Page 165 of Unforgettable

“How much?” I asked, and I could feel Amanda behind me. The heat of her body so close to mine, and her breath fanning over the back of my arm, kept me grounded.

CJ laughed. “I’m feeling generous today, so we’ll make it an even hundred.”

Amanda inhaled a sharp breath, but she kept quiet. I didn’t know what number I was expecting, but one hundred thousand dollars felt steep.

“How much of that is your cut?”

Amanda’s fingers laced through my own, and she squeezed in a sign I could only conclude was a warning. CJ didn’t seem upset by my question, though. He chuckled and paced back up the aisle between the blacktop tables.

“Enough of it. I did have to deal with Adam, and I had to hold off my California contacts. They were ready to let Adam pay in…otherways last week. It’s only thanks to me that her brother is still alive.”

Before I had a chance to say anything, Amanda scoffed. “Excuse me if I have a hard time thanking you for anything. Honestly, if I’m going to do anything, it’s going to be blaming you.” I knew she was scared—I could feel the slight tremor in her hand that was still wrapped in mine. But her voice was steady.

“It would be misplaced if you did,” CJ argued, walking back toward the classroom door. “Mandy, I understand you love your brother, but he’s a fuckup. He can’t hold down a job. Hell, he couldn’t even make it a week in community college, and he’s a shitty-ass drug dealer. He has nothing going for him. It’s not my fault that he chose this. And it’s also not my fault he’s in this situation.”

CJ stopped in the doorway and glanced around the room. “For someone so smart, you sure are really fucking stupid when it comes to him. Every decision he made to get himself into this situation was his own. He could’ve just walked away. He could’ve said no.”

My patience was gone. With my pulse hammering in my neck and the sound pounding in my ears, I stepped forward and eyed the scissors placed in a “Best Teacher Ever!” coffee mug on the corner of Amanda’s desk. I wasn’t sure what my plan was, but I knew I needed a backup option in case things went further south.

“Thank you for that, Nancy Reagan,” Amanda chastised. And further south things went. “You can’t say no when your life is being used as collateral. I love my brother, and I’m telling you right now that’s not a weakness.”

CJ’s demeanor changed instantly. He rolled his shoulders back and cracked his neck. His stare was firm on Amanda, who stood confidently at my side. Her own stare was just as hard and unwavering.

“Let’s go.Now,” he commanded in a voice that left little room for argument.

When neither of us made a move, CJ shifted, flashing the metal of a gun tucked into the waistband of his jeans and purposefully hidden beneath his jacket.

My skin pricked with awareness, and my breath faltered for a moment. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Amanda stiffen beside me, realizing she hadn’t missed the intentional threat.

The scissors I kept in my sight weren’t going to do shit against the Glock propped against his hip. Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight and all…

But that didn’t change my only goal—to keep Amanda safe. Protect her at all costs. The gun didn’t make things easier, but it also didn’t make things impossible. If she was okay, they would be okay—she and Josh would be okay without me.

My mind was scrambling for a plan while I tried to keep an eye on CJ’s hands and watch his face. His sneer was cemented in place, but his fingers twitched at his sides, prepared to reach for the gun at a moment’s notice. I knew he wouldn’t shoot me—injuring me wouldn’t help him get his money. However, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he’d hurt Amanda to make me more amenable.

I noticed every small movement he made, and I was acutely aware of the way Amanda’s breath had quickened.

“We’re leaving, and at this point, I don’t give a fuck if I have to use lesser methods of persuasion to make it happen, Mandy. Your brother owes me, and some very powerful people, a lot of money.”

The tension around us was stifling. CJ’s hands were shaking and his voice was uneven. The calm he exuded when he walked into the room was long gone, replaced by a man that was just on the right side of insanity. A man who’d lost himself to greed and chaos and was willing to take anyone—including us—down with him in his pursuit of what he wanted.

I’d lost count of the number of times I’d shifted to keep Amanda behind me, but I did it again. The more space between her and the man with the gun, the better.

My body was buzzing with the effort it took to stay calm.

“Walking out of this classroom is the best thing you can do for him. And when I have my money in my hand, the three of us can have a nice long conversation. I have a few things I want to say to him after this is over.”

Patience long gone, CJ reached for the gun, and I shoved Amanda toward the wall behind us. I didn’t even have a chance to tell him that I’d willingly go with him. Vibrating with anger, I took a step and then another but was stopped by the familiar click of someone racking a gun.

My first thought was that I was too late, and I waited for the impending shot. The pain. Maybe the sound of the shot if I lived long enough to hear it. But I’d kept my eyes laser-focused on CJ’s hand, and he hadn’t yet freed the gun from his waistband.

“If you have something to say, why don’t you just tell me now?”

As still and steady as I’d ever seen him, Adam pressed the muzzle of a gun against CJ’s temple.

“A-Adam?” Amanda stuttered and clambered up from where she fell into her desk chair after I’d forced her back into it.

Amanda stopped next to me, and Adam glanced in our direction before quickly turning back to CJ in the same second.

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