The Deal [Eddie Munson] 1

043

"You don't need to explain anything. It's fine, I understand. You didn't owe us anything, so I don't owe you anything." I say, looking past her and looking over at Eddie. I don't trust Jackie, not at all. I have no idea what kind of shit she could be pulling.

"Well, Eddie here is a wanted serial killer, so I have my leverage. What's yours?" She says, tilting her head towards Eddie, and I close my eyes, taking a deep breath before looking at her again.

"What do you need, Jackie?" I ask, getting more annoyed by the second. I know she wants something, and whatever she wants isn't going to be good. "Just a place to stay. Somewhere to be." She replies, and I look at her confused. She can't be serious right now. If anything she's choosing the absolute worst time to be saying any of this.

"Jackie, I barely have a place to stay myself. What happened to your house?" I ask, and she sighs, looking between Eddie and I. "It's not safe there. Especially after the last couple of days." She answers, and I stop for a second, remembering that I can't just be rude to her, her brother just died.

On the other hand, her brother brought Eddie into all of this shit, and it's not our fault that he died. As much as my head wants to convince me that I had fault in that, it was him that led us there.

"Why?" I ask, and she walks back, plopping down onto the couch. "My brother did something incredibly stupid, and now they're looking for me. I had nothing to do with it, but we're family, so they're out for me."

"I'm sorry that I have to be the one to tell you this." I start, sitting next to her on the couch, and Eddie watches the both of us closely. "What's wrong?" She asks, and I sigh, trying to figure out the best way to say any of this.

"I'm sorry, Jackie, but Miles is-" I start, but she quickly interrupts me. "Dead. Yeah, I know." She finishes, and I look at her confused. How does she know? That must be why she's here, she must know that we were there. Another thing she has on us, great.

"I-" I try to talk again, but she interrupts me once again. "Miles being dead is the least of my worries. If he's dead, then that means Hitch got him. And if Hitch got him, I don't have much longer. My other brother is in prison, so, they're looking for me."

"So what? You want to stay here? That won't work." I reply to her, and she sighs, looking at me in my eyes. "I need to crash here. I have no where to go, please."

"No, no. Did you think coming here was the brightest idea? In case you forgot, Eddie is damn near a fugitive." I remind her, and she looks at Eddie again, and she seems to be thinking about something. "Please."

"Jackie that's just not possible. Look, I'm sorry about Miles, but we have a lot of shit going on. My mom is going to be back and we're going to be gone by the morning. We don't have anywhere stable to stay, and having you hiding out with us is a terrible idea." I say to her, and she bites her lip, sighing again.

"Okay, then I'll go with you. Wherever you go. I just can't be alone right now." She says, doing anything in her power to convince me to agree with her, but I don't think anything will make me budge. In fact, I think it's the dumbest idea I've ever heard. "No, absolutely not."

"You owe me, Sam!" She says, raising her voice at me. I scoff at her, there's no way she's being serious right now. Her making me look cute for Eddie doesn't compare to what she's asking me to do. "This is incomparable. You know that what you did for me is nothing compared to what you're asking me to do for you."

"What if I told you that I can clear Eddie's name?" She asks, and my mind goes blank from all of the thoughts that I was thinking about. I look at Eddie, and he shrugs. "How?" I question her, and she pushes her hair behind her ears, looking between the both of us.