Low Sided A.J. Downey (ebook reader macos TXT) 📖

She sighed and I could see she was strained, emotionally or whatever, and I felt it too.

“Look, as soon as I can, I’ll get out of here. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate everything you’re doing. Truly. I owe you. A lot more than some fuckin’ groceries.”

“It’s not you,” she said around an uncomfortable laugh. “It’s not. Really.”

“What is it, then?” I asked, capturing her gaze with mine where she sat on the closed lid of the john.

Her lips thinned and she shook her head, remaining resolutely mute on the subject.

“Okay, that’s cool with me. We don’t have to talk about it or anything at all, really.”

“You must think I’m a total basket case,” she said with a sigh, putting her face in her hands.

“No,” I answered truthfully, even though it hadn’t been asked. “I’m not sure what’s going on, and it’s not my place to judge,” I said with a shrug. “If I had to guess, though, I’d say you’ve maybe been through some rough stuff?”

She nodded, looking away, and said softly, “Yeah.”

“You don’t have to tell me anything,” I said. “But if you want to talk or anything, I’m here.”

She smiled and still wouldn’t really look at me which was fine. I think she was doing it for my modesty’s sake at this point.

“I appreciate it,” she murmured.

“Don’t mention it,” I said.

The next morning, I woke in pain to my phone shrilling beside the bed. I answered it, groggy and the woman’s voice on the other end of the line was like being doused by a bucket of ice water.

“So, did you just forget you had an appointment with me this morning, Mr. Anderson?”

“Oh, oh, shit no. My phone got broken and the reminder didn’t transfer over,” I answered honestly. “I’m like two blocks away.”

“Uh-huh.”

“No, really, I am. Dumb luck that part but it’s the God’s honest truth, Kim. I’m right around the corner and I’ll piss test, I’ll do whatever you want. Just please—”

“You have ten minutes, Caleb. Get here,” she said curtly, and the line went dead in my ear.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

“What is it?” Raven asked thickly from beside me.

“Fucking parole officer. The office is around the corner. I have ten minutes. I’ve gotta get there.”

I groaned and sat up, struggling. Raven sat up too.

“Parole?” she echoed faintly.

“Yeah,” I said unhappily. We’d talked a lot, late into the night. She knew I’d been locked up but I hadn’t mentioned the whole parole thing. “Can you help me get there?” I asked.

“I can get you close, but—”

“No, that’s great. I don’t need you to go in with me.”

“I just… I just don’t have a – you know what? Never mind. I like you. I don’t want you to be in trouble. You probably shouldn’t be seen with me,” she said softly, and she got up and started getting dressed. I pulled my boots on under my straight-legged sweats.

“That’s a fucked-up thing to say,” I said, coughing and crying out with pain.

“It’s the truth, I won’t get into it now… just, come on. We should hurry.”

She ducked under my arm and helped me up and into my jacket. I left my cut. She shrugged into her coat and resumed her position as my crutch, and we went swiftly. It was raining outside and cold. The chill burned my lungs at first and I fought not to cough. It hurt, every step a grinding painful ache.

Kim, my parole officer, was waiting outside the Washington State Parole Board’s storefront office. Good ol’ Rat fucking City, I thought. There was bail bonds on the corner, fucking parole and probation office in the middle of the street, right next to a King County Sherriff’s satellite and community policing office. Guess that tells you what kind of area we were in if nothing else.

“You look like hell,” Kim remarked dryly, her arms crossed over her chest. She wore her uniform of khaki tactical pants, blue polo with stitched on badge, and blue and yellow windbreaker marked Parole Board. “You know, staying out of fights was a condition of your parole, Caleb.”

“It wasn’t a fight,” Raven said before I had the chance to speak.

“She’s right, it was a straight-up ass kicking.”

“He got his ass handed to him defending me from some jerks in my bar. He was minding his own business. Honest. You… you can look me up,” she said. “I have a clean record. You can see for yourself. I’m not lying.”

“Both of you, inside now. We’ll sort it out at my desk.”

Raven looked fucking scared when I glanced at her in wonder but she nodded without looking at either of us. We followed Kim to her cubicle where she pulled a chair up opposite her desk to match the one already there. Raven lowered me into the first seat and took the one beside mine.

“See some ID?” Kim asked and Raven produced hers and handed it over.

“Tanis McGowan,” she muttered, and she put her fingers to keys.

I watched Kim’s eyes bounce back and forth behind her blocky glasses as she read what was on her screen and then she paused, sitting back a little as Raven shifted nervously in her seat.

Kim fixed her with what could only be described as a sympathetic look.

“He works out of this office sometimes,” she said softly. “But not today. You can relax.”

Raven looked up sharply and her eyes welled up, but she didn’t cry. All she did was nod.

“No way you’re lying,” Kim said, handing back her ID.

She fixed me with a look and said, “Okay, tell me what happened.”

I cringed a bit and said, “Honestly, I was drunk as fuck and don’t remember most of it. I was at the bar, Raven – I mean Tanis here was all friendly like and cutting me off and the next thing I know, I’m being stomped into the barroom floor and then the next flash I have after that? I’m being stomped some more into the pavement outside.”

“Okay.” Kim nodded, running a