Damn Good Reasons **DISCONTINUED - SEE NEW VER!**

Chapter 8 - Unfinished Business (Part 2)

"What the fuck happened to you?" Ace asked as we got into his car.

"What do you mean?"

"You're white as ghost and shaking like you're having a mild seizure."

Pull yourself together, Cassie, I told myself, taking a breath. "I need you to take me here," I said, holding up the piece of paper Carl gave me.

"I ain't takin' you nowhere but home, sweetheart. I've done my good deed for the day."

"Good deed?" I scoffed. "Don't try to bullshit me like you were only trying to help me out when all along you just had your eyes on the money. A thousand dollars, Ace? I have no idea how I'm gonna pay that back!"

"They want you to pay it back?"

"Yes."

"Shit..."

"Take me. Do a proper good deed for once in your life and take me."

Ace looked at me and appeared to reconsider. "Didn't your mother ever teach you manners?"

"Please. Please, Ace?"

Ace reached over and snatched the piece of paper out of my hand. "Hutt."

"Do you know it?"

"Yeah, I know it. It's two fucking hours away." He tossed the bit of paper back at me.

"Then we'd better get going."

Ace heaved a breath to show his disapproval of the arrangement before turning the ignition and sinking his foot to the floor.

Neither of us spoke for the entire journey. Ace didn't touch his last two beers, and there were no offers for a rematch of our baseball game. I assumed his mind was heavily set on the girl, and I was consumed with worry about the money. The two hours dragged on, but we eventually arrived in the tiny town of Hutt.

The main street was anything but bustling. There were only two stores open, and the rest had closed signs hanging in the windows. There were a couple of people loitering around which was the only thing that stopped it from feeling like a ghost town. I was almost expecting to see tumbleweed come rolling by.

Two streets down, Ace pulled into the driveway of a single-storied, run-down house on a tiny section that badly needed the lawns mowed. The house was in dire need of attention with peeling clapboard, torn curtains and a couple of smashed windows. I looked down at the address for the millionth time as if we might have made a mistake.

"Looks like the place is still empty," he said after turning the car off. "You gonna check it out?"

I got out and did a full circular lap of the house, hands in the back pockets of my jeans. I peered in through the windows as best I could, but there wasn't much to see apart from crappy broken furniture. It was definitely empty.

Ace had gotten out of the car and was at the front door, rattling the handle. "You want me to kick it in?" he asked as I joined him.

I tried turning the knob myself and briefly inspected the lock. I pulled out a thick piece of bent wire from the back pocket of my jeans – one of a few small lock-picking tools I carried with me. It seemed silly to take them with me wherever I went, but those pieces of scrap metal had been my lifeline for the first weeks after I arrived in Castle Rock and I still couldn't part with them.

I inserted my wire into the lock, poked around until I felt the lever lift and then turned it over to unlock the door.

"Fuck me..." Ace said.