Page 19 of Sugar and Skulls

She looks me in the eye. “No. Just let me shower and I’ll be on my way. I need to get out of here.”

“Jesse, there is a lot going on here you don’t know about.”

“No,” she points a tiny finger in my face. “There’s a lot you don’t know. You can’t keep me here.”

I laugh. Even as beat up as she is, she’s still a goddamn ball of fire. She throws all her weight at me. She kicks and scratches. I don’t want to hurt her, so I get up, leaving her flailing about on the bed. “I’ll be back in with the doctor,” I say before closing the door behind me.

Something crashes against the door just as the latch catches. I look up to find Raffe with a red-faced Bill in a headlock. “Hey, man. Look. Bill made it back,” he smirks, tightening his arm around Bill’s neck.

Jesus Christ. Like father like daughter.

Dirk

???

When Raffe told me that Jess thinks she disappointed me it made me stop breathing. I don’t know why. He said he didn’t know if she was talking about me but as he was relaying her exact words I knew it was. The scary man with tattoos. That’s me. Anyway, I had to get out of there. This shit is just all too goddamned heavy.

A noise draws my attention to the back of Dan’s house. I watch as Jesse crawls out the window and then falls a few feet to the ground with a thud. I should help her up. Should.

Before we go any further in this, whatever this is, anyhow you should know that I am an asshole. Straight up. I’m the kind of man that makes other men’s balls shrivel up. The kind that makes women clutch their children tight to their thighs when I pass them on the street, while at the same time making their cunts soak clear through their fucking mommy yoga pants.

Priests drop to their knees to pray when they see me, certain I’m a sign of the beginning of the end. The kind that makes cops keep their hand poised on their weapons. The kind that makes old women clutch their pearls, lick their lips while slipping their grey-haired old men blue pills in their morning coffee.

You either love me or hate me. No in-between exists when it comes to me. Very few are on the end of the love spectrum and if they are it’s because they’re hoping my vibe rubs off on them. They are of the dark variety.

Jesse pops up on the other side of the hedge and slowly turns as if she senses I’m behind her. Our eyes lock.

Jesse isn’t a little girl anymore.

“Going somewhere?” I ask, lighting up a cigarette.

“You got a shower?” She doesn’t move, just stares at me. She’s like an angel that fell from the sky. A dark little nymph of an angel. Lovely.

“Sure do, but I don’t think Big Dan is going to be happy with your little escape attempt.”

I take her in as she stands there. She has dried blood streaks down both legs. What looks like rug burns along one side of her face. Her lips are cracked and bleeding. Big Dan was right, she needs a doctor but, I’m a firm believer in women’s rights and all that bullshit. Her body, her choice. “Don’t you think you need a doctor?”

“No. I need a fucking shower,” she grits through clenched teeth. She takes off down the sidewalk.

“Dan isn’t the only one who is going to be unhappy about you taking off.” I’m sure she knows that my presence is a good indicator that her father is near.

“Yeah?” she yells back. Not even pausing. “Tell him I’ll be back real soon.”

She is tossing my words from years ago right in my face…his too.He’s coming for you real soon.

Why do I feel like she is a sacrifice in this whole crazy mess? A sacrifice who was tossed into an active volcano. Only she didn’t burn, she didn’t even need anyone to rescue her. No, she pulled herself up from the molten, hot lava and clawed her way out.

“Goddammit,” I follow hot on her heals while pulling my phone from my pocket.

Suddenly she spins around making me bump right into her. I reach out to grab her, so she doesn’t fall backwards.

“Don’t you dare fucking call them,” she warns.

“You’re awfully big for your britches aren’t you? I don’t take orders from little girls.”

She shoves me in the chest so hard I release her. “Good thing I’m not a little girl. You can call themafterI shower. Jesus Christ what does it take to get you thick headed men to understand a girl needs a fucking shower!”

She stomps away and I put my phone back in my pocket. This is a first for me. The first time I’ve ever let a woman change my mind. Bill is going to fucking kill me.

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