in my life, and if that ends up being my relationship with my father, then so be it.

He’s taken me to another fancy lunch—Dock 814, this time. It’s a seafood joint on the water, and each time Dad takes me somewhere nice, it is still a strange thing for my brain to wrap around. When I was a kid, we weren’t even middle class. He was too busy spending his ill-gotten gains on his mistresses instead of me and Mom, so it was a childhood of boxed macaroni and cheese and basic cable only on the months we could afford it. Sitting here with Dad is surreal.

Over oysters, he asks, “So, how is engagement treating you?”

“Good, thanks. Honestly, things between me and Anderson have never been better.” Because I’m keeping things from him.

“Glad to hear it. He better keep treating my daughter like the prize she is.”

“Oh, now you’re protective of me?”

He smiles but frowns at the same time. Happy, wide lips but a line in his brow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Remember the time you had me steal Mrs. Flanagan’s apples?”

He laughs. “That old bat was just letting them rot. It wasn’t right.”

“Yeah, and you made me go get them because you knew she wouldn’t shoot a kid.”

“You know you were never in any danger. She would have never?—"

“I was seven!” I say with a laugh. “All I knew was what you and Mom always said about her. That she was crazy and armed. I mean, I know now, but at the time … ” I shake my head, still smiling at the memory. “At the time, I was sure I’d get shot for a backpack full of fruit.”

“They were really good apples if I recall. Might have been worth it.”

I laugh and smack his hand. “You jerk.”

He grins. “And you were never shot, so I think we came out ahead on that score.”

“Nuh-uh. When she found me and dragged me into her house, I damn near peed myself.”

“Aw, poor kid. I never meant for you to get caught.”

I shrug. “Well, I did. But I never told you about what happened after that.”

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