To Have and to Heist(77)

“I think she’s saying he got a local fence,” Mr. Mustache said to Ginger.

“I’m standing right the fuck here,” Ginger said. “We’re all speaking the same language. I don’t need a translator.” He pulled out a gun and motioned me away from the bathroom. “Get away from the door.”

Maybe that kind of thing works in New York, but we are born tough in Chicago. Floods, snowpocalypses, killer waves, heat waves, frigid temperatures, tornadoes, twenty-four-hour traffic jams, gunfights, fistfights, and one hundred eight years without winning a world series. Nothing can rattle us. If only one city is left standing in a postapocalyptic world, it will be Chicago.

“Why are you pointing a gun at me?” I shouted again so Jack would know that my life was now at risk. “Have you even thought it through? He’s such a coward, he’s probably already gone, so you’re gonna shoot me for nothing and spend the rest of your lives in jail, and that’s only if my bestie’s new boyfriend doesn’t find you first. And he will come looking because she’ll be devastated that I’m dead and he protects the people he loves, even from sadness. This guy is so scary, there is no line he won’t cross. He does the work other people don’t want to do, and I’m not talking about working retail.”

“He’s gotta be back there,” Ginger said, ignoring my outburst. “Get out of the way.”

“Come any closer and I’ll call 911,” I warned, bending down to pick up a warped floorboard. I was done with these morons. Done with trusting people to have my back. Done with even hoping someone would actually stick around when I needed them.

Ginger let out a string of curse words and snapped at Mr. Mustache. “Check behind the fucking door.”

I held out my free hand and motioned them forward like I’d seen in the movies. Of course, in the movies the good guy is “the One” or has some secret martial arts or military fight skills. I had a floorboard with nails sticking out of it, and it wasn’t even straight.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Mr. Mustache said. “I’m not going near her. She’s crazy.”

Crazy? I’d show them crazy.

“Rah.” I lifted my floorboard and charged at them, screaming my frustration. Ginger stumbled back and tripped over the broken door. Mr. Mustache bolted. I ran after them until they jumped into a black Chrysler 300C and roared down the street.

I was still heaving in my breaths when I noticed Jack’s motorcycle was gone. He’d climbed out the window like the cowardly slug he was. I texted Gage and told him to add Jack to the list of people who deserved to suffer, then I grabbed my bag and went to see Rose.

* * *

◆ ◆ ◆

?“It was too much,” I said over tea and Chef Pierre’s peanut-free twist on peanut butter brownies. “Not just the men breaking into my apartment and pointing a gun at me, but Jack running away and leaving me. My whole life I’ve been overlooked or left behind. I thought he was different. I thought I’d found someone who would have my back, someone who cared, someone who would protect me the way Gage looks out for Chloe. But he left. Just like everyone else.”

I was lucky to have caught Rose on one of her rare nights in, and even more lucky that she’d been up watching Columbo because she’d had a double espresso after lunch.

“Not everyone needs protecting,” Rose said. “It sounds to me like you were quite capable of handling those goons on your own. When you are that competent and self-sufficient, people don’t realize you want or even need their help. It’s not easy, but sometimes you need to speak up. You have to ask for what you want and tell people how you feel.”

“You are very wise,” I said to Rose.

“If I were wise, I wouldn’t have eaten an entire plate of peanut-free peanut butter brownies right before bed.” She patted my hand. “Even at my age, people make mistakes.”

“I seem to make more than most, especially when it comes to men.”

“That means you’re taking risks, and taking risks means you’re finally out there living your life. You’ve been so busy trying to make other people happy, you’ve never really had a chance to figure out who you really are. Tonight you learned something about yourself. You chased those men away. You don’t need the stability and security someone like Gage offers. His overprotective nature would be too much. You need . . .”

“Chaos?”

“Adventure,” she said. “Challenge. Independence. If you’re looking for a partner, find someone who isn’t afraid to break the rules, someone who is fun and exciting and just as curious about the world as you are. You need a partner, not a protector. Someone who will embrace all the things that make you the unique and beautiful soul you are.”

“Too bad I don’t know anyone like that.” I dabbed at my eyes with a napkin. I’d forgotten how insightful Rose could be. “I only know people who run away at the first sign of danger.”

“It is too bad,” she said. “Because it would be very entertaining to hear him grovel.”

I liked the idea of Jack groveling. I liked it so much I fell asleep on Rose’s couch mentally listing all the things I would make him do to earn my forgiveness.

Lucky for Jack, I was so exhausted I didn’t make it past ten.

Unlucky for me, Jack wasn’t the groveling type.