“Oh Caitlin, is that a new gift from Todd? Let me see, it’s gorgeous.” Her clueless ass mother cooed and drooled over the shit while I stared at the kid. “Kid, let me talk to you in my office for a minute.”
“Daddy…”
“I’m not going to kill ‘im… yet. Follow me.”
I left the room with him on my heels and passed Mengele in the hallway on the way to the kitchen. “You, I need to talk to you in a bit, don’t disappear. And keep that dog out my kitchen.” Damn dog thinks he owns my place.
Once in my office I walked around behind my desk and sat leaving the douche to stand. “You give my daughter that necklace?”
“Yes sir!”
Defensive fuck!
“Where did you get it?”
“Pardon?”
“Who made it?”
“Uh, this local jeweler, Simon.” I didn’t say shit for ten seconds.
“You tagged my kid?” His eyes damn near popped out of his head.
“You know Simon?”
“Yeah!” He looked like he was giving that shit a lotta thought. I might’ve just shown my hand.
No one knows except Simon of course, that all the jewelry I buy from his place for my wife and kids have trackers in them. It’s his specialty, the only thing he sells, but since the shit’s so expensive, not many around here can afford it. He sells mostly to out of town millionaires. Kinda like me, and my bikes.
“I’ma ask you again. You tagged my fucking kid?”
“Let me explain. I thought Caitie was going to be coming to college with me in the fall. I figured the best way to watch out for her was to...” He found his balls, squared his shoulders and looked me dead in the eye.
“It’s not what you think it’s just a way to protect her when she’s away from home. I know you worry about her and I thought I’d take that extra step.”
“And how do you know about Simon? You ever use him before?”
“No, I never needed to, there was never anyone I wanted to protect like I want to protect her.” This fuck!
“Believe it or not I never heard about what he does before I moved away. I was looking for the right thing to get her that would do the job and he was the best.”
“That shit looks expensive.”
“A bit pricey but that doesn’t matter to me, not as long as it’s for Caitlin.”
Oh-ho, now he’s challenging me? He still had enough sense to take a step back from the power of the glare I threw at him, but he’d already stood his ground. “I’m guessing you didn’t tell her what’s in that shit?”
“That would defeat the purpose sir.” I couldn’t decide whether to admire him for doing some shit that I’d have done, or tear his limbs from his body and beat him over the head with them for having the audacity to do that shit to my kid.
“You can go now, we’ll talk later.” I need time to process this shit.
I sat in my office long after the kid was gone deep in thought. For years now this kid has been growing on me, something I’ve kept from my wife and daughter of course, no need to encourage them in their shit. But that move he just made; I didn’t know he had it in him.
Now I’m gonna have to think about this shit. I’m still not letting my kid go off somewhere with him though, the fuck.
Todd
Whoa, that was intense! I’d learned a whole lot in the last ten minutes, now my eyes are wide open. I can only be grateful that I’d never crossed the line in the past, call it divine intervention. Because now I’m sure that if I’d ever broken any of his rules he would’ve known.
Now all the matching bracelets that the kids were never allowed to remove, and couldn’t even if they wanted to, because he had the little gold screw driver needed to remove them I’m sure made sense.
I almost jumped out of my skin when my future mother in law met me in the hallway. My eyes went immediately to the bracelet on her wrist and the rings on her finger, her wedding rings. I know how Mr. Lyon figured out where I got Caitie’s necklace.
Though his pieces are all one of a kind, Simon leaves a signature in all of his jewelry, something that only someone familiar with his work would recognize. She was covered in it. Damn!
“What did that beast do to you?” She’s just as cute as her daughter and for some strange reason I found myself hugging her again. “He didn’t do anything, we just had a nice little talk.” I felt happy, relaxed, in a way I never have here before. Because he didn’t make me take it back, he hadn’t ordered me to remove the necklace from his daughter’s neck.