Hustle Me (Bank Shot Romance #1)(21)
Author: Jennifer Foor

"Whatever. If you’re going to be working nights, then we don’t have to see much of each other. I mean, I will still work the kitchen from six to ten, but other than that, we can steer clear of one another."

"I was thinking we’d be inseparable and spend every second together." She looked annoyed at my comment, as usual.

Ryan came walking out of the bedroom. He had on a Spiderman shirt and jeans. Charlie gave me one more dirty look before taking him into the hall bathroom and getting him cleaned up. When they came out, his hair was combed. Charlie grabbed his bag and walked him outside, but came right back inside. "You’re not going to steal anything are you?"

I stuck my mug in the sink and leaned against the countertop. "I was thinking of stealing all of your underwear and climbing out the window, since you would see me leaving the other way."

She growled something under her breath and walked out again.

I knew I was driving her crazy, but I loved it. She got so mad over the smallest things. Once twenty good minutes went by and she hadn’t come back, I sat down on the couch and started watching television. My phone kept going off in my room, but I knew it was Tippy asking if I tapped Charlie. I wasn’t about to brag about moving into her place, where I’d probably never get pu**y at all. I must have fallen back asleep, because the house phone rang and woke me up. Since I probably wasn’t supposed to be living here, I didn’t answer it. I had no idea she’d still have Joker’s old answering machine hooked up. Her voice filled the room and then a loud beep. "Charlene, this is Roger Simmons from the attorney’s office. I am just calling to check in and let you know that we still haven’t located John Thomas. I know you were hoping to have the tavern sold by now. We will keep looking and keep you posted if something changes." The machine beeped again before turning off.

What the hell were they looking for me for and why would she ever want to sell her family’s bar. They built this from nothing. I needed to know how I was involved in all of this. I didn’t need to know all the details to understand that she needed me to sell the place. Little did she know that John Thomas was closer than she could ever imagine. Too bad she wasn’t going to find out.

I got myself cleaned up and answered Tippy’s messages. He said Jaye was pissed and I really didn’t care if I ever saw the chick again. Any woman that easy needed to understand that she probably wasn’t going to get a call back.

Tippy agreed to let me leave my car at his place, but drop off my bag of clothes. I’d left a bunch of shit at Joker’s place when I moved out and figured that it was probably somewhere in a box. I didn’t want Charlie to catch me, so I waited for the lunch rush before climbing in the attic. Sure enough, a box with the name Jammer sat in a corner. I went through the box and grabbed some items that weren’t totally out of style. Before climbing back down the stairs, I decided to hide the box, in case Charlie ever came up here looking. I hid it in the far corner and noticed a box of old photo albums. Since I missed my old friend, I started looking through them.

I recognized Joker, but the photos were from when he was younger, maybe even his early twenties. I was almost through the album before I got to a photo that changed everything I’d ever known about Joker. He was standing in front of a pool table with his arm around my father. My mother stood on the other side with another female. I pulled the picture out of the album and put it back where it was. I couldn’t believe this. I’d talked about my father and the kind of guy he was. How could Joker have known him the whole time and never tell me? When I got downstairs, I went into the guest room and pulled out the picture again. Sure enough, my parents stood there with Joker.

I knew at that second that there was no way I could walk away from helping Charlie until I got to the bottom of this next puzzle. Since my father obviously knew Joker, there had to be a reason he was trying to scare Charlie out of the bar. This had gone from me being a nice person, to me having a vendetta against my family. Whatever this was, I was going to end it.

Chapter 13

Charlie

I had caked on so much makeup that my face was literally stuck in one position. The black eyes were still noticeable. I just wanted to take the day off and sulk in my bathtub. Except, I had an unexpected roommate and, as much as I didn’t want him there, I was so desperate to have the help.

On our way down the stairs, Ryan went on and on about Jammer. For some reason, my little brother liked him. I grabbed him a muffin on the way to his preschool bus and he only stopped talking while he ate it.

It was easy to wear sunglasses outside, but when I went back into the bar, it was too dark to pull it off. Shaun came in, and right away, wanted to know what had happened to me. Since it was still recent, I found it hard to explain. If Jammer wouldn’t have been there, I could have been lying dead in that alley after being raped and beaten to death. I really owed him and I hadn’t exactly been very nice.

Once the lunch rush was over and the crowd died down to less than two patrons, I told Shaun I had to take to a break for a few minutes. Part of me hoped that I would find Jammer going through my shit so I could kick him out, but the other part was praying that I didn’t have to do that. I might not have liked him very much, and he probably didn’t like me at all, but I had to make this work, until I knew that me and my brother were going to be safe.

I walked into the place and found Jammer in the kitchen. His back was facing me and I saw even more tattoos. This time I caught myself before he could catch me watching him. I cleared my throat and slid a wrapped up steak sub across the counter, that I had Shaun make before I took my break. "You hungry?"

"Depends what you brought me. Is it poisoned?"

I laughed. He would think that after the bitch I’d been. "It’s not poisoned. I brought it as a peace offering."

He raised an eyebrow and I could tell he was skeptical about accepting my way of apologizing. Since I’d always had problems with opening up to people, it was even harder for me to admit when I was wrong.

"What brought this on?" He asked.

I opened the plastic and separated the sub into two pieces. Surprisingly, Jammer reached up into the cabinet and grabbed two plates. I guess he had looked for them when he tried to cook Ry breakfast. I sat half on his plate and half on mine, then walked over to the fridge. "Fighting with you is pointless. I obviously am in way over my head. Now, I have someone trying to physically assault me. I need all the help I can get and if I expect you to hang around, I’m going to have to stop being a bitch about everything."

After putting mayonnaise and ketchup on my sub, I sat at the kitchen island and started eating. Jammer put the same thing on his and leaned across from me, eating while he stood. "What’s your story anyway? Why are you so uptight?"