Total pages in book: 212
Estimated words: 207966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1040(@200wpm)___ 832(@250wpm)___ 693(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 207966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1040(@200wpm)___ 832(@250wpm)___ 693(@300wpm)
“I’ve seen you with your girlfriend. Gia?”
“Yeah.”
“Seen you two a couple times now and the way you two look at one another? That reminds me of me and Jack. Makes me miss him even more. Don’t fuck that up.”
“How do you know it’s not gonna be her that fucks it up?” I returned.
“Good point,” she said with a shrug.
“Sorry you lost him, Coco.”
“How’d you lose your dad?” she asked.
“Killed himself,” I stated coldly.
I heard a gasp. And not from Coco.
I looked across the bar and Gigi was standing by the staircase door. In her booty shorts. Tank top. Bare feet. She’d come through looking for me.
“Sorry to hear that, Jesse,” Coco said, her hand landing on my shoulder.
“Yeah,” I muttered sourly. “That’s life I guess.”
It was quiet. Too quiet. I looked at Coco and she had her eyes on my girl.
“Well, I better set the alarm and head out.” She butted out the cigarette.
I butted mine, too, and passed her the pack of smokes.
“Sorry for your loss, too,” I said. “I’ll head back up that way with my girl so you can set the alarm and get home.”
“Appreciated.” She looked toward Gigi. “’Night.”
“Goodnight,” my girl croaked out, arms wrapped around herself, face lookin’ like she was about to bawl.
I grabbed the Jack bottle and made my way toward her.
She was immediately babbling. But there were two of her.
“I couldn’t find you. Bronto said he was sure you hadn’t left. Scott checked the men’s bathroom for me and said you weren’t there, so I came down here.”
I blinked hard to clear my vision. One of her now. Better.
This wasn’t like me. I never got sloppy drunk.
“Let’s get upstairs.” I swung my arm around her neck and pressed my code in to get past the door. It let you into the bar without a code as a fire exit precaution, but you couldn’t get back in that way without a code or a key fob. The Jackals had set the place on fire not long after we got here so this was put in after the place was rebuilt. I probably would’ve burnt up in that blaze based on the damage if I’d been here. But luckily for me, I was at Chantelle’s.
And I felt more sour bubble up in my gut. Sour at the notion of the Jackals getting anywhere near my girl. My brothers. The things we were working for goin’ up in smoke because of them. I wanted this shit over. I wanted to get to the good life I signed up for. Rallies. Parties. Riding. Brotherhood. Enough of this shit already.
But here I was, with a broken girl. A broken girl who might need more than what I’ve got to give so she can heal. Band-Aids weren’t enough for what was eating her up inside. I sure didn’t fuckin’ think some spankings, orgasm denial, and making her chant affirmations would solve it. And she didn’t have a Band-Aid on her latest wound because she was hoping I wouldn’t notice. On her legs instead of her arms where the cuts usually were. So, deception was starting in this relationship already.
We got through the top door.
“Oh, once you were lost but see you’re found, brother,” Bront greeted from the little lounge with a drunken smile.
He was sitting beside Dina, who was smiling at me, hair a mess, dressed in just her bra and underwear. She had her arm around him.
“Yup. Goodnight, Bront,” I said.
“Thanks, Bronto,” Gigi said.
“Any time,” he replied.
When we were in my room, I muttered, “Bront might get lucky tonight.”
“Yeah, looks like it,” she said. “Though that girl was getting busy with Blow and that other guy who’s visiting when I was on my way down. Evidently not everyone says no to her threesome invites.”
“They try to call you over?” I asked.
“She did. I ignored her.”
“You need to not be out of this room in these shorts. This sight is all for me.” I smacked her ass playfully.
She looked up into my eyes, wrapped her arms around me and buried her face in my neck. Her body started to quake, and I knew she was crying.
I stood, holding her, summoning words. It was gonna take a minute to find them. While I worked on it, I took a swig of Jack and then put the bottle on the dresser. She was still attached to me.
She tightened her grip and said, “If this ends, I know it’s because I fucked it up. I’m tryin’ so hard not to fuck it up, Jesse. But I’m obviously really bad at this. All the time I wanted to be in a real relationship, I never knew how hard it’d be to not fuck up because of all my stupid baggage.”
“I almost didn’t go there with you when I found out you were a cutter,” I said into her hair, voice going gruff. “Thought I couldn’t hack that. Now you know why.”