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Maggie “WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING, MORON!?” I screamed as I threw an old, white nurse shoe at the little man. My aim must be getting off because it sailed right over his head. “Hey! Don’t blame this on me you old — Agh!” He was cut off as a gray snow boot hit him square in the jaw. Nope. Still got it. “Actually, I will blame this on you, you little sea urchin!” I yelled slightly quieter since I could see Brutus was starting to look nervous. “Bringing him to the riskiest bar in town? Yeah, nothing could go wrong there. What were you planning on doing next? Petting a rattlesnake? Running through broken glass?” “You’re totally right!” he yelled right back at me. “I should’ve known that there would be assassins there looking for someone who looked like Brutus! Next time we’ll go to Chuck E. Cheese’s to hang out. We’ll even wear disguises just in case!” I was seething. He dared use that indignant, sarcastic tone with me? He was practically a child, only in his late ’20s. His generation wouldn’t know respect if it smacked him upside the head! I blame parents these days. They let their children get away with anything, and then they grow up thinking that kind of behavior is perfectly fine. I was about to yell back at him, but Brutus finally spoke up. “Can you guys please not fight? I don’t want to wake up the neighbors.” My anger subsided a bit. Brutus was such an innocent boy that it was very difficult to stay cross when he was around. Brutus was like a son to me, since I had no children of my own, and I did what I could to act as a parent since his own had died. I didn’t want him to be upset, but I still needed to question the idiot who put my child in such a perilous situation. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before I talked again. “You said there were two men. The first was knocked out, but did you make sure that the second did not follow you after you left?” The little imp gaped stupidly at me, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. “I-I mean… well I don’t thin—” “You are going to be the death of us all!” I was yelling once again at the fool. “How do you know that they did not follow you to this very apartment?” He couldn’t even look me in the eye. He knew I was right. The only reason I didn’t throw him out right then and there was because I didn’t Page 83

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