Read The Debt 12 (Club Alpha) for Free Online Page B

dark coat and
dark sunglasses.   She looked much
different than she had the other night.   It was as if she was attending a funeral.
    “Hi, it’s me again,” Monique greeted her.   Her voice was low and raspy.   “I’m so sorry to disturb you guys, but I
didn’t know where else to go.”
    Chase was clearly uncomfortable.   “What…ah…do you want—you know…do
you need anything?”
    Monique shrugged slightly, and Faith
realized that this was truly a job for a woman.   Chase was a big, strapping, strong
man.   He had no idea what it was
like to be vulnerable, to be in Monique’s situation.
    “Do you want to talk for a minute, just
the two of us?” Faith said.   “We can
sit and have coffee in the kitchen.”   She looked at Chase and he seemed relieved to be off the hook.
    “I actually wanted to hop in the shower,”
he said.   “I’ll be down in like
twenty or thirty minutes.”
    Faith waved at him.   “We’ll be fine,” she assured him, and
then put her hand on Monique’s shoulder.   “Coffee sound good?”
    “Yes,” Monique said, and her voice was
strained but grateful.   “Thank
you.”   She pulled off her sunglasses
and her eyes looked very tired, and one of them was black and blue.
    Faith felt a surge of pure, unadulterated
rage as she realized that this was clear proof that Chase’s story was
true—not that she ever had reason to doubt it.
    They walked into the kitchen and Faith
started a pot of coffee.   As she
worked, Monique unbuttoned her coat and put it over the chair next to the table
and then sat down.
    “I’m not sure if Chase told you about
what happened to me the other night…”
    “He did,” Faith said.
    There was a long silence and Monique
didn’t seem anxious to fill it.  
    “So,” Faith said, smiling, trying to put
Monique at ease.   “I take it you’re
not just here to test out my coffee making skills.”
    “No, I wish that was what brought me here,”
Monique replied wearily.   She
dragged a hand across her forehead and closed her eyes.   “I’m dead tired.   Haven’t slept in forty-eight hours.   And I’m scared, too.”   She opened her eyes and Faith was struck
once more by how beautiful Monique was, even with everything that was happening
to her.
    “What are you scared of, right this
instant?” Faith asked.
    “That I don’t know what I’m doing.   That my life is going down the drain.”
    “Anything else?” Faith probed.
    Monique licked her lips and tapped the
table, nodding.   “I’m scared of him ,” she whispered.
    “Do you want to tell me about what
happened to your eye?”  
    “I hardly remember.   But I know what happened because it’s
happened before.   This wasn’t the
first time, not even close.”
    Faith sighed, pulling down two mugs from
the cupboard and then pouring the steaming coffee into them.   Her own heart was beating fast but her
hands weren’t shaking yet, at least.   “How do you take it?”
    “I have no idea,” Monique croaked.   “I guess I’m just crazy like that.”
    “No, I mean your coffee.   How do you take it?”
    The two women made eye contact and burst
into laughter.   Instantly, a great
deal of the tension left the room.
    “Black,” Monique said, and that set them
both to laughing once more.
    Faith brought her mug to her and then sat
down next to her with her own mug, and crossed her legs.   “Tell me about him,” she said.
    “Well, first of all—to me, he’s not
Velcro.   He’s just Steve.”
    Faith understood all too well what the
other woman was saying.   “I
completely get that, believe me.”
    “I know,” Monique said.   “We’re our own little
club—girlfriends and wives of athletes, and especially superstar athletes.   It’s something that you can’t really
relate to unless you’re one of us.   That’s part of why I came here.   I figured you’d be here with Chase, and I wanted to talk to you.”
    “Really?   You were looking for