“You have to tell him, or authorize me to tell him.” Delaney was on the phone in Teresa’s room, speaking in a low voice. Pure force of habit; Rake couldn’t have heard her if she’d stood on the bed and shouted.
A murmur from the other end.
“I don’t care. Step up, or I will.” A pause while she listened. “Yeah? Well, he’s talking to his brother right now. He’s about to find out all of the bad but none of the good and then you’ll be toast. Listen: He’s a good guy. Annoying and entitled as shit, but decent, and I’m sure if you— Ouch.” The snarl of static not only cut her off; it made her ears ring.
(Huh. I thought that was just an old saying.)
“No, I’m not telling you your job.” Not anymore, that was for sure. Cripes. She reminded herself that the Big Pipe Dream was going to be the Big Thing That Never Happened if she didn’t hold up her end.
“Listen. Please. You gotta authorize my follow-through. He needs to know what’s going on, not just part of what’s going on, and they’re— What?” She listened, then said, “No, I haven’t seen them around. Pretty sure they’ve decided they’re on the wrong track—which is what we both wanted, right? Now. I need to be able to go back into our room and— Of course, ‘our’ room. I didn’t think that when you took his money you actually wanted him to sleep in the park.” She listened, her unease rising every second. That was fine; it could keep her nausea company. “No, of course not. He sleeps in the hide-a-bed, and— Nuh-uh. No. That’s not what you’re paying me for.” Unfortunately. “The hell’s the matter with you? I’m going to have to— You will? Right away?” Huh. Unexpected. And it would make everything worse and then maybe—maaaaybe she’d be off the hook and everyone could go back to their Rake-free lives.
Their lives is what she meant.
Or maybe her employer would just show up and slaughter everyone. That could be okay, too.