Untethered

24 | Desiderata

"Dammit, Jules!" Danny was livid, pacing the room furiously, kicking up dust and debris from the orange shag carpet that probably hadn't seen a vacuum since the seventies.

"What now?" she snapped acidly. She hadn't seen daylight in two days, and the constant gloom and filth of the room was starting to get to her. At least the malodorous odors had become less noticeable. She could keep food down now without wanting to heave every time she took a breath.

"When you fuck up, you do it spectacularly!" he raged on. Danny had spent the past two days trying to find out any information on what could have happened to the jewels after Frankie Jr. got hold of them, but came up completely empty. "I know you aren't too bright, but I would think you'd have had a better plan than to hide 10 million dollars' worth of jewels in the closet of your own house! Especially when your own fucking husband was under suspicion! Even if he hadn't found them, the police would have!" he raked a hand through his hair viciously.

By now, the safe had surely disappeared, and the cops were watching both houses. Since his face was all over the place, thanks to that screw up with Greta, he couldn't get any more information without ending up in cuffs.

"Yeah, well I did. What the hell am I supposed to do about it now?" she shouted back, crossing her arms over her chest petulantly.

Danny's face was already purple with rage, and now it deepened, turning the color of an overripe plum. Stalking over to where she was sitting on the bed, he grabbed her by a handful of bleached blond hair, and pulled her up so that she was bare centimeters from his face.

"You will do whatever I say you will do," he ground out through clenched teeth. The muscles in his jaw were twitching spasmodically, and judging by the way he was quaking, his control was tenuous at best. "Do-you-understand?" he asked, his espresso-colored eyes boring into her.

Somehow, Julie managed to swallow the acid remark on the tip of her tongue, and just nodded her head tersely.

"Good." He released her hair, and, shoving her back, caused her head to smack against the headboard with a sickening thud. She bit back the whimper that was trying to claw its way out of her throat, and watched warily until he was across the room again before she tried to sit up.

"So," she ventured cautiously, "What do you want me to do?" The muscles in his jaw were still twitching, but he didn't move toward her again, so she continued, "My kids still won't talk to me, and Greta won't give us anything."

"No, she won't," he finally returned, "Not voluntarily, anyway. We, or I should say you, are going to pay her a little visit."

"But, I just told you—"

"She may not be afraid of you," he cut her off, "but she is afraid of me."

"What do you mean?" Julie asked tremulously, adding, "I can't get near her with the kids around."

"The kids are out of town- I saw them packing for a camping trip when I drove by this morning." Even though, he hadn't been able to park on the street anymore, he had made several passes that day in hopes that the squad car would be gone. It hadn't left yet, but with the kids all gone, he could finally put Julie to work. If she got herself busted, that was on her.

"That still doesn't explain what I'm supposed to do," Julie whined, flinching when it looked like he might come at her again.

His palm itched with the desire to backhand her, but he ground his teeth some more, and stayed where he was. "You'll get whatever evidence she has, hopefully the jewels. I doubt we'll be that lucky, but whatever she has must give some clue about where that asshole husband of yours stashed them."