Page 48 of The Amendment

“Yeah?” he answered, his mouth full of food.

“What the hell, Jim?”

“Well, hello to you too, sunshine.”

“What have you done? Why is my room full of even more of your boxes? I never gave you permission to—”

He inhaled, swallowing his food loudly. “You lied to me, Greenburg.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You lied to me and said you’d have people over this weekend. And you didn’t.”

“Why did you come here? You were trespassing! You had no right to come onto my property. This has gone far enough.”

He chuckled, sending my blood pressure through the roof. My vision was beginning to tunnel, my head throbbing.

“Do you think this is funny?”

“No. I don’t, actually. I don’t think it’s funny that you lied when you know how much is on the line.”

“What exactly are you going to do? You’re going to turn me in? Really? After everything we’ve been through? After you’ve done so much worse shit and for so much longer. What a fuckin’ hypocrite,” I spat, pacing the ground.

“Who says I’m going to rat you out? I ain’t no snitch, Greenburg. You oughta know that.”

“So what do you want, then? I can’t have this stuff here, man. I need that space. My wife and kids are here.” I glanced over my shoulder at the thought of them, pleased to see I was still alone. “You can’t bring anything else here, and you can’t leave all of this. It has to go. Whatever else it is you want—money, better projects at work, whatever—we’ll work it out.”

“Whatever I want, hm?” he asked, sucking his teeth.

“Name it.”

“It’s funny you say that because I actually have been thinking about something else I want.” A knot formed in my stomach as I waited for the bomb to drop.

“Ever since I saw that wife of yours—” He groaned. “Uh-huh!I ain’t been able to take my mind off of her.”

“You’d better think long and hard about what you’re going to say.”

“Oh, I have,” he said, his voice a low growl. “Long and hard.” He drew out the words, and I felt my free handclamp into a fist involuntarily. I imagined it was his throat.

“Forget it.”

“You haven’t even heard my proposition yet.”

“I’ve heard enough.”

“You never know, it could be a good deal.”

“She’s my wife, you sick fuck. The mother of my kids. If you think for one minute I’m going to—”

“I just want one night with her. One night, and this all goes away.”

“No way. Not gonna happen.”

“Suit yourself,” he said, taking a drink of something and swallowing loudly. “But those are the terms. One night with your wife—no rules—and everything goes away. The room could be cleared out tomorrow.”

I nearly dropped the phone; my hands were shaking so hard. The rage was boiling over, my stomach clenching with his every word. “You will never touch her, do you hear me? Not as long as I’m still breathing. If you so much as come near her, I swear to God, I’ll—”

“You’ll what, Greenburg?” He chuckled to himself. “Where’s your sense of fun? It could be like the old days.”

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