Page 121 of Jaked


Font Size:

Chapter 46

Next to me, Jake's body froze. "What?" he said.

This time, I made myself push away. "Someone named Debbie," I said. "Who is she?"

When Jake said nothing, I continued. "It's just that Bishop mentioned her, so…" I let the sentence trail off, hoping Jake would pick up the thread.

He didn't. "So?" he said.

"So I was just wondering. That's all."

In front of me, Jake's posture remained rigid.

I tried to keep my tone light, teasing even. "So, did she really fall naked into your bed? That had to be exciting, huh?"

He looked toward the door. "Ready to go?"

"Where?"

"To replace your stuff."

I stared up at him. Okay, maybe the Debbie thing was none of my business, but the way he was reacting, it was only fueling my curiosity. Worse, it was confirming my darkest fears. "So you're not going to answer the question?" I said.

He gave me a hard look. "Like you've answered mine?"

"What question?

"Questions," he said. "As in more than one." He spoke slowly and clearly. "What happened?" His jaw tightened. "To your clothes. To your stuff. To your apartment."

"As far as my clothes," I said, "You tell me.You'rethe one who lost those."

"I'm not talking about the crap in your suitcase."

"It wasn't crap," I said.

"Right." He crossed his arms and waited.

"Fine," I said. "You wanna know? Okay. It was stolen, just flat-out disappeared. And the stuff thatwasn'tstolen? It was ruined. Ripped to pieces, trashed. Almost nothing was salvageable." I took a ragged breath. "Not even my furniture, as crappy as it was."

"This was in your old place?" he said.

"Yeah. And before you ask, I reported it too. Not that it did any good."

"Why not?"

I threw up my hands. "Because there was no way to tell who did it. Or why. And I didn't have any renter's insurance, so…" I looked away. "You know what? Forget it."

"No," he said. "So? What'd you do?"

"I moved," I said. "The same day actually."

"In with Maddie?"

"Yeah, I mean, I saw her ad on the internet. The place was cheap. And already furnished, sort of, so, I figured I'd stay there a while and save up some money."

"Any idea who was behind it?" Jake said.

"Well, at first, I was sure it was Rango, so…" I looked away.