Sebastian (Bowen Boys, #5)(5)
“I’ve thrown them in the basement and am right now ransacking their house. And I was just calling for a cab to come and get me out here in the f*cking wilderness when you called. And for a lark, I thought I’d answer and incriminate myself.” He was so startled that he didn’t know what to say. “They’re right here, dumbass.”
“Hello, dear. Your dad is trying to do a search for raspberry tea, and then it’s my turn. I have to think of something to look up. Do you have any ideas for me?” He said the first thing that popped into his head. “Oh no, Sebastian, I have to look up something I don’t know anything about. I know a great deal about herbs.”
“Then look up how to put together a jet engine.” He took a deep breath. “Who is that who answered the phone, and why is she answering Dad’s phone in the first place?”
“Her name is Ama. Well that’s not her real name. Her real name is Amarizi. Amarizi Auburn. She’s been ever so helpful to us. She helped us set up our accounts on line and we have an email account, too.” She sounded so excited that he nearly smiled. But the woman was probably robbing them blind.
“I just bet you are. I was wondering if I may have a few words with her. Just to make sure that she isn’t steering you in the wrong direction.” He tried to smile to make his voice sound less like he was grinding nails with his teeth. She told him to wait until her turn and then she’d put her on.
Sebastian could hear her speaking but not exactly what she was saying. There was something muffled about her voice and he wasn’t happy with that. For all he knew she could be setting them up with accounts that led directly to her account, and his parents would be dead by the time he got there. Standing up, he was headed out of the office and to his car when she came on the line. He didn’t wait for her to say any more than hello before he tore into her.
“You hurt my mother and father and you will never be able to hide deep enough. And if they don’t have every single penny in their account that they had before, I—”
“Listen to me, you paranoid mother f*cking prick. If I wanted them dead, they’d have been so in the back of the limo that we came here in. If I wanted their money, do you think that you threatening me is going to make me give it back? Fuck off.” He heard his dad say something. “Your father wants to talk to you, but I have just one more thing to say. If you ever—and I mean ever—threaten me or accuse me of something you have absolutely no knowledge of again, I will tear you apart.”
Sebastian stumbled to his car. Terror, not for his parents but for himself, rolled over him. He felt her threat to him as if she’d been standing right in front of him and had delivered it to him face to face. He felt his panther roll away as if she’d been bigger, meaner than him, and now he was curling away from her. His dad saying his name made him think that he’d said it more than once.
“Sebastian? I think I might have lost him.” He could hear the anger in his dad’s voice and that of his mom. But the woman said nothing.
“I’m here, Dad. What is she doing there? And did she mean that she’d been in—?”
“You had no right. None at all to upset her like that. I swear to you if you were here right now, I’d beat you within an inch of your life. She’s been helping us all day. All damned day and we were having so much…I wish you were here. I wish that you were right here so I could paddle your behind. You had no right to talk to our friend like you did.”
“Dad, I’m sorry, but what do you know about this person? For all you know, she could be—” He realized he was talking to dead air. “Mother f*ck.”
He actually had his arm back to throw his phone, but it rang again. He hoped it was his dad calling back, but the tone told him it was his brother Marc. He answered, wondering if he’d already heard how pissed he’d made Dad.
“I was wondering if you could come by and help me with something. I got a new television today and I’m having trouble hooking up the cable lines. I don’t have the colored wires that they said—”
“Did you read the f*cking instructions?” He closed his eyes as soon as the words left his mouth. “I’m sorry.”
“No shit. Would you like to start over, or would you like for me to come down there and kick your ass for speaking to me that way? Might make you feel better in the long run. I know it would me.” Marc laughed. “Wanna come by and have a beer with me and Jonny? Well, I’m having a beer, and she’s having a glass of tea. And pizza?”
“Maybe. But first I have to go and tell Dad that I’m sorry, and then apologize to some woman they have helping them play on the Internet.” He got into his car and started it up. “I’m pretty sure that I’m going to be on the shit list for a very long time.”
“That doesn’t sound like you. What did you say to her?” Sebastian told him. “Christ, buddy, you’ll be lucky if you ever get off it with that. I can see why Dad is mad. Hang on.”
He was put on hold and decided to put in his earphone and talk and drive. Sebastian didn’t text while driving and he never looked at his phone either. There was a time and place for that, and going sixty miles an hour down a highway wasn’t the time or the place. His brother was laughing when he came back on.
“I wouldn’t go to Dad right now if I was you. He’s spitting mad and said he’s going to get a switch. Man, I don’t think I’ve ever heard him cuss like that.” Sebastian groaned. “If I were you, I’d give him until tomorrow, and then maybe you might live to tell about it.”