Page 49 of Atlas
“Go and see her. She’s not working today.” She snatches the rag from me and whips my leg with it. “I can’t stand to look at that miserable face any longer.”
“Actually,” I say, leaning against the car. “I wanted to talk to you.”
“Sounds serious.”
“About your dad and the shit he’s got you involved in.”
She groans and begins to walk away. I grab her wrist and pull her back. “Kasey, this ain’t going away. Your sister is talking about getting cash together and leaving the country with you. She can’t uproot her life like that. And if you tell me what’s going on, I might be able to help you.”
She eyes me for a second. “You’re panicking she might leave.”
I sigh. “No, Kasey. We’ve been on a couple dates. What she does is her business. I’m just saying it could be avoided.”
“You can’t help me.”
“Until you tell me, how will you know?”
“The men after me, or the man, is powerful.”
I frown. “What does he want with you?”
She stares at the ground. It’s the most unsure she’s looked since I found her. “He thinks I stole money from him.”
“Did you?”
Her head whips up. “No.”
“Tell me everything, from the start.”
“I was sleeping with him,” she announces, almost looking apologetic.
“How old is he?” I ask, my frown deepening.
She shrugs. “I didn’t ask. It was business . . . yah know, as in, he paid me for sex.”
I rub a hand over my brow. “Right.”
“And this one time, he called me over and after we did it, he accused me of taking some cash from his safe.”
“Why did he think it was you?”
“Cos he said he’d left it unlocked and I was the only one who could’ve taken it.” She takes a breath. “But that’s not true. His kid was in the house too.”
“Now you’re accusing his kid?”
“It wasn’t me, Atlas. I swear.”
“So just tell him. I don’t understand why he’s coming for you. Why didn’t he just call the police?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know where the cash came from. It was probably dodgy.”
“Who is this guy?”
“A lawyer by day, but who knows what he does in the evenings. He always had dodgy people coming and going.”
“And he didn’t think they would take his money?”
She shakes her head again. “I think they worked for him.”
