Page 77 of Life To My Flight

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

He stared at me for a few long moments before his gaze moved to Cody. “Give us a few minutes, please?”

Cody stood and patted my shoulder. “I’ll cover for you for another half hour or so.”

I watched him leave with reluctance.

“You wanna know what I heard today on the way to work?” He asked with a deceptively soft tone of voice.

I shook my head. “No, what?”

“My sister called. Told me she answered my phone this morning at five, saying that you’d called while I was on my run. Stupid me, but I didn’t call you back because I was running late for work. However, then I got another call from a cop buddy on the Shreveport PD who said you’d had your place broken into, and your car vandalized. I probably wouldn’t have known at all if I hadn’t asked the man to keep an ear out for your name,” he snapped.

“I tried calling you!” I accused.

“Really? You tried? Or did you just go through the motions? ‘Cause if you’d wanted me to know, you would’ve left a message instead of hanging up as soon as you’d heard my sister’s voice,” he growled.

I stood and faced the man who was doing a really, really good job at pissing me off. “You want to know the truth of why I didn’t talk to her? Because your sister’s a fucking bitch. In fact, all of them are bitches to me. They’re so fucking selfish. All they care about is keeping you to themselves. They don’t care if you’re happy. That’s your job, after all. To make them happy. Don’t you ever wonder why I’m never around when you’re sisters are?”

He blinked, surprised at my vehemence. “You don’t like my sisters?”

I laughed in amusement at how truly cuckolded he was when it came to his sisters. “Do me a favor. Next time you see them, bring up my name. In fact, I know you’re supposed to do lunch with them tomorrow. How about you call me when you’re done, and we’ll pick this up again there.”

I didn’t spare him another glance, annoyed that he wouldn’t even ask me what had happened.

I probably wouldn’t have told him if I’d been a little less sleep deprived.

No one told him what to do when it came to his sisters.

They had their big brother so wrapped around their fingers that it was comical.

The man did absolutely anything and everything he could when it came to them. So much so that it was well and truly hard to get in there.

Somehow, though, I’d managed it this time around, and I could tell just by the expression on his face as I left that he’d be thinking about what I’d said.

Which was good, because I wasn’t coming fourth to him any longer. I deserved first.

Chapter 14

It’s throat punch Thursday, and I’m offering free tickets.

-Cleo to his boss

Cleo

“You’ve got to be kidding,” I said incredulously. “You’re telling me, that if I don’t get my girlfriend not to testify against the case that’s in less than a month, that I’m going to be let go? Is that what I’m hearing?”

Did he know how illegal that was?

Seriously, was I hearing what he was saying correctly?

The man standing in front of me, the same man that I’d once had the upmost respect for, nodded. “Yes.”

I walked forward until I was standing in front of him, nearly nose to nose. “Fuck. You.”

He blinked at me, surprised. “What?”

The funny thing was, was that he actually looked surprised that I hadn’t taken him up on his offer.

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