AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CALLUM
Jason Cain called the next day, his voice smooth as silk. “I think you have something of mine, counselor.”
Every muscle fiber in my body tightened up, ready for a fight that I was miles away from and could never have. “I doubt that,” I said, trying to sound as cool and unaffected as he did. “We don’t have the same taste.”
He laughed, amused. “In most areas, I agree with you. But when it comes to Quinn Collins, I think we haveexactlythe same taste.” He paused, and I heard him exhale. The man smoked like a chimney. It was hard to find a picture of him without a cigarette or a vape in his hand. Where was lung cancer when you needed it? When he spoke again, the amusement was gone. “I need my star performer back, counselor.”
I hated the way he thought he owned her, but he sounded different today. The venom that had been in him that night at the club seemed to have dissipated. He wanted her back–not dead. It was an improvement.
“You mean you need money because you’re up to your ass in debt to the wrong people,” I corrected him brutally.
There was a long, heavy silence. He was asking himself how I knew. Who had talked. Who else knew.
“Everyone knows,” I answered his unspoken question. I had no idea if that was true, but if Quinn was right and some pop starlet was blabbing about it in front of her nail technician, it wouldn’t be long before everyone did. “Listen, Jason,” I said, hoping he was off balance enough to be reasonable. “There has to be a way for everyone to win here. You need money, Quinn needs out of her contract.”
“What might that win-win solution be?” he asked sarcastically, his voice like ground up glass. “Are you going to buy her from me, counselor? Is she worth that much to you?”
Yeah, she was, but the problem was, I couldn’t afford to buy out Quinn’s contract. I was doing well for myself, but I didn’t have a cool million in cash to hand over, and that was Jason’s price. “What if she does the private performances, but you aren’t there?” I asked, not bothering to answer his second question.
“I go where she goes.”
Anger worked its way up to my throat, but I swallowed it back. I had a gut feeling that Jason was feeling vulnerable.
“No, you don’t anymore. But if you don’t fuck this up, youmightget one last pay day off of her talent.”
Jason snorted. “Her talent? I’ve got a dozen other girls just as talented who look just as good naked.”
I knew he was saying it to piss me off, and it was working. “Then I guess it won’t be a problem when I get her out of this fucking contract without you getting a dime.”
I heard him turn away from the phone to exhale again. “No,” he said when he came back. “That won’t work. I invested in Quinn. I made her what she is. She owes me.” He sounded almost weary now, instead of diabolical. Whoever he was in debt to must be closing in.
“You don’t have time to make another star,” I said, my voice scraping with sarcasm.
“Time is money, counselor. You know that better than anyone. What are you charging her for this phone call, by the way?”
He knew damn well the answer was nothing, and he laughed at my silence. “I guess if I said, ‘sure, she can do those private performances and I’ll stay home,’ you’d be tagging along to make sure no big bad wolves got your Little Red Riding Hood, wouldn’t you?”
“If she asked me to come, but that’s the difference between you and me.” I fought to sound as relaxed as him. “I don’t think of her as mine. People aren’t possessions.”
“You sound like a real sucker, counselor.” Hetsked. “Too bad for you, Quinn doesn’t like them weak. She might be pissed off at me now, but why do you think she’s been with me this long?”
I bit down on the side of my tongue to keep the blistering response inside. He wanted me to get pissed. He wanted this to come down to a bare-knuckle fight. “You willing to make a deal or not?”
A pause so long that I thought maybe Jason had hung up lingered. Then he drew out the word “Maybe” and let it dangle there for a minute. “Yeah, maybe.” He said again, as if he was double checking how the word sounded. “The thing is–and you might know this already–but I need my money quick. You might say I’m getting desperate.”
He said it like the threat I knew it was. Again, I swallowed my fury. “Nothing slower than a legal battle.”
An exhale. “Yeah. Although I could just–”
“Let me stop you right there.” My voice went hard as steel. “Right now, I’m willing to negotiate. If you fucking threaten her again, that leaves the table.”
I expected him to laugh, but to my surprise, he backed off. “I’ll be in touch.”
“You can–”
But this time, hehadhung up. I was left gripping my phone so tightly my hand was beginning to cramp around it, fury and hope doing a sick tango in my chest. I’d all but confirmed that Quinn was with me. But maybe I’d also found an easy way out of this mess.
Over the next few days, I did my best to avoid Quinn, but it was impossible. She was playing guitar in the living room. She was watching shitty reality TV in the library. She was barefoot in the kitchen, her dark red hair in a messy bun. She was laughing with Renee and coloring with Noah and sometimes I felt hereyes on me. I assume she felt mine on her, though I tried to be surreptitious.
