Page 23 of Fish out of Water
He was on the phone.
“I know, Mother.” Grant sounded irritated. “But I can’t do anything until I figure out what in the hell he was up to this time.”
The voice on the other end was loud enough I could hear it through the door. I couldn’t make out the words, but Grant’s mother was definitely long-winded.
“One of you needs to get him a cell phone. This could have all been over if I could just do a search on his location.” He was standing right on the other side of the door, probably at the peninsula. “Oh shit. His fish just puked.”
Thatwas what the paper said.
Don’t overfeed Penelope or she’ll barf.
Guess two feedings in under an hour was too much.
“This is the last time I’m doing this. I’ve got my own shit to worry about down here. I can’t be in charge of him anymore.”
The woman squabbled at Grant a few more minutes as he continued to pace the hall, every pass he made sending my pulse skyrocketing to rates that would probably give me a coronary.
He stopped just outside the door again. “I gotta go. Call Nonna and you two figure something out because I’m done with this.”
I held my breath until he walked away, his steps going down the hall toward the bedroom instead of toward the front door.
I was stuck.
Trapped in a damn broom closet because of an old man and Penelope the lionfish.
Chapter Six
Grant
I SET MY cell gently on the counter even though all I really wanted was to throw it against the wall.
According to my mother, no one had heard from Vito. Not a fucking peep.
And so far the most I had to go on was two strange men in a mailroom, and a stack of money in an envelope.
A big stack of money.
I was used to him disappearing over hundreds of dollars. Not thousands.
Whatever Vito was into he’d leveled up somehow. Made some sort of connection that offered him the kind of money he’d always pretended to make.
And he’d decided to keep the lot of it, thinking he could send Julia to collect it from its hiding spot. Then I’d never be the wiser, and once again it would be family money that bailed him out.
But it wasn't happening this time. This time he was going to come back and face the music. Finally fess up to his bullshit and pay up.
I just had to figure out what was going on and wait him out.
Unfortunately, I had no idea how long that would take, which royally fucked up what little life I had.
I picked up my cell, swiping through the screens to find the woman I was supposed to meet for dinner tonight. She was everything I normally looked for in a potential partner. White collar job as a bank executive. Blonde. Liked to talk about wine and the stock market.
Normal.
She definitely didn’t own a pair of cow slippers.
Or banana pants.
And I’d bet my left nut she’d never fished a key out of an aquarium with a spaghetti server.
