Page 20 of Rastor

"See?" Brittney said, turning to Bishop. "He's flipping out. Just like I said."

I shoved a hand through my hair. What the hell had I been thinking? The way it sounded, Chloe was still at least two hours from showing up. For all I knew, she might not show up at all, considering how late she'd be working.

And, with every hour, Brittney was getting more difficult. As for myself, I could take her crap just fine, but what if she gave that same attitude to Chloe?

I gave Brittney a hard look. "You wanna see flipping out?" I raised my index finger. "You sayonething to upset Chloe, and you're gonna regret it, just like I told you in the parking lot."

Again, she turned to Bishop. "See what I mean?"

Bishop's gaze shifted from Brittney to me. "Want me to get rid of her?" he asked.

"Hey!" Brittney said, turning to glare athimnow. "No one 'gets rid' of Brittney Adams." She eyed the door. "That's it. I'm outta here."

"Go ahead," I told her. "No one's stopping you."

It was true. Even before Bishop had showed up, it wasn't like I'd been holding Brittney by force. Yeah, I wanted her to apologize. And yeah, sooner was better than later. But with every hour, the odds of her doing a decent job of it were falling fast.

If she wanted to storm out now, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.

I waited.

She didn't storm out. Instead, she glanced toward the front door. "But I don't have a ride."

"Wrong," I told her. "I've got a driver waiting. You wanna go? He'll be here in thirty seconds." I pulled out my phone and started tapping out a text.

"Wait!" Brittney said.

I looked up and waited, not bothering to hide my impatience.

"But where would he take me?"

"Home, Amber's, wherever. Not my problem."

She bit her lip. "But…" She hesitated. "I might be locked out."

"Again, not my problem."

"Oh, wellthat'snice." Her bottom lip quivered, and her eyes began to water. "This whole night has totally sucked. You know, I'm only here because youaskedme to be here."

She looked to Bishop and choked back a sob. "It's like the middle of the night, and I’m just really tired, you know?" With a long sigh, she plopped back onto her chair and gazed up at the ceiling. "And your brother's being mean to me."

Bishop and I exchanged a look.

Well, someone had to ask it. Apparently, that someone was me. "Which brother?" I said. "Me? Or him?"

In truth, we'd both been "mean" to her. But it wasn't like she didn't deserve it. So what if she'd had a shitty night? She'd put Chloe through worse.

She never answered my question. Instead, she gave another loud sniffle and said, "Maybe I could just nap or something?"

"Or maybe," I said, "you could just leave."

Yeah, I was being a dick. But she didn't deserve anything better, not after what she'd done to Chloe.

"But if I leave, I can't apologize." Her voice became earnest. "And I really want to. Honest. I mean, I might as well get it over with, right?" She wiped at her eyes. "You know, I've been up for twenty hours?"

Ididn'tknow. And I didn't care all that much either. I wasn't even sure I believed her. But itwasafter four o'clock in the morning, so her story wasn't that far-fetched.

Thinking of Chloe, I weighed the benefits of having Brittney stick around, if only to put Chloe's mind at ease.