“I’ll calm down as soon as you tell me what happened and where to find the soon-to-be-dead asshole responsible,” she ground through a clenched jaw.
Kat sighed on the other end, no doubt resigning herself to the fact that Vanessa had no intentions of calming down about anything. “I’m okay, Nessie. Just a little banged up.” There was a pregnant pause, and then a mumbled, “This time.”
“What do you mean, ‘this time’? So help me God, Kat, if you don’t start spilling your guts I will hire every P.I. in the country until I find you, upon which I will kidnap you and hold you prisoner for your own damn good.”
“I don’t need your protection, Ness,” Kat bit out.
“Oh, really? Then why the hell are you in a hospital?”
Another sigh. “This is a special situation. Lenny got mixed up with owing money to the wrong people. When he couldn’t pay…” Vanessa almost heard her sister shrug through the phone. “They said they wanted to put a little fear of God into him. So they roughed me up so he could find me when he got home.”
“Oh my God.” Vanessa sank back onto the couch. Her mind barely registered Jackson rubbing her back, but her body lost some of its tension and her heart didn’t race quite so fast. “How much does Lenny owe them?”
Silence.
“Kat! How much?”
“Twenty thousand dollars.”
“Holy—”
“I’m so sorry, Nessie, I know it’s a lot of money, and it absolutely kills me to have to ask you. You know that. But I don’t know what else to do. They said they’d kill Lenny if he didn’t come up with the money and they’d just take me as payment instead.”
Kat’s words had become less coherent every second until at last all she could manage was broken, choking sobs. Vanessa’s heart rent in two. She wanted to sob right along with her sister, but she took a deep breath and used her big-sister voice.
“Okay, Kitty Kat, take it easy. Listen to me now.” She kept her tone soft but firm, just as she had when they were younger and Vanessa needed Kat to follow her instructions. “I want you to take some deep breaths. That’s it, settle down. Everything’s going to be all right. I’ll fix it, I promise.”
Kat’s shaky breaths were followed by sniffles and then finally silence.
“Good. Now how much time do you have before they come to collect again?”
“Two days.”
“Two days? I’ve never understood that about thugs. If you don’t have the money now, what makes them think you can magically make it appear in two goddamn days?” She put her head in her hand and rubbed absently at her temple. “Okay, let me think. I have some in savings, but the rest will have to come from my 401K, but that’ll take a few days to even process. Will they take a down payment as an act of good faith? What am I saying? They’re criminals; they don’t know the meaning of good faith.”
“Tell her she’ll have it by tomorrow.”
Vanessa spun around on the couch and stared at Jackson. “What did you say?”
“You heard me. Tell her.”
“Jax,” she said, “maybe you thought you heard her say two thousand, but—”
“It’s a cell phone, V. The conversation might as well be in the room. I know she needs twenty Gs.”
Vanessa glanced around the cottage as inconspicuously as possible, looking for signs that the man she loved wasn’t in fact as destitute as he seemed.
“I know it doesn’t seem like it,” he said with an amused smirk, “but I’m doing pretty well for myself. Trust me when I say I can give her the money.”
“Loan,” Vanessa argued. “You’re loaning me the money, with interest, and I’m paying you back.”
“We’ll arm wrestle about it later. Just tell her to find a place nearby that accepts money transfers— No, you know what?” His eyes narrowed and his jaw set like he’d been challenged and was now readying for a fight. “Find out where she is. We’ll fly out there to make sure that man of hers doesn’t fuck it up again. That way the debt gets paid without any more problems.”
Vanessa’s heart swelled ten times its normal size. At any moment, she expected to see it pushing between her ribs, it was so full of love for the man in front of her. She kissed him hard and fast and mouthed the words thank you before resuming the conversation with her sister and getting all the information needed to carry out Jax’s plan.
After going over the details several times to be sure there was no room for miscommunication, and then telling Kat she loved her and would see her soon, Vanessa hung up the phone and collapsed back against Jackson’s chest.