Page 27 of Nailed

Sam frowned. “Some drunk asshole hitting on Sarah. But I’m sure she can take care of herself. If she can’t, well, I’ll go over there with you.”

“He’s not just some guy. He’s the guy Cor—” I cut myself off. I’d nearly said the guy Cora had filed the complaint against. It was Sam’s sister who’d been his last victim at Reilly.

For the first time since I’d met him yesterday, the kid looked less like a kid and more like a man. A man as alarmed and pissed off as me. “The guy what?” His voice was run through with fury. “Were you going to say my sister’s name? Did he do something to her?”

But I couldn’t say anything. Cora had told me what had happened in confidence, making me promise the only person who’d know she said anything was Gary, when I fired his ass.

Hers wasn’t my story to tell.

“No…” I hesitated. I couldn’t lie, but I couldn’t tell the truth, either. “He’s not a good man,” I said. “That’s all.”

Sam seemed to relax. But when I pulled away and moved toward them, he didn’t stop me, either.

Gary had staggered sideways, so his back was to me as I approached them, and Sarah, whose arms were now folded protectively over her chest, snapped her eyes up to mine.

Unluckily for Gary, he hadn’t seen me and didn’t know I was standing right behind him when he slurred, “I’m telling you; green looks really good on you. He probably wants you all to hisself.”

It took me a minute to understand he was talking about me. Sarah opened her mouth to say something, but Gary was completely oblivious.

“Iss why he’s sitting over there”—Gary pointed a thumb over his shoulder, nearly hitting me in the chest—“looking like he wants to murder everyone.”

“Just one person,” I said, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “If you don’t step the fuck away from her and leave.”

“Jamie, I’ve got this,” Sarah said. She sounded pissed. At the moment, I didn’t care. I was more pissed.

Gary had staggered backward, his eyes wide with alarm. Then they narrowed. Or tried to. He was shitfaced. “I’m not scared of you, Jamie. You act all… big man… but you wouldn’t hurt a f-fly.”

I gritted my teeth, speaking only to him. “I’m going to say this once, because I knew another side of you once. But I told you when I fired you that I didn’t want to see your fucking face in this fucking business ever again. You cried. Do you remember that, Gary? You fucking cr—”

“Jamie!” Sarah finally caught my attention. “I said I had this!”

I was so surprised that for a moment I forgot about Gary swaying next to me.

“He’s an asshole, Sarah.”

“I remember.” Of course she’d remember him from work—before I fired his ass. They never worked together, but she knew of him. An old shame ripped through me. None of the women had felt like they could tell me he’d been a sleazy bastard, and I’d been too fucking oblivious to see it myself.

“You,” she said to Gary, “can fuck off. Go back to your room. Sleep it off.”

I gritted my teeth. “You heard her.” Before Gary could refuse, I grabbed his elbow. “I’ll help you out.”

I couldn’t help myself. I didn’t care if she was pissed; I didn’t want him in the same room as her. As any woman. I half led, half carried him out the entrance of the restaurant, through the lobby, and right out the door into the snowy night.

“Hey! My room’s upstairs!”

“Not anymore, it’s not.”

Gary looked small and pathetic in his half-untucked dress shirt. “You can’t leave me out here. I’ll f-f-freeze!”

I whistled with my fingers to the row of cabs already lined up down the curb. When one arrived, I tossed him in the back seat, then pulled out my wallet and chucked a few bills in after him. “That’s for the motel.”

To the driver, I passed a hundred-dollar bill. “Take him to a motel the next town over.”

“Which town?” the cabbie asked.

“Any town. Just not here. Ignore him if he wants to go anywhere else.”

The cabbie shrugged and tucked the bill in his breast pocket. “You’re the boss.”

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