I can live a life of crime. I can live a life where I may have to hurt or kill someone.
But a life where I have the chance to touch Jolie’s chest and I don’t?
That’s a sin.
And I won’t sin with her. Ever.
Jolie puts her hands to my chest and pushes at me.
“Get out,” she says. “I have to get cleaned up and out of here.”
“Sure you do.”
“You have work to do.”
“So do you,” I say.
“Exactly,” she says.
I step out of the shower and wrap a towel around my body.
I leave the bathroom and walk through the massive studio apartment to the sliding glass doors.
Out on the deck, I stare out to the ocean.
Shortly after Jolie’s father got arrested on a long list of charges, she got a letter in the mail. It was from her mother about her father. Apparently Jeff wasn’t as slimy as everyone thought. His legit money had been hidden too. And that money was split fifty-fifty between Jolie and her mother.
Jeff is in jail for the rest of his life.
Purposely designed that way.
The guy is a scumbag rat.
His entire existence is to be a piece of shit.
But at least he can’t hurt anyone any more, right?
Jolie insisted on renting this apartment for a year.
With the rest of the money she decided to become an investor.
No fucking lie.
This beautiful and smart woman of mine is now killing it with investments.
What kind?
I don’t know and don’t care.
It’s her business and I love hearing her talk about it even if I don’t understand it.
As far as my business goes… it’s the same.
I have to take it all on head first and then leave Taz and Les to handle what I used to do.
Things are smooth.
It’s a solid operation.
Is it a lifelong career?
Nope.
But for now, it works.
Jolie and I made the promise to each other to just take off for now.
No future planning.
No thinking about next year. Or even next week.
If that was the last lesson Mama could teach us, it was a good one.
I hate to say it, but she’s getting worse each day.
I think moving out of the house really did it for her. She admitted to herself and the world that she was sick and by doing that, she collapsed into herself.
It kills me a little inside when I think about it.
I told her a while ago to move back into the house. That we’d get her care at home.
But her eyes… it’s always in her eyes… one second she’s there, the next second she’s not.
Last time I saw her, we talked about the skatepark. And the beach. She started telling me stories of thirty years ago and what it was like then. How things got out of hand and then smoothed out.
Then in a split second, she was gone again.
She thought I was some guy named Robby. She thought I stole money from her.
She grabbed a pen and tried to attack me with it.
I had to fucking watch as nurses rushed into the room and had to hold her down and sedate her.
Each time I left from visiting her, I told myself I would never go again.
But I always showed up again.
If there was a single chance that I could see Mama and she was normal, I’d risk her stabbing me with a pen.
I rub my chin as I blink fast.
I love being out on the deck.
Facing the ocean.
Hiding from the world.
I take a deep breath and go back inside.
I drop my towel and get dressed.
I open the nightstand drawer and get my gun.
In the back of the drawer I notice something.
A folded piece of paper.
When I open it and see Ado’s face, I shake my head.
He’s still missing.
And any attempt of finding him is long gone now.
Ado is gone.
Gone for good.
I keep the paper as a reminder of a lot of things.
I fold the paper and put it into the drawer and slide it shut.
“Hey, did I tell you my mother sent us a Christmas card?” Jolie asks.
I turn and she’s in a towel.
I smile. “No…”
“Yeah,” she says. “It was her and her boyfriend and their dog. She’s dating a guy named Jeff.”
“Seriously?” I ask.
“Yeah. Weird, right? Their dog is named Bullet. This big boxer looking dog.”
“Wasn’t Bullet the name of the guy she was fucking?”
Jolie nods.
“So she can run and hide and pretend to be someone else… but she can’t let go of the past…”
“I guess not.”
“At least you heard from her,” I say. “That’s a good sign.”
“I don’t really care, Mac,” Jolie says.
She’s beautiful and tough.
So fucking tough.
She walks across the apartment to the desk and turns on the computer screen.
There’s all kinds of graphs and shit on the screen.
She bends forward to stare, pointing, whispering to herself.
My phone is on the bed and lights up with a text from Taz.
It’s a thumbs up emoji.
That’s all I need to see.
“Hey, sweetie,” I say. “I have the day off today. I’m thinking you should do the same. Fuck everything and everyone.”
“Maybe,” Jolie says.
I move across the apartment and put my hands to her sides and pull her against me again.
“Mac…”
“Shhh,” I whisper.
My hands move around and up to the top of the towel.
I playfully pull at it, opening it slowly.
It falls to the floor and Jolie turns around to face me.
She hugs me, her perfect breasts and body pressed against mine.
“This is the only thing you ever want to do, Mac,” she says.
“Is that so bad?”
“No.”
She looks up at me.
I kiss her.
She tastes even better out of the shower.
And speaking of tasting her…
I start to kiss down her body.
Inch by inch.
When my mouth moves over her left breast, she lets out a groan.
Her phone rings from across the room.
My mouth latches tighter against her chest.
“Mac, stop,” she whispers. “Fuck. I have to get that.”
“No, you don’t,” I say.
I latch onto her again.
She laughs and pulls at my hair to get me away from her.
She grabs her towel and wraps it back around herself and runs across the apartment.
I growl.
I’m hard as a rock again.
She looks at her phone.
“Fuck,” she says.
“What?”
Jolie looks back at me. “Violet.”
“Violet? Why the hell do we care about her right now?”
“I warned her, Mac.”
“You warned her about what?”
“This,” she says. Jolie shakes her phone and then tosses it toward the bed. “Fuck.”
“What’s wrong?” I ask. “Is she in trouble again? Let me guess… she lost her favorite hairbrush? Or did some guy at the gym tell her she has extra junk in the trunk…”
“That’s not funny,” Jolie says. “I’ll hurt you for saying that.”