Until Series(120)

“What?” I ask.

“Shit man, hold on. Let me tell him.” He shakes his head, trying to control himself. “Last night, Nico went to the restaurant over on 5th street. Well, when he pulled into the parking lot, it was after eleven, and Liz was standing next to her car covered in dirt, looking like she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Nico asked her what was going on, and she said she was just getting ready to go home.” My heart drops, thinking that something happened to her.

“I talked to her before I went to bed. She was home and didn’t tell me that anything happened to her.”

“No, man, she’s fine. She left the parking lot while Nico was there watching. Well, he went inside to order out, and Jen was there with her friends.” Shit. This is what I didn’t need fucking Jen.

“What did Jen do to her?” I demand.

Cash starts laughing again, and I’m about ready to stop the truck and kick his ass.

“Jen didn’t do anything if what Nico thinks happened, happened. Your girl jacked Jen’s tire from her car, and left that shit sitting on three wheels.”

“What?” I whisper. I cannot picture my sweet Liz doing anything like that…ever.

“When Nico got his order, he went back out to his truck just as Jen and her posse were getting ready to leave. Jen started yelling from across the parking lot, so he went over to see what was going on. That’s when he saw Jen’s driver’s side back tire missing, not even a jack or a brick holding that shit up. Then, Nico remembered the look on Liz’s face and how dirty she looked when he pulled into the parking lot, and everything came together.”

“You are joking, right?”

“Looks like sweet Liz has a little evil in her after all.” Cash chuckles, making me laugh.

“Something must have happened. I can’t see Liz doing that for no reason.” I’m trying not to let my imagination run away from me. I would never hit a chick, but if Jen or any of her posse fucked with my girl, they would answer to me.

“Don’t know, but wish I could be a fly on the wall when you ask her about it,” Cash says, putting the phone back to his ear. A thought occurred to me, and I couldn’t help but to ask.

“Did he tell Jen that he thought it was Liz?” I ask, holding the steering wheel tighter when Cash didn’t say anything. I glance over at him.

“Do you think that any of us would tell any of those bitches shit? Fuck no! We wouldn’t; you should know that.”

“Look,” I sigh, running my hands down my face, trying to find the right words. “If Jen has even a hint that it was Liz, she will go after her. I can’t risk something happening to her; she has enough shit going on without adding to it.”

“You love her.”

“What?” I look over at him, and my eyes narrow.

“You fucking love her. Holy shit!”

I want to say, “fuck no; hell no”, and that it’s impossible to love someone after only a few weeks together; then I remind myself that we spent nine months together before July was born. We might not have been together every day, but most of my free time was filled with her. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had been slowly falling in love with her. I’m snapped out of my thoughts by the speakerphone, with Nico singing, “Da da da da, another one bites the dust. And another one falls, and another one falls, another one bites the dust.”

“Very funny,” I sigh, rubbing the back of my head.

“Just saying. I don’t want that shit to happen to me,” Nico says, his voice coming through the cell phone in Cash’s hand.

“You asses will be singing a different tune when it does.”

“Fuck that. I’m going to get as much pussy as I can before I have to settle with one.”

“I didn’t even call to talk about this shit,” Nico cuts Cash off. “I wanted to make sure that you were all going to be at the site tomorrow,” Nico says, sounding nervous.

I look over at Cash, and can see the same pain I’m feeling written on his face. “Sure, we’ll be there.”

“Good, see you guys then,” he says, before the line goes dead.

“So, I guess he’s going to talk to us about working for Kenton.”

“Guess so,” I agree. I don’t want to think about this shit right now. My brothers and I have always been inseparable, and I don’t want to think about Nico not being a part of our company any more.

“So…you gonna call Liz and ask her about the tire?”

“Do I look stupid to you?”

“Yes,” he chuckles, and I look over at him.

“I’ll talk to her about it when I get home.”