So what are your plans after the campaign is over?”
He shrugged his shoulder. “I don’t know, look for an entry level position in my chosen field I guess. I kinda like New York.”
“And what might that be?”
“Magazine editor.” The laugh was the first I’d had in a long time. He looked at me like I’d lost my shit and I very well might have from the thoughts going through my head.
I pulled a card from my wallet and passed it to him.
“Come see me tomorrow.”
“What’s this?”
“It’s my card what the hell does it look like?”
“Yes, I know, but why are you giving it to me?”
“I might have a job for you.” I laughed again because I think a bit of his craziness might’ve rubbed off.
“What’s so funny?”
“Do you know what your mother’s last job was before I fired her?”
“Yeah, so?”
“So don’t you find it strange that you’ve followed the same career path?”
“I happen to be very good at what I do, I’ll have you know I was the editor on the school paper and chief student editor at Berkeley thank you very much.”
“I’ll be checking out those credentials so they better be on the up and up.”
“I don’t understand; you don’t mean, you can’t be serious.” Now he was the one howling with laughter.
“She’d kill us both, oh damn, I’d like to be a fly on the wall when that happens oh…but wait, it’s no fun if she doesn’t know why I’m doing it, fuck that we need a plan.”
And just like that I got drawn into his shit. Why the fuck didn’t I stay in my house that night?
Chapter 30
CALLAN
“I think you need to go get Gaby.”
“Kid I told you already I’ll go get her when I’m damn good and ready, now leave it alone.
“Stubborn as a two headed mule that’s your problem.”
“You want help with this or not?”
“Fine, fine be that way but I’m telling you you’re being a dick.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“I don’t know what that sweet girl sees in you anyway. I mean apart from the good looks, the money, the flashy cars, oh yeah maybe that’s it.
No that’s not her style¸ there must’ve been something else that she saw that’s long gone now because I sure the hell don’t see it. You’re mean ornery and just plain…”
“Joshua shut up and let’s finish this.” I was trying to help him get ready to go before the board. It was just a formality because I’d already made up my mind, but I wanted him to go trough the whole spiel.
His little plot against Marion was coming to a head and it was soon time for me to go get my girl. I hadn’t spoken to her in all this time, though I thought of her everyday since she’d been gone.
I woke up in the morning reaching for her and spent the first half hour or so of each day fighting the bitter disappointment that she wasn’t here with me.
I spoke to her dad regularly though, making sure that she had everything she needed and not letting the other man know that her being back there was not a permanent situation.
What, if anything of our conversations he shared with his daughter, I couldn’t be sure, but I’d worded my first approach in such a way that he understood I didn’t want her aware of our continued contact.
I had certainly planned on retrieving her sooner than this; it was now a little more than a week and a half since she’d been gone.
I’d only planned on a week at the most, but with everything involving Marion now taking place I thought it wise to bring her back to the city after all was said and done. Who knew how the other woman was going to react to her outing.
Josh had come up with a brilliant plan, one in which he’d scoured the city and surrounding areas, or so it seemed, looking for any and everyone his dear mother had spurned, rejected, humiliated or just plain dismissed in her life up to that point.
Not really, but it sure looked that way. And there were more than a few, most if not all more than willing to play a part in giving the woman her just desserts.
Me personally, I wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble, just destroyed the bitch’s life with a few well-placed calls and that was that. But these young people nowadays were a bloodthirsty lot.
And after I got the whole story of his upbringing from Josh I can’t say that I blame him. Apparently he had tried to contact his mother once during his early teens when the truth had been revealed and the beatings had taken a particularly bad turn.
Marion had chastised him, denied having ever given birth and left him at the mercy of the sadistic couple, who had gone on to torture the poor boy for the next five years until he escaped to college.