Page 13 of Clinch'd

“Hm,” she hums, and I hear the coffee pot brewing in the background.

“Ask your friend Macey if Beast has a cousin.”

“A cousin? Why?”

“Just curious,” I say, exhaling quietly when she says, “Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

“Just do it and I’ll owe you a favor.”

“Fine. I want tickets to your next fight and a personal introduction with Rafe.”

“Over my dead body,” I growl.

Later, after I’ve made the rounds at Crave, I find myself in the gym at home, working through some of the sexual tension that sweet, delectable Minnie caused. I considered fucking some chick to ease the ache but decided against it.

I’m on my last rep and damning myself for thinking about her luscious ass because my dick is back to hard as a rock when a text comes through from Taylor.

No cousin, about Rafe…

Thanks, I reply ignoring her attempt to rile me. Rafe is a manwhore and I refuse to see either of my sisters used by the bastard, which should’ve applied to Beast, but he broke that code when he slept with Monroe.

Ignoring the burn of my rage, I grab a bottle of water and down it in one go.

I’ve confirmed what I already knew. Now what do I do about it? Confront the bastard or let this play out and see where it goes?

The asshole better hope this is just a really big fucking joke because if he’s affiliated in any way with Castinetti, he’ll regret ever meeting my mother and subsequently breaking her fucking heart.

Chapter 5

Minnie

With a fatalistic shrug I turn away from the mirror and grab my handbag. I’m not exuding any sort of rich party vibes but Beast’s statement about his family will have to do.

I searched four different consignment shops before finding a pretty vintage cocktail dress. This put a dent in my savings, but I had no choice. It will just take me that much longer to enroll in school. Story of my life.

Eventually I want to go through the nursing program offered at the local college, and I’ve been painstakingly taking the prerequisites as I can afford to do so.

But it’s taken longer than I hoped, because life tends to throw curveballs at you from time to time. The most recent issue happened to be Lorri calling me from jail because she was picked up for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

She’s now pending charges for possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia, of which she was caught with at a party that was raided. I’m pretty sure she must have been socializing with thugs and although it’s no surprise it’s really fucking annoying. Clearly, I need to establish some damn rules or something.

For being the younger child and therefore spared the majority of the ridiculousness our mother got herself into, Lorri sure takes after her. It’s like it’s in the fucking gene pool or something.

I’m not trying to be a hypocrite here. I got into my fair share of trouble but that’s because I had nowhere to go, and hunger was a powerful motivator.

Thankfully, she left an hour ago for her shift at Cutty's, a local dive bar down the street. She gave me suspicious looks all day and I sweated through her questioning stares and then rushed through getting ready as soon as she left.

I’m not exactly a partier and I’m too tired to date so she would have been all up in my business if I all of a sudden started doing my hair and makeup.

All of this and I just want to curl up in my bed and sleep. I work constantly, because the bills won’t pay themselves and not for the first time, I wish I had stayed in school. But at that age, I thought I knew it all and skipped the majority of my junior year before dropping out altogether.

Not my finest moment, but I was lost, and it’s taken me years to understand the only person who’s going to find me, is me. I guess in that, I’m more like my mom than I ever wanted to be, because I kept expecting someone to swoop in and save me.

At least, now I’ve come to my senses, but it means I’m behind the game and it’s that much harder to catch up.

For tonight’s festivities, I curled my hair, so it falls down my back in a soft set of curls, before pulling the top back in a sexy braid. The siren red dress, covered in sparkly sequins, ends at my knees, covers my chest completely but is open in the back from neck to the curve of my ass.

I stole a pair of Lorri’s heels to complete the outfit. I don’t look like me, but I also don’t look slutty as per Cooper’s rude words. Still, I’m nervous about whether I look like Beast’s damn cousin.

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