Page 8 of Forty

I stand, drop my napkin on the table, and head for the hall by the men’s room. My dick’s tenting my cargo pants, but it’s not obscene. Besides, it’s not like there’s kids in the place this late. The crowd starts getting rough about nine o’clock, and it’s nearly ten.

Heavy knows I’m here with a woman, so he wouldn’t call unless it was urgent. There have been some incidents lately with the Rebel Raiders. We’ve been handling it as it comes, but Heavy and I both have the feeling we’re on the precipice. We don’t deal with this beef decisively and soon, it’s gonna be all out war. That’s not good news for our legitimate businesses.

When I’m back by an alcove where the pay phone used to be, I swipe to answer. “Speak.”

Raucous clubhouse noise spills from the speaker, shouts, music, laughter. A woman is shrieking, really going off. They’re startin’ early tonight.

Heavy’s voice booms over the noise. “Did you know Nevaeh Ellis is at the clubhouse tonight?”

In an instant, my dick isn’t kindastiff, it’s rock hard. Then, immediately, my free hand balls into a fist and pure rage, mindless and raw, whips through me out of nowhere, a ghost from the past with teeth and claws. I rock back on my heels, and it takes me a second to straighten, square my shoulders, pull it together. I can’t calm my heart down, though. It’s beating to break my ribs.

She’s back.

“No,” I finally manage. “I was not aware.”

“Did you even know she was back in town?” Heavy asks. There’s hollering in the background. Quick-talking. A woman screeches. A fight’s brewing.

“No.” My teeth are clenched so tight, it’s all I can say.

“Danielle, Cheyenne, and Annie are about to beat her ass. Should I let them?”

An old impulse from when I was young and stupid flashes to life in my chest. Nobody touches Nevaeh but me.Mine.

Such a joke.

“What’s she doing there?” I ask.

Nevaeh Ellis isn’t welcome. Not at the clubhouse. Not in Petty’s Mill. I deployed, and she fucked half the guys in town. She even tried to fuck Heavy. She couldn’t wait six months. She was riding another guy’s dick before I got off the bus at basic training. More than likely, she was spreading her legs the whole time she was with me.

“She says Fay-Lee invited her.”

“What does Fay-Lee say?”

“Couldn’t tell you. Dizzy saw who she brought with her and dragged her straight upstairs. He’s probably bustin’ her ass for instigating.”

Dizzy and his old lady have their own way of doing things. Dizzy rules Fay-Lee with a firm hand, and Fay-Lee runs wild to bait him into it. She likes the rough stuff. She only gets really salty when he’s gone too long on club business. Fay-Lee’s a handful. I ain’t surprised she’s fallen in with Nevaeh somehow.

“Forty? Danielle’s got Nevaeh by the hair. You want me to intervene? Last call. I ain’t losing an eye over your ex.”

A picture flashes in my head. Nevaeh’s hair, those crazy, springy curls bouncing while she rides my cock, her fingers furiously rubbing her clit, eyes screwed closed. My dick throbs, and a cold ache sears my chest.

How long after she hopped off me before she hopped on someone else? Bile scores in my throat. Why? She doesn’t mean anything to me now. Hasn’t for years.

“Get her. Send her home. Tell her not to come back.”

“Ladies! Drop that bitch.” Heavy’s booming bass cuts through the racket, and then the call disconnects.

I’m left standing by the men’s room, hard as hell, heart racing, my whole body alive and hungry for the first time in years. I roll my shoulder, and the constant pain from the pins holding my arm together barely even registers.

Goddamn. Nevaeh Ellis.

I don’t ever let myself think about her, but I can’t forget anything, either, and the memories are burrs, thorns. Pebbles in my boots.

We had ninth grade English together. She was fourteen, mouthy, too big for her britches. I was a year ahead, on my second go at earning the credit. She pissed off this asshole from the lacrosse team. He kicked her chair out from under her. I beat his ass. She wouldn’t leave me alone after that.

She sat next to me, scooting her chair close enough so she could rest her leg against mine. She’d run up to me as soon as she got off the bus in the morning, careening to a stop, hands bracing against my chest, mid-sentence since she’d start babbling at me before she got anywhere close to where I could hear her, totally unconcerned that she’d elbowed her way through a bunch of delinquents to get to me.

She was everywhere I turned, and then I couldn’t leave her alone, either. I brought her around the clubhouse. Everyone loved her. Shirlene practically adopted her. Nevaeh never did like going home.

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