Don’t Love, Don’t Lose

Chapter 6

“Tony?”

“That was fast, Roger.”

“It wasn’t hard to find. Not if you knew what to look for. What do you know about this Jasmine Turner?”

“I know where she works. She codes and she hacks.”

“She does both, and she has an excellent reputation as a coder. One of the brightest minds in the industry. If she’s on the case, she will find you the proof you need. It won’t stand up in court because it’ll have been obtained using, let’s say, creative methods.”

“I don’t need it to stand up in court. I just need to know who to fire.”

“And then there will be another one,” pointed out Roger.

“I won’t let them be. Did you find out what I asked you to?”

“Jasmine Turner. She’s an orphan. Her parents died in what was ruled an accident due to negligence of the other driver, but there was no prosecution. She was eleven when they died. She was taken in by her godmother, Della Simone, who is currently working for you. Della Simone already had a daughter, Henrietta. They were very close in age. Simone was a single mother at a time. She got involved with her neighbor, Thomas Arnold, but that didn’t take. He left. Simone held things together, and from all accounts, the two girls had a good childhood. Henrietta Simone is now a manager at a PR agency.”

“It’s not Henrietta Simone that I need to know about.”

“Impatient as ever. Have you ever considered calling yourself Impatient Anthony? Or Hasty Tony?”

“Roger…”

“Fine, fine. Jasmine Turner’s parents had taken a couple of loans from a certain disreputable character. It wasn’t exactly official. Her new guardian, Simone, paid off as much as she could from the state that the Turners left behind. But that wasn’t enough. They didn’t own the home outright, or the car they’d been driving in, which had been totaled anyway.”

“Sanders.”

“Bingo. Sanders likes collecting loans in creative ways. Once Jasmine Turner turned eighteen, she became the target, not Della Simone. I don’t know how she did it, but in two years, while she was still in college, she managed to pay it all off.”

“And that was the end of that?”

He heard the hesitation in the pause.

“There were a couple of blips. A couple of visits to the emergency room from Jasmine Turner. Nothing serious, but one of those times there was a black eye and contusions, and broken ribs.”

“He sent his goons to beat her up?”

“I think there was more to it than just the money. Be careful, Tony.”

“I’m always careful. Thanks, Roger.”

More of that hesitation.

“I’m coming down there.”

“What?”

“I have a case I was considering sending somebody else down to Baltimore for. Now I don’t have to. I’m coming down there.”

“You don’t…”

“When will you realize, Tony, that no matter how rich you get, you’ll never be the boss of me? I’ll see you soon.”

Roger hung up, and Anthony stood there, a little baffled.

Apparently, Roger had decided that he needed backup, whether he liked it or not.

That was unexpected. But Anthony went to bed that night lighter than he had in a while. Having Roger by his side would help.

It always helped.

“You don’t have to stay with me, Rita.”

Rita had come over the night before, and despite her objections that she was perfectly fine and did not need a babysitter, Jasmine had been glad. But now she’d had a day to work and get herself figured out, and she didn’t like having put Rita out of her way at all.

“I’m staying until I’m sure you’re fine. And anyway, Lucy likes me. Don’t you, Lucy?”

Lucy did like Rita, a bit too much. Jasmine was beginning to feel a little ignored.

“Why don’t you go home with Rita then, you ungrateful feline destroyer?”

“She just used one of those pillows as a scratching post. It did look a little like a post after you propped it up like that. Besides I’ve always thought that those barrel-looking pillows are useless. You can rest your head on them, they keep rolling away, and you can expect them to stay put when you need to prop yourself up. Those pillows need pillows. Say, Mama sent you lasagna. She didn’t send me lasagna. I don’t like this favoritism, Jas. You’re my sister and I love you, but Mama is supposed to love us both equally and she doesn’t seem to do that.”

Jasmine chuckled.

“She knew you were on a diet because you told her, Rita. You can hardly blame her after that. You could’ve just kept it to yourself, you know, and nobody would’ve known.”

“Then I would’ve eaten everything and broken my diet. Smashed it into pieces. I don’t know how you never get fat. I swear, puberty just meant you got taller and you got boobs. You got hips, but barely any.”

“Now you’re being mean. Did you stay over to be nice or to be mean?”

“I’m your sister, I’m entitled to be mean.”

She was. She was her sister. People said that blood mattered, but Jasmine knew from experience that blood only mattered as much as they seemed to think it did if you let it. If you let your heart matter more, then it mattered more.

“Fine, then I’ll defrost the nice, healthy soup, and we can have that for dinner.”

“Don’t even think about it. We’re having lasagna. And you can thank me later – or now, if you’d like to, I don’t mind – but I got a gallon of cookies and cream on the way home.”

“I don’t think you understand the concept of a diet, Rita.”

“I think I understand the concept just fine. I just disagree with it tonight. Come on, now. We didn’t do anything last night, I just hugged you, and you fell asleep. I can’t believe you fell asleep, the cat must’ve helped. But I’m not leaving until we talk, so we might as well have ice cream.”

Jasmine sighed. Apparently, she wasn’t about to get a choice.

“All right. I’ll get the wine, too.”

“Now you’re talking.”

They were curled up on the couch in a few minutes, and Jasmine had to admit that she did feel better. It was nice to not be alone.

“So, my Jas, you’re going after Ruthless Rick.”

“I don’t like thinking of him like that.”

“I know you don’t. But this is the man who tried to have you beaten up when you were twenty years old, darling.”

“I know. He didn’t just try, so I know. But I could never prove it, and the investigation said it was a mugging gone wrong, so…”

“So nothing. I remember how things were. I remember how bad you were. I’m not going to let you go back there to help some guy who has more money than we can imagine. He doesn’t even need to set up here in Baltimore. He can go back to wherever he came from.”