Page 126 of One Good Crash

"How should I know?" she said. "They were wearing masks."

Well, this just got better and better."What kind of masks?"

"I dunno, ski masks or something."

"Andwhendid this happen?"

"Today, like I said. So you see why I can't go home, right?"

I tried to think. The whole story sounded like a load of bunk. And yet, it wasn'tcompletelyimpossible. After all, Dominic wasn't an average Joe.

But let's say Ididbelieve her.What then?

Yes, it would be awful to have your – well, whatever Dominic was – dragged off your doorstep. But I also knew that Dominic wasn't exactly an upstanding guy.

Assuming the story was true, maybe there was a reason he'd been dragged away. He was in a risky line of work. Probably, he had plenty of enemies. For allIknew, he got dragged off once a month.

Was I being callous? Maybe. But somehow, this whole Florida adventure had me seeing things differently, at least when it came to my mom.

She and I were still going back and forth when Jax strode past us, heading toward the cab. I felt my brow wrinkle in confusion.

He wasn't leaving, was he?

Chapter 52

No. Hecouldn’tbe leaving. If he were planning to leave, he'd simply hop in his own car and drive off.

In truth, I was surprised he hadn't already.

And yet, Iwascurious. Apparently, so was my mom. Together, we watched as he rapped on the cab's driver's side window. When it slid down, he exchanged a few inaudible words with the driver and then strode back to where my mom and I were standing.

He looked to my mom and said, "There's a room at the Plaza in your name. The driver knows where to drop you."

She frowned. "You're just trying to get rid of me."

"Damn straight," he said.

"Well forget it," she shot back. "I'm not going anywhere. I see what you're doing, you know."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"You're trying to turn my own daughter against me."

He gazed down at her with obvious contempt. "Seems to me you've done that yourself."

"What do you mean?" she demanded.

"I mean," he said, "what kind of woman whores out her own fucking daughter?"

I gasped.

And so did my mom. She sputtered, "It wasn't like that!"

"No?" he said. "Then tell me. How was it?"

"It's just a dating service," she said. "You don'talwayshave to sleep with them."

He grimaced. "Is that so?"