Page 30 of Burke (The Haven #2)

And she was so pissy about it that Shirley just stared at her. She was at a loss for words for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t even know who you are anymore.”

“No, you always knew who I was, but you just didn’t want to acknowledge it.”

Shirley stood up. “I don’t need this. I only came here because you told me that you were desperate and that you needed help.”

“I am desperate, and I do need help,” she snapped. “I need to get away from Frankie.”

“What has that got to do with me?” Shirley asked, staring at her sister.

Silvia glared back. “The least you could do is give me enough money to get free.”

“You’ve got money,” Shirley said, with a laugh. “You’ve got all the money you stole from Burke.”

“I spent it all,” she snapped. “And why do you keep harping on that? It’s not as if he cared.”

“What do you mean by that?” she asked. “Does he even know?”

“I don’t know, but apparently some cops are looking for me. I’m trying to get free and clear so I can get to another city or something.”

“So, just like that, you’ll ditch Frankie and go start over with some new guy?”

“Stop being such a prude,” Silvia shrieked. “Men are there to be used. That’s all there is to it.”

“I don’t have the same belief system, so no thanks.”

“I need money.”

Such a hardness filled her sister’s tone that Shirley glared at her. “Then go get money, get it from Frankie. You’ve been stealing from people for however long, so what do you want from me?”

“I want money,” she repeated, and her tone changed. “And you’ll get me money, or I’ll make you.”

Shirley snorted. “Oh really? And how do you plan to do that?” It was such a fast maneuver that she had no clue, but all of a sudden a gun appeared in her sister’s hand. Shirley stared at it, frowned at her sister, and asked, “Seriously?”

“Yeah,… seriously,” she spat. “I keep telling you, and you don’t listen, but I need money, and I need to get out of here. Now, sit your ass back down so we can talk about this. You aren’t going anywhere until you give me the details and your bank cards.”

“I didn’t bring them,” she stated.

“Then we’re going back to your place, and we’ll get them.”

“And if I say no?” Seeing her cock the gun, Shirley just stared at Silvia’s hand. “You’ll shoot me right here, right now?”

“Yeah, I will,” she replied. “In case you hadn’t figured it out, when I said I need to get loose, I need to get loose. And it’s not just because of Frankie. The cops are all over us, so Frankie sent me out here to get money.”

“I see.” Shirley nodded. “So Frankie sent you here to get the money, and you’re once again following along because he said so.”

“It’s not as if I’ll tell him no, will I?” she snapped. “He doesn’t take that kindly.”

“ Yeah? I’m not sure I really believe it’s him running the show because you’re the one pulling the gun on me right now,” Shirley pointed out. “So I have no idea what to believe.”

“It doesn’t matter what you believe,” Silvia spat, with an airy wave. “I’m the one with the gun, and you are not leaving until you give me money.”

“I haven’t got any on me.”

“Where’s your driver’s license?”

She looked around and realized she didn’t even have a purse, and she laughed. “I didn’t even come with anything,” she said. “I thought I was coming to help you, so I came running.”

Silvia shook her head. “If you would just be a little more like Dad and me, it wouldn’t have been a problem.”

“It wouldn’t be a problem if you would just get your shit together.” Shirley knew she sounded like a broken record.

Silvia snorted. “God, you’re so stupid.”

Shirley shook her head. “Did you contact Dad and ask him for help?”

“Yeah,… of course I contacted Dad.”

“What did he tell you?”

“What do you think he told me? The damn bastard told me to go get money on my own, that he’d already taught me everything he knew. And, if I’d hooked up with new people and didn’t like what I was doing, then it was up to me to go change it,” she snapped. “In other words, he told me to F-off.”

Shirley considered that and then nodded. “I can see him doing that.”

“Of course you can see him doing that,” she snorted.

“Did you tell him that Frankie was beating you up?”

“No, I didn’t.” Then she thought about it and added, “Maybe I should have. I don’t know if it would do any good, but it might really piss off Frankie.”

“Yeah,… it probably would,” Shirley agreed, with a sigh.

Silvia added, “He doesn’t take kindly to that either.”

“You’re playing a long con, and, at some point in time, people are bound to get pissed off at the way you treat them.”

“Yeah,… well, right now I need to get out of town, and you’re the one who’s got what I need. I don’t even have gas money.”

“Yet you drove here.”

“Sure, because I needed money to get here to ask my sister for money because my sister went and closed our bank account.”

“ My bank account,” she stated calmly. “It’s my money and my account, and no,… you won’t convince me that it’s anything other than exactly that. Mine .”

“From here on out, it’s my bank account,” Silvia claimed, waving the gun. “Now, let’s go to your vehicle, and we’ll go to the bank.”

“Are you kidding me?” she asked. “Look at the time.”

“It doesn’t matter, I need money, and you’ve got it.”

“No, I don’t, and, even if I did, I wouldn’t be giving it to you.”

“Have you forgotten who’s holding a gun on you?” her sister cried out in astonishment, then she glared. “Why the hell did you all of a sudden grow a spine?”

“Is that what this is to you?” Shirley asked. “Is that how you see me all of a sudden? Like I’ve grown a spine?” she cried out, looking at her sister.

“Sure, even Pops said you were useless, but that, if I ever needed anything, you would be a good one to come to. Looks as if he was wrong.”

“I don’t know whether he was wrong or not, but I don’t think too many people like being abused and used on a regular basis. So you’ve played as many cards as I intend to allow you play,” Shirley stated, with a smile, “so take a hike.”

“I won’t take a hike, and I’m not kidding about shooting you.”

She stared at her sister. “What do you think Dad would say about that?”

“He’ll probably tell me that I should have done it a long time ago. You have no idea, do you? Do you not know just how much he hates you? How much you’re just like this… bane on his existence?”

The words hurt, but Shirley refused to let any of it get to her, not when her sister was sitting here, holding a gun on her. “I guess I’m a disappointment to him.”

“Yeah, ya think? Jesus,… everything he did to put food on the table and to get us what we needed,” she explained, “was for us, and then you turned your back on him.”

“You sure didn’t need to go to school, find out your friends had shit you didn’t, then go home and tell him that he had to get it for you, only for him to steal it off the families of your friends.” Shirley stared at her sister, shaking her head. “How the hell is that normal?”

“He couldn’t afford it. We knew who had it, so he went and got it. It was simple, and he never took more than I wanted.”

“No, but all you did was look at your friends as some secret store, where you could sit and take whatever you wanted.”

“Yeah,… well, for the most part that’s what they were. They didn’t deserve that stuff, certainly not more than I did,” she said, staring at her.

“And you wonder why you weren’t really friends with anybody.”

“I was friends with lots of them,” she claimed. “I don’t think anybody ever had a clue, or, if they did, they would have done something about it.”

“No, they wouldn’t have. Dad scared everybody, and he threatened several of them, the families that is. They were all more than happy when we took off,” Shirley shared, with another sigh.

“All I wanted was a normal high school experience.”

“No, you didn’t,” Shirley corrected, staring at her sister. “That’s the last thing you wanted. You wanted to be the queen bee.”

“Whatever. Let’s go. Come on. We’re taking your vehicle, and we’re heading to the bank.”

“No, we’re not,” Shirley argued. “Just shoot me right now.”

Silvia stared at her in shock. “What?”

“You heard me.” Shirley shrugged. “I am so done playing games with you.”

“You don’t understand. If I don’t show up with that money, I’m the one who’ll get shot.”

“That may be, but I no longer believe anything you say. You can talk until you’re blue in the face, but obviously you’re just full of shit, as usual. You’re jawing your way through everything, and it makes absolutely no difference to me. I’m done with you.”

Her sister stared at her. “I can’t believe you’re fucking telling me to go. I guess I’ll just tell him where you live.”

“You don’t know where I live,” she pointed out calmly. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“That may be, but you’ve probably hooked up with bloody Burke. That would so be you. You can’t get a man on your own, so you go hook up with my leftovers.”

“Too bad you consider him leftovers,” Shirley noted in a mocking tone, “because he’s a hell of a lot better man than that piece of crap you’re sleeping with now.”

“Oh God,” Silvia muttered, “he’s just a man, that’s all he is.”

“Oh, I hear you, and to you that’s all there is, isn’t it?”

“Sure, and why not? What do you care?”

“Maybe I don’t,” Shirley replied, “but I’m not leaving with you. As a matter of fact, I’m going to my car and leaving.”

“You’re taking that chance?” Silvia asked, as she stood up.

“Yeah, and what chance is that?” Shirley asked.

“That I won’t shoot you.”

She glared at her sister and left her with a warning. “If you do, make sure that shot is one that counts.”

And, with that, she turned and walked to her car.