Page 91 of Ugly Duckling
My brows shot up. “Whoa there. What’s got you so angry?”
“Life,” he grumbled. “Apollo just called me back and said that Yates and Aleah are, get this…”
I was afraid to say it, even though I was fairly sure I knew what he was about to communicate.
“…married,” he finished the sentence. “Can you believe that shit?”
“Is it recent?” I asked. “I thought you said that you ran background checks on all your employees. I feel like their spouses’ names would’ve been one of those things that was shared.”
“It’s new,” he grumbled. “It coincides to when Yates started turning into a complete shit at work about six months ago.”
“Bummer,” I said. “Was he able to use his computer genius skills to find out why they’re following us?”
“Actually, yes.” He cursed. “Sorry, heading back to the school now. Stopped to get a snack from the gas station. There isn’t shit here to eat.”
“Planning ahead will be imperative then,” I said. “Apollo?”
“Right,” he grumbled. “Apparently Aleah ‘warned him about me.’ And how I was ‘a very bad person because I killed our kid.’”
I inhaled sharply, but he didn’t let me get the words out that wanted to explode from my throat.
“She gave him this sob story about how I forced her to sign her rights away to Jett. And before she could get her rights restored, I enrolled him in public school—which she was profusely against because of how unsafe public schools are right now—and he passed away before she could spend any real time with him. Yates is downright buried up to his neck in her bullshit, and buys her bullshit stories hook, line, and sinker. He’s besotted and can’t see the evidence that’s right in front of his face.”
“If he did even a small amount of research, he would’ve known that none of that was true. Hell, the entire school knew how shitty of a person she was because she was very loud and vocal about not wanting anything to do with Jett.”
“Exactly,” he grumbled underneath his breath for a long moment before he said, “They’re working with the Combs, trying to find evidence that I’m abusing Lottie. They’re getting paid really well, too.”
“Of course they are,” she sighed. “I’m sorry, Gunner.”
“They took over following me when the Combs got the restraining order,” he murmured. “I already talked with Malone today, and we’re working on getting another set of restraining orders for Yates and Aleah.”
I bit my lip and placed the boots back onto the rack before completely changing the subject, knowing that we needed to get him back into a better frame of mind before he went to a meeting with the school officials that would be giving him a job in the near future.
“Well, not that I’m not happy that you know why they were following you,” I said. “But can you tell me Lottie’s shoe size?”
There was a long pause as he digested the change of subject before saying, “Toddler size five.” I started scanning the boots as he asked, “Why?”
I explained what I was doing, and he laughed. “Lottie will love them. Anything that’s pink and sparkles is her jam.”
I knew it was.
I had the glitter in my hair to prove it.
It was everywhere in Gunner’s house, and like everything girl related he had exploding in his place, he just rolled with it.
It took fifteen minutes of talking to him about everything that was going on with me, and him helping me pick out some clothes as well as the boots, for him to finally sound calm again.
Only after I was sure that he was going to be okay did I hang up and pay for my spoils.
I was halfway back to my car when I heard the rumble of a car engine heading toward me.
I looked up just in time to see a black Volvo jump the curb heading right for me.
The black of the bumper heading toward me was the last thing I saw before everything went dark.
Twenty-Three
I do not do bugs. You could literally rob me with a roach.
