Page 41 of Forty

I lead the way out to the main hall, and it’s a ghost town. Everyone’s out front, except for Wash, who’s leaning against the bar, waiting for us to emerge from the back.

“She showed up and asked for you. Won’t talk to anyone. The girls went after her again, but Wall jumped in, so it’s cool for now.”

“What does she want?” Heavy asks. I don’t wait for an answer, heading right into the crowd. Folks part like the Red Sea. We’ve got more people here than usual since the club and our associates are partying close to home due to the recent Rebel Raider attacks. If Nevaeh came to put on a show, she’s got a huge audience.

“Oh, you’ll see,” Wash snickers. “I think she needs some work on her car.”

I clear the last of the crowd. I’m in the front parking lot, somehow ending up next to Harper Ruth. There’s a beat up red Hyundai idling in the middle of the main aisle. Across the hood, someone has keyedDIE STEEL BONES WHORE. The S’s are formed with angles, not curves, and the points reach all the way from the windshield to the grill.

“Now where have I seen this before?” Harper’s smirking, her eyes narrowed.

Nevaeh’s standing next to the car, hand on her round hip, glaring at the sweetbutts clustered nearby, heckling her.

“They got two of them words right,” Danielle says.

“Someone got their keys? I’ll fix it. Should say DieDirty AssWhore.” Starla spits on the asphalt.

“What? Did you see me down the clinic when they were delousing your pussy, Starla?” Navaeh’s popping her neck and puffing her chest. Wall shifts uneasily as six or seven sweetbutts raise their voices and swarm closer.

I glance at Heavy. He reads my mind. “Ladies! Back up!”

It’s at that moment Nevaeh sees me. “You! Forty Nowicki! You gonna pay for this to get fixed?”

Her brown eyes spark, daring me. My dick twitches.

I break forward, gesturing to Wash over my shoulder. He jogs close. “Take the car to Big George’s.”

Then I’ve got her, close, in arm’s reach again, and I can smell her coconut shampoo. There’s a loosening in my chest. “Keys.”

She has to crane her neck to glare at me.

“Keys.”

She huffs and holds them up. Wash nips forward and grabs them.

“You come with me.” I grab her by the upper arm and march her through the crowd, glaring at anyone who dares to say shit. Everyone piles inside. No one wants to miss the show.

The sweetbutts are close on our heels, shit talking at the top of their lungs.

“Dumpster’s out back, Forty.”

“I can teach her some manners for you.”

“I say we make her face match the hood of that car.”

None of this is setting right. Wash didn’t mention anything about her car when he drove past this morning. That means this happened in the past few hours.

I grit my teeth and push her past the bar to the stairs.

“I better not get a bill for that, Forty,” Nevaeh shouts over her shoulder, pitching her voice as loud as she can to make sure everyone hears. I force her to take the stairs double time, but there’s no way anyone misses a word she says. “I don’t have anything to do with this sad little group of toothless bitches and mangy old fucks, and I do not appreciateyourclub’s bullshit spilling onto the hood ofmycar.”

“Shut up, Nevaeh,” I growl under my breath.

“If that car’s not pristine when I get it back, I’m gonna carve ‘limp dick energy’ into the seat of every hog out there!”

I slam my hand over her mouth. “Haven’t you got any sense of self-preservation?”

“Nope,” she mumbles against my palm.

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