Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Where are you going?” I laughed as she swerved around another car.
“The mall.” She swerved again and I slammed against the door, making me laugh again.
“Why the mall?”
“Because I have an idea.” She pulled into the mall parking lot and picked a spot to park.
“About what?” I looked around confused. “Mom, I don’t really have a lot of time here.” I checked my watch. “I have a kid to feed.” I paused. “That’s a weird thing to say now.”
She laughed. “It’s weird to hear. But I swear we are here for a reason.”
“And what’s the reason?”
“We are here to get things we need.” She hopped out, and I followed. “Has Toya messaged yet?” I checked my phone, then shook my head. “That’s alright. We can figure it all out.”
I was so confused. “Okay…” I just followed.
We headed inside, and moved to the first store. She went around and grabbed a shirt and a pair of jogging pants. She held them up to my body and then nodded. “These will work.”
Then went to the cashier. “Did you find everything you needed?” The girl asked with a bright smile.
My mom smiled back. “We did. Can we get your biggest bag, please?”
The girl frowned for a second. Then she nodded. “Of course.” She grabbed the biggest bag and put the sweat suit inside and handed it over after I paid. “Have a great day!” She waved the next person over as we walked away.
We turned and left. But she started towards another store, a giant bag in tow. “Why did you get such a big bag?” I looked down at the bag and she smiled.
“It’s for groceries.” She wiggled the bag in front of me like what she said made perfect sense.
I stopped dead. “What the hell are you talking about?”
She laughed. “Morgan and Shannon are obviously watching you for Vince. Shannon specifically. She is trying to get back in his good graces ever since he found out Morgan had been pushing people around for her. So she’ll sell you out faster than you can think.
If she sees a ton of food going into your room, she will have questions.
And she’ll whisper everything she sees to Vince.
We have to be smart about it.” She jiggled the bag.
“This way, we can sneak most of your groceries past them like its clothing. You buying a lot of high end clothing wouldn’t raise any red flags, just her jealousy.
If we keep the snacks on top, and then hide the rest we should be fine” She opened the bag and wiggled it again. “We can fit a lot of things in here.”
I looked from her to the bag and then laughed. “You’re a genius.” I bumped her hip, and she chuckled.
“I know.” She winked as she kept walking.
“Let’s shop.” We went through store after store, grabbing bags and random things.
But I came to a stop in front of one toy store.
My mom kept walking for a few steps before she stopped and turned around.
“Babe? What’s up?” She came back and turned to the store.
“What do you want from a teddy building store?”
I bit my lip. “Do you think spirits can be heard by technology?” I looked at her and she frowned.
“I don’t honestly know why?”
“Because I think this place has an insert where you can record a voice…”
She frowned, but I saw when she figured out where I was going. “You want to see if you can record Carl’s voice into a teddy bear for Carly?”
I nodded. “But I don’t know if it will work.” My mother looked around and pointed down the washroom hallway. “What?”
“There is only one way to find out.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me down the hallway until we walked past the washrooms and out a back door, which she put a bag in to keep the door from locking us out. “Call him.”
“But I don’t have the insert.”
“Babe… they use phone calls and voicemails all the time. Call him, record him on your phone to see if it works and then, if it does, we replay it in the store. Bingo, bango we have a teddy bear for Carly.”
I laughed. “Bingo bango? Seriously?”
“Just do it.”
“Fine.” I laughed again and closed my eyes. “Grandma, I need Carl here to try something for Carly.”
“What’s wrong?” Carl sounded a little panicked. I opened my eyes to see him look around. “You called me to an alley?” He looked confused as he focused on me.
I shook my head. “I want to try something.”
“What?”
I pulled out my phone and held it out to him. “I want to see if your voice will register on my phone for a teddy bear for Carly.”
His face fell. “I don’t think it will, Amy.”
“Can we try?” I clicked on the voice recording app I had. “If it doesn’t work, fine, but if it does.” He closed his eyes, but then nodded.
“Of course.” He sighed and stepped closer.
Two hours later, we were pulling back into the driveway and I was exhausted. I was running on a few hours of sleep and breakfast was my last meal. I was hungry and annoyed at everything.
We parked, and I heard a door open, and I wanted to cry. “No.”
My mom looked over her shoulder and I saw her slump. “Deal with this now, or else you won’t have peace.”
I sighed as I hopped out. “Hey Brandon.” I looked at his father. “Alpha Vince.” I turned to my mom. “Do you need my mom?”
Vince shook his head. “No, we are here to talk to you.” He looked at my mom. “Hey Ainsley.” She nodded.
“Hey Vince.” She opened the back door.
“Mom, you can just drop everything inside.” I walked over to hand her my key, but she smiled and jingled her own. I just nodded and turned back to Vince. “What’s up?”
He looked over the bags my mom was bringing into the house. “You went shopping?”
I nodded and smiled. “I haven’t been able to have a shopping date with my mom for a few years. We figured we would do it today.”
Vince smiled. “Toya already gone?”
I knew he was fishing, but I just nodded. “Yeah, we dropped Lynn and Toya at the airport.”
He nodded. “They were able to get a flight that fast?” He looked at Brandon, but I just laughed.
“Goddess no. I called my dad’s jet over.
” I laughed. “I guess it’s my jet now.” My mom came back out for another few bags.
“It’s weird thinking that everything that was my dad’s is now mine.
” I shook my head. “When I was at school, it didn’t matter since we were stuck on campus, but now…
” I sighed. “Anyway. What can I do for you?”
My mom walked away with a Dior bag out front, catching Vince’s eye. “Dior? Oh, you went on a nice little spree, didn’t you?”
I laughed. “Yeah. There is really no reason not to.” I turned back to them. “Do you want to come in for dinner? My mom was about to cook.” Brandon smiled and stepped forward.
But Vince put out a hand. “We are just here to follow up on the position we offered you.”
I furrowed my brow. “I’m sorry…”
Brandon smiled. “The one in the letter?” He paused and looked at his dad.
Vince stepped forward. “Yes. I was going to talk to you earlier, but after everything that happened earlier, we waited.” He handed me a folder. “Here.”
I accepted it with a smile. “Thank you.” I opened it and read the letter there. It was an entry-level job offer for the security team. “Wow.” I looked up. “This is generous”
Vince nodded, but Brandon nodded. He stepped next to me, reading over my shoulder.
“I know you don’t need to work, but after going to school for it, I thought you would want to use your skills.
” He pointed to the letter. “The salary isn’t the best, but you would get an office in the pack house.
And you would work under Rick. He is the genius behind our firewall. ”
I smiled up at him. “That would be amazing.” He leaned in and for a split second, I thought he was going to kiss me.
“Well, that’s settled.” Vince interrupted, jolting Bradon backward. “If you’re settled in back here, you can meet Brandon in the morning at the pack house around eight.” He turned around and headed back to the car. “Brandon,” He called back. “Let’s leave Amy to settle. She has bags to unpack.”
Brandon sighed, but pulled away. “I’ll see you in the morning?”
I nodded. “See you tomorrow.” My mom came out for another load of bags. I waved and then helped her with the last of the stuff. I heard the car door slam as we headed inside. We had barely made it into the living room before Shannon was running past us outside.
“Hey Brandon.” She called, but we heard the car pull away right after. I followed my mother up the stairs, and we had made it to my room door, before Shannon came running up the stairs. “Why was Brandon here?” She shrieked as she came storming up to us.
I dropped my head back with a groan. “Why are you yelling?”
“Why was Brandon here?” She screamed again.
My mom, the saint, went into the room and dropped her bags, then came and got mine. I leveled Shannon with a look. “Why does it matter?”
“It fucking matters. Why was he here?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Vince offered me a job at the pack house. Brandon is going to meet me in the morning to show me to my office.” I leveled her with another look.
“But it doesn’t actually matter, Shannon.
You don’t care why they were here. You care more about Brandon and me having a relationship than you do anything else.
” I watched her face tighten. “So I might as well tell you.”
“Amy. Don’t.” My mother tried to stop me, but I kept my eyes on Shannon.
“You don’t care what I do. Just who Brandon is with.” Shannon’s eyes darkened. “But it doesn’t matter because Brandon already asked me to be his Luna.”