Page 38 of Southpaw Slots

As I approach the dining room this morning, the smell of the chef’s pancakes hits my stomach until it growls. Ari is already sitting down, dishing out food for us on the fine plates that are thinner than my patience for all the white stuff around here. It’s blinding.

Leaning down, I place my lips to her temple as she smiles and wiggles in her chair, reaching for my hand. “I can’t sit, vix. Got a big shipment in and I haven’t been around as much.” Her face drops. “I’m sorry.”

“Okay. But youhaveto be here for dinner. I have something special planned.”

“What time?”

“What time for what?” Ace walks in, no shirt,of course, and full-on tongue kisses my girlfriend, then smirks at me before sitting down and pulling her on his lap as she fucking giggles. It annoys me. Not the sound, no. It’s that I’ve never made that laugh come from her. She’s reserved it for him.

“Stop.” She slaps his hand as he tries to dig it between her thighs. “For dinner tonight. I have something planned for us.Allof us.”

“Well, I’m not going anywhere,” Ace says, shoving his face into her neck while maintaining eye contactwith me. Yeah. That’s a threat. My stomach twists, thinking of what the two of them will be up to today.

“Sure. What time?”

“Six o’clock? Will you get your drops done by then?” Okay, by now, Ace is fully feeding her a bite of pancakes from his fork, watching the bites head into her mouth like it’s his dick.

Nodding, I turn and head toward the stairs. “Yeah, I’ll see you.”

When I moved in, I knew she’d be having sex with her husband. But watching the two of them together is contorting my feelings into something I can’t make sense of. It’s become less jealousy than I expected and more like…damn. Maybe it’s a turn on to watch him fuck her. And it definitely makes me come harder knowing he’s watching me. I don’t know what to call that, but it’s probably got some weird, kinky name for freaks in the sheets that I never want to discuss in front of the guys at the shop.

As I roll up to work, all I can think about is that they’re getting closer and not just physically. And if I’m gone all day working…when will she be done with me? With him given the power of his husband title and certificate, I’m the demoted “boyfriend” with no claim to anything.

For the first time in my life, I feel like I don’t fit in.

“’Bout time you actually came to work,rich boy,” Garg says, picking up a wrench off the table. Murphy’s leaning against the back wall smoking a cigarette. Likethese guys do any real work around here when I’m not around.

Ignoring both of them, I head to the corner and inspect Rogue’s finished masonry on the side of the building. It’s not bad.

“You like?” Rogue comes out with a grease rag between his hands.

“Yeah, good work.”

“Jaws is lookin’ for you. He’s pretty pissed.”

“When is he not? You guys need help with the shipment?”

Jaws comes around the corner, looking every bit the meth head he is, chewing on a piece of his tongue, eyes wide and darting in every which direction. “No, we got it handled,boss. Since you haven’t been around, we had to.”

Shoving past him, I head to Murph, who turns his back and starts working on the bench.

“Murph. Any more homeless buy from us?”

“Nope.”

“You had any leftovers? Just sold to the regular crew, right?”

“Yep.” Every syllable he makes is said with strained effort.

Throwing my hands on my hips, I prepare for a fight. “What? Just fucking spit it out.”

His shoulders slump as a huge sigh deflates his back muscles. Spinning around, he narrows his eyes at me. “Man, you’re too busy with yourprincessandplaying at being a rich kid, you don’t need to work anymore. Glad you got your money pipeline, but the rest of us need that cash, Steele.”

Behind me, Jaws spits venom with his words, “You cuttin’ outta our meetings, too. Werespectedyou. You stood up for us. You were the voice for all of us stuck over here in the east and now you’re just gonna up andleave? ’Cause you gotta pretty pink pussy with money? I mean…Steele, come on. What were all those union meetings about, huh?”

“Rise up! Rise up, workers!” Murphy snarls and lights up another cigarette, mocking my motto. “What happened to taking this town over, man? Isn’t that what yousaidyou was fightin’ for? Huh, Steele?”

These fucks are so stupid, they don’t even know how big of fools they are. But I’m not about to have a mutiny on my hands.

---