Page 124 of Live for Me

Then I couldn’t believe it worked when the car started a few moments later. That left me wondering if she’d actually believed his threat on my life, or if she’d just realized that we’d need a functioning car to get back out of this situation.

Either way, we sat quietly for a few minutes once we reached that empty parking lot before Jersey reached behind the seat and pulled ski masks from the pink duffel bag in the back. I smirked when he held one out toward me.

“Probably won’t do much good on my part. I sent him a picture of me in bed with her when this first started,” I said and laughed. “If I get my hands on his phone, I’ll be sure to make it the wallpaper on it.”

For a split second, I was horrified that we were about to have a bonding moment where New Jersey would try to tell me that he would’ve done something similar.

Instead, he slapped the mask against my chest.

“Put it on, kid. The last thing we need right now is to end up going viral on the Internet.”

Unfortunately for everyone involved, two trucks pulled into the lot at the same time.

“Fuck,” Jersey grumbled beside me.

“I’ll grab him if you want to get us an opening in that fence,” I said, nodding toward the trees that lined the edge of the road and the wire fence that sat just in front of them.

“Plan for the second guy?” he asked.

“Isn’t that why you’re here?” I asked and opened my door to start escaping his car. “Make sure I don’t get in trouble or some shit?”

“Awesome. It’s like having a male Memphis around,” I heard him mumble while he got out too. I paced around the car for a few minutes while he grabbed something from the trunk and stomped off toward the fence and the trees. Neither of the men were out of their trucks by the time I was walking up to the driver’s side of Memphis’ poor decision. It was a newer model of truck, and like most men, he probably never thought twice about how his doors unlocked automatically when he shifted into park to sit and scroll on his phone for a few minutes before getting ready for work.

I ripped the door open and had a firm hold on his shirt before he’d even tried to speak. I smacked his phone out of his hand as soon as I had his body out of his truck, and promptly stomped down on the device with the heel of my boot. I paused only to punch him in the mouth when he started to protest about me dragging him across the ground toward New Jersey and the fence.

“Behind you, kid,” Jersey called

I turned in time to see the man from the other truck barreling toward me while his coworker screamed for help. I released his shirt and let him fall the rest of the way to the ground so I could handle the one making his way toward us. It didn’t take much effort to drop him to his ass either, but it definitely took all my effort to avoid laughing when Jersey tossed a handful of zip ties on the ground beside me once I was sitting on this man to hold him in place. I made quick work out of getting his hands bound.

“I thought you were supposed to be helping me with —,” I started to say to Jersey but looked up in time to see him already dragging Memphis’ wannabe-boyfriend into the trees.

“This is the one I want,” he said over his shoulder without stopping.

Great.

I got up as quickly as I could move, snatched this man up by his shirt, and returned him to the truck closest to us. I dug through his pockets to take his keys and his phone before I walked away. I tossed them both out into the grass on my way to find Jersey.

I caught up to them as Jersey was dropping him face first in the dirt right next to a tree. He sat up quickly just to scoot backward until he was against that tree. He was already crying, already asking what we wanted, asking who we were. I watched New Jersey unbutton the front of his suit jacket and crouch right in front of him.

“The girl you met in the bar,” Jersey said. “You were told to leave her alone. More than once, as I understand it. Is that right?”

“The bar? Who?” the wannabe-boyfriend cried.

I laughed out-fucking-loud when New Jersey slapped him.

“The pretty midget with the black hair,” Jersey explained. I watched a realization cross this man’s face and for a brief moment, he seemed to find his nerve.

“What is this?” He demanded and looked at me. “Are you her dad or something?” Then he looked back at Jersey. “Her grandpa?”

I had to act like I was choking to death on nothing to hide the laugh that time.

New Jersey grabbed him by his neck to pull him closer to his own face.

“You’re going to leave her alone. Starting now, you’re never going to reach out to her again, you’re never going to try. You’re never even going to so much as think about her again. Understand?” Jersey paused for just a second to see if he would respond. When he didn’t, Jersey continued. “This is as nice as I can be about it. If we have to come find you another time, it’ll be a violent encounter.”

“This hasn’t been violent?” He asked and tried to look down to where Jersey’s hand was around his neck.

We both laughed at that question.

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