Page 72 of Fighter
She fidgeted with the bottom of her shirt and didn't answer. I folded my arms across my chest.
“No, you can't see him again, but I'll let him know you asked.”
Annoyance made her gaze hot. Her nostrils thinned.
“I cared about him.” Her voice was a dark rasp, and I sensed sincerity behind the words. “It's . . . he's a nice guy. I don't want him to get hurt.”
“Little late for that.”
Her jaw tightened.
“I'm sorry, Amber.” I softened my response. “But you'll never see him again, if I have anything to say about it. He's going to go get better and he won't be back. With any luck we can sell the house and he can start over at home.”
“He owes me a lot of money,” she hissed through clenched teeth, her gaze suddenly bright with something like rage. Any caring she'd had—or pretended to have—disappeared. “I can't just walk away without anything.”
“Hernandez is looking for you,” I said. “Dagny called to tell him that you're here. He has questions for you. So you can stay and wait for him to show up, or you can make yourself scarce. I'd prefer the latter.”
Amber snarled at me and advanced a step. “You think you can sweep in and save Talmage? You think I won't have the last word? He is my boyfriend and I love him! He owes me money!”
Her love and his debt seemed inseparably connected in her mind, and maybe they were in a life like this. Her voice rose several pitches, drawing the gaze of everyone in the Diner. I held my ground, arms at my side, chin high.
“If you love him,” I said, “then you'll let him go.”
Dagny stepped out from the back, followed by our fry cook, a burly man with a baby face and jowls like a pitbull. Amber shrank back at the sight of him.
“Time to go,” he growled.
With one last sneer at me, she turned and skulked away, disappearing around the back of the building. I drew in a deep breath, pivoted on my heel, and stepped into the back. Dagny stood at my side, a hand on my arm, as I cooled down in the aftermath of the visit.
“That w-was intense,” Dagny said. “You did g-good.”
“She . . . infuriates me and inspires pity all at the same time. I don't know whether I want to hug her or slap her.”
“B-b-both, I bet.”
My blood still streamed through my body with shock and tremors when, minutes later, Jayson stepped through the swinging doors and right into the back. His gaze swung over to us almost immediately. Next to me, Dagny stiffened. Her gaze darted away.
“Hey Sera, is Amber gone already?” he asked.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Sorry, she didn't stay long. She headed toward the back, around the right of the Diner.”
He sighed. “Not your fault. I tried to get here as soon as I could.”
Dagny's hand shrank away from mine as she stepped away and put her back to us, busying herself with ice and a cup, even though no new customers had come into the Diner. I pulled in a deep, calming breath.
“Let me know if you see her again?” Jayson asked as he edged backward. “I'm going to go drive around and see if I can find her.”
“I will.”
He disappeared through the doors, and Dagny relaxed. I eyed her, suspicious of the way she stared out the swinging doors with a sigh on the edge of her lips.
“Hernandez?” I asked her.
She opened her mouth to protest, then grimaced. “Th-that obvious?”
“Not to him.”
“N-n-never to him. He has no idea that I exist.”
