Chapter 2 #2
I’d never met the man, and I doubted he knew who I was; yet Bella’s eviction felt like a personal attack.
Over the years, I’d lost precious time with my dad because he’d have to spend evening after evening working late, trying to get through the demands McScroodge put on him without any additional pay.
And now, I was losing my best friend because of him.
“Is there really no other way?” I asked, pushing the words past the lump in my throat as I stroked Bella’s arm.
She pulled out of my grasp, wiping her eyes. “I wish there was, T. But Donal has literally badmouthed me to everyone in the city. I should never have gone for that job at Mosaics. No one will ever give me a chance now.”
I rubbed my thumb in calming circles against her arm, internally cursing her old boss, Donal.
He’d given Bella a job at the restaurant, even though she didn’t have any waitressing experience, and when she refused to fuck him, he’d started messing up her orders and doing shit so customers complained.
After he sacked her a few months ago, Bella had been rejected from job application after job application. She’d struggled to pay the rent on her apartment for the last few weeks, and my dad had tried to hide it from McScroodge, but it looked like her time had run out.
“I can loan you the money. I’ve got enough savings to cover a few months‘ rent,” I said, shifting to look at her.
“Absolutely not,” Bella replied, grabbing my hand. “That money is for a deposit on your own place. Besides, if no one in Henderson gives me a chance, there’s no way I could pay you the money back.”
“I don’t care-”
“Well, I do,” she interrupted, squeezing my hand. “T, you and I both know how hard you’ve worked for that money. That’s your future.”
“Okay, how about we rent together? I can cover the first few months’ rent, so you have time to get a job, and-”
Bella cut my desperate words off by placing a hand on my arm.
“T, you and I both know that McScroodge owns half the properties in the city. The one I was renting was the cheapest; there is no way we could afford a two-bed place, even if I had a job.” She sighed heavily, making my heart constrict tighter.
“I hate that I have to leave, but what choice do I have? I don’t want to wind up like Barbara and Danielle. ”
“Who are they?”
Bella wiped another tear away. “Barbara was in her sixties when McFuckFace evicted her last winter. Do you remember how cold it was? She couldn’t afford anywhere else, so she had to live on the streets. She lasted a week before hypothermia killed her.”
I nodded, vaguely remembering an article in the news about a woman’s body found in the snow. “And Danielle?” I asked, not sure why I wanted to know.
“He doubled her rent, which she couldn’t afford. She started selling herself for sex to pay the increase, but she got into an argument with her pimp and wound up with her throat slit.”
I muttered a curse under my breath. Ben McScroodge was the most heartless motherfucker to walk the face of this planet. His partner, too. The pair enjoyed watching others suffer as they lorded their money over the people of Henderson.
“He’s a murderer,” Bella said softly, staring through the windshield of my van to gaze upon the town.
“Maybe not directly, but he’s responsible for their deaths.
” She tore her gaze away to meet mine. “I don’t want to wind up like them, T.
I hate that this is tearing us apart, but if I don’t take this job opportunity with my friend, I dread to think what will happen. ”
The ball of emotion lodged in my throat expanded. Obviously, I didn’t want her to wind up dead, but I didn’t want to lose her. Sure, we could call and text, but her living six hours away in an entirely different state wasn’t the same as her living five minutes down the road.
I was being selfish, though. I wanted her to stay because she was my friend and I loved spending time with her. She needed to do what was best for her, no matter how much it hurt me.
I reached for her hand, lacing my fingers through hers. “When do you go?”
“Tomorrow.”
Pain speared my heart, but I refused to let it show. Instead, I gave her the best smile I could muster. “Well then, if it’s our last day together for a while, how about we celebrate in style?”
Tequila spilled over my fingers as Bella slammed her shot glass against mine.
We downed the bitter drink, both of us wincing at the burn before sucking on a lemon.
I’d long since given up counting how many shots we’d downed as afternoon turned into evening, but it was fair to say the two of us were hammered.
“I can’t believe this is our last night together,” Bella said, slurring her words. “I feel like we need to do something crazy to mark the occasion.”
My drunk, addled brain thought that sounded like an awesome idea. “What do you have in mind, babe?” I asked over the chatter of the wine bar.
Her lips pulled into a malicious smirk as she fell against my broad frame. “I want to teach him a lesson.”
“Who? Donal?”
“Not that fucking idiot,” Bella scowled, knocking back a mouthful of her wine. “McFuckFace. He’s fucked up too many people’s lives. Maybe it’s about time someone fucked up his.”
If sober me had heard Bella say that, I would have disagreed and told her that there was nothing anyone could do to teach that man a lesson. He was too arrogant and too stubborn to change his ways, and trying to teach him a lesson was a waste of everyone’s time and energy.
Drunk me agreed with Bella. Twenty minutes later—and a quick stop at the hardware store—the cab brought us to a stop outside a mansion that, if I didn’t know better, I would have said was derelict.
Henderson was a small town; practically everyone knew where everyone lived, and often people complained about the state of McScroodge’s house.
They questioned why it was so run-down when the man had millions in his bank account, but until now, I’d never seen the house with my own eyes.
I had no reason to come to this side of town where the rich folk lived.
As I stared at the mansion, though, I couldn’t help but agree with the gossip; why the hell was the place in such a mess?
It had tons of potential if McScroodge bothered to invest. It certainly needed a lot of work; the white stone walls were filthy, most of the window frames at the front of the house were cracked, and the dried-up fountain in the middle of the driveway had mold growing over it.
I dreaded to think what the inside looked like.
Paying the cab fare, the tequila flooding my systems began to ebb as reality set in. “You sure you want to do this?” I asked once the cab drove away, leaving Bella and me staring up at the property.
“Hell yes, I fucking do,” Bella laughed maliciously. “This motherfucker needs teaching a lesson, and I want to be the one to do it.”
She skipped up the drive, fishing out the can of red spray paint she’d bought from the store. My stomach churned, not from the tequila swirling in it, but as Bella leaned over to spray something in the driveway several feet away from the fountain.
With dread spreading through me, I followed to where she stood with a pleased grin on her face. My gaze dropped to the word she’d sprayed in bold, red paint:
MURDERER
Guilt crashed into me like a tsunami, and as I stared at the word, I instantly sobered up.
Fuck! What were we doing? What if he were home? His office would be closed by now; he could be inside, witnessing us committing criminal damage. The man was an asshole, but that didn’t mean we were above the law.
My stomach plummeted to my shoes when the tinkling of glass smashing reached my ears. My head whipped up in time to see Bella climbing through the window she’d just smashed.
Panic raced through me. This was not meant to go as far as breaking and entering. What the hell did Bella think she was doing?
I quickly followed in her wake, reaching the window and peering in. My heart sank at seeing the line of bright red paint that Bella had sprayed along the walls, but she was nowhere to be seen in the room that I imagined would have been a dining room had it been decorated.
Her footsteps echoed from somewhere within the house, along with a shriek of glee. Leaning through the broken window, I was about to call her name when, in the distance, the faint sound of sirens rang out, growing closer the longer I stood frozen to the spot.
Shit!
I had no choice but to get Bella out of there. If I was quick, we could have time to run before the cops arrived. Careful not to cut myself on the glass, I climbed into the house, my gaze darting everywhere as I tried to find Bella.
More glass smashing caught my attention, and I took off down the hallway, following a line of red paint sprayed along every wall.
I reached the kitchen, my eyes almost bugging out of my head at finding more paint had been sprayed over every cupboard and counter, and the back door was hanging off its hinges with a panel of glass shattered.
But no sign of Bella.
“Fuck! Bella, we need to go,” I called, pausing to listen for any hint of where she could be.
Silence.
I muttered another curse and followed a line of paint through a different door, which led to a staircase.
I sprinted up the stairs, my calf muscles protesting at the sudden burst of energy.
More red paint lined the walls, and as I glanced around, trying to establish where in the fuck Bella was, she appeared from a doorway.
“I’ve found his bedroom, T! Come on, let’s fuck the place up.”
“Bella, we have to go. I think the cops are coming,” I bellowed, taking off after her as she disappeared back into the room.
I stopped in my tracks. She’d thrown a lamp against the wardrobe mirror, tiny glass fragments now lying on the threadbare carpet. I spun to see Bella spraying the word ‘murderer’ again on the wall opposite the bed.