Page 12 of Hurricane's House

She shrugged, “Stop by her work,” Chasity said. “She’s always there, and I used to stop by when I needed her attention. Heck, if I waited until she finally got home every night, I would have never been able to talk to her.”

“Smart kid,” he admitted. “Do you have the address?” She pulled out her cell phone and his own notified him that a text had come through.

“There, you have her work address now. Do you need me to help pull up your text messages on your phone?” she teased.

“I’m not that old, smart ass,” he grumbled. “I’ll run by to see her this morning on my way to the club.”

“If you find out what’s going on with her, will you text me?” she asked. It was good to know that Chasity actually cared what happened to her aunt, but he knew not to make a big deal out of it. If she knew that he was happy about something that she was doing, she’d stop doing it.

“Sure,” he agreed, going for casual. “I’ll text you either way.” He stood and dumped his coffee into the sink and washed it down.

Chasity giggled, “Too strong for you?” she asked.

“Next time, don’t make mud. That stuff was fucking awful,” he griped on his way out of the kitchen. Chasity’s laughter followed him down the hallway, to the front entrance, where he grabbed his keys from the table by the front door. He didn’t bother to tell her to cut it out. It was nice to hear the kid laughing again. They were making progress—slowly, but still, progress.

Hurricane pulled into the parking lot of the small business where Tina worked. There weren’t a lot of cars in the lot, and he didn’t see Tina’s. He worried that he might be too early to catch her, but checked his watch and noted that it was just after nine.

He got out of his truck and walked into the building, smiling at the receptionist who sat behind a big desk. “Hello,” she said, looking him over.

“Hi, I’m wondering if you can help me,” he said.

“Well, I can try,” she drawled. She was just the type of woman that he tried to steer clear of. Women like her only wanted one thing from a guy like him—a one-night stand and Tina had made him realize that he wanted more—so much more.

“I’m looking for Tina Hillen,” he said.

“Oh, I’m afraid that Tina is no longer with us,” the woman said. She tried to sound upset, but the smirk on her face gave her away.

“What happened? Why did she leave?” he asked. He had a feeling that he had just figured out why Tina seemed upset the last time she talked to Chasity, but he needed more information before he texted the kid.

The woman leaned forward in her seat, as though she was about to tell Hurricane a secret, and he played along. “Between you and me, she was fired for taking too much personal time off. She only started this job a few months ago, and apparently, she’s raising her troubled niece. Poor thing couldn’t keep up with the girl and her job here, so the upper ups had to let her go.” The way that the woman called Tina a “Poor thing” pissed him the hell off.

“I’m sure that she’ll land on her feet,” Hurricane insisted. “Thanks for the information.” He started for the front door and turned back around to find the receptionist watching him leave. “Oh, and for the record—her niece is not a troubled teen. She’s a good kid who just lost both of her parents and had to go live with her aunt. And your bosses are assholes for not trying to help Tina out rather than let her go for something that has been out of her control.” He looked up to the second floor to find a few guys in suits watching him and he hoped like hell that one of them was the ass who fired Tina.

“Shame on all of you,” he shouted up at them. He turned to leave again, and this time, he didn’t bother to look back. Nothing was there for him, and he had a feeling that he’d be able to find what—or in this case, who, he needed to find over at Tina’s place. She had to be home, and that was going to be his next stop, but first, he needed to call Chasity and have a talk with her, because he was about to do something that she might not approve of, not that it would stop him from doing it.

He dialed Chasity’s number and waited for her to answer the phone. Instead, it went to voice mail, and he groaned out loud. “Come on kid, answer your phone,” he begged, knowing that it wouldn’t do him any good. He hit re-dial and waited her out again.

“I thought that we agreed that you were going to text me, Hurricane. I’m in math class and my teacher let me step out, but not all of them are that nice.”

“Sorry, kid, but I need to talk to you and I’m not the fastest texter,” he admitted.

“No kidding, I’ve watched you text and it’s not pretty,” she teased. “So, did you find out anything about my aunt?” she asked.

“Unfortunately, I have and it’s not good.” Hurricane knew that she was mature enough to hear the truth, but a part ofhim worried that telling her that Tina had lost her job because she had spent too much time worrying about and looking for Chasity, the kid might run again.

“So, what’s up?” she asked.

“Your aunt was fired,” he said.

“What?” Chasity asked. “She just got that job.” Hurricane had a suspicion that Tina had taken that awful job to pay the rent at her place and take care of the kid. He had been to her place to help pack up Chasity, and from the look of her rental, she was just barely scraping by.

“It’s a long story that maybe your aunt should tell you, but I have an idea and you’re probably not going to like it,” he admitted.

Chasity groaned into the other end of the call, making him smile. “Just say it and get it over with,” she ordered, “and please don’t tell me that you’re going to ask her to have sex again. I know that I won’t like that.”

“I think that your aunt should move in with us,” he admitted. “I’m pretty sure that she needed that job to get by. You know where she lives and I’m betting that things are tight for her now that she’s out of work.”

“And why do I have to suffer for her? I wasn’t the one who got her fired,” Chasity insisted. He didn’t say a word, trying not to let his anger win out with the kid. Some of the guys at the club who have kids told him to count to ten if he was pissed off at the kid. What they didn’t tell him was that he might actually have to get to twenty or thirty with Chasity because she knew how to push his buttons.

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