“Bonnie,” she said with an icy smile, “what can I do for you?”
Sitting there all calm and cool, as if she hadn’t ordered someone to beat up Travis. My fear of her dissolved like an ice cube in a fire. “Who do you think you are?” I barked.
Sadie didn’t even blink she was so unmoved by my outburst. “I believe I’m the woman offering you shelter and protection when your own parents tossed you aside like yesterday’s trash. Now tell me what I have done to offend you, Bonnie.”
What had she done? I wanted to shout all her crimes, but I knew that behavior would have the opposite effect on this formidable woman, so I counted to five and then back to zero before I spoke. “You hurt Travis.”
Sadie shook her head. “Travis hurt himself. He had fair warning. He wasn’t to give you anything, not even one pill or there would be hell to pay. He chose the wrong path, just as you are determined to choose wrong, as in keeping the wrong kind of company.”
She shook her head again, this time I felt her disappointment internally. “You have to be smarter than this, Bonnie. What would have happened if Virgil and Cal hadn’t been with you the other night?”
She was right. Of course, she was right. “Apparently, I’m not smarter than that. Seems like my parents and Father Eric were right about me. Now I’m not only a stupid whore, I’m a junkie as well.” The last admission came out over a lump of grief stuck in my throat.
That was a hard pill to swallow, made harder by enduring it without the help of Oxy.
“Bullshit!” Sadie spat out. “You are a smart college graduate. You’re only a fuck up if you choose to be, and right now, you’re choosing it. Choose to be a better person, Bonnie, and you’ll become better.”
That sounded great, in theory, but I didn’t know where to start. “I want to do that.” All the anger I felt when I walked into the dark office had deflated under Sadie’s wise words.
“Then do it.” She said the words easily and quickly, but Sadie had more to say. I took a seat in one of the club chairs in front of the large desk and waited. Patiently.
“It won’t be easy, Bonnie, change never is. But it’ll be a hell of a lot easier once you get off the fucking drugs.”
Drugs? Again? I shook my head, ready to deny it to her just as I had to Calvin.
“I’m not on drugs. The pills came from a doctor and they’re for pain, you know, from getting mugged?”
I didn’t bother to add that, somehow, my false arrest very likely rested at the feet of someone in her family. I had no proof, and even if I did, what would I do with it?
“Bullshit,” she said, this time spitting the words out like bad sushi. “Don’t bullshit me, sweetheart. I’ve been doing it longer and I’m much better at it than you are. Something you’d realize if you weren’t constantly high.”
A bitter snort-laugh escaped, and I shook my head. “Haven’t been high in a few days now, thanks for asking.”
Sadie’s brows rose skeptically, and when she shook her head, her silver-blonde hair didn’t dare move. “Hand over the pills and whatever else you’re using.”
I wanted to be offended. But, I just sighed and shook my head. “I’m pretty sure Calvin already took everything, and since Travis got your message loud and clear, you have nothing to worry about.”
Her pink lips curled into a satisfied smile. “Good. Too bad he didn’t listen the first time around.”
Sadie’s superpower, I realized, was that tone. It was even and soft, but there was just a hint of menace in it that stuck with me for a long time afterward. And the look in her steely green eyes said mess with her and her family at your own peril.
“I’ll be watching you Bonnie.”
Well, that was a threat if I ever heard one. I stood, nodding slowly. “I understand.”
If I screwed up again, it would likely be my last chance, then I’d be well and truly on my own then.
“Good. Calvin will be good to you. I promise.”
I shook my head at her words. “It’s not like that. Calvin feels sorry for me, and like you said, I’m too much of a screw up right now for anything but charity.”
“We all fuck up, Bonnie.”
I shook my head but Sadie continued to nod.
“I stayed with an abusive man even after he started abusing my kids, a really big fuck up on my part. One I work hard to fix every day, Bonnie. Every. Fucking. Day.”
It felt like she was telling me more than her words revealed, but my mind was all over the place, unfocused and fuzzy so I nodded. “I’ll do my best.”