Malpractice Makes Perfect

Chapter 20

          To say I was distracted at work the next day would be an understatement. Luckily, so many years slinging coffee to the masses had left me very equipped to deal with the daily dealings of your average American café with all the thought God gave a gnat. That meant the other 99.99 percent of my mental faculties were busy going over everything that could possibly go wrong during this evening's espionage. And there was a lot that could go wrong, ranging from losing the case to maybe even getting arrested.

         My plan needed to go off without hitch...but life was chaotic and unpredictable sometimes, so I needed to be prepared for the worst.

          Jackson had decided to hit up Snappers for lunch, for the quote 'bomb ass wings', and thus Pasha and I were handling the lunch rush by ourselves. I was mildly annoyed that he'd decided to take a late lunch, I admit. It wasn't technically wrong, but it meant he'd be back just in time to work only thirty minutes and then clock out.

          That shit really irked me.

          Anyway, as I was handing a customer his cappuccino with two percent milk, the bell above the front door jingled in a way I recognized as someone snatching it open with a certain amount of angry force. I looked up in time to see Malik pushing his way to the front of the line.

          He slammed his open palms down on the countertop in front of my register and roared as loud as a lion, "Where is my necklace?"

          The casual chatter inside died as everyone turned to watch. "Excuse me sir. You'll have to wait in line like everyone else."

          He straightened his back and touched a hand to his hunter green tie as if to adjust it. "I'm not fucking around. I want my shit!"

          "Pasha, can you handle this crowd for a few minutes?"

          She looked between us with her mouth slightly slack. "Uh...yeah."

          I carefully walked Malik to my office; my body as calm on the outside as it was a fluttering mess of fear on the inside. It's not that I was afraid, I didn't believe he would hurt me in front of all these people. It was the amount of balls it took him to come to me like this. Before he had always appeared calm and collected no matter what was happening. But now...

          When we got to the back, I gestured him in and followed but left the door wide open.

          "Where is my necklace?" He said this time with that air of coolness firmly back in place.

          "Your necklace? Why should you have it when your mother wanted your sister to have it?"

          He frowned deeply; his face became a mask of contempt. "What business is it of yours either way?"

          "Why do you care about an ugly necklace when you conveniently got most of her assets?"

          "I deserve that money!"

          "Deserve it how? Because you're smarter than your siblings? More successful? The oldest? Educate me, what's the arbitrary reason?"

          "I earned it!"

          "How?"

          "You think those early years were easy? You think my mother became a millionaire with a husband and two kids without help?" He stomped his foot down like a naughty child. "I was the one watching my siblings while my parents worked!"

           "You think you deserve everything for babysitting?"

           "I raised those kids."