Page 64 of Fall onto me
“You are, your debt to me has been repaid.” He stands up, pacing behind his shadow of a desk. “But the sins of a father …” He trails off.
We allow that statement to wash over us for a moment, both silent and still as TK continues, “Imagine I’m a debt collector. Well, he owed me, and so now, that debt falls on you.”
I whisper, “My father wasn’t involved with you.”
“Why do you think they crashed?” I gulp as the cruel reality settles around us. “They were racing for me, but they weren’t as talented as you.”
“Did…” Foster gulps. “Did you kill my parents?”
“I may have been on the other side of the road. Hell, I may have swerved into their lane, but it’s their fault they ran into that tree.”
Foster deflates, rolling back into his youth. Feeling the loss of his parents all over again, learning that their crash was no accident. “You murdered them,” he states, taking a small step towards the table. “Why?” His voice cracks, and I understanding why his anger isn’t the dominating force behind him right now. He doesn’t want to break down in front of this evil fucking parasite of a human.
“They didn’t pay me back for a debt.”
“What debt?” I ask when Foster doesn’t.
“They needed a loan, to help with medical bills.”
When Sophie was little, and her heart wasn’t working very well.
Foster’s emotions are getting the better of him, and rightfully so. “When do we need the job to be completed by?”
Without hesitation, TK says, “Saturday.”
Trivial thoughts come to me first, that Saturday is Brett’s final game of his career unless he gets picked up by the NFL. Then it’s Sophie, and Foster not being there for her graduation when she grows up, because he won’t do this, and he will die.
The Keeper taps his nails on the desk.
Foster finally speaks. “My parents …” He trails off, trying to come to terms with this new information. “My parents’ debt isn’t my own.”
There’s nothing we can do with the knowledge of TK running his parents into that tree, so instead of dwelling on what we can’t handle, Foster focuses on what we can.
“But it is, Ghost. It is,” TK simply replies. “Because they aren’t here to fulfill it. But if you don’t want to do it, that’s totally fine. Sophie is what, around the age of ten? She only needs about eight more years before I own her. And Foster, the women who owe me have much different jobs than the men.”
An echo of a laugh escapes TK, and it bounces off every wall. Foster puts that to a stop, smashing his fist through the screen and slamming it to the concrete ground. Papers fly from his hands, cascading around us.
He kicks it, breaking the plastic casing into a million pieces with the sheer force of his anger. Then, he takes his attention to the table, slamming it into the ground and returning it to rubble.
The lock clicks, and I kneel to gather the papers as fast as I can. We run to the exit. I can still hear his laughter permeating my mind like a seeping poison. That noise will haunt my dreams for the rest of my days.
Foster doesn’t speak as we escape through the crowds of people, not until we’re in the comfort of his car does he look at me with such purpose, such anger that he speaks.
“It’s him or us now, Shadow. You need to be ready to fight because we’re not going to fucking lose.”
Oh, don’t worry, my love. I’m ready.
20
Foster whips into a parking lot. “Be right back,” he tells me with trembling lips. I worry he’s going to buy a gun, do something rash, but this is a CVS, and I’m pretty sure the most harmful thing he could buy would be a bottle of bleach.
He returns twenty minutes later, chucking a plastic bag into the backseat. I wipe the tears that fell from my face before he slides into the driver’s seat. “What did you get?”
“You’ve got your wish, Robin.” He hands me a chocolate bar.
“Robin?”
“Yeah, Batman and Robin.” There’s a new vibe to him, not one of anger but pure determination. “We’re going to fix this.”