Hustle Me (20 page)

For the past month we’d been through so many boxes of condoms, that we started using the pull out method. Yeah, it sucked ass for me, because after feeling what it was like to ride
her bareback and fill her, it was the last thing I liked to do. Still, neither of us were in a position to be responsible for yet another child, so I really tried to be careful.
 

Charlie had started on the pill and we were almost to the point where we were safe from getting pregnant. Our pace matched as I continued to thrust my cock into her wet pussy. Charlie dug her nails into my ass, so I pumped her harder. I watched her closing her eyes and smiling. She was all against kissing without brushing her teeth, but I couldn’t come without feeling her tongue touching mine. I leaned down and violated her lips until her warm tongue brushed over mine. The pressure began to build up and just at the right moment I pulled out.
 

My hot release shot all over her stomach and breasts. I thought she’d be pissed but she started laughing. “Looks like you’re going to have to wash me off again.”
 

“I will never complain about that job.” I kissed her one more time before pulling her into the bathroom with me.
 

Later, while Charlie was out dealing with Ryan, I decided to take the first step in contacting my parents. I'd no sooner dialed my parent’s business line, when I heard Charlie on the phone in
the kitchen. She was crying, so I hung up from my call before anyone could answer. I rushed to her side, pulled her into the bedroom and sat down on the bed next to her until she hung up. "What's the matter?"
 

She tossed her phone on the bed and looked up at me with tear filled eyes. "Not only have they still not been able to find the John guy, but I just found out that there is a fifty thousand dollar lien that's been put on the property. It seems that my father failed to pay a loan he took out years ago. Apparently, the loan expired and now the loaning company is wanting the payment in full. I have thirty days to come up with the cash or I might lose everything. What the hell am I going to do Jammer? I don't have that kind of money. I have no job experience and a little kid to support."
 

I felt sick knowing that the loan shark was my fucking father. I was going to have to tell Charlie the truth. There was no way around this any longer. "We'll figure something out. Look, I know the timing is terrible, but I might know someone that can help us. Will you be okay for a couple hours?"
 

"Jammer, you don't have to help me. This is my problem, not yours."
 

I grabbed her hand and kissed it. "You must think I'm a real asshole."
 

She looked confused. "What are you talking about?"
 

"Charlie, I'm not going to want to stop being a part of your life just because things go wrong. These past few weeks have been fanfuckingtastic. Let me help you."
 

"How are you going to help me? I mean, it isn't like you have a job besides helping me out. Just face it, I'm going to lose the tavern." She buried her hands into her face again and started back up with her sobs.
 

I had to fix this. "I don't expect you to trust me yet, but I need you to give me a few hours, Charlie. I will explain everything when I get back, I promise."
 

I kissed her head and walked out of the room. I felt like shit for leaving her to cry all alone, but this couldn't wait any longer. I'd prolonged the inevitable for too long and now the ground was falling apart underneath of us. I'd already run from my father once, I wasn't going to let him fuck with my life again.
 

The drive to my parents wasn't long enough to wrap my mind around what I wanted to say. If my father's schedule was anything like it was six years ago, he would already be out running doing business stuff. I pulled my car outside the gates of their private driveway and walked up to the voice box. I pressed the glowing button and waited to hear my mother's voice.
 

"Yes?"
 

Oh God, I'd missed her so much. "Mom, it's John, can you open the gate?"
 

She didn't say anything, but the gates started to open. I left the car parked where it was and walked down the long stone driveway. My parents’ home was more like a damn compound. They'd built it in the eighties and only added on to it. The front was all done in stone and three pillars supported a large front porch that hung over the whole front of the seven thousand square foot house.
 

I got halfway up the driveway before my now aging mother came running out of the door. She grabbed both of my arms and looked me right in the eye. "I thought I would never see you again."
 

"Mom, I'm so sorry for staying away from you." I kissed her head and held my lips there for a moment. She still smelled the same as I remembered. I felt horrible for staying away from her, when the only thing she was guilty of was supporting her husband. "I'm here now."
 

"Come inside, son. Come tell me what you've been up to for the last six years."
 

For the next twenty or so minutes, she sat across from me, just staring. I finally cleared my throat and leaned in closer to her. "Mom, I hate to come in and start asking you questions, but I need some answers and you're the only person that can help me."
 

She reached over and grabbed my hand. "John, are you in some kind of trouble?"
 

"No, of course not." I pulled the picture out of my wallet and slid it across the coffee table. "Who are these people you're with?"
 

She looked shocked as she stared at the old picture. "Where did you get this?"
 

"It doesn't matter right now. I need to know how you and dad know that man."
 

She shook her head and traced the people in the picture. "Joe and Charlotte McNally. Your father and Joe were best friends in high school. I guess you were too young to remember him. Back before you were born, we spent all of our time together. Joe was very good at billiards and we would travel with him to some of his events. Where did you find this?"
 

"How come I never met him?"
 

"Joe and your father had a falling out. I guess you were about four or five. I only remember because you were crazy about his daughter and you actually cried when they moved away." My stomach dropped. I heard what she said, but I didn't want to believe it.
 

"A daughter? I don't remember."
 

My mother stood up. "Stay here. I'll be right back."
 

I considered that she'd gone upstairs to call my father and tell him I was at the house, but she came back down with a box in her hand. She sat it on the table and started sorting through it. After a few minutes, she handed me a picture. "That's you and their daughter, Charlene. You were three when she was born. It was cute because you couldn’t say her name, so you called her..."
 

"Lena. I called her my Lena." Oh my God this couldn't be happening to me. I sat there staring at a picture of Charlie sitting on my lap when we were just little kids.
 

On top of hiding my identity from Charlie, now there was this whole other thing that I had to tell her.
 

She handed me another picture of Charlie and I playing in the snow. "You were so cute with her. I remember you used to say that when you grew up you were going to marry your Lena. I often wonder what happened to that poor child."
 

I looked up at my mom and pretended that I didn't know where Charlie was. "What do you mean?"
 

"There is a reason that we stopped talking to them. Your father would be best to explain it."
 

I grabbed her hand. "Mom, I'm asking you."
 

"When your father and I first started the business, he and Joe were still the best of friends. They did everything together, including going on long trips where Joe would play in billiards tournaments. I guess while they were away, Charlotte met someone else. She started having an affair and after a while, it was obvious that her heart wasn't in her marriage. Joe threw
himself into playing pool and hanging out at bars all night long. The problem was, the more he drank, the more the liquor changed him. One night Joe came home and caught his wife with the other man. They had a heated fight on the front lawn and Charlotte called the police. Joe tried to take his daughter, because he knew that Charlotte would keep him from seeing her. Charlotte fought with him and Joe hit her to try to get to his daughter. Unfortunately, the cops came and took him away. While he was locked up for the night, Charlotte took her daughter and left town. Joe was never the same after that night. He drank from the time he woke up, until the time he passed out somewhere. Your father and I tried to help him, but his drunk driving was too out of control. He hit someone and killed them and they sent him straight to jail. We hired a lawyer and tried to get his time reduced, but the judge wasn't the kind to be lenient on drunk drivers. He got ten years. In that time, his wife filed for a divorce and got remarried. Joe felt so bad about taking another person’s life that he signed over parental rights of his daughter. The saddest part about it was that just a few years later Charlotte and her daughter were killed in a house fire."
 

I looked up at my mother. She didn't know Charlie survived the fire. Would she have adopted her into our family if she knew? I couldn't believe all of this happened while I was a child. "So what happened between Joe and dad?"
 

She sat another picture down on the table. "When Joe got out of jail all he had were the clothes on his back. Your father took him and gave him a job, but Joe wanted to buy back his father's tavern. Your father lent him the money to do it. It had been a foreclosure, so it wasn't that expensive for a business. Your father's only stipulation was that he be part business owner with Joe. Unfortunately, when Joe's business started doing well, he went to an attorney and somehow had your dads name removed. As far as I know that was the reason they stopped being friends. To tell you the truth, the last time I'd seen Joe, he seemed to really have turned his life around. So tell me, John, where did you get that picture? Did you meet Joe?"
 

"It doesn't matter. Where can I find dad?"
 

"He's in Atlantic City for the weekend. Some big investors are looking into a strip mall and your father wants to lease out the buildings."
 

I stood up. "Mom, I can't stay. I promise I will come back and visit with you. I just have to go."
 

"John, please, I've waited six years to see you and you come in asking about someone that I haven't seen in a very long time. What is going on?"
 

My mother deserved some kind of explanation. "How much do you know about dad's business?"
 

"We have several businesses."
 

I put my hands in the air. "Mom, I'm not a kid anymore. I know what dad does behind closed doors."
 

She shook her head and started to cry. I wasn't going to feel sorry for her, not after all of these years. "You can cry all you want, but it isn't going to change the fact that your husband is trying to throw a girl and her brother out on the streets over some kind of old vendetta. When he calls, you tell him I'm looking for him. It’s about time I tell good old dad where he can shove his fucking wallet."
 

My mother was still crying when I walked out of my parents’ house. I was so pissed I wanted to hurt someone. Instead
of heading back to Charlie, I stopped at a local bar that happened to be open on Mondays.
 

I was going to have to tell Charlie the truth; a truth that I don't even think had sunk in yet. I'd known her my whole life. We'd been connected to each other before, even if we didn't know it. It was like she was always meant to be mine.
 

As exciting as it was, it was also terrible, because when Charlie learned the truth, she was never going to be able to forgive me. Trying to save her tavern was going to cost me her heart.
 

I ordered a double shot of Jack and headed back to the pool tables. Tippy was leaning over the table, while his girlfriend and Jaye sat to the side. Jaye’s face lit up and I downed the two shots I had in my hands. This was the only life I knew, the life where having feelings didn't exist.
 

Chapter 23
 

Charlie
 

I couldn't believe this was happening to me. Just when I felt like good things were happening, it all turns back to shit again. I couldn't catch a break. The only thing keeping me strong was knowing that Jammer still wanted to be with me. Sure, he still had secrets. I wasn't naive. I knew there were parts of his life he didn't want to tell me about, but since my past was so horrible, I decided it was better to wait until he was ready to talk about it.
 

I think when he offered to help me, it was out of desperation. It wasn't like either of us knew someone that had fifty grand lying around. Still, when he kissed me goodbye he seemed confident that he could help. I was desperate. When I turned eighteen, I'd run up all of my credit with credit cards and then had no money to pay them back. My credit was shit and no bank was going to lend me the money to pay off the debt. My only other option was to get the paperwork from the attorney’s office and go beg the loan company for an extension.
 

I considered calling Jammer after I hadn't heard from him in hours. Since he'd been staying with me, we were pretty inseparable. He'd had a couple pool matches to make extra cash, but always had them at my tavern. The only phone calls he ever got were from people wanting to set up matches with him and since he wasn't traveling, he turned them all down.