Page 28 of Iron Will
“Yeah. Coffee usually is,” I smirk.
“Really?” she asks, narrowing her eyes. “You’re going to do this?”
“Do what?”
“Be a jerk.” She wrinkles her nose. “You asked me to come talk to you. I’m talking to you.”
“Okay, okay. Sorry.” I hold up my hands.
“So,” she prompts, suddenly all business. “Paisley.”
“Yeah.” I lean back and look at her. “How much longer is she gonna be in here?”
“In the hospital?” Laney bites her plump lower lip again and stares down at her cup. It’s not something she’s doing to be sexy — in fact, I doubt she even realizes she’s doing it at all — but somehow the gesture always goes straight to my dick.
“Not much longer, unfortunately,” she finally says. “I mean, it’s good that she’s doing better. But…”
“But once she’s out of the hospital, she’s back with Mickey again,” I finish for her.
Laney blows out a breath. “Exactly.”
“Yeah. So, I’ve been thinkin’ about that.”
“What about?”
“Some way to get Mickey out of the picture.”
Laney’s eyes widen. “Permanently?”
I have to laugh at her shock. “I don’t mean kill him. Jesus.”
Though it has crossed my mind.
Not that you need to know that.
Laney looks down, embarrassed, but when she looks back up at me, I can tell she still doesn’t get what I’m driving at.
“Look, I’m talking about getting him away from Paisley,” I explain. “I dunno. Buy some time. Because it doesn’t look to me like Bethany is gonna dump him anytime soon.”
“You may be right about that,” Laney concedes. “Not as hard as he’ll need to be dumped, anyway. She told me she did kick him out the night before Paisley’s accident. But he came back. And she doesn’t seem to have the strength right now to get rid of him for good.” She sighs. “I suggested she could put him on a list of people who weren’t allowed to see Paisley here at the hospital, but she didn’t want to do that, either.”
“The ass wipe has been comin’ around the hospital a bunch of times every day, according to the Lords outside Paisley’s room,” I tell her. “I can’t figure out why, though, since he doesn’t seem to even like the kid.”
“Control,” Laney answers immediately. “It bugs him that he’s not calling the shots. And he’s really upset about the money he thinks it’s costing to keep Paisley here. My guess is he sees Bethany’s money as rightfully his. And the more time Paisley’s in the hospital, the less of it she has to give him.”
“Makes sense,” I nod.
I tell her everything I found out about Mickey from Yoda’s sniffing around. “Sounds to me like Bethany might be the only thing keepin’ him from sleeping out on a park bench somewhere. Seems like most of Mickey’s money goes straight to his gambling habit, from what Yoda can tell.”
“Crap,” she mutters. “He’s not going to let Bethany go without a fight. She’s his gravy train.”
“Can’t you file some kind of social work order, or something?” I ask, frustrated. “To keep him away from Paisley?”
Laney sucks in a breath. “It’s complicated,” she says, peering into her cup. “The short answer is, there’s not really enough evidence to do that. The long answer is, anything I do to try to keep Mickey away from Paisley, will end up hurting Bethany and Paisley. And the only evidence I have that Mickey’s hurting…”
Laney stops abruptly, her mouth snapping shut. She sneaks a quick glance at me, then looks back down into her cup.
Goddamnit, there’s something she’s not saying.