Page 113 of Flame
“Yes. We bought the hockey team.”
“Right. Back then, I didn’t have the kind of money that we have now. So I borrowed some from the Downings.”
Okay… I scramble to keep up.
“Either I’m going to pay them back, Bianca or they’re going to fucking kill me,” he says, his face turning beet red. “And I figured it out. I figured out a way to pay them back and save my life in one fell swoop. And no one had to know any better.”
“But why pin it on me? Why not just transfer the money yourself and be done with it? Why involve me?”
“Because I don’t have access to that kind of cash!” His voice rises. “Your mom didn’t want me borrowing it in the first place. I figured I could pay it back with no one knowing. No one getting hurt. But then the team took longer to build, and we got delayed … and I was fucked.”
Ah… “So Bobby helped you secure the Arrows, and you were giving him the stock to pay him off?”
“Exactly. And I tied it to you in case something did go wrong, you’d be the only person involved.” He steps toward me. “I thoughtyouof all people would have my back. But you didn’t. You turned on me just like everyone else.” He snarls, coming closer. “My little girl. The one I poured every bit of knowledge and experience I have into.Sheturned on me, too.”
Foxx, where are you? Help me!
“You’re going to initiate the bank transfers. Or I’m going to have Dougie pull the trigger and paint your mom’s living room with her brains.”
“Don’t do it, Bianca,” Mom says. “Fuck him.”
“You don’t want to do this, Daddy,” I say, my voice trembling.“Think about it. Think about what you’re doing. There’s another way. You’re not being rational.”
He smiles. “Oh yes, I am.”
I close my eyes and hear my mother crying softly through the phone.
Please come, Foxx. Hurry.
CHAPTER25
Foxx
“It’s fine, Mom.” I flip the light off. “You’re just not giving it enough time to heat.”
“I hate when you say I’m not giving it enough time to heat like it’s my fault. I give it plenty of time.”
I roll my eyes.
“So how was the honeymoon?” she asks, following me into the kitchen.
“Great.”
“Just great?”
“What do you want from me?” I say, chuckling. “A play-by-play? No offense, Mother, but you don’t want to hear that.”
She holds her hands together on the countertop and grins. “You look happy, Foxxster. You actually look happy.”
“Iamhappy.”
“I think the last time I saw you this happy was the year you got that red spy kit for your birthday,” she says. “Do you remember that thing?”
I’d forgotten all about that. “Yeah. I made Jess’s life hell with that.”
Mom laughs. “You used to try to set up trip wires across the house. I’d get up in the morning and have to have my wits about me because, if not, I might face-plant on the way to the kitchen.”
“Ah, the good old days when you could be a dick, and it was charming.”
