“John told me,” she said.
Ironic name for the man who had pimped her two years ago. I thought I freed her from that prick. Now he was back, messing with her head? Fucking perfect.
“I figured he’d leave you alone.” I snorted. “Guess he didn’t wait too long to come after you.”
Chelsea blew past me, dropping her bag on the floor. Half of her shit spilled out, and she didn’t hide the drugs stashed in her hair supplies and wallet. I shook my head, but she pouted in the chair, like she could act insulted when I saw through the bullshit.
“For your information, John cares about me,” she said.
“Like hell. Were you this stupid before the drugs?”
“I came here to talk to you. Are you gonna listen to me or not?”
“You gonna remember any of it in the morning?”
Chelsea’s voice rose. Zero to hysterical in half a second, as usual. “You’re nothing but an asshole, Maddox. I need help, and you want to make me feel bad.”
Name of the game in our family. “You need help?”
“I just…I need a little money.”
Of course she did. “Here’s the crazy thing about jail, Chels. It doesn’t give you many opportunities to get rich. At least, not the shit I was willing to do.”
“You don’t understand. It’s important.”
“Important like, you’re going to rehab? Or important like, to prevent you from getting twitchy?”
If Chelsea were halfway sober, she’d be even more insulted. Instead she swore at me, our family tradition.
“John wants to leave his family.”
I laughed. “Ain’t no way.”
“It’s true. He loves me.”
“He loves keeping you on the side. You’re cheap. You’re easy. And he can whore you out if he needs a favor from someone.”
“That’s not true.”
“Come on.” I couldn’t look at her. “Is he still giving you that same line? You two are swinging? He likes to see with other guys? Don’t buy his shit, you’ll go broke.”
“You don’t want me to be happy.”
Chelsea was five years older than me, but she acted like she was still thirteen. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what John found attractive in her. Still, she was family. Whatever that meant to her.
“One of us should be happy,” I said. “Why do you need money?”
“Well…If John leaves his family, the divorce will be messy. He’ll owe his wife alimony, and he’s got those two little boys. It’ll be expensive.”
“He’s pulling a big enough salary from the town. Should be easy for him, especially with the pension when he retires.”
Chelsea shrugged. “The thing is, she’s gonna get the house. And the car. He needs money. And I offered to help…”
That son of a bitch. “He wants you to whore again?”
“No! He just said he has some friends who would be very respectful, and they wanted to try some things their wives wouldn’t allow—”
“Jesus, Chelsea! He’s your pimp! He’s not worried about his house, and he’s not leaving his goddamned wife. He wants to wear your ass out before you overdose, probably on the shit drugs he’s giving you.”
“You’re not listening!”
“Neither are you! He’s the chief of the fucking police force. You really think Chief John Craig, devoted husband and father of two, is going to jeopardize his job and his life for a whore he picked up from the wrong side of the tracks?”
“You don’t know him like I do.”
“Yeah, I do. He’s hiding behind the badge, but he belongs in the street with the gang I left. He put enough of us away that he learned all the tricks. Now he’s pulling them on you.”
“Do you know who you sound like?” Chelsea paced the room. “You sound like everyone in this town who said you weren’t good enough for Josie Davis.”
I wasn’t. But unlike Chelsea, I was improving myself. Shedding my past and trying to be the man Josie deserved, not the delinquent trash everyone thought we were.
“I don’t have any money,” I said.
Chelsea got nervous. She didn’t look at me, and she covered the bruise on her cheek. “John knows you’re in town. He mentioned you. A couple times. He said you and him used to have an…agreement? He told me to talk to you and see if you couldn’t renegotiate.”
“And if I don’t?”
“He said you’d remember what happened the last time you couldn’t pay. That you wouldn’t want it to happen again.”
God damn it. That bastard was fucking evil, and there wasn’t a goddamned thing I could do to protect Chelsea or Josie from his cruelty.