LOUISE
Sean took me back to my apartment so I could comfort Kayley. When I thought of how I’d broken down in front of her, my stomach knotted. I was supposed to be her mom, unshakeable and stoic. “I’m sorry,” I told her. “Sorry you had to see me—”
She punched me surprisingly hard in the chest. “You idiot,” she said. “Whoever said you weren’t allowed to cry?” And she hugged me, the warmth of her body chasing away some of the rain’s chill.
When she let me go, she scrunched up her forehead and said, “So now you two have to go and fix things?”
Sean and I looked at each other. “Yeah,” I said. “We have to come up with a plan.”
Kayley nodded firmly. “Then sit down,” she said. “I’ll get you towels and coffee.”
I started to gently push her into a chair. “No. I can do that.”
“Damnit, Louise, let me help! I get why you won’t let me be involved. But I can make a freaking cup of coffee for you while you think! Why do you never, ever, let me do anything?”
I stood there opening and closing my mouth for a few seconds, then looked at Sean. He was no help—he just exchanged a look with Kayley and then nodded at me firmly.
I sat down. “I guess...I just wanted you to be able to be a kid,” I said in a small voice.
“Well...thanks. Really. But I think you need all the help you can get today. Okay?” And she stomped off into the kitchen.
“God…” I said, stunned.
“She reminds me of someone,” rumbled Sean. “Now let’s sort this out.”
I sighed and shook my head. “Even if, by some miracle, we can get the drugs back off Malone, what the hell do we do with them? No one’s going to want to touch them once they’ve been stolen from him. And he’ll be after us.”
Sean put his hand on mine. “One thing at a time,” he said. “First, we need to find out where our drugs are.”
“How do we do that?”
Sean thought about it while we toweled ourselves dry and changed clothes, then sipped the coffee Kayley brought us. “Malone’ll want to split up the crop and sell it. He’s probably already called the bigger dealers. I could ask them.”
“Why would they tell you?”
Sean looked at me seriously. “Because I’m going to be fuckin’ persuasive.
” That same look came into his eyes, the one that scared the ever-living-fuck out of people.
The one that had scared the hell out of me, when I first met him.
But now, knowing that cold rage was fueled by me, by the need to get justice for me.
..was it wrong that it made a little flash of heat go through me?
I stood up and headed towards the door. “Okay. Let’s go.”
Sean blocked my path. “Where are you going? I’m going to talk to him. I’ll call you.”
“No way. You’re not sidelining me now. We’re in this together.”
“This’ll be dangerous. I’m not having you hurt.”
“I’ll stay close,” I told him. “I’ll do what I’m told—”
“That, I fuckin’ doubt.”
“—but I’m not staying here.” I stared him down, even though it meant looking up.
He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “Alright,” he said at last. “Let’s go break stuff.”