Hustle Me (12 page)

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?"
 

I picked at my sandwich and contemplated saying something smart, but decided that I was only making my life worse. "I don't know. I guess it has to do with my past. I mean, I lost my parents when I was ten. I was put into the foster system and never really had a permanent home. The places that I lived were terrible and I guess I just put up a wall. When I started college, it was hard for me to interact. For the first time in my life, I felt free of all of it. Then, one day, everything changed. I get this
letter from a lawyer, saying that a father that I didn't even know I had, left me a tavern and a kid to raise."
 

He sat his sandwich down. "Damn, Charlie, that's some crazy shit. You didn't know? Like your mother never told you who your real father was?"
 

I shook my head and kept it down, looking at my food. I couldn't look him in the eye, because thinking that my mother had betrayed me was still hurting me.
 

"So, what made you decide to take it all on? Why not just sell it and have someone else take the kid?"
 

They were all valid questions and for some reason, I wanted to tell him. Talking to someone like this was what a normal person would do. They would communicate. "Well, first, I had to take the on responsibility of my brother because I would never want another child to go through what I did, especially my own sibling. Secondly, I can't sell the bar without the other part owner’s approval and my lawyers can't track him down. My father left me three quarters, but he left this guy, John, the other quarter. I have no idea who he is and, since he isn't around and I didn't have a job, or a place to live, I moved in here and the rest is history."
 

Wow, I just told this stranger my whole life story. What was happening to me?
 

"That explains a lot." Jammer took another bite of his sandwich and looked right at me. "So when you find this guy, will you ask him to sell? I mean, this bar could give you and your brother a future."
 

I got up to grab a soda and grabbed one for Jammer too. Since I only had Cokes, it wasn't like he had a choice. He could have apple juice, milk or Coke and I knew he didn't want the other two. “I don’t really think I want to raise a kid in a bar.”
 

Jammer waved his hands around. “This doesn’t look like a bar to me. In fact, it’s one of the nicest places I’ve been in around here. Sure, there is a business downstairs, but it’s a lucrative business that has been around for a long time. I think  you have everything you need to give your brother a good life.”
 

Maybe I was just being selfish. Was my wanting to sell because I didn’t want the challenge? Maybe giving up was just the easy route. “Whatever. I have to get back downstairs.”
 

“And just like that, she’s back to her old self.” My shoulders fell as I looked down at the floor. He was right.
 

“Look, I didn’t ask you to be my friend.” We couldn’t be friends. It was too dangerous. “I know the company you keep. I’m nothing like those girls you hang out with.”
 

He chuckled and put his hands over his face. “Yeah, maybe that’s why I actually want to be your friend.”
 

“Why? Why are you doing all of this? If it’s to get into my pants, I can assure you that it is never going to happen.”
 

He shocked me when he stood up and approached me. I put my hands on my hips, but didn’t back away. He leaned against a brick pillar separating the living room from the kitchen and crossed his arms. If he was going to continue staying here, he had to start wearing a shirt. “Yeah, you keep saying that, but I can’t decide who is looking at who more.”
 

“I have a boyfriend.” Okay, it was a lie, but Zach would be my boyfriend to ward off Jammer, if I asked him to.
 

“Why hasn’t he offered to help you? Have you even told him that you have another guy staying at your place?” I hated that he just stood there looking at me with his arms folded. He was clenching his jaw waiting for me to answer.
 

“No, I haven’t told him. He’s busy at school.”
 

“If you really want my help, I suggest you tell him about me staying here. I’d hate for him to walk in on me being here and get the wrong idea about us, because you have assured me that you would never be with someone like me.” The way he said it was sarcastic. I tried not to smile, but it came out anyway.
 

“You can keep taunting all you want. Unless you do laundry, you’re never going to see my panties.” I put my hands on my hips. I meant what I said, but the whole time, I was wondering how he looked in just a pair of underwear. Then I started thinking about if he wore boxers or briefs. Then I pictured them hanging low as he bent over.
 

Suddenly, I realized I was staring and when he started  waving his hand in front of me. “Earth to Charlie.”
 

“Sorry, I was…um…I was just thinking about something. I gotta go. See you around six.”
 

I rushed out of the apartment before he could say anything else. Why was this happening to me? One minute I was telling him things I didn’t tell anyone, the next I was imagining him taking off his clothes.
 

I didn’t like him.
 

I couldn’t like him.
 

But…he was so damn sexy.
 

When I got back downstairs, a few new patrons had come into the bar. Shaun was up front, but looked like he was relieved I was back. I threw myself into the customers and, in my free time, I started scrubbing down the baseboards. Jammer was just upstairs, probably naked in the shower.
 

I didn’t understand how I was thinking so much about a guy that I knew nothing about. I’d told him all about me, but he’d offered nothing about himself. If he was a serial killer, I hoped he would kill me when I was asleep.
 

NO! He protected me
.  
 

Still, he must have secrets. Some kind of secrets that he wouldn’t want me to know. Why didn’t he live anywhere? What kind of person drives from city to city and has no place to call home?
 

Maybe he was going through my underwear drawer. Maybe he was some kind of freaky cross dresser. That would definitely make him less sexy. Yeah, he has to be a cross dresser. A harmless, weirdo cross dresser.
 

Chapter 14
 

Jammer
 

I don’t know how long I stared at that picture. Charlie felt betrayed by everyone she loved and now I was starting to realize that maybe she wasn’t the only one who had been lied to. Joker knew my name. He knew who my parents were and never mentioned that to me. In the picture, they appeared to be friends. This couldn’t be fucking happening.
 

Six o’clock came fast and I was showering quickly to be downstairs before I had to hear Charlie’s shit. Since I’d offered to help her, and not really asked for anything except a bed to sleep in, I didn’t feel like pissing her off any more than she already was. Honestly, there was something about her that was different and I liked it. She didn’t choose the terrible upbringing she had. Charlie was a victim in all of this.
 

Still, after finding the picture and hearing what she had to say at lunch, there was no way that I could tell her my real name. Aside from lying about it at first, now I was even more involved. Clearly, I needed to get to the bottom of things before I told her
anything else. Maybe it was a coincidence that Joker and my father were in that picture, but the fact that it was in his album was enough for me to wonder what was going on.
 

My hair was still wet when I got downstairs and since Tippy hadn’t brought me my bag of clothes, I had to wear what I had on the night before. Luckily, Charlie hadn’t cleaned out the cabinet under the sink. After five years, some of my things were still lingering around. I found an old bottle of cologne and sprayed just enough to freshen up. Even though I found some of my old clothes, they needed to be washed and I couldn’t tell her where I had found them.
 

I headed downstairs and saw her at the bar. She was on the phone and signing a work order for a beer vendor. I think I almost saw a smile lingering on the corner of her lip when she spotted me.
 

I walked right up to her, just as the beer guy was leaving. “Hey, you’re just in time. Shaun just left for the day and no new customers have come in for dinner.”
 

I looked around and noticed that it was pretty quiet. "Are you expecting a big crowd tonight?"
 

She shook her head. "It's usually really slow during the week, but there is pool league tonight. They drink a lot and order food. Normally they don't come in until around seven. Do you want me to show you around, so you know where everything is?"
 

I kept forgetting that she didn't know I’d been here before. "Yeah, that would probably be helpful."
 

For the next twenty minutes I followed Charlie all around the bar while she told me where I could find everything, and I’m glad she did, because some things were different than I remembered. As I listened to her talking, I couldn't help but check her out. Everything about the girl was hot. Boyfriend or not, I wanted to see her naked. She bent over in front of me to pick up a pen and her ass was all up in my face. I licked my lips and tried to gain composure when she turned around to face me. "So, you think you can handle it?"
 

Oh, I could handle it alright...I could do more than handle it. I could make her forget all about that boyfriend. If I was going to have to stick around, I may as well take advantage of the perks. Charlie was definitely a perk.
 

"Yeah, I think I will survive."
 

I felt something grab at my leg and I jerked back, but it was just the kid hiding under the counter. "Where did you come from?"
 

"He likes to hide under there. Apparently he did it before I met him." Charlie giggled and handed her brother a cookie. "Ry, you need to stay out of Jammer's way. He's going to be helping us until we can find someone else."
 

He poked his head out and looked at me. "You mean he can't stay forever?"
 

She squatted down in front of him. "He's just here to help me until I can find someone else. Jammer can't stay forever. He has a life."