Page 60 of Virtue & Vengeance

“I don’t have that number.” I did, but it was on my cell which I didn’t currently have.

She scoffed as if she thought I was lying. “Well, then I guess you’re out of luck, Ms. Vaughn. Good day.”

“Wait!” I shouted, and then took a deep breath. I didn’t have time for her petty bullshit. “If you don’t put Zander on the phone right now, I will make sure you don’t have a job tomorrow.”

I was breathing hard, and my heart was hammering inside my chest. I hated talking to the receptionist like that, even if she was being a bitch.

“Hold, please,” she said so tightly, it was almost inaudible.

The line began to ring, and I almost cried.

“Eden? What’s wrong?” Zander answered.

I took another breath and tried to sound as nonchalant as I could. “Nothing’s wrong, but I need my car back. No, I want my car back.” I corrected my voice, sounding harder than I expected.

“Your big emergency is to demand your car back?”

“Yes. You’re the one who got it impounded; you can be the one to return it.”

“What makes you think I care enough to?”

My heart was aching and more than anything I wanted to break down and tell him what was happening, but I cared too much about him to drag him into my mess.

“It’s obvious you don’t care about anything but yourself. I don’t need you to care about me. I just need you to get my car back so I can finally be completely free of you.”

He didn’t say anything for the longest time, and when he finally did, it was only one word. “Fine.”

My heart broke into hundreds of tiny fragments. Each one feeling as though it was cutting me up inside. “Fine.”

“I’ll bring it over to Kennedy’s tonight.”

“No!” I shouted. I didn’t want him getting any more involved than he already was. “Just park it outside the impound lot, and I’ll pick it up. I … I really don’t want to see you.”

“Fine,” he said again, his voice much harder this time. “It’ll be there at six.”

“Thank you,” I whispered.

Then I slowly hung up the phone.

Allen’s deep chuckle sounded at my side as he snatched the phone receiver from me and dropped it onto its base.

“You’re quite the actress, Eden. You just better hope my shit’s still there.”

He moved away from me and dropped down onto the motel bed, stretching out. He laid back, his eyes closed, but then he sat up a little and glared at me.

“No funny business, Eden.”

Only when the sound of his snores filled the room did I let the tears fall. Even if I got the drugs and money back, there was still a good chance I wasn’t going to see tomorrow.

---