26. Grae #2
“Eddie Coshovo is mine now. You won’t do business with him or even want him in any of your establishments.
He’s been marked.” She taps her screen again and makes a second call.
“I need four BHYS- ultra fine, ten LDEB and seven party favors sent to Eddie Coshovo’s place.
Make it random, I never want him to know when it’s coming.
” She ends the call and tosses her phone on the coffee table next to her knitted cat.
Then looks back down at Eddie who’s still crying.
“The last man I marked got neutered, Eddie. Keep my name out of your mouth.” She hangs up on him and tosses the phone back to CJ who is staring off into space, caught in his own world of thoughts and fears.
“You’re being very dramatic,” Lance calls out from the kitchen. “They’re just glitter bombs. That man thinks he’s going to die,” he argues under his breath.
Alana’s lips curl while reaching for the wine bottle. “Have you ever been repeatedly glitter bombed? He’s gonna wish for death.”
“What are you going to do to me?” CJ whispers.
“Nothing.” Alana blows air out of her lips. “Let me be very clear. I think you’re a trash human who’s manipulative, immature and selfish. But for some stupid reason, you matter to the people who matter to me.” She picks up the crochet cat and strokes its ears.
From the other side of the room, Craig jumps up.
“Finally, someone said it! I don’t get the hype around CJ at all.
He’s a fucking DJ! He takes other people’s music and makes it worse.
” There’s a twinkle in Alana’s eye that only comes when people agree with her, and CJ is sinking down lower and lower with every passing second.
Lena pipes in, “He’s a great hugger sometimes.”
“Oh, he has arms? What a rare quality in a human,” Alana says, and Craig laughs.
There’s a connection between them, I guess, because he’s the one person in the room she has nothing to lose with.
I suspect she’s survived situations like this by doubling down and lashing out, but since Craig agreed with her, giving her nothing to fight, she settles back.
“My turn for questions.” She pets the yarn cat and asks, “How many of you hired someone to find me, besides Grae?”
This one at least I can answer. “Amanda and I did, but the Olympians were running interference.”
Alana nods like this is the answer she was expecting.
Then points the wine bottle at Craig. “So, how the hell did you get through?” Wait, Craig set this whole thing up?
Alana takes a sip and shakes her head. “No, the how isn’t important, it’s why.
Why did you track me down and put this whole thing in motion?
” She waves her hand around in a circle.
“Nothing nefarious, but I understand if you don’t believe me. But I do not want to disclose at this time,” he says with his hands folded in his lap. “You never answered why you bought Mastodon.”
She raises her eyebrow. “I bought it a few years back. The original owner was broke and was about to sell it off to an organized crime syndicate. At the time, he was leaning towards The Deviant, so I got very drunk, played an epic game of poker, and won the chance to buy it.” She says that last, like it was so matter of fact.
It strikes me now that this unseen force has affected all of our lives and would have been even worse had she not saved us. Again.
“You did all this for Lena?” Amanda asks.
Alana runs her thumb down the side of her wine glass. “Mastodon’s clients are congressmen, CEOs, and celebrities. A lot of people with influence and power would be at risk if Mastodon went under. Lena wasn’t a client until I bought the company.”
“But I was,” Amanda whispers. “Did you do this for me? Why?”
“They’re dangerous!” Alana rolls her eyes, “I’m not afraid of them, but you should be. And I didn’t want them anywhere near your business.” She sinks back into the couch.
The question that gut-punches me, is still why? She has spent the last ten years protecting everything and everyone I love. What could I possibly give her?
Fuck a duck. Two thumbs of whiskey burn my throat as I throw my head back.
Amanda bends and sets the hammer on the table beside the green box that holds my past. Lena perks up, her eyes light like a gremlin. “Can I?” She looks at Alana, then at me. “I like to smash things.”
“Can you do it on the floor? That table was twenty-five grand,” Craig says.
“If we’re all asking questions here, why did you two break up?” Alana smirks.
Lena slides off the couch and grabs the hammer while Amanda and I exchange glances. It’s the curiosity—and the first flicker of fear—on Craig’s face that makes Amanda speak. She gives me her shy smile. “Oh, we were having sex, and his head was in the wrong place.”
CJ lets out a laugh that sounds more like a honk, and Lena freezes with the hammer poised over her head, stunned. Alana though is out of her seat, leaning over the coffee table to smack me on the leg.
“Grae!” Rage and disappointment blaze in her eyes. “Boundaries! Not everyone is into that, and I know you were raised better than that.”
I rub my leg, which now feels like it’s been stung by ten thousand bees. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Your head was in the wrong place?” she repeats. I still don’t understand, but now CJ is rolling on the floor, laughing. Even Craig, who normally never throws shade, suddenly looks like one of those ancient trees and casts it all over me.