Ghost Mark: Dark Dreams, #2 by JP McLean

Author:JP McLean
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: WindStorm Press
Published: 2022-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

29 | Sadie

“WHAT HAPPENED?” Sadie said, the moment Jane opened the door. If Jane’s request to bring over a bottle of wine hadn’t alarmed her, her demeanour would have. If she’d had a dog, it would have just died.

“I got fired.”

“You’re shitting me.”

Jane didn’t react, just padded to the kitchen and pulled two wineglasses from the cupboard.

“Why?” Sadie asked.

“It doesn’t matter. It was never going to work, not after I ruined her life. The new Anna never trusted me. Never saw past my upbringing.” Jane set the glasses on the old trunk. “That business with Rick last year only confirmed what she’d been thinking. I’m not dependable.”

“That’s not true.”

“I know. But Anna doesn’t. I killed that version of Anna.” Jane flopped on the sofa beside Sadie. “Pour.”

“What are you going to do?” Sadie unscrewed the bottlecap and filled the glasses.

“I don’t know.” Jane reached for her glass and immediately took a big gulp. “Get another job, I guess.”

They tossed suggestions back and forth: waitressing, lawn and yard maintenance, retail. Nothing stuck.

“Maybe you should take some time off. Get a massage. Something’ll surface.”

“I can’t. Bottomed out my savings replacing my wardrobe, remember?”

Sadie pressed her lips together, but the words pushed their way out anyway. “You’re not broke, Jane.” She held up her hand to hold off Jane’s familiar protests. “You’ve got this absurd notion about how the Walkers’ money should be spent, but you don’t even know what they wanted. The charity is your idea, not theirs. There’s nothing wrong with spending a little of it on yourself.”

It was a discussion they’d had a dozen frustrating times.

“It’s not absurd.” Jane rubbed the rim of her spotless glass. “And I know I can spend it, but I don’t have to. I can work. The kids who need the money can’t.”

“Fine.” Sadie raised her glass to Jane and settled back into the sofa. “When you get evicted, my door will be open. It’ll be like old times in the rooming house: tight, but without the critters.”

Jane’s lips quirked into a smile. “We had some laughs back then, didn’t we?”

Whenever Jane spent too much time in her head thinking about Anna and Pieter, she stargazed into the past. “Don’t get all nostalgic on me. That building was cockroach central, a rat-infested fire trap.”

Jane’s smile faded. She swallowed another gulp of wine. Either she didn’t want to taste the lovely bouquet of a fine screwcap, or she was on a mission to the land of oblivion.

“I saw Hunter today. He agreed to help Ethan.” Jane filled her in on the latest with the search for intel to boost Connor’s chances of keeping Riptide afloat after the cops charged in.

“Speaking of Ethan, have you given him your keys?”

Jane upended her glass and held it out for a refill. “Not yet. And just because he gave me his keys doesn’t mean I have to give him mine. Besides, he’s pretty free and loose with his keys. Gives them to anyone.”

“You talking about Connor?” Alcohol hadn’t dented her stubbornness.

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