Chapter Forty-Two
Juanita hurried down the dark alley. As hot as it was, she shivered. She hated this damned village. It was creepy. Every lowlife in the city appeared to live here.
Not wanting anyone to see her car at the clinic, she’d parked in the alley. CJ had asked for the key back. She had to be planning something. Probably to look for those lab results.
As soon as Juanita made it to the clinic’s rear entrance, she pulled the ring of keys from her pocket.
Her hand was shaking. The keys hit the ground.
“Dammit.” She picked them up and rammed the key into the lock.
As soon as she had the door open, she hurried inside.
Cost wasn’t supposed to be here for another hour, but he could come earlier. She had to be prepared.
The bastard might think he was going to give her a hard time, but that wasn’t going to happen.
She wasn’t going down without taking him with her.
CJ Patterson could threaten all she wanted. Cost would simply have to deal with her. If it put a big-ass debit in his bank account, well, that was just too bad.
Juanita didn’t have any savings. No stocks, bonds. Nothing. She’d finally managed to buy a decent home for her son. Just last year she’d purchased the first new car she’d owned in her whole life. She wasn’t going to be the one losing here.
Cost should have kept his dick in his pants. The bastard.
She had documented everything. The whole sordid history since he’d become preceptor of the clinics where she worked.
The STD he’d given Shelley three months ago.
The stupid bastard had been whoring around with the hookers on this side of the Parkway for years.
Too egotistical to use a condom every time.
He had access to the clinic records, knew who was clean and who wasn’t.
But that little strategy had failed him.
Still, he’d thought he wouldn’t get caught if he kept his nasty business in the ghetto.
Why would he worry? He’d had Juanita to cover his back.
And the Vicodin. She knew all about that.
He thought he was so smart. He’d kept that part hidden from her.
But she’d figured it out. Did he think she was stupid?
Please. The stuff the pathetic tramps asked for was usually for him.
He paid them big bucks to get prescriptions filled and then give the painkillers to him.
Shelley had never ratted him out, but several others had.
Juanita had gained their confidence. They’d gotten tired of being abused by Cost. Juanita had lent a sympathetic ear.
She had it all documented. Every damned part of it.
He’d called and demanded this meeting, and she was going to show him just how much trouble he was in. CJ Patterson was the least of his worries. If he gave Juanita any grief, he would be sorry as hell. She would go straight to his big-shot grandfather, and his life, as he knew it, would be over.
She knew exactly how afraid he was of his grandfather.
Switching on the lights as she went, she tossed her purse onto her desk and flipped through the pages of the file she’d brought along with her.
A smile tugged at her lips. Boy, was he going to be surprised. He would wish he hadn’t made this appointment with destiny.
A distinct click told her he’d come through the rear exit. Shit. She’d forgotten to lock the door. The bastard was early. As she listened, she heard the dead bolt turn. He’d locked the door behind him.
She smiled. That’s right. Take those precautions now. He should have been doing that way before now.
Her smile slid into a grin. She couldn’t wait to hear him beg. The mere idea was more than enough to make coming to this appointment at this hour worth the trouble of finding a sitter.
She sat down on the edge of her desk and reached into her purse for the gun she’d bought a couple of months ago.
Her neighbor had thought it was a stupid idea.
Never carry a weapon and definitely never pull a weapon on someone unless you plan to use it.
She didn’t know if she could really use it on someone, but she felt safer having it with her.
Feeling pretty damned cocky, she waited for Cost to reach her office. Boy, was he going to get the shock of his life. The whisper of rubber soles on the tiled corridor floor fueled her anticipation.
Carter Cost was about to have his first real wake-up call. An appointment with the destiny he’d been avoiding for a whole decade.
And no amount of threatening to take her son was going to get him out of this one. That threat had always been an empty one, anyway. He wouldn’t have dared let his father and grandfather learn of that little indiscretion.
Her appointment paused before he reached the door. Bracing for the battle, she supposed.
“Come on, you wimp,” she baited. “It’ll only hurt for a minute.”
“Actually . . .”
Her eyes widened as her own appointment with destiny appeared in the door.
“It’s going to hurt a lot longer than that.”