Page 60 of Remorseless
Mort studied his brother. The motherfucker was omitting a vital piece of information; Mort didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out what it was. “You broke, aren’t you? You fucked with the savings account you and your woman have?”
Digger shifted in his seat and averted his eyes. “It’s more than that, Mort,” he said quietly. “It’s so much fucking worse.”
“What the fuck’s worse than wiping your goddamn savings account, fuckhead? On what? Clothes?Things? What the fuck did you do?”
“I tried to increase my money! I did shit I shouldn’t have. Now my money gone. Bunny money gone.Hermoney gone. Or some of it.”
Her…?
“Who—” A text message alert interrupted Mort and he leaned forward to read it.
Bailey: Please meet me at the burger place ASAP. I would like to turn in early.
Mort reread the message, pretending he wasn’t so disappointed he almost canceled the date completely. He didn’t want a quick burger with barely any words. He’d intended to take her to an upscale restaurant in Portland. Not J’s either. A place where he had to pay. As the step grandson-in-law—Mort still laughed overthatshit becausewhat?—of Joan Harrington, she refused to charge him.
He picked up the phone to reschedule their date but decided against it. If their marriage would survive they had to startsomewhere. Why not at a burger joint?
Unfortunately, that meant he wouldn’t have time to finish his conversation with Digger. Before he left, he had to know who else’s money Digger fucked with.
“Does Bunny know you and her broke?” he asked as a lead-in to the more important question.
“No. Not yet. She has everything set up on auto pay. My allowance. Utilities. Household expenses. Her checking account look fine. It’s the main account that’s destroyed.”
“And who else’s? Whatsheyou talking about besides Bunny?”
Digger opened his mouth, glanced away, then shrugged. “Bunny,” he said finally. “Some of Bunny money gone. Not all of it though. She gets her own income from Meggie.”
Mort gave Digger a level look. “What you not telling me, son?”
His phone dinged again.
Bailey: Are you coming or not, Lucas?
“Go, bruh. You reading too much into my words.”
“You fucking broke, motherfucker,” Mort said in disgust. “I know you. You not telling me the whole truth. It’s how your dumb fucking ass got involved with Sharper.”
Digger got to his feet. “If you not fucking leaving, I am.”
An alarm beeped on Mort’s phone, then Digger’s. Potter. Huck. Pike. Sparrow. Slipper. Chains. Tiny.
“What the fuck happened to Meggie now?” Digger said in frustration, sounding close to tears.
“Fuck!” Potter called. “The smoke alarm and sprinklers have been activated at Outlaw’s house.”
Sitting on the edge of her bed, Rebel stared into space, not seeing anything around her. Only listening to her mother’s movements in the bathroom.
Daddy used one of his gazillion apps to shut off the sprinklers, then he dialed a number. Rebel realized he’d called Aunt Bunny. Apparently, when he took out his phone to deal with the sprinklers, he’d received an alert that she was in the house. She explained that a pan of something was on the stove, burned beyond recognition.
“Eggs,” Daddy had said, and instructed her to take Gunner out to eat.
“We already ate.” Aunt Bunny’s voice over the speakerphone blared through the shocked silence, broken only by Momma’s sniffles.
“That’s better than us, Aunt Bunny,” Axel said woefully.
“We need to clean up the water,” she said. “Luckily, it was shut off quickly, so I’ll see what I can do. Who else is hungry?”
Rebel was starving, but it pissed her off to no end at the chorus of male, “I am!” She’d rolled her eyes, taken Momma out of that pot of testosterone and left those idiots to deal with the aftermath of the Triplets’ latest fuckery.
