Page 103 of Run For Me
She gives a little shrug, smoothing down her shirt. “She’s in the way.”
“Of what?” I bark.
“You and Mindy, of course.”
“You don’t even know her. You met her like one time.”
She smiles that evil smile. “See, and that’s where you’re wrong.” She moves past me to go into the kitchen, and it takes everything in me to not shove her so she flies into the wall andbreaks her nose, or better yet, her neck. It could look like an accident.
When I go after her, I find her pouring a whiskey. She takes a sip before turning toward me.
“You broke her heart. She loved you.”
“Mindy loves designer bags and her own face in the mirror—nothing more. Now, I’m running out of patience. Tell me where the fuck Sailor is.”
She holds my stare for a long time, and I know I’m not getting anything out of her. I know it. Panic sets in because I’ve seen this before. I know what my mother is capable of. Not only destroying lives but ending them. She’s powerful, more so than she should be. Maybe I was wrong about not siding with her. Perhaps if I had, this wouldn’t have happened. If I had just played along, pretended, Sailor wouldn’t be in danger.
But then her phone dings from in her slacks pocket. Something shifts on her face, something that tells me all I need to know. I lunge for her, and she moves to the side, the glass slipping from her fingers and shattering when it hits the tiled floor. I grab her arm, yanking her against the counter. She cries out, trying to fight me off with a smack to the face, but I hardly feel it as I go for her pocket to pull out the phone.
“Jaxon!” she shouts. “You’re making a mistake!”
“The only mistake I made was keeping you in my life,” I say, pointing a finger at her. I hold her phone up with the other. “Now I have all I need.” I tilt my head to the side. “Tell me, Mother, how many people would kill for this?” I hold the phone up. “I know you’re capable of a lot, in charge of a lot, but what about the other side? What about your enemies?”
“Don’t!” she shouts as she takes a step forward, but I push her hard with a hand to her chest, and she hits the counter again, falling against it dramatically.
“Don’t fuck with me,” I growl, taking a step closer to her. She cowers. “It’s best you remember where I came from. I am your child, after all.”
She calls after me as I leave the house, but I don’t look back.
I sit in my car, staring at the cell phone as I try to figure out what the passcode could be. It’ll only allow me so many wrong codes. Do I want to attempt getting locked out?
On the screen are text messages from an unknown number, and I have no doubt it has to do with Sailor, but the view is private, so I don’t know what they say. I hate that the bitch is smart.
I’m confident that my mother is the ringleader here. I don’t know how this all came to be, but I don’t think Mindy is capable of murder. At least, not without help. But why the fuck is this happening at all? Why does my mother care who I am dating?
“Come on, come on,” I growl as I stare at the phone just as another text pops up.
Then it hits me.
I know exactly where I need to go.
Greenberg’s door is locked when I reach it, so I bang on it over and over until he pulls it open.
“Wh—”
I move in, shoving him aside and holding out the phone.
“I have no time for bullshit today. I need you to get into this phone.”
“I ca—”
“I said no time for bullshit!” I scream, moving closer to him. He cowers away, falling against the wall. “Get me into this fucking phone before I fucking murder you.”
“Okay, okay,” he says with a trembling voice. He takes the phone, then keeps his eyes on me. With a growl, I step back, giving him room.
He hurries down the stairs, and I follow after him. The place looking exactly as it did the last time I was here. Good thing there are no girls here against their will. I was worried when I passed his info onto that girl he wanted to date. No idea what came of it, and I don’t fucking care either.
He drops into his chair, closes out of the game he was playing, and pulls up a program I know nothing about. He plugs the phone into a wire that’s connected to the computer, then presses a button in the program. It shows cascading numbers and letters before, one at a time, they stop in the middle of the screen.
