Page 6 of Devil's Work: Dark

Jim was dead. Car accident. His fault. He’d fallen asleep behind the wheel on his drive home after a week-long business trip to Detroit.

He took out three other cars along with him. Mine wasn’t the only family broken that day. So much pain. So much devastation.

The lawsuits took every bit of insurance money. I lost the house, my car, my everything, and most importantly, my husband, my best friend, and partner in life, all because he’d been trying to surprise us by making it home early.

“Rae?” Dela calls my name.

“What?”

“You left the universe again.” That’s what she calls it when I space out. Me leaving the universe.

“Sorry. I was thinking about pools.”

“You ready to move here yet? You could be swimming every night.”

“Del…” I sigh again, the exasperated sigh of an older sibling. “You know I can’t afford to move. Bentley is our home now.”

“Bentley sucks. I was only there because of Green.” Green was the guy she’d been living with when we moved here. She never disclosed why exactly they broke up or even how they met, but he’d been nice enough. Their breakup in essence is why she moved. “Life is so much better in Nashville. Come to the good life, babe.”

“It’s only good because you don’t have kids. Bet if you were a single mom, you’d be singing a different tune.”

I love my kids to the moon and back. I wouldn’t trade being their mom for anything, but that doesn’t negate the fact that being single with no attachments is the easier route to go.

“Speaking of money, that’s why I called.”

Um… she knows I don’t have any extra to loan out. “Are you in trouble? I can try to get a bank loan using my car as collateral. It won’t be much—if I even get approved—but I’ll try—”

“Rae.” She cuts me off. “Quit being the big sister for like two seconds and listen to me.”

It’s hard not to be the big sister. Our whole lives, it was her and me, shipped off to whatever family member, no matter how distant, would take us in. Mom died when Dela was three. I was six. I never knew my dad. I hardly remember Dela’s. Last we’d heard, he was rotting away in prison for killing our mom because she tried to break up with him. Mom made some seriously poor choices when it came to men, but she had enough sense of self to tell me, “Rae, sweetheart, a man who hits a woman is no man. A man ever hits you, I don’t care if you have babies with him, you take those babies and run.” That’s what she did. That’s what got her killed. How do you turn off a lifetime of caring for someone even if they no longer need you?

“I’m listening,” I answer.

“Can you get Miss Mable to watch the kids for the weekend?”

“Del, I can’t leave my kids for the weekend.”

“Just hear me out. There’s this party this weekend—big,huge. It’s at a mansion with tons of rich guys. Anyway, it’s a catered affair and everything. We need people to work it.”

“Like for tips?”

“So many tips. They like you, you won’t know what to do with all the cash coming your way.”

“I don’t know. A job could severely mess up my benefits. Kids need healthcare and stuff.”

“Sister, you’re not thinking big enough. These guys are loaded and it’s all paid under the table. Play your cards right and you’ll never need state benefits again.”

“From one job?” I ask, highly skeptical.

“They do these parties like every weekend. It would really help me and the people I work for out if you came down. My place is nice and I’m driving around in a brand-new car because of these parties.”

“When is it?”

“Next weekend.”

“Let me call you back. I’ll have to see if Miss Mable can watch the kids.”

“Great. Looking forward to thatyes.”

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