Page 45 of Cold Hard Cash

“What?” It was Cold’s turn to be surprised.

“Yeah.” Jimmy scoffed. “He tracked me down over at Maury’s and was asking me about what I was doing with you.”

“And what did you tell him?” Cold asked him carefully, his eyes never leaving Jimmy’s. His whole body had become rigid, and every muscle tensed as he set his glass aside.

“What did I tell him?” Jimmy glared and swallowed back a sob as the memory of the encounter bathed him in frustration. “I told him to fuck off! Maybe you should have done your research a little better because then you would know that I haven’t talked to Augustus in years! Oh, but the fucking second he thinks he can use me to get to you—”

“Jimmy,” Cold cautioned, bristling with rage.

“No! Fuck you!” Jimmy shot back, so furious with the interruption, it didn’t even register that Cold had actually used his first name. Tears ran down his face, and he angrily wiped them off with his sleeve. “He just wanted to use me like you! Some stupid little pawn in your bullshit game! I’m just some thing you both want to use to fuck with each other! You don’t care! And he even threatened me—”

“He threatened you,” Cold repeated, his voice strangely calm now. His body language shifted. Still angry, but now it was focused elsewhere.

“Yeah, threatened to put the word out that I was a snitch, that I had been talking to the cops, if I didn’t agree to give him information.” Jimmy sniffed and shook his head. “He’s such a bastard.”

Cold’s face was blank, but his fingers tapped at the rim of his glass as he let Jimmy talk.

“You know, the last time I called him was asking for money because I was hungry. I was desperate. He wouldn’t do it unless I came home and gave up on my dad.” Jimmy tried to stop crying, and his head throbbed as he tried to stay calm. He couldn’t hold any of it in and finally yelled, “You’re both assholes! Fuck Augustus and fuck you!”

Jimmy couldn’t breathe, and the room spun again. He could suddenly see flashes of blood, and he was unsure if it was his mother’s or Corman’s. He could only see red on silver, red on silver, over and over. His heart was pounding in his ears, so loud that everything else was drowned out by the terrible throbbing.

Not again.

It was happening again.

He was going to pass out.

Cold lunged forward as if to strike, his hand at the back of Jimmy’s neck. But he didn’t claw or squeeze. His hand was there but with only the gentlest pressure, warm and comforting.

“Breathe,” Cold commanded.

That voice, that dominant tone. It was a beacon in the darkness, and Jimmy latched on to it as he fought to drag himself out of the panic he’d fallen into.

Jimmy trembled, his hands rising to rest on Cold’s hips. He could feel the man’s tension beneath his fingers at being touched, but he wasn’t being pushed away. Cold’s grip at his neck invited Jimmy closer until he was standing.

“Just breathe,” Cold commanded again, his voice stern, but his hands were kind as they slid around to hold Jimmy’s shoulders.

Jimmy gasped for air, tears streaming down his face as he battled to suck in precious oxygen. His heart was racing so fast now that his stomach sloshed, and he desperately clung to the front of Cold’s suit to hold himself steady.

“Easy now,” Cold soothed, his tone softer now, even tender, as he coaxed him down off the edge of madness.

Sucking in one last shaking breath, Jimmy’s body finally settled. He still had his fingers tangled in Cold’s jacket, but he didn’t want to let go. “I’m sorry,” he said weakly. “It hasn’t… That hasn’t happened in a long time.”

“Was it the blood?” Cold asked quietly.

“Yes.” Jimmy closed his eyes. “My mother, she was murdered…” He laughed half-heartedly. “Well, I guess you know all about that too.”

“Your father is currently serving in Westchester for the crime.”

“Wrongly convicted,” Jimmy said quickly, always fast to defend him.

“So says every man in prison.”

“My father really is innocent. I know he didn’t kill my mother.”

Cold quirked his brows, his icy eyes ticking over the features of Jimmy’s face. “You really do believe he’s innocent. How can you be so sure?”

“Because I was there,” Jimmy whispered. “I saw the whole thing. I saw another man, the man who killed her, a man wearing a white coat.”