Chapter Twenty-Seven

 

It had all been going so well. Everything was going to get turned around. Everything was going to be absolutely fine. It was going to work out, even. They were going to go and talk to Mitch in a couple of hours.

Then a handful of big guys with equally-large guns came through the door and started screaming and everything just went down around her head. So much for her good morning.

Josh got up after they left. Waited long enough to hear the outside door slamming. She could hear the front door close, could hear the front door lock.

How did they get a key to her apartment? That was the first question that really got her. It was possible to believe that she'd made some kind of mistake. It was even more possible to believe that they'd picked the lock or something… if it was at 5 in the morning.

But the one thing she had definitely heard, as plain as day, was the sound of a key sliding into the lock. It was loud and they hadn't made much effort to keep it quiet. After all, it wasn't exactly long after that they'd deal with any response they might get.

A minute later, Josh walked up with a plate full of food. "It's, uh. It's not too cold."

Anna looked at it like she'd never seen food before. "Oh. Thanks."

She settles into the chair as Josh pulls up on the other side. What were they supposed to talk about? What was she supposed to say about what had just happened? Everything seemed crazy. It was upside-down land.

Worse than that, though, was that they'd absolutely bought Josh's entire argument. Hook, line, and sinker. It was the truth, of course, but it didn't make sense.

Everyone had told them that they had paid. She had paid. It was the truth.

If they showed up now, then it meant that they hadn't just given up on pretending that they hadn't been paid. As far as they were concerned, the first time wasn't paid out.

Which raised a second point.

Why would they come back for a single million that they thought they hadn't gotten when they'd gotten away with three and with the congressman?

That was beyond crazy. It was practically suicidal. Nobody would do something that stupid. It was putting the cart before the horses in the worst way.

Josh kept his head down as he ate. Whatever good mood he'd been in before, it was gone now.

"I'm sorry that happened," he says, finally. He lets out a long breath. "I should've brought the… should've had my god damn gun."

Anna's chest tightens until it feels like it's going to burst. "No! No way. You'd have gotten killed."

"You could've gotten hurt. It was lucky that they believed me. They didn't believe anyone else."

"But if they got Mr. Queen, then. Like."

"Yeah. They didn't seem to be thinking about that."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means, they're not the same guys. In all likelihood."

"What are the odds of that, do you think?"

"Uh… about one in a million, I'd say. In a vacuum."

The eggs were cold, but Anna ate the last couple of bites anyways. She wasn't going to waste them, after all.

"I don't know what we're going to do if they come back."

"We figure out what they know, and what the fuck is going on with their guys."

Anna's head is spinning. "Okay, but. I still don't get it."

"There's a lot not to get." Josh's fingers rub into his forehead. "I don't know what the hell is going on, but we're missing something. I don't know what the hell we're going to do next. But we can't stay here again. They've got a damn key, for Christ's sake."

That makes a lot of sense, in theory. What doesn't make a lot of sense is where exactly they're going to stay if not here. It's not like Anna's got her pick of apartments. Her parents gave her this one.

"Where, then?"

The look that Josh gives her makes Anna feel a little foolish. "Where do you think? My place."

Oh. Yeah. The thought hadn't really occurred to her. Why hadn't it occurred to her?

"I don't want to, I dunno. Intrude."

"You wouldn't be."

She chews on the thought. There's nothing wrong with the idea, not really. But even after he's said that it wouldn't be a problem, it still feels like she's intruding.

"I mean it, Anna. It's not a problem. We don't even have to sleep in the same room, if you don't want to. I can take the couch. It's a good couch. Wouldn't be the first time."

"I don't think that's going to be a problem," she says. She tries to smile. It's hard to say if she's having success. "Same room is probably fine."

Josh taps the phone where he's got it sitting on the table by his food. "Hour and a half until we go to meet Mitch. Are you sure that you want to do this?"

Anna's hairs on the back of her neck stand up at the way that Josh looks when he says Mitch's name. Like he's ready to bash Mitchell's head in with a rock, just about. Like her ex is little more than something that he got all over his shoes.

"Are you sure that you should come?"

"If you're going, I'm coming."

"You have to promise to keep yourself calm."

There's a brief flash of annoyance in his face. One that that Anna's very used to seeing. "I can't promise anything, but I won't hurt him."

"You have to promise."

"I promise."

"And you have to promise you're not mad at me."

He closes his eyes and rearranges his face into a generally calmer expression. "I'm not mad at you, Anna. You didn't do anything wrong."

"You didn't promise."

"I promise, I'm not mad at you. I'm mad, but I'm not mad at you. Okay?"

"That's all I needed to hear," Anna says.

But promises don't mean a whole lot. Mitch made a lot of promises, and it didn't mean much of anything when he did it.

Time's going to tell whether or not things are going to be different this time.