Gideon's Redemption Read Online Free PDF Page A

against the cinderblock walls. Without a choice, she started up the three flights on aching feet because the elevator was broken again. As she approached her apartment, she dug in her purse for her keys. Trying to calm herself, she stood still for a moment, taking deep, slow breaths before going inside. Instead of settling her nerves though, she suddenly felt zapped of energy and slumped against the door, tears burning her eyes.
    After Gideon left The Bungalow, Anton had called her into his office and summarily fired her. He was unwilling to listen to reason. He didn’t care that a customer was coming on to her and wouldn’t take no for an answer. He didn’t care that she was being harassed and stalked by her ex-boyfriend. He didn’t care that he was leaving a single mother without a paycheck. All he cared about was upsetting His Eminence, Chief Big Shot of the Music Industry, and Supreme Being, Gideon Eli.
    Blinking back tears, she felt the hopelessness set in. She had $450 in savings. That was $50 short of the tuition for the last class she needed to complete her degree. She was so close, but now so far away from the teaching certificate she’d been working on for over a decade. Grants and scholarships were available, but only for halftime students. She couldn’t afford rent and childcare while also decreasing her hours at work to go halftime. Therefore, she had slowly scrimped and saved enough to take one class at a time.
    Now she was back to square one. Her savings would buy her one month’s rent and a little time, maybe a month or so, to look for another job. Reaching into her pocket, she counted her tips—$75—not bad for a half shift. That would buy about two weeks of groceries if she bought cheap. Just the necessities would wipe her out. She didn’t want to think of Christmas, which was right around the corner.
    Remembering her babysitter who was on the clock, she sucked it up, took a deep breath, and dried her eyes before she opened the door.
    “Shannon? Is that you?” Betsy Donahue called as she stepped into her apartment. Betsy was her sixty-something-year-old widow and neighbor. To their mutual benefit, she had been in need of a job, and living on the first floor of Shannon’s building had made it so convenient. It was a perfect situation. Unfortunately, Shannon’s newly unemployed status would roll downhill to Betsy.
    “Yeah, Bets, it’s me.” She could hear the exhaustion in her own voice as she walked to the sofa and collapsed, kicking off her heels and sighing in relief.
    “You’re home early, dear.” Betsy came out of the kitchen, drying her hands on a dishtowel. Coming to sit beside her, she squeezed her hand and asked, “Is everything okay?”
    “Not really… I got fired tonight.”
    “Oh my!”
    “Yeah! Oh my, is right!” Rolling to her side, she rested her head on her friend’s shoulder. “What am I gonna do, Bets?”
    Betsy’s arm gathered her close and she hugged her tight. Betsy was like a mother to her, and she loved her son like a grandmother would, if he’d had one.
    “What happened? You’ve been there for three years. How dare they?” Indignant on her behalf, Betsy huffed and fumed. “It was that S.O.B. Anton, wasn’t it? Stupid man couldn’t find his ass with both hands. What idiot gave him a management job anyway?”
    Hearing Betsy curse made Shannon giggle. The sweet, grandmotherly type looked the part, but her late husband was a marine, and Betsy could turn a colorful phrase when she got riled.
    “Whatcha gonna do, honey?”
    “I guess I’ll be job hunting, starting tomorrow.”
    “I’ve a good mind to go over to that place and kick that man’s ass up around his ears.”
    “That’s not necessary. Just come over and watch Eli for me so I can look for a new job.”
    “Anytime, doll.”
    After she left, Shannon locked up and went to check on Eli. Carefully opening his door, she quietly walked in and looked down at her precious son. He was her life; she