Page 26 of Our Cracked Pieces
Tammy was a talent agent living in New York, and she worked mostly with models in the fashion industry. She had two kids and her husband, Norman, worked as a financier.
Carly was an actual, honest-to-God, news anchor in Texas, and it was nothing to see her face on television every now and again. She was still single and childless, but none of us were surprised. She was seriously career oriented right now, and I couldn’t be happier for her.
But out of the three, Mandy was who I saw most. Hell, Mandy was who we all saw the most because she traveled with Darnell a lot for his away games, and when she was in any of our states, we made the effort to connect.
When the trial had come to an end, and Officer Connors’ had been found guilty, the previous accusations had turned to pity. I’d gone from that horrible juvenile delinquent to that poor broken girl.
But had the police department called upon the media to announce their apologies? That would be a no. Had people owned up to their baseless judgements of me and apologized when they’d found out how wrong they’d been? That would also be a no. Even when it had come out that I hadn’t been Officer Connors only victim.
Apparently, he’d had a few sexual relationships during the time he’d been the school’s utility cop. Mine had been the only non-consensual one, and that was the only one he’d been tried for. He’d made sure that the other girls had all been eighteen, covering his tracks legally, if still immoral.
Staring out through the window of my office, lights twinkling like stars scattered all throughout the city, and thinking about Office Simon Connors, I realized I really didn’t think about him a whole lot these days. Last I heard, he was living on a ranch in Montana, married to the rancher’s daughter. And the only reason I knew that was because my father made sure to always know where Office Connors was. Being the girl who ruined his career, Dad didn’t want to take any chances that he might come after me one day. I doubted it, but a father’s love and all that.
My phone buzzed and I looked down and smiled.
Grayson:Dinner. The Highlands. Friday
Me:Hell yeahs
Grayson:Lush
Me:Hey! My first night of vacation. Celebration time. U’ll b my DD
I got a thumbs-up emoji, and I laughed. Grayson really was the best brother in the world.
The best person, period.
Chapter 20
Lorcan~
“You and your new jobs. Christ, woman,” I grumbled, no real heat in my words.
“They are not new jobs, you jackass,” Molly snipped. “Quit calling them that.”
“Then what are they?” I asked as I sat across from my sister in her kitchen. She’d invited me over for dinner, and while I hated attending her endless parties, I loved spending time with her one-on-one. Even as great as our parents were, Molly was my person.
“They’re…new clients,” she stumbled to explain. “They’re not new jobs.”
“That’s a new job, isn’t it?” I asked right before grabbing her last breadstick from her plate.
“Saying it like that sounds like I can’t keep a job, Lorcan,” she complained. “Saying I got a new job, and saying it every few weeks, sounds ridiculous.”
I shrugged. “Fine,” I relented. “I’ll start calling them clients.”
Molly started jabbing at her steak. “And there’s nothing wrong with parties, Lorcan. They’re festive and are meant for happy times.”
Good thing I’d already swallowed the food I had in my mouth or I would have choked. “Are you forgetting last year when your friends tried to trap me into fatherhood?”
She had the grace to flush. “That was one time,” she muttered. “And I took care of those conniving bitches. They’ve been shunned properly.”
Last year when I’d agree to go to one of Molly’s job parties-oh, sorry-clientparties, I had gone back to the Sphynx Hotel, own by CI, and had been ready to show two lovely ladies the time of their lives. However, they quickly turned out not to be that lovely when I’d overheard them planning on poking holes in the condoms, hoping to trap me with an accidental pregnancy.
I had, of course, thrown them out, and had lit into Molly. And because she knew I had issues with dishonest women, she had let me. She had also taken care of those two cunts, and had spent a month apologizing, even after I’d gotten over my anger.
But to be honest, my temper has always been a problem, even before Vanessa had turned out to be a cheating whore. I’d like to think I’ve mastered it, but every now and again, I was reminded that I will always be trying to master it.
My temper was a vicious little bastard.
