Page 71 of Break for Me

“A couple hours,” she repeated. “Jersey?”

“Yes, dear?”

“Just leave her there and turn around to walk back out,” she said. “Then our lives go on.”

“That’s how it works.”

Something else was happening in her mind. I could hear it in her voice, but she wasn’t sure how to just say it to me. And for the first time in all of our years working together, I was in no fucking mood to just pull it out of her.

“If you’ve got something to say, Memphis, say it.”

“I just need to know that you’re okay.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked.

“My livelihood depends on your state of mind just as much as your own does,” she said. “I know you, Jersey. I know when you’re having a rough time.”

I laughed. “I’m not hearing your point.”

“I’m here if you need to work through something,” she said.

“I know you’re all about getting me into therapy, but I’m not doing this with you and I’m not doing it right now,” I said. “I’m fine, Memphis. It’s just another job. I’ll call you when we get closer.”

I hung up the phone and rubbed both my hands over my face. I shifted closer to Seph when another car pulled up to the other side of the pump I was using. My eyes connected with Trista’s the second she stood from her side of Seph.

We were about to have a problem.

“Don’t do it,” I warned.

“I can’t go back,” she said.

My whole body tensed. I reached under my arm to flip the safety off my gun.

“I won’t kill any of you, Fancy Face, but I will hurt everyone here to make sure we stay on track. Do you really want to involve innocent people?”

She moved toward the hood, so I shifted that way myself.

“Please, Jersey.”

I scoffed. “That only works when your legs are wrapped around my head, girl.”

She flinched.

That was probably uncalled for, but if we were doing this, I was going to hurt her too.

She rushed around the front of Seph and made it to the back bumper of the other car. She slammed her hands against it to try to get the driver’s attention. I crashed into her a second later and caught her around the waist.

“Help me!” She screamed. “Please! Call the cops!”

“Please don’t make me hurt you,” I said, dragging her back toward Seph.

The door of the other car opened and a very terrified woman paused with one foot on the ground. She was hard to see in the dim lighting, but the fear was fucking tangible in the air between the three of us.

“Please!” Trista screamed again.

I pulled the gun from the holster and aimed it right at that old woman.

“Leave,” I told her. “Close that door and drive away. I won’t tell you again.”

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