7. Iris
Iris
Jackson wasn’t home yet, even though dusk darkened the sky. Something must have come up at his work, because he picked me up from my work, dropped me here, and left again with barely a word.
I’d tried to tell him I could drive myself, but he’d flatly refused. Apparently that was still a no-go.
So what if I’d accidentally grabbed a vegan heavy cream at the store instead of the real thing, and the sauce had turned out a little sweet? It was still edible.
Okay, so maybe Jackson was the better cook.
For a moment, I let myself imagine how it could be between us. Him cooking, me cleaning. We could split all the home maintenance since we were both capable there—as long as he didn’t nitpick about which hardware brands I chose—then cuddle on the couch afterward.
I’d just plated up dinner and stuck the plates in a warming drawer when my phone rang with the special tone that had me jumping out of my skin to answer it.
“Travis!” I screamed as his face popped up on my phone. Even through the terrible video quality, his familiar face was clear enough for me to discern all planes and angles and short-cropped dark hair.
“Iris!” He imitated my tone with a teasing wink.
“You called! You said you’d be out of reach for another three weeks!”
“The boat needed maintenance, so we’re in port right now. I figured I’d call and check on you.” He eyed me. “Why are you in Jackson’s kitchen?”
“Um.” I glanced around, wondering if or how much to tell him.
“What the hell, Iris? Why are you in Jackson’s kitchen right now?” He raised his voice. “Jackson?”
“He’s not home yet.”
“Something you need to tell me?” Travis’s skeptical look intensified.
“Mom came into town and is being weird and kind of scary, so I’m staying with Jackson for a few days,” I blurted out.
“Mom what? When?” He cursed. “Where the hell is Jackson?”
“I told you, he’s still at work. She came into town Friday night, I think, and she wanted money, and she wouldn’t go away when I told her to. And, um…” I gave him a quick rundown of everything that had happened with Mom, then had to back up and give him every single detail.
“So now you’re staying at Jackson’s place. And cooking for him,” he said when he finished his interrogation.
I put my free hand on my hip. “How do you know I’m cooking for him?”
“You’re wearing his apron.” He squinted. “He’s eating your food?”
“Of course.” I pursed my lips, pretending I didn’t remember all the times Travis had razzed me about my cooking.
He grimaced and muttered something under his breath.
“I’m just trying to make myself useful while I’m stuck here.”
“Suuure. Look, Jackson will take care of Sue. He knows what to do, so stay put and do whatever he says.”
My back straightened, something disquieting prickling across my skin. “What do you mean he knows what to do?”
Guilt flitted across Travis’s face. “Nothing. Jackson knows how to handle himself, that’s all. Look, if you’re together—”
“We’re not together!” We hadn’t talked about anything serious, despite my little daydreams, and I didn’t want to involve Travis unless it was serious.
The front door creaked open. “Oh, wow, Jackson just got home. Want to talk to him?” There was more than one way to skin a cat. And these particular cats were always chattier with each other than with me.
“Um, fuck yes I do.”
I handed the phone over.
Jackson’s face tightened when he recognized Travis. “Hey,” he said as he went into the bedroom and shut the door.
I knelt down and listened at the keyhole. It was amazing how much someone could learn if she was willing to be quiet and wait.
“What the hell, dude?” Travis said.
“What?” Jackson sounded confused.
“You didn’t even try to get in touch to tell me Sue was back in town.”
“I left a message with your boss. He didn’t give it to you? He said you were in the middle of some major repair.” The mattress creaked. Jackson must have sat down on the bed.
My chest tightened at the confirmation that these two assholes were working together, talking about my life behind my back and locking me out of the conversation like I was a child.
“He must have forgotten,” Travis grumbled. “How much does she want this time?”
“Twenty grand.” Jackson sounded angry now, his voice hard.
Travis let out a low whistle. “That’s what Iris said. Sue didn’t hit you up already, did she?”
“Nah. I haven’t seen hide nor hair of her. Trust me, shit would already be solved if I had.”
“Weird. She usually comes right to one of us.”
My chest constricted so much that I struggled to breathe as I tried to put the pieces together. I didn’t like the picture they made.
“I know,” Jackson said. “That plus the huge amount is freaking me out. Iris told you she was asking after the house, too?”
“Yeah. She must be in deep to someone.”
“That’s what I figure, which means she needs to take her mess as far away from here as possible. I’m trying to find her as fast as I can while keeping Iris safe.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from yelling at them that I could take care of myself.
“Safe? Is that what they’re calling it?” Travis asked, a smirk in his voice.
“It’s not like that.”
Travis laughed. “Isn’t it? ’Cause you’re eating her terrible cooking, and she’s been all starry-eyed over you since she was a teenager.”
I cringed, wondering if it was possible for this conversation to get any worse.
“Nothing you need to know about is happening between me and your sister.” Jackson said each word stiffly.
And there it was. Humiliation and betrayal swirled together inside me, creating a potent, angry mix that had me leaping to my feet and reaching for the door handle.
Travis scoffed. “Whatever, man. I gotta go anyway. They only gave me ten minutes for a phone call.”
I stormed inside. “What the fuck, Jackson?”
He leapt off the bed. “How much of that did you overhear?”
“All of it.”
“I can explain—”
“Which part? That you and Travis have some kind of agreement to pay Mom off every time she shows up?” I crossed my arms and glared at him. “I got that part. How many times have you done it?”
“Please just—”
“How. Many. Times.”
“Including after your dad’s funeral?” He winced. “Four.”
“That was you two?” My vision blacked out around the edges. I didn’t know it was possible to be this angry. This whole time, I’d thought she disappeared because that was the kind of person she was and maybe she’d never change, but apparently she’d had outside “help.”
“Yeah, Iris, that was us.” He sighed, looking defeated. “Travis overheard your mom talking about how she was going to clean the place out before she skipped town, so we got ahead of her.”
“You could have sent her to rehab!” I snapped. She’d been grieving; she’d needed help.
“We offered to. I wasn’t there every time, but when I was, she always had two options: rehab or leave. Give me some credit.”
My shoulders relaxed the smallest fraction. “And what about all that business about the house? Do you know what she was talking about? Does she have a claim on my house, and you and Travis have been keeping that from me, too?”
“No! I mean, yes, I know what happened back then, but no, she doesn’t have a claim. I don’t know why she’s bringing it up out of nowhere.”
I looked him over. The tight jaw, the sincere look in his eyes. Once, I’d have said Jackson wouldn’t lie to me, that I could spot it a mile away, but I couldn’t say that anymore, could I? “You knew how much it hurt me when she left, and you and Travis went behind my back and kicked her out anyway.”
“It hurt you when she stayed, too.” Jackson paced back and forth in the tiny bedroom. “I don’t know what Travis’s reasons were, but I always got rid of her before you saw her because you were a wreck every time she rolled into town and then again when she disappeared.”
“And that gives you the right to lie to me?”
He paused, eyes fixed on the floor. “I was going to tell you today.”
“Oh, so today, after we have sex, is the day you decide to stop lying to me after eight years?” I reached for the nearest object to throw at his head. It was a pillow. How unsatisfying.
He didn’t even try to stop it from hitting him in the face. Maybe because it bounced ineffectually off his cheek. Double unsatisfying.
Turning on my heel, I ignored Jackson screaming my name as I stormed out of the house.
It wasn’t a far walk to Savannah’s place.
Tanner would pitch a fit about me coming over so late, but Savannah wouldn’t mind.
I’d kept her up to date on everything via text, and she’d understand if I needed to cool off before I strangled Jackson.
What I wouldn’t give to head over to my own place, maybe cuddle up with my orange fluff ball, but after that confrontation with my mom yesterday, I didn’t want to go anywhere she might look for me.
A crinkling through dry leaves had me jerking my head around. “Jackson? That better not be you. I swear to god, if I see you between now and tomorrow morning, I can’t be held responsible for my actions.”
Then a burst of pain lit up the side of my skull, and everything went black.
I woke up with a raging headache. The only thing keeping me upright was the ratty chair I was tied to, in the ratty living room of a ratty flophouse.
I blinked a few times until my mom and her shitbag boyfriend Joel came into focus, both leaning over me. Mom’s dark hair was pulled back in a stringy bun; Joel’s hung around his face. Both their pupils were wide as saucers.
“Told you, twenty-four hours,” Mom muttered under her breath, which stank to high heaven.
I glared at her. It’d been a bit more than that since our last meeting. I should have stayed in the damn house, no matter how mad I was at Jackson.
“There, see?” Joel said. “She’s fine.”
“She’s bleeding.” My mom tsked. “She won’t give us nothing now that you roughed her up.”
Joel snorted and backed up a pace. He couldn’t stand still, every move jittery. “She don’t have nothing to give us. Besides, we can make twenty grand off her in a week or two, and then our problems are solved.”
A pit opened in my stomach as their meaning sank in. “I’ll bite the first guy’s cock off.”
Joel slapped me across the face, and the metallic taste of blood hit my tongue. He must have split my lip, but I barely felt the pain. Fear and adrenaline took up too much space.
Mom cut me a derisive look, then turned it on Joel. “I told you, she’s not gonna go easy.”
“We’ll tell ’em not to use her mouth.” Joel stuffed a wad of cloth in my mouth. It tasted like old socks and grease, and I tried not to gag, afraid I would somehow swallow some of the filth if I did.
Sue shook her head. This woman didn’t have the right to call herself my mom anymore.
Not with the kinds of plans they were making.
“If you’d been patient, let me work on her a bit, we could have gotten her to hand over the money, no loose ends.
Now you’re going to make a big ole mess ’cause you wanted it quick. ”
While they argued, I tried to think through the pounding in my head.
No one knew where I was. That pit in my stomach got deeper, like the floor opened up just for my guts, but didn’t have the mercy to take the rest of me.
I’d left Jackson’s house in a rage, so he didn’t even know to come looking for me.
And why would he? He’d been trying to protect me from this horrible woman for years, and I hadn’t even bothered to hear him out.
It was up to me to save myself. Surreptitiously, I tested the rope on my wrists, which were bound behind me. Hopefully they’d been too high to tie me up well.
“Not about want, bitch.” Joel flung the insult casually, the way another man might say baby.
“It’s about need. We don’t pay off Domino soon, it’ll be you on your back.
” He swept an appraising look up and down her body.
“Only it’s gonna take you a lot longer than a week.
Besides, you weren’t getting anywhere with her. You lose your temper too quickly.”
The rope had a little give. Enough to start loosening the knots. The knots weren’t great—Joel must not have been a Boy Scout. I thought I could get them loose in another ten minutes without them noticing, as long as they kept arguing.
Shouldn’t be too hard. Sue liked to argue, especially when she was high.
Even now, she bristled. “I’m not the one that got us into this mess, Joel! Maybe it’s your ass that should get whored out!”
“No one would pay for that,” Joel said, upper lip curling.
He turned back to me, and I froze. “So this one,” he stuck his finger in my face, “is going to get us out of trouble. First guy will be here in five minutes.”
Rustling sounded from outside. Not heavy footfalls, but something or someone was out there. Shit. Guess he showed up early. It’s now or never.