“I’m sorry, Mac,” Jolie says. “I lost myself and did something stupid.”
“That’s why we’re going to make something work. I can bring you to the warehouse. I can probably sneak you into my place. But you’d have to crash in my room.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” I say. “I didn’t think it would take this long for this shit to work out. And what’s going on with Mama is only making it worse. Much worse.”
“I’m so sorry about that too,” she says.
I feel her kiss my back.
I suck in a breath.
She’s nothing but an angel dipped in temptation.
My decisions are all for her but I don’t know if they’re good or not.
I’m going to take some serious hell by letting her leave the house.
But I can’t stand the thought of her in pain.
Her lips keep kissing up my back.
Then she drops the covers and presses her chest to my back.
My hands grab at the edge of the bed.
Her tongue touches the back of my neck.
I look down.
I watch as her hands move around my body and down to the growing bulge in my jeans.
Her lips stop at my ear.
She lets out a sigh.
“I love you, Mac,” she whispers.
She opens my jeans and I let her push my jeans down just enough so my hardness can be free.
Her right hand touches me.
She begins to stroke.
Up. Down.
Slowly.
I turn my head so I can kiss her.
Our tongues touch and I stop for a second.
Her hand moves faster against my body.
“Hey, sweetie, I love you too,” I whisper.
We kiss again.
And her hand moves faster than ever.
Jolie is fast asleep when I leave the bedroom.
Downstairs I find Mama Dae in the kitchen with a glass in her hand.
I keep a small distance from her.
I can feel tension between us.
That doesn’t happen too often, but when it does, it sucks.
We both want to confess something to one another.
But we both know we can’t.
“I’m going to leave,” I say.
“Off to do something stupid, I assume.”
“What makes you say that, Mama?”
Mama looks up. She smiles. “Love.”
“She would’ve been fine,” I say. “Whoever saw her…”
“I know,” Mama Dae says. “It’s getting deeper now, Mac.”
“We’ve been deep before, Mama. Let me handle this.”
“Is there something wrong with the way I do things?” she asks.
Shit.
“No,” I say. “But I know this isn’t what you would normally do. This is me taking advantage of everything. So I want it on my back. My shoulders. My ass is on the line. Okay?”
Mama nods. “Be safe out there, Mac. Make sure you have some sense of backup too.”
“Do you want to know what I’m going to do?”
“Nope,” Mama says. “I’m going to sip my nightcap and get some rest.”
She shuffles from the kitchen and I exit through the back door.
I light a cigarette and walk to my car.
She’s right about having backup.
I don’t have time to wait or waste though.
And what I’m about to do is dumb and risky.
But I do it anyway.
Like Mama said… love.
I send Les and Taz a text.
Back to the $ room just to see what’s up. Keep your phones on in case shit gets crazy.
I open the middle console of the car and look down at my gun.
Time to dig the hole a little bit deeper.
Getting into the house was as easy as the first time.
I took the same path and did the same damn thing.
You’d think for a couple of rich people, they’d be a little more cautious. Especially after what happened when Taz set off the alarm. Or the fact that I had already trashed Jeff’s room once before.
That just tells me Jeff knows he’s either fucked or he feels he’s protected against anything.
Either way I still have to be very careful.
A cornered man is a deadly man.
And a man who feels untouched is just as deadly.
As I walk through the massive upstairs of the house I start to wonder if they are even home at all.
Maybe Jolie’s parents went to a second home. Or a vacation home. Or a hotel under a different name so they could hide out.
Shit… imagine if the fuck up with the time of that meeting caused it to happen.
I swear, this just keeps unfolding and keeps getting worse by the minute.
I tell myself to just focus on the present.
And that’s getting into Jeff’s room again.
When I open the door, I pause and look around.
I’m looking for changes to the room.
Anything in a different spot. Cameras installed.
That kind of thing.
The room is normal.
All cleaned up like nothing happened.
And the smell is the exact same.
Rich douchebag asshole cologne.
I walk to the dresser and open one of the drawers.
I dig through and put all the fancy socks on the dresser itself.
The secret compartment is still there.
When I lift it and see the money, I let out a laugh.
So this guy… I trash his room as a message. He knows he owes money. And what does he do? He just cleans up the room like nothing happened. And he puts the cash right back where it was. Like nothing ever happened.
I open the next drawer and find more cash.
And the next drawer…
And the next drawer.
In the last drawer though, there’s no cash.
Just an envelope that’s not sealed.
I take it out and dump out the contents.
There’s a letter.
I slowly unfold it and see scribbled handwriting.
Tanya -
To my true love. It’s been a rough year or so. I promise, it’s almost over now. You deserve the stars, the sun, the moon, and the sky. I can’t give you that, but I’m going to give you the life you’ve dreamed of.
Do you remember the first night we spoke?
It was your first week cooking for us. You were outside, smoking a cigarette.
I smelled the smoke and approached you.
You were shy, beautiful, looking up to the stars.
You were so nervous that I was going to get mad at you about the cigarette smoke.
Do you remember what I did?
I smoked a cigarette with you.
That became our spot.
Our routine.
I craved those moments, Tanya. They were all I could think about. I knew my life had changed and would keep changing being near you.
We shared our first kiss in that spot too.
I can’t wait to have the smell of you in my bed all the time.
Not just on those forbidden nights in a hotel that would be cleaned of us the next day.
I promised you the world… and we’re going to travel it together.
The plane tickets are just the beginning.
I love you more than I love anything in this world.
Jeff
I fold the letter and look at myself in the mirror.
“Holy fuck,” I whisper.
Jolie’s father is fucking one of the chefs that cook all their food.
And he’s planning on running away with her.
I have to read the letter again to make sure my eyes aren’t messing with me.
They’re not.
Jolie’s father is tied into gambling, debt, money, and an affair.
And somehow Jolie ended up so innocent in the entire thing.
She ju
st lived as normal as she could, going to law school… until she met me.
I look at the plane tickets next.
Two first class tickets to Hawaii.
And he’s leaving in two days.
I look at myself in the mirror again.
It makes sense.
He’s going to grab all the cash out of the drawers and fly off to Hawaii with his mistress. He’s going to go off the grid the best he can and just go around the world.
Willing to leave his wife behind.
Willing to leave knowing his daughter is missing.
What an asshole.
I fold the letter and put it back in the envelope.
The plane tickets are still on the dresser.
Then my eyes go to the drawers.
An idea comes to me.
I walk to the closet and open the door.
I find a small leather bag and I curl my lip when I get back to the dresser.
I fill the bag with the cash and then put the plane tickets on top.
After I zip the leather bag shut, I close the drawers and leave the bedroom.
I leave the house the way I came.
I’m as careful as I can be to not trip any lights or alarms.
I take the leather bag full of cash and go to my car.
What I just did… wasn’t part of the plan.
It’s risky and can cost me my life.
But I don’t care.
I just want Jolie to know the truth about everything.
10
JOLIE
I wake up and Mac is sitting in a chair in the middle of the room.
Smoking a cigarette.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything so sexy in my life.
And by sexy I mean… you know… wrong, bad, evil, that kind of thing.
I should jump out of the bed and run to the door and scream for help.
But it’s Mac and I can’t do that.
He’s sitting in the chair and there’s a bag on the floor between his feet.
On his left leg is a phone.
I rub my eyes and pull the covers with me as I move.
Not that I would mind if the covers fell and Mac came back to bed again with me.
“Mac…”
“It’s still too early to be awake, sweetie,” he says.
The sun has filled the room but that doesn’t mean it’s morning time for Mac and his crew.
I blink a few times and yawn. “What’s going on?”
Mac grabs the phone off his leg and stands up. “New phone. A real one, sweetie. Just don’t go crazy with it yet. You can get in touch with Violet if you want. As long as she keeps things under the radar.”
He hands me the phone and kisses my cheek.
It’s a new, fancy phone.
Not some cheap flip phone that can’t do anything but call and text.
I put the phone on the nightstand.
Mac goes to get the bag and he brings it to the bed.
“What’s that?” I ask.
“You should probably get dressed, sweetie,” he says. “As much as I hate to fucking say that.”
“Okay…”
“You’re going to want to see what’s in the bag,” he says. “Trust me.”
I inch to the edge of the bed and take the top cover with me.
I wrap it around my body like a towel.
First things first, I need to pee.
Once I’m done, I wash my hands and then I find fresh clothes.
I’m groggy and my head is begging for coffee.
Back in the bedroom, Mac is sitting in the chair again.
His cigarette is gone.
His eyes follow me as I walk to the bed.
“Can I open it now?” I ask.
“Go slow, Jolie,” he says. “And you have to listen to me.”
“Okay,” I say.
The bag looks a little familiar.
I unzip it and the first thing I see is money.
A lot of money.
I look at Mac. “What is this?”
“There’s something else in there too.”
I open the bag again and I see tickets.
Plane tickets.
Two plane tickets to…
“Hawaii,” I say. “Seriously? What is this, Mac?” I gasp. “Did you do something crazy? Are you asking me to run away with you to Hawaii?”
I swallow hard.
My heart is pounding.
The truth is if that’s what Mac is asking then my answer is a quick and resounding YES.
I’ll go anywhere with him.
Anywhere. Anytime.
Mac slowly stands up and shakes his head. “No, sweetie. Those aren’t our tickets. And that’s not my money. In a way, it’s your money.”
“What? How?”
Mac stands next to me and touches my back. “I went back to your old house, Jolie. And all that money I found the first time… that’s it.”
“What?”
“He must have put it all back for some reason,” Mac says. “I saw it and just… I don’t know. I decided to do my own thing now.”
“Do your own thing?” I ask.
Mac nods. “I’m not sure what Mama is doing. Or will do. Or if she will even fucking remember it.”
“Oh, Mac,” I say.
He shakes his head again. “Just keep listening to me, sweetie. I’m not getting into the emotional side of this mess, yet. You don’t understand what this is right here.”
“The money?”
Mac nods.
“What is it?” I ask.
Mac swallows hard. “Do you know someone named Tanya?”
My heart skips a beat. “Tanya…”
“A chef?”
“Yeah,” I say. “I know who that is, Mac. How do you…”
“Do you know anything about her? And your father?”
I shut my eyes. “No… that was just my mother being paranoid…”
“Paranoid?” Mac asks.
“Wait a second,” I say. “What are you trying to tell me here?”
“What do you know about your father and Tanya?” Mac asks.
“I don’t know. They had a few arguments. My mother felt my father was too nice to her. Gave her too many breaks. My mother said she smelled like smoke. She even accused my father of smelling like smoke too. That led to her thinking…” I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter. My father fired Tanya. To prove to my mother nothing was going on.”
Mac grabs my hand. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I’m sorry everything in your life is this way.”
“What way is that, Mac?” I ask.
“This cash was put away where I found it the first time. And then there was an envelope. When I opened it, there were two plane tickets to Hawaii in it.”
“For my father and mother, right?” I ask.
“No, Jolie,” Mac says. “There was a letter too. To Tanya. He’s planning on running away with her. That’s what the tickets are for. I don’t know anything about the cash though.”
“You took it…”
I move away from Mac and walk to the window.
I’m waiting for the emotion to hit me.
But it doesn’t.
In some sad way I’m used to it. I’m almost expecting it.
Waiting for the next round of truth to hit me.
I vividly remember my mother drinking too much wine and getting mad at my father about Tanya. Claiming she always cooked his favorite foods. Saying that he loved the attention she gave him.
I look back at Mac. “What’s going to happen to my mother in all of this?”
“I have no idea,” Mac says. “As long as she stays clear from it… maybe she’ll be able to be happy.”
“So my father is even more of a scumbag than I already thought?”
“You feel however you want, sweetie,” Mac says.
“I don’t know what to feel. I just want it all to be over with.”
“That’s why I brought this here,” Mac says. “So you can see it.
So we can talk about what to do with it.”
“And because you wanted to bring me a phone too, right?” I ask.
“Of course,” Mac says. “And I meant what I said about you leaving the house. We can make that happen. We just have be smart about it. I hate to say this… but someone’s looking for you. And it’s tied to your father, the money and the lies, sweetie. The money and the lies.”
“Sounds like someone else I know,” I say.
Mac moves toward me.
His hands touch my face.
“No, Jolie,” Mac whispers. “No lies from me.”
“That’s the worst part,” I say. “You look like the kind of guy that lies all the time. And in some way I could make my peace with that when my heart gets broken. But you being honest with me will make it all hurt worse.”
“Well, then don’t hurt,” Mac says. “I’m going to take care of you. And you…” He looks back at the bag. “You’re going to take your stand now, sweetie.”
“What does that mean?” I ask.
Mac looks at me again and he gently kisses me.
“Sit down, Jolie… I have a plan.”
Mac gets a call and leaves me with my heart racing and my head spinning.
That’s typical Mac, right?
He kisses my lips, my cheek, nibbles at my ear, laughs, and walks out of the bedroom.
I stand up from the bed and look at the bag of money.
I look over at my new phone.
He trusts me.
He really trusts me.
I can easily grab the bag and the phone and take off.
Mac knows I won’t do that though.
I don’t even want to do it.
I want to be with him. I want all of this over.
Part of my mind wants to think about the last time I attended class for law school.
I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say that dream is dead and gone.
And in reality, did I even want that?
I chase away the thought and stare at the bag again.
I quickly zip it up.
So my father has been seeing Tanya all along, huh? So the whole idea of him firing her was just a joke. It was to shut my mother up. He’s been traveling around, seeing her, sleeping with her, and all that cliché stuff. My life is suddenly a rich drama movie or something. Where everything is a lie. And then there’s cheating, stealing, and crime…
Mess Us Up (Brooks Crest Book 3) Page 9
