Rules of Survival(28)

“Wait! You on the run from the cops? Don’t be tellin’ me you dragged trouble to my door, girlie.”

I jumped to my feet, inadvertently yanking Shaun along with me. “No! These cuffs aren’t from the police, I swear.” I nodded to Shaun. “He put them on me and then lost the keys.”

Gerald’s face paled. “Girlie, how old are you?” He shot Shaun a death glare. “Does her mamma know what you’ve been up to?”

It took a second, but when I realized what he meant, heat rushed to my cheeks. “Oh my God, no. Trust me it’s not like that. At all.” I hoped Shaun knew enough to follow my lead and not come clean about who he really was. I was pretty sure old Gerald would just about freak if he knew I’d walked a hunter into his house. He’d been out of the game a while now, but I bet he still had people looking for him. “It was kind of a joke that backfired.”

He narrowed his eyes and I was sure we were busted. What a lame excuse. A joke? Really, Kayla? What the hell was wrong with me? I was an excellent liar. I needed to be. It was all part of the life. I could come up with a prize-winning excuse on the spot. I could sell ice to Eskimos, Mom said time after time. A joke that had backfired? I wanted to kick myself.

Apparently though, Gerald bought it. After a short stare-down, he simply nodded. “You said that was one of the reasons…”

“The other reason is Mick.”

And just like that, the atmosphere changed.

Gerald had either been a horrible con man, or he was seriously out of practice, because his poker face was nonexistent. His right eye twitched, and all of a sudden, he started fidgeting like he had fleas. Tapping his knee and shifting in his seat. “Who?”

“You don’t know the name?” Shaun asked. He didn’t even try hiding his disbelief. I couldn’t blame him. Gerald’s reaction made it so painfully obvious that it was almost funny. “You sure about that?”

“I think I’d know,” Gerald snapped. He stopped tapping his knee and slipped his hand beneath his leg. “Why don’t you ask your mamma?”

I hated when people lied to me—ironic considering I’d spent my life lying to others. It made me cranky. I bit back a snide remark. “My mom is dead. Almost a year now.”

His face fell. He bowed his head and said, “I’m sorry to hear that, girlie. Your mamma was a pain in the ass and trouble on two long legs, but she was a good egg.” He winked. “Mostly.”

That he was telling the truth about. He hadn’t known she was gone and seemed genuinely sorry. But he was lying about Mick—and that bugged me.

“So you can’t tell us anything about Mick?” Shaun said, steering the conversation back to focus. I was thankful.

“Mick who? Do ya got a last name? Description? Why are you lookin’ for this Mick character?”

“Just someone I heard knew my mom.” I shook my head, watching him. His eye still twitched, and since he’d stuffed his hand beneath his leg, he’d started tapping both feet. The guy was a walking poster child for suspicious behavior. “All I’ve got is a first name.”

“Wish I could help, but nope.” He stood, smoothing out his overalls. “I think I can help ya with those cuffs, though.”

Getting the shackles off was better than nothing. We couldn’t make him talk. Well, Shaun probably could, but I wasn’t about to stoop to violence. At least not yet. “That would be fantastic. Thank you!”

“Just sit tight. Lemme go find my handsaw. I’ll have those binds off in a jiffy.”

“We’d appreciate it,” Shaun replied as Gerald left to get his saw. He finished with, “You f*cking liar,” just as soon as the old man was out of earshot.

“You caught that, too, huh?”

“Like a neon billboard.” He stood and gently tugged me toward the hall. “Any idea why he’d lie?”

“No clue.” He knew exactly who Mick was—but why lie? “Unless…”

“Unless what?”

“The old guy seems to have a soft spot for Mom. What if Gerald knows Mick is bad news? Maybe he wouldn’t tell me where to find the guy if he thought I might get hurt.” A knot formed in the pit of my stomach as the wheels inside my head began to turn.

“You told me you went back to the cabin, hoping for a name. You didn’t see the whole letter, but maybe you found what you needed… Maybe it’s not Jaffe. It could be this Mick guy.”

“Maybe,” I said, excited. “Think about it. Mom said in the letter that she’d trusted the wrong people. That someone had betrayed her. It makes sense that it could have been one of her partners!”

“Betrayed her?” Shaun asked, eyebrows shooting up. “Partners?”

Oops. I hadn’t mentioned that part to him yet. Deep breath. It was time to come clean. “Mick and this T person… My mom knew them because they were her partners.”

He blinked. For a minute all he did was stare. Mouth open, eyes wide, and fists balled. My previous concern about him going apeshit, like he had in the junkyard, lingered on the edge of my subconscious. Since I was cuffed to the guy, escape was a pretty moot thought.

“Are you shitting me? You gave me that speech about how I needed to look at this as a joint problem and you’re withholding info?” He stomped his foot. “That’s bullshit. This is my life you’re playing with now. Full f*cking disclosure is a given.”