N9ne: The Tale of Kevin Clearwater (King, #9)(18)

“I tried Lenny. I did. But I don’t know anything, and neither does Pen.” Someone drops a plate in the background, and it sounds like Lori attempts to cover the phone, but it does nothing to conceal her rant of wrath. “What the fuck did I just…No, the outside tables. God damn it!”

Lenny sighs, and there’s pain in her every word although she’s trying to conceal it. “Lori, I hate to even ask you this, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to stay here. If Jared hasn’t been paying the mortgage, and I can’t continue to pay it. I don’t know how long I have left here until I can get to the bank when it reopens on Monday. So…do you think that maybe I could stay in your guest house for a while if that happens? Just until I figure things out? I’ve literally got fourteen bucks in my wallet and…”

“Sorry, Lenny. No can do. I’ve got new tile going into the bathroom in there on Monday, and I can’t reschedule because I flew the workers in from Italy and they are very selective about what jobs they take. You know how it is. If I pass this up now, their schedule will fill up, and I’ll have to wait until Christmas to get it done. I’d help if I could, but as you can see, my hands are tied. Have you asked Yuli?”

Lenny groans. “You know I can’t do that. She’s leaving for Africa in a week.”

“Oh, that’s right, that nurses without personal space thingy.”

“Nurses without Borders,” Lenny corrects her. “And you know that if I tell Yuli what’s going on, she’ll stay, and she’s already given up her lease and packed her stuff in storage. I can’t do that to her. It’s her dream.”

“But you can do that to me?” Lori asks, sounding shocked. “I have to say, that’s awfully selfish of you, Lenny.”

“How is me asking you for a place to stay in any way selfish?”

“Because Italian tile in the guest house bathroom is my dream,” Lori argues, as if she truly believes that her tile and Yuli’s helping kids in Africa measure equally.

I can practically hear her face fall with disappointment.

Lori obviously doesn’t hear the same thing and starts complaining about the charity dinner she’s putting on that night, but Lenny stops listening. Without saying another word, she hangs up the phone. I click back to her computer mic just in time to hear her shout, “I hope all of your fucking tile is crooked and falls off the god damned wall!” Followed by the sound of a glass shattering.

I chuckle because her rant isn’t like Lori’s. It’s kind of…adorable in a way.

Whether Lenny is involved in Jared’s scheme or not, her friend is a fucking cunt. I make a mental note to hack her computer and fill it with illegal pictures of a serious nature from the dark web, followed by an anonymous alert to our friendly, neighborhood FBI agents regarding Lori’s child porn problem.

I pick up the phone and dial Bear. He answers on the first ring with a “Yeah.”

“Jared’s girl is losing the house to the bank. He emptied their accounts before he planned to skip town.”

“That’s not good, brother. It means she’s got to go somewhere else. It’ll be hard to keep an eye on her if she skips town.”

“I’ll handle it,” I assure him as an idea unfolds in my brain.

“Good, keep me posted. I’ll be back up and mobile, but I’m not sure if I’ll make it to the party tonight. Oh, and if you see your brother, tell that motherfucker to stop sending me the fuckin’ balloon bouquets. I was shot; I’m not a fuckin’ kid having a tenth birthday. The last one was a mix of Spiderman balloons and Tonka trucks, and my kids keep beatin’ the shit out of each other with ‘em.”

I laugh because that’s so my brother.

“I’ll try, but you know Preppy,” I tell him. “It’s hard to make him stop doing anything, especially if he knows it’s irritating you. That’s how he gets his rocks off. You should know this by now.”

I hear a doorbell ring on Bear’s side, and then his wife, Thia’s voice in the background, sounding very amused. “Babe, you got another one.”

“Quincea?era? Are you fuckin’ serious?” Bear shouts.

Thia answers. “Oh, it’s all in good fun. Don’t be so serious,”

“Darlin’, if you lean over the couch with them things on display to your man one more time, bullet wounds or not, I’m gonna—”

The line, thankfully, goes dead.

I go back to Lenny’s computer and check her recent search history. The last one was only a few minutes prior to her call to Lori. PAWN SHOPS NEAR ME HOURS OF OPERATION TODAY.

The one she clicked on is Pike’s Pawn.

Perfect, since I know the owner and all.

I look at the clock. It’s already six-thirty. They close at eight on Saturdays.

I close my laptop.

With her having to find a new place and me having to keep her close, it’s time for me to step out from behind the computer and do some field work.

If Lenny’s hiding the money, I’m going to find it.

And when I do, she won’t have to worry about where Jared is anymore.

I check my gun to make sure it’s loaded.

Because she’ll be seeing him again real soon.





Chapter Eight