Orange Juice

Chapter Twenty-Eight

 Jenifer pushed the café door open. As usual, it was not crowded, mostly consisting of its usual humble customers who sipped on beverages and occasionally snacked on some complimentary dessert.

 She searched around the tables until her eyes landed on a man sitting on a table alone in the corner, his dark eyes and hair contrasting his fairly light face which was covered in the purple bruises he had tried to conceal with his wife's makeup.

 She walked over to him, her red heels clicking across the wooden plank floor and catching his attention. "I hope I didn't make you wait too much." she said as she sat down, placing her purse on the round table that sat between them.

 "I've only been here for five minutes." he looked around warily while anxiously adjusting his dark blue suit jacket, "And I'm not planning on staying long, so make this quick."

 Jenifer put her glasses away, "How's your family doing?"

 "Let's just say they weren't exactly pleased to have me come home beat up and broke in the middle of the night." he replied sarcastically, keeping his tone low as he spoke, "I had to hold my wife back from pressing charges, you know."

 Jenifer's brown brows furrowed subtly, "You told them what happened?"

 "I told them I got mugged by a random thug on the street. Of course I'm not going to stand in front of my wife and sons and tell them I got beat up by a male prostitute you sent me to rape." he whispered accusingly while carefully making sure that nobody around would get to hear even a snippet of their private conversation.

 "I am done doing your work." he continued, "You did not tell me he had a gun, the boy could've shot me, you put my life in danger, Jenifer, I have a family."

 Jenifer rolled her eyes, "Oh, please, Bruce, don't pretend like I'm the red devil at your shoulder telling you to have sex with broke whores when you're in a tight-knitted family. I'm just paying you for what you regularly do."

 Bruce shushed her, glancing around nervously to make sure that nobody heard her. "Keep it down a bit, will you?" he said, "Listen, all the money you paid me? Yeah, he stole it and all the other savings in my wallet. So just give it back and leave me alone."

 "Oh, you're getting three times the amount of money you lost. I just want one more tiny favor." Jenifer put forth.

 Bruce Ross shook his head, "No. I am done putting my precious life on the line just so that you can have your little revenge games." he stated firmly.

 A waiter passed by, asking them if they would like to order anything. Bruce just brushed him off.

 "You wouldn't have to worry about that. Your safety is absolutely guaranteed. All you have to do is file a police report." Jenifer replied.

 Bruce raised an eyebrow at her. "A police report? About what?"

 Jenifer leaned forward on the wooden table, her fingers entertwined as she spoke quietly, "About a property of yours that is being trespasee by a bunch of homeless criminals."

 "I'm not sure I follow." Bruce stated in confusion.

 "You're going to go to the police station, and you're going to tell them that you would like to file a report against those random people that are illegally living in your garage." she explained.

 "But it's not my property-"

 "Don't worry yourself with those details." she said while grabbing her purse, "It's all been figured out. Your job is only to file this report. That's it."

 "And why would I be doing this? What's the reason behind it?" he questioned.

 "It doesn't affect you so it doesn't really have to concern you." she simply replied.

 "You're making me do something sketchy all for some family revenge plan, I at least deserve to know why I'm doing what I'm doing." Bruce insisted.

 Jenifer sighed, "When you file that report the police will arrest all five of them living in that garage. I will pay to bail the twins out, leaving the other three who could get in my away arrested, and since they have no family to care for them, nobody's going to bail them out and they will stay in prison long enough for me to carry out my plan."

 "Your plan?" Bruce asked.

"Getting the twins to where I want them. The garage will no longer be theirs and they'll have nowhere else to go. With no choice, they'll have to live with me in the motel." she further explained.

 "Then what?" he added.

 "I think I've told you way more than you need to know, Bruce." she remarked. "And for the record, you leak one word of what I'm telling you to anyone and I expose every little detail about you to your family."

 Bruce slowly leaned back in his seat, considering the offer thoroughly in his head.

 A black wallet sliding in his direction across the table caught his attention. He looked up at her and in return, she nodded. Bruce took the wallet in his hand, making a quick double-check to his left and to his right before opening it, his eyes growing wide.

 "6000 dollars. " she informed casually, "You can count them if you want to waste your time."

 Bruce took a deep breath, closing the wallet and leaning his chin on his palm thoughtfully.

 "Do we have a deal?" Jenifer asked.