Quit Bein' Ugly Vale, Lynn (popular books of all time .txt) 📖

a curse had me blinking my eyes open to see a brick landing on the mat beside my head.

I stared at it, then looked over my shoulder just in time to see Karen hurrying through the window as if she broke them every day to get into where she was going.

She all but stepped on me in her haste to get through, and I slipped sideways on the mat, falling between the wall and the thick mat that everyone liked to use as a bed.

As I did, I ended up concealing myself mostly, if inadvertently.

Everything in the room went silent as all movement stopped.

“I cannot believe you, Croft,” Karen hissed, standing on the mat as if she did it every day. “How could you do this to me?”

I saw Croft scan the room for me but not find me, and I popped up a bit more to show him where I was.

He saw me, tagged me, then swiftly looked away.

“I don’t think I know what you’re going on about, Karen,” Croft said. “Would you care to share?”

Karen snorted. “You don’t know… you lost me my job! Both of them!”

Croft looked over at Flint, then back to Karen. “Karen…”

“I asked for my job back because I didn’t get what I needed from you, and then you wouldn’t give it to me. Is it because of her?” Karen demanded to know.

“Who is her?” Croft asked.

“Her being that bitch that you couldn’t take your eyes off of. She asked you to fire me, didn’t she?” Karen snarled. “That stupid fat gym owner that could never compete against me. But no, Croft has to find the ugly duckling appealing. Her! Not me. How does that make any sense?”

What a bitch!

I was not an ugly duckling!

So rude.

“Umm,” Croft said. “I happen to think that she’s beautiful. She’s intelligent, calls people when they’re needed, and ultimately makes my heart smile. You do none of those things, Karen.”

Calls people when they’re needed.

Doh!

I quickly dialed 911 and hoped that she wouldn’t hear the call that was placed.

If I didn’t talk, would they send someone to my location?

“I’m everything that she’s not. I have a degree. I’m successful. I won beauty pageants!” she cried. “I bet you can’t say the same thing about your ugly duckling.”

I rolled my eyes hard and set my phone up slightly so that the person on the other end of the line could hear what was being said.

“Flint Stone is an officer, Karen,” Croft said, trying to relay information to the cops. “You should leave. Go to a police station and turn yourself in for stealing my computer.”

“Why did you steal the computer?” Flint asked. “What was in it for you?”

Karen shifted on the mat, causing it to squeak.

“There’s nothing really in it for me right now. But in a few years, when the partners that I was working with decided to add me in, I would jump to the front of the line,” Karen explained.

“Partners?” Flint asked.

“Partners Law Firm,” Croft guessed. “You’re working for the enemy?”

If I remembered correctly, Partners didn’t have ‘innocent’ clientele. They were criminal defense attorneys. And, from what I’d heard, always out for the buck. They’d represent anyone. Even a child killer.

“Sure.” Karen shrugged. “If you want to call it that. But then I was ‘caught’ with your computer, and they said that I was too much of a liability and they let me go. After all that I’d done for them!”

“Is that who Alfie worked for, too?” Croft asked. “He shot me, you know.”

“He wasn’t supposed to do that.” Karen shook her head. “He was supposed to just get the computer. He was fired, too. Because he shot you. Though they are representing him. Which I’ve been told is not a conflict of interest.”

I wanted to thunk my head against the mat. I would have had she not sounded so utterly confident in her words.

Was this woman serious?

“Why did he shoot me?” Croft asked, his eyes going to something over Karen’s shoulder, then back down.

“Because you pissed him off. Took his girl.” Karen shrugged. “He has a crush on the ugly duckling, too. I’m not sure what in the hell there is about that woman that draws everyone’s attention, but it’s really getting old.”

I rolled my eyes.

To have Alfie’s attention fixed on me wasn’t a good thing.

Not after learning that he was an almost-murderer. Would have been an actual murderer had he been a better shot.

“But that’s neither here nor there…” She squeaked when she was all of a sudden tackled to the ground.

That’s when I saw Schultz make use of the mat that usually was reserved for passing out on. Not tackling women on.

That was also when I saw the gun that she had in her waistband.

“She has a gun, Schultz!” I called out.

Schultz, having no idea where I was, ultimately listened and went up onto his knees. He easily pulled the gun free of her waistband and tossed it in the direction of the wall.

It hit with a resounding thud.

Flint went over to it and kicked it farther into the corner while he watched.

I stayed exactly where I was until Schultz was done and moving off the mat. And even then I stayed because I didn’t want to startle him.

“You can come out now, baby,” Croft said softly.

He stepped onto the mat and held out his hand.

I took it, and he hauled me up as if I weighed nothing.

“Why do you think you’re able to move better than I do when I’m not hurt?” I grumbled under my breath. “I just seriously watched you do thirty minutes on that assault bike, using only your legs. You should be dead right now.”

He chuckled, but then pressed his face into my neck and blew out a deep breath. “That could’ve been so bad.”

I silently concurred. I didn’t agree, though, because I really didn’t want him to know that I’d been deeply scared.

“You have blood running down your neck, sis,” Flint said.

Croft pulled back so fast that I stumbled.

“What?”