Page 34 of Defiant
I pulled my hair up into a loose clip, pinning it to the top of my head. I let the water get as high as it possibly could before shutting it off, and as I sunk into the warm, steaming water, I let out a sigh.
My eyes stared at my feet for a long while, and I wriggled my toes. Who knew my life would get so complicated after coming to Midpark? Then again, I never would’ve guessed, even in my wildest of dreams, that my mom would ever force me to uproot my entire life and come to a rich town like this. It was hard, not going to lie. So, so hard, adjusting to a life like this, being an outsider, not knowing if what you were doing was right.
I sighed again, heaving myself away from the back of the tub and bending over the side to reach for my phone. My fingers were able to snag the bottoms of my jeans and tug them closer, letting me get to it. I had to dry my palms and fingers on the jeans, but once I did, I brought my phone back with me.
I hadn’t spent much time on my phone lately, because Mom had taken us to our cell carrier’s store and forced them to give us new numbers, along with wiping the phone completely. All of my pictures, gone. All of my apps, gone. Before she brought me there, she sat next to me and watched me get rid of and delete my social media profiles. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat—everything, all gone.
It sucked. Majorly.
Maybe it was because I felt the need to talk to someone, maybe it was because I secretly hoped he wouldn’t see it right away, but I found myself reaching out to someone I most certainly shouldn’t. Not yet, not while I was in the bath, not until I figured out what the hell I was going to do with him.
Well, at least it wasn’t Archer, right?
No, the person whom I reached out to right then was the one, the only, Jacob Hall.
Chapter Ten – Jacob
Using my contacts for someone else was the last thing I wanted to do on a Friday night, but that bastard had me. I supposed I could push, see if he really did have a video of me taking Jaz home, but if I went that far, I might anger him, and then he might go ahead and turn the video in anyway.
If the police got a video like that…considering why I was out of a job with them, they’d definitely look into it. They’d suspect me immediately, siding with the clearly fucked-up man with tattoos.
Honestly, it was a game I simply did not wish to play. Could you blame me? After the world had literally pissed on me again and again, I just wanted to keep my head down, make some money, and live out the rest of my life.
Even that seemed like too much trouble lately.
I was on the phone with him. Dante Storm. What kind of fucking name was that?
I’ll tell you: it wasn’t a name at all. Dante Storm was not his real name; if I had to guess, I’d say the Storm bit was of his own imagination. Googling the word storm yielded far too many web results for me to narrow it down, so I was just as clueless now as I was then, only I’d reached out to my contacts this week and had them doing what they did best.
If you had money, there really was no limit to what you could do. I had to spend some of my hard-earned money on paying my contacts for their help, but I was due another payment from Mr. Anonymous soon, and I’d have to speak to Jaz about that, too. I wasn’t worried about making rent or paying bills; I’d used my get out of Midpark money, so I had to restock.
“You should be good to go Monday,” I told him. I was sitting on my couch in the living room, my feet kicked up on the coffee table before me. Papers sat scattered on the table, and I pinched the bridge of my nose as I wondered what kind of mess I was pushing Jaz’s way.
I shouldn’t care. I shouldn’t give a shit…but I knew I’d long passed that point. Even though she should be just another client to me, she was a bit more, and I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want to see that girl get hurt, and I had no idea what me helping Dante get into Midpark High would do.
I guess I’d just have to keep an eye on her even more than I already was.
That should bother me. I should want to keep my distance, but I didn’t.
“I knew you were the man to ask,” Dante spoke on the other line. “I really appreciate it, man. Tell you what: I can put in a good word for you with the lady.” The lady. He had to have meant Jaz, which meant he planned on talking about me to her.
“No,” I quickly spoke, shaking my head even though he couldn’t see me. “I’d rather you didn’t bring up my name to Jaz.”
There was a moment of silence before Dante said, “You should know I don’t like being told what to do. I do what the fuck I want when I want, you know? But, since you did help me with minimal complaining, I suppose I can keep this little secret between us. You did do me a favor by getting me in there so fast.”
I didn’t want to tell this guy that I’d spent most of what I had saved to expedite the process of getting a birth certificate made for him, but it kind of went hand in hand with the other thing he asked me to do for him.
“Look,” I started, “about finding you a place—”
“Ah, you know, I have been thinking about that,” Dante cut in. “I think it would be best if I found a place on my own. You know, this is a big town. I’m sure someone needs a bodyguard or something.”
I frowned to myself. No family in Midpark would let a stranger that looked like him sleep in an extra bed on their property. No one. Dante Storm was not Midpark material, and even if he went through with whatever asinine plan he had, he would never fit in here. Kind of like me.
“Well,” I started, leaning back on the couch, “are we done here?”
Dante laughed on the other line. “Sounds like you want to be done with me, Jacob Hall. Kind of rude. Someone like me might take offense to that.”
Other people might fear threats from a man like Dante, but I was beyond that point. The video had me by the fucking balls, but any physical threats just slid right off me. You could not hurt a man who’d already done the worst to himself.
