Page 139 of Demo
“You need a little distraction, baby?” Marcus piped up from beside me, and I felt his hand on my knee.
I immediately pulled away and bit out, “Get the fuck off of me, you disgusting prick.” I heard him chuckle in response, and I felt the puke rising.
Knox spotted the mini-mart and pulled a hard left, cutting someone off, and a horn blared obnoxiously. He slid into a parking spot and slammed on the brakes so hard we all flew forward, including Vin in the back.
“The fuck, man!” I heard him yell.
“You, stay here,” Marcus said to me, then looked past me to Knox. “I’m coming in with you.”
Both men opened their doors and exited the vehicle, and as Knox went to shut his door I began to scoot out. “Jenny, just stay—” but he didn’t get to finish his sentence because just as I got out of the door I leaned over and vomited.
“Shit,” he said, but I just waved him away.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Just dizzy. Just, go get him his damn money.”
Knox paused a beat and then turned on his heel and followed Marcus into the building. I spat and wiped my mouth, then turned and saw Vin staring at me. We glared at each other, and I got back in the truck.
I could only imagine Marcus was in there trying to drain Knox’s bank account. It was likely that his savings account was attached to his debit card, and I hoped Marcus was too stupid to think of that, but was sure we wouldn’t be that lucky.
I swore to God I would pay Knox back every cent.
After what seemed like an eternity, they came back outside and got back in the truck. I looked at Knox, but he wouldn’t return my gaze. He threw the truck into reverse, backed up, switched gears without even coming to a complete stop—causing the transmission to grind—and then he peeled back onto the street. We were all silent on the quick ride back to Marcus’ place.
Knox pulled up in a rush, with the passenger side tires climbing up onto the curb, then came to another jarring stop. “Get the fuck out,” he grit out through his teeth.
Marcus laughed as he slowly opened the door and hopped out, and Vin jumped over the side of the truck bed. “Pleasure doing business with you,” Marcus said, then made a kiss sound at me before shutting the door.
Knox waited zero seconds before peeling away. He didn’t even look to see if there were any cars coming up behind him. He just got the fuck out of there.
We were quiet as he made a few turns, then suddenly he pulled over on a side street and shut off the car. He ran his hands through his hair and clasped them behind his head as he leaned it against the steering wheel. He was shaking.
“Are you OK?” he asked in a ragged voice.
“I’m fine,” I said quickly. “I’m so sorry, Knox. I’m going to pay you back. How much did he take?”
He let out an insincere laugh and then ran his hands down his face.
“Knox, how much?”
He blew a breath out through his nose, long and slow. “Three grand. Each. He took three grand out of my checking account and three grand out of my savings. No, ours.Mine and Lizzie’s. He took three grand out ofourchecking andoursavings. Thank God for withdrawal limits or he would have drained our savings.” He huffed. “We never keep that much in our checking account, but I just finished a side job and had a big check deposited.”
“Knox, I’ll have money wired tomorrow. I—”
“FUCK!” he bellowed and punched the steering wheel, then he turned at me, murderous rage in his eyes. “What the fuck, Jenny? What were you doing?” I was full-on ugly crying. “How did you even end up there? I thought you gave all that up?”
“I did!” I yelled. “I swear I haven’t touched anything other than alcohol and pot in over a year. I don’t know what happened. I just ran into him, and we were chatting and—shit, I don’t know, Knox. I just … I always fuck everything up.”
“That you do,” he spit through his teeth, and damn did it hurt, but I deserved it.
Knox ran his hands through his hair again. “I’m gonna have to come up with a lie to tell Lizzie. She sees the bank account activity. She’s going to wonder why the fuck I took out six thousand dollars. And money from both our checking and our savings account. Our savings, Jenny! We’ve been saving up to put money into the house.”
A few silent seconds passed before I whispered, “Don’t lie to her, Knox. Tell her the truth. Tell her it’s all my fault. Tell her you won’t even be friends with me anymore. I deserve that.”
“I can’t tell her,” he said, shaking his head. “This was all supposed to be in the past, and it’ll break her fucking heart. She doesn’t deserve it.” Some more silence passed between us before Knox asked, “Where did you leave your car?”
I told him, and he started the truck up again, then pulled out into the street. He was deep in thought, and all I could think about was what a selfish bitch I was and how I ruin everything. I didn’t deserve his friendship, and I didn’t deserve Lizzie’s, either.
We came to a stop sign, and Knox looked both ways, then headed right. I kept looking at Knox, whose gaze was straight ahead, but I could tell he was elsewhere. Then occasionally I looked at our surroundings, sometimes seeing a random person or couple walking down the sidewalk, or a car passing. I saw lights on inside some of the houses and apartments, and I wondered what the occupants were doing. Maybe they were watchingWheel of Fortune.
