Hard Exit by Bruce Leonard

Author:Bruce Leonard
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798990153707
Publisher: Bruce Leonard

CHAPTER NINETEEN

I didn’t respond. I looked at Game and said quietly, “If you want, I can pack your stuff, or you can do it. I’m not sure which is more likely to turn ugly.”

Jennifer kissed me on the cheek—provoking Amanda, I thought—and said, “See you later. Be careful.”

“I’ll get my stuff,” Game said, loud enough for Amanda to hear because she responded: “This is my house, every inch of it, and I’ll call the cops if you⁠—”

“Go,” I said, and Game ran to the front door. Amanda hadn’t locked it. I hoped she wasn’t drunk enough to think she could physically confront Game. Unless she had a gun, a confrontation with Game would end badly for her. I’d never told her the combination to the gun safe in my closet. She’d probably tried my birthday, forward and backwards, but I’d used my father’s birthday, and I’d never told her anything about him, other than “he’s a bad bad guy—a horrible husband and father.” I’d instantly regretted telling her that much, because she’d asked how he’d treated us badly and who I meant by “us.” “Never mind,” I’d said.

Amanda stepped out of view. I ran inside, suspecting she could be drunk enough to confront Game. I ran upstairs in time to see her grab her cell phone from the bedside table, then wobble toward the bathroom. I got to the bathroom door before she could slam it on me. She was fumbling with her phone, trying to dial 911 while trying to keep me out of the bathroom. I wrapped my right hand over hers and her phone, then looked at the counter next to the sink.

I thought about letting her make the 911 call and pushing her out of the bathroom because on the counter were an Amex Platinum Card with white residue on one edge, remnants of white lines next to the card, and a large, open Baggie of cocaine. She had enough coke to kill her many times over if she chose to go out that way.

Was that her plan, to make good on her suicide threats, the ones she’d made many times over the last seven years when she thought I was going to leave her? Was that why she’d purchased so much coke?

“Let go of me! Let go of me, you asshole!” she shouted while sitting on the closed toilet seat. She tried to free her hand, but I had a firm grip on it and her phone with my right hand. She swung at my face with her clawed left hand, hoping to scratch me or take out an eye with her expensively manicured nails. But I was out of range, so she started to dig her nails into my right wrist, trying to break my grip. Her pupils were so large that their blackness almost eliminated her green irises.

“This is kidnapping!” she screamed. “And this is my house!”

“Calm down, Amanda. If you call the cops you’ll go straight to jail, not rehab. You own the house, but I legally live here, and Game is my guest, so he’s not breaking any laws.

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