Page 2 of Down and Dirty (Italian Stallions 1)

No, in truth, the shit had been hitting the fan ever since New Year’s Day.

That was when she’d finally run out of ways to rob Peter to pay Paul, and her landlord followed through on his months-long threat to evict them. Jess and Jasper had been couch-hopping since then, trying not to overstay their welcome with friends and even acquaintances, people who truly didn’t have room for them to begin with. She’d used up every favor and then some in the past four weeks. So last night, for the first time, they’d resorted to sleeping in the shelter.

Though Jess wouldn’t call what she did there sleeping. It was probably more accurate to say Jasper slept. She’d merely stayed in place, sitting in an uncomfortable chair, clinging to her son, praying no one did anything to hurt them while counting the hours until morning, when she could fight her way through another day. She’d managed to grab less than an hour of sleep, which had left her stumbling around in a fog all day, her brain struggling to function properly.

“I don’t wanna stay with Miss Debbie. The bad man is there,” Jasper murmured against her neck.

Jess wasn’t intending to ask Debbie to take them in. They’d stayed at Debbie’s house the majority of the first three weeks after losing their apartment, but a week ago, Debbie’s husband had given the couch she and Jasper had been sharing to his just-out-of-jail brother, Mario.

Mario was bad fucking news, and there was no way Jess could stay at her friend’s place while he was there. Not with the way he leered and made lewd sexual comments about all the vile things he wanted to do to her—in front of Jasper.

When Mario’s hateful, threatening words confused and frightened her son, Jess had tried to explain, as gently as she could to her sweet, innocent little boy, that there were good people in the world, but there were also some bad ones as well.

Unfortunately, it felt like all she and Jasper had been encountering lately were the bad people, including not only Mario but also a junkie who’d tried to steal her bag on the street, the guy at the grocery store who’d embarrassed them when they didn’t have enough money to buy the few measly things in their basket, and…

Jess sighed and mentally added Brenda, herformerbabysitter to the list. It was Brenda’s fault they’d been too late to get in line for a bed at the shelter. Brenda was a stay-at-home mom of three rambunctious boys, and she’d agreed to take care of Jasper after school every day until Jess finished her shift at the diner.

That afternoon, Brenda had claimed her husband, Rodney, didn’t want her to babysit Jasper anymore. Apparently, he didn’t like having a houseful of loud kids when he got home from work. Then she informed Jess that Jasper had broken a lamp. Jasper said it was an accident and he was sorry, but Brenda was too pissed off to accept his apology.

Jess tried to explain that removing Jasper from the equation wasn’t going to make Brenda’s house suddenly quiet, but the woman wouldn’t back down, claiming she was done taking care of “someone else’s brat.”

Then she demanded that Jess pay everything she owed her for babysitting, plus fifty dollars for a lamp Jess was certain hadn’t cost more than twenty. It had taken every bit of the tip money she had in her purse to cover the debt—which meant in addition to having no place to stay tonight, she didn’t even have cash to buy them food.

And now she only had two days to figure out childcare for Jasper after school on Monday.

She pushed that worry away until tomorrow. The more pressing problem was getting them through tonight.

Jess blew out a sigh of relief when they arrived at Debbie’s. She considered going in for a moment and asking to stay, but then she recalled Mario’s comments about her tight ass—and how he’d like to fuck it raw. So instead, she reached into her bag and pulled out her car keys.

Her car was the one thing she’d refused to relinquish when facing eviction, even if the money she could’ve made off selling the hunk of junk would have paid a couple of bills initially.

She’d decided against it. For one thing, it really was a piece of shit, and she’d be lucky to get a few hundred bucks for it, nowhere near enough to allow them to rent a new apartment or keep the old one for more than a month or two. Plus, she needed the car to get to her weekend job as a housekeeper at a motel on the outskirts of Philadelphia.

If she was being honest with herself, she knew she was going to have to sell the car at some point. But as she considered the dire straits she and Jasper were in at the moment, she was glad to have the security blanket of a vehicle.

If she could just hold on to it until spring and better weather…

For now, she was able to park it for free at Debbie’s. The only time she drove it was on the weekends, so it wasn’t like she was wasting a ton of money on gas. The rest of the week, she and Jasper either took the bus, the subway, or walked everywhere.

“Come on, Jasper. Hop in.” She opened the back door and secured Jasper into his booster seat, then she reached for a blanket she kept in the car and tucked it around him. Once he was settled, she bopped him on the nose with the finger sticking out of her glove. His scowl finally loosened, and he giggled.

“You’re silly, Mommy.”

She walked around to the driver’s side and climbed behind the wheel, briefly sending up the same short prayer she always did when she turned the key.

“Please start.”

Mercifully—and for the first time today—something went right and the engine turned over. She cranked the heat up on high, even though she knew it would be at least ten minutes before it stopped blowing out cold air. Right now, she was so fucking freezing, even the cool air felt like a blessing.

She pulled out of the parking lot with absolutely no clue where she was going. All she knew was they were out of the frigid night air and off the streets.

“Are we going to get some dinner? I’m hungry.”

Damn. Now that he was sitting down and out of the cold, it seemed Jasper had moved on to the next item on his list of needs.

Jess did a mental inventory of what she had in her gargantuan bag. Ever since losing their home, she was never without her oversized canvas tote, where she kept her wallet, a change of clothes for both her and Jasper, toiletries, and snacks.

“Let’s find somewhere to park and I’ll rustle something up for us.” Jess glanced at her gas gauge and grimaced when she realized she only had a quarter of a tank. She’d resigned herself to the idea that they would have to sleep in the car, even though the thought terrified her. The streets of Philadelphia weren’t somewhere she really wanted to be after dark, and there was no way she had enough gas to keep the car running all night.

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